As the Athenians that condemned Socrates to death and then lamented it and erected a Braâ—en Statue for his Memorial Acosta saith that he that will be a Pastor to the Indians must not only resist the Devil and the flesh but must resist the custome of men which is grown powerful by time and multitude and must oppose his breast to receive the darts of the envious and malevolent who if they see any thing contrary to their prophane fashion they cry out A Traytor an Hypocrite an Enemy Li. 4. c. 15. p. 404. It seems among Papists and Barbarians the Serpents seed do hiss in the same manner against the good among themselves as they do against us dye Or think whether they will not change their minds when death hath sent them into that world where there is none of these deceits And think whether thou shouldst be moved with that mans words that will shortly change his mind himself and wish he had never spoke such words § 7. 3. Observe well whether their own Profession do not condemn them and whether the very thing that they hate the godly for be not that they are serious in Practising that which these malignants themselves profess as their Religion And are they not then notorious Hypocrites To profess to believe in God and yet scorn at those that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. To profess faith in Christ and hate those that obey him To profess to believe in the Holy Ghost as the Sanctifier and yet hate and scorn his sanctifying work To profess to believe the day of Judgement and everlasting torment of the ungodly and yet to deride those that endeavour to escape it To profess to believe that Heaven is prepared for the Godly and yet scorn at those that make it the chief business of their lives to attain it To profess to take the holy Scriptures for Gods Word and Law and yet to scorn those that obey it To pray after each of the Ten Commandments Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law and yet to hate all those that desire and endeavour to keep them What impudent hypocrisie is joyned with this malignity Mark whether the greatest diligence of the most godly be not justified by the formal profession of those very men that hate and scorn them The difference between them is that the Godly Profess Christianity in good earnest and when they say what they believe they believe as they say But the ungodly customarily and for company take on them to be Christians when they are not and by their own mouths condemn themselves and hate and oppose the serious Practice of that which they say they do themselves believe PART II. The Temptations whereby the Devil hindereth mens Conversion with the proper Remedies against them § 1. THE Most Holy and Righteous Governour of the world hath so restrained Satan and all our enemies and so far given us Free-will that no man can be forced to sin against his will It is not sin if it be not positively or privatively voluntary All our enemies in Hell or Earth cannot make us miserable without our selves nor keep a sinner from true Conversion and Salvation if he do it not himself no nor compell him to one sinful thought or word or deed or omission but by tempting and entising him to be willing All that are Graceless are wilfully Graceless None go to Hell but those that chose the way to Hell and would not be perswaded out of it None miss of Heaven but those that did set so light by it as to prefer the world and sin before it and refused the holy way that leadeth to it And surely man that naturally loveth himself would never take so mad a course if his reason were not laid asleep and his understanding were not wofully deluded And this is the business of the Tempter who doth not drag men to sin by violence but draw and entice them by Temptations I shall therefore take it for the next part of my work to open these Temptations and tell you the Remedies § 2. Tempt 1. The first endeavour of the Tempter is in General to keep the sinner asleep in sin so that Tâ—â—pt 1. â—e shall be as a dead man that hath no use of any of his faculties that hath eyes and seeth not and ears but heareth not and a heart that understandeth not nor feeleth any thing that concerneth his peace The light Ephes 2. 1. Col 2 13. 1 Coâ— 15. 35. 1 Tim. 5. 6. Joeâ— 1. 5. that shineth upon a man asleep is of no use to him His work lyeth undone His friends and wealth and greatest concernments are all forgotten by him as if there were no such things or persons in the world You may say what you will against him or do what you will against him and he can do nothing in his own defence This is the case that the Devil most laboureth to keep the world in even in so dead a sleep that their Reason and their Wills their fear and hope and all their powers shall be of no use to them That when they hear a Preacher or read the Scripture or good Books or see the holy examples of the godly yea when they see the Grave and know where they must shortly lie and know that their souls must stay here but a little while yet they shall hear and see and know all this as men asleep that mind it not as if it concerned not them at all never once soberly Considering and laying it to heart § 3. Direct 1. For the Remedy against this deadly sin 1. Take heed of sleepy opinions or Doctrines Direct 1. and conceits which tend to the Lethargie of Security 2. Sit not still but be up and doing Stirring tends to shake off drowziness 3. Come into the light Live under an awakening Minister and in wakening company that will not sleep with you nor easily let you sleep Agree with them to deal faithfully with you and promise them to take it thankfully 4. And meditate oft on wakening considerations Think whether a sleepy soul beseem one in thy dangerous condition Canst thou sleep with such a load of sin upon thy soul Canst thou sleep under the thundering threatnings of God and the Curse of his Law with so many wounds in thy Conscience and Ulcers in thy soul If thy body were sick or in the case of Iob yea if thou hadst but an aking Tooth it would not let thee sleep And is not the guilt of sin a thing more grievous If Thorns or Toads and Adders were in thy Bed they would keep the waking And how much more odious and dangerous a thing is sin If thy body want but meat or drink or covering it will break 2 Tim. 2. 26. thy sleep And is it nothing for thy soul to be destitute of Christ and Grace A condemned man will be easily kept awake And if thou be unregenerate thou art already condemned
read Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law And the command of Authority is not a contemptible obligation § 7. 6. It is granted by all that more than this is due to God and the life that is in every Christian telleth him that it is a very great mercy to us not only to servants but even to all men that one day in seven they may disburden themselves of all the cares and business of the world which may hinder their holy communion with God and one another and wholly apply themselves to learn the will of God And nature teacheth us to accept of mercy when it is offered to us and not dispute against our happiness § 8. 7. Common experience telleth us that where the Lords Day is more holily and carefully observed Knowledge and Religion prosper best and that more souls are converted on those dayes than on all the other dayes besides and that the people are accordingly more edified And that where ever the Lords Day is ordinarily neglected or mispent Religion and Civility decay and there is a visible lamentable difference between those places and families and the other § 9. 8. Reason and experience telleth us that if men werâ— leâ—t to themselves what Time they should appoint for Gods publick Worship in most plâ—â—es it would be so little and disordered and uncertain that Religion would be for the most part banished out of the now Christian world Therefore there being need of an Universal Law for it it is probable that such a Law there is And if so it can be by none but God the Creator Redeemer and Holy Ghost there being no other Universal Governour and Law-giver to impose it § 10. 9. All must confess that it is more desirable for Unity and Concord sake that all Christians hold their holy Assemblies on one and the same day and that all at once through all the world do worship God and seek his Grace than that they do it some on one day and some on another § 11. 10. And all that ever I have conversed with confess that if the holy spending of the Lords Day be not necessary it is lawful and therefore when there is so much to be said for the Necessity of it too to keep it holy is the safest way Seeing this cannot be a sin but the contrary may And Licâ—nce is encouragement enough to accept so great a mercy All this set together will satisfie a man that hath any spiritual sense of the concernments of his own and others souls § 12. Object But you will say That besides the name it is yet a controversie whether the whole day Object should be spâ—nt in holy exercises or only so much as is meet for publick communion it being not found in antiquiâ—y that the Churches used any further to observe it Answ. No sober man denyeth that works of necessity for the preservation of our own or other mens Answ. lives or health or goods may be done on the Lords Day so that when we say that the whole day is to be spent holily we exclude not eating and sleeping nor the necessary actions about Worship as the Priesâ—s in the Temple are said to break the Sabbath that is the external rest and to be blameless But otherwise that it is the whole day is evident in the Arguments produced The antient Histories and Canons of the Church speak not of one part of the day only but the whole All confess that when Labour or sinful sports are forbidden it is on the whole day and not only on a part And for what is alledged of the custome of the antient Church I answer 1. The antienâ—est Churches spent almost all the day in publick Worship and Communion They begun in the morning and continued without parting till the evening The first part of the day being spent in teaching the Catechumens they were then dismissed and the Church continued together in preaching and praying but especially in those laudatory Eucharistical Offices which accompany the celebration of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. They did not then as Gluttons do now account it fasting to forbear a dinner when they supped yea feasted at night It being not usual among the Romans to eat any dinners at all And they that spent all the day together in publick Worship and Communion you may be sure spent noâ— part of it in Dancing nor Stage-playes nor worldly businesses 2. And Church History giveth us but little account what particular persons did in private nor can it be expected 3. Who hath brought us any proof that ever the Church approved of spending any part of the day in sports or idleness or unnecessary worldly business Or that any Churches or persons regardable did actually so spend it 4. Unless their proof be from those many Canons of our own and other Churches that command the holy observation of it and forbid these playes and labours on it which I confess doth intimate that some there were that needed Laws to restrain them from the violation of it 5. Again I say that seeing few men will have the faces to say that playes and games or idleness are a duty on that day it will suffice a holy thankful Christian if he have but leave to spend all the day for the good of his soul and those about him and if he may be reading and meditating on the Word of God and praying and praising him and instructing his family while others waste that time in vanity especially to servants and poor men that have but little other leisure all the year to seek for knowledge or use any such helps for their salvation As to a poor man that is kept hungry all the Week a bare liberty of feasting with his Landlord on the Lords day would satisfie him without a Law to constrain him to it so is it here with a hungry soul. § 2. Direct 2. Remember that the work of the day â—â— in general to keep up knowledge and Religion Direct 2. in the world and to own and honour our Creater Redeemer and Regenerater openly before all and to have communion with God through Christ in the Spirit by Receiving and Exercising his Grace in order to our Communion with him in Glory Let these therefore well understood â—e your Ends and in these be you exercised all the day and stick not hypocritically in bodily rest and outward duties Remember that it is a day for heart-work as well as for the exercise of the tongue and ear and knees and that your principal business is with Heaven Follow your hearts therefore all the day and see that they be not idle while your bodies are exercised Nothing is done if the Heart do nothing § 3. Direct 3. Remember that the special work of the day is to celebrate the memorial of Christs Direct 3. Resurrection and of the whole work of mans Redemption by him Labour therefore with all diligence
carrieth thee to the place No one forceth thee to sin If thou do it it is because thou wilt do it and lovest it If thou be in good earnest with God and wilt be saved indeed and art not content to part with Heaven for thy cups and company away with them presently without delay § 4. Hast thou lived in wantonness fornication uncleanness gluttony gaming pastimes sensuality to the pleasing of thy flesh while thou hast displeased God O bless the Patience and Mercy of the Lord that thou wast not cut off all this while and damned for thy sin before thou didst repent And as thou lovest thy soul delay no longer but make a stand and go no further not one step further in the way which thou knowest leads to Hell If thou knowest that this is the way to thy damnation and yet wilt go on what pity dost thou deserve from God or man § 5. If thou have been a Covetous Wordling or an Ambitious seeker of honour or preferment in the world so that thy gain or rising or reputation hath been the game which thou hast followed and hath taken thee up instead of God and life eternal away now with these known deceits and hunt not after Vanity and Vexation Thou knowest before hand what it will prove when thou hast overtaken it and hast enjoyed all that it can yield thee and how useless it will be as to thy comfort or happiness at last § 6. Surely if men were willing they are able to forbear such sins and to make a stand and look before them to prevent their misery Therefore God thus pleadeth with them Isa. 1. 16 17 18. Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well c. Isa. 55 2 3. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight it self in fatness Incline your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you V. 6 7. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Call ye upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Christ supposeth that the foresight of judgement may restrain men from sin when he saith Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee John 5. 14. 8. 11. Can the presence of men restrain a Fornicator and the presence of the Judge restrain a Thief yea or the foresight of the Assizes And shall not the presence of God with the foresight of judgement and damnation restrain thee Remember that impenitent sin and damnation are conjoyned If you will cause one God will cause the other Choose one and you shall not choose whether you will have the other If you will have the Serpent you shall have the sting Direction 15. IF thou have sincerely given up thy self to God and consented to his Covenant shew it Direct 15. by turning the face of thy endeavours and conversation quite another way and by seeking Heaven more fervently and diligently than ever thou soughtest the world or fleshly pleasures § 1. Holiness consisteth not in a meer forbearance of a sensual life but principally in living unto God The principle or heart of Holiness is within and consisteth in the Love of God and of his Word and Wayes and Servants and Honour and Interest in the world and in the souls delight in God and the Word and Wayes of God and in its inclination towards him and desire after him and care to please him and lothness to offend him The expression of it in our lives consisteth in the constant diligent exercise of this internal life according to the directions of the Word of God If thou be a believer and hast subjected thy self to God as thy absolute Soveraign King and Judge it will then be thy work to obey and please him as a Child his Father or a Servant his Master Mal. 1. 6. Do you think that God will have Servants and have nothing for them to do Will one of you commend or reward your servant for doing nothing and take it at the years end for a satisfactory answer or account if he say I have done no harm God calleth you not only to do no harm but to love and serve him with all your heart and soul and might If you have a better Master than you had before Aâ—osta faith that the Iâ—aiaâ—s are so addicted to their Idolatry and unwearied in it that he knoweth not what words can sufficiently declare how totally their minds are transformed into it no Whâ—re monger having so mad a love to his Whore as they to their Ido's so that neither in their idleness or their business neither in publick or in private will they do any thing till they have first used their Superstition to their Idols They will neither rejoyce at Weddings or mourn at Funerals neither make a Feast or partake of it not so much as move a foot out of doors or a hand to any work without this Heathemsh Sacriledge And all this they do with the greatest secrefie lest the Christians should know it Lib. 5. c. 8. p. 467. See here how nature teacheth all men that there is a Deity to be worshipped with all possible love and industry And shall the Worshippers of the true God then think it unnecessary preciseness to be as diligent and hearty in his service you should do more work than you did before Will you not serve God more zealoussy than you served the Devil Will you not labour harder to save your souls than you did to damn them Will you not be more zealous in good than you were in evil What fruit had you then in those things whereof you are now ashamed For the end of those things is death Rom. 6. 21 22. But now being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life If you are true Behâ—vers you have now laid up your hopes in Heaven and therefore will set yourselves to seek it as worldlings set themselves to seek the world And a sluggish wish with heartless lazy dull endeavours is no fit seeking of eternal joyes A creeping pace beseemeth not a man that is in the way to Heaven especially who went faster in the way to Hell This is not running as for our lives You may well be diligent and make haste where you have so great encouragement and help and where you may expect so good an end and where you are sure you shall never in life or death have cause to repent of any of your just endeavours and where every step of your way is pure and
that you behaved not your selves like such as Loved them It doth not deserve the name of Love which can leave a soul to endless misery § 12. What then shall we say of them that do not only deny their help but are hinderers of the 1 King 11. 4. Act. 5. 2. â—â—â—â—â—s Adams tempter Job 2. 9. holiness and salvation of each other And yet the Lord have mercy on the poor miserable world how common a thing is this among us If the wife be ignorant and ungodly she will do her worst to make or keep her husband such as she is her self And if God put any holy inclinations into his heart she will be to it as water to the fire to quench it or to keep it under And if he will not be as sinful and miserable as her self he shall have little quietness or rest And if God open the eyes of the wife of a bad man and shew her the amiableness and necessity of a holy life and she do but resolve to obey the Lord and save her soul what an enemy and tyrant will her husband prove to her if God restrain him not so that the Devil himself doth scarce do more against the saving of their souls than ungodly Husbands and Wives do against each other § 13. 2. Consider also that you live not up to the Ends of Marriage nor of humanity if you are not helpers to each others souls To help each other only for your bellies is to live together but like beasts You are appointed to live together as heirs of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3. 7. And husbands must love their Wives as Christ loved his Church who gave himself for it that he might sanctifie it and cleanse it that he might present it to himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle holy and without blemish Eph. 5. 25 26 27. That which is the end of your very life and being must be the end of your relations and your daily converse § 14. 3. Consider also if you neglect each others souls what enemies you are to one another and how you prepare for your everlasting sorrows When you should be preparing for your joyful meeting in Heaven you are laying up for your selves everlasting horrour What a dreadful meeting and greeting will you have at the bar of Christ or in the flames of hell when you shall find there how perversly you have done Is it not better to be praising God together in Glory than to be rageing 1 Thes. 5. 11. Heb. 12. 15. Col 2. 19. Eph. 4. 16. 1 Cor. 7. 5. Gen. 35. 2 4. Lev. 19. 17. against each other in the horrour of your Consciences and flying in the faces of one another with such accusations as these O cruel Husband O merciless deceitful Wife It was long of you that I came to this miserable woful End I might have lived with Christ and his Saints in Joy and now I am tormented in these flames in desperation You were commanded by God to have given me warning and told me of my sin and misery and never to let me rest in it but to have instructed and intreated me till I had come home by Christ that I might not have come to this place of torment But you never so much as spake to me of God and my salvation unless it were lightly in jeast or in your common talk If the house had been on fire you would have been more earnest to have quenched it than you were to save my soul from hell You never told me seriously of the misery of a natural unrenewed state nor of the great necessity of regeneration and a holy life nor never talkt to me of Heaven and Hell as matters of such consequence should have been mentioned But morning and night your talk was nothing but about the world and the things of the world your idle talk and jesting and froward and carnal and unprofitable discourse was it that filled up all Numb 16. 27 32. the time and we had not one sober word of our salvation You never seriously foretold me of this day You never prayed with me nor read the Scripture and good Books to me You took no pains to help me to knowledge nor to humble my hardened heart for my sins nor to save me from them nor to draw me to the Love of God and holiness by faith in Christ You did not go before me with the good example of a holy and heavenly conversation but with the evil example of an ungodly fleshly worldly life You neither cared for your own soul nor mine nor I for yours or mine own and now we are justly condemned together that would not live in Holiness together O foolish miserable souls that by your ungodliness and negligence in this life will prepare each other for such a life of endless wo and horror O therefore resolve without delay to live together as the heirs of Heaven and to be helpers to Directions to help each other to salvation each others souls To which end I will give you these following Sub-directions which if you will faithfully practise may make you to be special blessings to each other § 15. Direct 1. If you would help to save each others souls you must each of you be sure that Subdirect 1. you have a care of your own and retain a deep and lively apprehension of those great and everlasting matters of which you are to speak to others It cannot be reasonably expected that he should have Gen. 2. 18. a due compassion to anothers soul that hath none to his own and that he should be at the pains that is needful to help another to salvation that setteth so little by his own as to sell it for the base and momentany ease and pleasure of the flesh Nor is it to be expected that a man should speak with any suitable weight and seriousness about those matters whose weight his heart did never feel and about which he was never serious himself First see that you feel throughly that which you would speak profitably and that you be what you perswade another to be and that all your counsel may be perceived to arise from the bottom of your hearts and that you speak of things which by experience you are well acquainted with § 16. Direct 2. Take those opportunities which your ordinary nearness and familiarity affordeth Subdirect 2. you to be speaking seriously to each other about the matters of God and your salvation When you lye down and rise together let not your worldly business have all your talk but let God and your souls have the first and the last and at least the freest and sweetest of your speech if not the most When you have said so much of your common business as the nature and dispatch of it requireth â—ay it by and talk together of the state and duty of your souls towards God and of your hopes of Heaven as those that
of God you will easily be assured that you love them When you strongly hate sin and live in universal constant obedience you will easily discern your Repentance and obedience But weak grace will have but weak assurance and little consolation § 12. Direct 3. Set your selves with all your skill and diligence to destroy every sin of heart Direct 3. and life and make it your principal eare and business to do your duty and please and honour God in your place and to do all the good you can in the world and trust God with your souls as long as you wait upon him in his way If you live in wilful sin and negligence be not unwilling to be reproved and delivered If you cherish your sensual fleshly lusts and set your hearts too eagerly on the world or defend your unpeaceableness and passion or neglect your known duty to God or man and make no Conscience of a true reformation it is not any enquiries after signes of grace that will help you to assurance You may complain long enough before you have case while such a thorn is in your foot Conscience must be better used before it will speak a word of sound well grounded peace to you But when you set your selves with all your care and skill to do your Duties and please your Lord he will not let your labour be in vain He will take care of your peace and comfort while you take care of your duty And in this way you may boldly trust him Only think not hardly and falsly of the Goodness of that God whom you study to serve and please § 13. Direct 4. Be sure whatever condition you are in that you understand and hold fast and Direct 4. improve the General grounds of Comfort which are common to mankind so far as they are made known to them and they are three which are the Foundation of all our comfort 1. The Goodness and Mercifulness of God in his very Nature 2. The sufficiency of the satisfaction or sacrifice of Christ. 3. The universality and freeness and sureness of the Covenant or promise of pardon and salvation to all that by final impenitence and unbelief do not continue obstinately to reject it or to all that unfeignedly Repent and Believe 1. Think not meanly and poorly of the infinite Goodness of God Psal. 103 8 11 17. 89. 2. 86. 5 15. 25. 10. 119. 64. 138. 8. 1â—6 5. Even to Moses he proclaimeth his name at the second delivery of the Law The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Exod. 34. 6 7. His mercy is over all his works It is great and reacheth to the Heavens It is firm and endureth for ever And he hath pleasure in those that hope in his mercy Psal. 147. 11. 100. 5. 33. 18. 57. 10. 108. 4. 2. Extenuate not the Merits and Sacrifice of Christ but know that never man was damned for want of a Christ to dye and be a sacrifice for his sin but only for want of Repentance and faith in him Ioh. 3. 16. 3. Deny not the universality of the conditional promise of pardon and salvation to all that it is offered to and will accept it on the offerers terms And if you do but feel these three foundations firm and stedfast under you it will encourage every willing soul. The Love of God was the cause of our Redemption by Christ Redemption was the foundation of the Promise or new Covenant And he that buildeth on this threefold foundation is safe § 14. Direct 5. When you come to try your particular Title to the blessings of the Covenant be Direct 5. sure that you well understand the condition of the Covenant and look for the performance of that condition in your selves as the infallible Evidence of your title And know that the condition is nothing but an unfeigned Consent unto the Covenant Or such a Belief of the Gospel as makeeth you truly willing of all the mercies offered in the Gospel and of the Duties required in order to those mercies And That nothing depriveth any man that heareth the Gospel of Christ and pardon and salvation but obstinate unwillingness or refusal of the mercy and the necessary annexed duties Understand this well and then peruse the Covenant of Grace which is but to take God for your God and Happiness your Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier and then ask your hearts whether here be any thing that you are unwilling of and unwilling of in a prevailing degree when it is greater than your willingness And if truly you are willing to be in Covenant with your God and Saviour and Sanctifier upon these terms know that your Consent or Willingness or Acceptance of the mercy offered you is your true performance of the Condition of your title and consequently the infallible evidence of your title even as Marriage Consent is a title-condition to the person and priviledges And therefore if you find this your doubts are answered You have found as good an evidence as Scripture doth acquaint us with And if this will not quiet and satisfie you you understand not the business nor is it Reason or Evidence that can satisfie you till you are better prepared to understand them But if really you are unwilling and will not consent to the terms of the Covenant then instead of doubting be past doubt that you are yet unsanctified And your work is presently to consider better of the terms and benefits and of those unreasonable reasons that make you unwilling till you see that your happiness lyeth upon the business and that you have all the reason in the world to make you willing and no true Reason for the withholding of your Consent And when the light of these considerations hath prevailed for your Consent the match is made and your Evidence is sure § 15. Direct 6. Iudge not of your hearts and Evidences upon every sudden glance or feeling Direct 6. but upon a sober deliberate examination when your minds are in a clear composed frame And as then you find your selves record the judgement or discovery and believe not every sudden inconsiderate appearance or passionate fear against that Record Otherwise you will never be quiet or resolved but carryed up and down by present sense The case is weighty and not to be decided by a sudden aspect nor by a scattered or a discomposed mind If you call your unprovided or your distempered understandings suddenly to so great a work no wonder if you are deceived You must not judge of colours when your eye is blood-shotten or when you look through a coloured Glass or when the object is far off It is like casting up a long and difficult account which must be done deliberately as a work of time and when it is so done and the summs
hope they are in a penitent pardoned state Even the haters of God will say they love him and the scorners at godliness will say that they are not ungodly and that it is but hypocrisie and singularity that they deride And it were well for them if saying so would go for proof and he that will be their Judge would take their words But God will not be deceived though foolish men are wise enough to deceive themselves Wickedness will be wickedness when it hath cloathed it self with the fairest names God will condemn it when it hath found out the most plausible pretences and excuses Though the Ungodly think to bear it out in pride and scorn and think to be saved by their hypocritical lip-service as soon as the most holy Worshippers of the Lord yet shall they be like chaff which the wind driveth away they shall not be able to stand in judgement nor sinners in the Congregation of the righteous Psal. 1. 4 5 6. And if God know better than foolish men then certainly the flock is little to whom the Father will give the Kingdom Luke 12. 32. And wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Matth. 7. 13. When Christ was asked Lord are there few that be saved he answered Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13. 23 24. But alas we need no other information than common experience to tell us whether the greatest part of men be Holy and Heavenly and Self-denying that seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and Love God above all and will forsake all they have for the sake of Christ And undoubtedly none but such are saved as you may see Heb. 12. 14. Matth. 6. 20 21 33. Luke 14. 33. § 2. Seeing then the Godly are so few and the Ungodly so many and that God will take nothing for Holiness that is not such indeed and seeing it is so terrible a thing to any man that hath his wits about him to live one day in an unconverted state because he that dyeth so is lost for ever methinks it should be our wisdom to be suspicious of our selves and careful lest we be deceived in so great a business and diligent in searching and examining our hearts whether they are truly sanctified or not because it can be no harm to make sure work for our salvation whereas presumption carelesness and negligence may betray us to remediless misery and despair § 3. I do not here suppose the Reader to have any such acquaintance with his heart or care of his salvation or obedient willingness to be taught and ruled by Jesus Christ as is proper to those that are truly sanctified For it is Ungodly persons that now I am speaking to And yet if I should not suppose them to have some capacity and disposition to make use of the Directions which I give them I might as well pass them by and spare my labour I tell thee therefore Reader what it is that I presuppose in thee and expect from thee and I think thou wilt not judge me unreasonable in my suppositions and expectations § 4. 1. I suppose thee to be a Man and therefore that thou hast Reason and Natural-free-will that Presupposed 1. That â—â—â—â— are a man is the natural faculty of Choosing and Refusing which should keep thy sensitive appetite in obedience and that thou art capable of Loving and Serving thy Creator and Enjoying him in Everlasting Life § 5. 2. I suppose that thou knowest thy self to be a man and therefore that thy sensitive part or 2. That thou knowest this and what a man is flesh should no more rule thee or be ungoverned by thee than the Horse should rule the Rider or be unruled by him And that thou understandest that thou art made on purpose to Love and Serve thy Maker and to be happy in his Love and Glory for ever If thou know not this much thou knowest not that thou art a man or else knowest not what a man is § 6. 3. I suppose thee to have a Natural self-love and a desire of thy own preservation and happiness 3 Thaâ— thou hast self-love and a â—â—sâ—re to be happy and that thou hast no desire to be miserable or to be hated of God or to be cast out of his favour and presence into Hell and there to be tormented with Devils everlastingly Yea I will suppose that thou art not indifferent whether thou dwell in Heaven or Hell in Joy or Torment but wouldst fain be saved and be happy Whether thou be Godly or Ungodly wise or foolish I will be 4 That thou madâ—st not thy selâ— and that the first cause of aâ—l the Bâ—iâ—g Power Wisdom and Goodness of all the creatures haâ—h formally oâ—â—minenâ—ly more than all they And therefore that there is a God Cum despâ—â—â—â—râ— câ—â—iâ—us â—â—â—â—tire quid siâ—us quid ab animantiâ—us caeteris differamus tum ea iâ—sâ—qui incipiâ—mus ad quâ— nati sâ—mus Câ—cero 5. de finâ—â— See the proof of the God-head and that God is the Governour of the world and that there is another life for man in the beginning of my Holy Common-wealth Chap. 1 2 3. Commoâ—a qâ—ibus â—â—ioâ—â— lucem quâ—â—râ—imur spâ—â—iâ—um quem ducimus à Deo nobis dari impartiâ—i videmus Cicero pro Ros. Qâ—is â—st taâ—â— vâ—coâ—s qui cum sâ—speâ—erâ—â— in coeluâ— dâ—os esse non sâ—ntiat â—a quae tanta meâ—te fiunt ut vix quisquam arte ulla ordinem rerâ—m â—tqâ—e viâ—issitâ—diâ—em perâ—eqâ—i possit caâ—u fieri puteâ— Cicero de Resp. Arusp. Read Gaâ—en'â— Hymnâ— to the Creator Li. de usâ— partium pâ—aecipuè l. 3. cap. 10. Nâ—lla gâ—ns est tam immansâ—â—ta neque tam â—eâ—rea quae non etiamsâ— ignoret qualem Deum habere deceat tamen habendâ—m sciat Cicero 1. de Leg. Omâ—ibus â—nnatum quasi iâ—scâ—â—tâ—m est esse Dâ—os Id. de Nat. Deor. Agâ—â—â—â—imus Deum â—x opeâ—ibus â—jus Cicero 1. Tusâ—ul Nullâ—m est aâ—imal â—raetâ—â— hâ—minâ—m quod habet ullam notitiam Dei Cicero 1. de Legib. Nulla gâ—â—s tam sâ—ra cujus meâ—tem non imbâ—eâ—it dâ—orum opinio Cicero 1. Tuscul. I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legends Talmud Alcoran than that this universal frame is without a mind Lord Bacon Essay 16. A little Philosophy inclineth mans mind to Atheiâ—m but depth in Philosophy bringeth mens minds about to Religion Lord Bacon Essay 16. Stoâ—ci dicunt uâ—um Deum esse iâ—sâ—mque mâ—ntâ—m â—atum Iovem dicunt Principio illum cum esset aâ—ud se substantiam onnem per aerem in â—qâ—am coâ—vertisse Qâ—od aâ—â—em faciat Vâ—â—bâ—m Deum esse quod in ipsa sit Hunâ—
