have their life above above the world and things below and such should their work be also How pleasant should heavenly work be to heavenly souls which Believers are and should be Secondly Christians set upon heavenly work for as is your work so will your maintenance be They who do that work which the world cannot have that meat and drink which the world knoweth not Joh. 4. 32 34. The Lord hath dainties and peculiar refreshments for those who are single and faithful in his work they have joyes which strangers intermeddle not with Prov. 14. 10. Whoever go without his labourers shall not lack He keeps a good table for his work-men In keeping of his Commands there 's great reward Psal 19. 11. They eat the fat and drink the sweet Neh. 8. 10. The marrow the spiced wine the hidden Manna is their meat and drink so far as they have need of it O the sweet bits and pleasant sips they miss of who are idle in God's Vineyard They that will not work shall not eat 2 Thes 3. 10. Would you live high in your spiritual comforts then work hard in your spiritual work Thirdly As is your work so will your company be They that do earthly work have earthly companions to labour with them As is mens Trade such is their company The children of the night have their fellowship with unfruitfull works of darkness Ephes 5. 11. and gracious souls are companions with them that fear God Psal 119. 63. Wicked workers have wicked men and devils casting in their lot with them Prov. 1. 14. And so have heavenly Traders heavenly company they have the presence of God with them 2 Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while you are with him They have the Comforter with them Joh. 14. 16. He shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Rom. 8. 11. By his Spirit that dwelleth in you No company like the Comforter friends may leave you but if you keep with God and do his will the Spirit of God will abide with you for ever though he may not alwaies be seen of you yet he will alwaies reside with you At the best friends can but stay with you but the Spirit of Christ will dwell in you and give you the nearest and most intimate acquaintance with himself if you obey his voice and follow him God's labourers have the company of Angels also they are ministring spirits to the heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. They pitch their tents about them that fear God Psal 34. 7. and have it given in charge to take care of the Children of God and to carry them in their arms that they dash not their feet against a stone Psal 91. 11. Those are lovely company indeed such as will never hurt you but do you good you shall be the better for them Prov. 13. 20. Fourthly As is your work so will your wages be to all eternity though not for your work yet according to it Rom. 2. 6. Who shall render to every man according to his deeds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to not for their works The Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noting here saith Paraeus c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non meritum significat sed mensuram ceu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae praemia distribuentur indebita poenae irrogaountur promeritae Paraeus Non propter quid sed quibus sit danda docetur Idem not the merit but the measure analogy or rule by which undeserved rewards shall be distributed and just punishments shall be inflicted as the word is used Mat. 9. 29. ch 23. 3. And so as it refers to glory saith he it rather describes the person to whom this glory shall be given then shews the cause why it is given as Mat. 25. 34 35. Also the word rendered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used for a free reward that hath no respect to desert Mat. 20. 8. The same reward being given to him that wrought one hour as to those that bore the heat and burden of the day So that the word according notes the kind of work not the cause of reward reward as it refers to salvation Suitable to that of Christ Rev. 22. 12. Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indeed evil works have their causality and desert of punishment but not good works of reward Gryner gives three reasons of the difference First Because good works proceed from God and are the fruits of his Spirit in us but evil works proceed from man and are the effects of his own spirit and will Secondly good works are imperfectly good as to degrees and therefore cannot merit but evil works are perfectly evil and therefore deserve death Thirdly Good works are commanded and so are but our duty and cannot merit payment of debts are not purchase but sins are forbidden and so are a breach of the Law of God and deserve death Luke 17. 10. The gift of God is eternal life but the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 23. Death is wages due but life is a gift altogether free By grace ye are saved Ephes 2. 5. There can be no desert of glory in the most spiritual duties of man Because First They are not man's work but God's in him John 15. 5. Without me ye can do nothing Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Holiness is called the fruit of the Spirit Ephes 5. 9. Now the reward is due by way of debt to him that worketh but to him that worketh not 't is of grace Rom. 4. 4 5. and therefore reward is not due to Saints who work not but by strict way of justice rather to the Spirit that worketh in them Secondly They are no way proportionable to the reward and so not meritorious Their work is imperfect they know but in part and do but in part 1 Cor. 3. 9. Phil. 3. 12. The best duties as they come from the Saints here are spotty and as sweet waters that come from an evil vessel they savour of the cask through which they come but glory is perfect omnibus modis and hath no defect in it Our works also are finite being created and creature-actions but the reward is infinite the love and glory of an infinite God Thirdly Though our Holiness were perfect yet it could not merit because it is due to God from that relation we bear to him as his creatures and redeemed ones and from our promise and covenant with him to love obey and serve him Ephes 2. 10. 2 Cor. 8. 5. Duties are but debts not acts of favour to God We owe God our selves and our all and are indebted to Christ for his Redemption-grace more than we can ever pay we cannot though we do all we possible can requite the blood of Christ and love of Christ and till we are out
world Rule 7. Seventhly Follow your duty but cast your care on God abide in your callings but live above them 1 Pet. 5. 17. Casting all your care on God for he careth for you Depend not on your wisdom labour or success in your employments but upon the promise love and care of God for you If the Lord blesseth your substance don't you bless your selves in it See an emptiness in all your abundance and shortness in these to answer your many wants God can soon make a hole in your money-bags blow on your encrease turn your prosperity into contempt and make your expected comforts as the dream of a night vision Live not on large barns but on the full breasts of promises for the good of what you do enjoy or for the supply of what you want The poor Christian hath the keeping of his purse in his Father's hand the rich in his own hand If sight fail live by faith Faith assures you of the good issue of all difficulties in your way and gets advantage from the worst condition and sweetness to mingle with every bitter providence you meet with It may be thou hast a great family and little to live on lyest in debt and hast nothing to pay it hadst a little th' other day but the Caterpiller and the Cankerworm hath devour'd it this loss and th' other stroak hath wasted it In this case thy duty is to live on God by faith for a sanctified fruit of his hand upon thee and for making up this lack by his abundance When thou canst see no way out of thy perplexing trouble let thine eye be unto God for help 2 Chron. 20. 12. 2 Chron. 25. 8. Go not out of God's way for relief He that wounds must heal he onely that casteth down can raise up Deut. 32. 30. Neither faint thou in the day of adversity or way of thy duty Prov. 24. 10. Prov. 16. 3. but commit thy way to the Lord and he will bring it to pass Psal 37. 5. Mat. 6. v. 25. 1 Cor. 7. 32. Phil. 4. 6. Take heed of carking cares and fretful vexings these cannot lessen thy trouble but will greaten thy sins a provident care is thy duty but a distrustful vexing care both thy sin and affliction Rule 8. Eightly In all your labours pray for a blessing If you would live well you must beg as well as work add duty to thy diligence prayer to thy provident care calling on God to thy calling in the world As every creature so every condition and work is sanctified by the word and prayer 1 Tim. 4. 15. In every undertaking seek to God for counsel Prov. 3. 6. In all thy waies acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Christians should not set upon the smallest matters without enquiring the will of God not to go to this or that place to buy or sell to do this or that work without seeking to God for direction Jam. 4. 13 14 15. Our journeys saith one must not be undertaken without asking God's leave Dr. Mant. on Jam. This would evidence a life of dependance on God and bring all thy affairs under divine care and blessing Abraham's servant begins his journey with prayer Gen. 24. 12. 27. and concluded it with praise Gen. 28. 20. And so Jacob Israel's folly in concluding with the Gibeonites contrary to the command of God was laid on their not asking counsel of God Josh 9. 14. The men took of their victuals and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. O the snares and disadvantages men are exposed to in their earthly concerns for not taking counsel from God and engaging his hand and blessing with them Prayer will further your work sweeten your pains and difficulties in it and secure the comfort and good of it When you want mercy seek God for it when you receive mercy see God in it and return praise to God for it Rule 9. Ninthly Though you live in the World yet be dead to the World Heaven-born souls though in the World yet are not of the World but chosen out of it Joh. 15. 19. and crucified to it Gal. 6. 14. God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the World is crucified to me and I unto the World This crucifiedness to the World * Se mundum cum omni suo fastu pompa gloria aspernari contemnere quasi rem nihili vanam mortuam saith Paraeus signifies the contempt and despising of this World he intimates hereby that the World with all its scorn pride pomp and glory are despised by him as a nothing empty dead thing A soul crucified to the World sees nothing lovely and desirable in this World but God his Word and Works there 's nothing in earthly things that can be taking with spiritual hearts if God be not enjoyed in them all the glory of the World is no more to them than a dead carkass if the love of God breath not through it on their hearts nay the very Garden of the Lord is a Wilderness to them if the Rose of Sharon be not in it A mortified Saint wonders that a rational immortal Soul can see such worth in riches pleasures honours and poor perishing things of this life which to him are nothing he can easily part with all at the Lord's bidding And he feels no such evil neither in the bad things of this World as to make men startle at them wants losses reproaches torments for Christ lose their frightfulness to them whose hearts love to the Lord Jesus hath reconciled unto the bitterest affliction that can befall them for his sake If Christ stand and do not perish saith Luther what matter is it if Wife and Children perish If liberty estate life and all go so he stay Such should thy heart be in pursuit of these things as one that is dead to the World and sits loose from all its glory and above all its threatnings content to have or not to have to use or want to enjoy or be denied or deprived of it as God pleaseth Rule 10. Lastly Do all your work within the view of death judgment and eternity transact the employments of every day as dying persons who are leaving this World and liable to a remove every moment How would frequent and serious thoughts of a near approaching end wonderfully check mens greedy pursuits of this World and help to keep their actions in a consistency with their accounts King Philip would have it proclaim'd before him every morning Remember that thou art mortal And when falling upon the Sand he afterward saw the print of his body said O how litle a parcel of earth will hold us when we are dead who ambitiously seek after the World while we are living When Severus was old he called for an Urn or Pitcher in which the ashes of a dead person were put and looking a while on it said a Tu virum capies quem orbis
much thy concern and should be as grateful now and all those great and important duties of piety which this Book laies before thee thought to be as advisable now when time and capacity may render them feasible as in a dying hour when desires and purposes may be too late O do not content thy treacherous heart to cast a transient glance upon these lines to approve or commend them and after all to shake hands with these vast and concerning Truths in them and live and die a stranger to this great and heavenly work but resolve to set about it presently to pursue it throughly that when your Trading-day is done your enriching Eternity may begin and you receive that vast Inheritance that fadeth not away eternal in the Heavens FINIS THE TABLE THe occasion of the Discourse and Introduction to the Word Page 1 2 The terms opened and scope of the Scripture cleared 4 The Doctrine rais'd That the Heavenly Trade is the best Trade no Merchandise like Wisdoms Merchandise and traffiquing about spiritual and eternal things 9 Reasons to prove the Point take 1 From the nature of those things about which Wisdoms Merchants deal 2 The Person they deal with 3 The terms they trade upon 4 The gains that come by it 9 Three things prove Heavenly Ware to be the best in their own nature 1 Scripture 11 2 Experience 12 3 Reason 15 4 Things prove even to enlightned Reason that Heavenly Wares are the best Wares cause of 1 Their rarity 16 2 Their price 18 1 They cost Christ dear ibid. 2 They are oft-times costly to Receivers 19 3 As their price is high so their worth is great good in themselves good to those that have them 20 4 Their duration proves them excellent 21 Reas 2. The Heavenly Trade is the best Trade in regard of the Person traded with the Lord Jesus who is most excellent as to his 1 Greatness 24 2 Goodness 25 3 Ability ibid. 4 Faithfulness 24 Reas 3. The terms on which this Trade is driven proves it the best Trade 1 Goods to trade upon shall be freely given 28 2 Wisdom to manage them shall be freely imparted 30 3 A blessing on the improvement of them shall be insured ibid. 4 The glory of all shall be returned to God 31 Reas 4. 'T is the most profitable Trade cause it brings 1 Great returns Three things prove it 1 Religion has excellent fruit 2 Abundant fruit 33 3 Durable fruit 2 Sure returns four things prove it 35 1 The Justice of God insures it 2 The Blood of Christ ingages for it 3 These returns are the work of his own Spirit 4 The Lord Jesus is an Adventurer with Believers in this Heavenly Trade 36 37 3 Quick returns 38 Ob. Why then do the people of God complain of his delays to hear and help them 39 Answ 1. God will answer and help in due time 2 If he stay long he will pay well for it ibid. 3 The Saints themselves are oft-times the cause of their not receiving quicker returns 40 Uâ—e 1. Of information if the Heavenly Trade be the best Trade 't is strange that so few do set upon this Trade the evil of which is aggravated ibid. Use 2. Of lamentation over the great decays of this Heavenly Trade where are 1 Six Symptoms of this decay 2 Abatement of price when heavenly goods are not valued 45 2 Fewness of Buyers 47 3 Little imployment and slothfulness of spirit in heavenly things 49 4 The poverty of heavenly traders largely opened and proved 50 5 Small adventures for God proves bad trading in Religion 56 6 Breaking shews bad trading 57 2 Sad effects and dangerous issues of decays in this heavenly trade 1 It begets a growing strangeness between God and that soul 59 2 Soul poverty and wastings in mens spiritual interests 61 3 It brings a blast on mens earthly trades and interests 63 4 'T is a ready way to ruine 65 5 It renders the Traders account heavy 67 Use 3. Of reprehension of mens too inordinate pursuit of their earthly trades and interests 69 Quest How may we know when persons do inordinately pursue their earthly trades and interests Answ 1. When those ingross too much of their time 70 2 When they take up too much of their hearts 71 Six signs when the World takes up mens hearts 1 When the desires do greedily go out after them 72 2 When their thoughts are earthly 73 3 Their restless labours after the world 76 4 The delight and pleasure they take in it 78 5 Loathness to part with their earthly comforts and interests shews an earthly heart 81 6 When their trust and dependance is on earthly things 83 2 Aggrevation of the evil of an earthly mind 1 The state of such is dangerous 84 2 Their fall is great 88 Use 4. Of Exhortation 1 To such as are strangers to this heavenly trade where are four Arguments to perswade them to this blessed Calling 1 Their wants and necessities while without this trade 95 2 The danger that attends their present state 101 3 Their duty to set upon this trade and the obligations upon them to do it 102 4 The advantage that comes by it in five things 104 1 Religion will maintain you in the hardest time ibid. 2 Godliness will secure you in the most dangerous times and places 106 3 Holiness will inrich you in impoverishing times ibid. 4 Piety will chear you under greatest disconsolations 107 5 Wisdoms trade will make you truly honourable ibid. Seven Directions how to get this trade 1 Get a capacity and heavenly nature for this heavenly trade 109 2 Cease from your own works 111 3 Make over your selves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant 113 4 Come over into the Family of Christ 115 5 Be mortified to this present world 119 6 Submit to all the instructions the Lord gives you in order to it 121 7 What you do do quickly make hast about it 124 2 Bran. of Exhort To such as profess this Calling exhorting them to follow it 126 Quer. Wherein lies this heavenly trade and what is it you would have us follow Answ There are seven things in which this heavenly trade lies 127 1 To have and keep up a heavenly spirit 128 2 Properties of a heavenly spirit 1 It sees heavenly things 130 2 It savours heavenly things 133 Directions to keep up a heavenly spirit 1 Beware of those things that weaken it 134 3 Things do greatly weaken a heavenly spirit and what they are ibid. to 140 2 Dir. Get all the nourishment you can to strengthen it 3 Be much in communion with the Father of Spirits 141 4 Cherish heavenly motions in your heart 143 5 Dwell much in the meditation of heaven 144 Be much exercised in heavenly graces 146 2 Another part of this heavenly trade is to secure your interest in heavenly treasures 147 Quest How may I know that heavenly treasures are mine Answ 1. By your communion with
discover those sins that procure these wastes 328 3 By this you come to see a necessity of pursuing and securing better treasure 329 4 It helps through grace to loosen the heart from things below 330 5 It tends to the furtherance of Soul-inlargements ibid. 6 It makes heavenly things relish the sweeter 331 4 Branch of Exhort To such as have begun this heavenly trade but are fallen back this advises them Advice 1. To be deeply affected with their evil case 333 Considerations to further it 1 Think on the change thy decays have brought upon thee 333 2 What an unlovely and displeasing object thou art hereby become in the eyes of God 334 3 It makes thee little desirable in the eyes of men ib. 4 Thou art the greatest loser of any thy case is dangerous and thy recovery difficult such are hardly recovered 335 336 Que. I fear this is my cause I am fallen back in grace and fear I shall never recover How may I know whether my back-slidings shall be healed Answ There are six signs of back-slidings that shall be healed 1 When thy back slidings are not upon choice but against thy judgment and consent 336 2 When they become thy Soul-trouble and hearts burden 337 3 When they are after thy effectual calling and sincere choice of God 337 4 When thou art restless until the Lord doth heal thee 338 5 When thy vitals are still sound ibid. 6 When under all thy back-slidings thou findest a humble and contrite heart 339 5 Dangerous symptoms of falling back that shall hardly be restored 1 If thy falling back be before thy falling in with Christ 339 2 A falling off from the foundations 340 3 A making Merchandise of the truth selling themselves to work wickedness ibid. 4 Back-slidings in heart shall not be cured 341 5 When persons are prejudiced against the means of recovery ibid. Adv. 2. Search out the causes of thy Souls decay and get them removed 342 Caus 1. Entrance upon this heavenly trade without a stock to set up ibid. 2 Setting upon this trade and having no skill to mannage it 344 3 Want of diligence in following it 345 4 Great and frequent losses in thy spiritual interests 346 5 Great wastes and needless expences 347 6 Great debts are breaking 350 Adv. 3. Compound with your Creditor Adv. 4. Set up no more for your selves but enter your selves Factors for Christ 352 Three things required in a Factor which must be followed by those that will thrive in this heavenly trade 1 To trade upon anothers stock 353 2 To be regulated by anothers advice 356 3 To drive on anothers interest 358 Adv. 5. Follow your trade better than you have done ibid. 5 Branch of Exhort To such as have good trading in Religion be you exhorted 1 To bless God for good trading 360 1 This is a great mercy at all times ibid. 2 A singular mercy at this time 361 3 An earnest of eternal mercy ibid. Qu. How may I know whether I have good trading in spirituals Sol. There are seven signs of good trading in evil times 364 1 When men go not back ibid. 2 If Wares go off well 365 3 When men are richer in stock 366 4 Are you less in debt 368 5 Have you more owed you and is it sure 367 6 That is good trading when the present incomes maintain the trader 369 7 Laying up as well as laying out bespeaks good trading 371 Complaint This is my case I see I am this languishing soul what shall I do to get my condition mended and my languishing soul revived and attain unto true thrivings in this holy Calling Sol. There are six things that help to thrive in their trading 1 A provident care 373 2 A diligent hand 375 3 Driving a secret trade 376 4 The blessing of God on mens labours ibid. 5 There are also prospering graces to be kept up 1 Faith is a Soul-prospering grace 377 2 Love to God his name and ways 379 3 Humiltty is a Soul-thriving grace ibid. 4 Sincerity is a Soul-thriving fruit of the Spirit 381 6 Take prospering courses 382 There are four Soul-thriving courses 1 Keep up Self-examination ibid. 2 Be much with God in prayer 383 3 Ingage God with you in all your undertakings 385 4 Follow Divine Counsel in all you do 386 Ob. My fear still remains that I am a barren soul and shall perish at last 388 Sol. 1. Thou mayst thrive in Religion and not know it ibid. Try thy change ibid. Ob. But may not a hypocrite go so far and all this but change from darkness to conscience light and from sin to common grace 389 Sol. This is answered in four particulars ib. to p. 391 Ob. But change from nature to grace is not growth in grace I may have the first fruits though not the after-fruits of the Spirit 391 Sol. This is answered in three particulars 391 to 393 Advice 2. Inlarge your trade Nine Motives to ingage Christians to Soul inlargements 393 to 399 Advice 3. Lay in for bad times 402 There are four seasons when Christians will need all their store 1 Times of temptation 403 Mat. 2. 1. Cause they are certain they will come 403 2 They are shaking when they are come 407 2 Times of desertion 408 3 Times of great affliction 410 4 The time of death 413 Advice 4. Lay out for God this is 1 Reasonable work 417 2 Pleasing work 419 3 Honourable work 420 4 Profitable work ibid. 5 'T is a proof of your love to God 422 Dir. 1. Lay out your time for God Mot. 1. Your time is not yours but Gods Mot. 2. Much of your time is lost already 424 Mot. 3. Your time is short and uncertain ibid. Mot. 4. You can't put it to better profit 425 5 You must give an account of your time 426 6 How can you bethink a little time for God who hath not thought an eternity of mercy too much for you 427 2 Lay out your strength for God ibid. 3 Lay out your gifts and graces for God 428 4 Lay out your earthly interests for God 430 1 Else all your Religion is vain 432 2 Acts of charity are parts of Religious worship 433 3 God is much glorified by duties of charity 434 4 Sincere charity will evidence your right to glory 435 5 'T is the sure way to blessings here 437 Coun. 5. Lay up for glory 440 1 Lay up sound hopes for glory 441 With Motives thereto ibid. Que. What are these sure hopes of glory Sol. 1. They issue from saving Vnion with Christ 445 2 They are the fruits of true grace 447 3 There will be a mortifiedness to this world 448 4 Right hopes are active hopes 449 5 Then will your conversation be in heaven 454 2 Lay up desires for glory 455 3 Lay up all the treasures you can to greater glory 457 Several things tend to greater glory 458 Lay up preparations for glory for which 461 1 Get your hearts more loose from the world 462 2 Press after more maturity in your graces 463 3 Get and keep the testimony of a good Conscience ibid. 4 Maintain walks with God daily 464 5 Dispatch your work on earth 465 Lastly Be always ready for the coming of the Lord ibid. FINIS
who keepest up this Trade for Heaven and thrivest therein here hast thou marks of a Prosperous Trade in Godliness and several Doubts cleared up about thy Soul-thrivings with those Important Duties opened which this Peculiar Mercy calls for Gather out of this Garden what Physick or Food thou needest and Apply and Improve it praying for the Assistance of that Spirit that hath been frequently and solemnly begged both for the Forming and Blessing of this Discourse unto all that read it You who have been Hearers of this Subject though in somewhat different Expressions suited to your Capacity and Advantage in the Delivery of it have reason above others to Receive and Improve this Message Twice sent unto you But you Especially my dear Friends the Care of whose Souls is upon me for whose sake chiefly these Truths were at first Delivered and are now made Publick have the most obliging reasons to get them Copied out upon your Hearts and in your Lives To you Firstly more Especially yea most Affectionately was and is this Word of salvation fent and presented again to your View that you might have these things abiding with you and that they might live in your Eye which have founded in your Ear and be speaking to you when I shall be removed out of your sight and be beyond all Capacity to serve your precious and immortal Souls that when I can plead no more for God or with you I may in this be speaking to you and others in the behalf of Christ and glorious though despised Holiness This has been the prevailing Argument with me to discover my weakness to the World and expose my self to the censure or scorn of some I have the greatest reason to expect from you the Entertainment of these Truths who have chosen and received me in the Lord to declare the Gospel of his Son to you You also have known my Labours Infirmities and Afflictions with you and for your sake that for Twenty years space I have served you in the Gospel in reproach wants weaknesses dangers and sufferings neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I may finish my course with joy and the Ministery which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God yea being so affectionately desirous of you I have been willing to have imparted to you not the Gospel of God onely but also my own Soul Because you were dear unto me you know and have acknowledged the suitableness of this Subject unto your own Cases and how evidently the condition of most of you is opened here and suited by the convictions counsels reprehensions consolations of this discourse there are some among you that I am jealous of with a godly jealousie lest I should have laboured in vain for you and your minds be corrupted from the simplicity of the Gospel through the temptations of this present world I have often cried aloud in your ears against the sin and have warned you of the danger of an earthly spirit and conversation and do tell you now even weeping that such are enemies to the Cross of Christ who mind earthly things until you are crucified to the world you have no saving benefit of the cross of Christ or can ever behold the face of God in heaven until you are redeemed from the earth all your Profession Parts Duties and Enjoyments will be but so many Witnesses against you if after all you are lovers of this present World Coveting to be rich will also make your Souls poor and deprive you of the refreshments of his presence and consolations of his blessed spirit and will be a manifest evidence that you have little of those pleasures that are from above 'T was faid of pious Mr. Bain That he sought not great matters in the World being taken up with comforts and griefs to which the World was a stranger The more a Soul converses in heaven and lives upon the first fruits of the other world the less will he be taken with things below when Abraham came to live by faith and in a view of that City whose Maker and Builder is God the Plains of Sodom and Spoils of Canaan were to him but mean things I never cared much for the world saith one since I came to know better things You have tasted that the Lord is gracious you have fed on the fat things of his house and have found a day in his Courts better than a thousand elsewhere and must be self-condemned if you prefer not God above Ten thousand Worlds and count the enjoyment of himself riches enough yea if you esteem not the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt 'T was a brave speech of that noble Galeatius when he had left his Honour Interest and Relations for Christ and the Gospel sake I have saith he riches honour and joy enough while in this Cottage I may live in the Church of God enjoy his Word and People and have time to converse with God by holy meditation and with my Friends about Gods great goodness to me in my Conversion cursed for ever be that Religion which weds men to the World and divorces them from God There are others of you I fear fallen back in your spiritual state former days were better than now and the shadow gone back some degrees upon the Dial of your hearts who it may be have left your first love have lost your spiritual taste more dead to the things of God Cold and Formal in Duty possibly you have hid your face from God and he hath compassed himself with a cloud before you You have neglected your walks with God and he hath with-held converse with you For the recovery of such from whence they have fallen to their first love and labours is part of this Discourse framed hear what the Spirit saith therein Attend and Obey those Counsels return to your first love and do your first works least the Lord take the Candlestick out of his place and leave you in that wilderness into which you wander Some of you who are fearers of God yet walk in darkness and see no light have your continual Exercises and frequent Complaints that he who should have comforted your souls is removed far from you My Advice to you is to walk in the light when you sit in darkness and wait for the light when the even shadows are upon you 'T is but a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry the Son of righteousness is upon his journey towards you and 't will not be long ere it be risen upon you Are there any of you who have better days does your Bow abide in strength are your Affections warm towards your Beloved and your hearts sometimes burn within you while he is talking to you in his Word Do you long for his Appearance and delight in his Presence and press hard after him in his Appointments Do you love the Word
