admire that patience could bear so long and justice suffer him to live Sure he will admire at this alteration when he shall finde by experience that unworthinesse could not hindâ—r his salvation which he thought would have bereaved him of every mercy Ah Christian There 's no talk of our worthiness nor unwornesse If worthiness were our condition for admittance we might sit down with S. John and weep because none in heaven or earth is found worthy But the Lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy and hath prevailed by that title must we hold the inheritance We shal offer there the offering that David refused even praise for that which cost us nothing Here our Commission runs Freely ye have received Freely give But Christ hath dearly received yet Freely gives The master heals us of our leprosie freely but Gehazi who had no finger in the cure will surely run after us and take somthing of us and falsly pretend it is his masters pleasure The Pope and his servants will be paid for their Pardons and Indulgencies But Christ will take nothing for his The fees of the Prelats Courts were large and our CoÌ„mutation of Penance must cost our purses dear or else we must be cast out of the Synagogue and soul and body delivered up to the Devil But none are shut out of that Church for want of money nor is poverty any eye-sore to Christ An empty heart may bar them out but an empty purse cannot His Kingdom of Grace hath ever been more consistent with despised poverty then wealth and honour and riches occasion the difficulty of entrance far more then want can do For that which is highly esteemed among men is despised with God And so is it also The poor of the world rich in faith whom God hath chosen to be heires of that Kingdom which he hath prepared for them that love him I know the true labourer is worthy of his hire And they that serve at the Altar should live upon the Altar And it is not fit to muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the corne And I know it is either hellish malice or penurious baseness or ignorance of the weight of their work and burthen that makes their maintenance so generally Incompetent and their very livelihood and subsistance so envied and grudged at and that it 's a meer plot of the Prince of darkness for the diversion of their thoughts that they must be studying how to get bread for their own and childrens mouths when they should be preparing the bread of life for their peoples souls But yet let me desire the right aiming Ministers of Christ to consider what is expedient as well as what is lawfull and that the saving of one soul is better then a thousand pound a year and our gain though due is a cursed gain which is a stumbling block to our peoples souls Let us make the Free-Gospell as little burthensome and chargeable as is possible I had rather never take their Tythes while I live then by them to destroy the souls for whom Christ dyed and though God hath ordained that they which preach the Gospell should live of the Gospell yet I had rather suffer all things then hinder the Gospell and it were better for me to dye then that any man should make this my glorying voyd Though the well-leading Elders be worthy of double honour especially the laborious in the word and doctrine yet if the necessity of Souls and the promoting of the Gospel should require it I had rather preach the Gospell in hunger and ragges then rigidly contend for what 's my due And if I should do so yet have I not whereof to Glory for necessity is laid upon me yea wo be to me if I preach not the Gospell though I never received any thing from men How unbeseeming the messengers of this Free-Grace and Kingdom is it rather to lose the hearts and souls of their people then to lose a groat of their due And rather to exasperate them against the message of God then to forbear somewhat of their right And to contend with them at law for the wages of the Gospell And to make the glad-tidings to their yet carnall hearts seem to be sad tidings because of this burthen This is not the way of Christ and his Apostles nor according to the self denying yeelding suffering Doctrine which they taught Away with all those actions that are against the main end of our studies and calling which is to win souls and fie upon that gain which hinders the gaining of men to Christ. I know flesh will here object necessities and distrust will not want arguments but we who have enough to answer to the diffidence of our people let us take home some of our answers to our selves and teach our selves first before we teach them How many have you known that God suffered to starve in his Vineyard But this is our exceeding consolation That though we may pay for our Bibles and Books and Sermons and it may be pay for our freeâ—dom to enjoy and use them yet as we paid nothing for Gods eternal Love and nothing for the Son of his Love and nothing for his Spirit and our grace and faith and nothing for our pardon so we shal pay nothing for our eternal Rest. We may pay for the bread and wine but we shal not pay for the body and blood nor for the great things of the Covenant which it seals unto us And indeed we have a valuable price to give for those but for these we have none at all Yet this is not all If it were only for nothing and without our merit the wonder were great but it is moreover against our merit and against our long endeavoring of our own ruine Oh the broken heart that hath known the desert of sin doth both understand and feel what I say What an astonishing thought it will be to think of the unmeasurable difference between our deservings and our receivings between the state we should have been in and the state we are in To look down upon Hell and see the vast difference that free-grace hath made betwixt us and them to see the inheritance there which we were born to so different from that which we are adopted to Oh what pangs of love will it cause within us to think yonder was my native right my deserved portion those should have been my hideous cries my doleful groans my easless pains my endless torment Those unquenchable flames I should have layen in that never dying worm should have fed upon me yonder was the place that sin would have brought me to but this is it that Christ hath bought me to Yonder death was the wages of my sin but this Eternal life is the Gift of God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Did not I neglect Grace and make light of the offers of Life and sleight my Redeemers Blood a long time as well as yonder suffering
those that were my delight and that I looked for daily comfort and refreshing from when these shall be my grief and as thorns in my sides who can bear it Answ. 1. Who ever is the instrument the Affliction is from God and the provoking cause from thy self And were it not fitter then that thou look more to God and thy self 2. Didst thou not know that the best men are still sinful in part and that their hearts are naturally deceitful and desperately wicked as well as others And this being but imperfectly cured so far as they are fleshly the fruits of the flesh will appear in them which are strife hatred variance emulations wrath seditions heresies envyings c. So far the best is as a brier and the most upright of them sharper then a thorny hedg Learn therefore a better use from the Prophet Micah 7.4 5 6 7. Trust not too much in a friend nor put confidence in a guide Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom c. But look rather for the Lord and wait for the God of thy Salvation It is likely thou hast given that Love and Trust to Saints which was due onely to God or which thou hast denied him and then no wonder if he chastise thee by them Or perhaps the observation of the excellencies of Grace hath made thee forget the vileness of Nature and therefore God will have thee take notice of both Many are