me Denyal of our grace may seem to be humility but it tendeth to extinguish Love and Gratitude § 57. But you 'l say I must avoid soul-delusion and Pharisaical ostentation on the other side and few reach assurance how then should we keep up the Love of God Answ. 1. Though I am not come to the point of Trying and Discerning Grace I shall give you this much help in the way because it is so useful to the exercises of Love 1. If you have not Enjoying delighting Love yet try whether you have not Desiring seeking Love Love appeareth as truly in deâ—iâ—â—ng and seeking Good as in delighting in it Poor men shew their Love of the world by Desiring and seeking it as much as rich men do in delighting in it What is it that you most desire and seek 2. Or if this be so weak that you scarce discern it do you not find a mourning and lamenting Love You shew that you loved your money by mourning when you lose it and that you loved your friend by grieving for his death as well as by delighting in him while he lived If you heartily lament it as your greatest unhappiness and loss when you think that God doth cast you off and that you are void of Gracâ— and cannot serve and honour him as you would this shews you are not void of Love 3. If you feel not that you Love him do you feel that you would fain Love him and that you Love to Love him If you do so it is a sign that you do Love him When you do not only desire to find such an Evidence of salvation in you but when you desire Love it self and Love to Love God Had you not rather have a heart to Love him perfectly than to have all the riches in the world Had you not rather live in the Love of God if you could reach it than to live in any earthly pleasure If so be sure he hath your hearts The Will is the Love and the Heart If God have your Will he hath your Heart and Love 4. What hath your Hearts if he have them not Is there any thing that you prefer and seek before him and that you had rather have than him Can you be content without him and let him go in exchange for any earthly pleasure If not it is a sign he hath your Hearts You love him saâ—ingly if you set more by nothing else than by him 5. Do you love his holy Image in his word Do you delight and meditate in his Law Psalm 1. 2. Is it in your hearts Psalm 40. 8. Or do you pray Incline my heart unto thy Testimonies Psalm 119. 36. If you love Gods Image in his word the wisdom and holiness of it you love God 6. Do you love his Image on his Children If you Love them for their heavenly wisdom and holiness you so far Love God He that loveth the Candle for its light doth love the light it self and the sun He that loveth the wise and holy for their wisdom and holiness doth love wisdom and holiness it self The word and the saints being more in the reach of our sensible apprehensions than God himself is we ordinarily feel our Love to them more sensibly than our Love to God when indeed it is God in his word and servants that we love 1 Iohn 3. 14. Psalm 15. 4. 7. Though for want of Assurance you feel not the delights of Love have you not a heart that would delight in it more than in all the riches of the world if you could but get assurance of your interest Would it not comfort you more than any thing if you could be sure he Loveth you and could perfectly Love him and obey him If so it is not for want of Love that you delight not in him but for want of Assurance So that if God have thy heart either in a delighting Love or a seeking and desiring or a lamenting mourning Love he will not despise it or reject it He is â—igh to them that be of a broken heart Psalm 34. 18. A broken and contrite heart is his sacrifice which he will not despise Psalm 51. 17. The good Lord will have mercy on every one that prepareth their hearts to seek him though they do it not according to the preparation of the sanctuary 2 Cor. 30. 18 19. By these Evidences you may discern the sincerity of Love in small degrees and so you may make Love the occasion of more Love by discerning that Goodness of God which is manifested to you in the least § 38. 2. But suppose you cannot yet attain assurance Neglect not to improve that Goodness and Mercy of God which he revealeth to you in the state that you are in Love him but as Infinite Goodness should be loved who so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. Love him as the most blessed merciful God who made you and all things and hath given to the world an universal pardon on condition of their penitent acceptance and offereth them everlasting life and all this purchased by the blood of Christ Love him as one that offereth you reconciliation and intreateth you to be saved and as one that delighteth not in the death of the wicked but rather that they turn and live and as one that would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth though he will save none but the penitent that do acknowledge the truth And when you love him sincerely on these accounts you will have the evidence of his special Love to you § 39. Direct 16. Improve thy sense of natural and friendly love to raise thee to the Love of God Direct 16. When thou seest or feelest what Love a parent hath to children and a Husband to a wife or a Wife to a Husband or faithful friends to one another think then What Love do I owe to God O how inconsiderable is the Loveliness of a child a wife a friend the best of Creatures in comparison of the Loveliness of God Unworthy soul Canst thou love a drop of Goodness in thy friend And canst thou not Love the Ocean of Goodness in thy God Is a spark in the creature more amiable than the fire that kindled it Thou canst Love thy friend for all his blemishes his ignorance his passions and manifold imperfections And canst thou not love thy God who hath none of these nor any thing to discourage or damp thy love Thou lovest and deservedly lovest thy friend because he loveth thee and deals friendly with thee But O how much greater is the Love of God Did ever friend Love thee as he hath loved thee Did ever friend do for thee as he hath done He gave thee thy being thy daily safety and all the mercies of thy life He gave thee his Son his Spirit and his Grace He pardoned thy sins and
and expectation is but self-promising and self-deceiving And wise men will not easily take themselves for Prophets nor take any thing for an inspiration or divine extraordinary revelation which bringeth not the testimony of cogent evidence § 6. IV. There are three Great Uses and benefits of this Trust in God which highly commend it to us and make it necessary 1. It is necessary to our Acknowledgement and Honouring of God It is a cordial practical confession of his Power and Wisdom and Goodness and Truth For where any one of these are wanting there is no ground of rational Trust. And the greater the danger or assault against us is the more God is acknowledged and honoured by our Trust For then we declare that no creature or impediment can disappoint his will but that his Power is above all Power and his Wisdom above all Wisdom and his goodness and fidelity constant and invincible Whereas Distrust is a denying of God in some of his attributes or a suspecting of him 2. It is necessary to our selves for the quiet and peace and comfort of our minds which else will be left unavoidably to continual disquietness and pain by vexatious fears and griefs and cares unless stupidity or deceit should ease them 3. It is necessary to prevent the errors and sinful miscarriage of our lives For if we Trust not in God we shall spend all our thoughts and labours in the use of sinful means we shall be trusting idolatrously to the creature and we shall be shifting for our selves by lyes or any unlawful means and lose our selves by saving our selves as from God or without God § 7. Hence it is that Trust in God is so frequently and earnestly commanded in the Scriptures and such blessings promised to it as if it were the sum of Godliness and Religion Jer. 17. 5. 7. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Prov. 16. 20. Who so trusteth in the Lord happy is he Psalm 2. 12. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him So Psal. 84. 12. 34. 8. O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him Psal. 32. 10. 57. 1. 86. 2. 22. 4 5 8. Safety stability comfort salvation all mercies are promised to them that trust in God Psal. 34. 22. 37. 3 5. 40. 91. 2 4. 125. 1. Isa. 50. 10. So faith in Christ is called Trust Matth. 12. 21. Ephes. 1. 12 13. And Idolaters and worldlings are described by Trusting in their Idols and their Wealth Psalm 115. 8. 135. 18. Amos 6. 1. Mar. 10. 24. Prov. 11. 28. 28. 26. §. 7. Directions for a quieting and comforting Trust in God Direct 1. Let thy soul retain the deepest impressions of the Allmightiness Wisdom Goodness and faithfulness Direct 1. of God and how certainly all persons things and events are in his power and how impotent all the world is to resist him and that nothing can hurt thee but by his consent The principal means for a confirmed confidence in God is to know him and to know that all things that we can fear are nothing and can do nothing but by his command and motion or permission I am not afraid of a Bird or a Worm because I know it is too weak for me And if I rightly apprehend how much all creatures are too weak for God and how sufficient God is to deliver me his Trust would quiet me Isa. 41. 10. Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee So v. 13 14. 43. 1. 44. 2. 8. Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee Isa. 51. 7 8. Hâ—arken unto me ye that know righteousness the people in whâ—se heart is my Law Fear ye not the reproach of men neither be afraid of their revilings for the moth shall eat them up like a garment the Worm shall eat them like Wooll § 9. Direct 2. Labour for a sound and clear understanding of the promises of God that thou maist know how far he calleth thee to trust him For to think that he promiseth what he doth not is not to trust him but to deceive thy self And to think that he doth not promise what indeed he doth is to cast away the Ground of trust § 10. Direct 3. Yield not to the Tempter who would either entiâ—e thee into terrifying guilt and Direct 3. blot thine evidences or else hide them from thee and keep thee doubtful and suspicious of the Love of God For almost all that the distrustful soul hath to say for it self to justifie its distrust is I am not sure that the promises are mine Remember still that a Heart dedicated to God or consenting to his Covenant is your fullest Evidence And suffer not this to be hid or blotted Wilful sin and guiltiness breeds fears and will interrupt your trust and quiet till it be forsaken § 11. Direct 4. Remember the Grounds of confidence and quietness which God hath given you in Direct 4. his Son his Covenant his Spirit his Sacraments and your own and others manifold experiences I name them all together because I would have you set them all together before your eyes Will he not give you all things with him that hath given you his Son Rom. 8 32. Is not Christ a sufficient undertaker and encourager Is not his Covenant Promise and Oath sufficient security for you Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an Oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have a strong consolation Heb. 6. 17 18. And is not the Heavenly seal and earnest of his Spirit sufficient to confirm us 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Ephes. 1. 13 14. 4. 30. And have you tryed God so oft and yet cannot you trust him Our frequent experiences though the least of all these helps of Trust are very powerful because they are near us and almost satisfie sense it self When all our bones say Lord who is like unto thee who deliverest the poor c. Psal. 35. 10. § 12. Direct 5. Consider of the greatness of the sin of distrust how it denyeth God in his Attributes Direct 5. and usually supposeth the creature to be above him Either thou doubtest of or denyest his Power to help thee or his Wisdom as deficient in making his promises or finding out the means of thy deliverance or his Goodness and Love as if he would deceive thee and so his Truth and faithfulness in his promises And if thou fear a man how great soever when God calleth thee to Trust him for thy help what dost
Gospel Leave out this Gratitude and it is no Evangelical Repentance And what is our saving faith in Christ but the Assent to the truth of the Gospel with a Thankful Acceptance of the good which it offereth us even Christ as our Saviour with the Benefits of his Redemption The Love to God that is there required is the Thankful Love of his Redeemed ones And the Love to our very enemies and the forgiving of wrongs and all the Love to one another and all the works of Charity there required are the exercises of Gratitude and are all to be done on this account because Christ hath loved us and forgiven us and that we may shew our thankful Love to him Preaching and Praying and Sacraments and publick praises and communion of Saints and obedience are all to be animated with Gratitude and they are no further Evangelically performed than Thankfulness is the very life and complexion of them all The dark and defective opening of this by Preachers gave occasion to the Antinomians to run into the contrary extream and to derogate too much from Gods Law and our Obedience But if we obscure the doctrine of Evangelical Gratitude we do as bad or worse than they Obedience to our Ruler and Thankfulness to our Benefactor conjoyned and co-operating as the Head and Heart in the Natural body do make a Christian indeed Understand this well and it will much incline your hearts to Thankfulness § 4. Direct 2. Let the greatness of the manifold mercies of God be continually before your eyes Direct 2. Thankfulness is caused by the due apprehension of the greatness of mercies If you either know them not to be mercies or know not that they are mercies to you or believe not what is said and promised in the Gospel or forget them or think not of them or make light of them through the corruption of your minds you cannot be thankful for them I have before spoken of Mercy in order to the kindling of Love and therefore shall now only recite these following to be alwayes in your memories 1. The Love of God in giving you a Redeemer and the Love of Christ in giving his life for us and in all the parts of our Redemption 2. The Covenant of Grace the pardon of all our sins the justification of our persons our adoption and title to eternal life 3. The aptness of means for calling us to Christ The gracious and wise disposals of providence to that end the gifts and compassion of our instructers the care of Parents and the helps and examples of the servants of Christ. 4. The efficacy of all these means â—he giving us to will and to do and opening of our hearts and giving us repentance unto life and the Spirit of Christ to mortifie our sins and purifie our nature and dwell within us 5. A standing in his Church under the care of faithful Pastors the liberty comfort and frequent benefit of his Word and Sacraments and the publick communion of his Saints 6. The company of those that fear the Lord and their faithful admonitions reproofs and encouragements the kindness they have shewed us for body or for soul. 7. The mercies of our Relations or habitations our estates and the notable alterations and passages of our lives 8. The manifold preservations and deliverances of our souls from errors and seducers from terrors and distress from dangerous temptations and many a soul-wounding sin and that we are not leâ—t to the errors and desires of our hearts to seared Consciences as forsaken of God 9. The manifold deliverances of our bodies from enemies hurts distresses sicknesses and death 10. The mercies of adversity in wholesome necessary chastisements or honourable sufferings for his sake and support or comfort under all 11. The communion which our souls have had with God in the course of our private and publick duties in Prayer Sacraments and Meditation 12. The use which he hath made of us for the good of others that our time hath not been wholly lost and we have not lived as burdens of the world 13. The mercies of all our friends and his servants which were to us as our own and our interest in the mercies and publick welfare of his Church which are more than our own 14. His patience and forbearance with us under our constant unprofitableness and provocations and his renewed mercies notwithstanding our abuse our perseverance untill now 15. Our hopes of everlasting Rest and Glory when this sinsul life is at an end Aggravate these mercies in your more enlarged meditations and they will sure constrain you to cry out Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal. 102. 1 2 3 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful to him and bless his name For the Lord is good his Mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations Psal. 100. 4 5. The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy For as the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his mercy to them that fear him Psal. 103. 8 11. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Psal. 136. 1 c. O give thanks unto the Lord call upon his name make known his deeds among the people sing ye unto him sing Psalms unto him talk ye of all his wondrous works glory ye in his holy name Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek him Psal. 105. 1 2 3. § 5. Direct 3. Be well acquainted with the greatness of your sins and sensible of them as they are Direct 3. the aggravation of Gods Mercies to you This is the main end why God will humble those that he will save Not to drive them to despair of mercy nor that he taketh pleasure in their sorrows for themselves But to work the heart to a due esteem of saving mercy and to a serious desire after it that they may thankfully receive it and carefully retain it and faithfully use it An unhumbled soul sets light by Christ and Grace and Glory It relisheth no spiritual mercy It cannot be thankful for that which it findeth no great need of But true humiliation recovereth our appetite and teacheth us to value mercy as it is Think therefore what sin is as I have opened to you Dir. 8. and think of your manifold aggravated sins and then think how great those mercies are that are bestowed on so great unworthy sinners Then mercy will melt your humbled hearts when you confess that you are unworthy to be called Sons Luke 15. and that you are not worthy to look up to Heaven Luke 18. 13. and that you are not worthy of the least
of all the mercies of God Gen. 32. 10. The humble soul is the thankful soul and therefore so greatly valued by the Lord. § 6. Direct 4. Understand what Misery you were delivered from and estimate the greatness of the Direct 4. mercy by the greatness of the punishment which you had deserved Misery as well as sin must tell us the greatness of our mercies This is before opened Chap. 1. Dir. 9. pag. 21. § 7. Direct 5. Suppose you saw the damned souls or suppose you had been one day in Hell your selves Direct 5. bethink you then how thankful you would have been for Christ and Mercy And you were condemned to it by the Law of God and if death had brought you to execution you had been there and then Mercy would have been more esteemed If a Preacher were sent to those miserable souls to offer them a pardon and eternal life on the terms as they are offered to us do you think they would make as light of it as we do § 8. Direct 6. Neglect not to keep clear the Evidences of thy title to those special Mercies for Direct 6. which thou shouldst be most thankful And hearken not to Satan when he would tempt thee to think that they are none of thine that so he might make thee deny God the Thanks for them which he expecteth Of this I have spoken in the Directions for Love § 9. Direct 7. Think much of those personal mercies which God hath shewed thee from thy youth up Direct 7. untill now by which he hath manifested his care of thee and particular kindness to thee Though the common mercies of Gods servants be the greatest which all other Christians share in with each one yet personal favours peculiar to our selves are apt much to affect us as being near our apprehension and expressing a peculiar care and love of us Therefore Christians should mark Gods dealings with them and write down the great and notable mercies of their lives which are not unfit for others to know if they should see it § 10. Direct 8. Compare thy proportion of Mercies with the rest of the peoples in the world And Direct 8. thou wilt find that it is not one of many thousands that hath thy proportion It is so small a part of the world that are Christians and of those so few that are Orthodox Reformed Christians and of those so few that are seriously godly as devoted to God and of those so few that fall not into some perplexities errors scandals or great afflictions and distress that those few that are in none of these ranks have cause of wonderous thankfulness to God Yea the most afflicted Christians in the world Suppose God had divided his mercies equally to all men in the world as health and wealth and honour and grace and the Gospel c. How little of them would have come to thy share in comparison of what thou now possessest How many have less wealth or honour than thou How many thousands have less of the Gospel and of Grace In reason therefore thy thankfulness should be proportionable and extraordinary § 11. Direct 9. Compare the Mercies which thou wantest with those which thou possessest and observe how Direct 9. much thy receivings are greater than thy sufferings Thou hast many meals plenty for one day of scarcity or pinching hunger Thou hast many dayes Health for one dayes sickness and if one part be ill there are more that are not If one Cross befall thee thou escapest many more that might befall thee and which thou deservest § 12. Direct 10. Bethink thee how thou wouldst value thy mercies if thou wert deprived of them Direct 10. The want of them usually teacheth us most effectually to esteem them Think how thou shouldst value Christ and hope if thou wert in Despair And how thou wouldst value the mercies of Earth if thou wert in Hell And the Mercies of England if thou were among bloody Inquisitors and persecutors and wicked cruell Heathens or Mahometans or bruitish savage Americans Think how good sleep would seem to thee if thou couldst not sleep for pains Or how good thy meat or drink or cloaths or house or maintenance or friends would all seem to thee if they were taken from thee And how great a mercy health would seem if thou were under some tormenting sickness and what a mercy Time would seem if Death were at hand and Time were ending And what a mercy thy least sincere desires or measure of grace is in comparison of their case that are the haters despisers and persecutors of holiness These thoughts if followed home may shame thee into thankfulness § 13. Direct 11. Let Heaven be ever in thine eye and still think of the endless joy which thou Direct 11. shalt have with Christ. For that is the mercy of all mercies and he that hath not that in hope to be thankful for will never be thankful aright for any thing and he that hath Heaven in prâ—â—isâ— to be thankful for hath still reason for the highest joyful Thanks whatever worldly thing he want or though he were sure never more to have comfort in any creature upon earth He is unthankful indeed that will not be thankful for Heaven But that is a mercy which will constrain to Thankfulness so far as our title is discerned The more believing and heavenly the mind is the more thankful § 14. Direct 12. Look on earthly and present Mercies in connexion with Heaven which is their End and Direct 12. as sweetned by our interest in God that giveth them You leave out all the life and sweetness which must cause your thankfulness if you leave out God and overlook him A dead carkâ—ss hath not the Loveliness or Usefulness as a living man You mortifie your mercies when you separate them from God and Heaven and then their beauty and sweetness and excellercy is gone And how can you be thankful for the husks and shells when you foolishly neglect the kernel Take every bit as from thy Fathers hands Remember that he feedeth and clotheth and protecteth thee as his Child It is to Our Father which is in Heaven that we must go every day for our daily bread Taste his Love in it and thou wilt say that It is sweet Remember whither all his Mercies tend and where they will leave thee even in the bosome of Eternal Love Think with thy self How good is this with the Love of God This and Heaven are full enough for me Course fare and course clothing and course usage in the world and hard labour and a poor habitation with Heaven after all is Mercy beyond all humane estimation or conceiving Nothing can be little which is a token of the love of God and leadeth to Eternal Glory The Relation to Heaven is the life and glory of every mercy § 15. Direct 13. Think oft how great a mercy it is that Thankfulness for mercy is made so
and all the secrets of the heart Psalm 44. 21. 94. 11. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Acts 15. 18. His understanding is infinite Psalm 147. 5. What praise doth that Goodness and Mercy deserve which is diffused throughout all the world and is the life and hope and happiness of men and Angels His Mercy is Great unto the Heavens and his Truth unto the Clouds Psalm 57. 10. O how great is his Goodness to them that fear him Psalm 31. 10. and therefore how great should be his Praise Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord and who can shew forth all his Praise Psalm 106. 2. For great is the Glory of the Lord Psalm 138. 5. § 15. 2. It is the end of all Gods wondrous works and especially the end which man was made for that all things else might Praise him Objectively and men and Angels in estimation and expression that his Glorious excellency might be visible in his works and be admired and extolled by the rational creature For this all things were created and are continued For this we have our understanding and our speech This is the fruit that God expecteth from all his works Deny him this and you are guilty of frustrating the whole creation as much as in you lieth You would have the Sun to shine in vain and the Heavens and Earth to stand in vain and man and all things to live in vain if you would not have God have the praiâ—e and Glory of his works Therefore Sun and Moon and Starrs and Firmament are called on to Praise the Lord Psalm 148. 2 3 4. as they are the matter for which he must by us be praised O praise him therefore for his mighty acts Praise him according to his excellent greatness Psalm 150. 2. O that men would praise the Lord for his Goodness and declare his wondrous works for the children of men Psalm 107. 8 c. Yea it is the end of Christ in the Redemption of the world and in saving his elect that God might in the Church in Earth and Heaven have the praise and glory of his grace Ephes. 1. 6 12 14. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that iâ— the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name Heb. 13. 15. And let the redeemed of the Lord say that his mercy endureth for ever Psalm 107. 2. For this all his Saints are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the praises of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. § 16. 3. The Praise of God is the highest and noblest work in it self 1. It hath the highest object even the glorious excellencies of God Thanksgiving is somewhat lower as having more respect to our selves and the Benefits received But Praise is terminated directly on the perfections of God himself 2. It is that work that is most immediately neerest on God as he is Our end And as the end as such is better than all the means set together as such so are the final duties about the end greater than all the mediate duties 3. It is the work of the most excellent creatures of God the holy Angels They proclaimed the coming of Christ by way of Praise Luke 2. 13 14. Glory to God in the highest on earth peace Good-will towards men Psalm 103. 20. 148. 2. And as we must be equal to the Angels it must be in equal Praising God or else it will not be in equality of Glory 4. It is the work of Heaven the place and state of all perfection And that is best and highest which is nearest Heaven Where they rest not day nor night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Allmighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4. 8. 10. Rev. 19. 5. A voice came out of the throne saying Praise our God all ye his servants and ye that fear him both small and great verse 6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundrings saying Allelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honour to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready § 17. 4. It beseemeth us and much concerneth us to learn and exercise that work which in Heaven we must do for ever and that is to Love and joyfully Praise the Lord. For earth is but the place of our apprentiship for Heaven The preparing works of mortifying repentance must in their place be done but only as subservient to these which we must ever do When we shall sing the new song before the Lamb Thou art worthy For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us Kings and Priests unto our God Rev. 5. 9 10. Therefore the Primitive Church of believers is described as most like to Heaven Luke 24. 53. with great joy they were continually in the Temple Praising and blessing God O Praise the Lord therefore in the congregations of the Saints Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Psalm 149. 1 2. Let the Saints be joyful in glory Let the high praises of God be in their mouths verse 5 6. § 18. 5. Though we are yet diseased sinners and in our warfare among enemies dangers and perplexities yet Praise is seasonable and suitable to our condition here as the greatest part of our duty which all the rest must but promote Pretend not that it is not fit for you because you are sinners and that humiliation only is suitable to your state For the design of your redemption the tenour of the Gospel and your own condition engage you to it Are they not engaged to Praise the Lord that are brought so near him to that end 1 Pet. 2 5. 9. that are reconciled to him To whom he hath given and forgiven so much 1 Tim. 1. 15. Tit. 3. 3 5. Psalm 103. 1 2 3. that have so many great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. that are the Temples of the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in them and sanctifieth them to God That have a Christ interâ—â—ding for them in the highest Rom. 8. 33 34. That are allways safe in the arms of Christ that are guarded by Angels and Devils and enemies forbidden to touch them further than their father sâ—eth necessary for their good That have the Lord for their God Psalm 33. 12. 4. 8. That have his Saints for their companions and helpers That have so many ordinances to help their souls And so
sins as their flesh can spare as unnecessary to its ease provision or content yea or such sins as the flesh commandeth them to forbear as tending to their dishonour in the world they take this for true obedience to God Because they had rather have Heaven than Hell when they must leave the Earth whether they will or no they think that they are heavenly minded and lay up their treasure there and take it for their portion Because conscience sometime troubleth them for their sin they think they renew a sincere repentance and think all is pardoned because they daily ask for pardon Their forced submission to the hand of God they take for patience And a Lord have mercy on us and forgive us and save us they take for a true preparation for death Thus Pride deceiveth sinners by making them believe that they have what they have not and do what they do not and are something when they are nothing Gal. 6. 3. and by multiplying and magnifying the little common good that is in them § 33. Sign 3. A Proud heart hath very little sense of the necessity of a Saviour to die for his sins Sign 3. and satisfie Gods justice and reconcile him to God Notionally he is sick of sin and notionally he thinks he needeth a Physicion But practically at the heart he feeleth little of his disease and therefore little sâ—ts by Christ. He feeleth not that which should throughly acquaint him with the Reasons of this blessed work of our Redemption And therefore indeed is a stranger to the mystery and an unbeliever at the heart and would turn Apostate if the tryal were strong enough He never felt himself a condemned man under the curse and wrath of God and lyable to Hell And therefore never lay in tears with Mary at his Saviours feet nor melted over his bleeding Lord nor feelingly said with Paul He came to save sinners of whom I am chief nor esteemed all things as loss and dung for the knowledge of Christ that he might be found in him Phil. 3. 7 8. He is a Christian but as a Turk is a Mahomâ—tane because it is the Religion of the King and the Country in which he was bred § 34. Sign 4. A Proud heart perceiveth not his own necessity of so great a change as a New birth Sign 4. and of the Holy Ghost to give him a new nature and plant the image of God upon him He findeth perhaps some breaches in his soul but he thinks there needs no breaking of the heart for them nor pulling all down and building up his hopes anew Amending his heart he thinks may serve the turn without making it and all things new The new creature he taketh to be but Baptism or some 2 Cor. 5. 17. patching up of the former state and amending some grosser things that were amiss He will confess that without Christ and grace we can do nothing but he thinketh this grace is an ordinary help Where as a humble soul is so emptyed of it self and perceiveth its deadness and insufficiency to good that it magnifieth grace and is wondrous thankful for it as for a new and spiritual life § 35. Sign 5. A Proud heart hath so little experimental sense of the great accusations which Scripture Sign 5. bringeth against the corrupted heart of man that it is easily drawn into any Heresie which denieth Rom 5. 12 17 18 19 John 3. 3 5 8. them As about our Original sin and misery and need of a Saviour about the desperate wickedness of the heart and mans insufficiency and impotencie to good yea averseness from it Whereas humble men are better acquainted with the sin within them that beareth witness to all these truths § 36. Sign 6. The Proud are insensible of the need and reason of all that diligence to mortifie the Jer. 17 9. Sign 6. flesh and subdue corruptions and watch the heart and walk with God in holiness of life which God requireth He saith what need all this ado He feeleth not the need of it and therefore thinks its more ado than needs But the humble soul is sensible of that within him that requireth it and justifieth the strictest waies of God The Rich think they have no need to labour but labour is a poor mans life and maintenance If he miss it a day he feeleth the want of it the next § 37. Sign 7. Proud men are much insensible of the want of frequent and fervent Prayer unto God Sign 7. Begging is the poor mans trade The humble soul perceives the need of it He finds as constant need of God as of air or bread or life it self And he knoweth that the exercise of our desires and faith and the expression by prayer of our dependance upon God is the way appointed for our supply But the proud are full-stomacht and think this earnest frequent praying is but hypocritical needless work and they cannot make a trade of begging and therefore they are sent empty away § 38. Sign 8. A proud man is a great undervaluer of all mercies and unthankful for them but Sign 8. especially for spiritual mercy He receiveth it customarily as if it were his due and customarily gives God thanks But though he may rejoyce in the prosperity of his flesh yet he is a stranger to holy thankfullness to God and thinks diminutively of mercy yea he is discontent and murmureth if God give him not as much as he desireth Whereas the humble confess themselves unworthy of the least Gen. 30. 10. 2 Chron. 32. 24 25 26. Hezekiahs lifting up and unthankfullness go together A poor man will be very thankful for a peny or a piece of bread which the rich would reject as a great indignity § 39. Sign 9. Proud men are allways impatient in their afflictions If they have a stoutness or stupidity Sign 9. yet they have not Christian patience They take it as if God used them hardly or did them wrong But the humble know that they deserve much worse and that the mercy that is left them is contrary to their desert And therefore say with the humbled Church Mic. 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him Lam. 3. 22. It is because his compassions fail not that we are not consumed § 40. Sign 10. Proud men are fearless of temptations and confident of their strength and the goodness Sign 10. of their hearts They dare live among snares in pomp and pleasure faring deliciously every day among plays and gaming and lascivious company and discourse and fear no hurt their Pride making them insensible of their danger and what tinder and gunpowder is in their natures for every spark of temptation to catch fire in But the humble are allways suspitious of themselves and know their danger and avoid the snare Prov. 14. 16. A wise man feareth and departeth from evil but the fool rageth and is confident Prov.
