freely enjoy his presence but of those straglers who care not to live without God so they may be befriended by Mammon How ill a match these poor men make for themselves I send them to their Saviour to learn What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul God forbid I should give their souls for lost but I must say they are hazarded for herein doubtless they tempt God who hath not promised to keep them in any other then their just wayes and they do in a sort tempt and challenge Satan to draw them on either to a love of error and impiety or at least to a cooling of their care and love of truth How unlike are these men to that wise merchant in the Gospel He sold all that he had to buy the pearl of great price they sell the pearl to buy a little worthless merchandize As the greatest part of their trafick stands upon exchange so I heartily wish they would make this one exchange more of less care of their wealth for more care of their souls LXXXVIII Even when Joseph was a great lord in Egypt second to none but Pharaoh and had the command of that richest countrey of the world yet then his old Father Jacob thought his poor parcel of Shechem worthy to be bequeathed to him and embraced of him as a noble patrimony because it was in the promised land and the legacy of a dying Father How justly do I admire the faith both of the father and son in this donation Jacob was now in Goshen Shechem was in Canaan neither was the father now in the present possession nor were the sons in some ages to enjoy it It was four hundred and thirty years that Israel must be a sojourner in a strange countrey ere they shall enter into the promised Land yet now as foreseeing the future possession which his posterity should take of this spot of earth so long after Jacob gives Shechem to Joseph and Joseph apprehends it as a rich blessing as the double portion of the divided primogeniture Infidelity is purblinde and can see nothing but that which is hard at hand Faith is quick-sighted and discerns the events of many centuries of years yea of ages to come Abraham saw his Saviours day and rejoyced to see it a thousand nine hundred and fourty years off and Adam before him almost four thousand years As to God all things are present even future so to those that by a lively faith partake of him Why do I not by that faith see my Saviour returning in his Heavenly magnificence as truly as now I see the Heaven whence he shall come and my body as verily raised from the dust and become glorious as now I see it weak and decrepit and falling into the dust LXXXIX True knowledg causeth appetite and desire For the will follows the understanding whatsoever that apprehends to be good for us the affective part inclines to it No man can have any regard to an unknown good If an hungry man did not know that food would refresh and nourish him or the thirsty that drink would satisfie him or the naked that fire would warm him or the sick that Physick would recover him none of these would affect these succors And according to our apprehension of the goodness and use of these helps so is our appetite towards them For the object of the will is a known good either true or appearing so And if our experience can tell us of some that can say with her in the Poet I see and approve better things but follow the worse It is not for that evil as evil much less as worse can fall into the will but that their appetite over-carries them to a misconceit of a particular good so as howsoever in a generality they do confusedly assent to the goodness of some holy act or object yet upon the present occasion here and now as the School speaketh their sensitive appetite hath prevailed to draw them to a perswasion that this pleasure or that profit is worthy to be imbraced Like as our first parents had a general apprehension that it was good to obey all the commands of their Creator but when it came to the forbidden fruit now their eye and their ear and their heart tell them it is good for them both for pleasure and for the gain of knowledg to taste of that forbidden tree So then the miscarriage is not in that they affect that which they think not to be good but in that they think that to be good which is not for alass for one true good there are many seeming which delude the soul with a fair semblance As a man in a generality esteems silver above brass but when he meets with a rusty piece of silver and a cleer piece of brass he chooses rather the clear brass then the silver defaced with rust Surely it is our ignorance that is guilty of our cool neglect of our spiritual good if we did know how sweet the Lord is in his sure promises in his unfailing mercies we could not but long after him and remain unsatisfied till we finde him ours would God be pleased to shine in our hearts by the light of the true knowledg of himself we could not have cause to complain of want of heat in our affections towards his infinite goodness Did we but know how sweet and delectable Christ the Heavenly Manna is we could not but hunger after him and we could not hunger and not be satisfied and in being satisfied blessed