tender of giving too much to the dead Saints that yet give too much to the living without scruple Till thou hast learned to suffer from a Saint as well as from the Wicked and to be abused by the Godly as well as the Ungodly never look to live a contented or comfortable life nor never think thou hast truly learned the Art of Suffering Do not think that I vilifie the Saints too much in so saying I confess it is pity that Saints must suffer from Saints And it is quite contrary to their holy Nature and their Masters Laws who hath left them his Peace and made Love to be the Character of his Disciples and to be the first and great and new Commandment And I know that there is much difference between them and the world in this point But yet as I said they are Saints but in part and therefore Paul and Barnabas may so fall out as to part asunder and upright Asa may imprison the Prophet call it persecution or what you please Josephs Brethren that cast him into a pit and sold him to strangers for a slave I hope were not all ungodly Jobs wife and friends were sad comforters Davids Enemy was his familiar friend with whom he had taken sweet counsel and they had gone up together to the House of God And know also that thy own nature is as bad as theirs and thou art as likely thy self to be a grief to others Can such ulcerous leprous sinners as the best are live together and not infest and molest each other with the smell of their sores Why if thou be a Christian thou art a dayly trouble to thy self and art molested more with thy own corruptions then with any mans else And dost thou take it so hainously to be molested with the frailties of others when thou canst not forbear doing more against thy self For my part for all our Graces I rather admire at that wisdom and goodness of God that maintaineth that order and union amongst us as is and that he suffereth us not to be still one anothers executioners and to lay violent hands on our selves and each other I dare not think that there is no one gracious that hath labored to destroy others that were so in these late dissentions Sirs you do not half know yet the mortal wickedness of depraved Nature If the best were not more beholden to the Grace of God without them then to the habitual Grace within them you should soon see That men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye to be put in the ballance they are lighter then vanity it self Psal. 62.7 8 9. For what is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints and the Heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity like water Job 15.14 15 16. Object 5. Oh but if I had that consolation which you say God reserveth for our suffering times I should suffer more contentedly but I do not perceive any such thing Answ. 1. The more you suffer for Righteousness sake the more of this blessing you may expect and the more you suffer for your own evil doing the longer you must look to stay till that sweetness come When we have by our folly provoked God to chastise us shall we presently look that he should fill us with comfort That were as Mr Paul Bayn saith to make Affliction to be no Affliction What good would the bitterness do us if it be presently drowned in that sweetness It is well in such sufferings if you have but supporting Grace and your sufferings sanctified to work out your sin and bring you to God 2. Do you not neglect or resist the comforts which you desire God hath filled Precepts and Promises and other of his Providences with matter of comfort If you will over-look all these and make nothing of them and pore all upon your sufferings and observe one cross more then a thousand mercies who maketh you uncomfortable but your selves If you resolve that you will not be comfortable as long as any thing aileth your flesh you may stay till death before you have comfort 3. Have your Afflictions wrought kindly with you and fited you for comfort Have they humbled you and brought you to a faithful confession and reformation of your beloved sin and made you set close to your neglected Duties and weaned your hearts from their former Idols and brought them unfeignedly to take God for their Portion and their Rest If this be not done how can you expect Comfort Should God binde up the sore while it festereth at the bottom It is not meer Suffering that prepares you for Comfort but the success and fruit of Sufferings upon your hearts I shall say no more on this Subject of Afflictions because so many have written on it already Among which I desire you especially to read Mr Bayns Letters and Mr Hughes his Dry Rod blooming and fruit-bearing and Young's COUNTERPOYSON CHAP. XI An Exhortation to those that have got Assurance of this Rest or title to it that they would do all that possibly they can to help others to it also The fifth Vse SECT I. HAth God set before us such a glorious prize as this Everlasting Rest of the Saints is And hath he made man capable of such an unconceiveable Happiness Why then do not all the children of this
necessary That thy Lord had sweeter ends and meant thee better then thou wouldst believe And that thy Redeemer was saving thee as well when he crossed thy desires as when he granted them and as well when he broke thy Heart as when he bound it up Oh no thanks to thee unworthy Self but shame for this received Crown But to Jehovah and the Lamb be Glory for ever Thus as the memory of the wicked will eternally promote their torment to look back on the pleasures enjoyed the sin committed the Grace refused Christ neglected and time lost So will the Memory of the Saints for ever promote their Joys And as it 's said to the wicked Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst Thy good things So will it be said to the Christian Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thine evils but now thou art comforted as they are tormented And as here the Remembrance of former good is the occasion of encreasing our grief I remembred God and was troubled I called to Remembrance my Songs in the night Psal. 77.3 6. So there the Remembrance of our former sorrows addeth life to our Joys SECT VIII BUt Oh the full the near the sweet enjoyment is that of the Affections Love and Joy It 's near for Love is of the Essence of the Soul and Love is the Essence of God For God is Love 1 John 4.8 16. How near therefore is this Blessed Closure The Spirits phrase is God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Vers. 16. The acting of this affection wheresoever carryeth much delight along with it Especially when the object appears deserving and the Affection is strong But O what will it be when perfected Affections shall have the strongest perfect incessant actings upon the most perfect object the ever Blessed God Now the poor soul complains Oh that I could love Christ more but I cannot alas I cannot Yea but then thou canst not chuse but love him I had almost said forbear if thou canst Now thou knowest little of his Amiableness and therefore lovest little Then thine eye will affect thy heart and the continual viewing of that perfect beauty will keep thee in continual ravishments of Love Now thy Salvation is not perfected nor all the mercies purchased yet given in But when the top stone is set on thou shalt with shouting cry Grace Grace Now thy Sanctification is imperfect and thy pardon and Justification not so compleat as then it shall be Now thou knowest not what thou enjoyest and therefore lovest the less But when thou knowest much is forgiven and much bestowed thou wilt Love more Doth David after an imperfect deliverance sing forth his Love Psal. 