done so much for you Wait upon and walk in the light while you have it if Grace thinks it not much to spread a Table for you don't you think it much to spare time to sit down at it You that find so many things to do when God calls for your Company will shortly find that God hath other things to do than to mind you when you need his Cordials how glad would you be of enjoying time to hear the voice of peace when you are entring upon Eternity who are not at leisure now to hear Divine precepts while in the possession of time neglect not hearing praying seasons which are your Seed-time for Glory O that every day saith one were a Sabbath or a Fast-day for then I should be well Buy not your ease or earthly interest at so dear a rate as the loss of salvation time and helps Evidence your love to God by your valuation of his Presence in his Ordinances How can you long for the enjoyment of God in Heaven who care not for his company on Earth or his glorious appearances in his Sanctuary Stick at nothing that may yield him delight or give him glory how expensive soever it be on your dearest Comforts and Interests When one told Du Moulin in his sickness that he wronged himself by speaking so much 'T is true said he but I will die glorifying of God A Soul that supreamly loves God will count nothing too much to do part with or suffer that may bring him glory 7ly Rest not in your enjoyments of means without improvement of them What 's a full Table if thy Soul abide empty and frequent feeding if thy inner man languish 't is a time of dying and secret waste in most Christians O covet earnestly the best gifts that you may flourish in the Courts of God and grow as the Cedars of Lebanon that you may be throughly furnished to every good work and your profiting appear to all men Be deeply sensible of your little Fruit under great dressing and be humbled take heed of spiritual pride and puffings up in your apprehended Excellencies or Priviledges 't is the humble soul is the most thriving soul keep your Hearts pure and Lives unspotted As sound bodies so sincere souls are most growing pare off luxuriant branches as they sprout out and lay the Ax to the root of them every day keep up Faith in the Promises of Soul-prosperity to them that serve him in sincerity Psal 92. 12 13. and stay on Christ by Faith for help when you see nothing but Discouragements in your selves and when you are afraid to apply the Promises even then bless God for them These Promises said a doubting Soul are none of mine yet I am glad that God hath made them and for their sakes that shall partake of them Mr. White 8thly Neglect not secret transactions between God and your Souls to which I fear some of you may be too great strangers no wonder that Intimacy between God and Souls does fall when they are seldom together in retirements Oh take heed of passing by thy Closet or secret corners one day Matth 6. 6. or posting out of them before God and your Souls have some Converse together and be not onely constant in it but careful to please God in the spiritual performance of it Let not Custom or Formality deprive thee of the sweetness of that bread eaten in secret You are in this Book more fully called upon to these Duties of secret Prayer meditation heart-searching and watching-work to which I refer you 9ly Make conscience of every Duty you owe towards others in your Relations Places and Callings keep up Family duty or write Heathen upon thy doors that the World may know thee If you neglect Gods service he will not be your Sanctuary Prayerless houses have broken walls and doors and no defence against the least evil If you will not give God your breathings how can you think he will give you his blessings 'T is sad that any especially such whom God hath taken into his house should shut him out of their doors or give him such pitiful service as some do scarce ever reading the Scriptures in their Families from one Lords-day to another onely send him a little hasty fruit some short and shuffled prayers once a day no wonder that salvation come not to their houses or converting grace into their families but a flying Roll is over their habitations and the black marks of Ruine on their Children and Servants think it not strange that God makes thy pleasant Roses pricking Bryers and Thorns to thee who hast made them Spears and Swords to him Oh keep with God in every duty of his service your Relation Calling and Imployments Lastly in every condition walk with God and wait for God if he lead you in ways of mercy follow him in ways of duty If you have Comforts take heed of doting on or abusing of them when he sends you Afflictions receive them be not fainting nor froward under them but sanctifie God in them and by their hand return to him do not over-love your mercies or over-fear your troubles prepare for Changes but live upon Immutability and be setled under all your unsettlements count nothing strange but sin and nothing hard to bear but the absence or anger of a gracious God lose not your fears in times of peace neither cast away your confidence in the day of trouble let your Lamps be alwaies burning that you may see the way of your duty in the Night of your danger and how to get in Comfort in your Adversity and let your loins be girt that you may be ready both to do your work and to meet your wages and be alway looking and waiting for the coming of your Lord who will welcom you in the Acceptance of your Duties uncloath you of your sins and sufferings and crown your sincerity and faithfulness with a Come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you which is the longed for Fruit of all his Labours with you and the subject matter of his daily prayers for you who is in him that was and is and is to come Your Affectionate Labourer Fellow Servant and Brother Barthol Ashwood THE Heavenly Trade Opened and improved from Proverbs 3. 14. For the Merchandise of it is better than the Merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold THAT Religion is under a very great declension in the day and place wherein we live is too evident to serious observers but too little laid to heart or the prodigious effects which usually follow such expiring godliness duly trembled at The character of the last and perilous times hath over taken us men having a form of godliness but denying the power of it 2 Tim. 3 5. a Nos non eloquimur magna sâ—d vivimus Minut. Foel A lamp a name to live notions parts external priviledges and duties make up the Religion of the greatest part of professing
spoken of the wonderful Wisdome of God in the works of Creation beyond all the searches of humane understanding he tells them what is that Wisdome which God requires of man not to screw into those unfathom'd deeps and mysteries of divine works in the Creation not to feed on abstruse notions of things that concern them not but this is true Wisdome to fear God to serve and obey him and to depart from iniquity So Deut. 4. 5 6. Behold I have taught you Statutes and Judgements keep therefore and do them for this is your Wisdome and understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear of all these Statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and an understanding people Wisdome from above saies the Apostle is pure peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits James 3. 17. that is it makes men holy and fruitfull in good works So the Psalmist describes Wisdome by holy walking I will behave my self wisely in a perfect way Psal 101. 2. and Ephes 5. 15. Walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Holy walking is both the fruit of Wisdome and the way to Wisdome Col. 1. 9 10. You may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all knowledge and understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord to all well-pleasing being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God And so the Wise man understands it in this book Prov. 1. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdome That a Quantum ad effectum initium sapientiae est nnde sapientia incipit operati Aquin. saith Aquinas from whence Wisdome begins to be operative Chap. 4. 11. I have taught thee in the way of Wisdome and led thee in right paths Wisdome hath its way and feet to walk in it and this way of Wisdome is a right path or right-holy-actions saith Piscator so the Antients take Wisdome Cicero calls it The b Sapientia quae ars vivendi putanda est non expeteretur si nihil efficeret Ciccro de finiv Art of living That Wisdome which doth nothing is worth nothing c Omnis sapientia hominis in hoe uno est ut Deum cognoscat colat Lact. de Inst lib. 3 cap. 30. All Wisdome lies in this one thing saith Lactantius That we know and worship God d In sapientia religio in religione sapientia est Lact. lib. 4. cap. 3. Religion is wrapt up in Wisdome and Wisdome in Religion The e Cujus vis officium in eo vertitur ut contemptis terrestribus quibus antea tenebamur fragilibus servientes fragilia serviente fragilia concupiscentes ad aeterna coelestis thesauri praemia dirigamur Lact. de Inst cap. 27. work of Wisdome lies in this that contemning earthly things by which we were formerly held serving and desiring these frail perishing things we may now be directed to seek after the eternal reward of a heavenly Treasure So saith Aquinas f Sapienti◠secundum nos non solum consideratur ut est cognoscitiva Dei sed etiam ut directiva humanae vitae secundum rationes divinas Aquin. 22ae q. 19. 7. c. Wisdome is not to be considered onely as it leads to a knowledge of God but as it directs and orders the life according to divine Rules And in this sense I take Wisdom here for true Holiness that Wisdome which is manifested in a heavenly gospel conversation the merchandise of which is so advantagious The Merchandise thereof Objectively considered The trading for this Wisdome or Merchandizing about so the Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To merchandize is to buy and sell to get in and put off goods to take in and lay out this Wisdome is better than to get in gold or any thing that gold can buy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word is to go up and down here and there as Merchants do to buy vend their goods to travel abroad now in one place then in another to be full of distraction tumbling up and down to get and put off their wares So busie a work is merchandizing which takes up mens thoughts time and labours to follow it that they might get some advantage in the world And such is the work of Religion it is an active work that calls for the heart time and strength if ever souls think to turn it to any account And they that do thus that make Religion their work that lay out themselves and their all in pursuit of Heaven and spiritual things whatever cost and pains they are at if they can but gain these treasures of godliness and obtain Wisdomes wares they make a good bargain for the profit that comes by these is far better than silver yea than fine gold The Septuagint hath it a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Than to get the treasures of silver and gold yea the best gold beaten gold There is another sense that one gives the words taking Wisdome for the price by which those great and eternal things are got I rather like the instrument than the price spiritual things are freely given not bought Isa 55. 1. but those that lay out and improve their Wisdome to gain grace to promote godliness and further salvation make a better bargain than they that lay out their treasures of gold and filver to buy the best goods on earth In either sense it 's a truth Wisdome's merchandise is the best merchandise to trade about spiritual things grace and glory is incomparably the best trade Whence observe this Doctrine or Position Doct. The Heavenly Trade is the best Trade no Merchandise like Wisdom's Merchandise and traffiquing about spiritual and eternal things This Truth will evidently appear if you consider 1. The nature of those things about which Wisdomes Merchants trade 2. The Person they deal with 3. The Terms they trade upon 4. The gain that comes by it Reas 1. First The things about which this Heavenly Trade is taken up are in their nature things of greatest worth wares which all the worlds treasures cannot purchase or compare with they are all great glorious and excellent things nothing mean contemptible and useless among all the goods that Wisdome proposes to souls choice and reception The favour of God Redemption from Hell Pardon of sin Peace with God The graces of the Spirit Communion with Father Son and Spirit with Saints and Angels Walking with God Spiritual blessings Joy in the Holy Ghost Heavenly Treasures Assurance of Glory These are all things of incomparable value and the things that heavenly Traders deal about And are not these far better in their nature than the low dirty fading things of this world No Onyx Saphir Chrystal Coral Pearl Topaz Rubies or the most costly pieces of nature can compare with this pearl of price this stone cut out of the mountains or those spiritual treasures which are the
blessing to the foederates of this new-Covenant hath the Lord Jesus laid down his precious Blood which cannot be lost Heb. 9. 15. but it would be cast away could Believers religious duties be in vain Another thing that secures the Saints advantages by this heavenly Trade is this that their trading is the work and product of his own Spirit their duties are his work Thou hast wrought all our works in us Isa 26. 22. It is God that worketh in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 2 Col. 3. 5. They are his workmanship created to good works Eph. 2. 10. by whose influence they are acted and let by the Spirit of God Rom. 8. 14. So that further than the spirit of the living creatures move their wheels cannot move nor do any thing graciously further than their works are wrought of God and by God Joh. 3. 21. So that Believers labours in this heavenly Trade are the work of the eternal Spirit and should their work be lost the Spirit of God would labour in vain and his work cast away which cannot be Isa 45. 18. Lastly The Lord Jesus is an adventurer with them his Glory and Kingdom is concern'd in this heavenly Trade when his Will is done his Kingdom is come Mat. 6. 10. and 1 Thes 4. 3. Holiness is his will and a conformity to his Law and he is engag'd to the Father for the Saints holiness and happiness for their grace and glory As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him Jo. 17. 2 12. The Father hath put all Believers into the hands of Christ and intrusted him with their graces and glory both which are included in eternal life ver 3. And this is life eternal that they might know thee c. that is this is the way to life eternal and the beginning of life eternal even the grace of Faith and saving knowledg of God and this grace as well as glory is put into the hand of Christ for Believers to be kept for them and they are also put into his hand to be kept by him through it unto glory and in pursuance of this trust the Lord Jesus is engaged to keep his people their graces and the reward of them for them that they be not lost the advantages of this heavenly Trade are secured to Believers by the Lord Jesus his adventure with them his truth faithfulness and glory is concern'd in their safety so that their returns are not only great but sure Thirdly Quick returns if great are greatly enriching Hence comes that Proverb that light gain makes a heavy purse it brings great custom and that occasions quick returns Now no Trade brings quicker returns than the heavenly Trade Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me Rev. 22. 12. The Lord Jesus not only makes good but quick payment as soon as the work is done he promiseth to make good his word Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee Psal 50. 15. Nay the Lord Jesus sometimes pays before-hand And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and whiles they are speaking I will hear Is 65. 24. Men many times are forc'd to stay for their Mony and sometimes lose it at last but the Believers gain is not only sure but speedy Obj. What 's the reason then the people of God do complain of God's not hearing and deferring an answer to their requests And why are Believers advised to patience and long-saffering after they have done the will of God if the return of their Faith and Duties were so quick This is the experience and complaint of the people of God in all ages that God seems not to regard their Prayers and to delay his coming to help them Sol. 1. First yet are the Saints returns quick because they are in due time God never delays to perform his word when the Believer hath need of it in the needful time of trouble he will surely hear My God shall supply all your wants Phil. 4. 19. When once the Soul comes to stand in real want then God will surely pay him When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them Isa 40. 17. When once they come to be needy then God will with-hold no longer but will help this he hath promised they shall not want any good thing Psal 34. 10. Secondly If the Lord do not pay presently he will give use for it they shall lose nothing by forbearance But when he comes he will bring his reward with him Isa 40. 10. Not only a reward of his work done by them but a reward of their patient waiting for his promises also their mercy shall be so much the sweeter for their want of it and waiting for it O! how welcome are long look'd for mercies when they come then is every mercy double God tried Job long by with-holding mercy but see the end of Job God paid double for what he took and with-held from him Job 42. 10. Returns are sure always in the needful and seasonable time and if God delays he will pay well for it To which I might add this also Many times Wisdom's Merchants are the cause of these delays by their unfaithfulness in their trade or their unfitness for their returns The diligent hand makes rich Prov. 10. 4. Souls that are active and faithful in the whole of Religion shall have no cause to complain of God's slack payment So much by way of demonstration of the point That the Heavenly Trade is the best Trade no Merchandise like Wisdom's Merchandise Now to come to some improvement of the Point VSE I. First If the heavenly Trade be the best Trade then it 's strange that so few do set upon this Trade persons that are to enter upon some course of life and would fain live in the World are willing to take the best Trade that is attainable by them if they can but reach it and have wherewithal to carry it on who would spend his time and strength in low sordid and mechanick services which cannot maintain or enrich him if a brave generous and wealthy Calling did offer it self and might be compassed and yet such is the folly of most under the Gospel who are ready to choose any thing but Godliness and to fall in with every proposal for their employment rather than to engage about the work of Salvation Men are wise in their generation and know in other things how to choose the best bargains only in the things of their Souls are foolish and can be content to pursue shadows and let go the substance to lay out all their desires hopes and labours about a life that perisheth neglecting the vast
troubles them but to be something though never so little satisfieth them and if this be Popery to rest in the work done how many Papists have we amongst us this day Certainly Professors are generally asleep or slumbering they do their work so badly and heartlesly their work falls out of their hand as things do from men asleep active for the world as if they could never do enough but soon tyr'd in the work of God dispatch but little of heavenly work from day to day from one Sabbath to another little heart-searching soul-watching work is done little in-door employment is carried on the exercise of faith hope humility patience zeal self-denial seems a stranger to a great many this day not for want of occasions or encouragements to work the Lord is still calling upon his Labourers to make haste but for want of hearts to work And this spiritual sloth proves that the Heavenly Trade is much lost Fourthly The poverty of Traders plainly shews Trading is not good when a Trade doth not maintain the Trader but he still goes back and becomes poorer then surely trading is not good The diligent hand makes rich Prov. 10. 4. When trading is good Traders usually thrive and live well upon it but when they waste and become poor then trading decaies So is it with Heavenly Traders when they drive a good Trade for Heaven they grow rich apace towards God and in their own souls Wisdom's wares are soul-enriching wares My fruit is better than gold yea than fine gold and my revenue than choice silver Prov. 8. 19. Men account those to be rich who have much of gold and silver but Wisdom's fruit is better than gold and therefore must needs be enriching they that have this gold cannot be poor Hence it is Christ counsels Laodicea to buy of him gold tryed in the fire that she might be rich Rev. 3. 1. But alas how poor in spirituals are persons generally this day Therefore I said Sur ly these are poor they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgement of their God Jer. 5. 4. Unacquaintedness with the way of God when men walk wide from Religion and lose their strict and close walking with God they soon become poor and foolish And this is the case of many every where they give a carnal liberty to themselves and indulge a freedom to walk after the fight of their own eyes and not by rule and where this is there is soul-poverty which is too visible in most this day Christians do but observe your own hearts and others and you will find this spiritual poverty abounding every where Little thrivings appear under the best of means choicest Priviledges do little more than keep up a name to live they convey but little quickenings to the soul A shew of Religion and a meer skeleton of profession is the common fruit of Ordinances in most places whereas all the while decaies are on the vitals of Christianity abatements in grace appear every day and a visible alteration in the whole frame and internal vigour of the soul faith love humility patience self-denyal and every grace becomes weaker every day Former daies were better than now Eccles 7. 10. Speak Christian are not matters worse with thy soul than they were and abatements appear in every part There was a time when thy mind was beam'd over with Divine Light the Candle of the Lord did shine in thy tabernacle Thy eye was quick to discern good and evil thou couldest once see an excellency in the knowledge of Christ O how choice were sermons priviledges were to thee the uncasking of Jewels and the opening of hidden glory thou did'st dwell in the Land of Visions and still some new discoveries of light and grace did meet thee in thy affectionate attendance upon God But now it is not so thy Candle burns dimly and thy right eye is darkened now thou seest but little beauty in grace or desireableness in truth things under thy feet th' other day that seem'd nothing compar'd with Christ now through the multiplying-glass of thy deceived mind seem great and lovely Formerly thy affections were warm and lively after God his word and ways O! how precious were his appointed Feasts and his Tabernacles amiable thou couldst delight in approaching to God and talk of a blessedness in his presence O the pleasure sweetness and joy thy heart did find in thy Closet in spiritual Converses and Duties and publick Ordinances thou couldst weep over sin and bedew thy prayers with tears and find thy heart burn within thee while Christ was speaking and melted under the warm beams of divine love But alas now it is not so now thy affections are dead thy heart as cold as a stone all the while thou art speaking to God in Prayer or God speaking to thee in his Word thou findest no more savour in Ordinances Duties and Christian Converses than in the white of an Egg Job 6. 16. Thou findest not that delight in God as formerly and the night of thy pleasure is turned to fear unto thee Isa 21. 4. This is Soul-poverty Again there was a time also when thy Will like the great Wheel in the Clock could move regularly after God thou couldst choose God for thy chiefest interest and Christ for thy only treasure preferring an interest in him above ten thousand Worlds thou couldst have voted for communion with God before thy meat and drink and one hours fellowship with Christ beyond all the delights on Earth thou couldst choose the things that please God and deny thy own pleasure to give content to him thou couldst once stick to thy first choice and find the purpose of thy heart cleaving to God Act. 11. 23. Thou couldst once resolve and keep thy resolutions 't was easier to take thy heart out of thy body than to gain thy consent to part with Christ his presence and ways But now thy will is hardly drawn after pure and constant enjoyments of God in his ways O! how difficult a thing is it to perswade thy will to let go all for Christ to leave every thing to attend on God to part with the world and self to wait on God to throw all over-board to take in Christ How hard is it now to consent that Christ shall have all the command of thy Soul and dispose of thy dearest interests now thou findest it a work above thee to keep thy heart in order one hour or to perform the purposes of thy Soul to God and Godliness thou resolvest and changest every day thou vowest and breakest thy vows continually there is no stedfastness in thy spirit this also bespeaks thy Soul-poverty There was a time also when thy Conscience was tender thy heart could smite thee for the least sin thy Conscience could hold thee to the greatest duty and bind thee to thy good behaviour thou could'st not go against the light and checks of thy regulated Conscience were it to gain the whole
his servants In this life in the Court of Conscience and in the Judgment-Day at the bar of God In the first your present peace and soul comfort is much concerned and your eternal welfare in the last Alas how will you answer conscience now when that book is opened and the Lord Jesus brings in his bill of so many mercies expended with skill and capacity to improve them and such a charge of debt issuing thence So much due for such goods and for other wares for Sermons Sacraments Graces Comforts Frames Prayer Returns Gracious Providences and Protections so many personal mercies so many family mercies so many bodily mercies so many soul mercies so many Church mercies so many National mercies sick-bed mercies health mercies journey mercies habitation mercies caring mercies sparing mercies giving mercies forgiving mercies seen mercies unseen mercies and little or no return yet made for all these How can the conscience stand up under such a charge or lift up his face without spot when it sees its guilt in all and cannot answer one of a thousand How shall man be just with God if he contend with him How shall he answer him one of a thousand And if you cannot carry it in the Court of Conscience here where God reckons by a Proxy and it may be doth give but a general charge what will you do at the bar of God where the Lord will judge righteous judgment and determine your eternal state as you are approved or disapproved in that day What think you souls will not so much neglect of duty such decaies of grace so frequent breach of Covenants so great unfaithfulness in your places and relations so many daies and weeks and not a stroke of work for God so much bad work so much waste of goods will not all this look wistly upon you and without repentance and a sealed acquittance render your case dangerous at the judgment seat And if so is it not matter of lamentation O lay this to heart VSE III. Thirdly If the Heavenly Trade be the best Trade then this reproves mens too greedy and inordinate pursuit of their earthly Trades and Interests to the great prejudice and hinderance of this Heavenly Trade And oh that I could here dip my Pen in tears as well as gall and not onely write against but weep over this earthly spiritedness the great the common the uncur'd disease of men almost of all men of good men this day With what earnestness strength of affection and indefatigable labours do men pursue after the things of this world as if all their pleasure happiness yea life and eternal welfare lay wrapt up in these things Jehu did not more furiously drive after a Crown then men do this day after crumbs There was a time to some when godliness was counted gain but now gain is valued beyond godliness Trade is the great Diana to which most men sacrifice Profit the wheel within the wheel which sets all a going The salt that seasons all things nothing savours well that hath not this in it Advantage in the world is like the blood in mens veins the soul in the body that quickens their desires puts life into their dead hopes makes the blind to see the lame to leap and run the deaf to hear the lips of them that are asleep to speak Gain is the whetstone to mens wits the loadstone to their affections the spur to their actions this is the object of mens quickest senses the center of their liveliest motions O! the projects cares tuggings sweats rowings ridings restless labours that are engag'd about this enquiry Who will shew us any good Quest But how may we know when men do inordinately pursue their earthly business and concerns Answ 1. First When they engross too much of their time this was Israel's sin saying When will the New-Moon be gone that we may sell Corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth Wheat Amos 8. 5. They were not contented with their own time but they must entrench on God's time al 's they thought the time long till they were at their worldly work and hoped to get advantage from God's institutions for their earthly interests and that the Jubilee-Sabbath when men must cease from tillage would help to heighten the price of things and so further their advantage therefore the Lord reproves them for their undue diligence about the World a Frustra illos mane ob vile lucellum expergisci ad opus c. It is in vain for you to rise up early and to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows for so he giveth his beloved sleep Psal 127. Here saith Piscator he doth by this sudden Apostrophe inveigh against those covetous Tradesmen and Merchants telling them b Artifices qui diluculo ad labores evigilant Rab. Solo. 'T is in vain for them to rise up so early to their work and sit up so late in their shops for such poor and contemptible gain So Rabbi Solomon renders it for Artificers who rise early to their labours Excessive pursuits of the World in point of time are here reprov'd as vain and sinful while hereby they deprive themselves of time for God and their Souls Secondly when they lay out their Hearts on the World If riches encrease set not your hearts on them Psal 62. 10. The danger of a disease lies in its seisure on the heart Earthly things under the hand are a duty but in the heart a disease The heart is Christ's Royal Fort to which the Devil the World and Flesh lay siege and if that be taken all is gone Earthly things are briars and thorns and therefore dangerous to come near the heart the least prick at the heart is mortal the heart is Christ's nuptial-bed into which Christ retires the World is the Saint's servant now to admit a servant into the Lord's bed is adulterous the heart is God's Seat Pavilion and Throne into which none must come but himself like the gates of the Sanctuary into which none must enter but God himself This gate shall be shut it shall not be opened and no man shall enter into it because the Lord the God of Israel hath entred into it therefore it shall be shut Ezek. 44. 2. Such is the heart of Believers to be kept for God only to take in creatures into God's room is intolerable boldness to let out thy heart to the World Trade Interest Creatures is to invert the order of nature as well as grace In creation God sets man uppermost and puts all things under his feet Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thine hands thou hast put all things under his feet Psal 8. 6. Now to place those things over thy heart which God hath set under thy feet is to turn the World upside down and to overturn the whole course of nature This is the great sin of this day mens letting out their hearts on the things of this World were persons but serious
