It foreseeth also the day of Judgment and teacheth us to use our prosperity and wealth as we desire to hear of it in the day of our accounts Faith is a provident and a vigilant grace and useth to ask when we have any thing in may possession which way I make the best advantage of it for my soul which way will be most comfortable to me in my last review how shall I wish that I had used my time my wealth my power when time is at an end and all these transitory things are vanished 6. And Faith doth so absolutely devote and subject the soul to God that it will suffer us to do nothing so far as it prevaileth but what is for him and by his consent It telleth us that we are not our own but his and that we have nothing but what we have received and that we must be just in giving God his own and therefore it first asketh which way may I best serve and honour God with all that he hath given me Not only with my substance and the first fruits of mine increase but with all 1 Cor. 10.31 When Love and devotion hath delivered up our selves entirely to God it keeps nothing back but delivereth him all things with our selves even as Christ with himself doth give us all things Rom. 8.32 And Faith doth so much subject the soul to God that it maketh us like servants and children that use not their Masters or Parents goods at their own pleasure but ask him first how he would have us use them Lord what wouldst thou have me to do is one of the first words of a converted soul Acts 9.6 In a word Faith writeth out that charge upon the heart 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things that are in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life For if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Ye cannot serve God and Mammon But on this subject Mr. Alleine hath said so much in his excellent Book of the Victory of Faith over the world that I shall at this time say no more The Directions which I would give you in general for preservation from the danger of prosperity by Faith are these that follow Direct 1. Remember still that the common cause of mens damnation is their Love of this world more than God and Heaven and that the world cannot undo you any other way but by tempting you to over-love it and to undervalue higher things And therefore that is the most dangerous condition which maketh the world seem most pleasing and most lovely to us And can you believe this and yet be so eager to be humoured and to have all things fitted to your pleasure and desires Mark here what a task Faith hath and mark what the work of self-denyal is The worldling must be pleased the Believer must be saved The worldling must have his flesh and fancy gratified the Believer must have Heaven secured and God obeyed Men sell not their souls for sorrow but for mirth They forsake not Heaven for poverty but for riches they turn not away from God for the love of sufferings and dishonour but for the love of pleasure preferments dignities and estimation in the world And is that state better and more desirable for which all that perish turn from God and fell their souls and are befooled and undone for ever Or that which no man ever sinned for nor forsook God for or was undone for Read over this question once and again and mark what answer your hearts give to it if you would know whether you live by sense or faith And mark what contrary answers the flesh and faith will give to it when it comes to practice I say though many sin in poverty and in sufferings and in disgrace yea and by occasion of them and by their temptations yet no man ever sinned for them They are none of the bait that straled away the heart from God Set deep upon your heart the sense of the danger of a prosperous state and sear and vigilancy will help to save you Direct 2. Imprint upon your memory the characters of this deadly sin of worldliness that so you may not perish by it whilst you dream that you are free from it but may alwâ—ies see how far it doth prevail Here therefore to help you I will set before you the characters of this sin and I will but briefly name them lest I be tedious because they are many 1. The great mark of damning worldliness is when God and Heaven are not loved and preferred before the pleasures and profits and honours of the world 2. Another is when the world is esteemed and used more for the service and pleasure of the flesh than to honour God and to do good with and to further our salvation When men desire great places and riches more to please their appetites and carnal minds with than to benefit others or to serve the Lord with when they are not rich to God but to themselves Luke 12.20 21. 3. It is a mark of some degree of worldliness to desire a greater measure of riches or honour than our spiritual work and ends and benefit do require For when we are convinced that less is as good or better to our highest ends and yet we would have more it is a sign that the rest is desired for the flesh Rom. 13.14 8.8 9 10 13. 4. When our desires after worldly things are too eager and violent when we must needs have them and cannot be without them 1 Tim. 6.9 5. When our contrivances for the world are too solâ—icitous and our cares for it take up an undue proportion of our time Mat. 6.24 25. to the end 6. When we are impatient under want dishonour or disappointments and live in trouble and discontent if we want much or have not our wills 7. When the thoughts of the world are proportionably so many more than our thoughts of Heaven and our salvation that they keep us in the neglect of the duty of Meditation and keep empty our minds of holy things Mat. 6.21 8. When it turneth our talk all towards the world or taketh up our freest and our sweetest and most serious words and leaveth us to the use of seldom dull or formal or affected words about the things which should profit the soul and glorifie our great Creator 9. When the world incroacheth upon Gods part in our families and thrusts out prayer or the reading of the Scriptures or the due instruction of children or servants when it cometh in upon the Lords day when it is intruding in Gods Worship and at Sermon or Prayer our thoughts are more pleasingly running out after some worldly thing than kept in attendance upon God Ezek. 33 31. 10. When worldly prosperity is so sweet to you that it can keep you quiet under the guilt of wilful sin and in the midst of all the
great a likeness of the holy and heavenly nature in the Saints to the heavenly life that God hath promised that makes it the more easily believed 4. And it exceedingly helpeth our Belief of the life that 's yet unseen to find that Nature affordeth us undeniable Arguments to prove a future Happiness and Misery Reward and Punishment in the general yea and in special that the Love and Fruition of God is this Reward and that the effects of his displeasure are this Punishment Nothing more clear and certain than that there is a God He must be a fool indeed that dare deny it Psal 14.1 as also that this God is the Creatour of the rational nature and hath the absolute right of Soveraign Government and therefore that the rational Creature oweth him the most full and absolute obedience and deserveth punishment if he disobey And it 's most clear that infinite goodness should be loved above all finite imperfect created good And it 's clear that the rational nature is so formed that without the hopes and fears of another life the world neither is nor ever was nor by ordinary visible means can be well governed supposing God to work on man according to his nature And it is most certain that it consisteth not with infinite wisdom power and goodness to be put to rule the world in all ages by fraud and falshood And it is certain that Heathens do for the most part through the world by the light of nature acknowledge a life of joy or misery to come And the most hardened Atheists or Infidels must confess that for ought they know there may be such a life it being impossible they should know or prove the contrary And it is most certain that the meer probability or possibility of a Heaven and Hell being matters of such unspeakable concernment should in reason command our utmost diligence to the hazard or loss of the transitory vanities below and consequently that a holy diligent preparation for another life is naturally the duty of the reasonable creature And it 's a sure that God hath not made our nature in vain nor set us on a life of vain imployments nor made it our business in the world to seek after that which can never be attained These things and much more do shew that nature affordeth us so full a testimony of the life to come that 's yet invisible that it exceedingly helpeth us in believing the supernatural revelation of it which is more full 5. And though we have not seen the objects of our faith yet those that have given us their infallible testimony by infallible means have seen what they testified Though no man hath seen God at any time yet the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father hath declared him Joh 1.18 Verily verily saith our Lord we speak that we know and testifie that we have seen Joh. 3.11 Vers 31 32. He that cometh from Heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth Christ that hath told us saw the things that we have not seen and you will believe honest men that speak to you of what they were eye-witnesses of And the Disciples saw the person the transfiguration and the miracles of Christ Insomuch that John thus beginneth his Epistle 1 Cor. 1.1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of life for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew it to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you So Paul 1 Cor. 9.1 Am I not an Apostle have have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 15.5.6 7. He was seen of Cephas then of the twelve after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present Heb. 2.3 4. This great salvation at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost according to his own will 2 Pet. 1.16 17. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount And therefore when the Apostles were commanded by their persecutors not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus they answered We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Acts 4.18 20. So that much of the objâ—cts of our faith to us invisible have yet been sâ—en by those that have instrumentally revealed them and the glory of Heaven it self is seen by many millions of souls that are now possessing it And the tradition of the Testimony of the Apostles unto us is more full and satisfactory than the tradition of any Laws of the Land or History of the most unquestionable affairs that have been done among the people of the earth as I have manifested elsewhere So that faith hath the infallible Testimony of God and of them that have seen and therefore is to us instead of sight 6. Lastly Even the enemy of faith himself doth against his will confirm our faith by the violence and rage of malice that he stirreth up in the ungodly against the life of faith and holiness and by the importunity of his oppositions and temptations discovering that it is not for nothing that he is so maliciously solicitous industrious and violent And thus you see how much faith hath that should fully satisfie a rational man instead of presence possession and â—ight If any shall here say But why would not God let us have a sight of Heaven or Hell when he could not but know that it would more generally and certainly have prevailed for the conversion and salvation of the world Doth he envy us the most â—ffâ—ctuaâ— means I answer 1. Who art thou O man that disputest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Mâ—st God come down to the bar of man to render an account of the reason of his works Why do ye not also ask him a reason of the nature situation magnitude order influences c. of all the Stars and Superiour Orbs and call him to an account for all his works when yet there are so many things in your own bodies of which you little understand the reason Is it not intollerable impudency for such worms as we so
worldly judgement He seeth by faith a greater ugliness in sin than in any the most deformed monster When the unbeliever saith what harm is it to please my flesh in ease or pride or meat and drink or lustful wantonness the believer takes it as the question of a fool that should ask what harm is it to take a dram of Mercury or Arsenick He seeth the vicious evil and foreseeth the consequent penal evil by the eye of faith And therefore it is that he pittieth the ungodly when they pitty not themselves and speaks to them oft with a tender heart in compassion of their misery and perhaps weeps over them as Paul Phil. 3.18 19. when he cannot prevail when they weep not for themselves but hate his love and scorn his pitty and bid him keep his lamentations for himself because they see not what he sees He seetâ— also the inward beauty of the Saints as it shineth forth in the holiness of their lives and through all their sordid poverty and contempt beholdeth the image of God upon them For he judgeth not of sin or holiness as they now appear to the dâ—stracted world but as they will be judged of at the day which he foreseeth when sin will be the shame and holiness the honoured and dâ—sired state He can see Christ in his poor despised members and love God in those that are made as the scorn and off-scouâ—ing of all things by the malignant unbelieving world He admireth the excellency and happiness of those that are made the laughing-stock of the ungodly and accounteth the Saints the most excellent on earth Psal 16.2 and had rather be one of their communion in raggs than sit with Princes that are naked within and void of the true and durable glory He judgeth of men as he perceiveth them to have more or less of Christ The worth of a man is not obvious to the sense You see his stature complexion and his cloths but as you see not his learning or skill in any Art whatsoever so you see not his grace and heavenly mind As the soul it self so the sinful deformity and the holy beauty of it are to us invisible and perceived only by their fruits and by the eye of faith which seeth things as God reveals them And therefore in the eyes of a true Believer a vile person is contemned but he honoureth those that fear the Lord Psal 15.4 4. A true Believer doth seek a happiness which he never saw and that with greater estimation and resolution than he seeks the most excellent things that he hath seen In all his prayers his labours and his sufferings it is an unseen Glory that he seeks he seeth not the Glory of God nor the glorified Redeemer nor the world of Angels and perfected spirits of the just but he knoweth by faith that such a God such a Glory such a world as this there is as certain as if his eyes had seen it And therefore he provides he lives he hopes he waits for this unseen state of spiritual bliss contemning all the wealth and glory that sight can reach in comparison thereof He believeth what he shall see and therefore strives that he may see it It 's something above the Sun and all that mortal eyes can see which is the end the hope the portion of a believer without which all is nothing to him and for which he trades and travels here as worldlings do for worldly things Matth. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 Phil. 3.20 5. A true Believer doth all his life prepare for a day that is yet to come and for an account of all the passages of his life though he hath noâ—hing but the Word of God to assure him of it And therefore he lives as one that is hasting to the presence of his Judge and he contriveth his affairs and disposeth of his worldly riches as one that looks to hear of it again and as one that remembreth the Judge is at the door James 5.9 He rather asketh what life what words what actions what way of using my estate and interest will be sweetest to me in the review and will be best at last when I must accordingly receive my doom than what is most pleasant to my flesh and what will ingratiate me most with men and what will accommodate me best at present and set me highest in the world And therefore it is that he pittieth the ungodly even in the height of their prosperity and is so earnest though it offend them to procure their recovery as knowing that how secure soever they are now they must give an account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead 1 Pet. 4.5 and that then the case will be altered with the presumptuous world 6. Lastly A true believer is careful to prevent a threatned misery which he never felt and is awakened by holy fear to flye from the wrath to come and is industrious to escape that place of torment which he never saw as if he had seen it with his eyes When he heareth but the sound of the trumpet he takes warning that he may save his soul Ezek. 33.4 The evils that are here felt and seen are not so dreadful to him as those that he never saw or felt He is not so careful and resolute to avoid the ruine of his estate or name or to avoid the plague or sword or famine or the scorching flames or death or torments as he is to avoid the endless torments which are threatned by the righteous God It is a greater misery in his esteem to be really undone for ever than seemingly only for a time and to be cast off by God than by all the world and to lie in Hell than to suffer any temporal calamity And therefore he fears it more and doth more to avoid it and is more cast down by the fears of Gods displeasure than by the feelings of these present sufferings As Noah did for his preservation from the threatned deluge so doth the true Believer for his preservation from everlasting wrath Heb. 11.7 By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith God first giveth warning of the flood Noah believeth it not with a lifeless but a working faith that first moved in him a self-preserving fear This fear moveth Noah to obey the Lord in the use of means and to prepare the Ark and all this was to save himself and his house from a flood that was as yet unseen and of which in nature there was no appearance Thus doth God warn the sinful world of the day of judgement and the fire that is unquenchable and true believers take his warning and believing that which they cannot see by fear they are moved to flye to Christ and use his means to scape the threatned calamity By this