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce and supplications What think you will he do eternally And how will he love the Lord who hath lifted him up to that Glory Doth he cry out O how I love thy Law My delight is in the Saints on earth and the excellent Psal. 16.3 How will he say then O how I love the Lord and the King of Saints in whom is all my delight Christians doth it not now stir up your love to remember all the experiences of his Love To look back upon a life oâ— mercies Doth not kindness melt you and the Sun-shine of Divine Goodness warm your frozen hearts What will it do then when you shall live in Love and have All in him who is All O the high delights of Love of this Love The content that the heart findeth in it The satisfaction it brings along with it Surely Love is both work and wages And if this were all what a high favour that God will give us leave to love him That he will vouchsafe to be embraced by such Arms that have embraced Lust and Sin before him But this is not all He returneth Love for Love nay a thousand times more As perfect as we shall be we cannot reach his measure of Love Christian thou wilt be then brim full of Love yet love as much as thou canst thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved Dost thou think thou canst overlove him What! love more then Love it self Were the Arms of the Son of God open upon the Cross and an open passage made to his Heart by the Spear and will not Arms and Heart be open to thee in Glory Did he begin to love before thou lovedst and will he not continue now Did he love thee an enemy thee a sinner thee who even loathedst thy self and own thee when thou didst disclaim thy self And will he not now unmeasurably love thee a Son thee a perfect Saint thee who returnest some love for Love Thou wast wont injuriously to Question his Love Doubt of it now if thou canst As the pains of Hell will convince the rebellious sinner of Gods wrath who would never before believe it So the Joys of Heaven will convince thee throughly of that Love which thou wouldst so hardly be perswaded of He that in love wept over the old Hierusalem neer her Ruines with what love will he rejoyce over the new Hierusalem in her Glory O methinks I see him groaning and weeping over dead Lazarus till he force the Jews that stood by to say Behold how he loved him Will he not then much more by rejoycing over us and blessing us make all even the damned if they see it to say Behold how he loveth them Is his Spouse while black yet comely Is she his Love his Dove his undefiled Doth she ravish his heart with one of her eyes Is her Love better then wine O believing soul study a little and tell me What is the Harvest which these first fruits foretel and the Love which these are but the earnest of Here O here is the Heaven of Heaven This is the Saints fruition of God! In these sweet mutual constant actings and embracements of Love doth it consist To Love and be beloved These are the Everlasting Arms that are underneath Deut. 33.27 His left hand is under their heads and with his right hand doth he embrace them Cant. 2.6 Reader stop here and think a while what a state this is Is it a small thing in thine eyes to be beloved of God to be the Son the Spouse the Love the delight of the King of Glory Christian believe this and think on it Thou shalt be eternally embraced in the Arms of that Love which was from everlasting and will extend to everlasting Of that Love which brought the Son of Gods Love from Heaven to Earth from Earth to the Cross from the Cross to the Grave from the Grave to Glory That Love which was weary hungry tempted scorned scourged buffetted spit upon crucified pierced which did fast pray teach heal weep sweat bleed dye That Love will eternally embrace thee When perfect created Love and most perfect uncreated love meet together O the blessed meeting It will
of few Cities The best Wheat may be cut down before its ripe Therefore it is promised to the Righteous as a blessing that they shall be brought as a shock of Corn into the Barn in season Nay it s possible he may die by his own hands Though some Divines think such Doctrine not fit to be taught least it encourage the tempted to commit the same sin but God hath left preservatives enough against sin without our devising more of our own neither hath he need of our lie in his glory He hath fixed that principle so deep in Nature that all should endeavor their own preservation that I never knew any whose understanding was not crazed or lost much subject to that sin even most of the Melancholly are more fearful to die then other men And this terror is preservative enough of that kinde That such committing of a hainous known Sin is a sad sign where there is the free use of Reason That therefore they make their Salvation more questionable That they die most woful scandals to the Church That however the sin it self should make the godly to abhor it were there no such danger or scandal attending it c. But to exclude from salvation of all those poor creatures who in Feavers Phrensies Madness Melancholly c. shall commit this sin is a way of prevention which Scripture teacheth not and too uncomfortable to the friends of the deceased The common argument which they urge drawn from the necessity of a particular repentance for every particular known sin as it is not universally true so were it granted it would exclude from salvation all men breathing For there was never any man save Christ who died not in some particular sin either of Commission or Omission great or small which he hath no more time to repent of then the sinner in Question But yet this may well be called untimely death But in the ordinary course of Gods dealings you may easily observe that he purposely maketh his peoples last hour in this life to be of all other to the flesh most bitter and in the Spirit most sweet and that they who feared death through the most of their lives yet at last are more willing of it then ever and all to make their Rest more seasonable Bread and drink are alway good but at such a time as Samarias siege to have plenty of food in stead of Doves dung in one nights space or in such a thirst as Ishmaels or Sampsons to have supply of water by miracle in a moment these are seasonable So this Rest is always good to the Saints and usually also is most seasonable Rest. SECT VII SEventhly A further excellency of this Rest is this As it will be a seasonable so a suitable Rest Suited 1. To the Natures 2. To the desires 3. To the necessities of the Saints 1. To their Natures If sutableness concur not with excellency the best things may be bad to us For it is that which makes things good in themselves to be good to us In our choice of friends we oft pass by the more excellent to chuse the more suitable Every good agrees not with every nature To live in a free and open air under the warming Rayes of the Sun is excellent to man because suitable But the flesh which is of another nature doth rather chuse another element and that which is to us so excellent would quickly be to it destructive The choicest dainties which we feed upon our selves would be to our Beast as an unpleasing so an insufficient sustenance The Iron which the Ostrich well digests would be but hard food for man Even among men contrary appetites delight in contrary objects You know the Proverb One mans meat is another mans poyson Now here is suitableness and excellency conjoyned The new nature of the Saints doth suit their Spirits to this Rest And indeed their holiness is nothing else but a sparke taken from this Element and by the Spirit of Christ kindled in their hearts the flame whereof as mindful of its own Divine original doth ever mount the soul aloft and tend to the place from whence it comes It worketh towards its own Center and makes us Restless till there we Rest. Gold and earthly Glory temporal Crowns and Kingdoms could not make a rest for Saints As they were not Redeemed with so low a price so neither are they indued with so low a nature These might be a portion for lower spirits and fit those whose natures they suit with but so they cannot a Saint-like nature