ties and yet have never yielded any right subjection to it all your days but have violated all its righteous commands every day and moment of your life both in thought word and deed For he that keepeth the whole Law and yet offendeth in one point or iota is guilty of all Jam. 2. 10. Debtors to Conscience whose Law is in force against you and by which you shall be judged Rom. 2. 14 15. These having not the Law are a Law to themselves which shew the works of the Law written in their hearts their Consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another and yet you have broken these Conscience-bonds casting its cords from you how many ties hath Conscience laid upon you which you have broken going against the light and dictates thereof Debtors to all the World to whom in some respect or other you are obliged There are duties you owe to all men to love them and pray for them to all your neighbours and acquaintance to do them good as you have opportunity and to seek and endeavour their Salvation to your power which you have not done to this day There are duties you owe to your relations friends and family which you have neglected and have been encreasing your Original debt by running on new scores every day which can never be cancell'd or a power obtained to discharge your duties acceptably till you come to Christ and enter your souls into his new and everlasting Covenant setting upon those great and Evangelical duties of it Your slavery is also great till you come over to this blessed work You are in bondage unto Satan Know ye not that to whom ye yeild your selves servants to obey his servants ye are whom ye obey Rom. 6. 16. You serve incomparably the worst Lord a cruel Lord who hath no mercy but delights in the misery of fal'n man A roaring Lion that goes about seeking to devour 1 Pet. 5. 8. A cursed one cast out from God cursed above all creatures reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day Gen. 3. 14. Jude verse 6. Thine implacable enemy that hates thee with a perfect hatred An Accuser that never speaks well of any A Murderer he was from the beginning Rev. 12. v. 10. and the original cause of all the destruction in Earth and Hell A false and deceitful creature that never kept his word with any A Lyar and the Father of Lies Joh. 8. 44. one that will be too hard for you and cheat your souls into destruction A miserable poor creature one that hath lost all his glory and excellency and hath nothing to give you for all your service but some of the same flames in which he must fry for ever This sinners is your Lord whom you have chosen and served all your daies And as you serve the worst Lord so you do the worst work base filthy shameful cursed work Such are all thy actions whiles in an unchanged state you do hard work no service like it you work and have no food to refresh you which is the cruellest bondage Israel in Egypt wrought hard and yet had flesh-pots Onions and Garlick to relieve them but you have nothing to feed your hopes and affections but lies and vanity you work and have no rayment to cover you all your employment makes you naked you labour and have no rest weary and heavy laden and yet feel it not Gen. 3. 7. Other Labourers have their successive quietudes but you have none the hireling hath his shadow the labourer hath his evening to give over his work his bed to sleep on but your work admits of no rest 't is never done you do the Devil's work day and night waking and sleeping nay while you eat and drink your work still goes on O sad servitude You work and have no wages All earthly Labourers have their penny something or other to compensate their pains money or maintenance but you have nothing in hand or hope here or hereafter but death and damnation the fruit of your labours here is more bitter than death and the wages at the end of your day wrath and vengeance worm and There can be no mirth saith Latimer where weeping is served in for the first course and gnashing of teeth for the second fire Mark 9. 44. And is not this bad employment and is it not time sinners to change your calling and to accept this offer made you of this excellent Trade Arg. 2. Secondly The danger that attends your present state should put you on a timely relinquishment of it You are poor and that exposes you to scorn and contempt to oppression treading down and crushing to devouring and destruction you are not safe from ruine one moment the next knock at thy door may be a call to Judgment Prov. 17. 5. Amos 4. 1. Hab. 3. 14. Prov. 10. 15. When thou liest down thou mayest make thy bed in Hell when thou awakest thou mayest see God on the Throne thy Soul at the Bar thy Accusers at thy right hand the Evidence in thy own breast the Sentence written in capital letters Go ye cursed Under thy feet a bottomless lake of fire and brimstone round about thee cruel Devils ready to seize upon thee and lodge thy guilty condemned soul in thine eternal home Matth. 24. 51. You have been Prodigals wasting what is not your own and are in danger every day of a charge against you You are deeply in debt and in danger of an arrest every hour when you go forth death may be at your heels when you return destruction may enter with you O the uncertainty of thy time sinner the danger of thy eternity the absolute ruine of thy immortal soul if thy reckoning begin before thy work and hast thou not reason then to hasten about thy great concern and to burn no more day-light in works of darkness Arg. 3. Thirdly Thy duty should quicken thy undertaking in this great employment Religion is not your Liberty but your manifold debt The Law of Creation binds you unto God you will confess you were made by him and God will profess you were made for him Isa 43. 21. This people have I formed for my self that they should shew forth my praise Your fall from the Covenant of Works is not your liberty from the essential duties of it neither is your incapacity to perform it a dispensation of your obedience 't is still your duty to return from whence you fell to take the Lord to be your God to love him with all your heart and with all your might to trust in him to fear and obey him A draught of these Covenant-duties did God place in your conscience by which you shall be judged Rom. 2. 12. 15. though the counterpane you have defaced yet the Original Deed is with God and will be brought forth in the day of Christ against such as have not taken the Lord for their
God You are also maintained by God and that obliges you to him 'T was the argument the Apostle urged to the Masters of Reason in that age why they should seek the Lord because 't was from him they had their subsistence Acts 17. 28. For in him we live and move and have our being If God maintains you 't is rational he should have the use of you 'T was the reason Moses used to prove God's right to Israels all Deut. 32. 9 to 15. The Lord's portion is his people Jacob is the lot of his inheritance why He found him in the desert Land in the waste howling wilderness he led him about he instructed him he kept him as the apple of his eye As an Eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them beareth them on her wings so the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him And therefore no reason they should leave him for strangers He made him ride upon the high places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the field and he made him to suck honey out of the Rock and oyl out of the flinty Rock Butter of Kine and milk of Sheep with fat of Lambs and Rams of the breed of Bashan and Goats with the fat of kidnies of wheat and thou didst drink the pure blood of the Grape Mercies are cords and bands by which the Lord obligeth men to himself I drew them with cords of a man and with bands of love Hos 11. 4. All thy life sinner hath been full of these constraints of mercy and love to take the Lord to be thy God The Gospel of Grace which you profess to own and receive binds you to seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof Matth. 6. 33. to do the work of God to labour for that bread which endures to eternal life to work the works of God Joh. 6. 27 28. to be no more your own but the Lord's 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Cease to call or think your selves Christians tell the world you do not believe or hope to be saved by a crucified Christ or else come over to him and be disposed by his sacred Will This is your duty Arg. 4. Fourthly Weigh the unspeakable gain that will surely accrew to you if you set up this Trade of Godliness I have already shewn in the demonstration of this point the great profit that this Heavenly Trade will turn unto to all that deal thoroughly in it to which I advise you to cast back your eye and take three or four considerations more to convince your understandings that Religion is eligible on grounds of greatest interest For First Religion will maintain you in the hardest times So will not other Trades there may be seasons when earthly employments will turn to no accounts You have heard that riches profit not in the day of wrath and some of you have seen the time when they that work could yet scarcely eat but God's work is meat and drink when daily bread fails Joh. 4. 30. I have meat to eat that you know not of Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. God careth for the righteous and when the Lions lack and are hunger-bit they that fear the Lord shall want no good thing Psal 34. 10. They shall be sure to be provided for whoever wants God hath past his word for it All things are theirs by purchase who are Christ's by choice that is saith Piscator o Omnes res terrenae vestris usious vestrae saluti a Deo destinatae sunt All earthly things are designed of God for your use and the furtherance of your salvation Not as if the Saints had a right to other mens interests The Apostle doth not speak here saith Pareus of civil possessions but of that divine order by which all things ought to serve the good and advantage of the Church of God The Earth is the Lord's the fulness thereof all which is given into the hands of Christ for the good of his people And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church Ephes 1. 22. The whole Earth is but God's Kitchin for the maintenance of his house and if he will feed his servants and slaves much more his children He gives to all their meat in due season and satisfies the desires of every living thing Much more will he care for and give food convenient to his living in Jerusalem Indeed Believers are not of the world and therefore have not their portions in the world they are the Heirs of Heaven and have no promise of more on Earth than will comfortably carry them home and suffice for the discharge of those offices assigned to them here They are Servants not Heirs who carry the cloak-bags in their journey Persons of grandeur bear no more about them than for present use Surely were earthly treasures good for heaven-born souls he that gives better things would not deny these But God knows enough is as good as a feast and so much the Saints shall have in their passage home No man sends his servants a journey but he allows them enough to carry them thorough and so will God to his If he maintains idlers and enemies much more will he feed his faithful servants and labourers He hath promised to supply all their wants Phil. 4. 19. and is able to make it good If he thinks it not much to give them a Crown he will not deny them Crumbs If God should let his work-men want his work would cease his own interest as well as his promise obliges him to look after such his Love Truth Glory with all his Attributes are concerned to maintain his people in his work and therefore nothing more sure than daily bread and sufficiency in all things to such as serve and obey him Secondly Godliness will secure you in dangerous times Prov. 3. 23. Thou shalt then walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble when thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid yea thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet v. 24. For the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from being taken The way of duty is the way of safety whatever men think the greatest security is in the boldest Adventures for God if regular where his Sun does guide you there his shadow will cover you who shall harm you if you are followers of that which is good 1 Pet. 3. 13. Men may threaten you but cannot injure you they may spoil your estates imprison your bodies but cannot do you any real harm while men keep with God God will abide with them his presence shall fence them his favour shall shield them his Angels shall encamp about them all his Attributes shall guard and secure them God's people that cleave to him in
and prepared b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fashioned as a Vessel the meaning is saith Dr. Preston that then a man is good when his heart is fitted to good works to every good work 2 Tim. 2. 21. Labour to get your natures changed and hearts quickened you must be born again or cannot see the Kingdom of God Be looking to Jesus to create in you a new heart a renewed mind will and affections to have a saving principle put into your hearts and a disposition of Soul towards the whole will of God Cry mightily for the Spirit and wait for his movings upon the face of Sanctuary-waters and for a mighty power of God in the Gospel upon your Souls Get under the healing-wings of Christ and rest not looking unto Jesus till virtue go out from him to heal your Souls If this be thy restless desire thou can'st not let Christ alone running after him crying Jesu thou Son of David have mercy upon me he will turn again and have compassion and give the holy Spirit to them that unfeignedly and incessantly ask him Mark 10. 47 48 49. Luke 11. 13. Direct 2. Secondly cease from your own works Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy The first step in returning to God is departing from sin and self c Nihil nobis cum Deo esse potest nisi a nobis discedamus Calv. Neither can we saith Calvin hold converse with a holy God till we be estranged from our unholy self When the Apostle advises the Ephesians to put on the new man Eph. 4. 24. He first exhorts them to put off the old with his whole conversation vers 22. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt Grace builds not on an old foundation neither does it adorn but reform the former conversation of called Saints there is no cloathing upon in regeneration-work the old garments must off before the new will come on Religion is not a covering for but a stripping off a sinful life neither can you be free to set on God's work till you leave your old works Rom. 6. 20. For when you were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness You had nothing to do with holiness you had no freedom to do God's work while you were Sins servants He speaks of their actual liberty from grace not their legal freedom d Libertas hic de facto non de jure intelligatur saith Paraeus you are not at liberty to do the work of holiness while under the command of sin No man can serve two Masters Mat. 6. 24. that is two contrary Lords How can the same man e Quomodo poterit unus idemque homo pietati se quantum opus est impendere simul circa divitias quaerendas servandasque perpetua solicitudine distrahi Grot. saith Grotius follow godliness as his work and at the same time be distracted with cares about getting and keeping earthly things 'T is a vanity for persons to dream of a compliance between sin and holiness whose work is too inconsistent for one Soul at one time ruling iniquity and grace are two contrary states which cannot meet in one person and time Never think of setting up on the Heavenly Trade till you are freed from hellish servitude and invested with the liberty of the Sons of God a freedom from the love and service of every sin Godliness calls for the whole of a man's heart strength and time and requires a person void of any inconsistent obligations resolve to break from every way of death if ever you think to enter into the way of life Direct 3. Thirdly Make over your selves to the Lord in an Everlasting Covenant they that will be Masters of a Trade must first be bound to the service of it and resign up their persons wills capacities and time to the instruction and government of another in order to their fitness for such a calling And so must souls that will learn Wisdom's Merchandise they must bind themselves to the Trade and make over themselves and their all to God in Christ to be taught and enabled to set up this excellent work Jer. 50. 5. They shall ask the way to Sion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that cannot be forgotten Sin had made a separation between their God and them and brought a death upon their mercies and Templeenjoyments but now the Spirit of Prophecy breathing on these dry bones moves them to a vital union with the fountain of life the onely regular way to their new work and mercies they must first be joyned to the Lord before they can be rejoyned to one another and re-enjoy their lost priviledges and this union lies in a hearty acceptance of offered grace a taking hold of God in Christ and a Covenant-surrender of the whole soul and its All to him again O for arms to embrace him saith Mr. Rutherford This is called a giving up of ones self to the Lord 2 Corinth 8. 5. But this they did not as we hoped but first gave themselves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God They exceeded our hope We onely expected some part of what was theirs but they gave themselves first to God and to us to be directed and governed by the will of God to be placed in the fellowship of his Gospel as well as their interests to the service of his people 'T is also a giving away of ones self to the Lord wholly unreservedly and perpetually to be no more his own 1 Cor. 6. 19. And ye are not your own This surrender of your selves to God souls must be in judgment understandingly and ariseth freely on choice universally without the least reservation absolutely without any limitation or conditions of our own eternally without any expiration and term of this grant and to be attested by all overt acts within your power Isa 44. 5. One shall say I am the Lord's another shall call himself by the name of Jacob another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Jacob. Whatever may most fully ensure and express an absolute devotedness unto God must be done by those that ever expect to thrive in grace and godliness Verse 3 4. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and they shall spring up as among the grass as willows by the water-courses When once this implantation into Christ is dispatched then will the Lord give prosperity to that soul then are you in a sure way to success in all your holy undertakings and like to speed well in this Heavenly Trade when you become entirely the Lord 's in order to it O be not
satisfied till God be yours The King's Son or no Husband Rutherford The rational soul saith Augustine being capable of God can be satisfied with nothing but God Direct 4. Fourthly Come over into the family of Christ if you would drive on this Heavenly Trade to purpose Apprentices are houshold servants up-rising and down-lying and so must Wisdom's Traders be they must be members of Christ's family and dwellers in the house of God Psal 65. 4. Blessed is the man whom thou chusest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy Temple Those whom God chuses for himself he brings to himself and makes them dwellers in his Courts Such In ejus familiam recensitus ut fide integra inter sanctos coeli cives vitam degat Buc. a one is entered into his family that he being a sound Believer may spend his life among the holy Citizens of Heaven Those whom the Lord takes into Covenant he takes into communion not onely with himself but with his people Jer. 3. 14 15. I am married unto you and I will take you one of a City and two of a Family and I will bring you unto Sion and I will give you Pastors according to my own heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding This was intended of Gospel-times and Churches When all the Nations shall be gathered to the Name of the Lord to Jerusalem verse 17. And the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel verse 18. which began to be fulfilled upon the breaking down of the partition wall and the bringing in of the Gentiles unto Christ Ephes 2. 14 15 19. When Believers should be no more strangers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and foreiners but fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God The Apostle hath reference to the 12th verse where souls out of Christ are said to be aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers to the Covenant of Promise but now having access to God by one Spirit verse 18. Ye are no more strangers and foreiners a In respect of the Church of God you are no longer strangers saith Zanchy but fellow-citizens with the Saints and in regard of the Covenant of God you are no more foreiners but of the houshold of God In whom all the building fitly framed together that is every stone in the building groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord verse 21. The Church of God is his Temple where he is rightly served Rev. 7. 15. Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple which is his Church saith Mr. Durham here begun by fellowship in his Ordinances and in f Respectu Reipublicae Israelis i. e. Ecclesiae concives sanctorum respectu foederis cum Deo esse domesticos Dei Heaven compleatly Ezek. 20. 40. For in my holy Mountain in the Mountain of the Height of Israel a type of Gospel-Churches saith the Lord God there shall all the house of Israel all of them in the Land serve me there will I accept them there will I require your offerings Plainly intimating that God hath no acceptable service but in the Churches of his Saints I mean as to publick worship Persons cannot give God his full instituted worship till they come into fellowship with his people seeing Church-fellowship is it self an institution of Christ Matth. 28. 19 20. Acts 2. 41 42. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Mat. 18. 17 18 19. The Church of Christ is his body where he hath set his members 1 Cor. 12. 18. That being fitly joyned together they might increase with the increase of God Ephes 4. 16. Col. 2. 19. His Vineyard where his work lies and into which he sends his Labourers Isa 5. 7. Matth. 20. 1 2. His Garden where his Lillies and Beds of Spices are Cant. 6. 2. His Family where he feeds and instructs them where he guides and governs them 1 Tim. 3. 15. Ephes 3. 15. His Sanctuary where he hides and secures them Psal 78. 69. His Galleries where he walks and is held by his Saints Cant. 7. 5. His Golden-candlesticks where his Lamps are burning The Firmament and Heaven where his Stars are shining and the Sun of Righteousness ariseth with healing in his wings Rev. 2. 1. There 's his Granary where he laies up his provisions his manna marrow fat things and spiced wine Isa 25. 6. There 's his School where he instructs his Disciples and makes them wise to salvation Isa 54. 13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children There are his Oracles and Secrets Rom. 3. 2. The Adoption the Glory the Covenants the giving of the Law and the Service of God and the Promises Rom. 9. 4. There 's his Nursery where his tender plants are set to grow where he brings in those that shall be saved Acts 2. 47. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved His converting the Gentiles is called a perswading them into the tents of Shem that is the Church of God Gen. 9. 27. Yea the House of God is the gate of Heaven Gen. 28. 17. This is none other but the House of God this is the gate of Heaven v Per portam Ecclesiae in portam Paradisi By the gate of the Church saith Augustine we enter into the gate of Paradise How goodly then are these Tents of Jacob How amiable are those Tabernacles of Israel As the valleys they spread forth as gardens by the Rivers side as the trees of Lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted and as Cedar-trees beside the waters Numb 24. 5 6. To your Tents then O Israel 2 Sam. 20. 1. Fly to your windows O ye Doves Isa 60. 8. Love the habitation of God's house and the place where his honour dwells Psal 26. 8. Where are such pleasures treasures light life where are your chiefest interests your priviledges your work your Lord the first-fruits of your eternal glory if you have taken Christ for your Teacher you must take his Church for your School you must dwell where he dwells where you may sit at his feet and receive his Doctrine Direct 5. Fifthly Be mortified to this present world get your hearts loose from things below No man that warreth a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tricis laqueis implicatur entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him that hath chosen him to be a souldier 2 Tim. 2. 4. He does not lay ties and snares about his feet which throw him down and hinder the course he engages to follow Christianity is a Warfare and Race earthly things in the heart are as entanglements about the feet which hinder this undertaking you will have no liberty to heavenly things till redeemed from the Earth nor can run the race towards glory till you lay aside the weights that
Heaven 1 Pet. 1. 5 What strivings have some to obtain a Crown that is corruptible and shall I be weary that am in pursuit of one that is incorruptible 1 Cor. 9. 25. without labour no rest without bearing the heat and burden of the day when called thereto no penny at the end Matt. 20. 12 13. without striving lawfully no crowning 2 Tim. 2. 5. without doing the commandment no eating of the tree of life Rev. 22. 14. without enduring to the end no salvation Mark 13. 13. comfort your selves with this that Heaven will make amends for all when your wet and weary sowings shall end in a pleasant and eternal harvest Gal. 16. 9. Let us not be weary in well doing for you shall reap in due time if ye faint not Be stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. Direct 7. Lastly What you do do quickly Time waits not your leisure There are but twelve hours in the day and how many of them have been slept and sinned away and how few of them may be before you who knows What if your Sun should set at noon day or a summons meet you in the midst of your work Give account of thy Stewardship for thou shalt be no longer Steward Luke 16. 2. What will you then do Some of you are in your afternoon what time is that to set forth such a long journey as the way to Heaven is and yet will you gain by your delays some of this time also for the Devil World and Flesh others of you are in your morning the best time to put forth in your travel towards glory O! lose not your season for eternity Make much of time saith Aquinas especially in the weighty matter of Salvation O! how much would they that now lie frying in Hell rejoyce if they might have the least minute of time wherein they might get God's favour the young man hath death at his back the old man before his eyes and that 's the more dangerous enemy that pursues thee than that which marches up to thy face Christ's work admits of no delays his injunction allows not of too morrow but while 't is called to day Heb. 3. 7. To day if you will hear his voice vers 13. To day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Seek the Lord while he may be found Isa 55. 6. Haste haste the tide will not bide Rutherford 'T is now or never while the Light shines the Lord knocks the Angel moves on the waters while the Lord delays his coming Salvation-work is quick work God's racers must run his Doves must fly his Servants be diligent that they may be found of him in peace 1 Cor. 9. 26. Isa 60. 8. 2 Pet. 3. 14. You that have stood idle in the market-place all your day hitherto hasten into the Lord's Vineyard Matt. 20. 6. Love is sick to hear tell of to morrow Mr. Rutherford What Jonathan said to his Lad when David's life was in danger let me advise you And Jonathan cried after the Lad make speed haste stay not 1 Sam. 20. 38. I rue nothing said precious Mr. The fulfilling of the Scriptures Welch when on his sick-bed but that I was so long in beginning O saith David that I had wings like a Dove for then would I fly away and be at rest I would hasten my escape from the stormy wind and Tempest Psal 55. 6 8. Sinners you are in danger of stormy tempests while in your unchanged state O hasten to your strong holds ye prisoners of hope When Brentius was like to be given up to the enemy one writes him this note Fuge Brenti cito citius citissime Fly Brentius quickly more quickly most speedily Souls 't is for your lives make all possible haste about the work of your Salvation And you that are entred on this heavenly work double your diligence that you may finish your course before God finishes your time methinks the word of God and his providences this day yea every thing seems to thrust you forward and do to you as Pharaoh's Task-masters did to Israel Exod. 5. 13. And the Task-masters hasted them saying fulfil your work To Professors Counsel 2. Secondly if the Heavenly Trade be the best Trade then you that profess this Calling be you exhorted to follow it keep up and improve your Trade for Heaven what 's an employment without improvement the most profitable Calling not followed turns to little advantage The day we live in gives men sensible experience of this truth that they who intend to live in the World must attend their employments The idle person suffers hunger they must be careful and diligent in their business that think to make any thing of their earthly interests and so 't is in this Trade of godliness they that will be saved must work out their Salvation A Trade is a man's business and course of life which he pursues and carries on from day to day 't is the subject of his thoughts counsels and considerations of his time and strength and daily work where he ends one day he begins the next and contributes his utmost wisdom parts and labours to the most vigorous prosecution of it And so must it be in this Heavenly Trade Christians it must be the impending business and principal concern of your whole life that which commands your thoughts purposes and capacities which engrosses your time care and strength and to which every other business must give way and every occasion and occurrence must be subservient it must be followed and driven on every day in every thing place and company what-ever is neglected that must go on and give no place to intermissions no not for a moment You must not say to godliness as Felix did to Paul Go thy way for this time when I have a more convenient season I will send for thee Acts 24. 25. Stops in the way of God are not easily recovered one days neglect brings all out of order Prosperity in Religion admits of no Parenthesis in its work or consists with allowed interruptions Piety must be as the blood that runs through every vein of your life and affair in the World In eating drinking talking thinking buying selling you must be still driving on Wisdom's Merchandise Christians follow your work or lay down your Trade 't is vanity yea the way to beggery to profess a Calling and not pusue it Quest But wherein lies this Heavenly Trade which I must so make my business what do you drive at by all these Arguments for Heavenly Trading What I intend by this metaphor I shall open to you under these seven general Heads as the main duty of a Christian and to be carried on in the whole course of his life 1 To have and keep up a heavenly spirit 2 To secure your interest in heavenly things 3 To get in more
