lose your Life For Christ shall profit you nothing if you place Merit in any thing In any thing wrought in you in any thing wrought by you Gal. 5.2 As many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse of the Law Gal. 3.10 To trust to your good Works to pacify God's Wrath and to merit his Love and to buy so much as a morsel of Bread is to be of the Works of the Law To be of the Party that is so bitterly guilty and condemned And to be under the Wrath which the Law threatens to Soul and Body to Name and Estate is to be under the Curse and poisonous Sting of it A Condition you can't look to thrive in God be merciful to us Sinners of this Day Whose evil Works are unparallellable and our good Ones for the most part are Evil. Little Bread and that which is poisoned Papists have the Plague but Protestants have the Fever Merit is their open Faith but it is also our inward lurking Folly Even Luther its victorious Enemy would complain of a Pope in his Belly And our English Luther said consonantly I may lift up Christ in my Pulpit and pull him down in my Heart Sad are the Indications that Roman Frogs have place in very Puritans Bed-chambers So that slender Alms are given with swelling Opinions of them and God hath little Service from us without conceit of his contracting a great Debt to us We declaim against adding the Virgin Mary 's Milk unto Jesus Christ's Blood but can imagine that our own Prayers and Sweat and Tears will make a good Mixture Now this know Whoredom and Witchcraft are not more odious in God's Sight He will not bear such Indignities done unto his own Munificence and to his Son's Righteousness If you will not serve him as the perfect Giver and his Son as the sole Purchaser of all Good the Devil must have your Works and Service for God will not accept of them They are Carrion and not Sacrifice for him His Wrath is revealed from Heaven against your dead Lions and your living Dogs Against the Carcass of your Vertues as well as the Soul and Body of your Vices against your pharisaical Hearing and Praying as well as against your Tipling and Blaspheming Nor is it to be doubted but for the one as well as the other God is this Day contending with us And we may thank our Practical Popery for our Epidemical Poverty To this will it be justly ascribed if as on the Jews Wrath come upon the Britains to the uttermost What but Wo can betide us when our very Religion is Irreligious Help Lord or we are twice dead and shall be plucked up by the Roots I am teaching People this Truth but find few that hastily learn it The Devil is every Man's King who makes himself his own Priest Who mixes the Covenants of Works and Grace and scrapes for the Honour of a joint Purchaser with Jesus Christ Expecting good things partly for Christ's Oblation and Intercession and partly for his own Will any Man now say To what purpose then is it that we should serve God or be zealous of good Works I think you have been told good Reason in every Direction But you shall have a Candle lighted for you in the Sun We Ministers are Debtors to the most Vnwise There is abundance of Reason to eat Bread that is wholsome as mad work as it is to swallow Poison In Nature you must eat or die and in Religion you must be doing or be undone For God elected redeemed and new created you for good Works Ephes 1.4 Tit. 2.14 Ephes 2.10 And dare you to cross God's Ends He commands and requires you to abound in good Works Tit. 3.8 Phil. 1.11 1 Pet. 2.15 And dare you to disobey the Lord whom you dare not deny He delights in your good Works Prov. 12.22 Prov. 15.8 Heb. 13.16 And dare you that are out Hell by his Favour to deny him his Pleasure He is honoured before Men by your good Works and by nothing else Matth. 5.6 And dare you feloniously to take from him his Vniversal Glory in this World He judgeth Men by their Works here in our present State and hereafter at the final general Judgment He renders to every Man according to his Works Psalm 19.11 Rom. 2.6 Rev. 20.12 13. And dare you to make trial whether he be not a God changeable whether he will not tolerate your Sloth and give you a right to the Tree of Life without keeping his Commandments Rev. 22.14 In short God's Mercy makes not needless Christ's Merits that Fountain sends no Drop of Goodness to us but through this Conduit And Christ's Merits do not make our Faith needless unapplied Balsam can heal no Wound And holy Faith cannot excuse good Works as good never a whit as never the better As good no Roots as no Fruits Without Communion vain is all Union If I bear not Fruit as good never have been ingrafted into Christ's Stock If I abide an useless Member as good never have had Christ my Head If I continue Straw and Chaff as good never have been built on Christ's Royal Foundation If I bring not Issue unto God as good never have been married to Christ So that good Works are as necessary and far from useless as if they were really meritorious And he that obeys not Christ as King and Law-giver he takes Satan for his Prophet and Commander As ever you expect this World's Comforts or next World's Glories Do all good Works though you rest in none Antichristian Faith laid in Ruins the renowned Jerusalem And Antinomian Life brought Hell from Heaven upon