who make no conscience of Relative duties of diligence in their Callings or of justice in their dealings who know not how to govern either their Souls or their Bodies by the Rules of Religion or the Laws of Sobriety what can we think of all these but that they are evidently the Sons of Death They are in a sad and miserable condition they live at random and must die at a venture for there can be no grounded assurance to such of an eternal well-being Such as these make a hard shift to please themselves in the course but will undoubtedly fool themselves in the issue of their Life they will one day wish they had not lived at all rather than to have lived thus A Life void of care commonly ends in a Death void of hope As ever therefore you would die the death of the righteous see that you live the life of the righteous and then and not otherwise your last end shall be like his Numb xxiii 10. Infer II. If we must be in the fear of the Lord every day much more on the Lords day We have shewn you how you must in a sound sense make every day a Sabbath by working for God and resting in him and diligent preparing for an eternal Sabbatism with him but you are not to pretend this in excuse for your neglect of sanctifying strictly the Christian Sabbath the first day of the week the day which the Lord hath made Psal cxviii 24. in which he calleth us to rejoyce and be glad In which we celebrate the memorial of our Lord's Resurrection and consequently of the whole work of our Redemption by him If we must walk with God every day much more on this day to which a special blessing is annexed and on which we have special advantages for the service of God and the salvation of our Souls The cavils of any against the strict observation of the Lord's day are easily answered by any one that observeth the dependence of the Life of practical Religion hereupon I will be bold to say it The power of Religion lives or dies according as Sabbath-sanctification is kept up or let fall in Churches Families or Souls Of other days you are to consecrate a part to Religious exercises Acts of Devotion and Worship but this day is wholly to be taken up therein Only God indulgeth us in works of true necessity and obligeth us to acts of Charity thereon giving mercy the preference even to Sacrifice I will here briefly heap together a few Directions for Sabbath-sanctification 1. Discern your obligntion to it in point of duty and value it as your Priviledge That God have a seventh part of our time for his Solemn Worship is the kernel of the fourth Commandment and of perpetual obligation and seems to have been a part of Gods Law to Adam even in the state of Innocence God appointed and blessed the seventh day of the week before Christ's coming in the flesh for a weekly Sabbath in commemoration of the worldly Creation and added a Law of Ceremonious Rest to the Jews as a part of their Paedagogy and a shadow of things to come now done away Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week and after his Ascension on that day poured forth his Spirit on his Apostles to qualifie them to declare his Will to Man-kind in all things concerning Salvation They held and setled Church Assemblies on the first day of the week and called it by way of approbation The Lords day Rev. i. 10. And the Vniversal Church as far as appears from Church History without the least contradiction till our times see Dr. Young's Dies Dominica and Mr. Baxter's Divine Appointment of the Lords-day kept this day and no other as the day of stated weekly Solemnities and God was with them and owned and honoured their Assemblies with his gracious presence And therefore it seems the effect of strange weakness or intolerable perverseness for any now in these last days to question what the Universal Church hath so long on so good reason practised The Lords-day as the Christian-Sabbath I take to have been instituted by Christ if not while personally on Earth yet by his Spirit in his Apostles And as an attentive Reader of the Scriptures may there discern clear intimations of this so the current practice of the Christian Church in all times and places doth fully confirm it Nor ought we to esteem it any other than a very great Priviledge that we may have a day in seven to study the Works and Word of God to praise his holy Name to worship him in the Assemblies of his Saints to learn his Will for our Salvation A holy Soul must needs reckon it self in the Confines of Heaven while thus employed and bless himself that he may sometimes retire thus from the World and enjoy a holy freedom for spiritual delights and gladsome preparations for Eternal Joy 2. Prepare for this blessed day before it come Think of it and long for it every day but especially the Evening before rid your hands in good time of worldly business and your hearts of worldly cares Read pray meditate catechise your Families call your selves and yours to an account of what you and they heard the Lords-day before and if it may be get to bed sooner that night than you use to do of other