and more of heavenly Goods 4 Every day to drive on heavenly work 5 To be heavenly in your thoughts and meditations daily 6 To keep up heavenly converses every day 7 To improve every thing you have meet with and do to heavenly ends and advantages First If you will drive on this heavenly Trade you must have and maintain a heavenly spirit this is the spring of all heavenly actions as is a man's spirit so will his thoughts words and conversation be look what way the spirit of a man goes that way the man goes They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh and they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit That is they that are altogether a Carnis auctum sequentes led by their carnal affections saith Willet following the ducture of the flesh saith Paraeus who are govern'd by a carnal spirit they mind and pursue carnal things and they that are after the spirit who are under the rule and government b Qui se spiritui regendos dedunt Parae of the spirit who are spiritually minded these do savour and make after spiritual things What the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of the motion of second causes according to the direction and influence of the first cause Ezek. 1. 20. Whithersoever the spirit was to go they went that is the wheels for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels The same may be said of the actions of men that they are according to the motion of that ruling spirit that is in them they that live in the spirit walk in the spirit Gal. 5. 25. Caleb's fulfilling after God was the fruit of that other spirit he received Numb 14. 24. 'T is said of those that builded the house of God Ezra 1. 5. that God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had raised up their spirits to the work as birds stir up their young to fly Then rose up the chief of the Fathers of Judah and Benjamin and the Priests and Levites with all those whose spirit God had raised up to go up to build the House of the Lord which is in Jerusalem They that set about the work of Religion must be persons of raised spirits capable of ascending to things above The reason why no more do set upon this Heavenly Trade is because they want this heavenly spirit their spirit is earthly and that as leaven seasons their whole souls and makes their conversations earthly 'T is contrary to nature for a carnal mind to savour spiritual things Such are not subject to the Spirit of God neither indeed can be Rom. 8. 7. 'T is as natural for the stone to ascend and waters to run back as for an earthly heart to love and pursue heavenly things A heavenly spirit sutes heavenly things and does as naturally incline the soul to things above as the fire moves upward and the water carries all that is in it to the Ocean A heavenly spirit savours heavenly things and stirs up heavenly desires and motions to divine things A heavenly spirit conveys out heavenly influences and strength to the soul and is as good blood and spirits that strengthen the body A heavenly spirit is influenced by heavenly arguments and prevailed with by heavenly motives taken from the love of God the excellency of Christ the sutableness and advantage of spiritual things to the nature of the soul the pleasing and glorifying of God all which signifies nothing to an earthly and carnal heart which only understands savours and is acted by carnal reasons and considerations 'T is therefore a principal part of a Christian's business in this Heavenly Trade and that which is leading to all other duties to take heed to his spirit Mai. 2. 15. to get and keep that pure and heavenly If the fountain be corrupt the streams cannot be good Get your minds beam'd over with heavenly light to discern heavenly things their nature and worth this Paul begs for the Saints at Ephesus Eph. 1. 17 18. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledg of him the eyes of your understanding being enlighten'd that you may know what is the hope of his Calling and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints There are great hopes and glorious riches made over to Believers in the Gospel the knowledg of which is necessary to chear the heart and engage the soul with all its strength to make out after them One thought of Christ saith Mr. Ball reaching the heart is more to be valued than all Creature-contentments whatsoever though they should be enjoyed in their fulness for a thousand years without interruption 'T was this kept alive the Apostles hearts under the dyings of the Lord Jesus in their bodies and fill'd them with such courage joy that they had an eye to see glorious and eternal things 2 Cor. 4. 10. 13. 16. 18. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal And this was their great work by the Gospel to make men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the World was hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ Eph. 3. 9. And having got this spiritual eye a Christian's duty is to keep it open and fixt on things above to preserve it from the injury of Sin and Satan to take heed of the vapours of a carnal heart and the dusty motes of this lower World that they fall not in and weaken this sight to get eye-salve from Christ and pure annointings of the spirit on it every day that they may see things invisible and those great things of the other World they are engag'd about The most discerning eye on this side the everlasting Hills sees but darkly through a glass and knows but in part 1 Cor. 13. 9. 12. How carnal are the minds of most Christians in this World the very Disciples though their eyes were blessed with peculiar sights Mat. 13. 16. yet had carnal apprehensions of spiritual things even after the Lord Jesus had spent all his pains about them Acts 1. 6. Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom unto Israel knowing souls have sometimes their eyes held that they cannot see Jesus Luke 24. 16. nor bear discoveries of his glorious truth Joh. 16. 12. that the Lord Jesus may say to all in this life O fools and slow of heart to believe Luke 24. 28. David after he had been long a learner yea after he was wiser than his teachers yet cries out for more light Psal 143. 8. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk Psal 119. 18. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law We may sail here saith Mr. Hooker in
daily search and when we know there is something still beyond our Hooker on 17 of John knowledg as men that travel in the main Ocean they see nothing but water and yet see neither side nor shore brim nor bottom and there is more water to be seen All the treasures of wisdom and knowledg are hid in Christ and he keeps the keys in his own hand and bosome Be often looking unto Jesus for clearer sights of him and the things freely given of God with the way to them Knock often at the treasury-door till he answer and open and send you away enriched with the knowledg of him this is part of your Trade to know Goods and the worth of them and how to buy and sell to best advantage Alas to what purpose is it to deal in Commodities that men know not and heavenly things are hidden things beyond the search of Men and Angels 1 Pet. 1. 12. Which things the Angels desire to look into * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 limis oculis vel in transitu quasi per transennam aspicere Bud. They bowed and stooped down to pry into those hidden secrets and as it were to peep into the mysteries of the Gospel as the word signifies to look a-squint with cross eyes every way and with quickest observance as through a Casement at one that passeth by and this they did with an earnest and restless y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire The Apostle alludes to the Cherubims placed over the Mercy-seat with their faces looking towards the Mercy-seat and through it to the Ark a type of Christ and Gospel-mysteries Exod. 25. 20. as things worthy and yet hard to be known which call for an inward and spiritual eye under fresh anointings every day Christians this is your daily work to follow on to know the Lord to be much with the Sun of Righteousness for healings and beamings on the eve of your mind that you may be more capable to understand the whole counsel of God concerning you This is a Heavenly Spirit or Mind enlightened with Heavenly Wisdom to eye and understand heavenly spiritual things Another property of a Heavenly Spirit is this 'T is a Spirit that savours as well as sees heavenly things it tasts a sweetness in divine things there is nothing in all the world that so pleases a spiritual mind as spiritual things so much is included in that word Rom. 8. 5. Do z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mind the things of the flesh that is do savour and rellish them so 't is rendred Matth. 16. 23. For thou savourest not the things that be of God it includes the affections as well as understanding A heavenly spirit takes delight in heavenly things and is an active principle that carries out the soul after God and things eternal And that 's your work too to get and maintain a delight in God and divine things to cherish breathings after heavenly things and preserve your spiritual senses in exercise that your souls may be ever quick in seeing hearing tasting smelling and feeling the joyes and pleasures that are in things above By this means Religion will be desirable Christ's yoke easie and his waies pleasant and his commands not grievous This is one of the most difficult pieces of Christianity to maintain the inward principle and spring of holy actions pure and lively 'T is far easier to set on any external duty than to keep the heart in a fit active frame for God which is apt to languish and grow out of order every moment if not kept and maintained by continued supplies from above Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life Now if you would keep up a heavenly spirit First Beware of those things that weaken it A Heavenly Spirit is a very tender thing and must be charily kept or will soon suffer loss 't is like the apple of the eye that is liable to injury from every dust or stroak that comes nigh it or like a Venice-glass that is down and broken with every little touch You cannot be too choice and tender in watching and guarding this Spirit from every thing that is contrary to it Take heed of carnal lusts these stand between God and the soul and these resist the Spirit Gal. 5. 17. and fight against the soul 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly Beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul Water is as consistent with fire sickness with health death with life as unmortified lusts with a heavenly spirit and you may as safely dwell with thieves and bloody murderers as suffer fleshly lusts to harbour near your hearts These suffered to hover in the soul will devour your sacrifice and like water quench this sacred fire and with the Ivy eat out the nourishment of this heaven-born spirit When Alexander asked Diogenes what he would desire of him that you saith he would stand aside a little from between me and the warm Sun so a soul that knows what the views of God are will desire nothing more than the remove of what stands between him and the warming sight of this heavenly Sun Carnal lusts are as venemous breath that soon seize on and weaken the vitals of godliness Never expect peace or welfare to the spiritual seed till the bond-woman and her Son be cast out How soon have excellent frames been all lost and the candle of the Lord well-nigh put out by these filthy damps that ascend from the deeps of unclean and unmortified affections This wrought such changes in Israel now they sang his praises and then presently forgat his works Psal 106. 12. Those divine raptures could not abide and what was the cause why 't was unmortified lusts that had dominion over them V. 14. They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the Desart and he gave them their requests but sent leanness into their souls This soon brought the Jews from being conquerours to captives that they did not pursue their victories and drive out the Canaanites out of the valleys as well as the mountains Judg. 1. 19. ch 2 3. This want of mortification in Believers is the cause that their corruptions do so often give check to their graces and make their choice heavenly frames so short-liv'd and mutable O cursed pleasures O damnable ease bought with the loss of God! Rutherford O Christians guard your spirit from those filthy and fleshly lusts as Physicians do fortifie the spirits against malignant vapours if ever you will maintain a gracious and heavenly spirit Earthly things also admitted too near the heart prove the bane of a heavenly spirit these like a stone at the bird's leg pluck it down when it attempts to be upon the wing Worldly affections when they exceed their bounds are like waters that overflow the banks they carry down all heavenly motions before them Earthly things are the Devils lure to
who can know it none but he who searcheth the deep things of God can reach this bottom and bring to light the hidden things thereof The work of grace is a secret full of mysteries that none can open and fully know but the eternal Spirit that formed it in the womb of a Believer's heart Seeming grace hath so near a resemblance to saving grace that it puzzles the most curious and searching eye if not enlighten'd with a beam from Heaven to discern the difference besides the slender measures of the Spirit that most have attained to in this life with the subtil insinuations the false representations and treacherous prevarications of that bloody and irreconcilable enemy of mankind all which conspire to put a cheat upon the professing Christian and render his Salvation exceeding doubtful And suppose thy state should be safe yet how perplexing and full of anxiety is it to have the least suspition of thy unsoundness To have the life of thy precious soul hang in suspence and to be unresolv'd in that great case whether thou must live or die to all eternity O! how tormenting and heart-sinking is this An awakened Soul that cannot rest in sin nor yet hope in grace or upon any Scripture-warrant come to a determination about his real interest in God and things eternal is like a troubled Sea that cannot rest Instruments of Musick cannot allay its disquietude no Creature-comforts can charm its heart to a peaceful composure who does in reallity but suspect his eternal welfare and but think he reads this hand-writing on the wall Mene mene tekel upharsin Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting Dan. 5. 25. 27. Nothing in all the World can be a Plaister broad enough for such a wound no Cordial can cheer that heart till Grace decides the controversy and assures the Soul of an unquestionable title to the Heir of all things and to the inheritance with the Saints in light And have you not reason then to be restless till your propriety in these glorious treasures be attested which though difficult yet is possible and feasible to all that follow Wisdom's counsel in order to it The eternal truth hath opened a way to the decision of this question whether I have eternal life or no and laid down certain marks of a Soul entitled to things above 1 Joh. 5. 13. These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life Vers 12. 19. Chap. 3. 14. The Lord hath charged this to be the duty of all that profess their hopes of glory to make their Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. To examine themselves whether they be in the Faith 2 Cor. 13. 5. To prove their own work that they may have rejoycing in themselves Gal. 6. 4. which he would never have done were it impossible He hath also promised the Spirit to help them in this work and to lead them into all truth bearing witness with their spirits that they are the Lords Joh. 16. 13. Rom. 8. 16. And upon this very account exhorts them to holiness that they might not impede this sealing work of the Spirit Eph. 4. 30. And upon the arrival to this certainty hath ensured great consolation and advantage 2 Pet. 1. 8. 10 11. All which words signify nothing and reflect unrighteousness on the spirit of truth were not an evidence of right to these heavenly things obtainable Quest But how may I come to the knowledg of this desirable truth that Heavenly Treasures are surely mine and that I may make a warrantable claim to God to Christ and these things of the other World Sol. 1. First By your conjugal union with the Heir of Heaven All things in Heaven and Earth are Christ's he is the Heir of all things Heb. 1. 2. Hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things All things in Heaven and Earth are his by donation purchase and inheritance juridically conferred over to him in the new covenant and actually put into his hand upon the finishing of his meritorious work and victory over death Matt. 28. 18. All power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is given to me in Heaven and Earth Lawful power right priviledg and authority as the word imports and with this is the Lord Jesus invested and hath all things put into his hands and all creatures under his feet Heb. 2. 7 8. And all right to true riches is derived from him through union with him 1 Cor. 3. 21. 23. All things are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's If you are Christ's then all things are yours not else your title is founded on your marriage-relation to him Gal. 3. 29. And if you are Christ's then are you Abraham ' s seed and Heirs according to the promise A title to these glorious treasures is made over in the new covenant which covenant is confirm'd in Christ and made in him and through him to all that are his He is the way there 's no coming to these treasures but by him he is the door no entring into them but through him He is the treasury it self in whom all the riches of grace all the fulness of pleasures and satisfaction lies you must have the treasury before you can have the treasures the well it self before the waters are yours He that hath the Son hath life hath him by way of possession as an owner and proprietor If you have Christ you have all that is his his person and purchase go together Rebekah must consent to go and marry Isaac before she could be invested with that substance and wealth which was his This new covenant which interests a soul in the Lord Jesus and his unsearchable riches is a marriage-covenant Hos 2. 19 20. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving-kindness and in mercies I will even betroth thee to me in faithfulness and thou shalt know the Lord. Ezek. 16. 8. I entred into covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou becamest mine this was a marriage-covenant Jer. 3. 14. Turn O back sliding children saith the Lord for I am married to you If you would see your title to heavenly treasures try your conjugal union to the Lord Jesus the Heir of Heaven Every relation to Christ is not a conjugal relation There is a general relation as dead branches to the tree Joh. 15. 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away A person may be in Christ as the luxuriant branch or sucker is in the tree that sucks the sap of priviledges and gets some nourishment of frames and comforts but brings not forth fruit it sprouts out of the stock as proud-flesh grows on the wound but hath no right union with the root or nourishment from the head Such are obtruders and hang-bies which take
need of more grace as you have of bread for your bodies Your occasions temptations and work are spending and without fresh supplies from the Treasury you will soon be empty and impoverished Neglect but your spiritual recruits one day and you will feel it 'T is your interest if you are Traders to keep your shops full and to be often sending for more goods Grace will never lye long on your hands other goods may You will have still occasions to exercise grace in your dealings with God and men you can never be over-stor'd with Wisdom's wares 'T is your duty also to make use of Christ continually In every thing to make known your requests to him To draw waters out of this Well of Salvation every day He is a Fountain sealed for your use he is made of God to be wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption too for this end that they might live upon him to these ends This is to live by the Faith of the Son of God which is the Christians daily duty He complains as being injur'd when his people will not come unto him that they might have life Joh. 5. 40. He is troubled when his Children will not make use of him Hitherto you have asked nothing Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full Joh. 16. 24. Never was a full breast more pain'd for want of drawing than the Lord Jesus is when his people receive not from him that fulness that is laid up in him for their use 'T is your advantage also to be often at Christ's door and to be continually fetching in supplies for your souls This is the way to grow rich apace to get in more and more of the unsearchable riches of Christ Rev. 3. 18. This is the way to be filled with the fruits of righteousness to be more throughly furnished unto all good works to the glory and praise of God 2 Tim. 3. 17. Phil. 1. 12. This is the way to do every thing better and to abound in the work of the Lord and to be more complete in all the will of God 1 Cor. 15. 58. Col. 4. 12. By this means you will become more serviceable unto others and useful in the place where you live and in the Societies where God hath placed you the more full of grace the more able to profit others Rom. 15. 14. That ye alwaies are full of goodness filled with all knowledge able also to admonish one another 2 Cor. 1. 4. That we may be able to comfort them with the same comforts wherewith we are comforted of God They that freely receive will be able freely to give and that 's a blessed thing Acts 20. 35. And till you receive you cannot give Christians get in more grace every day for your own use for the glory of God and the good of others Labour to be furnished with every grace especially those graces which the Lord hath more use of and the time condition and place you are in do more especially call for Heb. 12. 28. 2 Pet. 1. 5. Be sure to be well furnished with Faith that 's an useful grace at all times for we live by Faith Heb. 10. 38. but especially in evil times in times of temptation and affliction Faith is an eye a hand a foot at all times 't is a grace alwaies useful at every turn you cannot be without it and be well 't is a working grace and that 's good for Traders you cannot work without it 2 Thes 1. 4. A building grace Jude v. 3. 20. A nourishing grace 1 Tim. 4. 6. A soul-enriching grace Rom. 4. 12. A soul-strengthening grace Ephes 3. 16 17. But 't is especially needful in evil times it being a cheering grace Rom. 15. 13. 'T is a soul-keeping grace and that 's good in dangerous times 1 Pet. 1. 5. 'T is a soul-saving grace that saves in troubles and out of troubles Psal 27. 5. Jam. 5. 15. 'T is a heart-establishing grace 2 Chron. 20. 20. A world-contemning grace Heb. 11. 26. A world-conquering grace 1 Joh. 5. 4. A soul-securing grace Heb. 11. 23. By faith Moses was hid three months It secures a person in troubles 't is a breast-plate to preserve the heart 1 Thes 5. 8. And a shield to cover the head Ephes 6. 16. It leads a person through trouble Heb. 11. 29. By Faith they passed through the Red. Sea as by dry Land which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned O get in plenty of this precious unfeigned Faith for that 's the great trading-grace of a Christian for it gets in and laies out every grace Faith is the receiving grace it receives in Christ Eph. 3. 17. and it receives from Christ John 1. 16. Faith is the key that opens Christ's Treasures the hand that takes out his tryed gold Faith is the carrying and recarrying grace Faith comes up to the market-price and never breaks with God on terms but subscribes to all the demands of Christ and so never returns empty Christians you will never want goods for your Heavenly Trade if you can but keep Faith in exercise your shops will never be empty as long as Faith can stir up and down and keep up its Journeys to Heaven If there be any goods in the promises any wares in Heaven Faith will have them down as long as the soul needs them and it be for God's interest to part with them O then get faith Alas what pitiful Trade do some drive for want of Faith Choice goods will not off precious promises pertinent instructions perswasions and encouragements lye on Christ's hands for want of faith in them that hear Christians you will make nothing of Religion without Faith in the daies we live in you will soon shut up shop decay and break when troubles come to purpose without store of Faith Faith will fill your store-houses do your work put off your goods get in your rights pay your debts and maintain you richly on the incomes of your Trade Patience is another grace that will much serve you in your Spiritual Trade you have need of Patience to do the will of God no working without Patience 2 Cor. 12. 12. Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all Patience Rom. 5. 4. Patience worketh experience Souls are apt to be weary of well doing without Patience and to tyre in running without this long-breath'd grace of Patience Heb. 12. 1. Let us run with Patience the race that is set before us No receiving the fruit of Ordinances and Duties without Patience Luke 8. 15. They on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the Word keep it and bring forth fruit with Patience The Lord usually tries his peoples Patience before they come to the fruit of Pomises and bring forth the obedience of Precepts there 's a winter between seed-time and harvest many wet weeping daies between sowing and reaping ut enim segetem in agro pluvias nives glacies
without works and love without labours will signifie nothing towards salvation Will Opinion make a man an Artist or imagination enrich him or hunger fill him or reading the way to a place bring him thither No more will affection knowledge and profession help men to Heaven unless they work out their salvation and carry on the duties of Religion that lead to it Phil. 2. 12. First Consider a Christian hath much work and a little time great work and small strength necessary work and many diversions excellent work none like it persons that set about salvation in earnest will find much to do and the farther they go in Religion the more busie their employment will be every day brings its work with it new instructions new mercies new afflictions and temptations every day which calls for much exercised grace and duty A child of God hath no time for idleness or impertinent business O the many things that must be dispatched within the compass of this little inch of time for eternity Soul if thou diest and thy work undone when thou diest thy soul 's undone there 's no rising from thy grave to do neglected work or dispensation at the Bar of God for the omission of Salvation-duties This work is necessary also as well as great some duties are necessary to secure thy salvation all duties are necessary to maintain thy comforts and greaten thy glory Men plead necessity for this and th' other thing to do this work and take that journey to omit this duty and absent from such a priviledge but who is sensible of the necessity of working the work of God and attending soul-concerns It may not be necessary you should have peace credit plenty riches comforts that you should have so much estate preferment and contentment in the world but 't is absolutely necessary thy soul should be saved and that God should be obeyed that spiritual concerns should be attended whatever is neglected that thy debts should be paid thy peace with God obtained thy hungry soul be fed and refreshed thy title to Heaven clear'd the presence of God enjoy'd and thy seed-time for glory improv'd 'T is promised-promised-work too and that makes it necessary you have engag'd to be the Lord's if you are Christians and have given up your selves to be his and not your own your time is his your capacities his 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. what you are and have is from him and for him this you have devoted to the use and service of God when you took him to be your God 2 Cor. 8. 5. and many a time since you have engag'd to obedience of his commands There are sick-bed-vows affliction-promises engagements under conscience-troubles yea every day and in every duty you tell God you will mend your waies redeem your time do him more and better work and how can you stand before him with such flattery and dissimulation and under the guilt of so much falshood and treachery while your work lies still undone Yea your work Christians is excellent work also above all the employments of the world 't is supernatural work yea Angelical work yea such work as Angels cannot do to believe in love converse with and obey Christ as your Redeemer and Saviour Phil. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 7 8 9 12. to suffer for Christ and be baptized into a conformity with his death and resurrection 'T is suitable work also you are called to in this Heavenly Trade work suited to your natures If you are Saints you have received a heavenly spirit and are partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. 'T is as natural for you to do heavenly work if you are Christians as for the world to do earthly work there being a disposition and propensity put into your renewed natures to new and heavenly work as there is a disposition in the seed to its proper fruit 1 Joh. 3. 9. For his seed remaineth in him 'T is work suited to your hopes which are laid up in Heaven Col. 1. 5. For the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven whereof you have heard before in the word of Truth That is the blessedness those great and glorious things you hope for which are laid up for you in Heaven as a Treasure safely kept for you Called hope by an Antonomasia saith Davenant a Beatitudo promissa dicitur spes nostra id est illâ—â— quod speramas per Antonomasiam neque hoc praemium dicitur tantum oblatum nobis propositum nam hâ—c spem nostram infirmaret si certitudo rerum speratarum penderet ex nobis dispositione nostra ita ut vel daretur nobis vel negaretur promerito operum nostrorum sed dicitur se positum nobis id est quasi in deposito reconditum apud Deum Patrem nostrum Daven This reward is not said to be onely offered and proposed to us for that would weaken our hope if the certainty of those things hoped for did depend on us and our disposition so that it should be given or denied us according to the worth of our works graces and duties but 't is said to be laid aside for us as that which is deposited and safely laid up in God our Father for us A Christian's choicest Treasures lie in hope not in hand beyond their present view and enjoyment and yet secured to their use and propriety 1 Pet. 1. 4. Reserved in Heaven for you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kept as it were in custody and with watch and ward for you sure and certain on which the hopes of Believers are firmly laid and to which their present work is suited heavenly work bears a proportion and agreement in its nature though not in worth to heavenly and eternal things 't is work suited to your inheritance and wages in its kind though not in degree and that 's excellent work which is of the same nature with your eternal blessedness Suited also to your present priviledges who sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. 6. Gracious souls though in habitation they are on the Earth yet in point of priviledge they sit in Heaven Through their union with Christ they may be said b Sedere fecit nos in coelestibus in persona Christi inque novam vitam excitavit ut Spiritu in coelis versemur efficit Zanch. saith Zanchy to sit where he sits as a husband or Brother absent from his Wife and Brethren doth possess a Kingdom for them they though absent may be truly said relatively to possess it in him as members in the head they sit in Heaven in the person of Christ and as the lump is sanctified in the first fruits Neither do they sit onely relatively through their union with Christ but spiritually through their communion with him In that sense saith Bucer as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. 20. They have their conversation in Heaven This is a glorious priviledge the Saints onely enjoy in this life to converse in Heaven and to
of debt we cannot merit Fourthly We have nothing to merit withal for we are not our own 1 Cor. 6. 19. Man hath nothing to give to God who is not his own but God's as all redeemed ones especially are Believers are his servants Rom. 14. 4. Who art thou that judgest another man's servant And a servant is not his own his time strength capacity work are his Masters so are the Saints duties the Lord's not by way of legal compact and requital of wages but by way of redemption right and purchase being bought out of the service of sin and Satan to his own use and the service of such is a due already upon a former score a debt of thankfulness and cannot merit a reward Beside what can they give to God who have nothing but what they receive from God 1 Cor. 4. 7. Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed to him again for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Fifthly Were rewards due to any upon the account of his work then man had something to glory of in himself and might say of Heaven as Nebuchadnezzar did of Babylon Dan. 4. 30. Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my Majesty So might such say when they come to Heaven Is not this the mansion I prepared and deserved by my duties and graces for my glory and blessedness For self-justiciaries though they are forced to say that their grace is given of God yet they boast of the improvements of this grace as theirs and glory is due to the improvement of grace they say and not to the bare grace or talent and though they are driven to confess Christ's merit yet they shuffle and say Christ merited for them that they might merit But that is contrary to the Gospel which tells us That 't is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9. v. 16. And 't is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. And that no flesh should glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 29. And therefore God hath chosen the foolish weak and base things of this world and things that are not of purpose to prevent this self-glorying before him verse 17 18. And the Apostle makes this reason why Abraham was not justified by Works but by Faith cause then he would have something to glory in but this could not be Rom. 4. 2. If Abraham were justified by works he had something to glory in but not before God So that the Saints though they have a reward of their work yet it is not for their work 't is a reward not of debt but of grace yea of glorious grace according to your work Christians God will not give you a jot less than the utmost of what your love and faithfulness comes to Your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. He will not fail of any of his Promises or disappoint you of your expected end but will be better than your hopes You will say in that day of compensation Who hath begotten me all these Isa 49. 21. Whence is this to me Luk. 1. v. 43. When saw we thee an hungred Mat. 26. v. 37. Glory is a mighty thing infinitely above all your labours Christians Heaven will make amends for all your duties and losses and abundantly compensate and exceed all your expences for God in the world And have you not reason to set about the work of grace and drive on the employments of this Heavenly Trade Quest But what is this heavenly work which Wisdom's Merchants must be driving on every day Sol. I answer First in the general Heavenly work is that work which hath a heavenly Author and Principle a heavenly rule and a heavenly end work wrought of God by his Spirit Joh. 3. 21. Work done according to the will of God and by Scripture-rule Col. 4. 12. Work wrought for God and designed purely and ultimately to his glory 1 Cor. 10. 31. But more particularly heavenly works may be considered under these two heads First Such as are heavenly in the matter of them as well as manner and end Secondly Such works as though earthly in the matter of them yet are done in a heavenly manner and to an heavenly end First That 's heavenly work which is of a heavenly nature matter and manner and end as all those religious duties are which respect God our selves and others First Drive on that work every day which hath God himself for its first and more immediate object as all acts of religious worship both natural and instituted moral and positive Mat. 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve This is due to God from all his rational and intelligent creatures both Men and Angels to worship him only with that reverential fear faith love hope and delight which is due to him as the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth the great Creator and Conservator of all his creatures and to serve him with that subjection and obedience as their relation to God their Sovereign calls for This is the duty of all persons especially those that profess their owning of God and choice of him to be their God in Christ and peculiar treasure Deut. 13. 6. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and serve him and swear by his name Christians to let out your hearts upon the world relations self and creatures is to rob God of his service and to commit Idolatry with the creature Think this when my heart runs out to things below God and my affections hope trust and delight get over their banks and break their due bounds and subordinacy to God when I fondly dote upon and take pleasure abstractively from God in any creatures then do I deal treacherously with my God I rob him and give his glory to another Isa 48. 11. O set habitually your hearts on God and let out your faith love hope fear desires and delighting pleasures on God every day yea all the day long as your chiefest good supreme Sovereign and last end Prov. 27. 17. Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long Again external acts of divine worship are part of thy every days work which thou owest to God and to be duly and daily performed to him as to pray hear and read his sacred word These are that honour homage and service that is due to God every day especially morning and evening Prov. 8. 34. Deut. 6. 7. Exod. 30. 7. 1 Chron. 23. 30. Ezek. 46. 13 14 15. Amos 4. 4. 1 Chron. 16. 40. Psal 55. 17. This is the daily burnt-offering to be prepared for the Lord Exod. 29. 38 39. Morning and evening the vows that are to be daily performed Psal 61. 8. God's