As God will have from them a Spiritual VVorship suitable to his own Spiritual Being so will he provide them a spiritual Rest suitable to his peoples spiritual nature As Spirits have not fleshly substances so neither delight they in fleshly pleasures These are too gross and vile for them When carnal persons think of Heaven their conceivings of it are also carnal and their notions answerable to their own natures And were it possible for such to enjoy it it would sure be their trouble and not their Rest because so contrary to their dispositions A Heaven of good-fellowship of wine and wantonness of gluttony and all voluptuousness would far better please them as being more agreeing to their natures But a heaven of the knowledg of God and his Christ a delightful complacency in that mutual love an everlasting rejoycing in the fruition of our God a perpetual singing of his high praises this is a heaven for a Saint a spiritual Rest suitable to a spiritual nature Then dear friends we shall live in our own element We are now as the fish in some small vessel of water that hath only so much as will keep him alive but what is that to the full Ocean we have a little Air let in to us to afford us breathing but what is that to the sweet and fresh gales upon Mount Sion we have a beam of the Sun to lighten our darkness and a warm Ray to keep us from freezing but then we shall live in its light and be revived by its heat for ever O blessed be that hand which fetcht a coal and kindled a fire in our dead hearts from that same Altar where we must offer our Sacrifice everlastingly To be lockt up in Gold and in Pearl would be but a wealthy starving to have our Tables with Plate and ornament richly furnished without meat is but to be richly famished to be lifted up with humane applause is but a very airy felicity to be advanced to the Soveraignty of all the Earth would be but to wear a Crown of Thorns to be filled with the knowledg of Arts and Sciences would be but to further the conviction of our unhappiness But to have a nature like God his very Image holy as he is holy and to have God himself to be our happiness how well do these agree Whether that in 2 Pet. 1.4 be meant as is
the sinner now enter into a cordial Covenant with Christ. As the preceptive part is called the Covenant â—o he might be under the Covenant before as also under the offers of a Covenant on Gods part But he was never strictly nor comfortably in Covenant with Christ till now He is sure by the free offers that Christ doth consent and now doth he cordially consent himself and so the Agreement is fully made and it was never a match indeed till now 6. With this Covenant concurs a mutual delivery Christ delivereth himself in all comfortable Relations to the sinner and the sinner delivereth up himself to be saved and ruled by Christ. This which I call the delivering of Christ is His act in and by the Gospel without any change in himself The change is onely in the sinner to whom the conditional promises become equivalent to Absolute when they perform the conditions Now doth the soul resolvedly conclude I have been blindly led by flesh and lust and the world and devil too long already almost to my utter destruction I will now be wholly at the dispose of my Lord who hath bought me with his blood and will bring me to his glory 7. And lastly I adde That the believer doth herein persevere to the end Though he may commit sins yet he never disclaimeth his Lord renounceth his Allegiance nor recalleth nor repenteth of his Covenant nor can he properly be said to break that Covenant while that Faith continues which is the condition of it Indeed those that have verbally Covenanted and not cordially may yet tread under foot the blood of the Covenant as an unholy thing wherewith they were sanctified by separation from those without the Church But the elect cannot be so deceived Though this perseverance be certain to true believers yet is it made a condition of their Salvation yea of their continued life and fruitfulness and of the continuance of their Justification though not of their first Justification it self But eternally blessed be that hand of Love which hath drawn the free promise and subscribed and sealed to that which ascertains us both of the Grace which is the condition and the Kingdom on that condition offered SECT VI. ANd thus you have a naked enumeration of the Essentials of this People of God Not a full pourtraiture of them in all their excellencies nor all the notes whereby they may be discerned which were both beyond my present purpose And though it will be part of the following Application to put you upon tryal yet because the Description is now before your eyes and these evidencing works are fresh in your memory it will not be unseasonable nor unprofitable for you to take an account of your own estates and to view your selves exactly in this glass before you pass on any further And I beseech thee Reader as thou hast the hope of a Christian yea or the reason of a man to deal throughly and search carefully and judg thy self as one that must shortly be judged by the righteous God and faithfully answer to these few Questions which I shall here propound I will not enquire whether thou remember the time or the order of these workings of the spirit There may be much uncertainly and mistake in that But I desire thee to look into thy Soul and see whether thou finde such works wrought within thee and then if thou be sure they are there the matter is not so great though thou know not when or how thou camest by them And first hast thou been throughly convinced of an universal depravation through thy whole soul and an universal wickedness through thy whole life and how vile a thing this sin is and that by the tenor of that Covenant which thou hast transgressed the least sin deserves eternal death dost thou consent to this Law that it is true and righteous Hast thou perceived thy self sentenced to this death by it and been convinced of thy natural undone condition Hast thou further seen the utter insufficiency of every Creature either to be it self thy happiness or the means of curing this thy misery and thee happy again in God Hast thou been convinced that thy happiness is only in God as the end And only in Christ as the way to him and the end also as he is one with the Father and perceived that thou must be brought to God by Christ or perish eternally Hast thou seen hereupon an absolute necessity of thy enjoying Christ And the full sufficiency that is in him to do for thee whatsoever thy case requireth by reason of the fulness of his satisfaction the greatness of his power and dignity of his person and the freeness and indefiniteness of his promises Hast thou discovered the excellency of this pearl to be worth thy selling all to buy it Hath all this been joyned with some sensibility As the convictions of a man that thirsteth of the worth of drink and not been only a change in opinion produced by reading or education as a bare notion in the understanding Hath it proceeded to an abhorring that sin I mean in the bent and prevailing inclination of thy will though the flesh do attempt to reconcile thee to it Have both thy sin and misery been a burden to thy soul and if thou couldest not weep yet couldest thou heartily groan under the insupportable weight of both Hast thou renounced all thine own Righteousness Hast thou turned thy Idols out of thy heart So that the Creature hath no more the soveraignty but is now a servant to God and to Christ Dost thou accept of Christ as thy only Saviour and expect thy Justification Recovery and glory from him alone Dost thou take him also for Lord and King and are his Laws the most powerful commanders of thy life and soul Do they ordinarily prevail against the commands of the flesh of Satan of the greatest on earth that shall countermand and against the greatest interest of thy credit profit pleasure or life So that thy conscience is directly subject to Christ alone Hath he the highest room in thy heart and affections So that though thou canst not love him as thou wouldest yet nothing else is loved so much Hast thou made a hearty Covenant to this end with him And delivered up thy self accordingly to him and takest thy self for His and not thine own Is it thy utmost care and watchful endeavor that thou maist be found faithful in this Covenant and though thou fall into sin yet wouldst not renounce thy bargain nor change thy Lord nor give up thy self to any other government for all the world If this be truly thy case thou art one of these People of God which my Text speaks of And as sure as the Promise of God is true this Blessed Rest remaines for thee Only see thou abide in Christ and continue to the end For if any draw back his soul will have no pleasure in them But if all this be