nights that so you may be under no temptation to snore away that precious morning on which our Lord in testimony of the accomplishment of our Redemption rose so very early 3. Be sure to be up as early on the Lords-day morning as is consistent with your fitness for the blessed Employments of it And let the thoughts of Redeeming Love season your hearts at first awaking 4. Redeem time that you may add something to your daily Devotions both in Family and Closet and not be put to cut them short 5. Go with the first to Publick Assemblies but go with hearts prepared and behave your selves there with Reverence Attention and Affection Pray in prayer hear as for the Life of your Souls and praise God with joy and alacrity stay the Blessing and rush not into or out of Church Assemblies in a rude and hasty manner Consider God's Angels are there 1 Cor. xi 10. and view your behaviour nay the God of Angels he looks on 6. After Publick Worship retire to examine how you have behaved your selves there Call to mind what you have heard digest it by prayer and meditation and when you have opportunity fix it on your hearts and memories by conferring of it especially with your inferiours Children and Servants whom you may command thereto 7. Watch Sabbath time in the Intervals of it especially at Meals that they run not waste Quicken your selves and others to thankfulness and joy with the serious mention of Redeeming Love Take heed of vain talk and idle unprofitable musings Let the variety of holy employments maintain your delight in them 8. Close the day in
burnt Incense to the Idol he went out without Prayer It 's ill going into infectious places fasting and it 's dangerous going into an infectious World prayerless Truly I cannot but look upon him as an unreasonably bold man that dares go out into the World without Prayer Dost thou know but Death may meet thee before thou comest in again Dost thou know but God may leave thee to do that that shall bring upon thee an infamous death and everlasting damnation Take heed to thy self therefore and go not out till thou hast prayed But then see also that thou pray in Faith and with Fervency Do not content thy self to have said a few words by rote that thou callest a Prayer but pray with understanding and pray with Feeling and Affection Confess thy sins both of Nature and Life and beg of God the Pardon of them for Christ's sake be earnest for Grace and Sanctification for guidance and direction to lead a holy Life and Support and Comfort that thou maist die in Peace Pray for the Church of Christ yea for the Heathen World for the Land of thy Nativity especially for the Continuance and Success of the Gospel therein Pray also for thy Relations for thy Friends yea and for thy Enemies And remember with thy Confessions and Prayers to join Praises and Thanksgivings adore the Divine Excellencies and Perfections and acknowledge thankfully the Favours and Benefits you receive from his hand Express an hearty sense of Creating Preserving and Redeeming Love Recount the personal family and publick mercies you have received or shared in and as you have the Use and Comfort so let God have the Praise and Glory of them If thou be Weak and Ignorant get some one that is able and willing to instruct thee Pray as thou canst make use of some good form till thou canst do better but take heed of formality and resting in the work done narrowly watch and observe thy heart thou givest God nothing if thou givest him not thy Heart 6. Join reading of the holy Scriptures and when time will permit especially on the Lords days the choicest practical Books with your morning Devotions For daily reading the Scriptures it is of absolute necessity and no more to be omitted than Prayer it self It is the Word of God you have Christ's command to search the Scriptures Joh. v. 39. It is the Godly man's Character that his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night Psal i. 2. It is the food of your Souls without daily supplies whereof you will famish Read with deliberation with intention of mind labour to understand what you read and to feel it read it as God's Word and above all bring to it a serious resolution of practising what you read Obj. But I cannot read Sol. The more shame for you if you be grown up and have your Eye-sight If you cannot read do your best to learn and that speedily If there were Lands to be settled upon all that could read the Conveyances of them we should see people learn apace will you do more for Pelf than for your Souls However till you can read or such of you as having been able to read may now be disabled through blindness or weakness of sight c. Get others to read to you and attend to the Word read with your utmost diligence as for your Life If you refuse this Counsel Remember when you come to die or when your ignorance and folly shall have thrust you into Hell that you were warned of the time when you would cry out Oh! how have I hated instruction and refused to be reformed For good Books I shall only say we have great choice