mercies are new every morning and so must your praises be also Lam. 3. 23. He keeps you day and night Isa 27. 3. And 't is but reasonable you should give him his morning and evening sacrifice you depend upon him for the mercies of every day and he expects from you the duties of every day which is reasonable service Rom. 12. 1. You have daily necessities difficulties trials dangers and duties in which you need his help and is it not your concern to be daily at his feet and seeking his favour counsel strength and blessing Herein lies your professed subjection to God also slight religious duties and you reject God from being your God This very reason doth Moses give why Israel should serve the Lord and cleave to him and swear by his name and give him all religious worship Deut. 19. 20 21. He is thy praise and he is thy God who hath done for thee these great and terrible things which thine eyes have seen Dan. 6. 16. Thy God whom thou servest continually he will deliver thee 'T is a contradiction to say that God is your God and yet with-hold his service from him As soon as ever God had a people in the World he had service from them Gen. 4. 26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord No sooner had Seth who was the other seed which the Lord appropriated to himself in the room of Abel a Son and Family but they had peculiar worship for God and were distinguished from the Family of Cain by this that they did serve God This is the work of God that every Soul is bound to dispatch every day in Closet and Family in Spirit and Truth with a pure heart fervently This also is the best part of your work in the world to attend on God all other service is but drudgery compared with your serving God and transacting the great matters of your Souls and your everlasting concern This is your interest also to maintain nearness to God who is the life of your souls the length of your days and fountain of all your supplies there 's no such pleasure as in the ways of God nor profit as in keeping his commands O the blessedness of converse with God and maintaining a daily entercourse with the Father of Spirits 't is the priviledg of Angels and of glorified Saints to be always beholding his face 1 Thes 4. 17. Mat. 18. 10. And the peculiar honour of the upright to dwell in his presence Psal 140. 12. There is no such advantage also as to be much with God every day Psal 73. 28. 'T is good for me to draw near to God Often journeys to Heaven bring in much profit 't was this way David did thrive so much in wisdom grace and experience out-shining all the men of that age and serving his generation by the will of God his being much with God Psal 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee By this nearness to the Son of righteousness did Enoch so soon ripen for Heaven and by his constant walks with God did he so timely get to his journeys end Of all that generation we find none so soon sent for home and translated to his rest as holy Enoch for whereas the rest lived nine hundred eight hundred seven hundred years only he lived three hundred sixty and five years and that which so quickned his fitness for rest was his activity in heavenly work Enoch walked with God and was not for God took him Gen. 5. 23. He kept his constant turns with God in his Garden and Gallery-walks and then went in with him into his Presence-Chamber there to sit down with him for ever This also will make you thrive in your own work if you are faithful and diligent in God's work mind his concerns and he will care for yours Deut. 30. 9. Obey the voice of the Lord and do all his commandments and the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every good work of thy hand He shall make thee to abound in the work of thy hand as 't is in the Hebrew * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faciet superesse te 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excellentem efficiet te bonis to have more than enough as Montanus renders it He will bless thee in every work of thine hand according to the Septuagint other Copies have it He will have a great deal of care of thee c. He will make thee excellent with good things saith Junius He will make thee to enjoy good in every work of c. saith Symmachus He shall prosper the work of thy hand It shall go well with such Deut. 4. 40. Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes and his commandments which I command thee this day that it may go well with thee and with thy children after thee Gen. 42. 18. 'T was piety made Joseph so prosperous in all he did he feared God Do this and live for I fear God and God was with him and made all he did to prosper in his hand Gen. 39. 3. Whatsoever he doth shall prosper Psal 1. 3. The blessing of the Lord shall be on the head and hands of such let their condition be what it will in the world yet it shall be well with such as fear the Lord if he be afflicted yet his afflictions shall turn to his good and be part of his prosperity 2 Chron. 31. 21. And in every work he began in the service of the House of God and in the Law and in the Commandment to seek his God he did it with all his heart and prospered The way to true prosperity leads by Heaven-gates Christians if ever you will thrive in your own work be sure to carry on God's work begin with God every day the first fruits are his Dispatch religious worship in your Closets and Families before you enter on your earthly business Close up every day with him he is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and end and must have the issue as well as entrances of every day The morning and evening sacrifice are his 1 Chron. 16. 40. 2 Chron. 13. 11. Psal 55. 17. Give God his due before you render to Nature its dues Psal 61. 8. Pay your vows to God every evening before you run on score for new mercies See all things secured in everlasting Arms before you lie down to rest put thy Soul and thy All into the hands of Christ by solemn devotion and resignation every night get the watch set and all things safe before thou exposest thy self to the hazards of the night and enterest upon an incapacity to secure thy self from the least danger O precious souls lye not down as dogs and swine who when they have filled their bellies get to their styes and kennels Secondly carry on all that work daily which hath a more special respect to your own selves and leads to the sanctifying comforting strengthning edifying saving of your precious souls Next to the
glory of God yea in pursuance of it thy own Salvation is thy chief concern What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul What is left if the Soul be lost and what is done if after all the Soul be undone To look after others Souls and neglect thy own and to secure all things else and leave destruction on thy self is folly like to hers that saved her goods from the fire but left her child to perish in the flames Salvation is your chiefest work committed to your care and to be accounted for in the day of Christ Phil. 2. 12. Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling And 't is great work also many things must be attended too and several things dispatch'd if ever Souls be saved First You must carry on heart-work every day and that 's great work they that are acquainted with their own hearts know there is much to do in and about them There is nothing more out of order than man's heart and nothing in man of greater concernment than the heart Hence 't is the strict charge the Lord gives his people to keep their hearts Prov. 4. v. 23. Above all keeping as 't is in the Hebrew keep thy heart Proz 23. 2. Ephes 3. 17. Prov. 4. v. 4. The heart is the one thing Christ looks for the chief room he dwells in his warehouse where he laies up his goods his work-house where he cuts out and prepares his work Prov. 16. 1. A great part of salvation-work is done in the secret chambers of the heart The heart is the root and spring in man whence all aceptable duties flow Ephes 6. 6. doing the will of God from the heart and to be especially looked after A Christian finds a great deal of work to do about his heart every day There is Heart-searching work Psal 64. 6. The heart of man is deep and not easily fathom'd 't is a long journey to the farthest end of the heart which no man ever yet reached in this life The Sea is deep and yet it hath a bottom The World is large and yet it hath been compassed but who hath ever travelled through his own heart to set up his non ultra and say Hitherto its wickedness goes and no farther 'T is deceitful also above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Jer. 17. 9. A man hath no such cheater to deal with as his own heart it hath such Cameleon colours Maeander windings such labyrinth turnings subtle shifts false pretences close designs fair promises smooth excuses rhetorical pleas seeming integrity deep-rooted hypocrisie that a man cannot tell what to make of his heart or how to find it out and this calls for constant searchings and observings of the heart Besides the Lord gives his people the ballance of the Sanctuary on purpose to weigh it in and casts out a line of providence every day to try it by Men meet with occasional providences temptations employments companies changes mercies afflictions all which help to discover the heart the issue of which is to be observed in order to the finding out of thy heart Heart-judging work When Christians have found out the evil of their hearts their pride hypocrisie c. seen the proof and evidence clear and how contrary to Law and Gospel to Equity and Mercy to Light Experience Warnings Patience Profession and Promises they are then to charge these things upon the heart to set home the evil with all the aggravations of it from its nature and effects from the quality of the person the time place continuance in it attempts and means of cure compared with others beneath them for light profession means and mercies and having by these arguments convinced the heart of its exceeding evil then to pass sentence against and condemn it as unworthy of any mercy and deserving of all the threatnings in the Word against it until the heart come to bear its iniquity and feel its exceeding sinfulness and cry out with the Apostle O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7. 24. This would be of wonderful use to clear up your sincerity to preserve the tenderness of your spirits to cut off all excuses false hopes and security in sin and make it more abominable when it appears with its most taking allurements 2 Cor. 7. 11. 1 Cor. 11. 31. and this would evidence your interest in pardon and freedom from Divine condemnation Heart-humbling work O the pride that lodges yea lives in and incorporates with this little piece the heart of man how unsearchable is it and past finding out like leaven in the lump and poyson in the cup which cannot be separated by a humane hand as rottenness in the bones that cannot be fetched out Pride is as that lofty mountain before Zerubbabel which must become a plain Zach. 4. 7. as deeply rooted trees whose Mores are not easily plucked up One compares spiritual pride to the shirt or inmost garment which the Saints last of all put off and which like the Ivy will not be pluckt out till the wall in which it is comes down also O the tuggings a child of God hath with his proud heart to get and keep it low As the Spider whatever it feeds on it turns to poison So is it with the proud heart of man it turns all it does hath meets with and sees to the nourishment of pride proud of its sins proud of his graces proud under afflictions and proud of mercies proud of honour and proud of humility proud of God's favour and proud under his frowns O what a strange disease is pride that feeds upon the means which the Lord gives to cure it and gets strength from the remedy to nourish the disease like Ephraim's wound when God would have healed one another appeared And this helps to make a Christian's work great work indeed which is never done till his day be done and his Tabernacle pulled down Heart-purging work The heart of man naturally is a very sink and kennel of uncleanness a fountain of pollution a running Issue full of filthiness of flesh and spirit Mat. 18. 19. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witness blasphemies these are the things that defile the man 'T is not accidental and adventitious filthiness for that may more easily be washt away Jer. 6. 7. but 't is innate and connatural and never ceases bubling forth till the fountain be cleansed and the root be changed Sin in the heart is the root and spring of all the wickedness that defiles the thoughts words and actions Christians complain of their thoughts they are pestred with vain unclean distracting thoughts in duty and out of duty whereas the distemper lies in the heart Thoughts are but the ebullitions and swarmings of the heart He that will cure his thoughts must first
cleanse his heart Jer. 4. 14. The heart is the nest where these Wasps fly out and trouble the soul the root that feeds these luxuriant branches briars and thorns that wound the conscience and the strong fort of Sion where these Jebusites hide themselves and issue out to prey upon the gracious soul Till these nests be spoiled the Ax laid to the root of the tree and this strong Tower attach'd and these blind and lame removed souls will never be freed from irruptions of sin in their thoughts and conversations This Christian is busie and hard work and part of thy daily employment in this Heavenly Trade to sweep wash drain and cleanse thy filthy heart by sound repentance and faith in the promises death and blood of Christ Heart-quickening work The heart is the primum mobile the great wheel in the watch that sets all a going if that stop all faculties are still A lively heart makes a diligent hand to rid away soul-work and a nimble foot to run in the waies of God's commands when the heart is quickened then every duty inward outward publick private goes on such a soul needs no spur to quicken it nor pully to draw it to its duties O what a burden are some to their Christian friends to keep them up and draw them on in the way of God and all because their hearts are dead and that liveliness which once seem'd to be in them is departed The spring that at first made them so active is weakened or broken the waters that set their Mills a going fail and that temporary love and common grace like standing pools having no fountain to maintain them are dried up by consuming lusts and scorching temptations so that now they wither in all their branches and become weak cold and indisposed to every work of God and their souls Some of these dangerous symptoms of decayed grace are found also in sincere souls for not looking after their hearts betimes and keeping them close to a quickening Jesus by a lively faith in the promises Christian mind this also every day to maintain thy spiritual life by fresh quickenings and reviving influences from the fountain of life on thy weak and dying heart making use of all instituted helps for soul-strengthening as hearing reading meditation holy conference and the like Heart-teaching and enlightening work A light head and a dark heart may dwell together and it seems to be the condition of too many under the Gospel this day A spiritual eye to look into the mystery of truth and believing affectionate discerning of excellent things is not easily found even while Christ is read a veil is on mens minds and their foolish heart is darkened And this is one reason souls walk not as children of light 't is because they are not light in the Lord Psal 40. 8. The Law of God is not within their hearts they have no inclination or power upon their hearts to do the will of God they know for want of this heart-knowledge Be earnest with God to beam over your hearts to make that the Hemisphere where the Sun of Righteousness may daily arise with healing in his wings Cry with David Psal 119. 36. Incline my heart to thy Law Let my heart lean and stay upon thy Law as a man doth upon a staff tobear him up Get a greater nearness in your hearts to truth that the Word may be wrought in and incorporated into your hearts that it may be a Goshen a Land of Vision and full of the understanding of the Lord. Heart-keeping and Heart-watching work The heart is bent to backsliding if it be not kept and held fast to the Lord and his waies 't is still turning aside and winding off from its proper duty The Lord complains of Israel Psal 78. 8. They did not set their heart aright and their spirit was not stedfast with God They did not prepare adapt dispose their heart to God neither was it constant and stedfast with him but on every occasion did start aside So false a thing is man's heart if not under a watchful eye and strong hand holding it fast to God Prov. 4. 23. Keep thy heart with all diligence Keep it as under lock and key bolted against sin and bound by cords of love to every duty And what a hard province is this O the work that a child of God hath to keep his heart in order one moment to keep down sin to keep it from the power of corruption and prevalency of temptation to keep up grace in the heart to maintain its desires after God and things that are excellent to preserve its affections to things above to hold the thoughts on God and things eternal that they start not away to continue its integrity to perform its purposes to secure its frames experiences and enjoyments And he that will thus keep his heart must watch it constantly never have his eye off from it or suffer his jealousie concerning it to cease He must be alwaies making it over to the Lord Jesus for security and be still imploring help from Heaven faithfully following all the instructions he gives towards its securing This is heart-work and the first part of this heavenly work that concerns your selves Secondly You must carry on mortification-work every day Col. 3. 5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is Idolatry The Apostle having assur'd the believing Colossians of their future happiness doth thence infer their duty and necessity to press after utmost holiness here as the way to this blessedness The first part of which holiness lies in this great work of mortification there is no greater motive for Believers putting off sin than well-grounded hopes of interest in Christ and glory if Heaven be yours hereafter holiness must be yours now There is no place for sin in Heaven nor unclean thing can enter there Then hasten away sin now that 's his Argument Mortify your members Get your selves rid of sin put to death weaken and destroy the whole body of sin with all the parts and issues of it the head and ruling power of sin had its mortal wound before vers 3. Ye are dead habitually dead to sin the world and self they have got their deaths-wound the stab is at the heart and can never be healed more but they are not actually dead more blood must run and spirits be spent and this monster be weakned every day Practical mortification is wanting and must be promoted daily This spiritual death to sin a Mors naturalis est pura privatio nec admittit in subjecto aliquid contrarii sed mortificatio spiritualis non est pura privatio nam dum corpus hoc mortale gestamus relinquitur aliquid de contrario fomite quod oppugnandum magis magisque mortificandum est Daven saith Davenant is not as the natural death for that 's a pure privation and admits of nothing
Christian get if he did but follow his victory over his corruptions and not suffer them to recruit and gather strength again Give no rest to thy lusts nor space for reviving no not for a moment but keep up thy warfare every day Sixthly If you would further the death of sin keep up the life of grace As the life of sin weakens grace so the life of grace keeps down and weakens sin Gal. 5. 16. Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh Keep up grace and sin will down As when the house of David waxed stronger the house of Saul waxed weaker 2 Sam. 3. 1. 'T is written of Ephrem Syrus that though he was a man much given to passion in his youth yet after he entered into a strict course of life he was never seen to be angry with any man As you cannot get power over sin but by the Spirit of Grace so you cannot keep the head over sin but by the Life of Grace Get your graces strengthened and you will find your corruptions weakened Thirdly You must carry on Renovation in grace and the inward work of Sanctification every day Ephes 3. 23 24. And be renewed in the spirit of your minds And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. After the work of Mortification the Apostle presses Christians to this work of Renovation or Internal Holiness be renewed in the spirit of your minds i. e. in your minds by the Holy Spirit the mind being put for the whole man and internal faculties of the soul both understanding will affections and conscience all must be renewed by the Spirit called the New Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. or Workmanship of Christ transformed after his own Image in righteousness and true holiness and renewed in knowledge Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. When the soul is truly regenerated there is the stamp or eexmplar of Christ's holiness placed in the whole soul in truth but in weak measures at first which must be renewed or enlarged in the soul till it comes to the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ Christians at the first change are compar'd to new born babes 2 Pet. 2. 2. weak in grace but under a natural disposition and obligations to growth and encreases in this grace of God both intensively and extensively This is a Christian's duty by divine command and comports with the appointment of God in order to it 2 Pet. 3. v. 18. 1 Pet. 2. 2. Ephes 4. 11 12 13. 'T is the way by which grace becomes glory and is greatly necessary to perfect a soul's holiness that so he might come to his full stature and conformity to Christ Ephes 4. 16. Rom. 8. 29. And by the encreases of grace may be enabled to dispatch all his duties bear his burdens and bear up under his temptations that he might be capable to enjoy all his mercies to glorifie the God of grace and to be made meet for the enjoyment of God in glory On all which accounts it becomes the Christian 's great concern to press after larger measures of grace every day to grow up into him in faith and love who is the head in all things Ephes 4. 15. To grow downward in humility and self-denial to grow extensively in every part of holiness and greater enlargements in every grace to wax stronger and stronger in the grace that is in Christ Jesus Perfecting holiness in the sight of God and pressing more and more after the price of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus The want of which encreases of the Spirit doth much obscure the glory of Christ in Believers cloud their evidences and render them too weak for their corruptions their growing tryals and duties Christians content not your selves with the truth of grace without daily growth in grace Improve your interest in the Resurrection of Christ by believing for the dailing quickening of your hearts and raising of your affections to things above and attracting your desires and whole souls after God grace and glory Be much in internal soul-work of heart searching soul watching divine contemplation secret ejaculations and soul breathings after God and higher manifestations of his light life and love Be constant in every appointment of God publick and private of prayer reading hearing holy conference that you may get nourishment thereby administred to your souls Get under all the dews and showres of grace for your fruitfulness Be spiritual as well as frequent in exercising grace under the means of Grace without this you cannot serve God acceptably Heb. 12. 28. or receive from him who is the head nourishment to your souls but by these bands and joynts of faith and love Col. 2. 19. Formality eats out that sap which should make you green and flourishing A dead cold heart under the Word can no more digest it to nutriment than a dead body can concoct natural food Maintain hungring desires after the word of grace and appointed means to your spiritual growth 1 Pet. 2. 3. Hungring after food argues a good digestion and a sound concoction furthers nourishment Keep up warm affection to every way of God living on Christ for all the good and blessing of them Psal 84. 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are the ways of them who passing through the Valley of Baca make it a Well the rain also filleth the Pools they go from strength to strength every one in Sion appearing before God When Jehoshaphat's heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord 't is said he waxed great exceedingly 2 Chron. 17. 6. 12. Heart-enlargement in the ways of God is a notable help to soul-thrivings Take this one thing more be poor in spirit if you would be rich in grace Such are under the promise of being satisfied of being guided in judgment of encreasing their joy to such he will give grace and revivings Humble souls a Reyner Excellency of Grace saith one are empty vessels which God will fill are low plants which God will make to grow To be nothing in our own eyes is the way to receive all good things even grace in abundance from God Psal 22. 26. and 25. 9. Isa 29. 19. Prov. 3. 34. Isa 57. 15. Fourthly To keep your evidences for Heaven fair and legible is another part of your salvation-Salvation-work this will abundantly comfort you under all your tribulations quicken you to a lively dispatch of your duties give you a humble boldness in your approaches to God arm you against the fears of death and administer to you an abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Beware of quenching and grieving the Spirit of grace by which its sealing-sealing-work is hindered Take heed of laying blots upon your evidences by any allowed iniquity in your hearts or unpurged defilement in your hands which will weaken
God and secur'd your All in his hands Rule 3. Thirdly Keep your earthly business within the bounds of due time He that hath allotted you your work hath allotted you your time for it it consists not with man's state relation and interest to be arbitrary in any thing but to walk by rule There is a time for every thing under the Sun Eccles 3. 1. A time for every purpose and for every work verse 17. Job 7. 1. As there is an appointed time to man on earth so there is an appointed time to man for earthly things He that hath set bounds to the world hath not left worldly employments without bounds but hath fixed mens earthly affairs within their proper season Psal 104. 23. Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening The Psalmist acknowledges here the power and providence of God in setting bounds to his creatures bounds to the Sun and Moon Verse 19. He appointed the Moon for seasons and the Sun knoweth his going down Bounds to the day and night Verse 20. Thou makest darkness and it is night he limits the labours of wild beasts and men the beasts have their preyingtime confined to the night Verse 20. 22. And it is night wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth the Sun riseth they gather themselves together and lay them down in their dens Men have their working-time allotted in the day Man goeth forth to his work and labour until the evening that is to the end of their working-day which consisted among the Jews of twelve hours John 11. 9. Are there not twelve hours in the day the usual time for men to dispatch their earthly work in The Lord would not p Providentia ergo Dei noluit sic prolixam operandi continuationem ut hominum vires nimium atteret sed modum constituit saith Musculus have mens labours drawn out so far as to wear out their strength but hath set bounds to it As the Lord would not have the world to take up mens hearts so he would not have it to eat out their time or encroach on these seasons that are due to greater concerns God Nature Grace thy own soul and the spiritual good of others have their claims as well as thy earthly calings to this little inch of this time O consume not thy precious day on things that are temporal and neglect thy opportunities for things eternal do not enslave thy body beyond thy beasts which have their times of rest nor exhaust that strength which better things call for upon an empty perishing world Excessive labours beyond their due time do argue either too much desire of these things or too little faith in God and are reprov'd by the Lord as the vanity and practice of them who are not his beloved ones Psal 127. 2. 'T is lamentable to see such as would be thought the heirs of Heaven so excessively taken up in enlarging their possessions on earth engrossing all their time early and late about their earthly affairs leaving nothing but a few unserviceable minutes for God and their souls O Christians Keep the stream of your earthly affections and labours within the banks of allowed time rob not God of his time of special service nor nature of her time of needful rest and refreshment nor thy own or others souls of time for their spiritual concerns for such poor perishing things Shew charity to thy redeemed body make it not a drudge to thy earthly lusts Man is too noble a creature to be a vassal to this world 'T is a sad spectacle to see the Nazarites of Heaven like Sampson with their heads shaven and their eyes pluckt out to grind in the world's mill till they pluck down the house about their ears Judg. 16. 21. How do men macerate their bodies and starve their souls onely to help them with supplies in their passage to the grave and all the while neglect the work of God and their souls leaving the reliques of their wasted strength and the world's refuse for the service of an immortal God This is not to follow earthly things by heavenly Rule Rule 4. Fourthly Be diligent in the use of your working time take heed you waste it not upon impertinencies or by needless diversions or by idleness and unfaithfulness in your work this is a sin against both Law and Gospel which requires diligence and faithfulness in mens earthly callings Labour and calling-calling-work was man's duty before his fall Gen. 2. 15 The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it And after the fall painful labour was injoyn'd and inflicted as a punishment of his sin Gen. 3. 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return to the ground This duty of bodily labour in mens Callings is of equal sanction and regard with the duties of Gods Worship being inserted in a positive Law and as that which is necessary to the sanctifying of God in Sabbaths Exod. 29. 9 10 Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but on the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work The injunction of working in six days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Mayer is given in the same commanding terms in the Original that the injunction of not working in the seventh is and the same reason is given for both the one is taken from Gods resting on the seventh day and the other from his working the six days So that not to labour faithfully in thy Calling the six days is a breach of the fourth command as well as the working on the Sabbath-day Not as if the six days labour were to exclude all religious Worship of God on either of these days when the Lord calls to it by extraordinary Providences as to mourning or rejoycing or by ordinary tenders of Gospel-mercy in Week-day Lectures or the like for this would cross his other commands Preaching in season and out of season and labouring for the bread that endures to eternal life This diligent labour doth not exclude private worship every day and publick worship on week-days so far as it consists with faithfulness in mens Callings for which time must be redeemed Eph. 5. 16. but it requires diligent attendance on mens Callings on the week-days as opposed to sloath and sinful waste of time without which God is not duely served on the Sabbath This diligence in mens Callings is also required in the Gospel 1 Thess 3. 10. Idleness is a Gospel-scandal and renders Christians worthy to be abstained from as not obeying the Word of God and such must not eat 1 Thess 4. 11. such are unprofitable servants who improve not their talents for God and the good of others Matth. 25. 30. and are worse than Infidels who do not by diligence in their Calling provide for their own 1 Tim. 5. 8. Rule 5. Fifthly while your hands