you saw the everlasting Glory which Christ hath purchased and prepared for his Saints That you had been once with Paul rapt up into the third Heavens and seen the things that are unutterable would you not after that have rather lived like Paul and undergone his sufferings and contempt than to have lived like the brain-sick brutish world If you had seen what Stephen saw before his death Acts 7.55 56. the Glory of God and Christ standing at his right hand If you had seen the thousands and millions of holy glorious spirits that are continually attending the Majesty of the Lord If you had seen the glorified spirits of the just that were once in flesh despised by the blind ungodly world while they waited on God in faith and holiness and hope for that blessed Crown which now they were If you had felt one moment of their joyes if you had seen them shine as the Sun in glory and made like unto the Angels of God if you had heard them sing the song of the Lamb and the joyful Hallelujahs and praise to their eternal King what would you be and what would you resolve on after such a sight as this If the rich man Luke 16. had seen Lazarus in Abrahams bosom in the midst of his bravery and honour and feasting and other sensual delights as afterwards he saw it when he was tormented in the flames of Hell do you think such a sight would not have cooled his mirth and jollity and helpt him to understand the nature and value of his earthly felicity and have proved a more effectual argument than a despised Preachers words at least to have brought him to a freer exercise of his Reason in a sober consideration of his state and waies Had you seen one hour what Abraham David Paul and all the Saints now see while sin and flesh doth keep us here in the dark what work do you think your selves it would make upon your hearts and lives 4 Suppose you saw the face of Death and that you were now lying under the power of some mortal sickness Physicians having forsaken you and said There is no hope Your friends weeping over you and preparing your winding sheet and coffin digging your graves and casting up the skulls and bones and earth that must again be cast in to be your covering and company Suppose you saw a Messenger from God to tell you that you must die to morrow or heard but what one of your predecessors heard Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall these things be that thou hast provided How would such a Message work with you would it leave you as you are If you heard a voice from God this night in your chamber in the dark telling you that this iâ— the last night that you shall live on earth and before to morrow your souls must be in another world and come before the dreadful God what would be the effect of such a Message And do you not verily believe that all this will very shortly be Nay do you not know without believing that you must die and leave your worldly glory and that all your pleasures and contents on earth will be as if they had never been and much worse O wonderful that a change so sure so great so near should no more affect you and no more be fore-thought on and no more prepared for and that you be not awakened by so full and certain a fore-knowledge to be in good sadness for eternal life as you seem to be when death is at hand 5. Suppose you saw the great and dreadful day of Judgement as it iâ— described by Christ himself in Matth. 25. When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him and shall sit upon his glorious Throne and all Nations shall be gathered before him and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left v. 31 32 33. and shall sentence the righteous to eternal life and the rest into everlasting punishment If you did now behold the glory and terrour of that great appearance how the Saints will be magnified and rejoyce and be justified against all the accusations of Satan and calumnies of wicked men and how the ungodly then would fain deny the words and deeds that now they glory in and what horrour and confusion will then overwhelm those wretched souls that now out-face the Messengers of the Lord Had you seen them trembling before the Lord that now are braving it out in the pride and arrogancy of their hearts Had you heard how then they will change their tune and wish they had never known their sins and wish they had lived in greater holiness than those whom they derided for it What would you say and do and be after such an amazing fight as this Would you sport it out in sin as you have done Would you take no better care for your salvation If you had seen those sayings out of the holy Ghost fulfilled Jude 14 15.2 Thes 1.7 8 9. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power What mind do you think you should be of What course would you take if you had but seen this dreadful day Could you go on to think and speak and live as sensually stupidly and negligently as now you do 2 Pet. 3.10 11 12. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the bravens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent beat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Is it possible soundly to believe such a day so sure so near and no more regard it nor make ready for it than the carelâ—ss and ungodly do 6. Suppose at that day you had heard the Devil accusing you of all the sins that you have committed and set them out in the most odious aggravations and call for justice against you to your Judge If you heard him pleading all those sins against you that now he daily tempts you to commit and now maketh you believe are harmless or small inconsiderable things If you heard him saying At such a time this sinner refused grace neglected Christ despised Heaven and preferred Earth at such a time he derided godliness and made a mock of the holy Word and Counsels of the Lord at such a time he prophaned the name of God he coveted his neighbours wealth he cherished thoughts of envy or of lust he was drunk or gluttonous or committed fornication and he was never thorowly converted by renewing
the most we will not deny it to be aetas aurea in the Poets sense Aurea nunc vere sunt secula plurimus auro Vaenit honos auro conciliatur amor This prevalency of things seen against thing unseen is the Idolatry of the world the subversion of nature the perversion of our faculties and actions making the soul a drudge to flesh and God to be used as a servant to the world It destroyeth Piety Justice and Charity It turneth JVS by perversion into VIS or by reversion into SVI No wonder then if it be the ruine of societies when Gens sine justitiâ sine remige navis in undâ It can possess even Demosthenes with a Squinancy if there be but an Harpalus to bring him the infection It can make a Judicature to be as Plutarch called that of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impiorum regionem contrary to Cicero's description of Sulpitius who was magis justitiae quam juris consultus ad facilitatem aequitatemque omnia contulit nec maluit litium actiones constituere quam controversias tollere In a word if you live by sense and not by Faith on things present and not on things unseen you go backward you stand on your heads and turn your heels against Heaven you cause the beast to ride the man and by turning all things upside down will turn your selves into confusion 2. Consider that it is the unseen things that are only Great and Necessary that are worthy of a man and answer the excellency of our nature and the ends of our lives and all our mercies All other things are inconsiderable toyes except as they are dignified by their relation to these Whether a man step into eternity from a Palace or a Prison a Lordship or a Lazarus state is little to be regarded All men in the world whose designs and business take up with any thing short of Heaven are in the main of one condition and are but in several degrees and forms in the School of folly If the intendment of your lives fall short of God it matters not much what it is you seek as to any great difference If lesser children play for pins and bigger boyes for points and pence and aged children for lands and money for titles of honour and command What difference is there between these in point of wisdom and felicity but that the little ones have more innocent delights and at a cheaper rate than the aged have without the vexatious cares and dangers that attend more grave and serious dotage As Holiness to the Lord is written upon all that is faithfully referred to his Will and Glory so Vanity and Sin is written upon all that is but made provision for the flesh and hath no higher end than Self To go to Hell with greater stir and attendance and repute with greater pomp and pleasure than the poor is a poor consolation a pitiful felicity 3. Faith is the wisdom of the soul and unbelief and sensuality are its blindness folly and brutishness How short is the knowledge of the wisest unbelievers They know not much of what is past and less they would know if Historians were not of more credit with them than the Word of God But alas how little do they know of what is to come sense tells them where they are and what they are now doing but it tells them not where they shall be to morrow But Faith can tell a true Believer what will be when this world is ended and where he shall live to all eternity and what he shall be dâ—ing what thoughts he shall be thinking what affections shall be the temper and employment of his soul what he shall see and feel and enjoy and with what company he shall converse for ever If the pretenders to Astrological prediction could but foretel the changes of mens lives and the time and manner of their deaths what resort would be to them and how wise would they be esteemed but what is all this to the infallible predictions of the All-knowing God that hath given us a prospect into another world and shewed us what will be for ever more certainly than you know what a day may bring forth So necessary is fore-knowledge in the common affairs of men that without it the actions of the world would be but mad tumultuary confusion What would you think of that mans understanding or how would you value the imployments of his life that lookt no further in all his actions than the present hour and saw no more than the things in hand What would you call him that so spends the day as one that knoweth not there will be any night and so past the night as one that looked not for that day that knew not in the Spring there would be an Harvest or in the Summer that there would be any Winter or in Youth that there would be Age or Death The silly brutes that have no fore-knowledge are furnished with an instinct that supplieth the want of it and also have the help of mans fore-knowledge or else their kind would be soon extinct The Bees labour in Summer as if they foresaw the Winters need And can that man be wise that foreseeth not his everlasting state Indeed he that knoweth not what is to come hath no true knowledge of what is present For the worth and use of present things is only in their respect to things eternal And there is no means where there is no end What wisdom then remains in Unbelievers when all their lives 〈◊〉 mis-imployed because they know not the end of life and when all their actions are utterly debased by the baseness of 〈◊〉 brutish ends to which they serve and are referred 〈◊〉 is truly wise or honourable that is done for small and 〈◊〉 things To draw a curious picture of a shadow or elegantly write the history of a dream may be an ingenuous kind of foolery but the end will not allow it the name of Wisdom And such are all the actions of the world though called Heroick Valiant and Honourable that aim at transitory trifles and tend not to the everlasting end A bird can neatly build her nest but is not therefore counted Wise How contrary is the judgement of the world to Christs When the same description that he giveth of a fool is it that worldlings give of a wise and happy man Luke 12.20 21. One that layeth up riches for himself and is not rich towards God Will you perswade us that the man is wise that can climb a little higher than his neighbours that he may have the greater fall That is attended in his way to Hell with greater pomp and state than others That can sin more Syllogistically and Rhetorically than the vulgar and more prudently and gravely run into damnation and can learnedly defend his madness and prove that he is safe at the brink of Hell Would you perswade us that he is wise that contradicts the God and Rule of
done But that which unavoidably must be seen should be foreseen But the unseen world is not thus mutable Eternal life is begun in the Believer The Church is built on Christ the Reck and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Fix here and you shall never be removed 4. Hence followeth another difference The mutable creature doth impart a disgraceful mutability to the soul that chuseth it It disappointeth and deceiveth And therefore the ungodly are of one mind to day and another to morrow In health they are all for pleasure and commodity and honour and at death they cry out on it as deceitful Vanity In health they cannot abide this strictness this meditating and seeking and preparing for the life to come but at death or judgement they will all be of another mind Then O that they had been so wise as to know their time and O that they hâ—d lived as holily as the best They are now the bold opposers and reproachers of an holy life But then they would be glad it had been their own They would eat their words and will be down in the mouth and stand to never a word they say when sight and sense and judgement shall convince them But things unchangeable do fix the soul Pâ—eâ—y is no matter for Repentance Doth the Believer speak against sin and sinners and for an holy sober righteous life He will do so to the last Death and Judgement shall not change his mind in this but much confirm it And therefore he perseveres through sufferings to death Rom. 8.35 36 37. For this cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4.16 17. 6. Lastly let this move you to live by a foreseeing Faith that it is of necessity to your salvation Believing Heaven must prepare you for it before you can enjoy it Believing Hell is necessâ—ry to prevent it Mark 16.16 John 3.18 36. The just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back or be lifted up the Lord will have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 Hâ—b 2.4 Take heed that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 And be not of them that draw back to perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul Heb. 10.39 It is God that saith They shall all be damned that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. May I now in the conclusion more particularly exhort you 1. That you will live upon things foreseen 2. That you will promote this life of faith in others according to your several capacities Princes and Nobles live not alwaies You are not the Rulers of the unmoveable Kingdom but of a boat that is in an hasty stream or a ship under sail that will speed both Pilot and Passengers to the shore Dixi estis Dii at moriemini ut homines It was not the least or worst of Kings that said I am a stranger vpon earth Psal 119.19 Vermis sum non homo I am a worm and no man Psal 32.6 You are the greater worms and we the little ones but we must all say with Job ch 17.13 14. The grave is our house and we must make our beds in darkness Corruption is our Father and the Worm our Mother and our Sister The inexorable Leveller is ready at your backs to convince you by unresistible argument that dust you are and to dust you shall return Heaven should be as desirable and Hell as terrible to you as to others No man will fear you after death much less will Christ be afraid to judge you Luke 19.27 As the Kingdoms and glory of the world were contemned by him in the hour of his temptation so are they inconsiderable to procure his approbation Trust not therefore to uncertain riches Value them but as they will prove at last As you stand on higher ground than others it is meet that you should see further The greater are your advantages the wiser and better you should be and therefore should better perceive the difference between things temporal and eternal It is alwaies dark where these glow-worms shine and a rotten post doth seem a fire Your difficulties also should excite you You must go as through a Needles eye to Heaven To live as in Heaven in a crowd of business and stream of temptations from the confluence of all worldly things is so hard that few such come to Heaven Withdraw your selves therefore to the frequent serious fore-thoughts of eternity and live by faith Had time allowed it I should have come down to some particular instances As 1. Let the things unseen be still at hand to answer every temptation and shame and repel each motion to sin 2. Let them be still at hand to quicken us to duty when backwardness and coldness doth surprize us What shall we do any thing coldly for eternity 3. Let it resolve you what company to delight in and what society to be of even those with whom you must dwell for ever What side soever is uppermost on earth you may foresee which side shall reign for ever 4. Let the things invisible be your daily solace and the satisfaction of your souls Are you slandered by men Faith tells you it is enough that Christ will justifie you O happy day when he will bring forth our righteousness as the light and set all strait which all the false histories or slanderous tongues or pens in all the world made crooked Are you frowned on or contemned by men Is it not enough that you shall everlastingly be honoured by the Lord Are you wronged oppressed or trodden on by pride or malice Is not Heaven enough to make you reparation and eternity long enough for your joyes O pray for your malicious enemies lest they suffer more than you can wish them 2. Lastly I should have become on the behalf of Christ a petitioner to you for protection and encouragement to the heirs of the invisible world For them that preach and them that live this life of faith not for the honours and riches of the world but for leave and countenance to work in the Vineyard and peaceably travel through the world as strangers and live in the Communion of Saints as they believe But though it be for the beloved of the Lord the apple of his eye the people that are sure to prevail and raign with Christ for ever whose prayers can do more for the greatest Princes than you can do for them whose joy is hastened by that which is intended for their sorrow I shall now lay
busie sawcy fellow and you bid him meddle with his own matters and let you speed as you can and keep his compassion and charity for himself you give him no thanks for his undesired help The most laborious faithful servant you like best that will do you the most work with greatest skill and care and diligence But the most laborious faithful instructer and watchman for your souls you most ungratefully vilifie as if he were more busie and precise than needs and were upon some unprofitable work and you love a superficial hypocritical Ministry that teacheth you but to complement with Heaven and leads you such a dance of comical outside hypocritical worship as is agreeable to your own hypocrisie And thus when you are mocking God you think you worship him and merit Heaven by the abuse Should a Mâ—nister or other friend be but half as earnest with you for the life of your immortal souls as you are your selves for your estates or friends or lives in any danger you would take them for Fanaticks and perhaps do by them as his carnal friends did once by Christ Mark 3.21 that went out to lay hold on him and said He is beside himself For trifles you account it wisdom to be serious but for everlasting things you account it folly or to be more busie and soliciâ—ous than needs You can believe an act of pardon and indempnity from man when as you are little solicitous about a pardon from God to whose Justice you have forfeited your souls and if a man be but earnest in begging his pardon and praying to be saved from everlasting misery you scorn him because he does it without book and say he whines or speaks through the nose forgetting that we shall have you one of these daies as earnest in vain as they are that shall prevail for their salvation and that the terrible approach of death and judgement shall teach you also to pray without book and cry Lord Lord open to us when the door is shut and it 's all too late Mat. 25.11 O Sirs had you but a lively serious foreseeing faith that openeth Heaven and Hell as to your sight what a cure would it work of this Hypocrisie 1. Such a sight would quicken you from your sloth and put more life into your thoughts and words and all that you attempt for God 2. Such a sight would soon abate your pride and humble you before the Lord and make you see how short you are of what you should be 3. Such a sight would dull the edge of your covetous desires and shew you that you have greater things to mind and another kind of world than this to seek 4. Such a sight would make you esteem the temptations of mens reports but as the shaking of a leaf and their allurements and threats as impertinent speeches that would cast a feather or a fly into the ballance against a mountain or against the world 5. Such a sight would allay the itch of lust and quench the drunkards insatiable thirst and turn your gulosity into moderation and abstinence and acquaint you with a higher sort of pleasures that are durable and worthy of a man 6. Such a sight would cure your desire of pastime and shew you that you have no time to spare when all is done that necessity and everlasting things require 7. Such a sight would change your relish of Gods Ordinances and esteem of Ministers and teach you to love and savour that which is spiritual and serious rather than hypocritical strains and shews It would teach you better how to judge of Sermons and of Prayers than unexperienced minds will ever do 8. Such a sight would cure your malignity against the waies and diligent servants of the Lord and instead of opposing them it would make you glad to be among them and fast and pray and watch and rejoyce with them and better to understand what it is to believe the communion of Saints In a word did you but see what God reveals and Saints believe and must be seen I would scarce thank you to be all as serious and solicitous for your souls as the holiest man alive and presently to repent and lament the folly of your negligence and delaies and to live as men that know no other work to mind in comparison of that which extendeth to eternity I would scarce thank the proudest of you all to lie down in the dust and in sackcloth and ashes with tears and cryes to beg the pardon of those sins which before you felt no weight in Nor the most sensual wretch that now sticks so close to his ambition covetousness and lust that he saith he cannot leave them to spit them out as loathsome bitterness and be ashamed of them as fruitless things You would then say to the most godly that now seem too precise O why do you not make more haste and lay hold on Heaven with greater violence why do you pray with no more fervency and bear witness against the sins of the world with no more undaunted courage and resolution and why do you not more freely lay out your time and strength and wealth and all that you have on the work of God Is Heaven worth no more ado than this Can you do no more for an endless life and the escaping of the wrath to come Shall worldlings over-do you These would be your thoughts on such a sight CHAP. II. Vse of Exhortation WHat now remains but that you come into the light and beg of God as the Prophet for his servant 2 King 6.17 to open your eyes that you may see the things that would do so much That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give you the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Ephes 1.17 18. O set those things continually before your eyes that must forever be before them Look seriously into the infallible word and whatsoever that fore-tells believe it as if it were come to pass The unbelief of Gods threatnings and penal Laws is the perdition of souls as well as the unbelief of Promises God giveth not false fire when he dischargeth the Canons of his terrible comminations If you fall not down you shall find that the lightening is attended with the thunder and execution will be done before you are aware If there were any doubt of the things unseen yet you know it is past all doubt that there 's nothing else that 's durable and worthy of your estimation and regard You must be Knights and Gentlemen but a little while speak but a few words more and you 'l have spoke your last When you have slept a few nights more you must sleep till the Resurrection awake you as to the flesh Then where are your pleasant habitations and contents