XC Those which we mis-cal goods are but in their nature indifferent and are either good or evil as they are affected as they are used Indeed all their malignity or vertue is in the minde in the hand of the possessor Riches ill got ill kept ill spent are but the Mammon of iniquity but if well The Crown of the wise is their riches How can it be amiss to have much when he that was the richest man of the East was the holiest Yea when God himself is justly stiled the possessor of Heaven and Earth How can it be amiss to have little when our Saviour sayes Blessed are ye poor And if from that divine mouth we hear a wo to the rich himself interprets it of them that trust in riches If our riches possess us in stead of our possessing them we have changed our God and lost our selves but if we have learnt to use our wealth and not enjoy it we may be no less gracious then rich If a rich man have a large and humble heart and a just hand he inherits the blessing of the poor If a poor man have a proud heart and a theevish hand he carryes away the wo from the rich Riches saith wise Solomon make themselves wings they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven So as we may use
the way through the golden gates of honor or down to the mines of wealth or to the flowry garden of pleasure but the way of true peace he knows not he no more knows the way to Heaven then if there were none The fool saith the Psalmist hath said in his heart there is no God Did not the wicked man say so he durst not wilfully sin in the face of so mighty and dreadful an avenger Lastly the fool is apt to part with his patrimony for some gay toys and how ready is the carnal heart to cast away the Favor of God the inheritance of Heaven the salvation of his soul for these vain earthly trifles Holy men are wont to pass with the world for Gods fools alas how little do these censurers know to pass a true judgment of wisdom and folly he that was rapt into the third Heaven tells us That the foolishness of God is wiser then men and the weakness of God stronger then men but this we are sure of that wicked men are the devils fools and that judgments are prepared for scorners and stripes for the back of fools XLVII There are some things which are laudable in man but cannot be incident into God as a bashful shamefastness and holy fear And there are some dispositions blame-worthy in men which are yet in a right sence holily ascribed unto God as unchangeableness and irrepentance Attributes and qualities receive their limitations according to the meet subjects to which they belong with this sure rule That whatsoever may import an infinite purity and perfection we have reason to ascribe to our Maker whatever may argue infirmitie misery corruption we have reason to take to our selves Neither is it otherwise in the condition of men One mans vertue is anothers vice so boldness in a woman bashfulness in an old man bounty in a poor man parsimony in the great are as foully unbeseeming as boldness in a Soldier bashfulness in a childe bounty in the rich parsimony in the poor are justly commendable It is not enough for us to know what is good in it self but what is proper for us else we may be blemished with that which is anothers honor XLVIII It is easie to observe that there are five degrees of the digestion of our spiritual food First it is received into the cell of the ear and there digested by a careful attention then it is conveyed into the brain and there concocted by due meditation from thence it is sent down into the heart and there digested by the affections and from thence it is conveyed to the tongue in conference and holy confession and lastly it is thence transmitted to the hand and there receives perfect digestion in our action and performance And as the life and health of the body cannot be maintained except the material food pass through all the degrees of bodily concoction no more can the soul live and prosper in the want of any of these spiritual degrees of digestion And as where the food is perfectly concocted the body grows fat and vigorous so is it with the soul where the spiritual repast is thus kindly digested Were there not failings in all these degrees the souls of men would not be so meager and unthriving as they are Some there are that will not give so much as ear-room to the word of truth such are willing recusants others will admit it perhaps so far but there let it rest these are fashionable auditors some others can be content to let it enter into the brain and take up some place in their thoughts and memories these are speculative professors some but fewer others let it down into their hearts and there entertain it with secret liking but hide it in their bosomes not daring to make profession of it to the world these are close Nicodemians Others take it into their mouthes and busie their tongues in holy chat yet do nothing these are formal discoursers But alas how few are there whose hands speak louder then their tongues that conscionably hear meditate affect speak do the word of their Maker and Redeemer XLIX Men that are in the same condition