his head His clothing you may read of at his crucifying when they parted it As for money he was fain to send Petâ—r to a â—â—â—â—h for some to pay their tribute If Christ did scrape and care for Riches then so do thou Iâ— he thought it the happiest life do thou think so too But if he contemned it do thou contemn it If his whole life was directed to give thee the most perfect example of the contempt of all the prosperity of this world then learn of his example if thou take him for thy Saviour and if thou love thy self Though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich 2 Cor. 8 9. § 31. Direct 10. Think on the example of the primitive Christians even the best of Christs servants Direct 10. and see how it condemneth worldliness They that by miracle in the name of Christ could give limbs to the lame yet tell him Silver and Gold have we none Acts 3. 6. Those that had possessions sold them and laid the money at the Apostles feet and they had all things common to shew that faith overcometh the world by contemning it and subjecting it to charity and devoting it entirely to God Read whether the Apostles did live in sumptuous houses with great attendance and worldly Cheâ—â—â—â—stome saith his enemies â—harged him with many crimes but never with Covâ—tousness or Wantonâ—ess And so it was with Christ and his enemies plenty and prosperity And so of the rest § 32. Direct 11. Remember to what ends all worldly things were made and given you and what a Direct 11. happy advantage you may make of them by renouncing them as they would be provision for your lusts and by devoting your selves and them to God The use of their sweetness is to draw your souls to taste Et siâ—uâ— in patria Deâ—s est speculum in quo reiucent creaturae sic è converso in via creaturae sunt speculum quo creator videtur Paul Scaâ—iger in Ep. Câ—th l. 14. Thes. 123. p. 689. by faith the heavenly sweetness They are the Looking-glass of souls in flesh that are not yet admitted to see things spiritual face to face They are the provender of our bodies our travelling furniture and helps our Inns and solacing company in the way they are some of Gods Love-tokens some of the lesser pieces of his Coin and bear his Image and superscription They are drops from the Rivers of the eternal pleasures to tell the mind by the way of the senses how good the Donor is and how amiable and what higher Delights there are for souls and to point us to the better things which these foretell They are messengers from Heaven to testifie our Fathers care and love and to bespeak our thankfulness love and duty and to bear witness against sin and bind us faster to obedience They are the first Volume of the Word of God The first Book that man was set to read to acquaint him fully with his Maker As the Word which we read and hear is the Chariot of the Spirit by which it maketh its accesses to the soul so the delights of sight and taste and smell and touch and hearing were appointed as an ordinary way for the speedy access of heavenly love and sweetness to the Heart that upon the first perception of the goodness and sweetness of the creature there might presently be transmitted by a due progression or deep impression of the goodness of God upon the soul That the creature being the Letters of Gods Book which are seen by our eye the sense even the Love of our great Creator might presently be perceived by the mind and no letter might once be lookt upon but for the sense no creature ever seen or tasted or heard or felt in any delectable quality without a sense of the Love of God That as the touch of the hand upon the strings of the Lute do cause the melody so Gods touch by his mercies upon our hearts might presently tune them into Love and Gratitude and Praise They are the Tools by which we must do much of our Masters work They are means by which we may refresh our brethren and express our love to one another and our love to our Lord and Master in his servants They are our Masters stock which we must trade with by the improvement of which no less than the Reward of endless Happiness may be attained These are the Uses to which God gives us outward mercies Love them thus and Delight in them and Use them thus and spare not yea seek Even Dyonisius the Tyrant was bountiful to Philosophers To Plato he gave above fourscore Talents Laert. in Platoâ—e and much to Aristippus and many more and he offered much to many Philosophers that refused it And so did Croesus them thus and be thankful for them But when the creatures are given for so excellent a use will you debase them all by making them only the fuell of your lusts and the provisions for your flesh And will you love them and dote upon them in these base respects while you utterly neglect their noblest use You are just like children that cry for Books and can never have enouw but its only to play with them because they are fine but when they are set to learn and read them they cry as much because they love it not Or like one that should spend his life and labour in getting the finest clothes to dress his Dogs and Horses with but himself goeth naked and will not wear them § 33. Direct 12. Remember that God hath promised to provide for you and that you shall want Direct 12. nothing that is good for you if you will live above these worldly things and seek first his Kingdom and the righteousness thereof And cannot you trust his promise If you truly believe that he is God Matth. 10. 30. Luke 12. 7. and that he is true and that his particular providence extendeth to the very numbring of your hairs you will sure trust him rather than trust to your own forecast and industry Do you think his provision is not better for you than your own All your own care cannot keep you alive an hour nor cannot prosper any of your labours if you provoke him to blast them And if you are not content with his provisions nor submit your selves to the disposals of his love and wisdom you disoblige God and provoke him to leave you to the fruits of your own care and diligence And then you will find that it had been your wiser way to have trusted God § 34. Direct 13. Think often on the dreadful importance and effects of the Love of Riches or a Direct 13. worldly mind 1. It is a most certain sign of a state of death and misery where it hath the upper The mischiefs of a worldly mind Look upon the face of the calamitous world and enquire
and let them find that thou art not to be spoken with nor at leisure to do nothing but wilt rather seem uncivil and morose than be undone And wouldst thou do thus for a transitory prosperity or life and doth not life eternal require much more will thy weighty business in the world resolve thee to put by thy friends thy play-fellows and sports and to shake off thy idleness and should not the business of thy salvation do it I would desire no more to confute the distracted Time-wasters when they are disputing for their idle sports and vanities and asking what harm is in Cards and Dice and stage-plays or tedious feasts or complementing adorning idleness than if I could help them to one sight of Heaven and Hell and make them well know what greater business they have to do which is staying for them while they sleep or play If I were just now in disputing the case with an idle Lady or a sensual belly-slave or gamester and he were asking me scornfully what hurt is in all this if one did but knock at his door and tell him The King is at the door and calls for you it would make him cast away his game and his dispute Or if the house were on fire or a Child faln into fire or water or Thieves breaking in upon them it would make the Ladies cast by the other Lace or Ribband Or if there were but a good bargain or a Lordship to be got they could be up and going though sports and game and gawdery were cast off And yet the foresight of Heaven and Hell though one of them is even at the door will not do as much with them Because Heaven is as nothing to an unbeliever or an inconsiderate sensless wretch And as it is nothing to them when it should move them it shall be nothing to them when they would enjoy it Say not Recreation must be used in its season I know that necessary whetting is no letting But God and thy own Conscience shall tell thee shortly whether thy Recreation feastings long dressings and idleness were a necessary whetting or refreshment of thy Body to fit it for that work which thou wast born and livest for or whether they were the Pastimes of a voluptuous fleshly bruit that lived in these pleasures for the love of pleasure Verily if I lookt but on this one unreasonable sin of Time-wasting it would help me to understand the meaning of Luk. 15. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Prodigal is said to Come to himself and that conversion is the bringing a man to his wits § 9. Direct 2. Be not a stranger to the condition of thy own soul but look home till thou art acquainted Direct 2. what state it is in and what it is in danger of and what it wanteth and how far thou art behind hand in thy provisions for immortality and then be an idle Time-waster if thou canst Could I but go down with thee into that dungeon Heart of thine and shew thee by the light of truth what is there could I but let in one convincing beam from Heaven which might fully shew thee what a condition thou art in and what thou hast to do with thy remaining Time I should have no need to dispute thee out of thy childish fooleries nor to bid thee be up and doing for thy soul no more than to bid thee stir if a Bear were at thy back or the house in a flame about thy ears Alas our ordinary Time-wasters are such as are yet unconverted carnal wretches and are all the while in the power of the Devil who is the chief master of the sport and the greatest gainer They are such as are utter strangers to the regenerating sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost and are yet unjustified and under the guilt of all their sins and certain to be with Devils in Hell for ever if they die thus before they are converted This is true sinner and thou wilt shortly find it so by grace or vengeance though thy blind and hardened heart now rise against the mention of it And is this a case for a man to sit at cards and dice in or to sport and swagger in The Lord have mercy on thee and open thy eyes before it is too late or else thy Conscience will tell thee for ever in another manner than I am telling thee now that thou hadst need to have better improved thy Time and hadst greater things to have spent it in What for a man in thy case in an unrenewed unsanctified unpardoned state to be thus casting away that little Time which all his hopes lie on and in which if ever he must be recovered and saved O Lord have mercy on such sensless souls and bring them to themselves be fore it be too late I tell thee man an enlightened person that understandeth what it is and hath escaped it would not for all the Kingdoms of the world be a week or a day in thy condition for fear lest death cut off his hopes and shut him up in Hell that very day He durst not sleep quietly in thy condition a night lest death should snatch him away to Hell and canst thou sport and play in it and live securely in a sensual course O what a thing it is to be hoodwinkt in misery and to be led asleep to Hell who could perswade men to live thus awake and go dancing to Hell with their eyes open O if we should but imagine a Peter or a Paul or any of the blessed to be again brought into such a case as one of these unsanctified sinners and yet to know what now they know what would they do would they feast and game and play and trifle away their time in it or would they not rather suddenly bewail their former mispent time and all their sins and cry day and night to God for mercy and fly to Christ and spend all their time in Holiness and obedience to God! Alas poor sinner do but look into thy heart and see there what thou hast yet to do of greater weight than trimming and playing I almost tremble to think and write what a case thou art in and what thou hast to do while thou livest as if thou hadst Time to spare If thou know not I will tell thee and the Lord make thee know it Thou hast a hardened heart to be yet softened and an unbelieving heart to be brought to a lively powerful Belief of the word of God and the unseen world Thou hast an unholy Heart and life to be made Holy if ever thou wilt see the face of God Heb. 12. 14. Matth. 18. 3. Ioh. 3. 3 5 6. Thou hast a Heart-full of sins to be mortified and subdued and an unreformed life to be reformed And what abundance of particulars do these Generals contain Thou hast a pardon to procure through Jesus Christ for all the sins that ever thou didst commit and all the duties which ever thou
think how madly they consumed their lives and wasted the only Time that was given them to prepare for their salvation Do those in Hell now think them wise that are idling or playing away their time on earth O no! their feeling and experience sufficiently confuteth all that Time-wasters now plead for their â—ottish prodigality I do not believe that thou canst at once believe the Word oâ— God concerning the state of damned souls and yet believe that thy idle and vain expence of Time would not vex thy conscience and make thee even rage against thy self if ever sin should bring thee thither O then thou wouldst see that thou hadst greater matters to have spent thy time in and that it deserved a higher estimation and improvement O man beseâ—ch the Lord to prevent such a conviction and to give thee a heart to prize thy time before it is gone and to know the worth of it bâ—â—ore thou know the want of it Tit. 2. Directions Contemplative for Redeeming Opportunity Seâ— the many aggravaâ—ions oâ—â—inâ—ul Dâ—lay in my Dirâ—ctions for â—ound Convâ—â—sion § 28. OPportunity or Season is the flower of Time All Time is precious but the season is most precious The present Time is the season to works of present necâ—ssity And for others they have all their particular seasâ—ns which must not be let slip Direct 1. Remember that it is the great difference between the happy Saint and the unhappy world Direct 1. that one is wise in time and the other is wise too late The godly know while knowledge will do good The wicked know when knowledge will but torment them All those that you see now so exceedingly contrary in their judgement to the godly will be of the very same opinion shortly when it will do them no good Bear with their difference and contradiction for it will be but a very little while There is not one man that now is the furious enemy of holiness but will confess ere long that Holiness was best Do they now despise it as tedious fantastical hypocrisie They will shortly know that it was but the cure of a distracted mind and the necessary duty to God which Religion and right reason do command Do they now say of sin What harm is in it They will shortly know that it is the poyson of the soul and worse than any misery or death They will think mâ—re highly of the worth of Christ of the necessity of all possible diligence for our souls of the preciousness of Time of the wisdom of the Godly of the excellencies of Heaven and of the Word of God and all holy Means than any of those do that are now reproached by them for being of this mind But what the better will they be for this No more than Adam for knowing good and evil No more than it will profit a man when he is dead to know of what disease he dyed No more than it will profit a man to know what is poyson when he hath taken it and is past remedy The Thief will be wise at the Gallows and the Spendthrift-prodigal when all is gone But they that will be safe and happy must be wise in Time The godly know the worth of Heaven before it is lost and the misery of damnation before they feel it and the necessity of a Saviour while he is willing to be a Saviour to them and the evil of sin before it hath undone them and the preciousness oâ— Time before it is gone and the worth of mercy while mercy may be had and the need of praying while praying may prevail They sleep not till the door is shut and then knock and cry Lord open to us as the foolish ones Matth. 25. They are not like the miserable world that will not believe till they come where Devils believe and tremble nor Repent till torment force them to repent As ever you would escape the dear-bought experience of fools be wise in time and leave not Conscience to answer all your cryes and moans and fruitless wishes with this doleful peal Too late Too late Do but know now by an effectual faith what wicked men will know by feeling and experience when it is too late and you shall not perish Do but live now as those enemies of Holiness will wish they had lived when it is too late and you will be happy Now God may be found Seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will â—ave mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55. 6 7. Read but the doleful lamentation of Christ over Ierusalem Luke 19. 41 42. and then bethink you what it is to neglect the season of mercy and salvation He beheld the City and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at lest in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace But now they are hidden from thine eyes § 29. Direct 2. Remember that the neglecting of the season is the frustrating and destroying of the Direct 2. work When the season is past the work cannot be done If you sow not in the time of sowing it will be in vain at another time If you reap not and gather not in harvest it will be too late in Winter to hope for fruit If you stay till the Tide is gone or take not the Wind that fits your turn it may be in vain to attempt your Voyage All works cannot be done at all times Christ himself saith I must walk while it is day the night cometh when none can work John 9. 4. Say not then The next day may serve the turn The next day is for another work and you must do both § 30. Direct 3. Consider that if the work should not be impossible yet it will be difficult out of Direct 3. season when in its season it might be done with ease How easily may you swim with the Tide and sail with the Wind and form the Iron if you hammer it while it is hot How easily may many a disease be cured if it be taken in Time which afterwards is uncurable How easily may you bend a tender Twig and pluck up a Plant which will neither be pluckt up nor bended when it is grown up to be a Tree When you complain of difficulties in Religion bethink you whether your loss of the fittest season and acquainting your selves no sooner with God be not the cause § 31. Direct 4. Consider that your work out of season is not so good or acceptable if you could Direct 4. do it Every thing is beautiful in its season Eccles. 3. 11. To speak a word in season to the weary Numb 9. 2 3 7 13. Exod. 13. 10. is the skill of the faithful messengers of peace Isa. 50. 4. When out of season good may be turned into
thoughts Can you expect that the Drunkard should rule his Thoughts whilst he is in the ALE-house or Tavern and seeth the drink Or that the Glutton should rule his thoughts while the pleasing dish is in his sight Or that the Lustful person should keep chast his thoughts in the presence of his enamouring toy Or that the wrathful person rule his thoughts among contentious passionate words Or that the Proud person rule his thoughts in the midst of honour and applause Away with this fuel Fly from this infectious air if you would be safe § 6. Direct 5. At least make a Covenant with your senses and keep them in obedience if you Direct 5. will have obedient thoughts For all know by experience how potently the senses move the thoughts Iob saith I made a Covenant with my eyes why then should I think upon a Maid Mark how the Covenant with his eyes is made the means to rule his thoughts Pray with David Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity Psalm 119. 37. Keep a guard upon your eyes and ears and tast and touch if you will keep a guard upon your thoughts Let not that come into these outer parts which you desire should go no further Open not the door to them if you would not let them in § 7. Direct 6. Remember how near kin the Thought is to the deed and what a tendencie it hath to Direct 6. it Let Christ himself tell you Matth. 7. 22. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Iudgement vers 28. I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart A malicious thought and a malicious deed are from the same spring and have the same nature Only the deed is the riper serpent that can sting another when the Thought is as the younger serpent that hath only the venemous nature in it self A lustful thought is from the same defiled puddle as actual filthiness And the thought is but the passage to the action It is but the same sin in its minority tending to maturity § 8. Direct 7. Keep out or quickly cast out all inordinate passions For Passions do violently press Direct 7. the thoughts and forcibly carry them away If anger or grief or fear or any carnal Love or joy or pleasure be admitted they will command your thoughts to run out upon their several objects And when you rebuke your thoughts and call them in they will not â—aer you till you get them out of the crowd and noise of passion As in the heat of civil wars no Government is well exercised in a Kingdom And as violent storms disable the marryners to govern the ship and save it and themselves so passions are too stormy a Region for the Thoughts to be well Governed in Till your souls be reduced to a calm condition your thoughts will be tumultuating and hurryed that way that the tempests drive them Till these warrs be ended your Thoughts will be licentious and partakers in the rebellion § 9. Direct 8. Keep your souls in a constant and careful obedience unto God Observe his Law Be Direct 8. continually sensible that you are under his Government and awed by his authority Man judgeth not your Thoughts If you are subject to man only your Thoughts must be ungoverned But the Heart is the first Object of Gods Government and that which he principally regardeth His Laws extend to all your thoughts And therefore if you know what Obedience to God is you must know what the obedience of your Thoughts to him is For he that obeyeth God as God will obey him in one thing as well as another and will obey him as the Governor and Iudge of Thoughts The powerful searching word of Christ is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart and as a two-edged sword is sharp and quick and will pierce and cut as deep as the very soul and spirit Heb. 4. 12 13. It casteth down every imagination and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 2 Cor. 10. 5. Therefore David saith to God search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Psalm 139. 23 24. And you find Gods laws and reproofs extending to the thoughts Isa. 59. 7. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity The fools heart-atheism is rebuked Psalm 14. 1. He reproveth a rebellious people for walking in a way that is not good after their own thoughts Isa. 65. 2. See how Christ openeth the heart Matth. 15. 9. He chargeth them Deut. 15. 9. to beware that there be not a thought in their wicked hearts against the mercy which they must shew to the poor Psalm 49 11. He detecteth the inward thought of the wâ—â—ldâ—ing that their hâ—uses shall continue for ever Psalm 24. 9. He â—aith The thought of foolishness iâ—â—â—â—â— The old world was â—â—ndemnâ—d because the imaginations of their hearts were only evil continually Gâ—n 6. 5 And when God calleth a sinner to conversion he saith Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteâ—us man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upâ—n him Isa. 55. 6 7. You see then if you are subject to God your Thoughts must be obedient § 10. Direct 9. Remember Gods continual presence that all your thoughts are in his sight He Direct 9. seâ—th evâ—ry â—ilthy thought and every covetous and proud and ambitious thought and every uncharitable malitious thought If you be not Atheists the remembrance of this will somewhat check and controul your thoughts that God beholdeth them He understandeth your thoughts afar off Psalm 139 â— Dâ—th not â—e that pâ—ndereth the heart consider it Prov. 24. 12. Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts â—aith Christ Matth. 9. 4. § 11. Direct 10. Bethink you seriously what a Government you would keep upon your thoughts if Direct 10. they were but written on your foreheads or seen to all that see you yea or but open to some person whom â—â—u reverence O how ashamed would you then be that men should see your filthy thoughts your malitious thoughts your covetous and deceiving thoughts And is not the eye of God ten thousand times more to be reverenced and regarded And is not man your God if you are awed more by mâ—n than by God And if the eye of man can do more to restrain you § 12. Direct 11. Keep tender your Consciences that they may not be regardless or insensible of the Direct 11. smallest sin A tender Conscience feareth evil and idle thoughts and will smart in the penitent review â—â— thoughts But a â—eared Conscience feeleth nothing except some grievous crying sins A â—â—nder Conscience obeyeth that precept Prov. 30. 32. If thou hast done foolishly in lifting
men are never unprovided for wise speech But the mouth of fools bewrayeth their folly Prov. 15. 2. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness Prov. 14. 3. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride but the lips of the wise shall preseve them Prov. 18. 6 7. A fools lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes A fools mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul. But you 'll say To tell us that we should get wisdom is a word soon spoken but not a thing that 's easily or quickly done It 's very true And therefore it 's as true that the tongue is not easily well used and governed for men cannot express the wisdom which they have not unless it be by rote Therefore you must take Solomons counsel Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. My son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou encline thine ear to wisdom and apply thy heart to understanding yea if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for unstanding If thou seâ—kest her as silver and searchest for her as for hidden treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth wisdom c. § 44. Direct 6. In the mean time learn to be silent till you have learnt to speak Let not your Direct 6. tongues run before your wits speak not of that which you do not well understand unless as Learners to â—â—m 1 19. Slow to speak slow to wâ—ath Prov. 17. 28. receive instruction Rather of the two speak too little than too much Those that will needs talk of things which they understand not do use either to speak evil of them as Iud. 10. when they are good or to speak evilly of them be they good or bad He that cannot hold his tongue well cannot speak well There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak Eccles. 3. 9. Amos 5. 13. There is a time so evil that the prudent should keep silence At such a time Nihil aequè proderit quam quiescere minimum cum aliis loqui plurimum secum saith Seneca It 's then the best way to be quiet and to say little to others and much to your selves You have two ears and one tongue Hear twice and speak once we oftner repent of speaking then of being silent Few words are quickly answered for To be wary and sparing of your speech doth not only avoid abundance of contention danger and repentance but also procureth you a reputation of wisdom Plutark saith well that Pauca loquentibus paucis legibus opus est There needs but few Laws for them that speak but few words When one said to the Cynick when he was much silent If thou art a wise man thou dost foolishly If thou be a fool thou dost wisely He answered Nemo stultus tacere potest A fool cannot hold his tongue And he that cannot hold his tongue cannot hold his peace Pythagoras his counsel in this agreeth with Christs Aut sile aut affer silentio meliora either be silent or say something that is better than silence It was a wise answer of him that being asked whom covetous Landlords and whom covetous Lawyers hated most did answer to the first Those that eat little and sweat much For they usually live long and so their Leases are not soon expired and to the second Those that speak little and love much For such ☜ seldom make any work for Lawyers Two things are requisite in the matter of your speech that it be somewhat needful to be spoken and that it be a thing which you understand Till then be silent § 45. Direct 7. Take heed of hasty rashness in your speech and use deliberation especially in great Direct 7. or in doubtful things Think before you speak It 's better to try your words before you speak them Noli cito loqui est enim insaniae indicium Bias iâ— Laert. than after A preventing tryal is better than a repenting tryal But if both be omitted God will try them to your greater cost I know in matters that are throughly understood a wise man can speak without any further premeditation than the immediate actuating of the knowledge which he doth express But when there is any fear of mis-understanding or a disability to speak fiâ—ly and safely without fore-thoughts there hasty speaking without deliberation especially in weighty things must be avoided Prov. 29. 20. seest thou a man that is hasty in his words there is more hope of a fool than of him especially take heed in speaking either to God in prayer or in the name of God or as from God in preaching or exhortation or about the holy matters of God in any of thy discourse Eccles. 5. 1 2. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they consider not that they do evil that is watch thy self in publick worship and be forwarder to learn of God and to obey him as sensible of thy ignorance and subject to his will than to offer him thy sacrifice as if he stood in need of thee while thou neglectest or rejectest his commands Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few For a dream cometh through multitude of business and a fools voice is known by multitude of words that is Come to God as an obedient learner and a receiver and not as a giver and therefore be readier to hear what he hath to command thee than to pour out many words before him as if he would accept and hear thee for thy babling If loquacity and forwardness to talk many undigested words be a sign of folly among men how much more when thou speakest to God that is in Heaven § 46. Direct 8. Keep a holy government over all your passions as aforesaid and especially try all Direct 8. those words with suspicion which any passion urgeth you to vent For Passion is so apt to blind the judgement that even holy passions themselves must be warily managed and feared as you carry fire among straw or other combustible matter As grievous words stir up anger Prov. 15. 1. so anger causeth grievous words Be not hasty in thy spirit to he angry for anger resteth in the bosom of fools Eccles. 7. 9. To govern the tongue when you are in any Passion either Love or fear or grief or anger is like the governing of a Ship in storms and Tempests or the managing of a Horse that is fierce and heated Prov. 14. 16 17. The fool rageth and is confident He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly Prov. 21. 19. It is better to dwell in the