terrae non capit Lips Wilt thou contain that man whom the whole World cannot contain Alas what will the whole World be to thee when thou comest to die let it seem no more to thee now who art dying every day do every thing as strangers and pilgrims here Heb. 11. 9. 13. and as if you heard a voice every day saying Awake and come to judgment Jerome thought whatever he did he still heard that voice Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Arise ye dead and come to judgment When you are travelling to this Market and the other Fair think Sure I am journeying to the grave and I know not what dust I shall shortly be shovell'd into when you are about your work think I am hastening to eternity and shortly these hands must rot in the grave When you promise your selves great things as the fruit of your labours and hope for this gain and the other comfort say Death may come between me and my enjoyments and crop off the hopes of all my labours What can be great to him that accounts the World nothing or long to him that counts his life but a span Mr. Dod When thou findest thy heart running out too greedily after this World ready to lye cheat oppress undermine others to greaten thy interest think on this For all these things God will bring thee to judgment and render to thee according to all thy works Secondly Then do you your earthly work in an heavenly manner when you do it with an heavenly heart As is the heart so is the action in God's account the Lord was much pleased that it was in David's heart to build him an House though he never did it 1 Kin. 8. 18. and displeased with all that Israel did in his service because their heart was not right with him Psal 78. 37. Israel did many good works they sought him they returned and enquired early after God they remembred that God was their Rock and the high God their Redeemer ver 34 35. but all this was nothing in God's esteem because their heart was not upright in it they had an earthly carnal selfish backsliding heart in all they did If thy heart be heavenly though thy work be earthly yet it puts an excellency on it but if thy work be heavenly and thy heart earthly God doth reject and despise it the heart is the root of every action and if the root be good the fruit will be good also Mat. 12. 33. Rom. 11. 16. If the fountain be sweet the streams will be sweet also and if thy heart be heavenly thy work is heavenly A heavenly heart like the Bee turns all it doth to heavenly uses when the Lord Jesus had put his hand upon the Spouses heart and left some myrrh upon her bowels presently her hands dropped myrrh and her fingers sweet smelling myrrh Cant. 5. 4 5. A heavenly heart perfumes thy earthly work and makes it wonderfully taking with the heart of Christ Quest How might I know when my heart is heavenly in my earthly work Sol. First A heavenly heart is a heart enlightned to see heavenly things a heart beam'd over with heavenly light to discern things invisible An earthly heart is a dark heart it sees nothing in God his Word and Works so as to draw up his heart to Heaven an earthly heart sees nothing but earth in heavenly things and an heavenly heart sees Heaven in earthly things The Patriarchs saw the heavenly City in their earthly Countrey Heb. 11. 13 14 16. They saw the promises that is the things promised afar off and confessed that they were strangers on earth they sought a Countrey desired a better Countrey that is an heavenly and all that as the product of their heavenly sight they saw heavenly things in earthly Abraham had an heavenly eye to see Christ's day Joh. 8. 5 6. and Moses a heavenly eye to see him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. A heavenly heart doth not only see heavenly things but sees an infinite worth and excellency in them it sees them to be the best things it sees a greater glory and desirableness in things above in one glance of his eye in one day within his Courts in one hours communion with him than in all the World besides Mary saw more advantage in sitting at Christ's feet than in the many things Martha's heart was taken up about Luke 10. 41 42. Cursed be that man saith the noble Marquess Galeacius that accounts not one hours communion with Christ above all the World Secondly A heavenly heart is a heart that savours heavenly things Rom. 8. 5. Nothing goes down so sweet with a heavenly heart as heavenly things every thing rejoyces in its like An earthly heart delights in earthly things the Merchant in his Trade the Husband-man in his Field Houses Husbandry and fruits of the earth the voluptuous man in his pleasures as he that sold his City for a draught of water crying out when he had done O that for so short a pleasure of a King I should be made a Slave The proud man in his greatness Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom Dan. 4. 30. So doth the heavenly heart relish greatest sweetness in heavenly things How sweet are thy words to my taste yea sweeter than honey to my mouth Psal 119. 103. His fruit was sweet to my taste his mouth is most sweet Cant. 2. 3. and 5. 16. My meditation of him shall be sweet Psal 104. 34. We took sweet counsel together Psal 55. 14. We talked of the mysteries of godliness saith Ainsworth of the exercises of Religion saith another which I suppose the Prophet meaneth by going into the House of God as companions consulting as it were how they might prepare themselves to his service Thirdly A heavenly heart is a heart that longs and desires after heavenly things Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none that I can desire on Earth in comparison of thee Psal 73. 25. When shall I come and appear before God My soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and glory as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Psal 43. 2. Psal 63. 1 2. My soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God Psal 84. 2. Desires are the natural motions of the heart and the best character and truest lineaments saith one y Reynold's Treatise of Passion that can be drawn of the minds of men Practices may be overrul'd by ends but desires are alwaies genuine and natural Hence good men have had most confidence in approving themselves to God by their affections and the inward longings of their souls after him as being the purest and most unfeigned issues of love and such as have least proximity and danger from forein and secular ends It is an unquestionable
are nine things especially which Christians should be careful to manage to some soul-advantage to be getting good from them to the furtherance of their instruction meditation mortification to sin the world and self to the strengthening of their graces raising their affections quickning to duty preparation for death and every trial in the way to it and for furthering their meetness for glory First Priviledges are one thing which Believers should be getting good from to these great and noble ends of spiritual good Every heavenly Trader hath some priviledges which may afford soul-profit There are Natural Priviledges There are Providential Priviledges There are Spiritual Priviledges All which may contribute some profit to the improvers of them Parts Youth Health Strength are part of Nature's treasure and to be husbanded to the use and service of the soul These are some of those talents the great Housholder gives to his Family though in different measures for improvement and singular mercies they are if well used to the Donor's ends and directions A humble use of Parts to the good of others and setting of wit memory reason with the choicest intellectuals and richest endowments of the rational mind on the service of the soul 3 Epist Joh. 2. making them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the sanctuary of the Lord A shaving and paring off of the excrements and froth of wit that they may become Israelites and devoted to the God of Israel and spiritual uses Deut. 21. 12. keeping them under the government of the spirit is a good improvement of them in this heavenly Trade You that have Parts and habilliments of Mind do not prostitute them to the pleasure of the flesh and the service of sin but resign them to the use of the spirit towards your enrichings with true wisdom and encreases in the knowledg of God which brings salvation When sprightly Parts and sparkling Wit are inlaid with grace then are they as Apples of Gold in pictures of Silver Prov. 25. 11. O how amiable are these endowments of nature when seasoned with grade when perfum'd with Myrrh and Frankincense and besprinkled with the Powders of the Merchant Cant. 3. 6. Youthful time is another priviledg for soul-advantage 't is the morning of the soul's day the best and most useful part of time when appropriated to God and divine uses what advantage have such for warmth of affection and dispatches of duty whereas decrepit age like an emerited Souldier hath worn out its serviceable capacities and as the setting-Sun is attended with evening cold and shadows and the close of working useful time O how unserviceable is old age for transacting the work of the new-birth when Conscience is sunk down into the deeps of guilt when the affections are clogg'd with the dirty things of this world and preengaged to other Lovers and when the marrow of natures strength has been eaten out by the wasting service of sin So great and amazing a work is the salvation of a sinner that it deserves a subject of the choicest capacities to be compleated in and transacted by And then is youth profitably spent when devoted to God and taken up in the great matters of salvation You that are yet in your youth and morning-time let God have the spring of your time the first-born of your strength and first ripe fruits of your capacities let not youthful pleasures have the flower of your time and abilities leaving the bran for God and your souls You that have strength of body and a healthful temper put it to the best use for your heavenly interest Are you strong to labour work out your salvation labour for the bread that endureth you that have legs use them while you have them to carry you up and down after God If you must eat bread in the sweat of your brows let it be the bread of your Father's house If you must rise up early sit up late break your rest exhaust your strength let it not be all for the world let Christ have some of your strength before all be gone yea if you have any let Christ have all As there are natural priviledges so are there providential priviledges also which are the capacities that providence dispenseth to some of doing and receiving good beyond others as liberty peace plenty with other outward mercies all which are to be husbanded to the best advantage of your souls Have you Peace with men improve it towards the obtaining and securing your Peace with God Your firmest leagues with men will hold but a little while if your covenant with God be broken what can favour with men profit you if you have frowns from God If men sheath up their swords and God's be drawn thy case is dangerous and full of trouble Make this use also of thy present Peace to prepare for future trouble and to be the better arm'd when trials come spend not all thy store upon thy present Peace and Comfort but save some fragments for times of need God gives thee a breathing-time that thou mayest hold out the better in thy race and spares thee a little rest that thou mayest be the fitter for approaching trouble Have you Liberty take heed of yokes of bondage Gal. 5. 1. and soul-straitnings If God set you at large do not imprison your selves to the world and carnal lusts Is thy body out of prison labour to get out thy soul also Psal 142. 7. Are thy feet enlarged get thy heart enlarged also and run the waies of his commandments Psal 119. 132. Make the most of your Lilberty in doing service to God in attending on his appointments and in taking all opportunities of doing salvation-salvation-work and enjoying salvationhelps Be like your Lord going up and down doing good while you have opportunity Joh. 12. v. 35. If you have spare time or can redeem it by double diligence from your earthly business lay it out for God and his people in religious duties Christian visits holy conferences The time may come you may wish for such a priviledge and long to see one of these daies of the Son of man Have you yet a liberal portion of the good things of this life is your garner full your table spread your cup overflowing lay in the sense of these mercies now as winter-provision to warm your hearts then when you may not have them to warm and refresh your bodies and lay them out to refresh those that want them that they may bless God for you glorifie God in you and procure mercy for you in the day of need Make not thy self a slave to thy abundance but make thy plenteous comforts serviceable unto thee There are Spiritual Priviledges too the lot of some and calls for great improvements There are Personal Priviledges the State and Spirit of Adoption justification of persons purchased right to pardon and peace with God freedom from condemnation assurance of preservation in grace unto glory with many gifts of grace and spiritual favours which
Heavenly Trade That 's the second branch of Exhortation to Professours 3. Counsel to Earthly Traders The third branch of Exhortation is to Earthly Traders who meet with breaches and discouragements in the pursuits of their Earthly Trades This is manifestly the case of England this day The Lord blows on mens interests makes breaches on their Trades sends in wants as an armed man Trade fails a blast is on mens labours and the Nation becomes poorer every day This should be for a lamentation but few lay it to heart men murmure and complain some are dejected and sink in their spirits others seeing God plucking their Idols away hold them the faster become more close and covetous others sink the deeper into the world turn more earthly and excessive in their carkings and labours others more griping and oppressive but few in appearance look to God and make a right use of this sore stroak Now towards a better improvement of this providence give me leave to propose to all such these few Counsels Counsel 1. First By your disappointments and losses in your Earthly Employments be convinced of the transcendent excellency of this Heavenly Trade which you have it may be in pursuit of those too much slighted There are no such issues of Wisdom's Merchandise if duly followed Religion breeds no such worms to devour its treasures Riches and honour are with me yea durable Riches and Righteousness My fruit is better than gold yea than fine gold Prov. 8. 18 19. There are no such hazards in the waies of God as here in my earthly business I am exposed to I labour hard and can hardly live out I sow much and bring in little I eat but have not enough and drink but am not filled I cloathe me but am not warmed I earn wages but put it into a bag with holes I look for much and it comes to little and when I have brought it home the Lord blows upon it Hag. 1. 6 9. But 't is not so in that Heavenly Trade I have neglected there are no such disappointments they that sow to the Spirit in due time do surely reap they that labour for that bread shall have it given to them O how do Wisdom's Merchants prosper when I decay their faces shine their basket is blest whatever they have in the world 't is enough for them they eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart and are freed from those anxious cares and fears I am almost consum'd with That 's the best Trade I now see it when all fails that holds when others famish that feeds when others undo men that enriches them O blessed Calling thou excellest them all This is one good use of your earthly wastes to see the excellency of Heavenly Treasures Counsel 2. Secondly See God in these afflictions that lie upon your Earthly Trades and Interests Affliction cometh not forth of the dust Job 5. 6. nor promotion from the East or from the West but God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another Psal 75. 6 7 'T was not the wind the fire the Chaldeans or Sabeans that undid Job but it was God that took away it was by his permission all those losses came Job 1. 21. This help'd Job to a due deportment under his troubles that he saw God in it He doth not fall out with man or complain of the Devil he is not angry with chance or fortune with stars or constellations but looks to God in all Is there any evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3. 6. I form the light and create darkness I make peace and create evil Isa 41. 7. Israel decayed in their estates and God saies 't was he that blowed upon them Men usually lay it on the times cry out of one and other but few look to God and that 's one reason men make no better use of this Rod because they do not see it in the hand of a holy God You will never lay your hand on your mouths till you cast your eyes on God in these troubles nor take a right way for cure before you see the hand that smites you Psal 39. 9. Counsel 3. Thirdly Search out the cause of them You will not find the remedy till you see the reason Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Job 10. 2. Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sin let us search and try our waies and turn again unto the Lord Lam. 3. 39 40. The Lord may well say to the Complainer Friend I do thee no wrong Mat. 20. 13. And as David did to Eliab What have I now done is there not cause 1 Sam. 17. 29. Hath God consumed your estate broken your Trade brought you to a morsel of bread and is there not cause There are several sins which do usually prove wasting to mens earthly interests First A letting down of Religion and decaying in this heavenly Trade is usually followed with wastes on mens outward comforts and interests as hath been already shewn Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. When that flourisheth all things go well when Religion goes down nothing prospers 2 Chron. 24. 20. Why transgress ye the Commandments of the Lord that ye cannot prosper because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you For this letting down of Obedience did God threaten to make Israel waste and a reproach to send evil arrows of Famine and to break the staff of Bread Ezek. 5. 14 16 17. Because ye multiplied more than the Nations round about you and have not walked in my statutes neither have kept my judgments neither have done according to the judgments of the Nations round about you you have increased in abomination more than the Heathens and Nations round about you and have not kept those Laws and done that Righteousness which they have done Greenhill Therefore behold I even I am against thee Moreover I will make thee waste c. Falling back in holiness will make men fall back in the world too bring a curse on their abundance Now this decay of Religion is the sin of this day as hath been fully demonstrated Secondly Declension in the worship of God hath been followed with declensions in mens interests Mal. 1. 9. Israel brought to God a corrupt thing the blind and lame and sick the worst of the flock and departed from God's Ordinances and the Lord brought on them a curse d Lege talionis ut Domos ipsorum vascet qui Domum Dei non curant I will even send a curse upon your blessings yea I have curs'd them already because ye do not lay it to heart To give glory to God saith Cocceius e Quia non revocatis ad animum dare divino nomini gloriam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. that honour and worship that is due to him They had corrupted God's
number in the Greek In skilfulnesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noting the great measure of wisdom which men need who would prosper in their proper work and order their administrations prudently as might most further their spiritual welfare The want of which wisdom and prudence in Christians to order every thing they do in their general and particular Callings converses conditions and occurrences in the World to the best advantage of their souls is one reason they thrive so little in their heavenly Trade Wisdom would teach men to prevent many snares and occasions of evil and instruct them how to get good from every thing they do which would much advance their soul-profiting for want of which they go back in spirituals and decay apace Thirdly This also casts back Traders when they are not diligent in the management of their Trade A slothful soul suffers hunger Prov. 19. 15. and by much sloth the building decays and through idleness of hand the house droppeth thorough Eccles 8. 10. They that will thrive in the World must be diligent take all opportunities to carry on their work The diligent hand maketh rich but by slothfulness men are brought to a morsel of bread So 't is in Religion when men let down their work and do not follow it to purpose they soon decay and become spiritually poor this is the bane of many this day Religion is not their business men do but little on the Lord's day and scarce a stroke of work is done all the week after hear they will and when that is done their work is done too never think of what they hear or put it to practice from one Lord's day to another All the week their heads hearts hands feet time strength discourses contrivances are wholly taken up about the World and how can they choose but go down the hill and waste away in their soul-interests Religion is one continued work which allows of no intermission but hath its work every day and in every thing break but one link of this golden chain of godliness and it weakens the whole O the slothfulness of Christians at this day in their soul-businesses every day is fill'd up with neglects neglect of prayer neglect of reading meditation conference heart-watching grace-cherishing-work forget this duty pass by another cold sleighty formal in all this spoils the prosperity of souls The Galatians began well but did not hold out they were soon weary Gal. 5. 7. Most mens journey to Heaven is full of stops and that which makes it most miserable their lets are of themselves Who hath hindred you Mens stays are within in their own hearts they have no heart to do good Hos 7. 11. Love to Religion is almost gone and this makes men weary in these pleasant ways while affections hold souls are never weary but when the heart is gone then every thing is a burden such will do no more than needs they must to quiet conscience and preserve peace and credit and this starves godliness Fourthly Great and frequent losses in mens Trades tend to breaking and so it is in Religion Christians through their sloth formality and unwatchfulness sustain many and great losses of spiritual mercies and this brings them low A Christian the other day it may be had his graces flourishing his heart warm his affections quick and lively his conscience pure and tender his will flexible and fix'd on God and things spiritual 2 Ep. Joh. 8. and a good frame throughout his whole soul but now through his carelesness all is lost again Gal. 3. 4. One time he loses the favour and comfortable presence of God Psal 51. 12. another time he loses a sweet serenity of spirit and peace with God then light and convictions are gone another time enjoyments and experiences are gone now his desires after God are lost then his strength is devoured now temptations prey upon the soul and then corruptions make a waste upon it come to Ordinances Sermons Sacraments and after a great deal of prayer care and striving a little grace and comfort is obtain'd but through want of watchfulness all lost again it may be before it stirs out of the place or recovers home to his habitation the next company discourse occasion takes away all Another time God brings the soul into the fire of some great affliction sickness suffering losses and there melts it into some holy frames humility faith love obedience takes off some dross puts on some beauty imparts some soul-advantage but immediately upon a change of the person's condition when new mercy health and comfort returns all the good is lost again Now through these many and great losses in spirituals which gracious souls sustain they are brought very low and come to be soon poor and beggerly Fifthly Great wastes and large expences help to make Traders poor apace when they turn spendthrifts and prodigals living above their estates when their layings out are more than their comings in this must needs bring them low It undid the Steward He wasted his Masters goods Luke 16. 1. So 't is with Wisdom's Merchants also when they turn prodigals of their graces mercies parts strength time and other goods committed to them spending them on their lusts and carnal contentments then they soon find an alteration O at what a rate do men live in point of time and at what vast expences of their short day upon things of no value talking eating drinking sleeping trifling sinning away their precious time as if they had no employment for it or no better work to do Little do souls think what a small pittance of day-light they have allow'd for their vast concerns and multitude of great employments and what madness 't is to be so prodigal of this little inch of precious time O the hours and days and years that professing Christians spend to no purpose in vain thoughts foolish talking impertinent converses unprofitable duties and labours which when they shall be all reckon'd up by the great Creditor and a bill of wastes put into the hands of conscience and the total summ of these expences read what amazing sense what dreadful impress and fretful sting will this beget when persons come to die As the Queen said If her heart were ript open Cales would be found written in it So if their hearts could then be as legible as their expressions men might read this there in black and capital letters Lost time Lost time How great also are mens wastes of graces and peace wisdom and capacities and all for the obtaining of some poor empty insignificant comforts which perish with the using There are no locusts Christians like your cursed lusts which have devoured your precious things your affections time strength and graces what convictions resolutions hopeful frames conscience-tenderness talents capacities priviledges ordinances providences have the service of thy base lusts and contentment of thy carnal mind consumed and this hath brought thy soul to such straits and distressing exigencies When souls
sight having a warrant for every action you perform both civil and religious this will be your comfort now and your peace in the day of your accounts Thirdly Drive on his interest not your own Rom. 14. 7. For none of us liveth to himself God can more justly say what Laban did to Jacob concerning his children and goods These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and these cattel are my cattel and all that thou seest is mine Gen. 31. 43. The cattel on a thousand hills are his Psal 50. 10. with the corn wine wooll and flax Hos 2. 9. Both the improvement as well as principal are his Mat. 25. 27. He hath right to the exercise and fruit of your graces and duties with all that you enjoy and do Put Christ's mark on all your goods whatever you gain by his talents put on his account and let your disbursments be expended to his use Seek not your own things your credit peace comfort interest but in subordination to him If the Lord by his Word calls for any of your enjoyments you must let them go If by his Providence he takes off any comfort murmure not say 't is the Lord Let him do what he will with his own Mat. 20. verse 15. Advice 5. Fifthly Follow your Trade better than you have done remember how former carelesness formality sloth hypocrisie have undone you and amend The slothful soul is as the door on his hinges Prov. 26. 14. that never makes any progress in Religion or comes to any excellency in grace No Christian saith Mr. Sedgwick is so able in the habits of grace as he who is conscienciously frequent in the practice or exercise of grace Christ's Counsel to his languishing Church Would you recover your state and come to any eminency in godliness then make Religion your business That sleightiness of spirit in the way of God which lost you at first will never restore you The recovery of a faint soul saith the same Author will never be effected by faint workings You did fall into your decayed state by remissive actings and think you that which was not able to keep up your graces from sinking can now quicken and raise them being sunk Christ's Counsel to his languishing Church p. 148. If negligence did cast you back diligence must help to recover you Take more pains with your hearts follow your work of godliness every day and in every place Be early and late in your shops of duty and in the warehouse of your hearts Beware of spiritual sloth and soul-losses take heed of unfaithfulness with God conscience or others keep touch with your Creditour be tender of your vows to God and men keep from prodigality live not above your condition waste not precious time parts and grace in vain walk strictly in the whole course of your life keeping your selves from iniquity and in the Love of God Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Jude v. 21. Tit. 2. 13. 5th Branch of Exhortation to good Traders in Religion Lastly You whoever you are that drive on this Heavenly Merchandise and have any good Trading in Religion be you exhorted Advice 1. First To bless God for good trading Is it well with your souls Doth the South-wind blow upon your Garden and the Spices flow out Cant. 4. 16. Doth the Fig-tree put forth her green Figs and the Vine with the tender Grape give a good smell Cant. 2. 13. What reason have you then to be always giving thanks you whose trading turns to any spiritual advantage thou canst say 'T is good to draw nigh to God in keeping his commands is great reward The Lord is not a barren wilderness to thy soul but peace is within thy Walls and prosperity within thy Palaces Psal 122. 7. Thy glory is fresh in thee and thy bow renewed in thy hand thy root spreadeth out by the waters and the dew lying all night between thy branches Job 29. 19 His ways are pleasantness and his steps drop fatness to thy soul and he commands his blessing upon thee and thy faith and love do grow Is it thus in any measure with thee O then bless the Lord with thy soul let all that is within thee bless his holy Name Make the Lord thy glory and triumphing praise Thou hast abundant reason to be admiring grace and exalting divine glory Because First Soul-thriving is a great mercy at all times a little spiritual goods is beyond all the World's treasure one piece of Christ's tried Gold weighs down all the Pearls and Diamonds on earth and whatever can be found below grace cannot be compar'd with it Job 28. 11 12 16. or named the same day with it The light of God's countenance pardon of sin participation of the spirit fulfilling of Promises fellowship with the Father Son and Spirit heart-breathings after love to and delight in God are things of inestimable worth if you weigh them in themselves or with other things or if you consider the grace from whence they come or price which they cost Spiritual thrivings are an evidence of sincere love to God Judg. 5. 31. Let them that love thy Name be as the Sun that goeth forth in his might and of special love in God to that soul Tit. 3. 4 6. Eph. 1. 3 5 7. God may prosper in the World those he hates Esau had his fat things here but grace and peace are new-covenant-blessings which spring from eternal love in the heart of God to that soul Heb. 8. 10. Zech. 8. 11 12 15. Secondly 'T is a singular mercy at this time a mercy that few enjoy in the day we live in What a rare thing is it in this long winter to see a green Olive a tender Grape appear or Pomgranate bud Cant. 7. 6. or one Berry in the uppermost branch Isa 24. 13. It was a peculiar glory put upon the head of Thyatira that she was thriving when other Churches were decaying She had works and works and the last were more than the first Rev. 2. 19. Ephesus had lost her first love Sardis had decayed and wasted her first strength and was ready to die Laodicea was luke-warm ready to be spued out by the Lord Jesus Rev. 3. 1 8 16. only Thyatira flourished exceedingly and grew in the winter and this honour she had to have it recorded by the Spirit for a monument in after-ages 'T is not the lot of every one to thrive in evil times few Thessalonians whose faith and love did grow 2 Thes 1. 3. A single Timothy who had flourishing affections to the things of Christ I have no man like minded Phil. 2. 20. One Gaius whose soul out-prospered his body 3 Ep. Joh. v. 2. A flourishing Christian this day is like a flower in winter an Apple-tree amongst the trees of the wood Surely if there be a Soul who this day flourishes to any heighth of Christianity who lives in intimacy with