speed not always alike Barabbas was a theif murderer seditionary and deserved hanging no less then the two theeves that were crucified with our Saviour yet he is dismissed and they executed And even of these two as our Saviour said of the two women grinding at the mill one was taken the other refused one went before Peter to paradise the other went before Judas into hell The providence and election of a God may make a difference we have no reason in the same crime to presume upon a contrary issue If that gracious hand shall exempt us from the common judgment of our consorts in evil we have cause 〈◊〉 less his mercy but if his just hand shall sweep us away in the company of our wicked consociates we have reason to thank none but our selves for our sufferings L. How sweet a thing is revenge to us naturally even the very infant rejoyces to see him beaten that hath angerd him and is ready with his little hand to give that sroke to the by-stander which he would have with more force returned to the offender and how many have we known in mortal quarrels cheerfully bleeding out their last drop when they have seen their enemy gasping and dying before them This alone shews how much there is remaining in our bosome of the sting of that old Serpent who was a murderer from the beginning delighting in death and enjoying our torment whereas on the contrary true grace is merciful ready to forgive apt to return good for evil to pray for our persecutors Nothing doth more clearly evince what spirit we are of then our disposition in wrongs received The carnal heart breathes nothing but revenge and is straight wringing the sword out of the hands of him that hath said Vengeance is mine The regenerate soul contrarily gives place to wrath and puts on the bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of minde meekness long suffering forbearing forgiving and will not be overcome with evil but overcomes evil with good We have so much of God as we can remit injuries so much of Satan as we would revenge them LI. It is worth observing how nature hath taught all living creatures to be their own physitians The same power that gave them a being hath led them to the means of their own preservation No Indian is so savage but that he knows the use of his Tobacco and Contra-yerva yea even the brute creatures are bred with this skill The Dog when he is stomack-sick can go right to his proper Grass the Cat to her Nep the Goat to his Hemlock the Weasel to Rue the Hart to Dittany the sick Lyon can cure himself with an Ape the Monkey with a Spider the Bear with an Ant-heap the Panther with mans dung and the Stork is said to have taught man the
any whit sensibly advanced XCV The wise Christian hath learned to value every thing according to its own worth If we be too glad of these earthly things it is the way to be too much afflicted with their losse and whiles we have them to be transported into pride and wantonness If we esteeme them too little it is the way to an unthankful disrespect of the giver Christianity carries the heart in a just equipoise when they come they are welcom'd without too much joy and when they go they part without teares we may smile at these earthly favors not laugh out we may like them but we must take heed of being in love with them For love of what kinde soever it be is not without the power of assimilation If we love the world we cannot but be worldly-minded They that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh and to be carnally minded is death Contrarily if we love God we are made partakers of the divine nature and we are such as we affect If we be Christians in earnest certainly the inner rooms of our hearts which are the holy of holies are reserved for the Almighty the outer courts may be for the common resort of lawful cares and desires they may come and go but our God shall have his fixed habitation here for ever XCVI Nature is slie and cunning neither is it possible to take her without a shift The light huswife wipes her mouth and it was not she Rachel hath stoln her fathers Teraphim and the custom of women is upon her Saul reserves all the fat cattle of the Amalekites it is for a sacrifice to the Lord thy God Neither is it so onely in excusing an evil done but in waving a good to be done I am not eloquent saith Moses send by him by whom thou shouldst send Pharaoh will kill me there is a lyon in the way saith the Sluggard I have marryed a wife I cannot come saith the sensual Guest If I give I shall want If I make a strict profession I shall be censured Whereas true Grace is on the one side down right and ingenuous in its confessions not sparing to take shame to it self that it may give glory to God on the other side resolutely constant to its holy purposes I and my house will serve the Lord If I perish I perish I am ready not to be bound onely but also to dye at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus It is not hard therefore for us to know what mistress we serve If our care and endeavor be by witty evasions to shuffle off both evil and good we are the vassals of nature but if we shall with an