of them and you will do well to redeem what time you can for the reading of them especially where there is seldom or sorry Preaching and age or sickness keeps any from the Publick Assemblies God is pleased to bless these to be the means of much good to many Souls Only take heed of erroneous Books of Antinomians Quakers Papists c. And of opposing private reading to hearing of the Word publickly Preached For my part I would hear the weakest Minister supposing him a true Minister that ever spake with a Tongue rather than stay at home to read the best Book that ever was written For God says Faith cometh by hearing Rom. x. 17. And though he can work Faith by reading and it may be hoped will do where people are deprived of opportunities of hearing yet that is not to be expected where they are slighted And here for the sake of beginners in Religion who are oft imposed upon to the loss of their time and the danger of their Souls by ill chosen Books I will venture to name a very few and those not bulky which I take to be exceeding sound and I will add a few hints how you may read them to best purpose I will name but these eight 1. The Assemblies Confession and Catechisms with the proofs at large lately reprinted in Octavo 2. Mr. Daniel Burgess 's four little Tracts Call to sinners Questions c. Twelves 3. Showers Reflections on Time and Eternity Twelves 4. Joseph Alleins Alarm to the Vnconverted Octavo 5. Richard Alleins Vindication of Godliness three parts Octavo 6. Steel 's Trades-mans Calling Octavo 7. Ford 's Practical use of Infant Baptism Octavo 8. Doolittel on the Lord's Supper two parts Twelves I would have you read these Books in the order I have named them one at once always continuing the joint reading of the Scriptures with and before all Books of humane composure read one thorow yea I would advise thrice over before you begin another with a Pen or Pencil mark weighty and affecting passages and at leisure write some of them out if you can write else read them the oftner over Now to such as are grown Christians I commend to you A Discourse concerning Old Age tending to the Instruction Caution and Comfort of aged People By Rich. Steel Minister of the Gospel And A Word to the Aged by Will. Bridge Minister of the Gospel Begin and end every reading with Prayer to God for his blessing and interline what you read with frequent pauses of Prayer and Meditation set your self heartily and speedily to the practice of every Duty and Direction you meet with and depend on God by Faith for Assistance and Acceptance thorow Christ These few Books thus read will yield you more comfort in a dying hour than Kings will then be able to fetch from their Crowns Misers from their Bags or hypocritical dogmatists from all their aiery speculations contentious wranglings or haughty and confident tho' empty and groundless pretensions and expectations 7. When you go out into tht World be watchful against it Remember you walk among snares consider what variety of Temptations you are daily exposed unto and be upon your guard especially look well 1. When you are alone to your Thoughts O
what a World of Time do vain Thoughts that lodge within us rob us of how many covetous proud sensual thoughts crawl in our Hearts in a day How do we act over again our former Sins by Contemplation How many study and project wickedness and contrive in their thoughts how to bring wicked devices to pass Remember God sees thy heart and will reckon with thee for thy thoughts See therefore that they be pure holy charitable humble Do not look upon thy self as at liberty to think what thou wilt He is a Christian indeed that governs his Thoughts 2. When you are in Company look to your Tongues consider your speech Weigh what you are a going to say before you speak it Do not throw about fire brands arrows and death and say Am I not in sport Prov. xxvi 18 19. Remember Life and Death are in the Power of the Tongue Prov. xviii 21. The prodigious licentiousness of the Professors of this Age in this matter makes it needful to use more than ordinary Caution that we catch not the infection How common is it in all places to hear people speaking evil of the things and persons that they know not Jude ver 10. Sure we do not understand the genius spirit and temper of the Christian Religion whereof we make profession Does not Christ say By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shâ—lt be condemned Mat. xii 37. Doth not the Apostle James say If any man among you seem to be Religious and bridieth not his Tongue but deceiveth his own Heart this mans Religion is vâ—in Jam. i. 26. Alas alas that so few that are called Christians do indeed believe their Bibles to be the Word of God or take any care to frame their Lives by the Rules of it Let your Speech be alwayâ— with grace seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man Col. iv 6. O Sirs where shall one find the company that converses by this Rule If talking of fashions if telling tâ—les of our Neighbours if aspersing the Govâ—â—nment be this