Sodom The Lord add more Faith to London's Vertue and more Vertue to our Faith The Lord send us more Faith for our Works and more Works from our Faith Works of Worship towards God Works of Sobriety Watchfulness and Self-denial Works of Justice and Charity towards Men. Works of the Callings wherein we are placed for from Angels to Worms God giveth an Employment to all his Creatures The Complaint Abroad is that Money is scarce and Trade dead But no Money seems so scarce as this Faith that is of the true Royal Stamp no Trade so dead as this of good Works undefiled If these be had and held by you you shall find and feel true the Apostle's words 1 Tim. 4.8 They have the Promise of the Life that now is If not you may e're long be made to exclaim in Moses's words Lord we are consumed by thine Anger and by thy Wrath are we troubled Ps 90.7 These twenty Directions thus do and see what God will do Remembring still these my concluding Words to prevent your Mistake of God's Word What is truly BEST for you God will give to you Rom. 8.28 All shall work for Good Temporal Blessings if God deny in one way he will make Compensation in another Christ was denied the Deliverance that he asked but had it made up in the Support
that if we seek first his Kingdom and its Righteousness we shall not have that only but a good Substance with it Mat. 6.33 All these things shall be added He is a wise Master also too wise to send Servants in his Message and cut off their Feet I say their Feet for this World's Blessings be as requisite to his Worship as our Feet be to our Walk And he knows it well enough Mat. 6.32 Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things He knows that if he will employ us he must maintain us on this Earth we cannot live by the Air. He is a good Master too He delighteth in Mercy But there were small sign of it if he fed Ravens and Lions and starved those that loved him above their Lives especially being that he hath in his House Bread enough and to spare Luke 15.17 Known and wilful Sins that is Aversions from God and Conversions unto Creatures will bring the Moth and the Lion Sometimes a Moth that eats out an Estate slowly and silently no body knows how Sometimes a Lion that makes open and quick work with it Hosea 5.12 14. Hear O ye Rich hear it O ye Poor partial Religion brings this sad Moth and Lion Most Men have some Religion but few have All. Naaman was a Captain and was a Favourite and was much more but he was a Leper One and another of you is a just Man a charitable a Sermon-hearer and a great deal more but he is a neglecter of the Lord's Supper Never renewed his holy baptismal Covenant at God's Table It may be he understands it not at least he has his But and his Leprosy he acts not some Grace he indulges some Lust Some Duty he doth not perform some Ordinance he doth not attend Hence hence comes the Wrath of God who hates to be serv'd by halves Follow the Lord fully and verily thou shalt be fed Psal 37.3 Direct V. Wear your Master's Livery Humility is the supream King's Livery And his Servants are shamefully naked when they are any otherwise clothed St. Peter's words which we read Be ye clothed with Humility are thought fit to be thus read Be ye clothed with Humility as your Badg and Livery Humilitatem induite ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quale viles servi gestarent Heinsius in 1 Pet. 5.5 You may not therefore look to be fed with God's Bread if you cast off his Badg Alas that it should be so grown out of fashion in our Days But wot ye there is no Garment of richer Praise Our Blessed Saviour never put it off and he commanded us to learn from him the perpetual Use of it Matth. 11.28 He knew and taught the gratefulness of it unto God It s being as is said of the Violet of sweetest Scent though of lowest Place For your Lives then keep on this Livery and hold this Violet in your Bosoms A Flower without which the highest Angels would stink in God's Nostrils And with it the worst Sinner hath a way into his Favour In God is no Pride at all He doth not think himself nor desires he to be thought better than he is Unto his Soul Pride is the most abominable Sin of all He resists stands in Battel-array against it James 4.6 It 's an Abomination to him Prov. 16.5 What brings Men low It 's Pride Prov. 29.23 What brings Shame It 's Pride Prov. 11.2 What destroyeth Families It 's Pride Prov. 15.25 The House of the Proud shall be destroyed It brought Vzzias the Leprosy 2 Chron. 26.27 It cost David the Lives of seventy thousand Men 1 Chron. 21.14 It brought Wrath upon Hezekiah and all Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chron. 32.25 Tremble old England whose Pride taketh Blessings with Disdain and Scorn and Crosses with Wrath and Rage Thy Pride looks like the Harbinger of thy Death Pride gave the Apostle Paul a Messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.7 Wonder not that any break and burst when they swell of Pride's Tinpany Marvel not that high Hills be barren and high-minded Men be begging Think not strange to see Lice eat up Herods and Gnats and Flies plague Pharaohs But know this the Meek shall inherit Earth and Heaven too Matth. 