of supplication to be importunate with him I doubt not but most Christians that observe the spirit and providences are able to attest this prevalency of prayer by their own experiences Object Perhaps you will say If these rare examples were common I would believe Answ. First If they were common they would be slieghted as common wonders are Secondly Importunate prayer is not common though formall babling be Thirdly The evident returns of prayer are ordinary to the faithfull Fourthly If wonders were common we should live by sense and not by faith Fifthly I answer in the words of Austin God letteth not every Saint partake of Miracles lest the weak should be deceived with this pernicious error to prefer Miracles as better then the works of Righteousness whereby eternall life is attained CHAP. VII The fourth Argument SECT I. MY Fourth and last Argument which I will now produce to prove the Scripture to be the Word and perfect Law of God is this Either the Scriptures are the written Word and Law of God or else there is no such extant in the world But there is a written Word and Law of God in the world Ergo This is it Here I have these two Positions to prove First That God hath such a written Word in the world Secondly That it can be no other but this That there is such a Word I prove thus If it cannot stand with the welfare of mankinde and consequently with that honor which the wisdom and goodness of God hath by their welfare that the world should be without a written Law then certainly there is such a written Law But that it cannot stand with the welfare of the creature or that honor of God appears thus That there be a certain and sufficient Revelation of the VVill of God to man more then meer Nature and Creatures do teach is necessary to the welfare of man and the aforesaid honour of God But there is now no such certain and sufficient Revelation unwritten in the world therefore it is necessary that there be such a Revelation written The proof of the Major is the main task which if it be well performed will clearly carry the whole cause for I believe all the rest will quickly be granted if that be once plain Therefore I shall stand a little the more largely to prove it viz. That there is a necessity for the welfare of man and the honor of Gods VVisdom and Goodness that there be some further Revelation of Gods VVill then is in meer Nature or Creatures to be found And first I will prove it necessary to the welfare of man And that thus If man have a Happiness or Misery to partake of after this life and no sufficient Revelation of it in Nature or Creatures then it is necessary that he have some other Revelation of it which is sufficient But such a Happiness or Misery man must partake of hereafter which Nature and Creatures do not sufficiently reveal either end or means therefore some other is necessary I will stand the largelier on the first Branch of the Antecedent because the chief weight lyeth on it and I scarce ever knew any doubt of Scripture but they also doubted of the immortal state and recompence of souls and that usually is their first and chiefest doubt I will therefore here prove these three things in order thus First That there is such a state for man hereafter Secondly That it is necessary that he know it and the way to be so happy Thirdly That Nature and Creatures do not sufficiently reveal it For the first I take it for granted that there is a God because Nature teacheth that and I shall pass over those Arguments drawn from his righteousness and just dispensations to prove the variety of mens future conditions because they are commonly known and I shall now argue from sense it self because that works best with sensual men and that thus If the devil be very diligent to deceive men of that Happiness and bring them to that misery then sure there is such a Happiness and Misery but the former is true Ergo the later They that doubt of the Major Proposition do most of them doubt whether there be any devil as well as whether he seek our eternal undoing I prove both together First By his Temptations Secondly Apparitions Thirdly Possessions and dispossessions Fourthly His Contracts with Witches I hope these are palpable Discoveries 1. The temptations of Satan are sometime so unnatural so violent and so importunate that the tempted person even feels something besides himself perswading and urging him He cannot go about his calling he cannot be alone but he feels somewhat following him with perswasions to sin yea to sins that he never found his nature much inclined to and such as bring him no advantage in the world and such as are quite against the temperature of his body Doth it not plainly tell us that there is a Devil labouring to deprive man of his Happiness when men are drawn to commit such monstrous sins Such cruelty as the Romans used to the Jews at the taking of Jerusalem So many thousand Christians so barbarously murdered such bloudy actions as those of Nero Caligula Sylla Messala Caeracalla the Romane Gladiatores the French Massacre the Gunpowder Plot the Spanish Inquisition and their murdering fifty millions of Indians in fourty two years according to the Testimony of Acosta their Jesuite Men invading their own neighbours and brethren with an unquenchable thirst after their blood and meerly because of their strictness in the common professed Religion as the late cruel wars in England have declared I say how could these come to pass but by the instigation of the Devil When we see men making a jâ—st of such sins as these making them their pleasure impudently and implacably against Knowledg and Conscience proceeding in them hating those ways that they know to be better and all those persons that would help to save them yea chusing sin though they believe it will damn them despairing and yet sinning still Doth not this tell men plainly that there is a Devil their enemy When men will commit the sin which they abhor in others which Reason is against when men of the best natures as Vespasian Julian c. shall be so bloody murderers when men will not be stirred from sin by any intreaty though their dearest friends should beg with teares upon their knees though Preachers convince them and beseech them in the name of the Lord though wife and children body and soul be undone by it Nay when men will be the same under the greatest judgments and under the most wonderful convincing Providences as appears in England yea under Miracles themselves Surely I think all this shews that there is a Devil and that he is diligent in working out ruine Why else should it be so hard a thing to perswade a man to that which he is convinced to be good SECT II. 2. BUt