humble penitence acknowledg our evil and set our selves with firm resolutions upon the tasks of good we are under Grace in a way to glory XCVII It is good for a man not always to keep his eyes at home but sometimes to look abroad at his neighbors and to compare his own condition with the worse estate of others I know I deserve no more then the meanest no better then the worst of men yet how many do I see and hear to lye groaning upon their sick beds in great extremity of torment whereas I walk up and down in a competency of health How many do I see ready to famish and forced to either beg or starve whereas I eat my own bread How many lye roting in Goals and Dungeons or are driven to wander in unknown desarts or amongst people whose language they understand not whereas I enjoy home and liberty How many are shrieking under scourges and racks whereas I sit at ease And if I shall cast mine eyes upon my spiritual condition alass how many do I see sit in darkness and in the shadow of death whereas the Sun of Righteousness hath arisen to me with healing in his wings How many lye in a woful bondage under sin and Satan whereas my Saviour hath freed me from those hellish chains and brought me to the glorious liberty of the sons of God how many are miserably mis-led into the dangerous by-paths of error whereas he hath graciously kept me in the plain and sure way of his saving Truth If we do not sometimes make these not proud but thankful comparisons and look upon our selves not with direct beams but by reflection upon others we shall never be sensible enough of our own mercies XCVIII The true Christian is in a very happy condition for no man will envy him and he can envy no body None will envy him for the world cannot know how happy he is How happy in the favor of a God how happy in the enjoying of that Favor Those secret delights that he findes in the presence of his God those comfortable pledges of Love and mutual interchanges of blessed Interest which pass between them are not for worldly hearts to conceive and no man will envy an unknown happiness On the other side he cannot envy the worlds greatest favorite under Heaven for he well knows how fickle and uncertain that mans felicity is he sees him walking upon Ice and perceives every foot of his sliding and threatning a fall and hears that brittle pavement at every step crackling under him and ready to give way to his swallowing up and withal findes if those pleasures of his could be constant and permanent how poor and unsatisfying they are and how utterly unable to yield true contentment to the soul The Christian therefore whiles others look upon him with pity and scorn laughs secretly to himself in his bosom as well knowing there is none but he truly happy XCIX It was an high and honorable embassie whereon the Angel Gabriel was sent down to the blessed Virgin that she should be the Mother of her Saviour Neither was that inferior of the glorious Angel that brought the joyful tidings of the incarnation and birth of the Son of God to the shepherds of Bethlehem but a far more happy errand was that which the Lord Jesus after his Resurrection committed to the Maries Go to my brethren and say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Lo he says not I am risen but I ascend as if he had forgot the Earth whence he arose and thought onely on that Heaven whither he was going Upon his Easter his minde is on his Ascension day As there had been nothing but discomfort in death without a Resurrection so there had been little comfort in a Resurrection without an Ascension to glory There is a contentment in the very act I ascend even nature is ambitious and we do all affect to mount higher as to come down is a Death but this height is like the ascendent infinite I ascend to my Father There was the glory which he put off in his humble Incarnation there was the glory which he was now to resume and possess to all eternity And as if Nature and
by the ministery of Angels be received up to those everlasting habitations Here is an Assumption therefore true and happy though not as yet total And why should I not therefore have my heart taken up with the assured expectation of this receiving up into my glory Why do I not look beyond death at the eternally-blessed condition of this soul of mine which in my dissolution is thus crowned with immortality So doth the Sea-beaten Marriner chear up himself with the sight of that Heaven which he makes for So doth the Travailer comfort himself when after a tempestuous storm he sees the Sun breaking forth in his brightness I am dying but O Saviour thou art the resurrection and the life he that beleeves in thee though he be dead yet shall he live Awake and sing ye that dwel in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their labors and their works follow them LXVII What need I be troubled that I finde in my self a fear of Death what Israelite is not ready to run away at the sight of this Goliah This fear is natural and so far from being evil that it was incident into the Son of God who was heard in that which he feared Christianity serves not