full exposition what we ascribe to it But as some scrupulous Brethren in Scotland gratifie the Papists by rejecting the Oath of Supremacy which is the most thorny hedge against them and this while they cry out against Popery so others would gratifie the Papists by suggesting that we give too much to the Bible and adore it when the very sum of Englands Protestantism is their just ascribing to the Holy Scriptures its sufficiency as to all things necessary to salvation Thus Satan undoeth still by overdoing IV. Object Laying on the hand and kissing the Book seem of the same nature with the Cross in Object Baptism and other significant Ceremonies And an Oath is part of the Worship of God Therefore not to be taken with these Ceremonies or else will seem to justifie the other Answ. 1. Significant words gestures or actions are not therefore evil because they are significant Answ. unless bruitishness be a Vertue Nor because any call them by the name of Ceremonies else that name might be put on any thing by an enemy to deprive us of our liberty Therefore I can judge of no Ceremony by that General name alone till it be named it self in specie 2. Of the Cross in Baptism see my Disputations of Church-Government of Ceremonies written long ago There are these notorious differences in the Case 1. The Cross is an Image used in Gods Worship Though not a Permanent yet a Transient Image and used as an Image of the Cross of Christ though but in Water or Oyle And God hath more specially forbidden Images used in his Worship than he hath done a Professing significant Word Gesture or Action which is no Image nor used as such 2. The Cross seemeth to be a third Sacrament of the Covenant of Grace while it is used as a Symbol of Christianity and a dedicating Sign as the Canon calleth it by which before the Church there is made a solemn self-obligation as Sacramentally to Renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and manfully to fight under Christs banner as his faithful servants and souldiers to our lives end Implying our trust and hope in Christ crucified for the benefits of his death So that if it be not a compleat third Sacrament it hath so much of that which is proper to a Sacrament like the Sacramentum Militare whence the name came into the Church that for my part I dare not use it though I presume not to censure those that do nor to condemn all other uses of the Cross which the Antients abounded in as sudden particular professing Signs much below this solemn covenanting use And as I think the King would not take it well when he hath made the Star the Badge of the Knights of the Garter if any Subject will presume to make another Symbolum Ordinis though yet many a significant Gesture or Act may be used without offence So I fear Christ would not take it well of me if I presume to make or use another Symbole or Tessera of Christianity Especially with so much of a Covenanting Sacramental Nature But what 's this to things or Gestures significant of no such kind You see then the difference of these Cases But if you were able to prove the Cross as harmless as the Swearing Ceremony I would be for the Cross and not against the laying the hand on the Book and kissing it For 1. I am not of their mind that form their judgment of other particulars to suit with their preconceived opinions of things of the same rank or quality nor make the Interest of my former conceptions to be the measure of my after judging 2. Nor do I think it so great an honour to be strict in my opinions as dishonour to be superstitious and to add to Gods Law by saying that he forbiddeth what he doth not or to be affectedly singular in denying lawful things with a Touch not taste not handle not c. Nor do I esteem him to be the wisest best or holiest person who is narrowest or strictest in his opinions but who is Rightest nor him that maketh most things to be sins but him that committeth least sin which is such indeed nor him that maketh most Laws to himself and others but him that best obeyeth Gods Laws Quest. 1. MAy one that scrupleth thus swearing himself yet Commissioned give an Oath thus to another Quest. that scrupleth it not Answ. 1. If the thing be as is proved lawful his scruple will not make him innocent in neglecting Answ. the duty of his place 2. If the substance of the Oath were lawful and only the Mode or Ceremony were sinful as suspected then 1. If the Commissioner must himself particularly command that Mode it were unlawful for him to do it 2. But if he only command and give the Oath as an Oath leaving the Mode without his Approbation or Command to the Taker and the Law he may so give the Oath And thus Christians in all Ages have taken it for Lawful to make Covenants even with Infidels and Idolaters and to take a Turks Oath by Mahomet when it is only the Oath that we demand and the Mode is his own which we had rather be without and give no approbation of And if a King may thus demand an Infidels or Idolaters Oath as God himself doth mens duty when he knoweth that they will sin in doing it much more may one do so in case of a doubtful Ceremony which he is neither the author nor approver of But I think this in question is lawful fit and laudable § 7. III. As to the case of Taking Gods Name in vain which for brevity I joyn with swearing How Gods Name is taken in vain it is done 1. Either in the grossest and most hainous sort 2. Or in a lower sort 1. The grossest sort of taking Gods Name in vain is by Perjury or calling him in for witness to a lye For among the Jews Vanity and a Lye were words frequently taken in the same signification 2. But the lower sort of taking Gods Name in vain is when it is used lightly unreverently contemptuously jeastingly or See Dr. Haâ—â—oâ—ds Pract. Catâ—ch on the thâ—rd Commandment Jer. 5. 2. Lev. 19. 12. without just cause And in these also there is prophaneness and a very great sin which is aggravated according to the Degree of the contempt or prophanation It is a great sin unreverently in common talk to make a by-word of saying O Lord or O God or O Iesus or God help us or Lord have mercy on us or God send this or that or any way to take Gods Name in vain But to use it in jears and scorns at Religion or make Play-books or Stage-playes with such prophane contemptuous jears is one of the greatest villanies that mans tongue can be guilty of against his Maker Of which anon § 8. IV. Direct 1. For the avoiding of all this prophaneness in swearing and taking the Name of
Ephes. 5. 18 19. Be not drunk with Wine wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit speaking to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord giving thanks alwayes for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Iesus Psal 119. 172. Psal. 49 3 3â— 28. Christ 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God Sinful omission of good discourse is the cause of sinful commission of vanity Specially when the heart it self is vain For as a man is so is he apt to speak 1 John 4. 5. They are of the world therefore speak they of the world Isa. 32. 6. For the vile person will speak villany and his heart will work iniquity to practise hypocrisie and to utter error against the Lord. § 34. Direct 5. Walk alwayes with God as in his presence and in the awe of his Laws and judgement Direct 5. that conscience may be kept awake and tender You will be restrained from vain talk if you perceive Jer. 8. 6. Prov. 6. 22. Psal. 7â— 12. 105 2. 114. 27. 149. 11. that God is hearing you and if you remember that your tongue is under a Law and that for every idle word men shall give account in the day of judgement Matth. 12. 36 37. and that by your words you shall be justified or condemned If the Law of God were in your hearts Psal. 40. 8. and hidden there Psal. 119. 11. Your heart would be fixed Psal. 57. 7. His word then would be the rejoycing of your heart Psal. 119. 111. and your tongues would then be talking of judgement Psal. 37. 30. A tender conscience will smart more with an idle world than a seared senseless conscience with an Oath or lye or slander For the Fear of God is clean Psal. 19. 9. and by it men depart from evil Proverbs 16. 6. Be thou therefore in the fear of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23. 17. § 34. Direct 6. Avoid idleness if you would avoid idle talk The drones of the Commonwealth Direct 6. that have nothing else to do but visit and complement and prate of other mens matters and that 1 Tim. 5. 13. 1 Pet. 4. 15. can have while to sit whole hours together upon no business are they that are most guilty of idle chat Idle Gentlemen and Beggars and idle gossipping Women and Old men that are void of the fear of God and Children that have no business to do are they that can sit talking away their time to as little purpose as if they had been all the time asleep All idle persons swarm with the Vermine of idle thoughts and words § 36. Direct 7. If you would avoid idle talk avoid idle talkative companions or if you cannot Direct 7. avoid them answer them not but let them talk alone unless it be to reprehend them or turn them to Gaâ—â—ulo non respondeâ—e convitium est more profitable talk For when you hear vanity it will incline you to speak vanity And these ungodly persons speak every one vanity to his neighbour as if their tongues were so their own that no Lord might controll them Psal. 12. 1 2 5 6. The Philosopher could say That which you would not hear do not speak and that which you would not speak do not hear Most are like Parrots that will oftest speak the words which they oftest hear How hard is it to avoid idle talk amongst idle talkers One vain word draws on another and there is no end § 37. Direct 8. Avoid vain works if you would avoid vain words For a man that engageth himself Direct 8. in vain employment doth lose all the words as vain which he useth about that employment What a life then do they live that have an unlawful Calling When their very business and Trade is sin the adjuncts the words about it must be sin and so all their lives are a continued sin I had rather therefore be the basest drudge than one of these men Especially Stage-players should think of this And those that spend whole hours yea half dayes if not nights in gaming and vain or sinful sports what abundance of idle words do they use about them Every cast of the Dice and every Card they play hath an idle word so that a sober man would be aweary and ashamed to hear them § 38. Direct 9. Plunge not your selves into excess of worldly business as some do that undertake more Direct 9. without necessity than they can discharge For such necessitate a variety of thoughts and words And all that are spent in serving them in those their vain employments are vain though the work for the matter of it be not vain § 39. Direct 10. Let not a vicious mind make that seem necessary or convenient which is vain Direct 10. Carnal hearts that are acquainted with no better things think nothing vain that pleaseth their sensual inclinations or which their carnal interest doth require A man-pleaser thinketh Civility obligeth him to observe his unnecessary visits and complements and to answer idle talkers and not sit silent by them noâ— contradict them And so it must be a point of good manners to break the Law of God And as they think it uncivil not to pledge every drinker in his healths so not to answer every twatler in his talk § 40. Direct 11. Take heed of a proud self-conceited mind that thinks too well of your own discourse Direct 11. Gâ—t but Humility and you will rather chooâ—e to hear than to speak But when all your fansies and Prov. 3. 7. 26. 12. 1 Cor. 3. 18. impertinâ—nâ—ies seem some excellent matters to you then you are with child till you are delivered of them and then all must reverence and silently attend your pride and folly or be taken as neglecters of you for disregarding it § 41. Direct 12. Avoid Passion and passionate companions For passion is talkative and will not be Direct 12. châ—â—kt but resisteth the restraint of reason and multiplyeth words which are worse than vain Prov. 14. 17 1â— 18. Eccles 7 8 9 § 42. Direct 13. Take heed of an inordinate jeasting vain For it habituateth the mind to foolish lâ—vity and knows no bounds and breeds idle words as thick as putrified flesh breeds Vermine And it is the greater sin because it is ordinary and with a certain pleasure and pride and glorying in vanity Direct 13. Eccles. 2. 2 Eccles. 7. 6. Epheâ— 5. 4 and sinful levity and folly § 43 Direct 14. Understand particularly what service you have to do for God or men in every company you come in and so fit your words to the present duty and company For those words Direct 14. are vain and inconvenient in one company that are necessary or convenient in another If you be to Prov. 2â— 17. Prov. 1â— 1â—
Chastity and Order so it is a matter of great convenience in a Commonwealth that Sots and Swaggerers and Phreneticks and Ideots and proud and wanton lustful persons should be openly distinguished from others As in a plague-time the doors of infected houses are marked with a Lord have mercy on us And the wisest Magistrate knew not how to have accomplished this himself by a Law as the wretches themselves do by their voluntary choice For if it were not voluntary it would be no distinguishing badge of their profession Now for any honest civil people to joyn with them and take up their livery and the habit of their Order is to profess themselves such as they and so to encourage and approve them or else to confound the proud and humble the vain and sober the wanton and the chaste and destroy the benefit of distinction By this you may see that it is not so much the bare fashion it self that is to be regarded as the signification and the consequents of it The same fashion when used by sober persons to better signification and consequents may be lawful which otherwise is unlawful Therefore those fashions that can hardly ever be supposed to have a good signification and consequents are hardly ever to be supposed lawful Note also that any one of the foresaid evils maketh a fashion evil but it must be all the requisites concurrent that must prove your fashions good or lawful § 14. Quest. 4. Is it not sometime lawful to follow the fashions Answ. It is alwayes lawful to Quest. 4. follow the sober fashions of sober people but it is not lawful to follow the vain immodest ill-signifying fashions of the riotous proud and wanton sort unless it be in such cases of Necessitie as David was in when he behaved himself like a mad-man or as Paul when he told them that he was a Pharisee Acts 23. 6. to escape in a persecution or from Thieves or enemies 2. Or unless for a time it prove as conducible to the good of others as Paul's circumcising Timothy was or his becoming all things to all men that he might win some But to follow ill signifying fashions unneâ—essarily or for carnal Phil. 3. 10. Rom. 12. 2. Ephes. 5. 11. ends to avoid the disesteem or evil speeches of carnal persons or to seem to be as fine as they this is undoubtedly a sin § 15. Direct 6. Be sure to avoid excess of costliness in your apparell Remember that you must Direct 6. answer for all your estates And one day it will prove more comfortable to find on your accounts So much a year laid out in clothing the naked than So much a year in bravery or curiosity for your selves or your children Costly apparel devoureth that which would go far in supplying the necessities of the poor § 16. Direct 7. Be sure you waste not your pretious time in needless curiosity of dressing I Direct 7. cannot easily tell you how great a sin and horrible a sign of folly and misery it is in those Gallants that spend whole hours yea most part of the morning in dressing and neatifying themselves before they appear to the sight of others so that some of them can scarce do any thing else before dinner time but dress themselves The morning hours that are fittest for prayer and reading the Word of God are thus consumed They spend not a quarter so much time in the serious searching and adorning of their souls nor in any holy service of God but God and family and soul and all is thus neglected § 17. Direct 8. Next to the usefulness of your apparel for your bodies and labours let your Rule be Direct 8. to imitate the common sort of the grave and sober persons of your own rank Not here and there one that in other things are sober who themselves follow the fashions of the proud and vain but the ordinary fashion of grave and sober persons For thus you will avoid both the levity of the proud and the needless singularity of others § 18. Direct 9. Regard more the hurt that your fashion may do than the offence or obloquy of Direct 9. any For proud persons to say you are sordid or not fine enough and talk of your course attire is no great disgrace to you nor no great hurt But it is a greater disgrace to be esteemed Proud It signifieth an empty childish mind to be desirous to be thought fine It is not only Pride but the Pride of a fool distinct from the Pride of those that have but manly wit And you ought not thus to disgrace your selves as to wear the badge of Pride and folly no more than an honest woman should wear the badge and attire of a Whore Moreover mean apparel is no great temptation to your selves or others to any sin But proud and curious apparel doth signifie and stir up a lustful or proud disposition in your selves and it tempteth those of the same sex to envy and to imitate you and those of the other sex to lust or wantonness You spread the Devils Nets even in the Churches and open Streets and Meetings to catch deluded silly souls You should rather serve Christ with your apparel by expressing humility self-denyal chastity and sobriety to draw others to imitate you in good than to serve the Devil and pride and lust by it by drawing men to imitate you in evil § 19. Direct 10. Remember what a Body it is that you so carefully and curiously adorn Well is it Direct 10. called by the Apostle a vile body Phil. 3. 21. What a silly lothesome lump of dirt is it What a thing would the Pox or Leprosie or almost any sickness make it appear to be What lothesome excrements within are covered by all that bravery without Think what it is made of and what is within it and what it will turn to How long it must lye rotting in a darksome grave more lothesome than the common dirt and then must turn to common earth And is Purple and Silk Luke 19. 19. and a curious dress beseeming that body that must shortly have but a Winding sheet and must lye thus in the grave and it s to be feared the soul for this pride lye in Hell Luke 16. 23 25. Is all this cost and curiosity comely for one that knoweth that he is returning to the dust § 20. Direct 11. Remember that you have sinful souls that have continual cause of humiliation Direct 11. and that have need of more care and adorning than your bodies And therefore your apparel should express your humiliation and shew that you take more care for the soul. How vile should that sinner be in his own eyes who knoweth what he hath done against God What mercy he hath sinned against What a God he hath offended What a Saviour he hath slighted What a Spirit of Grace he hath resisted and what a Glory he hath undervalued and neglected He that
Widow indeed and desolate trusteth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day Night and day can be no less than Morning and Evening And if you say This is not Family-prayer I answer 1. It is all kind of Prayer belonging to her 2. And if it commend the less much more the greater Arg. 6. From Luk. 6. 14. 2. 37. 18. 17. Act. 26. 7. 1 Thes. 3. 10. 2 Tim. 1. 3. Rev. 7. 15. Nâ—h 1. 6. Psal. 88. 1. Josh. 1. 8. Psal. 1. 2. which shew that night and day Christ himself prayed and his servants prayed and meditated and read the Scripture Arg 7. Deut 6. 7. 11. 19. It is exprâ—sly commanded that Parents teach their Children the Word of God when they lye down and when they rise up And the parity of reason and conjunction of the word and prayer will prove that they should also pray with them lying down and rising up Arg. 8. For brâ—vity sake I offer you together Psal. 119. 164. David praised God seven times a day 145. 2. Every day will I bless thee Psal. 5. 3. my voiâ—e shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer to thee and will look up 59. 16. I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning 88. 13. In the morning shall my prayer prevent thee 92. 12. It is good to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises to thy name O mâ—st High to shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night 119. 147 148. I prevented the dâ—wning of the morning aâ—d cryed I hâ—ped in thy word mine eyes preveâ— the night watches that I might meditate on thy word 130. 6 My sâ—ul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning The Priests were to offer Sacrifices and thanks to God every morning 1 Chron. 23. 30. Exod 30. 7. 36. 3. Lev. 6. 12. 2 Chron. 13. 11. Ezek. 46. 13 14 15. Amos 4. 4. And Christians are a hâ—ly Priesthood to offer up sacrifices to God acceptable through Iesus Châ—ist 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. Expresly saith David Psal. 55. 17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice So Morning and Evening were Sacrifices and Burnt offerings offered to the Lord and there is at least equal reason that Gospel worship should be as frequent 1 Chron. 16. 40. 2 Chron. 2. 4. 13. 11. 31. 3. Ezr. 3. 3. 2 King 16. 15. 1 King 18. 29 36. Ezra 9. 5. And no doubt but they prayed with the Sacrifices Which David intimateth in comparing them Psal. 141. 2. Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands aâ— the Evening sacrifice And God calleth for Prayer and praise as better than sacrifice Psal. 50. 14 15 23. All these I heap together for dispatch which fully shâ—w how frâ—quently Gods servants have been wont to Worship him and how often God expecteth it And you will all confess that it is reason that in Gospel times of greater light and holiness we should not come behind them in the times of the Law especially when Christ himself doth pray all night that had so little need in comparison of us And you may observe that these Scriptures speak of Prayer in general and limit it not to secresie and therefore they extend to all prayer according to opportunity No reason can limit all these examples to the most secret and least noble sort of prayer If but two or three are gathered together in his name Christ is especially among them If you say that by this rule we must as frequently pray in the Church-assemblies I answer The Church cannot ordinarily so oft assemble But when it can be without a greater inconvenience I doubt not but it would be a good work for many to meet the Minister daily for prayer as in some rich and populous Cities they may do I have been more tedious on this subject than a holy hungry Christian possibly may think necâ—ssary who needeth not so many arguments to perswade him to â—east his soul with God and to delight himself in the frequent exercises of faith and Love And if I have said less than the other sort of Readers shall think necessary let them know that if they will open their eyes and recover their appetites and feel their sins and observe their daily wants and dangers and get but a heart that Loveth God these Reasons then will seem sufficient to convince them of the need of so sweet and profitable and necessary a work And if they observe the difference between Praying and Prayerless families and care for their souls and for communion with God much fewer words than these may serve their turn It is a dead and graceless carnal heart that must be cured before these men will be well satisfied A better appetite would help their reason If God should say in general to all men You shall eat as oft as will do you good the sick stomach would say once a day and that but a little is enough and as much as God requireth when another would say Thrice a day is little enough A good and healthful Heart is a great help in the expounding of Gods word especially of his General Commandments That which men love not but are aweary of they will not easily believe to be their duty The new nature and holy Love and desires and experience of a sound believer do so far make all these Reasonings needless to him that I must confess I have written them principally to convince the carnal hypocrite and to stop the â—â—ouths of wrangling enemies CHAP. IV. General Directions for the Holy Government of Families § 1. THE Principal thing requisite to the right governing of Families is the Fitness of the Governours and the Governed thereto which is spoken of before in the Directions for the Constitution But if persons unfit for their Relations have joyned themselves together in a Family their first duty is to Repent of their former sin and rashness and presently to turn to God and seek after that fitness which is necessary to the right discharge of the duties of their several places And in the Governours of Families thâ—se three things are of greatest necessity hereunto I. Authority II. Skill III. Holiness and readiness of Will § 2. I Gen. Dir. Let Governours maintain their Authority in their Families For if once that be lost Direct 1. and you are despised by those that you should rule your word will be of no effect with them How to keep up Authorâ—ty you do but ride without a Bridle your power of Governing is gone when your Authority is lost And here you must first understand the Nature Use and Extent of your Authority For as your Relations are different to your Wife your Children and your Servants so
her discontent yet the case must be resolved by such considerations And a prudent man that knoweth what is like to be the consequent on both sides may and must accordingly determine it 4. But ordinarily the life health or preservation of so proud luxurious and passionate a woman is not worth the saving at so dear a rate as the wasting of a considerable estate which might be used to relieve a multitude of the poor and perhaps to save the lives of many that are worthier to live And 1. A mans duty to relieve the poor and provide for his family is so great 2. And the account that all men must give of the use of their Talents is so strict that it must be a great reason indeed that must allow him to give way to very great wastfulness And unless there be somewhat extraordinary in the case it were better deal with such a Woman as a Bedlam and if she will be mad to use her as the mad are used than for a steward of God to suffer the Devil to be served with his masters goods Lastly I must charge the Reader to remember that both these cases are very rare and it is but few Women that are so lyable to so great mischiefs which may not be prevented at cheaper rates And therefore that the Indulgence given in these decisions is nothing to the greater part of men nor is to be extended to ordinary Cases But commonly men every where sin by omission of a stricter Government of their families and by Eli's sinful indulgence and remisness And though a Wife must be Governed as a Wife and a Child as a Child yet all must be governed as well as servants And though it may be truly said that a man cannot hinder that sin which he cannot hinder but by sin or by contributing to a greater hurt yet it is to be concluded that every man is bound to hinder sin whenever he is able lawfully to hinder it And by the same measures Tolerations or not-hindering Errours and sins about Religion in Church and Common-wealth is to be judged of None must commit them or approve them nor forbear any duty of their own to cure them But that is not a duty which is destructive which would be a duty when it were a means of edifying CHAP. X. The Duties of Parents for their Children OF how great importance the wise and holy Education of Children is to the saving of their souls and the comfort of the Parents and the good of Church and State and the happiness of the World I have partly told you before but no man is able fully to express And how great that calamity is which the World is faln into through the neglect of that duty no heart can conceive But they that think what a case the Heathen Infidel and ungodly Nations are in and how rare true piety is grown and how many millions must lie in Hell for ever will know so much of this inhumane negligence as to abhor it § 1. Direct 1. Understand and lament the corrupted and miserable state of your Children which they Direct 1. have derived from you and thank fully accept the offers of a Saviour for your selves and them and â—bsolutely See my Treat for Infant Baptism resign and dedicate them to God in Christ in the sacred Covenant and solemnize this Dedication and Covenant by their Baptism And to this end understand the command of God for entring your Children solemnly into Covenant with him and the Covenant-mercies belonging to them thereupon Rom. 5. 12 16 17 18. Ephes. 2. 1 3. Gen. 17. 4 13 14. Deut. 29. 10 11 12. Rom. 11. 17 20. Joh. 3. 3 5. Mat. 19. 13 14. You cannot sincerely dedicate your selves to God but you must dedicate to him all that is yours and in your power and therefore your Children as far as they are in your power And as Nature hath taught you your Power and your duty to enter them in their infancy into any Covenant with man which is certainly for their good and if they refuse the conditions when they come to age they forfeir the benefit so nature teacheth you much more to oblige them to God for their far greater good in case he will admit them into Covenant with him And that he will admit them into his Covenant and that you ought to enter them into it is past doubt in the evidence which the Scripture giveth us that from Abrahams time till Christ it was so with all the Children of his people Nay no man can prove that before Abrahams Time or since God had ever a Church on Earth of which the Infants of his servants if they had any were not members dedicated in Covenant to God till of late times that a few began to scruple the lawfulness of this As it is a comfort to you if the King would bestow upon your Infant-Children who were tainted by their Fathers treason not only a full discharge from the blot of that offence but also the titles and estates of Lords though they understand none of this till they come to age so is it much more matter of comfort to you on their behalf that God in Christ will pardon their Original sin and take them as his Children and give them title to everlasting life which are the mercies of his Covenant § 2. Direct 2. As soon as they are capable teach them what a Covenant they are in and what are Direct 2. the benefits and what the conditions that their souls may gladly consent to it when they understand it and you may bring them seriously to renew their Covenant with God in their own persons But the whole order of Teaching both Children and Servants I shall give you after by it self and therefore shall here pass by all that except that which is to be done more by your familiar converse than by more solemn teaching § 3. Direct 3. Train them up in exact obedience to your selves and break them of their own Direct 3. wills To that end suffer them not to carry themselves unreverently or contemptuously towards you but to keep their distance For too much Familiarity breedeth contempt and emboldeneth to disobedience The common course of Parents is to please their Children so long by letting them have what they crave and what they will till their wills are so used to be fulfilled that they cannot endure to have them denyed and so can endure no Government because they endure no crossing of their wills To be Obedient is to renounce their own wills and be ruled by their Parents or Governours wills To use them therefore to have their own wills is to teach them disobedience and harden and use them to a kind of impossibility of obeying Tell them oft familiarly and lovingly of the excellency of obedience and how it pleaseth God and what need they have of Government and how unfit they are to govern themselves and how dangerous it is to Children