5.5 Valleys shall laugh with richest Fatness and honourable Estate shall be to the Humble Prov. 15.33 If Humility put your Mouth in the Dust neither God's Wrath or Man's shall put your Honour in the Dust Humble your Minds to God's Soveraignty and your Wills to his Precepts and Providences and then assure you of his rich Promises He will exalt you 1 Pet. 1.6 He will beautify you Psal 149.4 He will make your Soul dwell at ease and your Seed inherit the Earth Psal 25. Of Humility I will say As poor as it looks it makes many Rich. Though it seems to have Nothing yet it possesseth all Things And he was not besides himself who said That he would rather be an humble Devil than a proud Angel The Depth of Humility is better than the Height of Pride Say then to Pride as Naboth to Ahab God forbid it that I should give away the Inheritance of my Fathers unto thee Direct VI. Hold your Heart at your right Hand Your Heart's Business is to Contrive and Consult your Hands is to Work and Execute your Interest requires that these two be never asunder They are Fools and it's odds but they are Beggars too that contrive without executing or rashly act without first deliberating Eccles 10.2 God's Blessing you may not expect upon your Affairs if you follow not his Counsel in ordering of them His Counsel is that you order them with this Discretion Psal 112.5 A good Man will guide his Affairs with Discretion Clothe his Family Furnish his House Buy Sell Give Refuse to give with Discretion With all his own and oft-times borrowed Discretion taken from the Counsel and Example of Men more Discreet He that hearkneth to Counsel is wise Prov. 12.15 It is oft said by decayed Men This and that unadvised Act undid me had I taken my Friends Advice I had not become a Charge to my Friends He is surely no wise or good Man that asks not Counsel from God in his secular Business and having ask'd it doth not look after it Expecting to have it given him in the ordinary Ways of his wise Providence These are Meditation and Consultation with such as are Godly Wise The neglect whereof is therefore stark Profaneness and as a direct working Cause a highly deserving Cause of deep Poverty Nor need they to wonder at their ignominiously low Condition who hereby sin themselves into it Forasmuch as they do among other Evils bring the Religion they profess into greatest Disgrace Causing more than a few to conceit and exclaim that Religion maketh Men simple and self-undoing Idiots in this World Walk wisely then and you are safe you have Royal Security Prov. 24.3 4. Through Wisdom is an House built by Vnderstanding it is established By Knowledg shall the
much mistaken Text saith that they do so Prov. 24.16 But Nabal is his Name and Folly is with him that leaps into ruinous Troubles Notorious is the Reason of our common Saying That the greatest Leapers break most Bones And the most exquisite Dancers on the Rope die by the Rope Providence is no safeguard to Desperateness The Ruines of many Rich Families be sad Witnesses I do compassionately warn you and yours adding but this memorable word Most commonly they be Judasses that do hang themselves I mean covetous as that Son of Perdition and treacherous as he was Where Kindness makes one Surety Avarice and greedy expectation of Gain makes twenty And we see that it 's scarce one of twenty who betrays not the Creditor the Debtor or himself Wherefore if you will be Sureties take good Advice first remembring that Judas who was his own Judg was his own Executioner also Direct IX Load your Parents soundly So is the Hebrew Text in the fifth Commandment load them with Honour Give them Measures of Reverence Love Gratitude and Obedience pressed down and running over It is a Commandment of express Promise and that Promise of greatest temporal Good It is the first Commandment of the second Table next and immediately to his own Honour God stands for the Honour of Parents His Zeal for it appears in Threats for Sin against it Prov. 20.20 Whoso curseth his Father or Mother his Lamp shall be put out in obscure Darkness that is he shall live in Misery and die with Disgrace The Eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it Prov. 30.17 that is he that scorns and derides Parents tho it be but with a Look and Gesture and without one Word uttered he shall die untimely and ignominiously and after Death be denied a Burial lying exposed to Birds of Prey Have you been guilty of Disobedience Be as eminent for your Repentance Have you been Dutiful to your Parents continue to be so to your last Breath Fathers be Kings and Mothers be Queens unto you their Children Next and immediately under God Christ and Conscience they be your supream Moderators and Governours Sweeten you their Lives and God will sweeten yours Honour you them God will honour you Scripture and Providence say of this Duty Length of Days is in its right Hand and in its left Hand are Riches and Honour Prov. 3.16 Direct X. Marry to none but Heirs of the Crown Heirs of the Crown incorruptible Poor Matches be the notorious Seminary of Beggars The King of Heaven is not Childless in England and he provides as becometh a King for his Children All be Heirs of God Rom. 8.17 and Heirs of the Kingdom James 2.5 All of them he blesseth and his Blessing maketh rich and addeth no Sorrow with it Prov. 10.22 A rare Portion is it not A godly Man is the Son of the King of Kings a godly Woman is his Daughter The ungodly of both Sexes be the Devil's Children and outlawed Rebels The Wrath of God abideth on them John 3.36 God's Curse is on their very Blessings Malach. 