gracious savory speech we have a great deal of it every where besides the lying swearing ribaldry c. of the openly prophane These things are a Lamentation and should be for a Lamentation O let us be more wise consider Sirs you may do more mischief by your tattling of things that you understand not and that do not concern you in a few minutes than the bâ—st endeavours of your whole life may ever be able to repair Remember your Tongues are your glory turn them not into shame but glorifie God with them Go and visit your sick Neighbours or such as are troubled in mind and instruct and comfort them Go and reprove plainly those that are prophane and wicked and beseech them to have some mercy on their own Souls stir up such as are able to relieve them that are in want and distress Consider one another to provoke to love and to good works Heb. x. 24. And of this you will have joy in the day of accounts 8. Let the main part of every day be spent in the labours of your particular Calling unless as now and then it may happen but cannot ordinarily there be very good reason to the contrary Look upon your Calling as a main part of the service of your Generation which God and your Countrey expects from you and of which you are to be accountable Diligent labour is a Duty and there is a blessing belongs to it It keeps the Mind from rust the Body from diseases Idleness is the source of wickedness Quem otiosum invenit Diabolus occupat Little do men think what miseries and mischiefs they expose themselves to when they grow remiss and negligent in their particular Callings The Apostle bids us study to be quiet and do our own business 1 Thes iv 11. They that neglect their own business often grow pragmatical and must be medling with other folks the consequences whereof are dreadful No man fouls his fingers with doing his own Work is an Out-landish Proverb that has its weight and is worth our thinking of when we are idle or ill employed Adam where art thou is a question we should think we hear God asking us every day Obj. It may be thy Calling is mean Sol. Be content it is that which the Providence of God hath chosen for thee and he knows best what is good for every one of us and he will accept a day-labourer that is diligent in his Calling as well as a Knight or a Lord. Obj. Aye but mine is the toilingest drudging slavish Life in the World Sol. The harder labour thy Calling puts thee upon so it be consistent with thy health and proportionate to thy strength the better it is for thee the Body is an unruly masterly Servant that needs taming Labour kills Lust But if indeed thy Calling be above thy strength or endangering to thy health as the Apostle saith in another case 1 Cor. 7. 21. If thou maisâ— be free use it rather And then in your Calling see that you sincerely aim at Gods glory and publick service and not meerly and chiefly at your own wealth and gain or the raising of your Selves and Families in the World That is all lost labour that terminates ultimately in self 9. Look to the exercise of Justice and Charity in buying and selling And here our Saviours Golden Rule may serve instead of all particular Rules Mat. vii 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should dâ— unto you do ye even so to them Therefore Draw not immoderately from them to your selves make no advantage of their ignorance or necessity count not every man you deal with a Knave which is a Rule in Commerce that some people value themselves much upon who yet I suppose would think it very hard to have the same measure meted unto them Lie not at catch for an advantage impose not ill wares for good break not your day for delivery of goods or payment of moneys strive not to make a great figure in the World when you know you have not wherewith to support it which is indeed to set up for a common Cheat exact not upon your poor Brethren in cases of Forfeitures Mortgages c. Consider the equity of Gods Laws to the Jews in such cases and remember that Christianity requires of us a more large and extensive Charity In a word digest the above-mentioned Precept of our Lord and ever and anon quicken Conscience to attend to it and take your measures of acting thence 10. Maintain Sobriety Temperance and a serious thankful frame of spirit in eating and drinking Take direction not from appetite but from reason both for the quantity and quality of your Food Do not study too much to please and do not at all pamper the flesh Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lust thereof Rom. xiii v. 14. Consider the end of the rich glutton that fared sumptuously