to destroy but to rectifie nature Grace regulates this passion in us and corrects the exorbitances of it never intended to root it out Let me therefore entertain this fear but so as that I may master it if I cannot avoyd fear let it be such as may be incident into a faithful man Whiles my fear apprehends just terror in the face of Death let my faith lay fast hold on that blessed Saviour who hath both overcome and sweetned it on that blessed estate of glory which accompanies it my fear shall end in joy my death in advantage LXVIII It is too plain that we are faln upon the old age of the world the last times and therefore nearest to the dissolution and if time it self did not evince it the disposition and qualities would most evidently do it For to what a cold temper of charity are we grown what meer Ice is in these spiritual veins the unnatural and unkindly flushings of self-love abound indeed every where but for true Christian love it is come to old Davids pass it may be covered with clothes but it can get no heat Besides what whimsies and fancies of dotage do we finde the world possessed withal beyond the examples of all former times what wilde and mad opinions have been lately broached which the setled brains of better ages could never have imagined Unto these how extreamly cholerick the world is grown in these later times there needs no other proof then the effusion of so much blood in this present age as many preceding centuries of years have been sparing to spill What should I speak of the moral distempers of diseases the confluence whereof hath made this age more wickedly-miserable then all the former for when ever was there so much prophaneness atheism blasphemy schism excess disobedience oppression licentiousness as we now sigh under Lastly that which is the common fault of age loquacity is a plain evidence of the worlds declinedness for was there ever age guilty of so much tongue and pen as this last were ever the Presses so cloyed with frivolous work Every man thinks what he lists and speaks what he thinks and writes what he speaks and prints what he writes Neither would the world talk so much did it not make account it cannot talk long What should we do then since we know the world truly old and now going upon his great and fatal Climacterical but as discreet men would carry themselves to impotent and decrepit age bear with the infirmities of it pity and bewail the distempers strive against the enormities and prepare for the dissolution LXIX There cannot be a stronger motive to awe and obedience then that which Saint Peter enforceth That God is both a Father and a Judg The one is a title of Love and Mercy the other of Justice What ever God is he is all that he is all Love and Mercy He is all Justice He is not so a Judg that he hath waved the title and affection of a Father He is not so a Father that he will remit ought of his infinite justice as a Judg He is he will ever be both these in one and we must fasten our eyes upon both these at once and be accordingly affected unto both He is a Father therefore here must be a loving awe He is a Judg and therefore here must be an awful love and obedience So must we lay hold upon the tender mercies of a Father that we may rejoyce continually so must we apprehend the Justice of a righteous Judg that we do lovingly tremble Why then should man despair God is a father All the bowels of mortal and humane love are straight to his Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee saith the Lord. That which is the title of his personality in divine relation is also the title of his gracious relation to us Father neither can he be other then he is styled And contrarily how dare man presume since this Father is a Judg It is for sinful flesh and blood to be partial foolish parents may be apt to connive at the sins of their own loyns or bowels because theirs either they will not see them or not hate them or not censure them or not punish them The infinite justice of a God cannot wink at our failings There is no debt of our sin but must be paid in our selves or our surety If then we call him Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work why do we not pass the time of our sojourning here in fear LXX How terrible a motion was that which was made by the two Disciples of commanding fire to come down from Heaven and consume the inhospital Samaritans Me thinks I could tremble but at the imagination of so dreadful a judgment as they did not fear to sue for Yet if we look to the offence it was no positive act of indignity offered to Christ but the meer not lodging of his train and that not out of a rude inhumanity but out of a religious scruple what could they have said if these Samaritans had pursued them with swords and staves and stones Whom shall we hope to finde free from cruelty of revenge when even the Disciple of Love was thus over-taken What wonder is it if natural men be transported with furious desires when so eminent Domesticks and followers of our Saviour were thus faulty Surely nature in man is cruel neither is there any creature under Heaven so bloody to