in the sense of your natural sin and misery to stir up the lively sense of the wonderful Love of God and our Redeemer and to spend all the day in the special exercises of Faith and Love And seeing it is the Christian weekly festival or day of Thanksgiving for the greatest mercy in the world spend it as a day of Thanksgiving should be spent especially in Ioyful Praises of our Lord and let the huâ—bling and instructing exercisâ—s of the day he all subordinate to these laudatory exercises I know that much time must be spent in teaching and warning the ignorant and ungodly because their poverty and labours hinder them from other such opportunities and we must speak to them then or not at all But if it were not for their meer necessity and if we could as well speak to them other dayes of the Week the Churches should spend all the Lords Day in such praises and thanksgivings as are suitable to the ends of the institution But seeing that cannot be expected methinks it is desirable that the antient custome of the Churches were more imitated and the morning Sermon being fuited to the state of the more ignorant and unconverted that the rest of the day were spent in the exercises of Thanksgiving to the Joy and encouragement of believers and in doctrine suited to their state And yet I must add that a skilfull Preacher will do both together and so declare the Love and Grace of our Redeemer as by a meet application may both draw in the ungodly and comfort those that are already sanctified and raise their hearts in Praise to God § 4. Direct 4. Remember that the Lords day is appointed specially for publick worship and personal Direct 4. Communion of the Churches therein see therefore that you spend as much of the day as you can in this publick worship and Church-communion especially in the celebration of that Sacrament which is appointed for the memorial of the death of Christ untill his coming 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. This Sacrament in the Primitive Church was celebrated every Lords day yea and ofter even ordinarily on every other day of the week when the Churches assembled for Communion And it might be so now without any hinderance to Preaching or Prayer if all things were ordered as they should be For those Prayers and instructions and exhortations which are most suited to this Eucharistical action would be the most suitable Prayers and Sermons for the Church on the Lords dayes In the mean time sâ—e that so much of the day as is spent in Church-communion and publick worship be accordingly improved by you and be not at that time about your secret or family services but take only those hours for such private duties in which the Church is not assembled And remember how much the Love of Saints is to be exercised in this Communion and therefore labour to keep alive that Love without which no man can celebrate the Lords day according to the end of the institution § 5. Direct 5. Understand how great a mercy it is that you have leave thus to wait upon God for the receiving and exercise of grace and to cast off the distracting thoughts and businesses of the world and Direct 5. what an opportunity is put into your hand to get more in one day than this world can affâ—rd you all your lives And therefore come with gladness as to the receiving of so great a mercy and with desire after it and with hope to speed and not with unwillingness as to an unpleasant task as carnal hearts that Love not God or his Grace or Service and are aweary of all they do and glâ—d when it is done as the Ox that is unyoaked Isa. 58. 13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a Delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own waies nor finding thine own pleasuâ—e nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord The affection that you have to the Lords day much sheweth the temper of the heart A holy person is glad when it cometh as loving it for the holy exercises of the day A wicked carnal heart is glad of it only for his carnal ease but weary of the spiritual duties § 6. Direct 6. Avoid both the extreams of Prophaneness and Superstition in the point of your external rest And to that end Observe 1. That the work is not for the day but the day for the holy Direct 6. work As Christ saith Mark 2. 27. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath It is appointed for our good and not for our hurt 2. The outward rest is not appointed for it self but as a means to the freedom of the mind for inward and spiritual employments And therefore all those outward and common labours and discourses are unlawful which any way distract the mind and hinder either our outward or inward attendance upon God and our edification 3. And whatever it was to the Jews no common words or actions are unlawful which are no hinderance to this communion and worship and spiritual edification 4. Yea those things that are necessary to the support of nature and the saving of the Life or health or estate and goods of our selves or our neighbours are needful duties on that day Not all those works which are truly charitable for it may be a work of mercy to build Hospitals or make Garments for the poor or Till their ground but such works of mercy as cannot be put off to another day and such as hinder not the duties of the day 5. The same word or action on the Lords day which is unlawful to one man may be lawful to another as being no hinderance yea a duty to him As Christ saith The Priests in the Temple break or prophane the Sabbath that is the outward rest but not the command and are blameless Matth. 12. 15. And the Cook may lawfully be employed in dressing meat when it were a sin in another to do it voluntarily without need 6. The Lords day being to be kept as a day of Thanksgiving the dressing of such meat as is fit for a day of Thanksgiving is not to be scrupled The primitive Christians in the Apostles time had their Love-feasts constantly with the Lords Supper or after on the Evening of the day And they could not feast without dressing meat 7. Yet that which is lawful in it self must be so done as consisteth with care and compassion of the souls of servants that are employed about it that they may â—e deprived of no more of their spiritual benefit than needs 8. Also that which is lawful must sometimes be forborn when it may by scandal tempt others that are loose or weak to do that which is unlawful not that the meer displeasing of the erroneous should put us out of the right
way but the scandal which is spoken against in Scripture is the laying a Temptation before men that are weak to make them sin 9. Take heed of that hypocritical and câ—nsorious temper which turneth the holy observation of the day into a Ceremonious abstinence from lawful things and censureth those as ungodly that are not of the same mind and forbear not such things as well as they Mark the difference between Christ and the Pharisees in this point Much of their contention with him was about the outward observation of the Sabbath because his disciples rubbed out Corn to eat on the Sabbath day and because he healed on the Sabbath and bid the healed man Take up his bed and walk And they said There are six dayes in which men ought to work they might come and be healed on them Luk 6. 1 5 6. 13. 12 14 15 16. Ioh. 5. 17 18. Mark 1. 21 24. 2. 23 24 25 26 27 28. 3. 2 3 5. 6. 2 5. Luk. 14. 1 3 5 6. Ioh. 5. 9 10 16. 7. 22 23 24. 9. 14 16. And a man that is of their spirit will think that the Pharisees were in the right No doubt Christ might have chosen another day to heal on But he knew that the works which most declared the power of God and honoured him before all and confirmed the Gospel were fittest for the Sabbath day Take heed therefore of the Pharisees Ceremoniousness and Censoriousness If you see a man walking abroad on the Lords day censure him not till you know that he doth it from prophaneness or negligence You know not but it may be necessary to his health and he may improve it in holy meditation If you hear some speak a word more than you think needful of common things or do more about meat and cloathing than you think meet censure them not till you hear their reason A scrupulousness about such outward observances when the holy duties of the day are no whit hindred by that thing and a censoriousness towards those that are not as scrupulous is too Pharisaical and Ceremonious a Religion for spiritual charitable Christians And the extreams of some Godly people in this kind have occasioned the Quakers and Seekers to take and use all daies alike and the prophane to contemn the sanctifying of the Lords day Tit. 2. More particular Directions for the order of holy duties § 1. Direct 1. REmember the Lords day before it cometh and prepare for it and prevent those Direct 1. disturbances that would hinder you and deprive you of the benefit For Preparation 1. Six daies you must labour and do all that you have to do Dispatch all your business that you may not have it then to hinder and disturb you And see that your Servants do the same 2. Shake off the thoughts of worldly things and clear your minds of worldly delights and cares 3. Call to mind the doctrine taught you the last Lords day and if you have servants cause them to remember it that you may be prepared to receive the next 4 Go seasonably to bed that you and your servants may not be constrained to lye long the next morning or be sleepy on the Lords day 5. Let your meditations be preparatory for the day Repent of the sins of the week past as particularly and seriously as you can and seek for pardon and peace through Christ that you come not with guilt or trouble upon your Consciences before the Lord. § 2. Direct 2. Let your first thoughts be not only Holy but suitable to the occasions of the day Direct 2. With gladness remember what a day of mercies you awake to and how early your Redeemer rose from the dead that day and what excellent work you are to be employed in § 3. Direct 3. Rise full as early that day as you do on other daies Be not like the carnal generation Direct 3. that sanctifie the Lords day but as a Swine doth by sleeping and idleness and fulness Think not your worldly business more worthy of your early rising than your spiritual imployment is § 4. Direct 4. Let your dressing time be spent in some fruitful meditation or conference Direct 4. or hearing some one read a Chapter And let it not be long to detain you from your duty § 5. Direct 5. If you can have leisure go first to secret prayer And if you are servants Direct 5. or have any necessary business to do dispatch it quickly that you may be free for better work § 6. Direct 6. Let Family-worship come next and not be slubbered over sleightly but be serious Direct 6. and reverent and suit all to the nature or end of the day Especially awaken your selves and servants to consider what you have to do in publick and to go with prepared sanctified hearts § 7. Direct 7. Enter the holy Assembly with reverence and joy and compose your selves as those Direct 7. that come thither to treat with the living God about the matters of Eternal life And watch your hearts that they wander not nor sleep not nor sleight the sacred matters which you are about And guard your eyes that they carry not away your hearts And let not your hearts be a moment idle but seriously employed all the Time And when hypocrites and distempered Christians are quarrelling with the imperfections of the speaker or congregation or mode of Worship do you rather make it your diligent endeavour to watch your hearts and improve what you hear § 8. Direct 8. As soon as you come home while dinner is preparing it will be a seasonable Direct 8. time either for secret prayer or meditation to call over what you heard and urge it on your hearts and beg Gods help for the improvement of it and pardon for your publick failings § 9. Direct 9. Let your time at meat be spent in the chearful remembrance or mention of the Direct 9. Love of your Redeemer or somewhat suitable to the company and the day § 10. Direct 10. After dinner call your families together and sing a Psalm of Praise and Direct 10. by examination or repetition or both cause them to remember what was publickly taught them § 11. Direct 11. Then go again to the Congregation to the beginning and behave your Direct 11. selves as before § 12. Direct 12. When you come home call your families together and first crave Gods assistance Direct 12. and acceptance and then sing a Psalm of Praise and then repeat the Sermon which â—â—u heard or if there was none read one out of some lively profitable book and then Pray and Praise God and all with the holy seriousness and joy which is suitable to the work and day § 13. Direct 13. Then while Supper is preparing betake your selves to secret prayer and meditation Direct 13. â—either in your Chambers or walking as you find most profitable And let your Servants have no
their wickedness after sufficient admonition you must professedly disown communion with them And then you are morally separated and discharged when you have not power locally to separate 3. It is your sin to fly from your duty because a wicked man is there whom you have no power to remove 4. There are many prayers that a wicked man is bound to put up to God And you must not omit your duty because he performeth his though faultily Me thinks you should more scruple joyning or conversing with one that forsaketh Prayer which is the greater sin than with one that prayeth 5. But if you are free to choose you are to be blamed if you will not choose a better family or Church other things being equal especially if all the company be wicked § 18. Quest. 18. But what if the Master of the family or Pastor be a Heretick or ungodly Quest. 18. Answ. You must distinguish between his personal faults and the faults of his performance or worship His personal faults such as swearing or drunkenness c. you must disown and must not choose a Master or Pastor that is such while you have your choice and may have better But otherwise it is lawful to joyn with him in doing good though not in evil But if the fault of his Duty it self be intolerable you must not joyn with him Now it is intolerable in these cases 1. In case he be utterly unable to express a prayer and so make it no prayer 2. In case he beâ—d his prayers against Godliness and known Truth and Charity and Peace and so make his prayers but the Instruments of mischief to vent heresie or malice and do more hurt than good to others § 19. Quest. 19. May we pray Absolutely for outward mercies or only Conditionally Quest. 19. Answ. You must distinguish 1. Between a condition spoken of the subject when we are uncertain whether it be a mercy or not and an extrinsick condition of the grant 2. Between a condition of prayer and a condition of expectation 3. Between submission to Gods will and a conditional desire or prayer And so I answer 1. It is necessary when we are uncertain whether the thing it self be Good or not that we pray with a subjective conditionality Grant this if it be good or If it be not Good I do not pray for it For it is presupposed in prayer that we know the thing prayed for to be good 2. But when we know the thing to be a mercy and good we may pray for it absolutely 3. But we may not believe that we shall receive all with an absolute expectation which we absolutely Pray for For Prayer being the expression of desire that which may be absolutely desired though not absolutely promised may be absolutely prayed for As our increase or strength of Grace or the Conversion of our relations c. 4. But yet all such must be asked with a submission to the will of God But that maketh it not properly a conditional form of praying For when the nature of Prayer is as it were to move the will of God it is not so proper to say Lord do this if it be thy will already or Lord be pleased to do this if it be thy pleasure as to say Lord grant this mercy But if thou deny it it is my duty to submit So Christ mentioneth both the subjective conditionality and the submission of his will Mat. 26. 39. If it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt As if he had said Nature requireth me with a simple nolition to be unwilling of the suffering and if it be consistent with the desired ends of my mediâ—torship to be desâ—rous to avoid it but seeing that cannot be my comparing will commandeth this simple will of self-preservation to submit to thy most perfect will But if any call this submission a condition the matter is not great § 20. Quest. 20. May we pray for all that we may lawfully desire Quest. 20. Answ. No for prayer is not only an expression of Desire but also a means to attain the thing desired And some things may be lawfully desired at least with a simple velleity which may not be sought because they must not be hoped for where God hath said that he will not grant them For it is vain to seek that which you have no hope to find As to desire to see the Conversion of the whole world or to pass to Heaven as Henoch without dying are lawful by a simple velleity But all things compared it is not lawful peremptorily to desire it without submission and therefore not to ask it It is the expression of a comparate determinate desire which is properly called prayer being the use of means for the obtaining of that desire And whatsoever I may so desire I may pray for For if there be no hope of it I may not so desire it But the desire by way of simple velleity may not be put into a proper prayer when there is no hope I must have a simple Desire with submission to attain a sinless perfection here even this hour But because there is no hope I may not let it proceed to a determinate peremptory desire upon a comparing judgement nor into a proper prayer And yet these velleities may be expressed in prayer though they have not the full nature of a prayer Obj. But was not Christs a prayer Matth. 26. 39. Answ. Either Christ as man was certain that the Cup must not pass from him or uncertain If you could prove him uncertain then it is a proper prayer with submission to his Fathers will But if he was certain that it was not to pass from him then it was analogically only a Prayer it being but a representing of his velleity to his father and not of his determinate will nor was any means to attain that end And indeed such it was As if he had said Father if it had stood with the ends of my office and thy will I would have asked this of thee â—ut because it doth not I submit And this much we may do § 21. Quest. 21. How then can we pray for the salvation of all the world must it be for all men Quest. 21. collectively or only for some excluding no numerical denominate person Answ. Just as Christ prayed here in this Text we must express our simple velleity of it to God as a thing that in it self is most desireable as the passing of the Cup was unto Christ But we cannot express a determinate volition by a full prayer such as hath any tendency as a means to attain that end because we are certain that Gods will is against it or that it will not be § 22. Quest. 22. May we pray for the Conversion of all the Nations of the World to Christianity with Quest. 22. a hopeful prayer Answ. Yes For we are not certain that every nation shall
that you must there exercise II. What there is objectively presented before you in the Sacrament to exercise all these Graces III. At what seasons in the administration each of these inward works are to be done § 47. I. The Graces to be exercised are these besides that holy fear and reverence common to all Worship 1. A humble sense of the odiousness of sin and of our undone condition as in our selves and a displeasure against our selves and loathing of our selves and melting Repentance for the sins we have committed as against our Creator and as against the Love and Mercy of a Redeemer and against the holy Spirit of Grace 2. A hungring and thirsting desire after the Lord Jesus and his Grace and the favour of God and communion with him which are there represented and offered to the soul. 3. A lively faith in our Redeemer his death resurrection and intercession and a trusting our miserable souls upon him as our sufficient Saviour and help And a hearty Acceptance of him and his benefits upon his offered terms 4. A Ioy and gladness in the sense of that unspeakable mercy which is here offered us 5. A Thankful heart towards him from whom we do receive it 6. A fervent Love to him that by such Love doth seek our Love 7. A triumphant Hope of life eternal which is purchased for us and sealed to us 8. A willingness and resolution to deny our selves and all this world and suffer for him that hath suffered for our Redemption 9. A Love to our Brethren our neighbours and our enemies with a readiness to relieve them and to forgive them when they do us wrong 10. And a firm Resolution for future obedience to our Creator and Redeemer and Sanctifier according to our Covenant § 48. II. In the naming of these Graces I have named their Objects which you should observe as distinctly as you can that they may be operative 1. To help your Humiliation and Repentance you bring thither a loaden miserable soul to receive a pardon and relief And you see before you the sacrificed Son of God who made his soul an offering for sin and became a Curse for us to save us who were accursed 2. To draw out your Desires you have the most excellent gifts and the most needful mercies presented to you that this world is capable of Even the Pardon of sin the Love of God the Spirit of Grace and the hopes of Glory and Christ himself with whom all this is given 3. To exercise your Faith you have Christ here first represented as crucified before your eyes and then with his benefits freely given you and offered to your Acceptance with a Command that you refuse him not 4. To exercise your Delight and Gladness you have this Saviour and this Salvation tendered to you and all that your souls can well desire set before you 5. To exercise your Thankfulness what could do more than so great a Gift so dearly purchased so surely sealed and so freely offered 6. To exercise your Love to God in Christ you have the fullest manifestation of his attractive Love even offered to your eyes and taste and heart that a soul on earth can reasonably expect in such wonderful condescension that the greatness and strangeness of it surpasseth a natural mans belief 7. To exercise your Hopes of Life Eternal you have the price of it here set before you you have the Gift of it here sealed to you and you have that Saviour represented to you in his suffering who is now there reigning that you may remember him as expectants of his Glorious Coming to judge the world and glorifie you with himself 8. To exercise your self-denyal and resolution for suffering and contempt of the world and fleshly pleasures you have before you both the greatest Example and Obligation that ever could be offered to the world when you see and receive a Crucified Christ that so strangely denyed himself for you and set so little by the world and flesh 9. To exercise your Love to Brethren yea and enemies you have his example before your eyes that Loved you to the death when you were enemies And you have his holy servants before your eyes who are amiable in him through the workings of his Spirit and on whom he will have you shew your Love to himself 10. And to excite your Resolution for future Obedience you see his double Title to the Government of you as Creator and as Redeemer and you feel the obligations of Mercy and Gratitude and you are to renew a Covenant with him to that end even openly where all the Church are witnesses So that you see here are powerful objects before you to draw out all these Graces and that they are all but such as the work requireth you then to exercise § 49. III. But that you may be the readier when it cometh to practice I shall as it were lead you by the hand through all the parts of the administration and tell you when and how to exercise every grace and those that are to be joyned together I shall take together that needless distinctness do not trouble you 1. When you are called up and going to the Table of the Lord exercise your Humility Desire and Thankfulness and say in your hearts What Lord dost thou call such a wretch as I What! me that have so oft despised thy mercy and wilfully offended thee and preferred the filth of this world and the pleasures of the flesh before thee Alas it is thy wrath in Hell that is my due But if Love will choose such an unworthy guest and Mercy will be honoured upon such sin and misery I come Lord at thy call I gladly come Let thy will be done and let that mercy which inviteth me make me acceptable and gratiously entertain me and let me not come without the wedding garment nor unreverently rush on holy things nor turn thy mercies to my bane § 50. 2. When the Minister is confessing sin prostrate your very souls in the sense of your unworthiness and let your particular sins be in your eye with their heinous aggravations The whole need not the Physicion but the sick But here I need not put words into your mouths or minds because the Minister goeth before you and your hearts must concurr with his Confessions and put in also the secret sins which he omitteth § 51. 3. When you look on the Bread and Wine which is provided and offered for this holy use remember that it is the Creator of all things on whom you live whose Laws you did offend and say in your hearts O Lord how great is my offence who have broken the Laws of him that made me and on whom the whole Creation doth depend I had my Being from thee and my daily bread and should I have requited thee with disobedience Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son § 52. 4. When the
words of the Institution are read and the Bread and Wine are solemnly Consecrated by separating them to that sacred use and the acceptance and blessing of God is desired admire the mercy that prepared us a Redeemer and say O God how wonderful is thy Wisdom and thy Love How strangely dost thou glorifie thy mercy over those sins that gave thee advantage to glorifie thy justice Even thou our God whom we have offended hast out of thy own treasury satisfied thy own justice and given us a Saviour by such a Miracle of Wisdom Love and Condescension as men or Angels shall never be able fully to comprehend so didst thou love the sinful world as to give thy Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life O thou that hast prepared us so full a remedy and so pretious a gift sanctifie these creatures to be the Representative Body and Blood of Christ and prepare my heart for so great a gift and so high and holy and honourable a work § 53. 5. When you behold the Consecrated Bread and Wine discern the Lords Body and reverence it as the Representative Body and Blood of Iesus Christ and take heed of prophaning it by looking on it as common Bread and Wine Though it be not Transubstantiate but still is very Bread and Wine in its Natural Being yet it is Christs Body and Blood in representation and effect Look on it as the consecrated Bread of life which with the quickning Spirit must nourish you to life eternal § 54. 6. When you see the Breaking of the Bread and the Pouring out of the Wine let Repentance and Love and Desire and Thankfulness thus work within you O wondrous Love O hateful sin How merciful Lord hast thou been to sinners and how cruel have we been to our selves and thee Could Love stoop lower Could God be merciful at a dearer rate Could my sin have done a more horrid deed than put to death the Son of God How small a matter hath tempted me to that which must cost so dear before it was forgiven How dear payed my Saviour for that which I might have avoided at a very cheap rate At how low a price have I valued his blood when I have sinned and sinned again for nothing This is my doing My sins were the thorns the nails the spear Can a murderer of Christ be a a small offendor O dreadful justice It was I and such other sinners that deserved to bear the punishment who were guilty of the sin and to have been fewel for the unquenchable flames for ever O pretious Sacrifice O hateful sin O gracious Saviour How can mans dull and narrow heart be duly affected with such transcendent things or Heaven make its due impression upon an inch of flesh Shall I ever again have a dull apprehension of such Love Or ever have a favourable thought of sin Or ever have a fearless thought of Iustice O break or melt this hardned heart that it may be somewhat conformed to my crucified Lord The tears of Love and true Repentance are easier than the flames from which I am redeemed O hide me in these wounds and wash me in this pretious blood This is the Sacrifice in which I trust This is the Righteousness by which I must be justified and saved from the Curse of thy violated Law As thou hast accepted this O Father for the world upon the Cross Behold it still on the behalf of sinners and hear his blood that cryeth unto thee for mercy to the miserable and pardon us and accept us as thy Reconciled Children for the sake of this Crucified Christ alone We can offer thee no other Sacrifice for sin and we need no other § 55. 7. When the Minister applyeth himself to God by Prayer for the efficacy of this Sacrament that in iâ— he will give us Christ and his Benefits and pardon and justifie us and accept us as his reconciled Children joyn heartily and earnestly in these requests as one that knoweth the need and worth of such a mercy § 56. 8. When the Minister delivereth you the consecrated Bread and Wine look upon him as the messenger of Christ and hear him as if Christ by him said to you Take this my broken body and blood and feed on it to everlasting life and take with it my sealed Covenant and therein the sealed testimony of my Love and the sealed pardon of your sins and a sealed gift of life eternal so be it you unfeignedly consent unto my Covenant and give up your selves to me as my Redeemed ones Even as in delivering the possession of House or Lands the deliverer giveth a Key and a twig and a turfe and saith I deliver you this house and I deliver you this land so doth the Minister by Christs authority deliver you Christ and pardon and title to eternal life Here is an Image of a sacrificed Christ of Gods own appointing which you may lawfully use And more than an Image even an Investing instrument by which these highest mercies are solemnly delivered to you in the name of Christ. Let your hearts therefore say with Ioy and Thankfulness with faith and Love O matchless bounty of the eternal God! what a gift is this and unto what unworthy sinners And will God stoop so low to man and come so neer him and thus reconcile his worthless enemies Will he freely pardon all that I have done and take me into his family and love and feed me with the flesh and blood of Christ I believe Lord help mine unbelief I humbly and thankfully accept thy gifts Open thou my heart that I may yet more joyfully and thankfully accept them Seeing God will glorifie his Love and mercy by such incomprehensible gifts as these behold Lord a wretch that needeth all this mercy And seeing it is the offer of thy Grace and Covenant my soul doth gladly take thee for my God and Father for my saviour and my sanctifier And here I give up my self unto thee as thy Created Redeemed and I hope Regenerate one as thy Own thy Subject and thy Child to be saved and sanctified by thee to be beloved by thee and to Love thee to everlasting O seal up this Covenant and pardon by thy Spirit which thou sealest and deliverest to me in thy Sacrament that without reserve I may be entirely and for ever thine § 57. 9. When you see the Communicants receiving with you let your very hearts be united to the Saints in love and say How goodly are thy tents O Jacob How amiable is the family of the Nâ—â—b 24. 5. Psal 13. 15. 4. 16. 2 3. Iuk 19 8. Psal. 84. 10. Lord How good and pleasant is the unity of brethren How dear to me are the pretious members of my Lord though they have yet all their spots and weaknesses which he pardoneth and so must we My goodness O Lord extendeth not unto thee but unto thy Saints the excellent ones on earth in