speak sense or reason But in a word our want of seriousness about the things of Heaven doth charme the souls of men into formality and hath brought them to this customary careless hearing which undoes them The Lord pardon the great sin of the Ministery in this thing and in particular my own And are the people any more serious then Magistrates and Ministers How can it be expected Reader look but to thy self and resolve the question Ask conscience and suffer it to tell thee truely Hast thou set thine Eternal Rest before thine eyes as the great business which thou hast to do in this world Hast thou studied and cared and watcht and labored and laid about thee with all thy might lest any should take thy Crown from thee Hast thou made hast lest thou shouldest come too late and dye before the work be done Hath thy very heart been set upon it and thy desires and thoughts run out this way Hast thou pressed on through crowdes of opposition towards the Mark for this price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus still reaching forth unto those things which are before When you have set your hand to the work of God have you done it with all your might Can conscience witness your secret cries and groans or teares Can your families witness that you have taught them the fear of the Lord and warned them all with earnestness and unweariedness to remember God and their souls and to provide for Everlasting Or that you have done but as much for them as that damned Glutton would have had Lazarus do for his brethren on earth to warn them that they come not to that place of Torment Can your Ministers witness that they have heard you cry out What shall we do to be saved and that you have followed them with complaints against your corruptions and with earnest enquiries after the Lord Can your neighbors about you witness that you are still learning of them that are able to instruct you and that you plainly and roundly reprove the ungodly and take pains for the saving of your brethrens souls Let all these witnesses Judg this day between God and you Whether you are in good sadness about the affaires of Eternall Rest. But if yet you cannot discern your neglects Look but to your selves within you without you to the work you have done you can tell by his work whether your servant have loytered though you did not see him so you may by your selves Is your love to Christ your faith your zeal and other graces strong or weak What are your joyes what is your Assurance Is all right and strong and in order within you Are you ready to dye if this should be the day Do the souls among whom you have conversed bless you Why Judg by this and it will quickly appear whether you have been Labourers or Loyterers O Blessed Rest how unworthily art thou neglected O glorious Kingdom how art thou undervalued Little know the careless sons of men what a state they set so light by If they once knew it they would sure be of another minde CHAP. VI. An Exhortation to Seriousness in seeking Rest. SECT I. I Hope Reader by this time thou art somewhat sensible what a desperate thing it is to trifle about our Eternal Rest and how deeply thou hast been guilty of this thy self And I hope also that thou darest not now suffer this Conviction to dye but art resolved to be another man for the time to come What sayst thou Is this thy Resolution If thou were sick of some desperate disease and the Physitian should tell thee If you will observe but one thing I doubt not to cure you wouldst thou not observe it Why if thou wilt observe but this one thing for thy Soul I make no doubt of thy Salvation If thou wilt now but shake off thy sloath and put to all thy strength and ply the work of God unweariedly and be a down-right Christian in good sadness I know not what can hinder thy Happiness As far as thou art gone from God if thou wouldst but now return and seek him with all thy heart no doubt but thou shalt find him As unkindly as thou hast dealt with Jesus Christ if thou didst but feel thy self sick and dead and seek him heartily and apply thy self in good earnest to the obedience of his Laws thy Salvation were as sure as if thou hadst it already But as full as the Satisfaction of Christ is as free as the Promise is as large as the Mercy of God is yet if thou do but look on these and talk of them when thou shouldst greedily entertain them thou wilt be never the better for them and if thou loiter when thou shouldst labour thou wilt lose the Crown Oh fall to work then speedily and seriously and bless God that thou hast yet time to do it and though that which is past cannot be recalled yet redeem the time now by doubling thy diligence And because thou shalt see I urge thee not without cause I will here adjoyn a multitude of Considerations to Move thee yet do I not desire thee to take them by number but by waight Their intent and use is to drive thee from Delaying and from Loytering in seeking Rest And to all men do I propound them both Godly and ungodly Whoever thou art therefore I entreat thee to rouze up thy spirit and read them deliberately and give me a little while thy attention as to a message from God and as Moses said to the people Deut. 32.46 Set thy heart to all the words that I testifie to thee this day for it is not a vain thing but it is for thy Life Weigh what I here wright with the Judgment of a man and if I speak not Reason throw it back in my face but if I do see thou entertain and obey it accordingly and the Lord open thy heart and fasten his counsel effectually upon thee SECT II. 1. COnsider Our Affections and Actions should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the Ends to which they are intended Now the Ends of a Christians Desires and Endeavors are so Great that no humane understanding on earth can comprehend them whether you respect their proper Excellency their exceeding Importance or their absolute Necessity These Ends are The Glorifying of God The Salvation of our own and other mens Souls in our escaping the Torments of Hell and Possessing the Glory of Heaven And can a man be too much affected with things of such Moment Can he Desire them too Earnestly or Love them too Violently or Labour for them too Diligently When we know that if our prayers prevail not and our labour succeed not we are undone for ever I think it concerns us to seek and labour to the purpose When it is put to the Question Whether we shall live for ever in Heaven or in Hell and the Question must be resolved upon our Obeying
be an Ignorant carnal person that you have to deal with who is an utter stranger to the Mysteries of Religion and to the work of Regeneration on his own Soul the first thing you have to do is to acquaint him with these Doctrines Labour to make him understand wherein mans chief Happiness doth consist and how far he was once possessed of it and what Law and Covenant God then made with him and how he broke it and what penalty he incurred and what misery he brought himself into thereby Teach him what need men had of a Redeemer and how Christ in mercy did interpose and â—ear the penalty and what Covenant now he hath made with man and on what terms only Salvation is now to be attained and what course Christ taketh to draw men to himself and what are the riches and priviledges that Believers have in him If when he understandeth these things he be not moved by them or if you find that the stop lieth in his will and affections and in the hardness of his heart and in the interest that the flesh and the world have got in him Then shew him the excellency of the Glory which he neglecteth and the intolerableness of the loss of it and the extremity and eternity of the torments of the damned and how certainly they must endure them and how just it is for their wilful refusals of grace and how hainâ—us a sin it is to reject such free and abundant mercy and to tread under foot the blood of the Covenant Shew him the certainty nearness and terrors of death and judgment and the vanity of all things below which now he is taken up with and how little they will bestead him in that time of his extremity Shew him that by nature