partakers of a Divine Nature but that we should cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God and shewing forth the virtues and praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous Light 2 Pet i. 4. 2 Cor. vii 1. 1 Pet. ii 9. All which we can never do but by denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and living Righteously Soberly and Godly in this present World Tit. ii 12. So that while we live not to God we live beside the end of our being we lose our time and provoke God to strip us of a blessing we no better know how to value R. 2. This is the way to secure our present peace and future happiness There is no way to a setled grounded tranquillity of mind but by a holy Life Sin is the great make-bate in Kingdoms Churches Families and it will never let that Soul enjoy peace in which it resides unpandoned and unmortified And these two always go together unmortified sin is ever unpardoned sin and guilt still makes the Soul uneasie He must be an Atheist or a Brute that can be secure and jolly while sin lieth at the door Gen. iv 7. like a Bailiff ready to drag him before the Supreme Judge at whose Bar being condemned he must be forth with abandoned to Eternal Torments What comfort can Pleasures Honours or Profits yield to that man who is awake and knows not but he must be in Hell to morrow Besides it is easie to demonstrate that the happiness of rational Creatures consists in Communion with God of which we are altogether uncapable whilst we lie wallowing in the mire of sin God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity scil with approbation Evil shall not dwell with him Hab. i. 13. The conviction sinners have of this appears in their shiness to approach the Sovereign Majesty especially in secret acts of Worship after the commission of any grosser sin And if we be in such a case that we dare not come to God our Life must needs be very uncomfortable Hence the Prophet Isa Lvii. 21. There is no peace saith my God to the wicked And the Psalmist Psal Lxxiii 27 28. All they that are far from thee shall perish but it is good for me to draw nigh to God Many complain of their present restless uncomfortable condition but they neglect the true Method of cure they would have peace but they will not crucifie the flesh with its affections and lusts Sinner thou must either leave thy sinful courses or be a continual torment and vexation to thy self unless for a while thou shouldest in Judgment be given over to a spirit of slumber and then thou wilt shortly awake in unsufferable terrours But the way to peace is to walk humbly with God to be constant in the daily practice of true Piety See Psal cxix 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Gal. vi 16. As many as walk according to this Rule peace be on them and on the Israel of God And as this is the wav to present peace so it is also to future everlasting Glory To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality God will render Eternal Life Rom. ii 7. There remains a Rest for the people of God Heb. iv 9. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. xii 14. They only who live to God here are capable of living with him for ever hereafter As ever therefore you value peace here or glory hereafter let it be your constant care to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long R. 3. Vnless we thus make Religion our daily delightful Employment we are ungrateful to God who daily loadeth us with his Benefits Who gave thee thy Being Who redeemed thy Life from Destruction and thy Soul from Damnation By whom are all the hairs of thy head numbred that not one of them fall to the ground without his will To whose care and kindness dost thou owe thy health liberty peace plenty quiet habitation comfortable Relations Gospel opportunities thy share in Publick National and Church Deliverances Is it not God that holds thy Soul in Life and suffers not thy feet to be moved Psal Lxvi 9. Is it not the Father of mercies that crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal ciii 4 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases v. 3. Is it not his hand that holdeth thee out of Hell and supporteth thee from sinking into the bottomless Pit Is it not he that hath rescued thee as well as others of late from the devouring Jaws of bloody Papists from an horrible slavery of Body Soul and Conscience to such as worship graven Images from being compelled first to worship and then to chew and swallow a bit of Bread or a thin Wafer under the title and denomination of thy Lord God Maker and Redeemer And what return thinkest thou is due to God for such Mercies as these Can any less suffice than that which the Apostle exhorts unto Rom. xii 1. I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service And if we have once sincerely given up our selves to God we shall then walk with him and be in his fear all the day long and if we refuse this we are the most ungrateful wretches breathing What Monsters of Ingratitude are we if when God hath made us and redeemed us and still preserveth us we deny him our service especially when his service is perfect freedom and in keeping his Commandments there is great Reward Psal xix 11. God hath made nothing our Duty but what is equally our Priviledge And when as an acknowledgment of former kindnesses God only requires that we should receive more at his hands and yet we will not we thereby render our selves such a composition of folly and ingratitude as is beyond