it And this is it which we call Sanctification or Holiness to the Lord. And our cohabitation and relation to men will tell us that Justice and Charity are our duty as to them And when a man is fully satisfied that Holiness Justice and Charity are our duty he hath a great advantage for his progress towards the Christian Faith To which let me add that as to our selves also it is undeniably our duty to take more care for our souls than for our bodies and to rule our senses and passions by our Reason and to subject our lower faculties to the higher and so to use all sensible and present things as conduceth to the publick good and to the advancement of our nobler part and to our greatest benefit though it cross our sensual appetites All this being unquestionably our natural duty we see that man was made to live in Holiness Justice Charity Temperance and rational regularity in the world 5. When you have gone thus far consider next how far men are generally from the performance of this duty And how backward humane nature is to it even while they cannot deny it to be their duty And you will soon perceive that God who made it their duty did never put in them this enmity thereto nor ever made them without some aptitude to perform it And if any would infer that their indisposednâ—ss proveth it to be none of their duty the nature of man will fully confute him and the conscience and confession of all the sober part of the world What wretch so blind if he believe a Deity who will not confess that he should love God with all his heart and that Justice Charity and Sobriety are his duty and that his sense should be ruled by his reason c The evidence before given is not to be denyed And therefore something is marr'd in nature Some enemy hath seduced man And some deplorable change hath befallen him 6. Yea if you had no great backwardness to this duty your self consider what it must cost you faithfully to perform it in such a malignant world as we now live in what envy and wrath what malice and persecution what opposition and discouragements on every side we must expect Universal experience is too full a proof of this Besides what it costeth our restrained flesh 7. Proceed then to think further that certainly God hath never appointed us so much duty without convenient Motives to perform it It cannot be that he should make us more noble than the brutes to be more miserable Or that he should make Holiness our duty that it might be our loss or our calamity If there were no other life but this and men had no hopes of future happiness nor any fears of punishment what a Hell would this world be Heart-wickedness would be but little feared nor heart-duty regarded Secret sin against Princes States and all degrees would be boldly committed and go unpunished for the most part The sins of Princes and of all that have power to defeat the Law would have little or no restraint Every mans interest would oblige him rather to offend God who so seldom punisheth here than to offend a Prince or any man in power who seldom lets offences against himself go unrevenged And so man more than God would be the Ruler of the world that is our God Nay actually the hopes and fears of another life among most Heaâ—hens Infidels and Hereticks is the principle of Divine Government by which God keepeth up most of the order and virtue which is in the world Yea think what you should be and do your self as to enemies and as to secret faults and as to sensual vices if you thought there were no life but this And is it possible that the infinitely powerful wise and good Creatour can be put to govern all mankind by meer deceit and a course of lyes as if he wanted better means By how much the better any man is by so much the more regardful is he of the life to come and the hopes and fears of another life are so much the more prevalent with him And is it possible that God should make men good to make them the most deceived and most miserable Hath he commanded all these cares to be our needless torments which brutes and fools and sottish sinners do all scape Is the greatest obedience to God become a sign of the greatest folly or the way to the greatest loss or disappointment We are all sure that this life is short and vain No Infidel can say that he is sure that there is no other life for us And if this be so reason commandeth us to prefer the pâ—ssibilities of such a life to come before the certain vanities of this life So that even the Infidels uncertainty will unavoidably infer that the preferring of the world to come is our duty And if it be our duty then the thing in it self is true For God will not make it all mens duties in the frame of their nature to seek an Vtopia and pursue a shadow and to spend their daies and chiefest cares for that which is not Godliness is not such a dreaming night-walk Conscience will not suffer dying men to believe that they have more cause to repent of their Godliness than of their sin and of their seeking Heaven than of wallowing in their lusts Nay then these hâ—avenly desires would be themselves our sins as being the following of a lye the aspiring after a state which is above us and the abuse and loss of our faculties and time And sensuality would be liker to be our virtue as being natural to us and a seeking of our most real felicity The common conscience of mankind doth justifie the wisdom and virtue of a temperate holy heavenly person and acknowledgeth that our heavenly desires are of God And doth God give men both natural faculties which shall never come to the perfection which is their End and also gracious desires which shall but deceive us and never be satisfied If God had made us for the enjoyments of brutes he would have given us but the knowledge and desires of brutes Every King and mortal Judge can punish faults against Man with death And hath God no greater or further punishment for sins as committed against himself And are his rewards no greater than a mans These and many more such Evidences may assure you that there is another life of Rewards and punishments and that this life is not our final state but only a â—ime of preparation thereunto Settle this deeply and fixedly in your minds 8. And look up to the heavenly Regions and think Is this world so replenished with inhabitants both Sea and Land and Air it self And can I dream that the vast and glorious Orbs and Regions are all uninhabited Oâ— that they have not more numerous and glorious possessors than this small opacous spot of earth And then think that those higher creatures are intellectual spirits This is
godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.7 8. 6.6 16. And the future perfect Goodness may invite us to present imperfect Goodness the Promises of the Gospel do second the Precepts with the strongest motives in the world so that everlasting blessedness and joy is made the reward of temporal sincerity in faith love and obedience And if Heaven it self be not a reward sufficient to invite men to be good there is none sufficient 17. Yea the penalties and severities of the Christian Religion do shew the Goodness of it When God doth therefore threaten Hell to save men from it and to draw them up to the obedience of the Gospel Threatned evil of punishment is but to keep them from the evil of sin and to make men better And he that will testifie his hatred of sinful evil to the highest doth shew himself the greatest enemy of it and the greatest lover of good and he that setteth the sharpest hedge before us and the terrible warnings to keep us from damnation doth shew himself most willing to save us 18. So good is Christianity that it turneth all our afflictions unto good It assureth us that they are sent as needful medicine however merited by our sin And it directeth us how to bear them easily and to make them sweet and safe and profitable and to turn them to our increase of holiness and to the furtherance of our greatest good Heb. 1 to 13. Rom. 8.18 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. 19. It also stablisheth a perpetual office even the sacred Ministry for the fuller and surer communication of all this good forementioned In which observe these particulars which shew the greatness of this benefit 1. The persons called to it must by Christs appointment be the wisest and best of men that can be had 2. The number of them is to be suited to the number of the people so that none may be without the benefit 3. Their work is to declare all this forementioned Goodness and Love of God to man and to offer them all this grace and mercy and to teach them to be holy and happy and to set before them the everlasting joyes 4. The manner of their doing it must be with humility as the servants of all with tender love as Fathers of the flock with wisdom and skill lest their work be frustrate with the greatest importunity even compelling them to come in as men that are loth to take any denyal and with patient enduring all oppositions as those that had rather suffer any thing than the peoples souls shall be unhealed and be damned and they must conrinue to the end as those that will never give up a soul as desperate and lost while there is any hope And all this must be seconded with their own example of holiness temperance and love Acts 20. 2 Tim. 2.24 25. Matth. 22.8 9. 20. So good is our Religion that nothing but doing good is the work in which it doth employ us Besides all the good of piety and self-preservation it requireth us to live in love to others and to do all the good in the world that we are able Ephes 2.10 Mat. 5.16 6.1 2 c. Titus 2.14 Gal. 6.7 8 9. Good works must be our study and our life Our work and our delight Even our enemies we must love and do good to Mat. 5.44 Rom. 12.19 20 21. And sure that doctrine is good which is purposely to employ men in doing good to all 21. So good is Christianity that it favoureth not any one sin but is the greatest condemner of them all It is all for knowledge against hurtful ignorance it is all for humility against all pride for self-denyal against all injurious selfishness for spirituality and the dominion of true Reason against sensuality and the dominion of the flesh for heavenliness against a worldly mind for sincerity and simplicity against all hypocrisie and deceit for love against malice for unity and peace against divisions and contentions for justice and lenity in superiours and obedience and patience in inferiours for faithfulness in all relations Its precepts extend to secret as well as open practices to the desires and thoughts as well as to the words and deeds It alloweth not a thought or word or action which is ungodly intemperate rebellious injurious unchaste or covetous or uncharitable Mat. 5. 22. All the troublesome part of our Religion is but our warfare against evil against sin and the temptations which would make us sinful And it must needs be good if all the conflicting part of it be only against evil Gal. 5.17 21 23. Rom. 6. 7. 8.1 7 8 9 10 13. 23. It teacheth us the only way to live in the greatest and most constant joy If we attain not this it is because we follow not its precepts If endless joy foreseen and all the foresaid mercies in the way are not matter for continual delight there is no greater to be thought on Rejoycing alwaies in the Lord even in our sharpest persecutions is a great part of Religious duty Phil. 3.1 4.4 Psal 33.1 Zech. 10.7 Mat. 5.11 12. Deut. 12.12 18. 24. It overcometh both the danger and the fear of death and that must be good which conquereth so great an evil and maketh the day of the ungodly's fears and utter misery to be the day of our desire and felicity Rom. 6.23 1 Cor. 15.55 Col. 3.1 4. Phil. 3.21 25. It obligeth all the Rulers of the world to use all their power to do good against all sin within their reach and to make their subjects happy both in body and in soul Rom. 13.3 4 5 6. 26. It appointeth Churches to be Societies of Saints that holiness and goodness combined may be strong and honourable 1 Cor. 1.1 2.1 1. Heb. 3.13 1 Thes 5.12 13. That holy Assemblies employed in the holy love and praises of God might be a representation of the heavenly Jerusalem Col. 2.5 27. It doth make the Love and Vnion of all the Saints to be so strict that the mercies and joyes of every member might extend to all All the corporal and spiritual blessings of all the Christians yea and persons in the world are mine as to my comfort as long as I can love them as my self If it would please me to be rich or honourable or learned my self it must please me also to have them so whom I love as my self And when millions have so much matter for my joy how joyfully should I then live And though I am obliged also to sorrow with them it is with such a sorrow only as shall not hinder any seasonable joy 1 Cor. 12. 28. In these societies every member is bound to contribute his help to the benefit of each other so that I have as many obliged to do me good as there be Christians in the world at least according to their several opportunities
contingents are known to him in their causes or in his decree or in their coexistence in eternity They can tell what Decrees he hath about Negatives as that such a man shall not have Faith given him that millions of things possible shall not be that you shall not be a plant or a beast nor any other man nor called by any other name c. And how all Gods Decrees are indeed but One and yet not only unconceivably numerous but the order of them as to priority and posteriority is to be exactly defined and defended though to the detriment of charity and peace As to sin they can tell you whether he have a real positive Decree de re eveniente or only de eventu rei or only de propriâ permissione eventus i. e. de non impediendo i. e. de non agendo whether non agere need and have a positive act of Volition or Nolition antecedent Though they know not when they hear the sound of the wind either whence it cometh or whither it goeth yet know they all the methods of the Spirit They know how God as the first-mover predetermineth the motions of all Agents natural and free and whether his influence be upon the essence or faculty or act immediately and what that influx is In a word how voluminously do they darken counsel by words without knowledge As if they had never read Gods large expostulation with Job 42 c. Deut. 29 29. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are revealed unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Even an Angel could say to Manoah Judg. 13.18 Why askest thou thus after my name seeing it is secret No man hath seen God at any time saving the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Joh. 1.18 And what he hath declared we may know But how much more do these men pretend to know than ever Christ declared But who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor Rom. 11.34 Etiam vera de Deo loqui periculosum Even things that are true should be spoken of God not only with reverence but with great caution And a wise man will rather admire and adore than boldly speak what he is not certain is true and congruous Direct 6. Let all your knowledge of God be practical yea more practical than any other knowledge and let not your thoughts once use Gods Name in vain If it be a sin to use idle or unprofitable words and especially to take Gods Name in vain it cannot be faultless to have idle unprofitable thoughts of God for the thoughts are the operations of the mind it self There is no thought or knowledge which ever cometh into our minds which 1. Hath so great work to do and 2. Is so fit and powerfull to do it as the knowledge and thoughts which we have of God The vâ—ry renovation of the soul to his Image and transforming it into the Divine Nature must be wrought hereby The thoughts of his Wisdom must silence all our contradicting folly and bring our souls to an absolute submission and subjection to his Laws The knowledge of his Goodness must cause all true saving Goodness in us by possâ—ssing us with the highest love to God The knowledge of his Power must cause both our confidence and our fear And the impress of Gods Attributes must be his Image on our souls It is a common and true observation of Divines that in Scripture words of God which express his Knowledge do imply his will and affections As his knowing the way of the righteous Psal 2.6 is his approving and loving it c. And it is as true that words of our knowledge of God should all imply affection towards him It is a grievous aggravation of ungodliness to be a learned ungâ—dly man To profess to know God and deny him in works being abominable and disobedient and reprobate to every good work though as orthodox and ready in good words as others Titus 1.16 A thought of God should be able to do any thing upon the soul It should partake of the Omnipotency and perfection of the blessed Object No creature should be able to stand before him when our minds entertain any serious thoughts of him and converse with him A thought of God should annihilatâ— all the grandure and honours of the world to us and all the pleasures and treasures of the flesh and all the power of temptations what fervency in prayer what earnestness of desire what confidence of faith what hatred of sin what ardent love what transporting joy what constant patience should one serious thought of God possess the believing holy soul with If the thing known become as much one with the understanding as Plotinus and other Platonists thought or if man were so far partaker of a kind of deification as Gibieuf and other Oratorians and â—enedictus de Benedictis Barbanson and other Fanatick Fryers think surely the knowledge of God should raise us more above our sensitive desires and passions and make us a more excellent sort of persons and it should make us more like those blessed spirits who know him more than we on earth and it should be the beginning of our eternal life John 17.3 Direct 7. By Faith deliver up your selves to GOD as your Creator and your Owner and live to him as those that perceive they are absolutely his own The word GOD doth signifie both Gods essence and his three great Relations unto man and we take him not for our God if we take him not as in these Divine Relations Therefore God would have Faith to be expressed at our entrance into his Church by Baptism because a believing soul doth deliver up it self to God The first and greatest work of Faith is to enter us sincerely into the holy Covenant In which this is the first part that we take God for our Owner and resign up our selves to him without either express or implicit reserve as those that are absolutely his own And though these words are by any hypocrite quickly spoken yet when the thing is really done the very heart of sin is broken For as the Apostle saith He that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 Because a dead man hath no faculties to do evil So we may say He that is resigned to God as his absolute Owner is freed from sin because he that is not his own hath nothing which is his own and therefore hath nothing to alienate from his Owner We are not our Own we are bought with a price which is the second title of Gods propriety in us and therefore must glorifie God in body and spirit as being his 1 Cor. 6.20 And from this Relation faith will fetch abundant consolation seeing they that by consent and not only by constraint are absolutely his shall undoubtedly be loved and cared for as his Own