he himself is a child of wrath and enemy to God and by actual sin much more Shew him the viâ—e and hainous nature of sin the absolute necessity he standeth in of a Saviour the freeness of the promise the fulness of Christ the sufficiency of his Satisfaction his readiness to receive all that are willing to be his the Authority and Dominion which he hath purchased over us Shew him also the absolute necessity of Regeneration Faith and Holiness of life how impossible it is to have Salvation by Christ without these and what they are and the true nature of them If when he understandeth all this you find his Soul inthralled in presumption and false hopes perswading himself that he is a true Believer and pardoned and reconciled and shall be saved by Christ and all this upon false grounds or meerly because he would have it so which is a common case Then urge him hard to examine his state shew him the necessity of trying the danger of being deceived the commonness and easiness of mistaking through the deceitfulness of the heart the extream madness of putting it to a blind adventure or of resting in negligent or wilful uncertainty Help him in trying himself Produce some undenyable Evidences from Scripture Ask him Whether these be in him or not Whether ever he found such workings or dispositions in his heart Urge him to a rational answer do not leave him till you have convinced him of his misery and then seasonably and wisely shew him the remedy If he produce some common gifts or duties or works know to what end he doth produce them If to joyn with Christ in composing him a Righteousness shew him how vain and destructive they are If it be by way of Evidence to prove his title to Christ shew him how far a common work may reach and wherein the Life of Christianity doth consist and how far he must go further if he will be Christ's disciple In the mean time that he be not discouraged with hearing of so high a measure shew him the way by which he must attain it be sure to draw him to the use of all means set him a hearing and reading the Word calling upon God accompanying the godly perswade him to leave his actual sin and to get out of all ways of temptation especially to forsake ungodly company and to wait patiently on God in the use of means and shew him the strong hopes that in so doing he may have of a blessing this being the way that God will be found in If you perceive him possessed with any prejudicate conceits against the godly and the way of holiness shew him their falshood and with wisdom and meekness answer his Objections If he be addicted to delay the duties he is convinced of or laziness and stupidity do endanger his Soul then lay it on the more powerfully and set home upon his heart the most piercing considerations and labour to fasten them as thorns in his conscience that he may find no ease or rest till he change his estate SECT IV. BUt because in all works the manner of doing them is of greatest moment and the right performance doth much further the success I will here adjoyn a few Directions which you must be sure to observe in this work of Exhortation for it is not every advice that useth to succeed nor any manner of doing it that will serve the turn Observe therefore these Rules 1. Set upon the work sincerely and with right intentions Let thy Ends be the Glory of God in the parties Salvation Do it not to get a name or esteem to thy self or to bring men to depend upon thee or to get thee followers Do not as many carnal Parents and Masters will do viz. rebuke their Children and Servants for those sins that displease them and are against their profit or their humors as disobedience unthriftiness unmannerliness c. and labour much to reform them in these but never seek in the right way that God hath appointed to save their Souls But be sure thy main end be to recover them from misery and bring them into the way of eternal Rest. SECT V. 2. DO it Speedily As you would not have them Delay their returning so do not you Delay to seek their return You are purposing long to speak to such an Ignorant neighbor and to deal with such a scandalous sinner and yet you have never done it Alas he runs on the score all this while he goes deeper in debt wrath is heaping up Sin taketh rooting Custom doth more fasten him Engagements to sin grow stronger and more numerous Conscience grows seared the heart grows hardened while you delay the Devil rules and rejoyceth Christ is shut out the Spirit is repulsed God is dayly dishonored his Law is violated he is without a Servant and that service from him which he should have the Soul continueth in a doleful state time runs on the day of visitation hasteth away death and judgment are even at the door and what if the man dye and miss of Heaven while you are purposing to teach him and help him to it What if he drop into hell while you are purposing to prevent
temper of the person All meats are not for all stomacks One man will vomit that up again in your face which another will digest 1. If it be a learned or ingenious rational man you must deal more by convincing Arguments and less by passionate perswasions 2. If it be one that is both ignorant and stupid there is need of both 3. If one that is convinced but yet is not converted you must use most those means that rouze up the affections 4. If they be obstinate and secure you must reprove them sharply 5. If they be of timorous tender natures and apt to dejections or distraction they must be tenderly dealt with All cannot bear that rough dealing as some can Love and Plainness and Seriousness takes with all but words of terror some can scarce bear This is as we say of stronger Physick Hellebore Colloquintida c. nec puero nec seni nec imbecillo sed robusto c. not fit for every complexion and state 3. You must be wise also in using the aptest expressions Many a Minister doth deliver most excellent necessary matter in such unsavory harsh and unseemly language that it makes the hearers loath the food that they should live by and laugh at a Sermon that might make them quake Especially if they be men of curious ears and carnal hearts and have more common wit and parts then the speaker And so it is in private Exhortation as well as publique If you cloath the most amiable beautiful Truth in the sordid rags of unbeseeming language you will make men disdain it as monstrous and deformed though it be the off-spring of God and of the highest nature SECT X. 7. LEt all your Reproofs and Exhortations be backed with the Authority of God Let the sinner be convinced that you speak not from your selves or of your own head Shew them the very words of Scripture for what you say Turn them to the very Chapter and Verse where their sin is condemned and where the duty is commanded Press them with the Truth and Authority of God Ask them whether they beleeve that this is his Word and that his Word is true So much of God as appeareth in our Words so much will they take The voyce of man is contemptible but the voyce of God is awful and terrible They can and may reject your words that cannot nor dare reject the words of the Almighty Be sure therefore to make them know that you speak nothing but what God hath spoken first SECT XI 8. YOu must also be Frequent with men in this Duty of Exhortation It is not once or twice that usually will prevail If God himself must be constantly solicited as if importunity could prevail with him when nothing else can and therefore require us always to pray and not to wax faint the same course no doubt will be most prevailing with men Therefore are we commanded to Exhort one another dayly and with all long-suffering As Lypsius saith The fire is not always brought out of the flint at one stroke nor mens affections kindled at the first exhortation And if they were yet if they be not followed they will soon grow cold again Weary out sinners with your loving