2.2 Will ye marry Rebels then bear you Hunger and wear Rags They deserve to be stung that chuse a Serpent for their Bosom And they cannot look for God's Blessing who prefer such Vermine before his Children liking better to have Satan than to have his divine Majesty for their Father-in-Law Would you secure an Estate do not burn nor marry a Child of his who hath no Estate but the Lake of Fire Lust consumeth many single Persons and ill Yoke-fellows starve many married Ones But while the Earth is the Lord's and the Fulness of it you need not to fear Famine if you marry into his Royal Family If you take a Child of his and that for his Glory 1 Cor. 10.31 and by his Will expressed in the Rule of his Word Gal. 6.16 which is that which the Apostle nameth marrying in the Lord 1 Cor. 7.39 This I judg they do not who take such a Husband or Wife as a good Minister should not dare to take unto the Lord's Supper And my Advice is that you hold this Rule refusing Marriage-Covenant with those that renew not their Baptismal-Covenant Direct XI Make Battlements for the Roof of your House That is make such Provisions against Sin in your Families as shall make it hard for any to be wicked therein Make and keep good Rules of Government So that none shall fall headlong into destructive Courses for want of the Fence thereof Nor perish unless they will wilfully leap into Perdition notwithstanding all your Means of their Salvation See the Law Deut. 22.8 When thou buildest a new House then thou shalt make a Battlement for thy Roof that thou bring not Blood upon thine House if any Man fall from thence Blessed are the House-keepers that do their best to make all their House blessed But how few of these are to be found Hence more than from our War with France cometh Poverty Prov. 3.33 The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the Wicked but he blesseth the Habitation of the Just Wicked you are and not Just if God gives you a House and you rule not for God therein but against God Not to rule for him is to rebel against him and then what wonder if he eject you But do you Rule for God that make not all your Family hear his Word as daily as eat his Bread as daily pray together as work or eat together And to discern by your Words and Behaviour that they cannot offend God without offending you or any way so much please you as by care to please God Yea to find that there is no abiding in any known Sin in your Families without Reproof to them and Reformation by them Psal 101.7 He that worketh Deceit shall not dwell in my House O that these words were written on House-keepers Hearts Abraham 's Family-government will bring all Family-blessings Gen. 18.19 The House of the Righteous shall stand Prov. 12.7 The Tabernacle of the Vpright shall flourish When Family-Piety revives the Evil shall bow before the Good and the Wicked at the Gates of the Righteous Prov. 14.11 19. Direct XII Take special care of the King's Children The King of Heaven calleth yours his own God hath given me a Child saith every Parent But God so giveth them to every Parent as that he himself remaineth still the Proprietor He gives them unto you but only to educate for him Your Children are still his Children and so he expresly calls them My Children Ezek. 16.21 whom thou hast born unto me vers 20. You are but Nurses chosen by the grand Parent the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 and the Fashioner of Bodies Psal 139.16 His they are and he it is that saith of every Babe unto you as Pharaoh's Daughter said of Infant-Moses unto the Hebrew Woman Take thou this Child and nurse
fire of Hell Jam. 3.6 St. Paul is large in the Account of the Sins of Speech Rom. 3. But who can name all or count the Evils done by unwary Words All Places are full of Instances of their impoverishing Efficacy Who knows not such as had not wanted Bread for their Mouths had they not wanted a Bridle to their Tongues Or would they have timely believed what they after felt Better a Head without a Tongue than a Tongue without Government An Estate is a small thing a whole Kingdom hath been lost by a rash Word Attend me O you that are Poor Immortal John Fox professed he did forget Lords and Ladies to remember such as you This Discourse speaks my Care of you and this that follows flows from my Kindness unto you It 's your great Mistake that you have nothing but your Fingers ends to live by Nothing therefore to be careful of but them Alas your Welfare and the contrary cometh as much from your Tongues Ends. And the Divine Wisdom counselleth you to take as much care of them Subject then your Lips to God's Laws Take heed to your Words as well as your Works See that your Tongues drop nothing but Honey such is all that is of Honour to God of Use to Men of Benefit to your self All that truly edifies or innocently recreates The Psalmist's Rule is as good as Free Land What Man is he that desireth Life and loveth many Days that he may see Good Keep thy Tongue from Evil