a God is it whom I am bound to serve and who hath taken me into his Covenant as his child How happy are they who have such a God engaged to be their God and Happiness And how miserable are they who make such a God their revenging Judge and enemy Shall I ever again wilfully or carelesly sin against a God of so great Majesty If the Sun were an intellectual Deity and still looked on me should I presumptuously offend him Shall I ever distrust the power of him that made such a world Shall I fear a worm a mortal man above this great and terrible Creator Shall I ever again resist or disobey the word and wisdom of him who made and ruleth such a world Doth he govern the whole world and should not I be governed by him Hath he Goodness enough to communicate as he hath done to Sun and Stars to Heaven and Earth to Angels and Men and every wight and hath he not Goodness enough to draw and engage and continually delight this dull and narrow heart of mine Doth the return of his Sun turn the darksome night into the lightsome day and bring forth the creatures to their food and labour doth its approach revive the torpid earth and turn the congealed winter into the pleasant spring and cover the earth with her fragrant many-coloured Robes and renew the life and joy of the terrestrial inhabitants and shall I find nothing in the God who made and still continueth the world to be the life and strength and pleasure of my soul Psal 66.1 c. Make a joyful noise unto God all ye Lands sing forth the honour of his Name make his praise glorious say unto God How terrible art thou in thy works Come and see the works of God He is terrible in his doing towards the children of men He ruleth by his power for ever his eyes behold the Nations let not the rebellious exalt themselves O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard who holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved Psal 86.8 9 10. Among the gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and dost wonderous things thou art God alone Psal 92.5 6. O Lord how great are thy works thy thoughts are very deep a bruitish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this Faith doth not separate it self from natural knowledge nor neglect Gods Works while it studyeth his Word but saith Psal 143.5 I meditate on all thy Works I muse on the work of thy hands Psal 104.24 O Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches so is the great and wide Sea c. Nay it is greatly to be noted that as Redemption is to repair the Creation and the Redeemer came to recover the soul of man to his Creator and Christ is the way to the Father so on the Lords day our commemoration of Redemption includeth and is subservient to our commemoration of the Creation and the work of the ancient Sabbath is not shut out but taken in with the proper work of the Lords day and as Faith in Christ is a mediate grace to cause in us the Love of God so the Word of the Redeemer doth not call off our thoughts from the Works of the great Creator but call them back to that employment and fit us for it by reconciling us to God Therefore it is as suitable to the Gospel Church at least as it was to the Jewish to make Gods works the matter of our Sabbath praises and to say as Psal 145.4 5 10. One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty and of thy wonderous works And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts and I will declare thy greatness All thy works shall praise thee O Lord and thy Saints shall bless thee Psal 26.6 7. I will wash my hands in innocency and so will I compass thine Altar O Lord that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wonderous works Psal 9.12 I will praise thee O Lord with my whole heart I will shew forth all thy marvelous works Direct 14. Let Faith also observe God in his daily Providences and equally honour him for the ordinary and the extraordinary passages thereof The upholding of the world is a continual causing of it and differeth from creation as the continued shining of a Candle doth from the first lighting of it If therefore the Creation do wonderfully declare the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of God so also doth the conservation And note that Gods ordinary works are as great demonstrations of him in all his perfections as his extraordinary Is it not as great a declaration of the Power of God that he cause the Sun to shine and to keep its wonderous course from age to age as if he did such a thing but for a day or hour and as if he caused it to stand still a day And is it not as great a demonstration of his knowledge also and of his goodness Surely we should take it for as great an act of Love to have plenty and health and joy continued to us as long as we desired it as for an hour Let not then that duration and ordinariness of Gods manifestations to us which is their aggravation be lookt upon as if it were their extenuation But let us admire God in the Sun and Stars in Sea and Land as if this were the first time that ever we had seen them And yet let the extraordinarniess of his works have its effects also Their use is to stir up the drowsie mind of man to see God in that which is unusual who is grown customary and lifeless in observing him in things usual Pharaoh and his Magicians will acknowledge God in those unusual works which they are no way able to imitate themselves and say This is the finger of God Exod. 8.19 And therefore miracles are never to be made light of but the finger of God to be acknowledged in them whoever be the instrument or occasion Luke 11.20 There are frequently also some notable though not miraculous Providences in the changes of the world and in the disposal of all events and particularly of our selves in which a Believer should still see God yea see him as the total cause and take the instruments to be next to nothing and not gaze all at men as unbelievers do but say This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes Psal 118.23 Sing unto the Lord a new song for he hath done marvelous things Psal 98.1 Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well
both to the Father and to us and so of our NEARNESS to God in and by him Our distance is the lamentable fruit of our Apostacy which inferreth our fears and estrangedness and backwardness to draw near to God It causeth our ignorance of him and our false conceits of his will and works it greatly hindereth both love and confidence whereas the apprehension of our nearness to God will do much to cure all these evils As it is the misery of the proud that God looketh on them as afar off that is with strangeness and abhorrence and disdain Psal 138.6 And accordingly they shall be far off from the blessed ones hereafter Luke 16.23 So it is the happiness of Believers to be nigh to God in Jesus Christ who condescended to be nigh to us which is our preparation to be yet nearer to him for ever Psal 148.14 34.18 145.18 Ephes 2.13 It giveth the soul more familiar thoughts of God who seemed before to be at an inaccessible distance which is part of the boldness of access and confidence mentioned Ephes 3.12 2.18 Rom. 5.2 Heb. 10.19 We may come boldly to the Throne of grace Heb. 4.16 And it greatly helpeth us in the work of Love to think how near God is come to us in Christ and how near he hath taken the humane nature unto him When a sinner looketh at God only as in himself and as he is estranged from the guilty he is amazed and confounded as if God were quite out of the reach of our love but when he thinketh how he hath voluntarily come down into our flesh that he might be man and be familiar with man and what a wonderful marriage the Divine Nature hath made with the humane this wonderfully reconcileth the heart to God and maketh the thoughts of him more sweet and acceptable If the life of faith be a dwelling in God and God in us and a walking with God 1 Joh. 3.24 4.12 15 16. Ephes 3.17 Gen. 17.1 24.40 5.22 6.9 Heb. 11.5 Then must we perceive our nearness to God The just apprehension of this nearness in Christs Incarnation and Relation to us is the chief means to bring us to the nearness of love and heavenly conversation Col. 3.1 3 4. Direct 8. Make Christ therefore the Mediation for all your practical thoughts of God The thoughts of God will be strange to us through our distance and terrible through our guilt if we look not upon him through the prospective of Christs humanity and cross God out of Christ is a consuming fire to guilty souls As our acceptance must be through the Beloved in whom he is well pleased so our thoughts must be encouraged with the sense of that acceptance and every thought must be led up to God and emboldened by the Mediatour Mat. 3.17 17.5 12.18 Ephes 1.6 Heb. 2.9 10 12 13 17. Direct 9. Never come to God in prayer or any other act of worship but by the Mediation of the Son and put all your prayers as into his hand that he may present them to the Father There is no hoping for any thing from God to sinners but by Christ and therefore there is no speaking to God but by him not only in his Name but also by his Mediation And this is the exercise of his Priesthood for us by his heavenly intercession so much spoken of by the Holy Ghost in the Epistle to the Hebrews Seeing we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession Let us therefore come boldly to the Throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.14 16. Direct 10. Hear every word of Scripture Precept and Ministerial Exhortation consonant to the Scripture as sent to us by Christ and from the Father by him as the appointed Teacher of the Church Hear Christ in his Gospel and his Ministers and hear God the Father in the Son Take heed of giving only a slight and verbal acknowledgement of the voice of Christ whilest you really are more taken with the Preachers voice as if he had a greater share in the Sermon than Christ hath The voice in the holy Mount which Peter witnesseth that he heard 2 Pet. 1.17 was This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Mat. 17.5 And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people Acts 3.23 When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which worketh effectually in you that believe 1 Thes 2.13 The Sheep will follow him for they know his voice a stranger they will not follow John 10.4 5. Direct 11. Take every mercy from God as from the hand of Christ both as procured by his Cross and as delivered by his Mediatory Administration It is still supposed that the giving of the Son himself by the Father to this office is excepted as presupposed But all subsequent particular mercies are both procured for us and given to us by the Mediator Yet is it nevertheless from God the Father nor doth it evertheless but the more fully signifie his love But the state of sinners alloweth them no other way of communication from God for their benefit and happiness but by one who is more near and capable to God who from him may convey all blessings unto them Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in things heavenly in Christ Ephes 1.3 He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 Through the knowledge of him the Divine Power giveth us all things that pertain to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1.3 God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son 1 John 5.10 11. All things are delivered into his hand Joh. 13.3 17.2 Therefore receive every particular mercy for soul and body as from the blood and from the present mediation of Christ that you may rightly understand it and have it as sanctified and sweetned by Christ Direct 12. Let Faith take occasion by every sin to renew your sense of the want of Christ and to bring you to him to meditate and grant you a renewed pardon Therefore entertain not their mistake who tell men that all sin past present and to come is fully pardoned at once whether it be before you were born in Gods decree or Christs satisfaction or at the time of your conversion nor theirs who teach that Christ pardoneth only sins before conversion but as for all that are committed afterward he doth prevent the need of pardon by preventing all guilt and obligation to punishment except meer temporal chastisement The preparation
which Christ hath made for our pardon is in it self sufficient yea and effectual as to that end which he would have it attain before our believing But our actual pardon is no such end Nor can sin be forgiven before it be committed because it is no sin Christ never intended to justifie or sanctifie us perfectly at the first whatsoever many say to the contrary because they understand not what they say but to carry on both proportionably and by degrees that we may have daily use for his daily mediation and may daily pray Forgive us our trespasses There is no guilt on them that are in Christ so far as they walk not after the flesh but after the spirit nor no proper condemnation by sentence or execution at all because their pardon is renewed by Christ as they renew their sins of infirmity but not because he preventeth their need of any further pardon Therefore as God made advantage of the sins of the world for the honouring of his grace in Christ that grace might abound where sin abounded Rom. 5.12 16 17. So do you make advantage of your renewed sins for a renewed use of faith in Christ and let it drive you to him with renewed desires and expectations of pardon by his intercession That Satan may be a loser and Christ may have more honour by every sin that we commit Not that we should sin that grace may abound but that we may make use of abounding grace when we have sinned It is the true nature and use of Faith and Repentance to draw good out of sin it self or to make the remembrance of it to be a means of our hatred and mortification of it and of our love and gratitude to our Redeemer Not that sin it self doth formally or efficiently ever do any good But sin objectively is turned into good For so sin is no sin because to remember sin is not sin When David saith Psal 51.3 that his sin was ever before him he meaneth not only involuntarily to his grief but voluntarily as a meditation useful to his future duty and to stir him up to all that which afterward he promiseth Direct 13. In all the weaknesses and languishings of the new creature let Faith look up to Christ for strength For God hath put our life into his hand and he is our root and hath promised that we shall live because he liveth John 14.19 Do not think only of using Christ as you do a friend when you have need of him or as I do my pen to write and lay it down when I have done But as the branches use the Vine and as the members use the Head which they live by and from which when they are separated they die and wither John 15.1 2 3 c. Ephes 1.22 5.27 30. 4.4 5 12 15 16. Christ must even dwell in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 that is 1. Faith must be the means of Christs dwelling in us by his Spirit and 2. Faith must so habituate the heart to a dependance upon Christ and to an improvement of him that objectively he must dwell in our hearts as our friend doth whom we most dearly love as that which we cannot chuse but alwaies think on Remember therefore that we live in Christ and that the life which we now live is by the faith of the Son of God who hath loved us and given himself for us Gal. 2.20 And his grace is sufficient for us and his strength most manifested in our weakness 2 Cor. 12.9 And that when Satan desireth to sift us he prayeth for us that our faith may not fail Luke 22.32 And that our life is hid with Christ in God even with Christ who is our life Col. 3.3 4. That he is the Head in whom all the members live by the communication of his appointed ligaments and joynts Ephes 4.14 15 16. Therefore when any grace is weak go to your Head for life and strength If faith be weak pray Lord increase our faith Luke 17.5 If you are ignorant pray him to open your understandings Luk. 24.45 If your hearts grow cold go to him by faith till he shed abroad the love of God upon your hearts Rom. 5.3 4. For oâ— his fulness it is that we must receive grace for grace Jâ—hn 1.16 Direct 14. Let the â—hief and most diligent work of your faith in Christ be to inflame your hearts with love to God as his Goodness and Love is revealed to us in Christ Faith kindling Love and working by it is the whole summ of Christianity of which before Direct 15. Let Faith keep the example of Christ continually before your eyes especially in those parts of it which he intended for the contradicting and healing of our greatest sins Above all others these things seem purposely and specially chosen in the life of Christ for the condemning and curing of our sins and therefore are principally to be observed by faith 1. His wonderful Love to God to his Elect and to his enemies expressed in so strange an undertaking and in his sufferings and in his abundant grace which must teach us what fervours of love to God and man to friends and enemies must dwell and have dominion in us 1 John 4.10 Rev. 1.5 Rom. 5.8 10. John 13.34 35. 15.13 1 John 3.14.23.17 4.7 8 20 21. 2. His full obedience to his Fathers will upon the dearest rates or terms To teach us that no labour or cost should seem too great to us in our obeying the will of God nor any thing seem to us of so much value as to be a price great enough to hire us to commit any wilful sin Rom. 5.19 Heb. 5 8. Phil. 2 8. 1 Sam. 15.22 2 Cor. 10.5 6. Heb. 5 9. John 14.15 15.10 1 John 2.3 3.22 5.2 3. Rev. 22.14 3. His wonderful contempt of all the Riches and Greatness of the world and all the pleasures of the flesh and all the honour which is of man which he shewed in his taking the form of a servant and making himself of no reputation and living a mean inferiour life He came not to be served or ministred to but to serve Not to live in state with abundance of attendants with provisions for every turn and use which pride curiosity or carnal imagination taketh for a conveniency or a decency no nor a necessity But he came to be as a servant unto others not as despising his liberty but as exercising his voluntary humility and love He that was Lord of all for our sakes became poor to make us rich He lived in lowliness and meekness He submitted to the greatest scorn of sinners and even to the false accusations and imputations of most odious sin in it self Phil. 2.6 7 8 9. Heb. 12.1 2 3. Matth. 26.55 60 61 63 66. 27 28 29 30 31. Matth. 11.29 30. 20.28 2 Cor. 8.9 which was to teach us to see the vanity of the wealth and honours of the world and
not by Faith chosen and used by us under the notion of a Mâ—diatour or Means to our first act of love and consent but is a Means to that of the Fathers chusing only but is in that first consent chosen by us for the standing means of our Justification and Glory and of all our following exercise and increase of love to God and our sanctification so that it is only the assenting act of faith and not the electing act which is the efficient cause of oâ— very first act of Love to God and of our first degree of sanctification and thus it is that Faith is called the seed and mother grace But it is not that saving Faith which is our Christianity and the condition of Justification and of Glory till it come up to a covenant-consent of heart and take in the foresaid acts of Repentance and Love to God as our God and ultimate end The observation of many written mistakes about the order of the work of grace and the ill and contentious consequents that have followed them hath made me think that this true and accurate decision of this case is not unuseful or unnecessary Direct 12. The Holy Ghost so far concurred with the eternal Word in our Redemption that he was the perfecting Operator in the Conception the Holiness the Miracles the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Of his Conception it is said Mat. 1.20 For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost And vers 18. She was found with child of the Holy Ghost And of his holy perfection as it is said Luke 2.52 that he increased in wisdom and stature and favour with God and men meaning those positive perfections of his humane nature which were to grow up with nature it self and not the supply of any culpable or privative defects so when he was baptized the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him Luke 3.22 And Luke 4.1 it is said Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost c. Isa 11.2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsel and might the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and shall make him quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord c. Joh. 3.34 For God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him Acts 1.2 After that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments to the Apostles whom he had chosen Rom. 1.4 And was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness that is the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead Mat. 12.28 If I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God c. Luke 4.18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal c. Isa 61.1 In all this you see how great the work of the Holy Spirit was upon Christ himself to fit his humane nature for the work of our redemption and actuate him in it though it was the Word only which was made flesh and dwelt among us John 1.3 Direct 13. Christ was thus filled with the Spirit to be the Head or quickening Spirit to his body and accordingly to fit each member for its peculiar office And therefore the Spirit now given is called the Spirit of Christ as communicated by him Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of hiâ— Joh. 7.37 This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe should receive viz. it is the water of life which Christ will give them 1 Cor. 15.45 The last Adam was made a quickening Spirit Gal. 4.6 God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Phil. 1.19 Through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ See also Ephes 1.22 23. 3.17 18 19. 2.18 22. 4.3 12 16. 1 Cor. 12 c. Direct 14. The greatest extraordinary measure of the Spirit was given by him to his Apostles and the Primitive Christians to be the seal of his own truth and power and to fit them to found the first Churches and to convince unbelievers and to deliver his will on record in the Scriptures infallibly to the Church for future times It would be tedious to cite the proofs of this they are so numerous take but a few Matth. 28.20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you that 's the commission Mark 16.17 And these signs shall follow them that believe c. Joh. 20.22 Receive ye the Holy Ghost c. 14.26 But the Comforter the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Joh. 16.13 When the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth c. Heb. 2.4 God also bearing them witness both with signs and wâ—nders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Direct 15. And as such gifts of the Spirit was given to the Apostles as their â—ffice required so thâ—se sanctifying graces or that spiritual Life Light and Love are given by it to all true Christians which their calling and salvation doth require John 3.5 6. Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That which is born of the flâ—sh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Heb. 12.14 Without holiness none shall see God Rom. 8.8 9 10 14. They that are in the flesh cannot please God But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his See also v. 1 3 4 5 6 7 c. Titus 3.5 6 7. He saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life But the testimonies of thâ—s truth are more numerous than I may recite Direct 16. By all this it appeareth that the Holy Ghost is both Christs great witness objectively in the world by which it is that he is owned of God and proved to be true and also his Advocate or great Agent in the Church both to indite the Scriptures and to sanctifie souls So that no man can be a Christian indeed without these three 1. The objective witness of the Spirit to the truth of Christ 2. The Gospel taught by the Spirit in the Apostles 3. And the quickening illuminating and sanctifying work of the Spirit upon their souls Direct 17. It is therefore in these respects that we are baptizâ—d into the Name of the Holy Ghost as well as of the Father and the Son