God fares deliciously in his soul feeding on marrow and hidden manna that he or she is greatly beloved of God Thy lot O soul is fal'n in a peculiar plot of mercies ground and should not the Lord Jesus be admir'd of such a one seeing he is come to him in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel O bless God for this unspeakable gift Thirdly 'T is an earnest of eternal mercy They that sow to the spirit shall reap life everlasting Gal. 6. 8. And such as abound in holiness shall have an abundant entrance administred to them into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 2 Tet. 1. 11. God will never throw away savoury salt to the dunghil nor burn up fruitful branches Trees full of sap are the Lord's trees which he will transplant into his Paradise above Psal 104. 16. The Lord 's ripe fruit shall be gathered not shaken on the ground and safely hous'd in Heaven Grace is too precious seed to be lost Such as sow it now though in tears shall surely come again and bring their sheaves with them Psal 126. 5. Poor troubled Soul God will not despise the day of thy small things much less thy soulenlargements after him he will be tender of thy smallest blossoms and secure them into fruit much more shall thy encreases arrive to the fulness of the measure of the stature of Christ Eph. 4. 15. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewn towards his name Heb. 6. 10. It may be thou hast forgotten many a duty and hearty testimony of thy love to Christ his name people and ways and canst see nothing in all thou hast done but art ready to say on every turn When saw I thee an hunger'd and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink when saw I thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee or sick and in prison and came to thee Matth. 25. 35. But God cannot be so unrighteous to forget it or let it pass so but keeps a record of all thy meanest duties and will make the most of them in the day of righteous judgment I know thy works and thy labours and thy patience c. Rev. 2. 2. When thou wast under the Fig-tree I saw thee Joh. 1. 48. He takes notice of a Daniel by the river Hiddekel of a Peter on the house-top of Elijah under the Juniper-tree 1 King 19. 4 5. yea of what was but in David's heart to do and requites it 8 King 8. 18. Will not an Ahasuerus let the good deeds of Mordecai go unrewarded and shall not the Judg of all the Earth do right and crown the works of his own hands Your labours shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. 58. O then be blessing God for the least good he hath wrought in you and for you for any prosperity in your souls There are no offerings come up with that acceptance on God's Altar as thanksgiving-offerings Psal 69. 30 31. What a delightful remark did the Lord Jesus put upon the Lepers return to praise him for cleansing Luke 17. 18. the more spiritual the more rejoyeing Isa 52. 8. No such thriving souls as God-praising souls Jer. 31. 12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the heighth of Sion and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord for Wheat and for Wine and for Oil and their soul shall be as a watred Garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all Quest How might I know whether I have good trading in Spirituals or no that I might have ground for rejoycing in God Could I find this soul-welfare you speak of I should bless God with my whole soul but I fear 't is otherwise that I am one of those who fall back and decay in my heavenly Trade Sol. There are seven signs of good Trading especially in evil times which men usually reckon to be discoveries of a thriving Trade First When men go not back in the World but hold their own they lose nothing 'T is much in bad times to keep ones ground to be savers in such a season is a piece of gain Try in this how 't is with you do not you go back in your spiritual estate is it not worse with you than heretofore Is not your faith love humility patience less than heretofore If you go not back in grace you go forward there 's no standing at a stay in Religion men go forward or backward in the way of Vertue they that do not decay do thrive in Spirituals Job proves his good estate by his standing fast in shaking times Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lip I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food My foot hath held his steps his way have I kept and not declined Job 23. 10 11 12. and thence concludes a gainful issue When he hath tried me I shall come forth as Gold And the Apostle reckons it good profit in soul-conflicts to stand ones ground if he cannot gain yet not to lose But having done all to stand is victory Eph. 6. 13. Christians have their winter-seasons when growing is not visible then to keep alive is commendable Do you hold fast your integrity and keep your garments on Do you preserve your conscience pure from the defilements and temptations of the day and place you live in and your hearts unspotted from the World your desires as warm your purposes of cleaving to God as firm and your feet as quick to run the way of God's commandments as heretofore then have you good trading considering the times you live in which is an hour of temptation and an evening of darkness Secondly If wares go off well 't is good trading when goods vend at a good rate men count it thriving Is it so with your souls do your prayers come up to God with acceptance do duties turn to any profit to you what returns have you of your religious services do hearing prayer conference bring you any soul-advantage do not goods lie by you undisposed of but your graces are exercised your talents gifts opportunities improv'd then 't is good Trading If the Lord give you light you lay it out for the good of others if he restore to you the joy of his salvation and uphold you with his free Spirit you teach transgressours his waies and endeavour to convert sinners to him Psal 51. 12 13. When God drops in comfort to you you pour it forth to others that they may be comforted also with the same comforts wherewith you are comforted of God 2 Cor. 1. 4. When you are come to duties publick or private do graces go out in them you shew parts it may be but do you lay out grace as well as gifts spiritual as well as natural affections Do you pray with the Spirit and hear with Faith do hope fear humility holy fervency heavenly breathings sincerity go off in your religions duties
before your enemies will down and more strokes at your work before your interests will come in Running striving wrestling in labours more abundant in weariness and painfulness in watchings What pains will men take for the World She riseth also while it is night Her candle goeth not out by night That neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes Ye compass Sea and Land and should they not much more for Heaven The most diligent soul is the most thriving soul Always abounding in the work of the Lord instant in season and out of season taking every opportunity for Heaven And what their hand finds to do to do it with all their might this is the way to soul-thriving 1 Cor. 9. 24 25. Heb. 12. 4. Eph. 6. 12. 1 Cor. 11. 23 27. Prov. 31. 15. 18. Eccles 8. 16. Matth. 23. 15. Eccles 9. 10. Thirdly Driving a secret Trade of holiness is soul-thriving Men that have some peculiar art and unknown mystery in their Trade which is not ordinary and common usually get greatest custom and advantage So is it in this heavenly Trade the more men are taken up in the mysteries of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. the more they thrive in Religion There 's a secret in holiness which no stranger intermeddles with Prov. 14. 10. There 's a way within the veil the hidden part in which souls are made to know wisdom Psal 51. 6. Hidden riches of secret places which thriving Christians meet with Isa 45. 3. If you would prosper in Godliness be sure to maintain the secret duties of piety The religion of most men lies in the Market place and in the view of others their hearts their closets are not privy to any secret transactions between God and their souls and in the praise of men they have their reward but the thriving trade of Christianity is the secret trade Christians be most in those duties which men least observe and chiefly excellent in the invisible part of your visible work Publick duties are most honourable but secret duties the most gainful Matth. 6. 4. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Fourthly The blessing of God maketh rich Prov. 10. 22. Promotion cometh not from the East nor from the West nor prosperity from mens fingers ends but from God's hand Deut. 28. 8 10 11 12. The Lord shall command his blessing upon thee in thy store-houses and in all which thou settest thy hand unto The Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods The Lord shall open to thee his good treasures the Heavens to give thee rain to thy Land in his season and to bless all the work of thy hand and then comes riches And thou shalt lend udto many Nations and thou shalt not borrow Prosperity both spiritual and temporal comes at God's sending Psal 118. 25. O Lord I beseech thee send now prosperity Psal 18. 32 33. He restoreth my Soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness Psal 23. 3 5. Thou anointest my head with Oil Thou blessest the springing thereof thy paths drop fatness Psal 65. 10 11. The Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought and make fat thy bones and thou shalt be like a watred Garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not Isa 58. 11. I will be as the dew to Israel he shall grow as the Lilly and cast forth his root as Lebanon Hos 14. 5. Secure an interest in the promises and get your souls brought under the showers of blessing if ever you think to thrive in godliness Improve thriving graces and take prosperous courses these are under a promise of blessing though every grace and duty do in their measure help on soul-prosperity yet there are some graces and duties have a more special influence on spiritual thrivings First Faith is a soul-prospering grace 2 Chr. 20. 20. Believe in the Lord your God so shall ye be established believe his Prophets so shall ye prosper Eph. 6. 16. Above all take the shield of Faith wherewith ye shall quench all the fiery darts of Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insuper Bez. Every grace is useful in the spiritual warfare but Faith especially other graces may with Saul slay their thousands but Faith with David slays its ten thousands Some darts may be quenched by other graces but Faith quenches fiery darts yea all the fiery darts of Satan which does wonderfully further thriving The just shall live by Faith Heb. 10. 38. Faith will maintain the soul's life in the greatest straits and exigences Faith is a receiving grace it takes in whatever is laid up in the promise and that 's thriving Gal. 3. 22. That the promise by Faith might be given to them that believe A soul-enriching grace rich in Faith Jam. 2. 5. A working grace And the work of Faith with power 2 Thes 2. 4. A powerful grace it gives the soul experience of the mighty power of God Eph. 1. 19. 20. What is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead 1 Thes 2. 13. 'T is a strengthning grace Out of weakness were made strong Heb. 11. 34. through it doth the Lord let out his abundant grace And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 1. 14. It doth exceedingly nourish the soul in grace and edify it to salvation 1 Tim. 4. 6. Nourished up in the words of Faith 1. Tim. 1 4. Which minister questions rather than edifying which is in Faith One reason why souls prosper no more in piety is their unbelief they are full of doubtings fears and questionings upon every turn still wavering as a wave of the Sea such cannot receive much at the hand of God but are still weak and going back in Religion Be much in believing the promises against hope and above fears if ever you think to prosper in Religion Secondly Love to God his Name ways and interest is a Soul-prospering Grace Let them that love him be as the Sun that goeth forth in his might Judg. 5. 31. They shall prosper that love thee Psal 122. 6. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee for thou Lord wilt bless the righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with a Shield Psal 5. 11 12. Love to God must needs be a prospering Grace because it brings the Soul under the blessing of God and within the compass of his securing Shield Love is a Soul-strengthning and establishing Grace Eph. 3. 17 Being rooted and grounded in Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set in a firm ground not easily shaken from God or their integrity Love makes a growing Soul Eph. 4. 15 Speaking the truth in love may grow up in him who is the head in all things It helps on edification in Grace ver 16. maketh encrease of the body unto the edifying of it self
for Heaven the greater regard you have from God the more of his presence is with you his delight in you and blessing upon you the Spouses growth and fruitfulness was much taking upon the heart of Christ How fair and how pleasant art thou O Love for delights Cant. 7. 6 7. This thy stature is like to a Palm-tree and thy breasts to clusters of grapes The Palm-tree is an emblem of growth and fruitfulness the more it is opprest the more it grows and no tree more fruitful 't is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alway having leaves Naturalists say 't is never without leaves and fruit when some fruit is ripe as Pliny tells us other fruit is growing It hath leaves in the highest branches wherever the sweet sap comes saith Alsted 'T is a tree that 's exceeding profitable some reckon three hundred and sixty advantages that this Palm-tree yields o In fructuum jam maturorum locum alii fructus eodem in loco eadem parte statim succedunt Plin. and hence the Egyptians make it a symbole of the solar year which consists of three hundred sixty five daies and its fruit is wonderfully restorative and nourishing repairing the decayed strength and radical moisture of man's body Alsted Theol. Nat. and therefore a fit metaphor to express the Church's fruitfulness in which the Lord Jesus takes such great delight he gets up early to the Vineyard to see if the Vine flourish whether the tender grape appear and the Pomegranate bud forth Cant. 7. 12. So delightful is the view of a flourishing people unto Christ The more you thrive in grace the more will you have of Christ's company and that 's honourable Eighthly The greater Trade you drive for Heaven the more useful you are while on Earth the larger capacities you have to do good to others and to serve your generation which is a blessed thing 'T is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. 1 Tim. 6. 17 18. Charge them that are rich in this world that they do good that they be rich in good works that they be ready to distribute willing to communicate The richer you are in grace the more able you are to do good and not only able but the more willing also The reason Christians have no more heart to do good and to communicate is their soul-poverty they are not rich in grace they have but little spiritual Treasure little grace to communicate their hands are shut because their hearts are empty but the more divine treasure you have the more ready will you be to do good and to lay out both your outward and inward riches O how useful may rich men be in the places where they live if God give them hearts to do it and how helpful may such be in this day of soul-wants who are encreased with spiritual goods there are many impoverished souls this day who are ready to perish for want of light peace and comfort perplexed with doubts darkness and distressing fears and have none to help them O how refreshing in such a day of soul-exigences would it be to have some rich neighbours among them some prosperous Jobs Who with-hold not the poor from their desire nor cause the eyes of the Widow to fail Job 31. 16 17 19. Who would draw forth their soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul Isa 58. 10. Who could not eat their morsel alone or see the poor to perish for want of clothing To be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame Job 29. 15. To speak a word in season to him that is weary and to comfort others with the same comforts they have received of God Christians make haste to be rich in grace that ye may be rich in good works that ye may cast in much into the Lord's treasury Mark 12. 41. and out of your abundance cast into the offerings of God Luke 21. 4. Then should the blessing of the poor that was ready to perish come upon you Job 29. 13. and the fruit of well-doing be your savoury meat on which the Lord would daily feed you Ninthly The greater Trade you drive for Heaven now the greater will your estate in Heaven be hereafter 2 Tim. 4. 8. Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge will give me at that day and not to me only but to all that love his appearing To me who have run my race finish'd my course and kept the faith To me who have wrought hard in the Vineyard and traded diligently for Heaven in the World For me yea for all such as enlarge their heavenly Trade is laid up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Parents do Portions for their children saith Zanchy a Crown of righteousness glory sutable to their improvements of grace called a Crown to note its excellency and of righteousness to note its equity It shall bear a proportion to all that grace labours and faithfulness that is in Saints and infinitely beyond it A far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. God will not leave out the least item of the Saints right in the great day of righteousness A cup of cold water a little meal to the Prophet Elisha a mite in the treasury a desire to build God's house all shall be remembred in that day Mercy gives the Crown but Justice fits it for the overcomer's head God crowns saith Beda p Dona sua coronat non merita tua Donavit haec tempore misericordiae coronabit illa tempore judicii Beda in loc his own gifts not thy merits He first gives grace in the time of mercy and then crowns it in the day of Judgment And is not this argument enough yea constraint on an ingenious heart to labour after the greatest latitude of holiness Is not Heaven enough to requite all thy duties and hardships on earth What 's enough saith one if Rome be counted little q Quid fatis est si Roma parum So what can be counted great if Heaven be small and not price enough for all thy holy strivings and utmost progress in the way of life O attend your proficiency in this heavenly Trade your hearts and hands can never be too deep in the concerns of this upper World in this you can never be too covetous 1 Cor. 12. 31. Covet earnestly the best gifts r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modis omnibus studio precibus consequi annitimini Take heed of putting stands and limits to your holiness the course of all unsanctified souls In this only is it lawful to remove the ancient bounds and enlarge your spiritual inheritance as far as possible Reaching forth to the things that are before and pressing forward to the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3. 13 14. Nothing undoes Professors like to stinting their measures of holiness and contenting themselves with present attainments if they can get to
such a pitch of light grace and comfort as will secure their salvation and present welfare they sit down and go no further this makes formalists and starvelings in Religion Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward Exod. 14. 15. is God's charge on his people in their passage to the heavenly Canaan Be adding to your faith vertue c 1 Pet. 1. 5. The greatest skill in this holy Arithmetick lies in Addition and Multiplication Be still enlarging your store get in more choice of heavenly wares greater quantities and more costly goods and be putting off more and more goods as you have opportunity seeing great is not only your present advantage but your reward in Heaven also Mat. 5. 12. Advice 3. Thirdly You that have good times for trading now make provision for bad times Lay in for changes be not like the Grashopper that spends her All in Summer and when the Winter comes starves Every Summer hath its Winter North-winds have their season to blow on Christ's Garden as well as the South Cant. 4. 16. Good and evil have their turns with Christians in this life 'T is only the Diveses that have their good things in this life here have the Saints no continuing City Heb. 13. 4. Created comforts whether spiritual or carnal have their shakings and removes Heb. 12. 27. And this word yet once more signifies the removing of those things that are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain The life of Believers is made up of vicissitudes with Naomi now full then empty Ruth 1. 21. like Ships in their passage to their Port now they have calms then storms none but wicked and they not always neither are exempted from their changes in this life Psal 55. 19. 'T was an error in David's apprehensions which he soon saw to his cost that his mountain was made so strong it should not be moved Psal 30. 6. I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved Lord by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong thou did'st hide thy face and I was troubled Prosperity and affliction have their different saies and thoughts think of thy most promising state here though this be a beautiful structure yet 't is but a tabernacle Sin puts wheels on every condition below and makes them moveable What that Ambassador said to the Romans who boasted of the heighth and strength of their Walls they were not so high but sin could bring them down may be said of the most flourishing condition of Saints in this World Is thy store full now a spending time may come Dionysius the second had four hundred Ships an Army of one hundred thousand foot nine thousand horse and the richest Magazine of any Prince and yet lived to lose all Christians have their spending as well as getting times and should lay in for times of need There are four special seasons when gracious souls will have need of all their store to relieve them Times of Temptation Times of Desertion Times of Affliction And The time of Death First Times of Temptation are spending times and call for great succours to be laid in against such seasons First Because such times are certain to Believers they will come Psal 11. 5. The Lord tryeth the righteous There 's never a gracious soul but some time or other the Lord trieth it either immediately by his Spirit or mediately by afflictions or temptations from men or devils The Apostle tells us every man is tempted James 1. 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust and enticed The best of men saith one are tempted and that when they are at the best Capell of Temptation Adam in Paradise Gen. 3. 6. Solomon after God had twice appeared to him 1 King 11. 9. Job after the evidences of his uprightness before God and religious duties Job 1. 1 5. Peter after he had made a confession of Christ and entered into covenant never to be offended at him Mat. 26. 33. Yea Christ himself after his Baptism and the Spirit 's resting on him as a Dove and the Father's owning of him by an audible voice from Heaven Matth. 3. 17. chap. 4. 1. He saith the former Author that thinks he is so good that he ought not to be tempted and so strong that he need not fear to be tempted hath need of a temptation that by experience in himself he might prove what he ought to have found in the Word that of our selves we have no strength Capell Four things make temptations unavoidable to gracious souls 1 God's good Pleasure 2 Satan's Rage 3 The Saints Corruptions 4 And their Profit First 'T is God's good Pleasure to have them tryed The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3. 13. whether it will bear the fire or no hereby the excellency of his work the greatness of his power appears in the enduring graces of the Saints and their standing after all By this the Lord will confute the slanders of men and devils who are still charging his people with hypocrisie and falling away when tryal comes Doth Job fear God for naught Job 1. 9. Put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and flesh and he will curse thee to thy face Job 2. 5. This is the usual calumny of the Saints enemies to confute which and prove them lyars doth the Lord suffer his people to be tempted 'T is his will and purpose that all his people should be tryed and therefore 't is unavoidable Secondly Such is Satan's Rage he cannot alwaies keep his fingers from them if he lets them alone 't is but for a season Luke 4. 13. When the Devil had ended all the temptations he departed from him for a season Is Satan busie then his work is not done hast thou any rest 't is because his tempting-time is not come he is a roaring Lion and cannot rest from seeking to devour though he forbears attempting to devour for a season when it makes to his greater advantage Never expect freedom from temptation till Satan's chain be shortened or thy remove without his reach obtained Rev. 20. 2 3. Thirdly The Saints corruptions expose them to temptations Where the carkass is there the Eagles resort Mat. 24. 28. While the Saints have gall'd backs they can expect no freedom from flies If Sampson be bound the Philistines will be upon him The cause of those sins is in us whereof the occasion is from Satan Capell Till the fire of Hell be out in the Saints the Devil will not lay down his bellows where there is no sin there is no matter for temptation to work on as where there is no morbid matter there contagion cannot so easily fasten corruption keeps open the door for Satan never look for silence from Satan till you find cessation from sin Fourthly The profit and good of gracious souls do necessitate it By this means they come
O King according to thy saying I am thine and all that I have If you are not your own much less any thing you have is absolutely yours God gives his people But a conditional interest in all things beneath himself so far as it sutes his pleasure use and glory To keep back any part of your capacities and interests from God when by his Word and Providence he calls for it for his service name and people is hypocrisie lying fraud and rebellion and contrary to the Lord 's undoubted interest both by creation redemption and your own grant Hos 2. 8. 2 Cor. 7. 20. Besides you receive not your mercies as Owners but as Stewards to keep and use them for him and according to his instruction 1 Pet. 4. 10. As every one hath received the gift whether of grace or gifts of grace inward or outward gifts spiritual or temporal 't is all one if he have received it so let him administer the same as good Stewards of the manifold grace of life Your interests are God's gifts your abundance his Bounty and trust to be bestowed to his use and pleasure for which you must give an account Secondly 'T is pleasing work to lay out for God Paul counted not his life dear to lay out for Christ Acts 20. 24. Peter and John rejoyced that they were counted worthy to part with their name and to undergo reproach for Christ Acts. 5. 41. Nazianzen was glad that he had something of value to wit his Athenian learning to part with for Christ The Mother of William Hunter the Martyr rejoyced that ever she was so happy as to bear such a child as could find in his heart to lose his life for Christ's Name sake Acts and Mon. p. 13. 96. Nothing seems burdensom to do or part with for Christ to a soul that loves him How willingly did Jonathan strip himself of the Robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle because he loved him much more pleasing will it be to a soul loving Christ to part with his All for Christ 1 Sam. 18. 4. Thirdly 'T is honourable work also to lay out for God He that gives to the poor lendeth to the Lord Prov. 19. 17. And is not this honourable to make God a debtor and to get him who is over all blessed for ever to become bound to his creature O what honour is this that the Giver of All should seem to be beholding to his creatures who have their All from him Have you any thing you can part with for Christ think what honour 't is that God entrusts you with the bestowing of such gifts for him the Lord might have made you beggars not givers who hath made you to differ why is grace gifts strength estate time put into thy hand and not into others it shews a good opinion God hath of thy faithfulness and so bespeaks honour O let not God have cause to revoke this estimation Fourthly 'T is profitable work The more you lay out for God the more you get for your selves there 's no such way to gather as to scatter for God your improvements of mercy to God's end are but as sowing of seed which will come in again with greater encrease 2 Cor. 9. 6. He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Laying out for God is Trading secur'd not liable to hazards as earthly undertakings are but under a promise of sure and great returns as hath been proved and that is profit Laying out for God is lending to God upon interest Mat. 19. 29. where both principal and interest are sure Prov. 19. 17. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again The Lord takes it as done to himself and will repay with large use x Tibi a Domino etiam cum amplissimo faenore reddendum Mercer he lends to the Lord upon bond for use as the Hebrew imports 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he will surely repay it God is bound for it and therefore the debt is sure T is a great mistake in men and that which starves their expensiveness for God to think the more they give the less they have whereas laying out for God brings in principal and use it sanctifies what is left and brings it under a promise of encrease As the pouring out of the Widows Oil fill'd her vessels the more she poured out the more she had 2 Kings 4. 5 6. And as the Widow of Zarephath by giving first to the Prophet secur'd her own provision in a time of famine 1 Kings 17. 13 14. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel the barrel of meal shall not waste neither shall the cruse of Oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth Mal. 3. 10. Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house that there may be meat in my house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it 'T is mens niggardliness to God and close-handedness to the poor and pious uses is one reason doubtless of the wasts and blastings on their outward interests this day Prov. 11. 28. The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Cartwright and Baine think this is meant of spiritual gifts as the former verse is of external good things But as Mercer well observes the sentence is general and takes in any supplies that are given to such as are needy y Qâ—i rigat i. e. qui de suo erogat in egenos Such shall be made fat he shall be so far from being impoverished thereby as it shall encrease his substance He shall be watered as with showres in Autumn The latter rain which is fruitfulizing The streams of charity are not like running water that passeth away but as fruitful showres that come again with encrease Prov. 3. 9 10. Honour the Lord with thy substance so shall thy barns be filled with plenty Multitude of promises might be heaped up which give in a joynt-testimony to this truth as Mat. 25. 29. Eccles 11. 1. Prov. 28. 27. Prov. 22. 9. Isa 58. 7 8 10 11. with many others and are abundant security for the blessing to such as lay out for God Besides this is a proof of your love to God 2 Cor. 8. 24. Wherefore shew ye to them and before the Churches the proof of your love 1 Joh. 3. v. 17. Whoso hath this worlds goods and seeth his Brother hath need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 John 4. 20. For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen By true charity