little more And to see a man fell his God and Soul and Heaven for fleshly pleasure when perhaps he hath not a year or a month or for ought he knoweth a day more to enjoy it For a man to be weary and give over prayer just when the mercy is at hand and to be weary and give over a holy life when his labour and sufferings are almost at an end How sad will this day be to thee if Death this night be sent to fetch away thy soul Then whose will all those pleasures be that thou â—oldst thy soul for Luk. 12. 19 20 21. If thou knewest that thou hadst but a month or year to live wouldst thou not have held out that one year Thou knowest not that it shall be one week This is like the sad story of a Student in one of our Universities who wanting money and his Father delaying to send it him he stayed so long till at last he resolved to stay no longer but steal for it rather than be without And so went out and robbed and murdered the first man he met who proved to be his Fathers messenger that was bringing him the money that he rob'd and killed him for which when he perceived by a letter which he found in his pocket he confest it through remorse of Conscience and was hang'd when a few hours patience more might have saved his innocency and his life And so is it with many a backsliding wretch that is cut off if not like Zimri and Cosbi in the act of their sin yet quickly after and enjoy the pleasure which they forsook their God for but a little while § 43. Direct 4. When you are awakened to see the terribleness of a relapsed state presently return Direct 4. and fly to Christ to reconcile your guilty souls to God and make a stop and go not one step further in your sin nor make no delayes in returning to your fidelity It is too sad a case to be continued in If thou darest delay yet longer and wilfully sin again thou art yet impenitent and thy heart is hardened and if the Lord have not mercy on thee to recall thee speedily thou arâ— lost for ever § 44. Direct 5. Make haste away from the occasions of thy sin and the company which ensnareth Direct 5. thee in it If thou knewest that they were Robbers that intended to murder thee thou wouldst be gone If thou knewest that they had plague sores running on them thou wouldst be gone And wilt thou not be gone when thou knowest that they are the servants of the Devil that would infect thee with sin and cheat thee of thy salvation Say not Is not this company lawful and that pleasure lawful c. If it be like to entise thy heart to sin it is unlawful to thee whatever it is to others It is not lawful to undoe thy soul. § 45. Direct 6. Come off by sound and deep repentance and shame thy self by free confession Direct 6. and mince not the matter and deal not gently with thy sin and be not tender of thy fleshly interest and Jam. 5. 16. Neh. 9. 2 3. Matth. 3. 6. Act. 19. 18. skin not over the sore but go to the bottom and deceive not thy self with a seeming cure Many a one is undone by repenting by the halves and refusing to take shame to themselves by a free confession and to engage themselves to a through reformation by an openly professed resolution Favouring themselves and sparing the flesh when the sore should be lanced and searched to the bottom doth cause many to perish while they supposed that they had been cured § 46. Direct 7. Command thy senses and at least forbear the outward acts of sin while thy Conscience Direct 7. considereth further of the matter The drunkard cannot say that he hath not power to shut his mouth Let the forbidden cup alone No one compelleth you You can forbear it if you will The same I may say of other such sins of sensuality Command thy hand thy mouth thy eye and guard these entrances and instruments of sin § 47. Direct 8. Engage some faithful friend to assist thee in thy watch Open all thy case to some Direct 8. one that is fit to be thy guide or helper And resolve that whenever thou art tempted to the sin thou wilt go presently and tell them before thou do commit it And intreat them to deal plainly with you and give them power to use any advantages that may be for your good § 48. Direct 9. Do your first works and set your selves seriously to all the duties of a holy life Direct 9. And incorporate your selves into the society of the Saints For holy employment and holy company are very great preservatives against every sin § 49. Direct 10. Go presently to your companions in sin and lament that you have joyned with them Direct 10. and earnestly warn and intreat them to repent and if they will not renounce their course and company and Mat. 26. 75. Luk. 22. 62. tell them what God hath shewed you of the sin and danger If really you will return as with Peter you have faln so with Peter go out and weep bitterly and when you are converted strengthen your brethren and help to recover those that you have sinned with Luk. 22. 32. § 50. I have suited most of these Directions to those that relapse into sins of sensuality rather than to them that fall into Atheism Infidelity or Heresie because I have spoken against these sins already and the Directions there given shew the way for the recovery of such Tit. 2. Directions for preventing Backsliding or for Perseverance APostacy and Backsliding is a state that is more easily prevented than cured And therefore I shall desire those that stand to use these following Directions lest they fall § 1. Direct 1. Be well grounded in the Nature and Reasons of your Religion For it is not the highest Direct 1. zeal and resolution that will cause you to persevere if your judgements be not furnished with sufficient Reasons to confute gainfayers and evidence the truth and tell you why you should persevere I speak that with grief and shame which cannot be concealed The number of Christians is so small that are well seen in the Reasons and Methods of Christianity and are able to prove what they hold to be true and to confute Opposers that it greatly afflicteth me to think what work the Atheists and Infidels would make if they once openly play their game and be turned loose to do their worst If they deride and oppose the immortality of the soul and the life to come and the truth of the Scriptures and the work of Redemption and office of Christ alas how few are able to withstand them by giving any sufficient Reason of their hope We have learnt of the Papists that he hath the strongest faith that believeth with least Reason and we have
much to care for and many persons to deal with and more vexations than you imagine 11. It is but the flesh that suffereth and it furthereth your mortification of it 12. You pray but for your daily bread and therefore should be contented with it 13. Is not God and Christ and Heaven enough for you Should that man be discontent that must live in Heaven 14. Is it not your lust rather than your well-in-formed Reason that repineth I do but name all these Reasons for brevity You may enlarge them in your Meditations CHAP. XXIII Directions for the Rich. I Have said so much of this already Tom. 1. about Covetousness or Worldliness and about Good See more in my Life of Faith Works and in my Book of Self-denyal and that of Crucifying the World that my Reason commandeth me brevity in this place Direct 1. Remember that Riches are no part of your Felicity or that if you have no better Direct 1. you are undone men Dare you say that they are fit to make you happy Dare you say that you will take them for your part and be content to be turned off when they forsake you They reconcile not God They save not from his wrath They heal not a wounded Conscience They may please your flesh and adorn your Funeral but they neither delay nor sanctifie nor sweeten death nor make you either better or happier than the poor Riches are nothing but plentiful provision for tempting corruptible flesh When the flesh is in the dust it is Rich no more All that abounded in wealth since Adams dayes till now are levelled with the lowest in the dust Direct 2. Yea remember that Riches are not the smallest Temptation and Danger to your souls Direct 2. Do they delight and please you By that way they may destroy you If they be but Loved above God and make Earth seem better for you than Heaven they have undone you and if God recover you not it had been better for you to have been Worms or Bruits than such deceived miserable souls It is not for nothing that Christ giveth you so many terrible warnings about Riches and so describeth the folly the danger and the misery of the worldly rich Luke 12. 17 18 19 20. 16 19 20 21 c. 18. 21 22 23 c. and telleth you how hardly the Rich are saved Fire burneth most when it hath most fewel And Riches are the fewel of worldly Love and fleshly Lust 1 Iohn 2. 15 16. Rom. 13. 13 14. Direct 3. Understand what it is to Love and Trust in worldly prosperity and wealth Many Direct 3. here deceive themselves to their destruction They perswade themselves that they desire and use their Riches but for necessity but that they do not Love them nor Trust in them because they can say that Heaven is better and Wealth will leave us to a grave But do you not Love that Ease that Greatness that Domination that Fulness that Satisfaction of your appetite eye and fancy which you cannot have without your wealth It is fleshly Lust and Will and Pleasure which carnal worldlings Love for it self and then they Love their wealth for these And to Trust in Riches is not to Trust that they will never leave you for every fool doth know the contrary But it is to Rest and Quiet and Comfort your minds in them as that which most pleaseth you and maketh you well or to be as as you would be Like him in Luke 12. 18 19. that said Soul take thy Ease Eat drink and be merry thou hast enough laid up for many years This is to Love and Trust in Riches Direct 4. Above all the deceits and dangers of this world take heed of a secret hypocritical hope Direct 4. of Reconciling the World to Heaven so as to make you a â—elicity of both and dreaming of a compounded Heb. 10. 34. Luke 18. 22. Matth. 13. 20 21 22. Acts 5. 1 c. Acts 2. 45. Luke 14. 33. portion or of serving God and Mammon The true state of the Hypocrites Heart and Hope is To Love his worldly prosperity best and desire to keep it as long as he can for the enjoyment of his fleshly pleasures and when he must leave this world against his will he hopeth then to have Heaven as a reserve because he thinketh it better than Hell and his Tongue can say It is better than Earth though his will and affections say the contrary If this be your case the Lord have mercy upon you and give you a more believing spiritual mind or else you are lost and you and your treasure will perish together Direct 5. Accordingly take heed lest when you seem to Resign your selves and all that you have to Direct 5. God there should be a secret purpose at the heart that you will never be undone in the world for Christ nor for the hopes of a better world A knowing hypocrite is not ignorant that the terms of Christ Luke 14. 26. 27 29 33. proposed in the Gospel are no lower than forsaking all and that in Baptism and our Covenant with Christ all must be resigned and devoted to him and the Cross taken up instead of all or else we are no Christians as being not in Covenant with Christ. But the hypocrites hope is that though Christ put him upon these promises he will never put him to the tryal for performance nor never call him to forsake all indeed And therefore if ever he be put to it he will not perform the promise which he hath made He is like a Patient that promiseth to be wholly ruled by his Physicion as hoping that he will put him upon nothing which he cannot bear But when the bitter Potion or the Vomit cometh he saith I cannot take it I had hoped you would have given me gentler Physick Direct 6. And accordingly take heed lest while you pretend to Live to God and to use all that Direct 6. you have as his Stewards for his service you should deceitfully put him off with the leavings of your lusts and give him only so much as your flesh can spare It is not likely that the damned Gentleman Luke 16. was never used to give any thing to the poor else what did beggars use his doors for When Christ promiseth to reward men for a cup of cold water the meaning is when they would give better if they had it There are few Rich men of all that go to Hell that were so void of humane compassion or of the sense of their own reputation as to give nothing at all to the poor But God will have all though not all for the poor yet all imployed as he commandeth and will not be put off with your tythes or scraps His Stewards confess that they have nothing of their own Direct 7. Let the use of your Riches in prosperity shew that you do not dissemble when you Direct 7. promise to
still reason enough to review and Repent of all that is past and still pray for the pardon of all the sins that ever you committed which were forgiven you before So many years sinning should have a very serious Repentance and lay you low before the Lord. § 3. Direct 3. Cleave closer now to Christ than ever Remembering that you have a life of sin for Direct 3. him to answer for and save you from And that the time is near when you shall have more sensible need of him than ever you have had You must shortly be cast upon him as your Saviour Advocate and Judge to determine the question what shall become of you unto all eternity and to perfect all that ever he hath done for you and accomplish all that you have sought and hoped for And now your natural life decayeth it is time to retire to him that is your Root and to look to the life that is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 4. and to him that is preparing you a mansion with himself and whose office it is to receive the departing souls of true believers Live therefore in the daily thoughts of Christ and comfort your souls in the belief of that full supply and safety which you have in him § 4. Direct 4. Let the ancient mercies and experiences of Gods Love through all your lives be still Direct 4. before you and fresh upon your minds that they may kindle your Love and Thankfulness to God and may feed your own delight and comfort and help you the easier to submit to future weaknesses and death Eaten bread must not be forgotten A thankful remembrance preserveth all your former mercies still fresh and green The sweetness and benefit may remain though the thing it self be past and gone This is the great priviledge of an aged Christian that he hath many years mercy more to think on than others have Every one of those mercies was sweet to you by it self at the time of your receiving it except afflictions and misunderstood and unobserved mercies And then how sweet should all together be If unthankfulness have buried any of them let thankfulness give them now a Resurrection What delightful work is it for your thoughts to look back to your Childhood and remember how mercy brought you up and conducted you to every place that you have lived in and provided for you and preserved you and heard your prayers and disposed of all things for your good How it brought you under the means of grace and blest them to you and how the spirit of God began and carryed on the work of grace upon your hearts I hope you have recorded the wonders of mercy ever upon your hearts with which God hath filled up all your lives And is it not a pleasant work in old age to ruminate upon them If a Traveller delight to talk of his travels and a Souldier or Seaman upon his adventures how sweet should it be to a Christian to peruse all the conduct of mercy through his life and all the operations of the spirit upon his heart Thankfulness taught men heretofore to make their mercies as it were attributes of their God As the God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt was the name of the God of Israel And Gen. 48. 15. Iacob delighteth himself in his old age in such reviews of mercy The God which fed me all my life long unto this day The Angel which Redeemed me from all evil bless the lads Yea such thankful reviews of ancient mercies will force an ingenuous soul to a quieter submission to infirmities sufferings and death and make us say as Iob Shall we receive good at the hands of God and not evil and as old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace It is a powerful rebuke of all discontents and maketh death it self more welcome to think how large a share of mercy we have had already in the world § 5. Direct 5. Draw forth the treasure of wisdom and experience which you have been so long in laying Direct 5. up to instruct the ignorant and warn the unexperienced and ungodly that are about you Job 32. 7. Dayes should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom The aged women must teach the young women to be sober to love their husbands and children to be discreet chaste keepers at home good obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blaspheamed Tit. 2. 3 4 5. It is supposed that Time and experience hath taught you more than is known to raw and ignorant youth Tell them what you have suffered by the deceits of sin Tell them the method and danger of temptations Tell them what you lost by delaying your Repentance and how God recovered you and how the spirit wrought upon your souls Tell them what comforts you have found in God what safety and sweetness in a holy life how sweet the holy Scriptures have been to you how prayers have prevailed how the promises of God have been fulfilled and what mercies and great deliverances you have had Tell them how Good you have found God and how bad you have found si◠and how vain you have found the world Warn them to resist their fleshly lusts and to take heed of the ensnaring Joel 1. 3. Deut. 11. 19 20. Deut. 29. 22. flatteries of sin Acquaint them truly with the History of publick sins and judgements and mercies in the times which you have lived in God hath made this the duty of the aged that the Fathers should tell the wonders of his works and mercies to their children that the ages to come may praise the Lord Deut. 4. 10. Psal. 78. 4 5 6. § 6. Direct 6. The Aged must be examples of wisdom gravity and holiness unto the younger Where Direct 6. should they find any virtues in eminence if not in you that have so much time and helps and experiences It may well be expected that nothing but savoury wise and holy come from your mouths and nothing unbeseeming wisdom and godliness be seen in your lives Such as you would have your Children after you to be such shew your selves to them in all your Conversation § 7. Direct 7. Especially it belongeth to you to repress the heats and dividing contentious and Direct 7. censorious disposition of the younger sort of professours of Godliness They are in the heat of their blood and want the knowledge and experience of the aged to guide their zeal They have not their senses yet exercised in discerning good and evil Heb. 5. 12. They are able to try the spirits They are yet but as children apt to be tossed to and fro and carryed up and down with every wind of doctrine after the craft and subtilty of deceivers Eph. 4. 14. The Novices are apt to be puffed up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. They never saw the issue of errours and
he hath in the most dangerous disease which is not desperate For when it is certain that there is no hope without them if they do no good they do no harm So must we try the saving of a poor soul while there is life and any hope For if once death end their time and hopes it will be then too late and they will be out of our reach and help for ever To those that sickness findeth in so sad a case I shall give here but a few brief Directions because I have done it more at large in the first Tome and first Chapter whither I refer them § 5. Direct 1. Set speedily and seriously to the Iudging of your selves as those that are going to Direct 1. be judged of God And do it in the manner following 1. Do it willingly and resolvedly as knowing For Examination that it is now no time to remain uncertain of your everlasting state if you can possibly get acquainted with it Is it not time for a man to know himself whether he be a sanctifiâ—d believer or not when he is just going to appear before his maker and there be judged as he is found 2. Do it impartially as one that is not willing to find himself deceived as soon as death hath acquainted him with the truth O take heed as you love your souls of being foolishly tender of your selves and resolving for fear of being troubled at your misery to believe that you are safe whether it be true or false This is the way that thousands are undone by Thinking that you are sanctified will neither prove you so nor make you so no more than thinking that you are well will prove or make you well And what good will it do you to think you are pardoned and shall be saved for a few days longer and then to find too late in Hell that you were mistaken Is the ease of so short a deceit worth all the pain and loss that it will cost you Alas poor soul God knoweth it is not needlesly to affright thee that we desire to convince thee of thy misery We do not cruelly insult over thee or desire to torment thee But we pity thee in so sad a case To see an unsanctified person ready to pass into another world and to be doomed unto endless misery and will not know it till he is there Our principal reason of opening your danger is because it is necessary to your escaping it If soul diseases were like bodily diseases which may sometimes be cured without the patients knowing them and the danger of them we would never trouble you at such a time as this But it will not be so done You must understand your danger if you will be saved from it Therefore be impartial with your self if you are wise and be truly willing to know the worst 3. In Iudging your selves proceed by the same Rule or Law that God will judge you by that is by the word of God revealed in the Gospel For your work now is not to steal a little short-lived quiet to your Consciences but to know how God will judge your souls and whether he will doom you to endless joy or misery And how can you know this but by that Law or Rule that God will judge you by And certainly God will judge you by the same Law or Rule by which he Governed you or which he gave you to Live by in the world It will go never the better or worse there with any man for his good or bad conceits of himself if they were his mistakes But just what God hath said in his word that he will do with any man that will he do with him in the day of judgement All shall be justified whom the Gospel justifieth and all shall be condemned that it condemneth and therefore judge your self by it By what signes you may know an unsanctified man I have told you before Tom. 1. Chap. 1. Dir. 8. And by what signes true grace may be known I told you before in Preparation for the Sacrament 4. If you cannot satifie your self about your own condition advise with some Godly able Minister or other Christian that is best acquainted with you that knoweth how you have lived towards God and man or at least open all your heart and life to him that he may know it And if he tell you that he feareth you are yet unsanctified you have the more reason to fear the worst But then be sure that he be not a carnal ungodly worldly man himself For they that flatter and deceive themselves are not unlike to do so by others Such blind deceivers will dawb over all and bid you never trouble your self but even comfort you as they comfort themselves and bid you believe that all is well and it will be well or will make you believe that some forced confession and unsound Repentance will serve instead of true Conversion But a man that is going to the bar of God should be loth to be deceived by himself or others § 6. Direct 2. If by a due examination you find your self unsanctified bethink you seriously of your Direct 2. case both what you have done and what a condition you are in till you are truly humbled and willing of For Humiliation and Repentance any conditions that God shall offer you for your deliverance Consider how foolishly you have done how rebelliously how unthankfully to forsake your God and forget your souls and lose all your time and abuse all Gods mercies and leave undone the work that you were made and preserved and redeemed for Alas did you never know till now that you must dye and that you had all your time to make preparation for an endless life which followeth death Were you never warned by Minister or friend Were you never told of the necessity of a holy heavenly life and of a regenerate sanctified state till now O what could you have done more unwisely or wickedly than to cast away a life that eternal life so much depended on and to refuse your Saviour and his grace and mercies till your last extremity Is this the time to look after a new birth and to begin your life when you are at the end of it O what have you done to delay so great a work till now And now if you die before you are regenerate you are lost for ever O humble your souls before the Lord Lament your folly and presently condemn your selves before him and make out to Him for mercy while there is hope Direct 3. § 7. Direct 3. When you are humbled for your sin and misery and willing of mercy upon any terms For Faith in Christ. believe that yet your case is not Remediless but that Iesus Christ hath given himself to God a sacrifice for your sins and is so sure and allsufficient a Saviour that yet nothing can hinder you from pardon and salvation but your own impenitence and unbelief
when the next sickness cometh to remember that they were unthankful for their last recovery and how falsly they dealt with God in the breaking of their promises Foresee this that you may prevent it Tit. 3. Directions for a Comfortable or Peaceable Death COmfort is not desirable only as it Pleaseth us but also as it strengtheneth us and helpeth us in our greatest duties And when is it more needful than in sickness and the approach of death I shall therefore add such Directions as are necessary to make our departure comfortable or peaceful at the least as well as safe Direct 1. Because I would make this Treatise no longer than I needs must in order to overcome Direct 1. the fears of Death and get a chearful willingness to dye I desire the sick to read over those twenty Considerations and the following Directions which I have laid down in my Book of Self-denyal And when the fears of death are overcome the great impediment of their comfort is removed § 2. Direct 2. Misunderstand not sickness as if it were a greater evil than it is but observe how Direct 2. great a mercy it is that Death hath so suitable a harbinger or fore-runner That God should do so much before he taketh us hence to wean us from the world and make us willing to be gone that the unwilling flesh hath the help of pain and that the senses and appetite languish and decay which did draw the mind to earthly things and that we have so lowd a call and so great a help to true Mr. Vinâ—s Mr. Capell Mr. Holli gâ—orth Mr Aâ—hhâ—ost Mr A bâ—osâ— M 〈…〉 Bâ—raell c. repentance and serious preparation I know to those that have walked very close with God and are alwayes ready a sudden death may be a mercy as we have lately known divers holy Ministers and others that have dyed either after a Sacrament or in the Evening of the Lords Day or in the midst of some holy exercise with so little pain that none about them perecived when they dyed But ordinarily it is a mercy to have the flesh brought down and weakned by painful sickness to help to conquer our natural unwillingness to dye § 3. Direct 3. Remember whose Messenger sickness is and who it is that calleth you to dye It is Direct 3. he that is the Lord of all the world and gave us the Lives which he taketh from us And it is he that must dispose of Angels and Men of Princes and Kingdoms of Heaven and Earth and therefore there is no reason that such Worms as we should desire to be excepted You cannot deny him to be the Disposer of all things without denying him to be God It is he that Loveth us and never meant us harm in any thing that he hath done to us that gave the life of his Son to Redeem us and therefore thinketh not Life too good for us Our sickness and death are sent by the same Love that sent us a Saviour and sent us the powerful Preachers of his Word and sent us his Spirit and secretly and sweetly changed our hearts and knit them to himself in Love which gave us a life of pretious mercies for our souls and bodies and hath promised to give us life eternal And shall we think that he now intendeth us any harm Cannot he turn this also to our good as he hath done many an affliction which we have repined at § 4. Direct 4. Look by faith to your dying buryed risen ascended glorified Lord. Nothing will Direct 4. more powerfully overcome both the poyson and the fears of Death than the believing thoughts of him that hath triumphed over it Is it terrible as it separateth the soul from the body So it did by our Lord who yet overcame it Is it terrible as it layeth the body in the grave So it did by our Saviour though he saw not corruption but quickly rose by the power of his Godhead He dyed to teach us believingly and boldly to submit to death He was buried to teach us not overmuch to fear a grave He rose again to conquer death for us and to assure those that rise to newness of life that they shall be raised at last by his power unto glory and being made partakers of the first resurrection the second death shall have no power over them He liveth as our Head that we might live by him and that he might assure all those that are here risen with him and seek first the things that are above that though in themselves they are dead yet their life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 1 2 4 5. What a comfortable word is that John 14. 19. Because I live ye shall live also Death could not hold the Lord of life Nor can it hold us against his will who hath the keyes of death and Hell Rev. 1. 18. He loveth every one of his sanctified ones much better than you love an eye or a hand or any other member of your body which you will not lose if you are able to save it When he ascended he left us that message full of comfort for his followers John 20. 17. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God which with these two following I would have written before me on my sick-bed John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my servant be And Luke 23. 43. Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise O what a joyful thought should it be to a Believer to think when he is dying that he is going to his Saviour and that our Lord is risen and gone before us to prepare a place for us and take us in season to himself Iohn 14. 2 3 4. As you believe in God believe thus in Christ and then your hearts will be less troubled Ver. 1. It is not a stranger that we talk of to you but your Head and Saviour that loveth you better than you love your selves whose office it is there to appear continually for you before God and at last to receive your departing souls and into his hand it is that you must then commend them as Stephen did Acts 7. 59. § 5. Direct 5. Choose out some Promises most suitable to your condition and roll them over and over Direct 5. in your mind and feed and live on them by faith A sick man is not usually fit to think of very many things and therefore two or three comfortable promises to be still before his eyes may be the most profitable matter of his thoughts such as those three which I named before If he be most troubled with the greatness of his sin let it be such as these Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world