parallel Among Heathens Ingratitude to Benefactors is esteemed one of the most hainous crimes a man can be guilty of So that it 's become a common Proverb among them Ingratum dixeris omnia when you have called a man ungrateful you have said your worst of him And if Ingratitude to fellow-creatures deserve so black a brand what shall we think then of Ingratitude against our Sovereign Lord the great Creator and common Parent of Mankind Shun therefore this foul blot by diligence and constancy in a holy walk R. 4. By walking thus with God we set others a good Example and recommend Religion to the World Thus we become the Salt of the Earth the Lights of the World a City set on an Hill which cannot be hid our Light so shines before men that they see our good conversations and glorifie our Heavenly Father Mat. v. 13 14 16. A holy Life is a continual Sermon Thus you may all be
purchased for them by his death and how those benefits come to be applyed to the Souls of his chosen Labour to work things down into their hearts and get them to feel what they know This is Gods work but it is to be expected in Conjunction with your endeavour and Children thus initiated betimes rarely do amiss whereas a Child left to himself causeth shame Prov. xxix 15. Dishonours God grieves his Parents and damns himself Infer VIII What great need there is for us to keep the Christian hopes in constant believing view that by them we may be encouraged to so great and difficult work The Just shall live by his Faith Hab. ii 4. Now Faith is the Substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. xi 1. Moses had respect unto the recompence of reward Heb. xi 26. And our Lord himself endured the Cross and despised the shame for the joy that was set before him Heb. xii 2. Christianity were not the best Religion if it did not propound to us the best Reward and that with the fullest and clearest evidence and we are not Christians if the hope of that reward act us not in our endeavours of conformity to its blessed Precepts So widely are they out that cry down diligence in the Christian Work and Race in expectation of the Rewards of Eternal Glory as mercenary and that talk of quenching Hell and burning Heaven to prove the sincerity of their obedience God help me to obey and suffer for the joy set before me and I doubt not but I shall be for ever in that Heaven where Jesus Christ now is and let those that hope to fare better in new-fangled ways of their own devising let them I say at long run bragg as they speed Man is a creature the very frame and constitution of whose Soul shews him made to be governed by Hopes and Fears And no hopes like those of a happiness compleat and everlasting The Apostolical Canon therefore is Heb. vi 11 12. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises He that will be an Active Useful Exemplary Persevering Christian must clear and settle well his hope of Everlasting Life as that which God who cannot lye hath promised and often review it by believing Meditation nothing quickens nothing supports like this Am I lazing and slugging and moving heavily in the ways of God What a Spur is such a thought as this Do I now act as becomes a Candidate for Eternal Glory an Expectant of Heavenly Felicity Would this pace content me if I now saw Heaven open to my bodily Eyes And is it not equally certain as if I did So when sinking into discouragement when drooping and desponding when horribly afraid of suffering or the like say O my Soul doth this become a Christian a Child of God an Heir a Coheir with Christ What a Kings Son the King of Heavens Son the Heir of a Kingdom and such a Kingdom And thus lean from day to day allusion to 2 Sam. xiii 4. Oh Sirs little do we think what a vigorous Instrument of an holy Life the Christian hope in our Souls would prove were we more careful to get it firmly rooted there and then to maintain it in its lively act and powerful exercise Infer IX How much is it the concernment of all that would be Christians indeed to get right notions of Religion That our Duty is our Interest a real pleasure and advancement to our Souls 'T is wrong conceits of Religion and the nature of the work it puts us upon that scareth so many from it Men will not hear of becoming Religious because they take it to be what it really is not and have no right understanding what indeed it is Men think Religion ties them up from all that is grateful and fills them continually with fear and sorrow and unhinges them for business unfits them for action and calls them to part with all that they at present count valuable and giveth them nothing or next to nothing in exchange This is the notion the World hath commonly of Religion and no wonder if in this dress it appear very terrible and be so far from alluring Lovers that it affright Spectators But I pray you Sirs you that labour under these prejudices come a little nearer and take a better prospect of Religion before you renounce her utterly It may be she is not what you take her for perhaps she hath charms you never yet