3 4. 1 Cor. 13. Heb. 11. Mat. 6.20 21. 3. It is the turning away from and refusing all other seeming felicity or ends and casting all our happiness and hopes upon God alone 4. It is the chusing Jesus Christ as the only way and Mediator to this end with the refusing of all other Job 14.6 and trusting all that we are or hope for upon his Mediation III. In the Vital Power it is the casting away all inconsistent fears and the inward resolved delivering up the soul to the Father Son and Holy Spirit in this Covenant entering our selves into a resolved war with the Devil the World and the Flesh which in the performance will resist us And thus Faith or Trust is constituted and completed in the true Baptismal Covenant Direct 28. In all this be sure that you observe the difference between the truth of Faith and the high degrees The truth of it is most certainly discerned by as consisting in THE ABSOLVTE CASTING or VENTVRING not part but ALL YOVR HAPPINESS and HOPES VPON GOD and the MEDIATOR ONLY and LETTING GO ALL WHICH IS INCONSISTENT WITH THIS CHOICE and TRVST This is true and saving Faith and Trust Pardon me that I sometime use the word VENTVRING ALL as if there were any uncertainty in the matter I intend not by it to express the least uncertainty or fallibility in Gods Promise For Heaven and Earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle of his Word shall not pass till all be fulfilled But I shall here add 1. True Faith or Trust may consist with uncertainty in the person who believeth if he believe and trust Christ but so far that he can cast away all his worldly treasures and hopes even life it self upon that trust Every one is not an Infidel nor an Hypocrite who must say if he speak his heart I am not certain past all doubts that the soul is immortal or the Gospel true but I am certain that immortal happiness is most desirable and endless misery most terrible and that this world is vanity and nothing in it worthy to be compared with the hopes which Christ hath given us of a better life And therefore upon just deliberation I am resolved to let go all my sinful pleasures profits and worldly reputation and life it self when it is inconsistent with those hopes And to take Gods Love for my felicity and end and to trust and venture absolutely all my happiness and hopes on the favour of God the mediation of Christ and the Promises which he hath given us in the Gospel I know I shall meet with abundance of Teachers and people that will shake the head at this doctrine as dangerous and cry out of it as favouring unbelief that any one should have true saving Faith who doubteth or is uncertain of the immortality of the soul or the trâ—th of the Gospel But I see so much in hot-brained proud persons to be pittied and so much of their work in the Church to be with tears lamented that I will not by speech or silence favour their brainsick bold assertions nor will I fear their phrenetick furious censures If it be not a mark of a wise and good Minister of Christ to be utterly ignorant of the state of souls both his own and all the peoples then I will not concur to the advancement of the reputation of such ignorance It is enough to pardon the great injury which such do to the Church of God without countenancing it Though this one instance only now mind me of it abundance more do second it and tell us that there are in the Churches through the world abundance of Divines who are first taught by a party which they most esteem what is to be held and said as orthodox and then make it their work to contend for that orthodoxness which they were taught so to honour even with the most unmanly and unchristian scorns and censures when as if they had not been dolefully ignorant both of the Scriptures and themselves and the souls of men they would have known that it is the fool that rageth and is confident and that it was not their knowing more than others but their knowing less which made them so presumptuous and that they are themselves as far from certainty as others when they condemn themselves to defend their opinions Even like our late Perfectionists who all lived more imperfectly than others but wrote and railed for sinless perfection as soon as they did but take up the opinion As if turning to that opinion had made them perfect So men may pass the censure of hypocrisie and damnation upon themselves when they please by damning all as hypocrites whose faith is thus far imperfect but they shall never make any wise man believe by it that their own faith is ever the more certain or perfect As far as I can judge by acquaintance with persons most religious though there be many who are afraid to speak it out yet the far greater number of the most faithful Christians have but such a faith which I described and their hearts say I am not certain or past all doubt of the truth of our immortality or of the Gospel but I will venture all my hopes and happiness though to the parting with life it self upâ—n it And I will venture to say it as the truth of Christ that he that truly can do this hath a sincere and saving faith whatsoever Opinionists may say against it For Christ hath promised that he that loseth his life for his sake and the Gospels shall have life everlasting Mat. 10.37 38 39 42. 16.25 19.29 Luke 18.30 And he hath appointed no higher expressions of faith as necessary to salvation than denying our selves and taking up the Cross and forsaking all that we have or in one word than Martyrdom and this as proceeding from the Love of God Luke 14.26 27 29 33 Rom. 8.17 18 28 29 3O 35 36 37 38 39. And it is most evident that the sincere have been weak in faith Luke 17.5 And the Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our faith Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief Luke 7.9 I have not found so great faith no not in Israel The weak faith was the more common 2. And as true Faith or Trust may consist with doubts and uncertainty in the subject so may it with much anxiety care disquietment and sinful fear which sheweth the imperfection of our Faith Shall â—e not much more clothe you O ye of little faith Mat. 16.8 O ye of little faith why reason you among your selves c. Mat. 8. â—6 Why are ye fearful O ye of little faith Mat. 14.31 Peter had a faith that could venture his life on the waters to come to Christ as confident of a miracle upon his command But yet it was not without fear v. 30. When he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid which caused Christ to say O thou of little faith wherefore didst
7. 2 Cor. 13.14 1 John 4.16 Prop. 12. When Sanctification is mentioned as a gift consequent to Faith it is the Love of God as our Father in Christ and the Spirit of Love that is principally meant by that Sanctification Prop. 13. The pardon of sin consisteth more in forgiving the poenam damni the forfeiture and loss of Love and the Spirit of Love than in remitting any corporal pain of sense And the restoring of Love and the Spirit of Love and the perfecting hereof in Heaven is the most eminent part of our executive Pardon Justification and Adoption Thus far Sanctification is Pardon it self Rom. 8.15 16 17. Gal. 4 6. 1 Cor. 6.10 11. Titus 3.6 7. Titus 2.13 14. Rom. 6. Rom. 8.4 10 13. Prop. 14. The pardon of the pain of sense is given us as a means to the executive pardon of the pain of loss that is to put us in a capacity with doubled obligations and advantages to Love God Luke 7.47 Prop. 15. Sanctification therefore being better than all other pardon of sin as being its end we must value it more and must make it our first desire to be as holy as may be that we may need as little forgiveness as may be and in the second place only desire the pardon of that which we had rather not have committed and not make pardon our chief desire Rom. 6 7 8. throughout Gal. 5.17 to the end Prop. 16. Holiness is the true Morality and they that prefer the preaching and practice of Faith in Christ bâ—fore the preaching and practice of Holiness and sleight this as meer morality do prefer the means before the end and their physick before their health And they that preach or think to practise Holiness without Faith in Christ do dream of a cure without the only Physician of souls And they that preach up Morality as consisting in meer justice charity to men and temperance without the Love of God in Christ do take a branch cut off and withered for the tree Some ignorant Sectaries cry down all Preaching as meer morality which doth not frequently toss the name of Christ and Free Grace And some ungodly Preachers who never felt the work of Faith or Love to God in their own souls for want of holy experience savour not and understand not holy Preaching and therefore spend almost all their time in declaiming against some particular vices and speaking what they have learned of some vertues of sobriety justice or mercy And when they have done cover over their ungodly unbelieving course by reproaching the weaknesses of the former sort who cry down Preaching meer morality But let such know that those Ministers and Christians who justly lament their lifeless kind of Preaching do mean by morality that which you commonly call Ethicks in the Schools which leaveth out not only Faith in Christ but the Love of God and the Sanctification of the Spirit and the heavenly Glory And they do not cry down true morality but these dead branches of it which are all your morality It is not morality it self inclusively that they blame but meer morality that is so much only as Aristotles Ethicks teach as exclusive to the Christian Faith and Love And do you think with any wise men or with your own consciences long to find it a cloak to your Infidel or unholy hearts and doctrine to mistake them that blame you or to take advantage of that ignorance of others The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost do shut up your Liturgy by way of Benediction but it is almost all shut out of your Sermons unless a few heartless customary passages And when there is nothing less in your preaching than that which is the substance of your Baptismal Covenant and Christianity and your customary Benediction you do but tell the people what kind of Christianity you have and what Benediction that is that you are neither truly Christians nor Blessed True Morality or the Christian Ethicks is the Love of God and man stirred up by the Spirit of Christ through Faith and exercised in works of Piety Justice Charity and Temperance in order to the attainment of everlasting happiness in the perfect vision and fruition of God And none but ignorant or brain-sick Sectaries will be offended for the Preaching of any of this Morality Luke 11.42 Wâ— to you Pharisees for ye tythe Mint and Rue and pass over Judgment and the Love of God These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone CHAP. X. The Practical Directions to live by Faith a life of Holiness or Love Direct 1. TAke Jesus Christ as a Teacher sent from Heaven the best and surest revealer of God and his Will unto mankind All the Books of Philosophers are sapless and empty in comparison of the teaching of Jesus Christ they are but enquiries into the nature of the creatures and the lowest things most impertinent to our happiness or duty Or if they rise up to God it is but with dark and unpractical conjectures for the most part of them and the rest do but grope and fumble in obscurity And their learning is mostly but useless speculations and striving about words and sciences falsly so called which little tend to godly edifying It is Christ who is made wisdom to us as being himself the wisdom of God If you knew but where to hear an Angel you would all prefer him before Aristotle or Plato or Cartesius or Gassendus how much more the Son himself He is the true Light to lighten every man that will not serve the Prince of darkness Christians were first called Christs Disciples and therefore to learn of him the true knowledge of God is the work of every true Believer John 17. â— Acts 3.23 John 8.43 47. 10.3 27. 12.47 14.24 Matth. 17.5 Direct 2. Remember that Christs way of Teaching is 1 By his Word 2. His Ministers 3. And his Spirit conjunct and the place for his Disciples is in his Church 1. His Gospel written is his Book which must be taught us 2. His Ministers office is to teach it us 3. His Spirit is inwardly to illuminate us that we may understand it And he that will despise or neglect either the Scripture Ministry or Spirit is never like to learn of Christ Direct 3. Look on the Lord Jesus and the work of mans Redemption by him as the great designed Revelation of the Fathers Love and Goodness even as the fabrick of the world is set up to be the Glass or Revelation eminently of his Greatness Therefore as you chuse your Book for the sake of the Science or subject which you would learn so let this be the designed studied constant use which you make of Christ to see and admire in him the Fathers Love When you read your Grammar if one ask you why you will say it is to learn the language which it teacheth and
must have one constant Order of intention which is before opened God must be first intended then Christ then the universal Church in Heaven and Earth c. But in the order of operation and execution there may be a great difference among our duties As God appointeth us to lay out some one way and some another Yet ordinarily as the emitted beams begin from God and dart themselves on the soul of man so the reflected beams begin upon or from our hearts and pass toward God though first beloved and intended by several receptacles before they bring us to the perfect fruition of him 4. Therefore the order of Loving or complacency and the order of doing good or Benevolence is not the same We must Love the universal Church better than our selves But we cannot do them sincere service before we do good to our selves And our neerest Relations must be preferred in acts of Beneficence before many whom we must love more 5. When two goods come together either to be Received or to be Done the greater is ever to be preferred and the chusing or using of the lesser at that time is to be taken for a sin I lately read a denyal of this in a superficial satyre but the thing it self if rightly understood is past all doubt with a rational man For 1. Else good is not to be chosen and done as good if the best be not to be preferred 2. Else almost all wicked omissions might be excused I may be excused for not giving a poor man a shâ—lling whatever his necessity be because I give him a farthing No doubt but Dives Luke 16. did good at such a rate as this at least and else a man might be excused from saving a drowning man if he save his horse that while c. A quatenus ad summum valet consequentia in the case of desiring and doing good But then mark the following explications 6. That is not alwaies to be accounted the greatest good which is so only in regard of the matter simply considered But that is the greatest good which is so consideratis considerandis all things considered and set together 7. When God doth peremptorily tye me to one certain duty without any dispensation or liberty of choice that duty at that time is a greater good and duty than many others which may be greater in their time and place A duty materially lesser is formally and by accident materially greater in its proper season Reaping and baking and eating are better than plowing and weeding the Corn as they are neerer to the end But plowing and weeding are better in their season To make pins or points is not materially so good a work as to pray But in its season as then done it is better And he that is of this trade may not be praying when he should be about his trade Not that he is to prefer the matter of it before praying But praying is to keep its time and may be a sin when it is out of time He that would come at midnight to disturb his rest to present his service to his Lord or King would have little thanks for such unseasonable service 8. He that is restrained by a lower calling or any true restraining reasons from doing a good which is materially greater yet doth that which is greatest unto him Ruling and Preaching are materially a greater good than threshing or digging and yet to a man whose gifts and calling restrain him from the former to the latter the latter is the greatest good 9. Good is not to be measured principally by the Will or Benefit of our selves or any creature but by 1. The Will of God in his Laws And 2. By the interest of his pleasedness and glory But secondarily humane interest is the measure of it 10. It followeth not that because the greatest good is ever to be preferred that therefore we must perplex and distract our selves in cases of difficulty when the ballance seemeth equal For either there is a difference or there is none And if any it is discernable or not If there be no difference there is room for taking one but not for chusing one If there be no discernable difference it is all one to us as if there were none at all If it be discernable by a due proportion of enquiry we must labour to know it and chuse accordingly If it be not discernable in such time and by such measure of enquiry as is our duty we must still take it as undiscernable to us If after just search the weakness of our own understandings leave us doubting we must go according to the best understanding which we have and chearfully go on in our duty as well as we can know it remembring that we have a gracious God and Covenant which taketh not advantage of involuntary weaknesses but accepteth their endeavours who sincerely do their best 11. Meer spiritual or mental duties require most labour of the mind but corporal duties such as the labours of our calling must have more labour of the body 12. All corporal duties must be also spiritual by doing them from a spiritual principle to a spiritual end in a spiritual manner But it is not necessary that every spiritual duty be also corporal 13. The duties immediately about God our end are greater than those about any of the means caeteris paribus And yet those that are about lower objects may be greater by accident and in their season As to be saving a mans life is then greater than to be exciting the mind to the acting of Divine Love or Fear But yet it is God the greatest object then which puteth the greatness upon the latter duty both by commanding it and so making it an act more pleasing to him and because that the Love of God is supposed to be the concurring spring of that Love to man which we shew in seeking their preservation 14. Our great duty about God our ultimate end can never be done too much considered in it self and in respect to the soul only we cannot so love God too much And this Love so considered hath no extream Matth. 22.37 15. But yet even this may by accident and in the circumstances be too much As 1. In respect to the bodies weaknesses if a man should so fear God or so love him as that the intenseness of the act did stir the passions so much as to bring him to distraction or to disorder his mind and make it unfit for that or any other duty 2. Or if he should be exciting the Love of God when he should be quenching a fire in the Town or relieving the poor that are ready to perish But neither of these is properly called A loving God too much 16. The duties of the heart are in themselves greater and nobler than the actions of the outward man of themselves abstractedly considered Because the soul is more noble than the body 17. Yet outward duties are frequently yea most frequently