life and consequently rejected Christ as a Saviour and the Holy Ghost as a sanctifier and all the mercy which he offered you on these terms Quest. 8. If this hath been your case are you now unfeignedly grieved for it Not only because it hath brought you so near to Hell but also because it hath displeased God and deprived you of that Holy and comfortable life which you might all this while have lived and endangered all your hopes of Heaven Do you so far Repent as that your very Heart and Love is changed so that now you had rather have a Holy life on earth and the sight and enjoyment of God in the Heavenly Joyes for ever than to have all the pleasure and prosperity of this world Do you hate your sins and loath your self for them and truly desire to be made Holy Are you firmly Resolved that if God do recover you to health you will live a new and Holy life that you will forsake your fleshly worldly life and all your wilful sins and will set your self to learn the will of God and call upon him and live in the holy Communion of Saints and make it your chief care to please God and to be saved Quest. 9. Are you willing to these ends to Give up your self absolutely now to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as your Reconciled Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier to be sanctified and Iustified and saved from your sins and from the wrath of God and live to God in Love and Holiness And are you willing to bind your self to this by entring into this Covenant with God renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil Either your Heart is willing and sincere in this Resolution and Covenant or it is not If it be not there is no hope that your sin should be pardoned and your soul be saved upon any other or easier terms And for all that God is merciful and Christ died for sinners it was never his intent to save one impenitent unsanctified soul But if your Heart unfeignedly consent to this I Matth. 28. 19 â—0 2 Cor. 6. 10 17 18. have the commission of Christ himself to tell you that God will be your Reconciled God and Father and Christ will be your Saviour and the Holy Spirit will be your Sanctifier and Comforter and your sins are pardoned and your soul shall be saved and you shall dwell in Heaven with God for ever God did consent before you consented He shewed his Consent in purchasing and making and offering you this Covenant Shew your unfeigned Consent now by accepting it and giving up your self unreservedly to him and you have Christs Blood and Spirit and Sacrament to seal it to you The flesh and the world have deceived you but Trust in Christ upon his Covenant terms and he will never deceive you And now alas what pity is it that a soul that is in so miserable a case and is lost for ever if it have not help and speedy help should be deprived of all this Grace and Glory and only for want of Repenting and Consenting What pity is it that a soul that is ready to go into another world where mercy shall never more be offered it should rather go stupidly on to hell than Return to God and Accept his mercy Do but truly Repent and Consent to this Covenant and all the mercies of it are certainly yours God will be your God and Christ and the Spirit and pardon and Heaven and all are yours The Lord open and perswade your heart that you may not be undone and lost for ever for want of accepting the mercy that is offered you And now I know it would be comfortable to you if you could be fully assured that you are forgiven and shall be saved In a matter of such unspeakable moment how jâ—yful would a well-grounded certainty be to any man that hath the right use of his understanding I tell you therefore from God that there is no cause of your doubting on his part but only on your own There is no doubt to be made whether God be merciful nor whether Christ be a sufficient Saviour and sacrifice for your sins nor whether the Covenant be sure and promise of pardon and salvation to all true penitent believers be true All the doubt is whether your faith and Repentance be sincere or not And for that I can but tell you how you may know it and I shall open the Truth to you that I may neither Deceive you nor causlâ—sly Discomfort you If this Repentance and Change which you now profess and this Covenant which you have made Matth. 13. 19 20 21 22 23. Rom. 8. 7 8 9. Heb. 12. 14. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. Matth. 18. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Eph. 6. 24. 1 Cor. 16. 22. Luk. 14. 26 27. with God 1. Do come only from a present fear and not from a changed renewed heart 2. And if your Resolutions be such as would not hold you to a holy life if you should recover but would die and fade away and leave you as were before when the fear is past then is it but a forced hypocritical Repentance and will not save you if you so die Though a Minister of Christ should Absolve you of all your sins and seal it by giving you the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for all this you are lost for ever if you have no more For Absolution and the Sacrament are given you but on supposition that yâ—ur faith and Repentance be sincere And if this Condition fail in you the Action of the holiest Minister in the world will never save you But 1. If your Repentance and Covenant come not only from a present fear but from a Renewed Heart which now Loveth God and Christ and Heaven and Holiness better than all the Honours and Riches and Pleasures of the flesh and world and had rather have them even on Gods terms 2. And if this change be such as if you should recover would hold you to a Holy Life and not die or dwindle into hypocritical formality when the fright is over then I can assure you from the word of God that if you die in this Repentance you shall certainly be saved And though Late Repentance have so many difficulties that it too seldom proveth true and sound and it is an unspeakable madness to cast our salvation on so great a hazard and to defer that till such a day as this which should be the principal work of all our lives and for which the greatest care and diligence is not too much Yet for all that when Conversion is indeed sincere it is alwayes acceptable how late soever And a returning prodigal shall find Luk. 15. 19 20 21 22. Joh. 6. 37. better entertainment with God than he could possibly expect And never will Christ cast out one soul that cometh to him in sincerity of heart The Lord give you such a Heart and all is yours Amen
knoweth the reason of his own commands It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. 4. 10. If God should command us nothing how is he our Governour and our God And if he command us any thing what should he command us more fitly than to worship him And he that will not obey him in this is not like to obey him well in any thing For there is nothing that he can with less shew of Reason except against seeing all the Reason in the world must confess that worship is most due to God from his own Creatures § 12. These Reasons for the Worship of God being undenyable the Objections of the infidels and Object ungodly are unreasonable As Obj. 1. That our worship doth no good to God for he hath no need of it Answ. Answ. It pleaseth and honoureth him as the making of the world and the happiness of man doth Doth it follow that there must be no world nor no man happy because God hath no need of it or no addition of felicity by it It is sufficient that it is necessary and Good for us and pleasing unto God § 13. Obj 2. Proud men are unlikest unto God and it is the Proud that love to be honoured and Object praised Answ. Pride is the affecting of an undue honour or the undue affecting of that honour Answ. which is due Therefore it is that this affectation of honour in the Creature is a sin because all honour is due to God and none to the Creature but derivatively and subserviently For a subject to affect any of the honour of his King is disloyalty And to affect any of the honour of his follow subjects is injustice But God requireth nothing but what is absolutely his due And â—e hath commanded us even towards men to give fear and honour to whom they are due Rom. 13. 7. § 14. Direct 3. Labour for the truest knowledge of the God whom you worship Let it not be said Direct 3. of you as Christ said to the Samaritan Woman Joh. 4. 22. Ye worship ye know not what nor as it is said of the Athenians whose Altar was inscribed To the unknown God Act. 17. 23. You must know whom you worship or else you cannot worship him with the heart nor worship him sincerely and acceptably though you were at never so great labour and cost God hath no pleasure in the sacrifice of fools Eccl. 5. 1 4. Though no man know him perfectly you must know him truly And though God taketh not every man for a Blaspheamer and denier of his Attributes whom contentious pievish wranglers call so because they consequentially cross some espoused opinions of theirs yet real misunderstanding of Gods nature and attributes is dangerous and tendeth to corrupt his worship by the corrupting of the Worshippers For such as you take God to be such Worship you will offer him For your worship is but the honourable acknowledgement of his perfections And mistakingly to praise him for supposed imperfections is to dishonour him and dispraise him If to know God be your eternal life it must needs be the life of all your worship Take heed therefore of ignorance and errour about God § 15. Direct 4. Understand the office of Iesus Christ as our Great High Priest by whose Mediation Direct 4. alone we must have access to God Whether there should have been any Priesthood for sacrifice or intercession Heb. 8. 3. if there had been no sin the Scripture telleth us not expresly but we have great reason to conjecture there would have been none because there would not have been any reasons for the exercise of such an office But since the fall not only the Scriptures but the practice of the whole world doth tell us that the sinful people are unmeet immediatly thus to come to God but that they must come by the Mediation of the Priest as a Sacrificer and Intercessour So that either Nature teacheth sinners the Necessity of some Mediator or the Tradition of the Church hath dispersed the Knowledge of it through the World And certainly no other Priest but Christ can procure the acceptance of a sinful people upon his own account nor be an effectual Mediator for them to God Heb. 7. 27 28. Heb 9. 26 28. unless in subserviency to an effectual Mediator who can procure us access and acceptance for his own sake For all other Priests are sinners as well as the people and have as much need of a Mediator Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. Heb. 10. 13 14. for themselves 1. See therefore that you never appear before God but as sinners that have offended him and have deserved to be cast out of his favour for ever and such as are in absolute necessity of a Mediator to procure their access and acceptance with God Come not to God without the sense of sin and misery 2. See also that you come as those that Have a Mediator in the Heb. 6. 20. Heb. 7. 25 26. Matth. 1â— 5. Joh. 11. 42. presence of God even Jesus our High Priest who appeareth before God continually to make intercession for us Come therefore with holy boldness and confidence and joy having so sure and powerful a friend with God the beloved of the Father whom he heareth alwayes § 16. Direct 5. Look carefully to the state of thy soul that thou bring not an unholy heart to Worship Direct 5. the most Holy God Come not in the Love of sin nor in the hatred of Holiness For otherwise thou hatest God and art hated of him as bringing that before him which he cannot but hate And it 's easie to judge how unfit they are to worship God that hate him and how unlike they are to be accepted by him whom he hateth Psal. 5. 3 4 5 6 7. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man But as for me I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies and in thy fear will I worship towards thy holy Temple Psal. 66. 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me Psal. 15. 1 2. Who shall abide in Gods tabernacle but he that walketh Lâ—v. 10 3. uprightly and worketh righteousness God will be sanctified in them that come nigh him and are unsanctified persons fit for this and can the unholy offer him holy worship The carnal mind is enmity against God is it fit then to serve and honour him Rom. 8. 7 8. See 2 Cor. 6. 15 16 17 18. Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from
among them and defile them 7. It is the duty of the several members of the flock if a Brother trespass against them to tell him his faults between them and him and if he hear not to take two or three and if he hear not them to tell the Church 8. It is the Pastors duty to admonish the unruly and call them to Repentance and pray for their Conversion 9. And it is the Pastors duty to declare the obstinately impenitent uncapable of Communion with the Church â—nd to charge him to forbear it and the Church to avoid him 10. It is the peoples duty to avoid such accordingly and have no familiarity with them that they may be ashamed and with such no not to eat 11. It is the Pastors duty to Absolve the Penitent declaring the remission of their sin and re-admitting to the Communion of the Saints 12. It is the peoples duty to re-admit the absolved to their Communion with joy and to take them as Brethren in the Lord. 13. Though every Pastor hath a General power to exercise his office in any part of the Church where he shall be truly called to it yet every Pastor hath a special obligation and consequently a special power to do it over the flock of which he hath received the special charge and oversight 14. The Lords day is separated by Gods appointment for the Churches ordinary holy Communion in Gods Worship under the conduct of these their Guides 15. And it is requisite that the several particular Churches do maintain as much agreement among themselves as their capacity will allow them and keep due Synods and correspondencies to that end Thus much of Gods Worship and Church-order and Government at least is of Divine institution and determined by Scripture and not left to the will or liberty of man Thus far the Form of Government at least is of Divine Right § 21. But on the contrary 1. About Doctrine and Worship the Scripture is no Law in any of these following cases but hath left them undetermined 1. There are many natural Truths which the Scripture meddleth not with As Physicks Metaphysicks Logick c. 2. Scripture telleth not a Minister what particular Text or Subject he shall Preach on this day or that 3. Nor what method his Text or Subject shall be opened and handled in 4. Nor what day of the week besides the Lords day he shall preach nor what hour on the Lords day he shall begin 5. Nor in what particular place the Church shall meet 6. Nor what particular sins we shall most confess nor what personal mercies we shall at this present time first ask nor for what we shall now most copiously give thanks For special occasions must determine all these 7. Nor what particular Chapter we shall now read nor what particular Psalm we shall now sing 8. Nor what particular translation of the Scripture or version of the Psalms we shall now use Nor into what Sections to distribute the Scripture as we do by Chapters and Verses Nor whether the Bible shall be Printed or Written or in what Characters or how bound 9. Nor just by what sign I shall express my consent to the truths or duties which I am called to express consent to besides the Sacraments and ordinary words 10. Nor whether I shall use written Notes to help my memory in Preaching or Preach without 11. Nor whether I shall use a writing or book in prayer or pray without 12. Nor whether I shall use the same words in preaching and prayer or various new expressions 13. Nor what utensils in holy administrations I shall use as a Temple or an ordinary house a Pulpit a font a Table cups cushions and many such which belong to the several parts of Worship 14. Nor in what particular gesture we shall preach or read or hear 15. Nor what particular garments Ministers or people shall wear in time of Worship 16. Nor what natural or artificial helps to our natural faculties Of which I have spoke more fully in my Disput. 5. of Church-Government p. 400. c. we shall use as medicaments for the Voice tunes musical instruments spectacles hour-glasses These and such like are undetermined in Scripture and are left to be determined by humane prudence not as men please but as means in order to the proper end according to the General Laws of Christ. For Scripture is a General Law for all such circumstances but not a particular Law So also for Order and Government Scripture hath not particularly determined 1. What individual persons shall be the Pastors of the Church 2. Or of just how many persons the Congregations shall consist 3. Or how the Pastors shall divide their work where there are many 4. Nor how many every Church shall have 5. Nor what particular people shall be a Pastors special charge 6. Nor what individual persons he shall Baptize receive to Communion admonish or absolve 7. Nor in what words most of these shall be expressed 8. Nor what number of Pastors shall meet in Synods for the communion and agreement of several Churches noâ— how oft nor at what time or place nor what particular order shall be among them in their consultations with many such like § 22. When you thus understand how far Scripture is a Law to you in the Worship of God it will be the greatest Direction to you to keep you both from disobeying God and your Superiours that you may neither pretend obedience to man for your disobedience to God nor pretend obedience to God against your due obedience to your Governours as those will do that think Scripture is a more particular Rule than ever Christ intended it And it will prevent abundance of unnecessary scruples contentions and divisions § 23. Direct 12. Observe well in Scripture the difference between Christs Universal Laws which Direct 12. bind all his Subjects in all times and places and those that are but local personal or alterable Laws What commands of God are not universal noâ— perpetual lest you think that you are bound to all that ever God bound any others to The Universal Laws and unalterable are those which result from the Foundation of the universal and unalierable nature of persons and things and those which God hath supernaturally revealed as suitable constantly to all The particular local or temporary Laws are those which either resulted from a particular or alterable nature of persons and things as mutually related as the Law of nature bound Adams Sons to marry their Sisters which bindeth others against it or those which God supernaturally enacted only for some particular people or person or for a time If you should mistake all the Iewish Laws for universal Laws as to persons or duration into how many errours would it lead you So also if you mistake every personal mandate sent by a Prophet or Apostle to a particular man as obliging all you would make a snare of it Every man is not to abstain
to belong in so special a manner to the Gods that they conclude that man and usually his posterity to be destinated to ruine that is perjured and perfidious In so much that it is †Aelian Vari Hist. l. 14. written of Agesilaus and many others that when their enemies were perjured and broke their Covenants they took it for a sign of victory and the best prognostick of their success against them Plutarch recordeth this story of Cleomenes that having made a truce for seven dayes with the Argives he set upon them and killed and took many of them in the night and when he was charged with perfidiousness answered I made not a truce with them for seven nights but for seven dayes But the women fetcht arms out of the Temples of the Gods and repulsed him with shame and he ran mad and with his Sword did mangle his own body and dyed in a most hideous manner When Conscience is awakened to see such a sin as Perjury no wonder if such run mad or hang themselves as perfidious Achitophell and Iudas did No doubt but everlasting horror and desperation will be the end of such if true Conversion do not prevent it 5. It is * Though as Moder Polic. saith Princ. 7. It is a huge advantage that man hath in a credulous world that can easily say and swear to any thing and yet so palliate his perjuries as to hide them from the cog 〈…〉 nce of tâ—â— most Gabaoâ—itarum irritum foedus calliditate licet extortum nonnullis intulisset exitâ—um c. Gildas iâ— Prolog Haud ameâ—â—um justitiae est fides i. e. dictorum conventorumque constantia veritas Cicero a sin that ruineth families and societies like fire that being kindled in the thatch never stoppeth till it have consumed all the house Though the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked but he blesseth the Habitation of the just Prov. 3. 33. Yet among all the wicked there are few so commonly marked out with their families to shame and ruine as the perjured What ever Nation is stigmatized with a fides punica vel Graeca with the brand of Perjury it is not only their greatest infamy but like Lord have mercy on us written on your doors a sign of a destroying plague within Saith †Silius Non illi domus aut conjux aut vita manebit Unquam expers luctus lachrymaeque aget aequore semper Ac tellure premens aget aegrum nocte dieque Despecta ac violata fides Saith Claud. In prolem dilatarunt perjuria patris Et poenam merito filius ore luit So Tibull Ab miser siquis primo perjuria celat Sera tamen tacitis poena venit pedibus Saith Pausanias The fraud that is committed by perjury falleth upon posterity 6. Perjury and perfidicusness are virtually Treason Rebellion and Murder against Kings and Magistrates and no more to be favoured in a Kingdom by a King that loveth his life and safety than the Plague in a City or poison to the body Tristissimum domesticum regibus omnibus pharmacum liberorum amicorum exercitus perfidia saith Appian What security have Princes of their Crowns or lives where Oaths and Covenants seem not obligatory There is then nothing left but fear of punishment to restrain the violence of any one that would do them mischief And craft or strength will easily break the bonds of fear He that would dissolve the bond of Oaths and teach men to make light of perjury is no more to be endured in a Kingdom than he that openly inviteth the Subjects to kill their King or rise up in rebellion against him If he that breaketh the least of Gods commands and teacheth men so to do shall be called Least in the Kingdom of God then surely he that breaketh the Great Matth. 5. 19. commands by the most odious sin of Perjury and teacheth men so to do should neither be Great nor any thing in the Kingdoms of men 7. Perjury is the poyson of all Societies and of friendship and of humane converse and turneth all into a state of enmity or hostility and teacheth all men to live together like foes He that is not to be believed when he sweareth is never to be believed And when Oaths and Covenants signifie nothing and no man can believe another what are they but as so many foes to one another How can there be any Relations of Governours and Subjects Of Husband and Wife Of Master and Servants Or how can there be any trading or commerce when there is no trust Perjury dissolveth all societies by loosening all the bonds of association Well might Dionys Halic l. 3. say The Perfidious are far worse than open enemies and worthy of far greater punishment For a man may more easily avoid the ambushments of foes and repell their assaults than escape the perfidiousness of seeming friends Saith Valerius Max. l. 9. c. 6. Perfidiousness is a â—idden and ensnaring mischief whose effectual force is in lying and deceiving its fruit consisteth â—â— some horrid villany which is ripe and sure when it hath compassed cruelty with wicked bonds bringing as great mischief to mankind as fidelity bringeth good and safety He that teacheth the doctrine of Perjury and perfidiousness doth bid every man shift for himself and trust no more his friend or neighbour but all take heed of one another as so many Serpents or Wild Beasts Lyons and Bears may better be suffered to live loose among men than those that teach men to make light of Oaths 8. Thus also it destroyeth personal Love and teacheth all men to be haters of each other For it can be no better when men become such hateful creatures to each other as not at all to be credited or sociably conversed with 9. Perjury and perfidiousness do proclaim men deplorate and stigmatize them with this character that they are persons that will stick at the committing of no kind of Villany in the world further than their fleshly interest hindereth them No charity hindeth a man to think that he will make conscience of murder rebellion deceit adultery or any imaginable wickedness who maketh no conscience of Perjury and perfidiousness Such a person alloweth you to judge that if the temptation serve he will do any thing that the Devil bids him and that he is virtually a compound of all iniquity and prepared for every evil work 10. Lastly As Perjury doth thus dissolve societies and turn mankind into enmity with each other so it would make the misery uncurable by making even penitents incredible Who will believe him even while he professeth to Repent that hath shewed that when he sweareth he is not to be believed He that dare forswear himself dare lye when he pretendeth Repentance for his Perjury It must be some deedâ— that are more credible than Words and Oaths that must recover the credit of such a mans professions If Perjury have violated any Relations it leaveth the
whether you find it or not for any good its like to do you Every Truth of God is appointed to be his Instrument to do some holy work upon your heart Let the Love of Holiness be it that maketh you search after Truth and then you may expect that God should be your teacher § 4. Direct 3. Seek after Truth without too great or too small regard to the judgement of others neither contemn them nor be captivated to them Use the help of the wise but give not up your Direct 3. Reason absolutely to any Engage not your selves in a Party so as to espouse their errors or Non tam autoritatis in disputando quam rationis momenta quaerenda sunt Cic. Nat. Deo p. 6. Obest plerumque iis qui discere volunt autoritas eorum qui se docere profitentur Desinunt enim suum judicium adhibere Id habent ratum quod ab eo quem probant judicatum vident Cic. de Nat. Deo p. 7. implicitely to believe whatever they say For this breedeth in you a secret desire to please your party and interesseth you in their dividing interest and maketh you betray the Truth to be accounted Orthodox by those you value § 5. Direct 4. Take heed of Pride which will make you dote upon your own conceits and cause Direct 4. you to slight the weightiest reasons that are brought by others for your conviction And if once you have espoused an error it will engage all your wit and zeal and diligence to maintain it It will make you uncharitable and furious against all that cross you in your way and so make you either Persecutors if you stand on the higher ground or Sect-leaders or Church-dividers and turbulent and censorious if you are on the lower ground There is very great reason in Pauls advice for the choice of a Bishop 1 Tim. 3. 6. Not a Novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil It is no more wonder to see a Proud man erroneous and in the confidence of his own understanding to rage against all that tell him he is mistaken than to hear a drunken man boasting of his wit to the increase of his shame § 6. Direct 5. Take heed of slothfulness and impatience in searching after Truth and think not Direct 5. to find it in difficult cases without both hard and patient studies and ripeness of understanding to enable you therein And suspect all opinions which are the off-spring of idleness and ease what ever Divine illumination they may pretend except as you take them from others upon trust in a slothful way who attained them by diligent studies For God that hath called men to labour doth use to give his blessing to the laborious And he that hath said by his Spirit 1 Tim. 4. 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all doth accordingly cause those men to profit who seek it in this laborious way of his appointment And he that hath said The desire of the slothful killeth him doth not use to bless the slothful with his teachings He that Prov. 24. 30. Prov. 21. 25. Matth. 25. 26. will say to him in judgement Thou wicked and slothful servant will not encourage the slothfulness which he condemneth My Son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thine ear to wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding Yea if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding If thou seekest her as Silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God For the Lord giveth Wisdom Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Mark here to whom God giveth wisdom All the godly are taught of God But mark here how it is that he teacheth them Not while they scorn at Studies and Universities and look that their knowledge should cost them nothing or that the Spirit should be instead of serious studies or that their understandings should discern what 's true or false at the first appearance But while they think no pains or patience too great to learn the truth in the School of Christ. § 7. Direct 6. Keep out Passion from your Disputes and in the management of all your controversies Direct 6. in Religion For though Passion be useful both antecedently to the the Resolution of the Will and consequently Quae duae virtutes in Disputatore primae sunt eas ambas in Hubero deprehendi Patientiam adversarium prolixe sua explicantem audiendi lenitatem etiam aspere dicta perserendi inq Scultetus post disâ— Cuâ—â—ic p. 33. to the effectual execution of its Resolutions yet it is commonly a very great seducer of the understanding and strangely blindeth and perverteth judgement so that a Passionate man is seldome so far from the truth as when he is most confident he is defending it When Passion hath done boyling and the heart is cooled and leaveth the judgement to do its work without any clamour and disturbance its strange to see how things will appear to you to be quite of another tendency and reason than in your Passion you esteemed them § 8. Direct 7. Keep up a sense of the evil and danger of both extreams and be not so wholly intent Direct 7. upon the avoiding of one extream as to be fearless of the other The narrow minds of unexperienced men are hardly brought to look on both sides them and to be duly sensible of the danger of both extreams But while they are taken up only with the hating and opposing one sort of errors they forget those on the other side And usually the sin or error which we observe not is more dangerous to us than that which we do observe if the wind of temptation sit that way Direct 8. § 9. Direct 8. When you detect any antient error or corruption enquire into its original and see whether Reformation consist not rather in a restitution of the primitive state than in an extirpation of the whole Even in Popery it self there are many errors and ill customs which are but the corruption of some weighty truth and the degenerating of some duty of Gods appointment And to reduce all in such cases to the primitive verity is the way of wise and true reformation and not to throw away that which is Gods because it is fallen into the dirt of humane depravation But in cases where all is bad there all must be rejected § 10. Direct 9. Pretend not Truth and Orthodoxness against Christian Love and Peace and so follow Direct 9. Rom. 12. 13. 1 Cor. 13. Truth as that you lose not Love and Peace by it As much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men Charity is the End of Truth And it is a mad use of Means to use them against the End