discovered I hope you will not think it impossible but Solomon might be in the right when he said of Wisdom or true Religion All her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace Prov. iii. 17. What if upon enquiry all your Objections against Religion prove calumnies What if upon a true opening of the case your Scruples all vanish and a little light of sober Reason dispel the mists you have endeavoured to benight her with I hope you will then come over to that side which hitherto you have so violently opposed and so malignantly derided Come then and let us reason together If Religion debar you of no true pleasure but call you to exchange sordid and perishing ones for those that are noble and durable will you then become her Votary Why so it is Religion teaches you Temperance in the use of bodily Pleasures which alone gives them their true relish and renders them safe to be enjoyed and which is of more important consideration makes their use consistent with the obtaining of those better Pleasures whereof she allows and offers you freer and fuller draughts and whereof you can never have too much and shall not finally want enough The pleasures of Knowledge and Love are ever perfecting till we come to glory immediately upon our entrance whereunto they are perfected to satisfaction though according to some see the ingenious discourse of a nameless Author called The Future State even there they are in a state of perpetual progress and advance Obj. But it may be you will say Surely Religion cannot be a state of Joy when men pass into it thorow so many fears and sorrows and when the great Author of it hath clad it in mourning saying Blessed are they that mourn Matth. v. 4. Sol. I answer Religion only calleth for so much sorrow as is consistent with or conducive to the greatest joy and debarreth us only of such joys as will end in everlasting sorrows For Religion's taking men off from business or unfitting them for it it is a vain cavil and contradicted by the Experience of all Ages For in every Age some of the most active and eminent have been jointly noted for Religion and for Wisdom Courage and Success in the management of Publick Affairs both in War and Peace as Abraham David Nehemiah and others The truth is Religion in these things changeth not mens natural Tempers and Endowments but taking them as it findeth them improves and perfects them And for what Religion obligeth us to forego it is demonstrable that it calleth us to quit nothing but what may well be spared and for what is not consistent with our happiness giveth us in exchange what is alone constituent of it And if its worst Enemies have no more to say against it but that which is so easily refutable who can wonder if notwithstanding all the scorns of profane wits heavenly Wisdom be still justified of her Children Matth. xi 19. as she will shortly more fully be by her great Author who is able to defend her against all her profane contemners and malignant opposers Infer X. Great cause there is for all such as know by experience how sweet and comfortable a thing it is to be daily taken up in the lively spiritual performance of Religious Exercises to pity and by counsel prayer and example do all they can to help the rest who are the most of Mankind yea of professed Christians that live as without God in the World having neither skill nor will to holy Employments or the due improvement of their Time It is a doleful thing to take a considerate view of the world and think what God made man and placed him upon the Earth for and what we are redeemed for and what large provision of help there is in the Gospel for lost Mankind and yet how few do in any measure answer the end of their Beings or act like persons that have any hope of saving benefit by Jesus Christ Not only the Heathen and Mahometan World and the obstinate Infidel Jews and the Idolatrous persecuting Papists but alas the generality of the Reformed Churches are a sight fit to make a sensible heart bleed abounding so with ignorance profaneness worldliness sensuality corruption in VVorship Church-tyranny Heresies Schisms Divisions Envyings and bitter Zeal that the Tares do in a manner hide the Wheat and the Faith even of good men is sometimes put to stagger at the Promise That the gates of Hell shall not prevail Mat. xvi 18. But oh that we did rather in our places all do our utmost to promote its accomplishment by personal Reformation by fervent Prayer by due instructing and calling upon others and setting them a good Example by mourning for the sins of the Times and pleading with God his Promises for the Remnant of his People If we thus hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord Lam. iii. 26. we may yet live to see the eminent returns of Prayer and the glorious accomplishment of Prophecies and Promises when Salvation shall be to God's Israel for VValls and Bulwarks Isa xxvi 1. and when Jerusalem's VValls shall be Salvation and her Gates praise Isa Lx. 18. Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen FINIS