will not let man know it also and turn one sin against another and let the love of Reputation help to subdue the love of Lust Opening a sin yea or a strong temptation to a sin doth lay an engagement in point of common credit in the world upon them that were before under the divine engagements only It will be a double shame to sin when once it 's known And as Christ speaketh of a right hand or eye so may I of your honour in this case it is better go to Heaven with the shame of a penitent confession than to keep your honour till you are in Hell The loss of mens good opinion is an easie price to prevent the loss of your salvation Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy So 1 John 1.9 10. James 5.15 16. Direct 14. Especially take heed of heinous sins called mortal because inconsistent with sincerity Direct 15. And take heed of those sins which your selves or others that fear God are in greatest danger of Of which I will speak a little more distinctly CHAP. XIII What sins the best should most watchfully avoid and wherein the infirmities of the upright dâ—ffer from mortal sins Qâ—est WHat sins are religious people who fear sin most in danger of and where must they set the strongest watch Answ 1. They are much in danger of those sins the temptations to which are neer and importunate and constant and for which they have the greatest opportunities They have senses and appetites as well as others And if the bait be great and alwaies as at their very mouths even a David a Solomon a Noah is not safe 2. They are in danger of those sins which they little think of for it is a sign that they are not forewarned and fortified nor have they overcome that sin for victory here is never got at so cheap a rate especially as to inward sins If it have not cost you many a groan and many a daies diligence to conquer selfishness pride and appetite it 's twenty to one they are not conquered 3. They are much in danger of those sins which they extenuate and count to be smaller than they are For indeed their hearts are infected already by those false and favourable thoughts And they are prepared to entertain a neerer familiarity with them Men are easily tempted upon a danger which seemeth small 4. They are much in danger of those sins which their constitutions and temperature of body doth encline them to and therefore must here keep a double watch No small part of the punishment of our Original sin both as from Adam and from our neerest Parents is found in the ill complexion of our bodies The temperature of some inclineth them vehemently to passion and of others unto lust and of others to sloth and dulness and of others to gulosity c. And grace doth not immediately change this distemper of the complexion but only watch over it and keep it under and abate it consequently by contrary actions and mental dispositions Therefore we shall have here uncessant work while we are in the body Though yet the power of grace by long and faithful use will bring the very sense and imagination and passions into so much calmness as to be far less raging and easily ruled As a well ridden horse will obey the Rider and even dogs and other bruits will strive but little against our government And then our work will grow more easie For as Seneca saith Maxima pars libertatis est bene moratus venter A good conditioned belly is a great part of a mans liberty meaning an ill conditioned belly is a great part of mens slavery And the same may be said of all the senses fantasie and passions in their respective places 5. We are much in danger of the sins which our callings trades and worldly interest do most and constantly tempt us to Every man hath a carnal interest which is his great temptation and every wise man will know it and there set a double watch The carnal interest of a Preacher is applause or preferment The carnal interest of Rulers and great men I shall pass by but they must not pass it by themselves The carnal interest of Lawyers and Tradesmen is their gain c. Here we must keep a constant watch 6. We are much in danger of those sins the matter of which is somewhat good or lawful and the danger lyeth only in the manner circumstances or degree For there the lawfulness of the matter occasioneth men to forget the accidental evil The whole Kingdom feeleth the mischief of this in instances which I will now pass by If eating such or such a meat were not lawful it self men would not be so easily drawn to gluttony If drinking wine were not a lawful thing the passage to drunkenness were not so open The apprehension that a lusory lot is a lawful thing as Cards Dâ—ce c. doth occasion the heinous sin of time-wasting and estate-wasting gamesters If apparel were not lawful excess would not be so easily endured Yea the goodness of Gods own Worship quieteth many in its great abuse 7. We are much in danger of those sins which are not in any great disgrace among those persons whom we most honour and esteem It is a great mercy to have sin lie under a common odium and disgrace As swearing and drunkenness and cursing and fornication and Popish errours and superstition is now amongst the forwardest Professors in England For here conscience is most awakened and helped by the opinion of men or if there be some carnal respect to our reputation in it sometimes yet it tendeth to suppress the sin And it is a great plague to live where any great sin is in little disgrace as the prophanation of the Lords day in most of the Reformed Churches beyond Sea and they say tipling if not drunkenness in Germany and as backbiting and evil speaking against those that differ from them is among the Professors in England for too great a part and also many superstitions of their own and dividing principles and practices 8. But especially if the greater number of godly people live in such a sin then is the temptation great indeed and it is but few of the weaker sort that are not carryed down that stream The Munster case and the Rebellion in which Munster perished in Germany and many other but especially abundance of Schisms from the Apostles daies till now are too great evidences of mens sociableness in sinning We all like sheep have gone astray and turned every one to his own way Isa 53 6. And like sheepâ—n â—n this that if one that is leading get over the hedge all the rest will follow after but especially if the greater part be gone And do not think that our Churches are infallible and that the greater part of the godly cannot erre or be in the wrong For that would
dangers of your souls Because you have your hearts desire a while you can forget eternity or bear those thoughts of it with security which otherwise would amaze your souls Luke 12.19 20. 11. When the peace and pleasure which you daily live upon is fetcht more from the world than from God and Heaven so that if at any time you ask your selves the true reason of your peace and whence it is that you rise and lie down in quietness of mind your consciences must tell you it is not so much from your belief of the Love of God in Christ nor from your hope to live in Heaven for ever as because you feel your self well in body and live at ease and prosperity in the world And when any mirth or joy possesseth you you may easily feel that it is more from something which is grateful to your flesh than from the belief of everlasting glory 12. When you think too highly and pleasingly of the condition of the rich and too meanly of the state of poor Believers when you make too great a difference between the rich and the poor and say to the man with the gold Ring and the gay Apparel Come up hither and to the poor Sit there at my footstool James 4. 5. When you had rather be made like the rich and honourable in the world than like the poor that are more holy and think with more delight of being like Lords or Great men in the world than of being more like to humble heavenly Believers 13. When you are at the heart more thankful to one that giveth you lands or money than to God for giving you Christ and the Scriptures and the Means of Grace and would be better pleased if you were advanced or enriched by the King than to think of being sanctified by the Spirit of Christ And when you give God himself more hearty thanks for worldly than for spiritual things 14. When you make too much ado for the things of the world and labour for them with inordinate industry or plunge your selves into unnecessary business as one that can never have or do enough 15. When you are too much in expecting liberality kindnesses and gifts from others and are too much pleased in it and grudge at all that goeth beside you and think that it is mens duty to mind all your concernments and further your commodity more than other mens 16. When you are selfish and partial about worldly interest and have little sense of your neighbours concernments in comparison of your own If one give never so liberally to many others and give nothing to you it doth never the more content you nor reconcile your mind to the charity of the giver If one give to you and pass by many that have more need you love and honour the bounty which satisfieth your own desires If you sell dear you rejoyce and if you buy cheap you are glad of your good bargain though perhaps the seller be poorer than you He that wrongeth you or any way hindereth your commodity is alwaies a bad man in your esteem No vertue will save him from your censures and reproach But he that dealeth as hardly by your neighbour and well with you is a very honest man and worthy of your praise 17. When you are quarrelsome for worldly thing and the love of them can at any time break your charity and peace and make an enemy of your neerest friend or engage you in causless Law-suits and contentions What abundance doth the world set together by the ears 18. When you can see your poor brother or neighbour in want and shut up the bowels of your compassion from him and do little good with what God hath given you but the flesh and self devoureth all 19. When you will venture upon unlawful waies of getting or will sin for honour or commodity or at least will let go your innocency and conscience rather than lose your prosperity in the world and will distinguish your selves out of every danger or costly duty or suffering for righteousness sake and will prove every thing lawful which seemeth necessary to the prosperity and safety of the flesh 20. When you are more careful to provide riches and honors for your children after you than to save them from worldliness voluptuousness and pride and to bring them up to be the heirs of Heaven and had rather venture their souls in the most dangerous temptations than abate any of their plenty or grandure in the world These be the plain marks of worldly minds whatever a blinded heart may devise to hide them Direct 3. Take heed of those blinding pretences which worldly minds do commonly use to flatter deceive and undo themselves For instance 1. The most common pretence is That Gods creatures are good and prosperity is his blessing and that our bodies must be cherished and that synical and eremetical extreams and austerities are far from the genius of true Christianity There is truth in all this or else it would not be so fit to be made a cloak for sin by misapplication The world and all Gods works are good and to the pure they are pure to the sanctified they are sanctified that is they are devoted to the service of God and used for him from whom they come God hath given us nothing which may not be used for his service and our salvation No doubt but you may make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness to further your reception into the everlasting habitations You may lay up a good foundation for the time to come and you may sow to the Spirit and reap in the end everlasting life Gal. 6. You may provide you bags that wax not old you may please God by the sacrifices of distributing and communicating Heb. 13. But yet I must tell you the world and all Gods creatures in it are too good to be sacrificed to the flesh and to the Devil and not good enough to be loved and preferred before God and your innocency and salvation The body must be cherished but yet the flesh must be subdued and if you live afâ—er it you shall die Health and alacrity must be preserved because they make you fit for duty but wanton appetites must be restrained and no provision must be made for the flesh to satisfie its lusts or wills Rom. 13.14 It must be cherished as your horse or servant for his work but it must not be pampered and made unruly or your Master You may seek food for your necessity and use and ask of God your daily bread Matth. 6. Psal 145. but you may not with the Israelites ask meat for your lust as being weary of eating Manna so long Psal 78. Hurting your health by useless austerities is not pleasing unto God But sensuality and flesh-pleasing and love of the world is nevertheless abominable in his sight Object 2. Necessity makes me mind the world I have children to maintain and am in debt and cannot pay every
to be humbled in more and yet at the heart be dangerously proud The other instance is in the common separating Spirit of Sectarians and in particular in those called Quakers in these times For against commanded separation from sin by self-preservation or discipline I am far from speaking Their great pretence of singularity is to avoid and detest the Pride of others they cry out against Pride as much as any Their garb is plain humility and self-emptiness and poverty of spirit is their profession And yet when they are so ignorant that they can scarce speak sense and when they understand not the Catechism or Creed but have need to be taught which are the principles of the Oracles of God they think they are taken into the counsels of the Almighty they think they abound in the Spirit and in wisdom in revelations and in holiness and the wisest and holiest of Christs Ministers and People who are as far above them in knowledge and godliness as the aged are above a stammering Infant are proudly despised by them and openly and impenitently reviled and railed at as ignorant fools and ungodly worldly self-seeking men and as the deceivers of the people and as void of the Spirit which could never proceed to the height that we have seen it and which their words and writings utter at this day without a very strange degree of Pride and such as either maketh men mad or is made by madness or little less And here note also that it is no wonder if Religious Pride can despise the common applause of the world and bear a great deal of ignominy from the vulgar because they have learnt so much as to know that wicked men are fools and base and their judgment is no great honour or dishonour to any man and that godly men only are truly wise and their judgment most to be regarded And therefore it is with them whom they think highliest of themselves that they desire to be thought highliest of and it is among the Religious sort that Religious Pride doth fish for honour even as men that are proud of their Learning do hunt after the applause of learned men and can despise the judgment of the unlearned vulgar as quite below them I know that this last instance of Pride is not alwaies an attendant of Prosperity But oft it is a kind of wantonness thence arising which is much restrained in suffering times And being speaking of the rest I thought not meet to pass it by Direct II. Vnderstand which are the ordinary effects and characters of Pride that you may not live in it and perish by it whilst you thought you had overcome it At this time having said more of it elsewhere I shall recite but these marks of prosperous Pride and shew the contrary signs of lowliness 1. The high-minded are self-willed and much addicted to rule and domineer They would have their own wills in all their own matters and are hardly brought to submit to the judgment and will of others Obeying goeth quite against their grain any further than they like the commands of their superiours And if they are in any hope of reaching it they aspire to be the Governours of others that they may still stand uppermost and have their will in all the matters about them as well as in their own If there be a place of Power and Preferment void the proud man is the forwardest expectant and maketh no great question of his fitness but thinketh that he is injured if he be put by how worthy a man soever be preferred before him He snuffs and scorns at inferiours that stick at his most sinful and unreasonable commands and thunders out the charge of Rebellion or Schism against those that question his infallibility or that will stick at obeying him before God and against him as if he had been born to rule and other men to obey him and all do him wrong who fall not down and worship not his will at the first intimation Though perhaps he be but a Minister of Christ who should be as a little child and the servant of all and should stoop to the feet of the poorest of the flock and should receive the weak and bear with their infirmities yet Pride will there lift up the head and forget all the humbling examples and admonitions of Christ and will either seek to draw Disciples after it by speaking perverse things Acts 20.30 or forget 1 Pet. 5.3 Neither us being Lords over Gods heritage but examples to the flock But on the contrary the poor in spirit are readier to obey than rule as knowing that ruling requireth the greater parts and graces and are enclined to think others to be fitter for places of Teaching or Authority than themselves further than clear experience constraineth them to know the contrary For in honour they prefer others instead of striving to be preferred before others They have a tractable humble yielding disposition except when they are tempted to sin They are gentle and easie to be entreated James 3.17 and can submit themselves to one another yea and be their voluntary subjects 1 Pet. 5.5 Ephes 5.21 Yet not becoming unnecessarily the servants of men but chusing it rather when they may be free They are as little children in that they expect not rule but to be ruled Matth. 18.3 They have learned to serve one another in love Gal. 5.13 and take it not for Christian love that can do good only upon terms of equality and cannot stoop to voluntary service They can go two mile with him that compelleth them to go one No man more obedient when you command not sin For as he affecteth not to be called Master or Rabbi or to have the highest seat or name Mat. 23.11 c. So he hath learnt not to please himself but to please others for their good to edification Rom. 15.2 Especially if he be a Pastor of the Church though he do by an excelling light and love and good life keep up the true honour of his calling yet is he the more averse to Lord it over the flock because he knoweth that he must be an example to them And it is not an example of pride but of lowliness which Christ did give and he must give and therefore both are joyned together 1 Pet. 5.3 5. 2. The Proud do make too great a matter of that honour which perhaps may be their due They plot for it they set their hearts upon it If they are slighted or others preferred before them their countenances are cast down as Cains or they are troubled as Haman or they will revenge it as Cain and as Joab upon Abner Touch their honour and you touch their hearts Despise them and you torment them or make them your enemies But the Poor in spirit regard their honour as they do other matters of this world that is with moderation and so far as it is conducible to the honour of Religion or their Country or to the