withdrew from the accusation as tending to their own confusion And Severus saith Certe Ithacium nihil pensi nihil sancti habuisse definio fuit enim audax loquax impudens sumptuosus ventri gulae plurimum impertiens Hic stultitiae eo usque processerat ut omnes etiam sanctos viros quibus aut studium inerat lectionis aut propositum erat certare jejuniis tanquam Priscilliani socios discipulos in erimen arcesseret Ausus etiam Miser est Martino Episcopo viro plane Apostolis conferendo palam objectare haeresis infamiam quia non desinebat inâ—repare Ithacium ut ab accusatione desisteret And when the Leaders were put to death the Heresie increased more and honoured Priscillian as a Martyr and reproached the Orthodox as wicked persecuters And the end was that the Church was filled by it with divisions and manifold mischiefs and all the most godly made the common scorn Inter haec plebs Dei optimus quisque probro atque ludibrio habebatur They are the last words of Severus's History And changing the names are calculated for another Meridian and for later years CHAP. IX How to behave our selves in the publick Assemblies and the worship there performed and after them See my Treaâ— of the Lords day and my Cure of Church-Div I Have purposely given such particular Directions in Tom. 2. on this subject and written so many Books about it and said so much also in the Cases of Conscience that I shall here only cast in a few common Directions lest the Reader think I make a bawk Direct 1. Let your preparations in secret and in your family on the beginning of the Direct 1. Lords dayes be such as conduce to fit you for the publick Worship Run not to Church as ungodly Eccl. 5. 1 2 3 4. people do with a carnal heart that never sought God before you went nor considered what you go about As if all your Religion were to make up the number of the auditors and you 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Prov. 1. 20. to the end thought God must not be worshipped and obeyed at home but only in the Church God may in mercy meet with an unprepared heart and open his eyes and heart and save him But he hath made no promise of it to any such He that goeth to Worship that God at Church whom he forgetteth and despiseth in his heart and house may expect to be despised by him O consider what it is for a sinner that must shortly die to go with the servants of God to worship him to pray for his salvation and to hear what God hath to say to him by his Minister for the life of his immortal soul Direct 2. Enter not into the holy Assembly either superstitiously or unreverently Not as if Direct 2. the bending of the knee and mumbling over a few words with a careless ignorant mind and spending an hour there as carelesly would save your souls Nor yet as if the Relation which the worship the worshippers and the dedicated Place have unto God deserved not a special honour and regard Though God be ever with us every where yet every Time and Place and person and business is not equally Related to God And Holiness is no unfit attribution for that Company or that Place which is Related to God though but by the lawful separation and dedication of man To be uncovered in those Countreys where uncovering signifieth Reverence is very well becoming a reverent soul except when the danger of cold forbids it It is an unhappy effect of our Contentions that many that seem most reverent and holy in their high regard of holy things do yet carry themselves with more unreverent deportment than those that themselves account prophane God is the God of Soul and Body and must be worshipped by both And while they are united the actions of one are helpful to the other as well as due and decent Direct 3. If you can come at the beginning that you may shew your attendance upon God and Direct 3. your esteem of all his worship Especially in our Assemblies where so great a part of the duty as Confession Praises Reading the Scriptures are all at the beginning And it is meet that you thereby shew that you prefer publick worship before private and that needless businesses keep you not away Direct 4. If you are free and can do it lawfully choose the most able holy Teacher that you can Direct 4. have and be not indifferent whom you hear For O how great is the difference and how bad are our hearts and how great our necessity of the clearest doctrine and the Livelyest helps Nor be you indifferent what manner of people you joyn with nor what manner of worship is there performed But in all choose the Best when you are free But where you are not free or can have no better refuse not to make use of weaker Teachers or to communicate with faulty Congregations in a defective faulty manner of worship so be it you are not compelled to sin And think not that all the faults of the Prayers or Communicants are imputed to all that joyn with them in that worship For then we should joyn with none in all the World Direct 5. When the Minister is weak be the more watchful against prejudice and sluggishness of Direct 5. heart lest you lose all Mark that Word of God which he readeth to you and reverence and Love and lay up that It was the Law Read and meditated on which David saith the Godly do delight Psal. 1. 2 3. Psal. 12. 6 7. 19. 7 8 9. in The sacred Scriptures are not so obscure and useless as the Papists do pretend but convert the soul and are able to make us wise unto salvation Christ went ordinarily to the Synagogues where even bad men did read Moses and the Prophets every Sabbath day There are thousands that cannot Read themselves who must come to the Assembly to hear that word read which they cannot read or hear at home Every sentence of Scripture hath a divine excellency and therefore had we nothing but the Reading of it and that by a bad man a holy soul may profit by it Direct 6. Mind not so much the case of others present as your selves And think not so much how Direct 6. bad such and such a one is and unworthy to be there as how bad you are your selves and unworthy of communion with the people of the Lord and what a mercy it is that you have admittance and are not cast out from those holy opportunities Direct 7. Take heed of a pievish quarrelsome humour that disposeth you to carp at all that 's said Direct 7. and done and to find fault with every mode and circumstance and to affect a causless singularity as thinking that your own wayes and words and orders are far more excellent than other mens Think ill of nothing out of
and instruction 3. If they may do so in the Psalms in Metre there can no reason be given but they may lawfully do so in the Psalms in prose For saying them and singing them are but modes of utterance both are the speaking of Prayer and praise to God And the ancient singing was liker our saying than to our tunes as most judge 4. The primitive Christians were so full of the zeal and Love of Christ that they would have taken it for an injury and a quenching of the spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the praises of the Church 5. The use of the tongue keepeth awake the mind and stirreth up Gods graces in his servants 6. It was the decay of zeal in the people that first shut out Responses while they kept up the ancient zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the pride and usurpation of some Priests thereupon who thought the people of God too prophane to speak in the assemblies and meddle so much with holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessours even when they lost the Life and spirit which should animate them And so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their ancestors had used in the fervour of their souls 6. And if it were not that a dead hearted formal people by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of seriousness I think few good people would be against them now If all the serious zealous Christians in the assembly speak the same words in a serious manner there will appear nothing in them that should give offence If in the fulness of their hearts the people should breakout into such words of prayer or confession or praise it would be taken for an extraordinary pang of zeal and were it unusual it would take exceedingly But the better any thing is the more loathsome it appeareth when it is mortified by hypocrisie and dead formality and turned into a mockery or an affected scenical act But it is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the Life and spirit to the words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore 7. Those that would have private men pray and prophesie in publick as warranted by 1 Cor. 14. Ye may all speak c. do much contradict themselves if they say also that Lay man may say nothing but Amen 8. The people were all to say Amen in Deut. 27. 15 16 18 19 20 c. And yet they oftentimes said more As Exod. 19. 8. in as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God himself gave Moses a Sermon in a form of words to Preach to the people and Moses had repeated it as from the Lord it being the Narrative of his mercies the command of obedience and the promises of his great blessings upon that condition all the people answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do The like was done again Exod. 24. 3. And Deut. 5. 27. And lest you should think either that the Assembly was not as solemn as ours or that it was not well done of the people to say more than Amen God himself who was present declared his approbation even of the words when the speakers hearts were not so sincere in speaking them as they ought vers 28 29. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me and the Lord said unto me I have heard the voice of the words of this people They have well said all that they have spoken O that there were such a heart in them Obj. But this is but a speech to Moses and not to God Answ. I will reciâ—e to you a form of prayer which the people themselves were to make publickly to God Deut. 26 13 14 15. Then shalt thou say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the ☞ hallowed things out of my house and also have given them to the Levite and to the stranger to the fatherless and the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my mourning neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the dead but I have â—earkened to the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me Look down from thy holy habitation from Heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest unto our Fathers a Land that floweth with milk and honey Is not here a full form of Prayer to be used by all the people And remember that Ioseph and Mary and Christ himself were under this Law and that you never read that Christ found fault with the peoples speech nor spake a word to restrain it in his Churches In Lev. 9. 24. When all the people saw the Glory of the Lord and the fire that came out from it and consumed the burnt Offering they shouted and fell on their faces which was an acclamation more than bare Amen 2 King 23. 2 3. King Iosiah went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah c. And the Priests and the Prophets and all the people both small and great and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the Covenant And the King stood by a pillar and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments c with all their heart and all their soul c. and all the people stood to the Covenant Where as a King is the speaker it 's like that the people used some words to express their consent 1 Chron. 16. 35 36. When David delivered a Psalm for a form of praise in which it is said to the people v. 35. And say ye save us O God of our salvation and gather us together and deliver us from the Heathen that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory in thy praise blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever All the people said Amen and praised the Lord. Where it is like that their praising the Lord was more than their Amen And it is a command Psal. 67. 3 5. Let all the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee And he that will limit this to single persons or say that it must not be Vocally in the Church or it must be only in metre and never in prose or only in tunes and not without must prove it lest he be proved an adder to Gods word But it would be tedious to recite all the repeated sentences in the Psalms
is in two cases viz. 1. If they commit such capital crimes as God and man would have punished with death its fit they dye and then they are silenced For in this case it is supposed that their lives by their impunity are like to do more hurt than good 2. If their Heresie insufficiency scandal or any fault what ever do make them more hurtful than profitable to the Church it is fit they be cast out If their Ministry be not like to do more good than their faults to do harm let them be silenced But if it be otherwise then let them be punished in their bodies or purses rather than the peoples souls should suffer The Laws have variety of penalties for other men Will none of those suffice for Ministers But alas What talk I of their faults Search all Church History and observe whether in all ages Ministers have not been silenced rather for their duties than their faults or for not subscribing to some unnecessary opinion or imposition of a prevailing party or about some wrangling controversies which Church disturbers set afoot There is many a poor Minister would work in Bridewell or be tyed to shovell the Streets all the rest of the Week if he might but have liberty to preach the Gospel And would not such a penalty be sufficient for a dissent in some unnecessary point As it is not every fault that a Magistrate is deposed for by the Soveraign but such as make him unfit for the place so is it also with the Ministers § 39. Direct 18. Malignity and Prophaneness must not be gratified or encouraged It must be considered Direct 18. how the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to his Law nor can be Rom. 8. 7 â— Gen. 3. 15. And that enmity is put between the Womans and the Serpents seed and that the whole business of the world is but the prosecution of the War between the Armies of Christ and Satan And that malignity inclineth the ungodly world to slander and reproach the servants of the Lord and they are glad of any opportunity to make them odious or to exasperate Magistrates against them And that their silencing and fall is the joy of the ungodly And if there be any Civil differences or sidings the ungodly rabble will take that side be it right or wrong which they think will do most to the downfal of the godly whom they hate Therefore besides the merits of the particular cause a Ruler that regardeth the interest of the Gospel and mens salvation must have some care that the course which he taketh against godly Ministers and people when they displease him be such as doth not strengthen the hands of evil doers nor harden them increase them or make them glad I do not say that a Ruler must be against what ever the ungodly part is for or that he must be for that which the major part of godly men are for I know this is a deceitful rule But yet that which pleaseth the malignant rabble and displeaseth or hurteth the generality of godly men is so seldome pleasing to God that its much to be suspected § 40. Direct 19. The substance of faith and the Practice of Godliness must be valued above all opinions Direct 19. and parties and worldly interests And Godly men accounted as they are caeteris paribus the best members both of Church and State If Rulers once knew the difference between a Saint and a sensualist a vile person would be contemned in their eyes and they would honour them that fear the Lord Psal. 15. 4. And if they honoured them as God commandeth them they would not persecute them And if the promoting of practical Godliness were their design there were little danger of their oppressing those that must be the instruments of propagating it if ever it prosper in the World § 41. Direct 20. To this end Remember the neer and dear relation which every true believer standeth Direct 20. in to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost They are called by God his peculiar treasure his jewels Exod. 19. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Tit. 2. 14. 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Mal. 3. 17 18. â—â—h 3. 17. 1 Cor. 3. 16. 2 Tim. 1. 14. 1 Joh. 4 15 16. his Children the members of Christ the Temples of the Holy Ghost God dwelleth in them by Love and Christ by faith and the Spirit by all his sanctifying gifts If this were well believed men would more reverence them on Gods account than causelesly to persecute them Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of my eye § 42 Direct 21. Look not so much on mens infirmities as to overlook or make light of all that is good in them But look as much at the good as at the evil And then you will see reason for lenity as well as for severity and for love and tenderness rather than for hatred and persecution And you will discern that those may be serviceable to the Church in whom blinded malice can see nothing worthy of honour or respect § 43. Direct 22. Estimate and use all lesser matters as means to spiritual worship and practical holiness Direct 22. If there be any thing of worth in Controversies and Ceremonies and such other matters of inferiour rank it is as they are a means to the power of Godliness which is their end And if once they be no otherwise esteemed they will not be made use of against the interest of Godliness to the silencing of the Preachers and persecuting the professours of it § 44. Direct 23. Remember that the Understanding is not Free save only participative as it is Direct 23. subject to the will It acteth of it self per modum naturae and is necessitated by its object further than as it is under the power of the will A man cannot hold what opinion he would himself nor be against what he would not have to be true much less can he believe as another man commandeth him My understanding is not at my own command I cannot be of every mans belief that is uppermost Evidence and not force is the natural means to compell the mind even as Goodness and not force is the natural means to win mens Love It is as wise a thing to say Love me or I will kill thee as to say Believe me or I will kill thee § 45. Direct 24. Consider that it is essential to Religion to be above the authority of man unless as Direct 24. they subserve the authority of God He that worshippeth a God that is subject to any man must subject his Religion to that man But this is no Religion because it is no God whom he worshippeth But if the God whom I serve be above all men my Religion or service of him must needs be also above the will of men § 46. Direct 25. Consider that an obedient disposition towards Gods Laws and a tender Conscience
to God who needeth fewest things for himself and doth most good to others And Christ telleth us that universal charity extending even to them that hate and persecute us doth make us as his Children like our heavenly Father Matth. 5. 44 45 46 48. As Hating and Hurting their neighbours is the mark of the Children of the Devil Iohn 8. 44. so Loving and Doing Good is the mark of the Children of God And it is observable that no one treateth so copiously and pathetically of Love both of Christs love to us and ours to him as the blessed Disciple whom Jesus is said to have eminently Loved as Iohn 13. 14 15 16. 17. 1 Iohn shew It hath often pleased me to hear how dearly you were beloved by that exceeding great and populous Parish where lately you were Preacher for your eminent Charity to their souls and bodies And to see that still you take it for your work and calling to be a provoker of others to Love and to Good Works Heb. 10. 24. whilest many that are taken for good Christians do deal in such works as Rarities or Recreations only a little now and then upon the by and whilest Satans Ministers are provoking others to Hatred and to Hurtfulness Your Labour is so amiable to me that it would contribute to my comforts if I were able to contribute any thing to your assistance You desire me to give you my judgement of the quota pars What proportion it is meet for most men to devote to Charitable uses Whether the Tenth Part of their increase be not ordinarily a fit proportion The reason why I use not to answer such Questions without much distinguishing when lazy impatient Readers would have them answered in a word is because the real difference of particular cases is so great as maketh it necessary unless we will deceive men or leave the matter as dark and unresolved as we found it I. Before I answer your Question I shall premise that I much approve of the way which you insist upon of setting so much constantly apart as is fit for us to give that it may be taken by us to be as a devoted or consecrated thing And methinks that there is much of a Divine Direction for the time in 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. together with the practice of the antient Church That upon the first day of the week every one lay by him in store as God hath prospered him And it will do much to cure Pharisaical Sabbatizing when the Lords Day is statedly used in this with holy works and will teach Hypocrites to know what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Matth. 9. 13. and 12. 7. And that works of Charity are an odour a sweet smell a sacrifice acceptable and well pleasing to God who of the riches of his Glory in Christ will supply all the need of such as bring forth such fruit to abound unto their account Phil. 4. 17 18 19. So it be done without any ensnaring vows or rash engagements to unnecessary things this constant setting apart a certain proportion for pious and charitable uses will have these advantages 1. Our distribution will be made deliberately and prudently when before-hand we study a due proportion and determine accordingly whereas they that give only occasionally as some object suddenly inviteth them will do it at randome without due respect to their own accounts whether the proportion given be answerable to their own estate and duty 2. This stated way will make mens charity much more extensive When objects of charity are not in their sight they will inquire after them and they will seek for the needy if the needy seek not unto them because they have so much by them to dispose of which is devoted to God But those who give but as occasional objects draw it from them will give to none but those that crave or will pass by many as needy whom they see not while they relieve only those few that they hap to see 3. And it will make mens charity also to be more constant and done obediently as a Christians daily work and duty when occasional charity will be more rarely and unconstantly exercised In a word as the observation of the Lords Day which is a stated proportion of time secureth the holy improvement of our time much better than if God be served but occasionally without a stated time and as a constant stated course of Preaching excelleth meer occasional exhortations even so a constant course of Giving wisely stated will find out objects and overcome temptations and discharge our Duty with much more integrity and success And if we can easily perceive that occasional Praying will not so well discharge the duty of prayer as a constant stated course will do why should we not think the same of occasional Giving if men did but perceive that Giving according to our ability is as sure and great a duty as Praying Now to your Question of the Proportion of our gifts II. We must distinguish 1. Between them that have no more than will supply their own and their families true necessities and those that have more 2. Between them that have a stock of money which yieldeth them no increase and those that have more increase by their labour but little stock 3. Between them whose increase is like to be constant and theirs that is uncertain sometime more and sometime less 4. Between them that have many children or near kindred that nature casteth upon them for relief and those that have few or no children or have a competent provision for them and have few needy kindred that they are especially obliged to relieve 5. Between those that live in times and places where the necessities of the poor are very great or some great works of Piety are in hand and those that live where the poor are in no great necessity and no considerable opportunity for any great work of Piety or Charity doth appear These distinctions premised I answer as followeth 1. It is certain that every true Sanctified Christian hath Devoted himself and all that he hath to God to be used in obedience to his will and for his glory 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Luke 18. 33. The Question therefore is not Whether the Tenth part of our estate should be devoted to and employed in the service of God one way or other as he directeth us For it is out of Question that all is his and we are but his stewards and must give account of our stewardship and of all our receivings Matth. 25. But the Question is only what proportion is best pleasing to God in our giving to others 2. A Christian being unseignedly thus resolved in the General to lay out that he hath or shall have as God would have him and to his glory as near as he can his next enquiry must be for finding out the will of God to know in the ordinary course of his distribution where
will be but a temptation to waste your time and neglect greater duty and to make you grow customary and sensless of such sins and mercies when the same come to be recited over and over from day to day But let the common mercies be more generally recorded and the common sins generally confessed yet neither of them therefore slighted and let the extraordinary mercies and greater sins have a more particular observation And yet remember that sins and mercies which it is not fit that others be acquainted with are safelyer committed to memory than to writing And methinks a well humbled and a thankful heart should not easily let the memory of them slip § 20. Direct 20. When you compose your selves to sleep again commit your selves to God through Direct 20. Christ and crave his protection and close up the day with some holy exercise of Faith and Love And if you are persons that must needs lye waking in the night let your meditations be holy and exercised upon that subject that is profitablest to your souls But I cannot give this as an ordinary direction because that the body must have sleep or else it will be unfit for labour and all thoughts of holy things must be serious and all serious thoughts will hinder sleep and those that wake in the night do wake unwillingly and would not put themselves out of hopes of sleep which such serious meditations would do Nor can I advise you ordinarily to rise in the night to prayer as the Papists Votaries do For this is but to serve God with irrational and hurtful ceremony And it is a wonder how far such men will go in Ceremony that will not be drawn to a life of Love and spiritual Worship Unless men did irrationally place the service of God in praying this hour rather than another they might see how improvidently and sinfully they lose their time in twice dressing and undressing and in the intervals of their sleep when they might spare all that time by sitting up the longer or rising the earlier for the same employment Besides what tendency it hath to the destruction of health by cold and interruption of necessary rest when God approveth not of the disabling of the body or destroying our health or shortning life no more than of murder or cruelty to others but only calleth us to deny our unnecessary sensual delights and use the body so as it may be most serviceable to the soul and him I have briefly laid together these twenty Directions for the right spending of every day that those that need them and cannot remember the larger more particular Directions may at least get these few engraven on their minds and make them the daily practice of their lives which if you will sincerely do you cannot conceive how much it will conduce to the holiness fruitfulness and quietness of your lives and to your peaceful and comfortable death CHAP. XVIII Tit. 1. Directions for the holy spending of the Lords Day in Families § 1. Direct 1 BE well resolved against the Cavils of those carnal men that would make you believe Direct 1. that the holy spending of the Lords Day is a needless thing For the Name Since the writing of this I have published a Treatise of the Lords Day whether it shall be called The Christian Sabbath is not much worth contending about Undoubtedly the Name of The Lords Day is that which was given it by the Spirit of God Rev. 1. 10. and the antient Christians who sometime called it The Sabbath by allusion as they used the names Sacrifice and Altar The question is not so much of the Name as the Thing whether we ought to spend the day in holy exercises without unnecessary divertisements And to settle your consciences in this you have all these evidences at hand § 2. 1. By the confession of all you have the Law of Nature to tell you that God must be openly worshipped and that some set time should be appointed for his Worship And whether the fourth Commandment be formally in force or abrogated yet it is commonly agreed on that the parity of reason and general equity of it serveth to acquaint us that it is the will of God that one day in seven be the least that we destinate to this use this being then judged a meet proportion by God himself even from the Creation and on the account of commemorating the Creation and Christians being no less obliged to take as large a space of time who have both the Creation and Redemption to commemorate and a more excellent manner of Worship to perform § 3. 2. It is confessed by all Christians that Christ rose on the first day of the Week and appeared to his congregated Disciples on that day and powred out the Holy Ghost upon them on that day and that the Apostles appointed and the Christian Churches observed their assemblies and communion ordinarily on that day And that these Apostles were filled with the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost that they might infallibly acquaint the Church with the Doctrine and Will of Jesus Mar. 16. 2 9. Luke 24. 1. Christ and leave it on record for succeeding ages and so were entrusted by Office and enabled by gifts to settle the Orders of the Gospel-Church as Moses did the matters of the Tabernacle and Worship then and so that their Laws or Orders thus setled were the Laws or Orders of the Holy Ghost Iohn 20. 1 19 26. Acts 2. 1. Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. Rev. 1. 10. Matth. 28. 19 20 Iohn 16. 13 14 15. Rom. 16. 16. 2 Thess. 2. 15. § 4. 3. It is also confessed that the Universal Church from the dayes of the Apostles down till now hath constantly kept holy the Lords Day in the memorial of Christs Resurrection and that as by the will of Christ delivered to them by or from the Apostles In so much that I remember not either any Orthodox Christian or Heretick that ever opposed questioned or scrupled it till of late ages And as a historical discovery of the matter of fact this is a good evidence that indeed it was settled by the Apostles and consequently by Christ who gave them their Commission and inspired them by the Holy Ghost § 5. 4. It is confessed that it is still the practice of the Universal Church And those that take it to be but of Ecclesiastical appointment â—â—me of them mean it of such extraordinary Ecclesiasticks as inspired Apostles and all of them take the appointment as obligatory to all the members of the Church § 6. 5. The Laws of the Land where we live command it and the King by Proclamation urgeth the execution and the Canons and Homilies and Liturgy shew that the holy observation of the Lords Day is the judgement and will of the Governours of the Church Read the Homilies for the Time and place of Worship Yea they require the people to say when the fourth Commandment is