and thy Lips from speaking Guile Psal 34.13 Death and Life are in the Power of the Tongue our Safety depends on the use of it Prov. 18.21 If any Rich and Noble bestow their Eye on these Pages I advance this Doctrine to their consideration God prescribes one and the same way for all Men to Prosperity Dukes and very Kings as well as Stockarders and Plowmen must keep their Tongues from Evil if they expect to have their Estates good Crowned Heads have not the Promise of good Days without good Tongues in them Palaces are no such privileged Places that Men may speak what they please in them By their Words God judgeth and blesseth or curseth Princes and Peasants Direct XVI Vnite Courtesy and Truth Godliness is not clownish Divine Graces are no Enemies to good Manners It is an Apostolical and Divine Precept Be ye courteous 1 Pet. 3.8 Be of a pleasant winning Conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loving and affecting to please as far as innocently we may in Words Looks Gestures Habits Inconformity to sinless Customs herein cometh of Evil and worketh Evil. It's an unreasonable ruggedness of Behaviour and contracts mischievous Censure Disaffection and Blame Few esteem a morose Man as other than a Hedghog and his needless ungrateful Singularities as other than Bristles turned to his Neighbours It is very oft that a gracious Man faulty herein is secluded and one of no serious Religion is taken into a gainful Employment None wondring that the best of an ill Man should be preferred before the worst of a good One Though lamenting that a good Man should be the Martyr of his adhering Distemper But how dear is Truth to God and Men What is Fallacious is odiously Courteous Religious Courtship is without Dissimulation it is a Complaisance with Love and with the Love of Love The Truth of both in the inward Parts Simplicity and Sincerity 1 John 3.18 Let us not love in Word neither in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth q. d. Let not our Love have only Lips and no Hands Words without Works are heartless Let us abhor real Unkindness as much as Verbal and of the two let us more fear to do an ill thing than to speak an unkind Word Let our Veracity and Integrity be as conspicuous as the World's Falsity is notorious It is sure that Love universally exercised and apparently unfeigned highly pleaseth God and mightily takes with Man Nor will you in haste be forsaken of either if you provoke them neither by Churlishness nor Falseness You can come into no Want till you are forsaken And how should you be forsaken by any other Means Wherefore express all the Love ye ought and bear in Heart all the Love you express then shall you not be ashamed in the evil Day and in Days of Famine you shall be satisfied Psal 37.19 Direct XVII Be at Court one whole Day in a Week At the King Eternal's Court I mean Six Days of the Week we have somewhat to do beside But one Day the first we have nothing to do beside we are called to the Court of the Great King therein to rest and feast our Souls all the Day long Seeing the King of Glory's Face hearing his Voice eating of his holy Bread and drinking of his holy VVine Remembring his redeeming Love more than VVine making a joyful Noise to him with Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs taking the Day in his Courts for better than a thousand in Shops calling it our Delight But let it not be asked VVill a Man rob God Where is the Man that robbeth him not of his Day The Day which is the Lord's electively as his chosen Lot and his subjectively as that whereon his Affairs are to be transacted Who makes Conscience of Sacrilege of taking God's Time and giving it to the Flesh to Sleep to their own Ways to their own Words to their own Pleasures Whose Heart smites him for cutting off a Moment half Hour or whole Hour of the King's Day Who hastens early to his Court beginning the Sabbath in the Mount Who is not weary of his Court but ends the Sabbath late in the Valley Where is any great Zeal for his Court commanding of Children and Servants into it And is not the Divine Majesty provoked hereby think we Yea and because of these things cometh his Wrath all the Week after on the Children of Disobedience They slight his Court and he overthrows their House they neglect or profane his Table and he will not spread theirs their Families are Dens of Thieves and his revenging Justice makes them Habitations of multiplied Sorrows Therefore is it that we see not better Days because we no better hallow the Lord's Day Therefore decayeth secular Trade and its Markets because Trade for Heaven is let down and the Market for that is so ill kept If ye hallow the Sabbath Day there shall enter into this City Kings and Princes sitting upon the Throne of David and the City shall remain for ever But if ye will not hallow the Sabbath Day then will I kindle a Fire in the Gates thereof and it shall devour the Palaces as well as Shops of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched Jer. 17. Your Blessings depend on your keeping the Day that God hath blessed You cannot profane it and be sure of Bread nor sanctify it and be without good Security of it Isa 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy Foot from the Sabbath