find it so after giving to the poor or visiting the sick or providing for your family What then must you do You must lament the carnality of your minds and beg of God for such grace as may fit you for your duties And not cast off your duty because you are so bad but labour to be better and to do it better And 2. You must not judge of the benefit only by present feeling But if God hath promised a blessing to you believe it and you shall certainly meet with it at the last Many a one thinks that to forsake all bodily labour and to do nothing but the duties of Religion doth benefit them more at the present when perhaps in a little time the sickness of their bodies or the melancholy destraction of their minds doth lose them more than they had gotten and make them unfit for almost any duty at all And many a one that think their spiritual benefit is interrupted by their callings do find all Gods Promises fulfilled at last to their satisfaction Quest 7. But is it not lawful to set ones self only to Religion as John Baptist Anna c. did Answ It is a duty to be as religious as you can But it is also a duty to labour in your calling and do all the good you can to others The aged and impotent that cannot labour in a calling are excused from it And they that give up themselves to the Magistracy Ministry Physick c. must meddle with no lower things which would hinder them in the higher But no man can be excused from doing all the good he can to others by any pretences of looking to his soul For he can no way more surely further his salvation nor cahe hinder it more than by sinful negligence and sloth Quest 8. But was not labour and toil a curse upon Adam after his sin and any man that can may labour to escape a curse Answ 1. Adam in innocency was set to dress and keep the Garden 2. The curse was in the toil and the frustration of his labour 3. And even that is such a curse as God will not take off or remit Quest 9. Doth not Paul say to servants If ye can be free use it rather Answ True But he saith not If you can be idle use it rather A free man may work as hard as a bondman Quest 10. May not a man that hath several callings before him chuse the easiest Answ Not meerly or chiefly because it is easie but he must chuse the most profitable to the common good be it easie or hard if it be such as he can undergo Yet he may avoid such a calling as by trying his body indisposeth him to spiritual things or by taking up all his time will deprive him of convenient leisure for things spiritual But he that only to ease his flesh doth put by more profitable employments because they will cost him labour doth serve his flesh and cast off his duty to his God II. The signs of wealthy-idleness are these 1. When men think it unnecessary for them to labour constantly and diligently because they are rich and can live without it or because they are great and it is below them The confutation of which errour I gave you before and shall give you more of it anon The poor in spirit think not a laborious life below them 2. When men have time to spare This is a most evident mark of Idleness For God hath given us no time in vain but hath given us full work for all our time They that have time to play away needlesly to sleep away needlesly to prate away needlesly do tell the world that Sodom's Idleness is their sin Especially poor souls who are yet unsanctified and are strangers to a renewed heart and life and are utterly unfit to die O what abundance of important work have these to do And can they be idle while all this lyeth undone Indeed if they are in despair of being saved it is no wonder And one would think by their lives that they did despair For surely a man so neer another world that must be in Heaven or Hell for ever would never live idly if he had any good hope that his endeavours should not be all in vain The poor in spirit have no time to spare Labour is their life Eternity is still before their eyes Necessity is upon them and they know the wo that followeth Idleness Repentance for sin and negligence past is a constant spur to future diligence And their work is sweet and incomparably more pleasant to them than Idleness If the Devil be so diligent because he knoweth that his time is short Rev. 12.12 it is a shame to them that are not so who call themselves the servants of the Lord. 3. When mens labour hath but the time that 's due to Recreation and Recreation and Idleness hath the great part of time that 's due to labour The labour of the idle Sodomite is like the Religion of the reserved Hypocrite It is but the leavings of the flesh or somewhat that cometh in upon the by But God is not unconstant in his mercies unto us He is still preserving us and maintaining us The Angels are still guarding us The faithful Ministers of Christ are constant in teaching us and loth that Satan should hinder them and save their labour Faithful Magistrates also watch continually to be a terrour to evil doers and a praise to them that do well as the Ministers of God for our good And can a short and idle kind of labouring then excuse us Christ said It was his meat to do his Fathers will when he was endeavouring mans salvation John 4 34. And that he must do the work of him that sent him while it was day John 9.4 And shall Idleness be excused in us even in us who must be judged according to our works Rev. 22.12 Mark 13.34 by him that hath commanded every man his work Yea when we are redeemed and purified to be zealous of good works Titus 2.14 and are his workmanship created to good works in Christ which God hath ordained that we should walk in them Ephes 2.10 4. When men make a great matter of all their labour and of that which to a diligent man is small The sluggard hath his thorn hedge and a Lion in the way Prov. 22.13 26.13 15 16. But the diligent say when they have done their best We are unprofitable servants Nothing is so weary to them as unprofitable idleness except hurtful wickedness They think still O how short is time and how much work is yet undone And as every faithful Minister in his calling is never so well pleased as when he doth most for the good of souls so is it with every faithful Christian in his place A Candle if it be not burnt is lost and good for nothing 5. The idle Sodomite hath a mind which followeth the affections of his body And as soon as
disturbing and corrupting of the Church the deluding of others and the disappointing and deceiving of your selves Direct 7. Neglect not any helps which you can have by the excellent gifts of any of Christs Ministers or flocks and yet take heed that through prejudice or for the faults of either you vilifie or reject nothing which is of God But carefully distinguish between Christs and theirs Communion with the holiest and purest Assemblies is more desirable than with the less pure But yet all that is less desirable comparatively is not simply unlawful nor to be rejected The labours of an abler and more faithful Minister are much to be preferred before theirs that are less able and faithful For God worketh usually according to the aptitude of the means and of the receiver To the recovery and salvation of a soul it is necessary 1. That the Vnderstanding be made wise 2. That the Heart or Will be sanctified by Love 3. That the Life be holy and obedient To the first of these there are three things needful 1. That the Vnderstanding be awakened 2. That it be illuminated 3. That it be preserved from the seduction of temptations to deceit Now an able and faithful Pastor is suited to all these effects 1. He is a lively Preacher to awaken the understanding He is a clear intelligent methodical and convincing Teacher to illuminate it 3. He can confute gainsayers and refute objections and shame the cavils of tempters and deceivers to preserve it And 2 He speaketh all from the unfeigned Love of God and men and as all his words do breathe forth Love so they art apt to kindle such love in the hearers For every active nature tendeth to propagation 3. And the holiness of his life as well as doctrine tendeth to win the people to a holy life So that he that loveth his own soul must not be indifferent what Pastor he chuseth for the help and conduct of his soul but should most carefully seek to get the best or fittest for such necessary ends But yet it followeth not that a weaker or worse may not be heard or may not be accepted or submitted to in a case of necessity when a better cannot be had without more disturbance and hurt than the benefits are like to recompence And when we live under such a weak or cold or faulty Pastor our care must be so much the greater that we may make up that in the diligence of our attention which is wanting in his manner of expression and that we make up that in a care of our own souls which is wanting in his care And that our knowledge of his failings tempt us not to slight the truth which he delivereth and that we reject not the matter for the manner The Sheep of Christ do know his voice and they know his words and reverence and love them from what mouâ—h soever they proceed A Religious zâ—alous man that preacheth false doctrine is more to be avoided than a cold or scandalous man who preacheth the truth If you doubt of this observe these texts Matth. 23.2 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do but do not ye after their works for they say and do not Acts 1.17 For he Judas was numbred with us and had obtained part of this Ministry Judas the thief and traitor was an Apostle called and sent out by Jesus Christ Phil. 1.15 c. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will The one preach Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add afflâ—ction to my bonds what then Notwithstanding every way whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached and I do therein rejoyce yea and will rejoyce Rom. 16.17 Now I beseech you brethren Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Acts 20.30 Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Gal. 1.7 8. If we or an Angel from Heaven bring another Gospel let him be accursed Is not all this a plain decision of the case Direct 8. While you prefer local communion with the purest Churches and â—est taught and ordered for your own edification take heed that you disown not a distant and mental communion with any part of the Church of Christ on earth which Christ himself disowneth not But first remember that you are members of the Vniversal Church and as such in mental communion with the whole present your selves and services to Christ and next as members of your Particular Church It is true that you must not own the corruptions of any Church or of any of their Worship but you must own the Church it self and own all the substance of the Worship which is good and which God owneth God doth not reject the matter for the manner nor the whole for a faulty part where the heart is sincere that offereth it nor no more must you And if they force you not to any actual sin as by false speaking subscribing or the like you must sometimes also locally joyn with such Churches when occasion requireth it As when you have no better to go to or when it is necessary to shew your mental communion or to avoid schism scandal or offence As you must not approve of your own failings in Gods Worship as in the manner of praying preaching c. and yet must not give over worshipping God though you are alwaies sure to fail even so must you do by your communion with others And here I would earnestly intreat all those that are inclinable to sinful separation to think but of these few things 1. What is more contrary to Christianity than Pride and what is a plainer sign of Pride than to separate from whole Churches and perhaps from most part of the Christian world for such faults as are no greater than others of our own and to say They are too bad for such as you to communicate with 2. Whether it be not much contrary to that clemency of Jesus Christ by which he pardoneth the failings of Believers and which we have need of our selves as well as others And whether it be not an horrid injury to our Lord to ascribe his inheritance to the Devil and to cast those out of his Church whom he himself receiveth and to deny so many of his servants to be his 3. How great a loss is it to lose your part in all those prayers of the Churches how weak soever which you disown And how can you justly expect the benefit of such prayers I would not take all their riches for my part of the benefit of those prayers of the Churches of Church which some reject because they are extemporate and others because they are forms or book-prayers or imposed nor would I take all their wealth and honour for my part in all the prayers of the Vniversal Church which
by a Redeemer as we must do They had their too great selfishness Phil. 2.21 They had their pusillanimity and fears of men as Peter and the Apostles They had their sinful controversies as Paul and Barnabas and sinful separations in complyance with the censorious as Peter and Barnabas had Gal. 2.16 17. They had their carnal sidings factions and divisions in the Church 1 Cor. 1. 3. Many a time have they been put to groan O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7 c. 11. They had as difficult duties to go through as any of us They were put upon as many tears and troubles watchings and travels fastings and self-denyal as the most laborious and suffering Christians now 12. They had as long delayes of the accomplishment of their desires as any of us 13. And lastly they past through death it self as we must do They lay gasping on their beds of languâ—shing and death broke in upon every part and they underwent that separation of soul and body as we must do Their flesh was turned to rottenness and dust and laid out of the sight of man in darkness and remaineth to this day as common earth All this the Saints in Heaven have undergone This was their case a while ago who are now in glory And this was not only the case of some few but of thousands and millions and that in the most of these particulars even of all that are gone before us unto blessedness It is not we that are tempted first that are persecuted or afflicted first that have sinned first that must die first but all this host hath broke the Ice and are safely past through this Red Sea and are now triumphing in felicity with their Saviour Direct 3. Let Faith next look back and see by what way these Saints have come to this felicity I mean by what means they did overcome and win the Crown And briefly you will find 1. That they all came to Heaven by the Mediation the Sacrifice the meritorious Righteousness of a Redeemer Jesus Christ either as promised or as incarnate none of them were justified by the works of the Law or the Covenant of Innocency 2. That their common way was by Faith Repentance Love and Obedience Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed oâ— us abundently through Christ Titus 3.5 Even by the triple Image of the Divine perfections Power Love and Wisdom 2 Tim. 1.7 They lived soberly righteously and godly in the world and were zealous of good works looking for the blessed hope which they have attained Titus 2.14 15. Knowing that Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ are the summ of saving doctrine and duty Acts 20.21 And that to fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of man Eccles 12.13 And that the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 and that Love is the fulfilling of the Law 3. They studied the Word of God or such means of knowing him as God afforded them in order to the attaining and maintaining of these graces Psal 1.2 and sought the Lord with all their hearts while he might be found and called upon him while he was near Isa 55.6 10. And did not presumptuously neglect Gods helps and despise his Word while they trusted for his mercy 4. They lived in a continual conflict against the temptations of the Devil the world and the flesh and in the main did conquer as well as strive They made it their work to mortifie those fleshly lusts which others make it their interest and work to please Gal. 5.17.21 22. 6.14 5. They suffered afflictions and persecutions patiently and being reviled they did not revile They loved their enemies and blest those that curse them and prayed for those that despitefully used and persecuted them Matth. 5.44 45. 1 Cor. 4.11 12 13. 2 Cor. 1.6 7. Heb. 11. They would not accept of deliverance from imprisonment torments and death upon sinning terms 6. They endured to the end and did not fall off and forsake the Covenant of their God Rev. 2. 3. 7. Lastly They did all this by the motive of their hopes of Heaven and by a confidence in the promises of it and in a heavenly mind and conversation as knowing that they did not labour or suffer in vain 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 4.17 1 Tim. 4.10 Rom. 8.18 Matth. 5.11 2 Thes 1.6 7. Heb. 12.2 This was the way by which the Saints have gone to Heaven the only true successful way Direct 4. Consider next what helps and means God gave them for this work and compare our own with them and see whether ours be not as great 1. We have the same natural capacity as they we are intellectual free agents made for another world and capable of all that they attained There is no difference in our natural faculties 2. We have the same God to shew us mercy 1 Cor. 12.5 There are divers operations but the same God Ephes 4.4 5. There is one God one Lord c. even the Lord over all good to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 The same mercy which called them and waited on them calleth us even a God who hath no respect of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Acts 10.37 Though he be a free benefactor he is a righteous Judge and he is good to all and the Father of every member of his Son 3. They had the same Saviour as we have the same sacrifice for their sins the same Teacher and the same example the same intercessor with the Father For though there be divers administrations there is the same Lord 1 Cor. 12.5 Ephes 4.4 For other foundation can no man lay than him who is the chief corner stone 1 Cor. 3.11 They all did eat of the same spiritual meat and drank of the same rock as we do which is Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. It was the reproach of Christ which Moses in Egypt esteemed better than their treasures Heb. 11.26 The same Physician of souls who hath us in cure did cure all them The same Captain who is conducting us to salvation is he that saved them The same Prince of the Covenant and Lord of life who conquered death and all their enemies hath conquered them for us and is preparing us for life with them They had no greater or better High Priest and Mediator with God than we have 4. They had the same Rule to walk by and the same way to go as all we have Gal. 1.7 8. 6.16 Phil. 3.14 15. The same Gospel and Word of God in the main though under various promulgations and administrations Those before the flood were under the Covenant of the promised seed
converse and our comfort Will you converse with none but ignorant selfish worldly sinners Are you more contemptuous of the heavenly inhabitants than the Gentleman in hell torments was Luke 16.26 27. that thought one from the dead though it had been but a beggar would have been reverenced even by his sensual brethren on earth so far as to have perswaded them unto saving Repentance I tell you a dead mans skull is oft-times a more profitable companion than most that you shall converse with in the common world The dust of your departed friends and the clay that corps are turned into is a good medicine for those eyes that are blinded with the dust of worldly vanities Much more should you keep your acquaintance with the soul which may for all the distance be perhaps more useful to you than it was in the flesh Alas how carnally and coldly or seldom do most Professors look at their Brethren and at the Angelical hosts that are above They long for our conversion and mind our great concernments and rejoyce in our felicity and shall we be so swinishly ungrateful as seldom to look up and remember their high and blessed state Many think that they have no more business with their deceased friends than to see them decently interred and to mourn over them as if their removal were their loss or to grieve for our own loss when we perceive their places empty but we scarce look up after them with an eye of faith much less do we daily maintain our communion with them in Heaven When Christ was taken up his Disciples gazed after him Act. 1.10 Stephen looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw Christ sitting at the right hand of God Acts 7.55 And how seldome how slightly do we look up either to Jesus his Angels or his Saints I tell you Sirs you have not done with your friends when you have buryed their flesh They have left you their holy examples They are entered before you into rest You are hastening after them and must be quickly with them if you are true Believers You must see them every day by faith When you look to Christ you must look to them as his beloved friends entertained by him in his family of glory When you look up to Heaven remember that they are there When you think of coming thither remember that you must there meet them You must honour their memories more than you did on earth because they are more honourable being more honoured of God You must love them better than you did when they were on earth because they are better and so more lovely You must rejoyce much more for their felicity than you did whilest they were on earth because they are incomparably more happy than they were Either you believe this or you do not If you do not believe that the dead are blessed that die in the Lord and rest from their labours and are with Christ in Paradise why do you seem Christians If you do believe it why do you not more rejoyce with your glorified friends than you would have done if they had been advanced to the greatest honours in the world It is the natural duty of friends to mourn with them that mourn and to rejoyce with them that rejoyce and if one member be honoured or dishonoured the rest of the body are accordingly affected Do not your sorrows then instead of joyes tell all men that you believe that your friends are gone to sorrow and not to joy If not you are very selfish or inconsiderate Direct 10. Lastly Let not your aversation to Popery turn to a factiâ—us partial forsaking of Gods Truth and your own duty and consolation in this point Abundance of Christians have taken up opinions in Religion upon the love and honour of the parties that they took them of and being possessed with a just dislike of Popery in the main they suspect and cast away not a few great truths and duties upon a false information that they are parts of Popery It hath grieved 〈…〉 â—han once to hear religious persons come from heariâ—g 〈◊〉 Ministers with disdain and censure saying that they prayed for the dead and all their proof was that Thanksgiving is a part of prayer but they gave God thanks for the glorification of the spirits of the Just therefore they prayed for them And so have they argued because they have read the 1 Cor. 15. at the grave or because they have preached a Funeral Sermon while the Corpse was present or because they prayed then for themselves or for the Church Alas for the childish ignorance and pievishness and foolish wranglings of many Christians who think they are better than their neighbours How much is Christs family dishonoured by his silly froward children And they will not be instructed by their friends and therefore they are posted up and openly reproached by their enemies Have Angels or heavenly Saints deserved so ill of God or us that we should be so shy of their communion Are they nothing to us Have we nothing to do with them Have we cause to be ashamed of them Is their honour any dishonour to God or us if it be no more than what is their due Can we give so much love respect and honour to Magistrates Ministers and Friends on earth imperfect sinful troublesome mortals and shall we think that all is idolatrous or cast away which is given to them that so far excel us Is it your design to make Heaven either contemptible or strange to men on earth Or would you perswade the world that the souls of the Saints are not immortal but perish as the bruits Or that there is no Heaven Or that God is there alone without any company Are so many fond of the opinion of a Personal Reign on Earth for Christ with his holy ones and yet is it Popery so much as to speak honourably and joyfully of the Saints in Heaven My Brethren these things declare you yet to be too dark too factious and too carnal and to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect to parties sides and persons Christ taketh not his Saints as strangers to him He that judgeth men as they love and use him in the least of his Brethren upon Earth will not so soon censure and quarrel with us as the Sectary will do for loving and honouring him in his Saints in Heaven for it is his will and prayer that they be with him where he is to behold his glory John 12.26 17.24 And he will come with his holy Angels to be glorified in his Saints who shall judge the world and Angels and to be admired in all them that do now believe 2 Thes 1.10 11 12. CHAP. XXVII How to receive the Sentence of Death and how to die by Faith HAving said so much of this elsewhere in my Books called A Believers last work The last Enemy My Christian Directory Treatise of Self-denyal c. I shall be here but