eternal glory he hath prepared for you 2 Tim. 2. 10. A Crown incorruptible an Inheritance that fadeth not away a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Upon this very argument the Apostle presses the Saints to unweariedness in present work Gal. 6. 8. Think how disingenuous 't is thus to requite the Lord that hath dealt so bountifully with you to with-hold your time from him who first gave it to you and hath denied it to others and will shortly close up your troublous time with eternal rest in blessed mansions of purest pleasures with himself Let this love of Christ shame you for misimproved time and constrain you for the future to lay out all possible time for God Secondly Lay out your strength for God he is the God of your strength he hath right to it and use for it Psal 43. 2. He hath work for you which calls for all your strength His works are great greatly to be sought out of all that have pleasure therein Psal 111. 2. His mercies are great and greatly to be praised Psal 86. 13. His anger is great and greatly to be feared 2 King 23. 26. His trials and rebukes on his own children are many times great which need great faith and patience to bear up under them and the strength of grace to make a right use of them Psal 71. 10. Which hath shewn me great and sore troubles You do not know what need you may have of all the strength your hearts and graces are capable to receive to carry you through your remaining trials and troubles you have not yet resisted unto blood or been brought to fiery trials nor seen such days as never yet were or shall be And therefore you had need be girded with strength and to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and one way to it is to use what you have for God Heb. 5. 14. God's service also calls for expended strength Luke 10. 27. Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy strength 1 Chron. 26. 8. The strength of thy heart laid out inward strength for God in his service the strength of your whole souls and outward strength the strength of your bodies also in the work of God So did our Lord Jesus he wasted his strength in the service of his Father that at thirty four years old he was taken to be neer fifty he was weary in his work And Paul did spend and was spent for Christ 2 Cor. 12. 15. And David cried out My knees are weak through fasting Psal 119. 24. Glorify God in your bodies and in your spirits which are the Lord's 1 Cor. 6. 20. In labours more abundant 2 Cor. 11. 23. Striving for the faith of the Gospel Religion is no easy work Ministers saith Mr. Burroughs must venture their strength for Christ and so must all that are Christ's 2. Cor. 11. 27. In weariness in painfulness in watchings Religion is worth all your labours and exhausted strength men tire themselves for the world how much more should they for God and Glory Thirdly Lay out your gifts and graces for God and the good of souls 1 Cor. 12. 7. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal that 's God's end why he gives gifts to any that every one who hath them should improve them to his glory and the good of others A capacity of serving God and furthering his Kingdom in the World is such a priviledg as the Saints in Heaven enjoy not and the Angels when employed in any subserviency towards it readily and chearfully prosecute it Angels are vigilant creatures and wait for opportunities and when they come will not lose them Greenh Yea 't is such a prize as being once lost can never be enjoyed again nor gracious souls ever more return to their stewardship when once 't is given up and therefore should be heedfully regarded and faithfully used whiles continued God gives not talents to be napkin'd up nor lights to be hid under a bushel none of us liveth to himself Rom. 14. 7. All the characters of Saints and those relations they stand in engage to usefulness They are the lights of the world set in a candlestick that they may cause their light to shine forth before men Mat. 5. 14 15. They are the salt of the earth of purpose to savour others Mat 5. 13. If salt hath lost its savour 't is good for nothing but the dunghil They are stars in God's firmament to communicate their light and influence unto others 1 Cor. 15. 41. Vessels in God's house to be meet for use 2 Tim. 2. 20 21. Stones in his building which have a mutual usefulness to bear up each other and toward preserving the whole Eph. 2. 2. Branches in the Vine that yield their fruit for the cheering the hearts of men Judg. 9. 13. Trees in God's garden full of sap Psal 104. 16. Members in the body to impart their nourishment to each other Eph. 4. 16. and discharge their respective duties of sympathy care and helpfulness to their fellow members 1 Thes 5. 14. We exhort you brethren to warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble minded support the weak be patient towards all men Use all your capacities for God while you have them lest he take them from you or opportunity to improve them Fourthly Lay out your earthly interests for God Prov. 3. 19. Honour the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of thy encrease Give God his due in maintaining his Messengers and keeping up his worship alluding to those first fruits of Israel's encrease which were the Lord 's by special appropriation to his service Exod. 22. 29. and supply of his ministry among them Lev. 23. 20. the equity of which obliges in Gospel-times though their ceremonial and judicial respect cease and this duty is reinforc'd under the Gospel by more ample arguments taken from the light of Nature the law of Moses and will of Christ 1 Cor. 9. from ver 9. to 15. To this head is referr'd that command Gal. 6. 6. Let him that is taught in the word communicate to him that teacheth in all good things for God will not be mocked as they do who pretend Religion and yet are defective in this manifest duty pressing them to unweariedness in this expensiveness for God whatever discouragements they meet with upon the assurance of the blessed fruit of obedience to the will of Christ herein ver 7 8 9. 'T is not the maintaining or welfare of a few men in the World that is the design of this great command of Christ but the tendency this hath to the promulgation of the Gospel and keeping up the instituted worship of God the conversion of Sinners and edification of Saints successively in every generation to which these supplies are necessary that the servants of Christ might attend on their ministrations without distraction and whoever a subject of Christ and sharer of this priviledg draws back from this duty he is
Preston said when he was near death I shall but change my place not my company O try your hopes for Heaven by your conversation if that be engaged about the things of Heaven now if your work be in Heaven your rest shall be in Heaven also Sixthly If your hopes for Heaven be right you will willingly undergo whatsoever sufferings and dangers lye in your way to Heaven He that is sure of reaching home at last will venture through any dangers in his way O what hazards will men run through to get an earthly Crown no difficulties will discourage them how much more will hopes for Heaven carry souls through the Red Sea of afflictions and bloody sufferings they may meet with before they come to it Acts 20. 24. chap. 21. 13. He that cannot consent to drink of the cup Christ drinks of and which the Father shall give him to drink and to submit to the cruellest death losses shame tryals and torments which his faithfulness to God may bring him to must reckon again and take up other conclusions about his future state easier terms cannot be granted Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple Luke 14. 33. He that will come after me must deny himself take up his Cross and follow me Matth. 16. 24. We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14. 22. If we suffer with him we shall reign with him 2 Tim. 2. 12. Secondly Lay up desires for glory not only some desires of glory but such desires as nothing else can satisfie but glory which nothing short of a whole God can content Most souls in this life limit their desires and take up their wishes too short of true blessedness My soul thirsteth for God saith God but it was only for some sights of his power and glory as he had seen him in his Sanctuary Psal 63. 1 3. Some looks through the lattice some embraces of Christ in the arms of faith pleased the Spouse and doth satisfie most souls here Alas how few are the desires of gracious souls which a little of God will not content One desires grace another peace some are for quickenings and comforts others for enlightenings for higher measures of knowledge for some sights of God through a glass but how few breathings are there to see as we are seen to know as we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. And indeed 't is strange that Heaven-born souls that heirs of glory and fellow-citizens of Heaven should have no more longings after their own home and not onely for some first-fruits but the full ripe fruits of their own Countrey David had sometimes workings after this not only for God to come to him but for himself to go to God when his heart takes a leap from the path of life into the presence of God where is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal 16. 11. Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore From the beholding of his face in righteousness here he longs for the satisfying visions of God in glory Psal 17. 15. As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Paul also under the highest enjoyments of God here had his unsatisfied longings to be with him as best of all Phil. 1. 23. and in respect of which he counts his greatest intimacy with Christ in the body to be a kind of absence 2 Cor. 5. 6. Knowing that whiles we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Do not terminate your desires upon any thing that can satisfie you on this side glory Get such desires raised which cannot be answered till you come to Heaven with such kind of breathings as these O when shall I come to that blessed state to know as I am known to have every corner of my heart filled with the immediate emanations of his glorious fulness O when will that time or rather eternity come when I shall be satisfied with looking on that blessed face which is every day the Angels wonder and the Saints joy Here alas I lie among the pots all sooty and defiled whiles the vessels of my Father's house and the bowls before the Altar out of which my Lord alway drinketh are bright and glorious Now I have my habitation where Dragons lie while a glorious Pavilion stands empty for me Here I feed on my own dung and oft-times eat the excrements of Devils and all the while there 's bread enough in my Father's house and my Brethren fare deliciously at the King's Table O when shall my work be done that I may be gone When shall the things for cleansing be given me and the daies of my purification be accomplished that my turn may come to go in to the Lord my King When shall the Nuptial garments the Bridal ornaments the Robe the Ring the Royal Vestments bespangled with costly Jewels be given me with this most welcome message Arise my Love my Dove my Fair One and come away Lay up such kind of breathings after the Mountains of Spices the Everlasting Hills the Rivers of Pleasures the Bride-chamber of Glory where you shall be ever with the Lord. k Glory Glory dwelleth in Immanuel's Land Rutherford's last words This will hasten your pace to Heaven and mount you on the wings of a Dove This will help you to pass by the world's glory with a holy scorn and to bear its cruelty with incredible patience Thirdly Lay up all the Treasures you can to greaten glory Though the lest portion of glory is satisfying yet the highest measures of glory are desirable because in it there is the greatest conformity to God 1 John 3. 2. Luke 10. 17 19 20. Dan. 12. 3. and the fullest enjoyment of God The Lord Jesus doth propose degrees of glory for the encouragement of his people to greater improvements of grace and therefore the highest degrees of glory are desirable O get as much as you can here to greaten your felicity in Heaven Do all you may to make your Crown more massy and your mansion more fair and your pleasures more full to all Eternity Several things have a tendency to greaten your glory The more grace you improve now the greater will be your glory he that gained ten pounds had ten Cities Grace is seed sown according to its measure will be the harvest What a man sows that shall he reap Gal. 6. 7. The less seed is sown the less crop will there be and the more seed the larger encrease 1 Cor. 3. 9. Glory is a Crown of Righteousness proportioned to the utmost improvements of Grace The more work you do for God the greater will be your wages of grace in glory 1 Pet. 5. 2 4. 2 Cor. 5. 10. That every one should receive according to what is done in the body The more you lay out for
God the more shall you receive from him 2 Cor. 9. 6. who will certainly repay it The greater your sufferings are for God the greater will your rejoycings be with him They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Ps 126. 5. Look what disproportion there is between the Seed-time and Harvest far greater is there between the Saints sufferings sorrows and triumphing joy Their sorrow lies within the compass of a short night their joy begins with that morning which hath no evening to follow it Psal 30. 5. Their tears will scarcely fill a bottel but their pleasures are so vast an Ocean as that they cannot be received but must be entred into Mat. 25. 21. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. Yea the present consolations of the Saints oft-times abound in their sufferings The ringing of my chains hath been sweet musick in my ears said Guy de Bres all my former discourses were but as a blind man's of colours in respect of my present feeling O what a precious comforter is a good conscience How unspeakable then are those rejoycings when all tears shall be wiped off when sorrow and mourning shall fly away Mat. 5. 10 11 12. The more your losses are for Christ on earth the greater will be your gain in Heaven Heb. 10. 34. And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that you have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Men can never bring their goods to a better Market than to have them spoil'd for the sake of Christ your goods you lose for Christ are capable of being spoil'd your goods you shall receive in Heaven are above all injury the very bags wax not old much less the treasure time will mar your best interests here Alas what is a little old goods moth-eaten garments rusty silver subject to change compared with that substance whose duration is as long as eternity and whose extension is as large as immensity and such is God in Christ the Saints eternal treasure Mat. 19. 29. And in the World to come life eternal Carnal reason judges them the greatest fools that dare to be undone for their profession whereas divine truth reckons such the mad men who to escape them that can but kill the body durst encounter him who can damn both soul and body in Hell Mat. 10. 28. And to lay a foundation of a few days safety upon the ruines of themselves and others How dangerous said Mr. Cooper is their estate who cannot rise but with the fall of many Et quantulum sit illud propter quod nos reliquisti How poor are those things saith he for which you have left us whereas the Saints losses for Christ are their greatest gain while the things they part with are but temporal but those they gain are eternal 2 Cor. 4. 18. Lastly The more souls you help to Heaven the more treasure you prepare for Heaven Dan. 12. 3. They that be wise the margin hath it they that be teachers shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever As nothing doth sink a person deeper into Hell than to have the blood of souls upon its head and to become the occasion of others perishing Jer. 2. 34. So it wonderfully greatens a persons own blessedness in Heaven to be the means of getting others to be blessed also 1 Thes 2. 19. For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoycing are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming for ye are our glory and joy Lastly Lay up preparations for glory Glory is a great thing O what a change doth Heaven make upon a Believer's state We shall all be changed 1 Cor. 15. 51. from corruption to incorruption from sin to spotless purity from imperfection to pefection from darkness to knowledg from faith to fight from espousals to a marriage-day and what preparations do such a change call for What if death should surprise you and take you in your old clothes 't is not your daily garments no not your best rayments are good enough for your marriage-day your attire must be all new when you solemnize your eternal nuptials to the King of Glory O what manner of persons should you be who look for new Heavens and a new Earth If a Paul be not sufficient to carry a love-token to Christ's Spouse here on earth 2 Cor. 2. 16. Who is sufficient for these things Who then are fit to lie in the Bridegroom's arms to all eternity Few think what a change must be before the Saints can get to Heaven 1 Cor. 15. 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven neither doth corruption inherit incorruption If so much preparation-work must be dispatch'd before an Esther could be fit for the embraces of an earthly King Esth 2. 12. six months for purifying with oyl of Myrrh and six months with sweet Odors and with other things How much sanctification-sanctification-work is needful to meeten a soul for the immediate enjoyment of God in glory and how unready are the most of souls for such a change O Believers hasten about your preparations for Heaven seeing you have no fixation on earth and know not what hour your Lord will come In order to which take these six directions First Get your hearts more loose from this present world men that change places knock up and take abroad things they must carry with them Your hearts Christians are the principal things you must take with you to Heaven it may be you have gone to God in duties many a time and left your hearts behind you but you cannot go to God in glory except your hearts be with you And O what a difficult work is it to go the heart upon choice loose from every thing below God! and till this be done there 's no getting to Heaven Things fastened to the free-hold they say cannot be removed how then can that heart get to glory that is nailed down to the world and things below Be daily loosening your hearts from the world estates houses lands trades friends relations and every thing below for you may not have time to get them off without loss when death comes you must leave them all shortly and you know not how soon to go to better friends and interests these have been snares and spears to your souls and have given you many a wound and still hinder your speeding to glory and why should you be loth to part with them O Christians if you are willing to be with Christ you will give your hearts warning to be gone from these tabernacles and to take their leave of this world daily Secondly Press after more maturity in your graces the more ripe the more fit for gathering Joel 3. 13. Tamar must tarry a Widow till Selah be grown Gen. 38. 11. and your
marriage-day must be delayed till you come to a full age The Saints must be as a shock of corn that cometh in in its season Job 5. 25. Ripen a pace in your graces if you would get to glory Get your faith hope patience and every grace encreased daily especially your love to God that 's the grace shall abide in glory 1 Cor. 13. 8. Faith and Hope are the soul's helps and companions in the way but Love will be an eternal inhabitant with you Get purer deeper rooted stronger more enlarged love to Jesus Christ every day till you be downright sick for him this will make your life a death without his presence here and your death to be life in being with him for ever 'T was love to Christ made Ignatius so dead to all things below a Vita sine Christo mors est Ignat. and so longing to be with Christ 'T is storied of him that when he was dead and his heart taken out they saw the name of Jesus written in it in letters of Gold The more love to God the more fit for God for God is love b Non est in me incendium quidpiam amans D. Ludov. Rub. Thirdly Get and keep the testimony of a good conscience that may witness for you in the day of Christ when you die you are to have a trial for your life your inheritance your All and you had need have your witness firm and ready Now there are two great witnesses you will need in that day to clear your title the witness of Conscience and the Spirit have the one on your side and you will not want the other Get your consciences sprinkled with the blood of Christ and purged from dead works by the Spirit of Christ that it may be able to appear for you in that day The blood of Christ will put words into the mouth of conscience for you to plead the general issue and the benefit of pardoning grace wherein you have been transgressors enlightned conscience will accuse you that you have sinned and besprinkled conscience will plead for you that you are pardoned and purged conscience will testify for you that you are changed and that you hate the evil you have done and love the holiness you have neglected O of what wonderful use will the testimony of a good conscience be when you stand at the Bar of God! Get it true to you now and sure for you then Fourthly Maintain more constant walks with God daily this will fit you for your eternal fellowship with him Converse with God is begun acquaintance here and in Heaven is perfect friendship and perpetual fellowship It will much fit you for Heaven hereafter to begin the work of Heaven here which lies in maintain'd intercourse with him Through these gallery-walks with God do the Saints pass into the Presence-Chamber and sit down with him for ever Communion with God now is Heaven begun such are fittest for his presence in glory who are train'd up in his company here Fifthly If you would prepare for Heaven dispatch your work on Earth Heaven is a state of rest and rest follows the finishing of labour Heb. 4. 9. Rev. 4. 13. Paul must end his fight finish his course and keep the faith before he can reach the Crown 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. In the grave there 's no wisdom device or work this is your only time for labour while you are in the Vineyard O how much work is behind with most which will make a departure terrible to an awakened conscience Haste about your neglected work you have it may be much work to do with others in your families with your relations possibly there are some souls in their graves and you have not done what you might to bring them forth dead Husband Wife Children Servants for whom you must do more or cannot comfortably appear before God O hasten about this work that you may give up your account with joy There 's soul-soul-work to be done to get corruptions subdued graces strengthned your accounts stated evidences cleared and lamps trimmed which must be attended with utmost vigour If you would get home finish your work Lastly Be alwaies ready waiting for the coming of the Lord Luke 12. 35 36. Let your loins be girt about and your lights burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the Wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open to him immediately 2 Pet. 3. 12. Looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God Not only be waiting for your change but longing after it as persons that are ready for a desired journey think the time long ere they go Why are the wheels of his Chariot so long a coming Judg. 5. 28. The Spirit and the Bride say come Rev. 22. 17. With the Virgins go out to meet him Mat. 25. 1. If you knew the welcome that abideth for you when you come home ye would hasten your pace Rutherf The more ready you are for the coming of Christ the more will you long for his appearance and the more grateful will his approach be The uncertainty of that time when the Lord Jesus shall appear and the unseasonableness of that surprisal for preparation-work should put Christians on continual readiness lest coming in an hour they know not of they be found unfit to enter in and the door be shut Mat. 25. 10. O how dreadful will a miscarriage be at last All the hopes labours and comfort of your life depend upon your final safety and happy conclusion of your day 'T is a great thing to live a sanctified and die a saved soul O how few imagine the difficulty of being a Christian indeed and the infinite concern of securing an immortal soul and a sure title to the unsearchable riches of the other world O the folly and madness of rational creatures to make every thing sure but salvation and to spend their time and strength about the many things of a perishing life and lose the better part Whoever thou art that castest thine eye upon this discourse thou wilt one day find Religion to be thy chiefest interest when thou comest to take thy farewel of a vain deceitful world and seest all thy Lovers for whom thou hast sleighted thy precious soul thy Soverign Lord and dying Redeemer to prove miserable comforters not able to afford one drop of balm to heal or cordial to chear thy fainting heart and affrighted conscience When thou seest pale death deliver thee a summons to appear before the holy God and to give an account of thy Stewardship when thou seest the Books opened and such a fearful charge against thy guilty conscience which thou canst not deny or answer then wilt thou find godliness in the power of it to be the greatest gain and would'st give ten thousand worlds for such an evidence as Hezekiah and Paul had when within view of death and eternity And is not Religion as
your confidence in the Lord fill you with dejection and despondency of spirit and give your spiritual adversary great advantage over your souls 2 Pet. 1. 10. 1 Joh. 5. 13. 2 Cor. 1. 12. 1 Cor. 15. 58. Heb. 10. 22. Job 19. 25 26 27. 2 Pet. 1. 11. Keep up your sincerity and truth in the inner-man be often looking to the principle of your actions that it be gracious and to your ends in every thing you do that they be pure singly and ultimately aiming at God his will and glory in every duty action and undertaking If you would evidence the truth of grace you must be every day in the exercise of grace and conscionable endeavours to live up to known duties exercising a conscience void of offence towards God and man not resting in any measures of grace but going on towards perfection and aiming at greater enlargements in your souls and graces continually Thirdly Carry on all these natural moral and religious duties that concern others This is the will of God and part of your sanctification Matth. 5. 16. Let your light shine before men and by your good works glorifie your Father which is in Heaven 1 Cor. 10. 32. Walk unblamable towards all men giving no offence to any lest the Gospel be blamed Phil. 1. 10. That you may be sincere and without offence to the day of Christ 1 Pet. 2. 12. Having your conversation honest among those you have to do with dealing justly with all men rendring to every man his due doing good to all as opportunity serveth Gal. 6. 10. Psal 35. 13. and be kind to the just and unjust seeking the salvation of sinners mourning over them praying for them instructing of them seeking by a humble holy and affectionate carriage to win them over to the Lord Jesus who are not won by the word Luke 19. 41. Psal 51. 13. 2 Pet. 3. 1. Loving praying for doing good unto your greatest enemies Vertues separated saith Chrysostom are annihilated equity without goodness is severity and justice without piety cruelty 'T is better to do good than to receive good 'T was said of Mr. Hooker That he was born for the good of many but few born for the good of him That you love delight in and do good to all Saints as Saints that carry the image of God on them That you make conscience of your relative duties both in your own houses and in the house of God Psal 101. 2. Walking within your own houses with a perfect heart to be Christians at home as well as abroad shewing the same spirit zeal and affection to your Families as to others doing your utmost to keep up the service of God in your houses both together and asunder morning and evening in prayer and reading the word of God Acts 10. 2. 9. Josh 24. 18. Psal 25. 10. Matth. 6. 6. That you faithfully discharge those mutual duties you owe to each other as Husband Wife Parents Children Masters Servants Eph. 5. 22. to the end of chap. 6. To be meek loving peaceable in your words and carriages towards one another giving that due respect as the place and relation calls for from each other To be holy and profitable in your discourses seeking the spiritual welfare edification and salvation of each others souls as of your own Deut. 11. 19. Prov. 22. 6. ch 23. 13. Col. 3. 12 to 16. Heb. 12. 14. Gen. 18 19. The want of which due and Christian carriages in your houses brings up an evil report on the ways of God rendreth the truth of your grace questionable hinders the gracious presence of God with you and removes his blessing from you Eph. 4. 29. Rom. 11. 14. You whom grace hath priviledged with a place and name within the walls of God's house do stand obliged to fellowship-duties of love care and faithfulness to each other considering one another to provoke to love and good works Joh. 15. 12. Heb. 10. 24. and esteem each other better than your selves To seek one anothers good as your own serving each other in love Phil. 2. 3. 1 Cor. 10. 24. 33. Gal. 5. 13. To sympathize with each other in affliction Col. 3. 12. and to be helpful to them in bearing their burdens supplying their wants comforting counselling and supporting them in all their tribulations Heb. 13. 3. visiting the sick and imprisoned feeding the hungry cloathing the naked warning the unruly admonishing the offenders bearing one anothers infirmities covering their weaknesses avoiding whatever might offend and injure each others souls or lessen their affections or break the unity of spirit and bond of peace between them but by a sweet humble-self denying and faithful carriage to engage the heart to each other praying for the whole body and every member To be gracious and spiritual in all your communion and converses seeking the prosperity of Sion rejoycing in each others graces and good as in your own doing all you may towards their comfort and salvation Mat. 25. 42. Acts 20. 35. 1 Joh. 3. 17. Rom. 15. 1. and 16. 17. Lev. 19. 10. 2 Cor. 12. 20. Col. 4. 6. Phil. 2. 17 18. Tit. 2. 12. 2 Cor. 13. 7. Psal 15. 2. Col. 3. 9. In your Callings commerce and dealings with men to be just honest and faithful doing as you would be done unto not defrauding one another but speaking the truth in all your bargainings and performing your promises though to your hurt This is a considerable part of your heavenly Trade and that wherein the credit of Religion doth eminently lye the pleasing and glorifying of God the good of others the propagation of the Gospel the peace and salvation of your own fouls even in the faithful discharge of these natural moral and religious duties you owe unto others This is the first part of heavenly work work of a heavenly nature as well as manner both with respect to God our own souls and others Secondly Another part of heavenly work is to do earthly things in an heavenly manner Though the things of the World are of a different nature from things above yet when rightly managed they are subservient to them and come within the compass of this Heavenly Trade To which three things are needful 1 To do earthly things by heavenly rules 2 With heavenly hearts 3 To heavenly ends First Then is earthly work part of your Heavenly Trade when you transact it by heavenly rules every Science hath its Maxims distinct Governments have their distinct Laws So hath every Trade its rules principles and instructions by which it is carried on Earthly Traders have their rules and methods by which they manage their businesses as may most comport with the end they propose and the advance of their own earthly interests and so 't is with heavenly Traders though they have to do with earthly things yet they must act about them by heavenly rules Now there are ten rules which heavenly Merchants must observe in the management of their earthly affairs Rule 1.