low so dark to question the eternal God concerning the reason of his Laws and dispensations Do we not shamefully forget our ignorance and our distance 2. But if you must have a reason let this suffice you It is fit that the Government of God be suited to the nature of the reasonable subject And Reason is made to apprehend more than we see and by reaching beyond sense to carry us to seek things higher and better than sense can reach If you would have a man understand no more than he sees you would almost equalize a wise man and a fool and make a man too like a beast Even in worldly matters you will venture upon the greatest cost and pains for the things that you see not nor ever saw He that hath a journey to go to a place that he never saw will not think that a sufficient reason to stay at home The Merchant will sail 1000 miles to a Land and for a Commodity that he never saw Must the Husbandman see the Harvest before he plow his Land and sow his seed Must the sick man feel that he hath health before he use the means to get it Must the Souldier see that he hath the victory before he fight You would take such conceits in worldly matters to be the symptoms of distraction And will you cherish them where they are most pernicious Hath God made man for any end or for none If none he is made in vain If for any no reason can expect that he should see his end before he use the means and see his home before he begin to travel towards it When children first go to School they do not see or enjoy the learning and wisdom which by time and labour they must attain You will provide for the children which you are like to have before you see them To look that sight which is our fruition it self should go before a holy life is to expect the end before we will use the necessary means You see here in the government of the world that it is things unseen that are the instruments of rule and motives of obedience Shall no man be restrained from felony or murders but he that seeth the Assizes or the Gallows It is enough that he foreseeth them as being made known by the Laws It would be no discrimination of the good and bad the wise and foolish if the reward and punishment must be seen what thief so mad as to steal at the Gallows or before the Judge The basest habits would be restrained from acting if the reward and punishment were in fight The most beastly drunkard would not be drunk the filthy fornicator would forbear his lust the malicious enemy of godliness would forbear their calumnies and persecutions if Heaven and Hell were open to their sight No man will play the adulterer in the face of the Assembly The chast and unchast seem there alike And so they would do if they saw the face of the most dreadful God No thanks to any of you all to be godly if Heaven were to be presently seen or to forbear your sin if you saw Hell fire God will have a meeter way of tryal You shall believe his promises if ever you will have the benefit and believe his threatnings if ever you will escape the threatned evil CHAP. 2. Some Uses Vse 1. THis being the nature and use of Faith to apprehend things absent as if they were present and things unseen as if they were visible before our eyes you may hence understand the nature of Christianity and what it is to be a true Believer Verily it is another matter than the dreaming self-deceiving world imagineth Hypocrites think that they are Christians indeed because they have entertained a superficial opinion that there is a Christ an immortality of souls a Resurrection a Heaven and a Hell though their lives bear witness that this is not a living and effectual faith but it is their sensitive faculties and interest that are predominant and are the byas of their hearts Alas a little observation may tell them that notwithstanding their most confident pretentions to Christianity they are utterly unacquainted with the Christian life Would they live as they do in worldly cares and pampering of the flesh and neglect of God and the life to come if they saw the things which they say they do believe Could they be sensual ungodly and secure if they had a faith that serv'd instead of sight Would you know who it is that is the Christian indeed 1. He is one that liveth in some measure as if he saw the Lord Believing in that God that dwelleth in the inaccessible light that cannot be seen by mortal eyes he liveth as before his face He speaks he prayes he thinks he deals with men as if he saw the Lord stand by No wonder therefore if he do it with reverence and holy fear No wonder if he make lighter of the smiles or frowns of mortal man than others do that see none higher and if he observe not the lustre of worldly dignity or flâ—shly beauty wisdom or vain-glory before the transcendent incomprehensible light to which the Sun it self is darkness When he awaketh he is still with God Psal 134.8 He sets the Lord alwaies before him because he is at his right hand he is not moved Psal 16.8 And therefore the life of Believers is oft called a walking with God and a walking befâ—re God as Gen. 5.22 24. 6.9 17.1 in the case of Henoch Noah and Abraham All the day doth he wait on God Psal 25 5. Imagine your selves what manner of person he must be that sees the Lord and conclude that such in his measure is the true believer For by faith he seeth him that is invisible to the eye of sense and therefore can forsake the glory and pleasures of the world and feareth not the wrath of Princes as it 's said of Moses Heb. 11.27 2. The Believer is one that liveth on a Christ whom he never saw and trusteth in him adhereth to him acknowledgeth his benefits loveth him and râ—joyceth in him as if he had seen him with his eyes This is the faith which Peter calls more precious than perishing gold that maketh us love him whom we have not seen and in whom thâ—ugh now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable and glorious joy 1 Pet. 1.8 Christ dwelleth in hâ—s heart by faith not only by his Spirit but objectively as our dearest absent friend doth dwell in our estimation and affection Ephes 3.17 O that the miserable Infidels of the world had the eyes the hearts the experiences of the true believer Then they that with Thomas tell those that have seen him Except I may see and feel I will not believe will be forced to cry out My Lord and my God Joh. 20.25 c. 3. A Believer is one that judgeth of the man by his invisible inside and not by outward appearances with a fleshly
it cannot be well and safely done without it Do you call it the fruit of Gods Wisdom and Love and yet be as weary of it as if there were nothing in it but his wrath Trust God with his work who never faileth and be careful of your own who are conscious of untrustiness Direct 5. Look principally to your hearts that they grow not to an over-valuing of the prosperity of the flesh nor to an under-valuing of holiness and the prosperity of the soul For this unhappy carnality doth both cause affliction and make us unprofitable and impatient under it 1. He that is a worldling or a voluptuous flesh pleaser and savoureth nothing but the things of the flesh will think himself undone when his pleasure and plenty and honour with men is taken away Nothing maketh men grieve for the loss of any worldly commodity so much as the over-loving of it It is Love that seeketh it when you are in hope and Love that mourneth when you are in want as well as Love which delighteth in it when you possess it As sick men use to love health better than those that never felt the want of it so it is too common with poor men to love riches better than the rich that never needed And yet poor souls they deceive themselves and cry out against the rich as if they were the only lovers of the world when they love it more themselves though they cannot get it Never think of bearing affliction with a patient and submissive mind as long as you over-love the things which affliction taketh from you For the loss of them will tear those hearts which did stick so inordinately to them 2. And if you grow to an undervaluing of Holiness you can never be reconciled to afflicting providence For it is for our profit that God correcteth us but for what profit that we may be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12.10 14. If therefore you undervalue that which is Gods end and goeth for your gain you will never think that you are gainers or savers by his rod. In correction God doth as it were make a bargain with you he will take away your riches or your friends or your health and he will give you if you refuse it not increase of patience and mortification in the stead of them he will exchange so much heavenly-mindedness for so much of the treasures or pleasures of the world And now if you do not like the bargain if really you had rather have more health than more holiness more of the world than more heavenly-mindedness more fleshly pleasure than more mortification of fleshly desires you will never then like the correcting hand of God nor rightly profit by it You will grudge at his dealing and wish that you were out of his hand and in your own and that your estates and health and friends were not at his disposal but at yours and you will lose the offered benefit because you value it not and accept it not as it is offered you 3. And those that have some esteem of Holiness and yet neglect the duty which should procure the exercise and increase of grace do make correction burdensome by making it unprofitable to them For to hear that they may be gainers by affliction and to find that they are not will not reconcile them to it Whereas if they had really got the benefit it would quiet them and comfort them and make them patient and thankful to their Father What have you to shew that you gained by your sufferings Are you really more mortified more penitent more humble more heavenly more obedient more patient than you were before If you are so you cannot possibly think that it hath been to your loss to be afflicted For no one that hath these graces can so undervalue them as to think that worldly prosperity or ease is better But if you have not such gain to shew what wonder if you are weary of the medicine which healeth not and if when you have made it do you no good you complain of it when it is your selves that you should complain of If you could say that before you were afflicted you went astray but now you have learnt and kept Gods precepts you might then say by experience It is good for me that I was afflicted Psal 119.67 71. And men are taught by natural self-love not to think ill of that which doth that which doth them good if by experience they know it You will then confess that God in very faithfulness afflicteth you Psal 119.75 Direct 6. Remember that nothing can be amiss which is done by God For where there is perfection of Power and Wisdom and Goodness no actions can be bad And there is nothing done by any of your afflicters which is not governed by the will of God Amos 3.6 Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it 2 Chron. 10.15 So the King hearkened not to the people for the cause was of God that the Lord might perform his Word God who would not cause the sin is said to be the cause of the event as a punishment because he wisely permitted it for that end Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain Acts 4.28 The people of Israel were gathered to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done That is he willed by his antecedent will that Christ should be a sacrifice for sin and he willed by his consequent will as a Judge and punisher of mans sin that the rebellious Jews should be left to their malicious wills to execute it And that God which moderateth the wills and actions of the most malicious men and Devils will restrain them from violating any of his promises for his servants good Direct 7. Alwaies keep before your eyes the example of a crucified Christ and of all his holy Apostles and Martyrs which have followed him Look still to Jesus the author and finisher of your Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest you be wearied and faint in your mind Heb. 12.2 3. If you did determine to know nothing but Christ crucified and by his cross had crucified the the world 1 Cor. 2.2 Gal. 6.14 you would be able to say I am crucified with Christ yet I live that is not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 And to look on the pleasure and glory of the world as the world did look on a crucified Christ when they shook the head at him as he hanged on the cross You would love the narrow suffering way where you see before you the footsteps of your Lord and of so many holy Martyrs and Believers You would say sure this is the safe and
blessed way in which Christ and all the heavenly Army have passed hence unto their Crown You would say Is the servant greater than his Lord If thus the innocent Lord of life and Master of the house was injured and afflicted am I better than he Though he suffered to save me from Hell yet not to save me from the purifying tryals here on earth Doubtless you would count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and count them but dung that you might win him and that you might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 10. Direct 8. Keep the eye of Faith still fixed on the eternal glory that you may understand what affliction is when you take it with its end Remember what eternal Joyes it leadeth to and what thoughts you will have of all your pain when you find your selves in the everlasting rest Remember where all tearâ— shall be wiped from your eyes and who dare blame that way as narrow or soul which bringeth us to such an end Psal 126.5 6. They that sâ—w in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Mat. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Is not eternal joy sufficient for you When you are suffering with the Church militant look up to the Church triumphant and remember that they were lately as low as sad as sorrowful as you and you shall shortly be as high as glad as joyful as they Look into Heaven and see what you suffer for and think whether that be not worthy of harder terms than any you can undergo Rom. 8.17 18. If we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us 2 Cor. 4 16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light afflâ—ction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Heaven well believed will enable us patiently and chearfully to bear all things He will account the very reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of the world who looketh believingly to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.26 Direct 9. Learn to die and then you have learned to suffer He that can bear death by the power of faith can bear almost any thing And he that is well prepared to die is prepared for any affliction and he that is not is unprepared for prosperity Direct 10. Remember still that life being so very short the afflictions of Believers are as short We have so little a time to live that we have but a little while to suffer And if thou faint in the day of adversity when it is so little a while to night thy strength is small Prov. 24.10 Direct 11. Remember that thou bearest but the common burden of the Sons of Adam who are born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward And that thou in like to all the members of Christ who must take up their cross and suffer with him if they will reign with him And that thou art but going the common way to Heaven which that heavenly society hath trod before thee And canst thou expect to be exempted both from the lot of humane lapsed nature and from the lot of all the Saints If thou wouldest be carryed to Heaven in the Chariot of Elias and couldest expect to escape the jaws of death yet must thou endure the persecution weariness and hunger of Elias before such a change Direct 12. Think also how unreasonable it is for one that must have eternal glory to grudge at a little suffering in the way and for one that is saved from the torments of Hell to think it much to be duly chastened on earth For a Lazarus that must be comforted in Abraham's bosom to murmure that he waiteth a while in poverty at the rich mans doors Shall a wicked worldling venture into endless pains and put himself out of the hopes of Heaven and all this for a short and foolish pleasure And will you grudge to suffer so small and short a chastisement in the way to an endless rest and joy Direct 13. Think why it is that Christ hath so largely commended and blest a suffering state and chosen such a life for those that he will save And why he so often pronounceth a woe to the prosperous world It is not for want of love to his Disciples nor for want of power to secure their peace Matth. 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 6.24 25 26. Woe to you that are rich for you have received your consolation Woe to you that are full for ye shall hunger Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you for so did their Fathers to the false Prophets James 1.2 3. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations that is trying afflictions knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience James 5.1 2. Go too now ye 〈◊〉 men weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you All these words are not for nothing And judge how he should think of adversity who believeth them Direct 14. Mark well whether you find not that your selves and others are usually much better in affliction than in prosperity And whether there be not something in the one to make you better and in the other to delude men and make them worse O look and tremble at the dangers and dolâ—ful miseries of most that are lifted high how they are blinded flattered captivated in sin and are the shame of nature and the calamity of the world And mark when they come to die or lie in sickness how inlightened how penitent how humble how mortified and reformed they then seem to be and how much they condemn all sin and justifie a holy life And observe your selves whether you be not wiser and better more penitent and less worldly in an afflicted state And will you think that intollerable which so much bettereth almost all the world Alas were it not for affliction