and earnest entreaties Follow them and give them no rest in their sin This is true Charity and this is the way to save mens Souls and a course that will afford you comfort upon review SECT XII 9. STrive to bring all your Exhortations to an Issue Stick not in the work done but look after the success and aim at that end in all your speeches I have long observed it in Ministers and private men that if they speak never so convincing powerful words and yet their hearts do not long after the success of them with the hearers but all their care is over when they have done their speech pretending that having done their duty they leave the Issue to God these men do seldom prosper in their labors But those whose very heart is set upon the work and that long to see it take for the hearers conversion and use to enquire how it speeds God usually blesseth their labors though more weak Labor therefore to drive all your speeches to the desired Issue If you are reproving a sin cease not till if it may be you have got the sinner to promise you to leave it and to avoyd the occasions of it If you are exhorting to a Duty urge the party to promise you presently to set upon it If you would draw them to Christ leave not till you have made them confess that their present unregenerate state is miserable and not to be rested in and till they have subscribed to the necessity of Christ and of a change and till they have promised you to fall close to the use of means O that all Christians would be perswaded to take this course with all their Neighbors that are yet in the flesh that are enslaved to sin and strangers to Christ SECT XIII 10. LAstly Be sure that your Examples may Exhort as well as your words Let them see you constant in all the Duties that you perswade them to Let them see in your lives that difference from sinners and that excellency above the world which you perswade them to in your speeches Let them see by your constant Labors for Heaven that you do indeed beleeve that which you would have them to beleeve If you tell others of the admirable Joys of Heaven and your selves do nothing but drudg for the world and are as much taken up in striving to be rich or as quarrelsom with your Neighbors in a case of commodity as any others who will then beleeve you or who will be perswaded by you to seek the everlasting riches Will they not rather think that you perswade them to look after another world and to neglect this that so you might have the more of it to your self Let not men see you proud while you exhort them to be humble nor to have a seared Conscience in one thing while you would have theirs tender in another An innocent life is a continual powerful reproof to the wicked And the constant practice of a holy and heavenly life is a constant disquietment to the Conscience of a Worldling and a constant solicitation of him to change his course And thus I have opened to you the first and great part of this Duty consisting in private familiar Exhortation for the helping of poor Souls to this Rest that are out of the way and have yet no Title to it and I have shewed you also the maner how to perform it that you may succeed I will now speak a little of the next part SECT XIV BEsides the duty of private admonition you must do your utmost endevors to help men to profit by the publique Ordinances And to that end you must do these things 1. Do your endevors for the procuring of Faithful Ministers where
Have you as oft and as earnestly begged of them to think on their wayes and to reform as you have taken on you to beg of God that they may do so What if you should see your neighbor faln into a pit and you should presently fall down on your knees and pray God to help him out but would neither put forth your hand to help nor once perswade or direct him to help himself would not any man censure you to be cruell and hypocriticall What the Holy Ghost saith of mens bodily miseries I may say much more of the misery of their souls If any man seeth his brother in need and shutteth up his compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him Or what love hath he to his brothers soul Sure if you saw your friend in Hell you would perswade him hard to come thence if that would serve and why do you not now perswade him to prevent it The Charity of our ignorant forefathers may rise up in judgment against us and condemn us They would give all their estates almost for so many Masses or pardons to deliver the souls of their friends from a feigned Purgatory And we will not so much as importunately admonish and intreat them to save them from the certain flames of Hell though this may be effectuall to do them good and the other will do none 4. Another hinderance is A base man pleasing disposition that is in us We are so loath to displease men and so desirous to keep in credit and favor with them that it makes us most unconscionably neglect our known duty A foolish Physitian he is and a most unfaithful friend that will let a sick man dye for fear of troubling him And cruel wretches are we to our friends that will rather suffer them to go quietly to hell then we will anger them or hazard our reputation with them If they did but fall in a swoon we would rub them and pinch them and never stick at hurting them If they were distracted we would binde them with chains and we would please them in nothing that tended to their hurt And yet when they are besides themselves in point of salvation and in â—heir madness posting on to damnation we will not stop them for fear of displeasing them How can these men be Christians that love the praise and favour of men more then the favor of God John 12.43 For if they yet seek to please men they are no longer the servants of Christ Gal. 1.10 To winne them indeed they must become all things to all men but to please them to their destruction and let them perish that we may keep our credit with them is a course so base and barbarously cruel that he that hath the face of a Christian should abhorre it 5. Another common hinderance is A sinful Bashfulness When we should labor to make men ashamed of their sins we are our selves ashamed of our duties May not these sinners condemn us when they will not blush to swear or be drunk or neglect the worship of God and we will blush to tell them of it and perswade them from it Elisha looked on Hazael till he was ashamed and we are ashamed to look on or speak to the offender Sinners will rather boast of their sins and impudently shew them in the open streets and shall not we be as bold in drawing them from it Not that I approve of impudence in any For as one saith I take him for a lost man that hath lost his modesty Nor would I have inferiors forget their distance in admonishing their superiors but do it with all humility submission and respect But yet I would much less have them forget their duty to God and their friends be they never so much their superiors it is a thing that must be done Bashfulness is unseemly in cases of flat necessity And indeed it is not a work to be ashamed of to obey God in perswading men from their sins to Christ and helping to save their souls is not a business for a man to blush at And yet alas what abundance of souls have been neglected through the prevailing of this sin Even the most of us are hainously guilty in this point Reader is not this thy own case Hath not thy conscience told thee of thy duty many a time and put thee on to speak to poor sinners lest they perish and yet thou hast been ashamed to open thy mouth to them and so let them alone to sink or swim Believe me thou wilt ere long be ashamed of this shame O read those words of Christ and tremble He that is ashamed of me and of my words before this adulterous generation of him will the son of man be ashamed before his father and the Angels 5. Another hinderance is impatiency laziness and favouring of the flesh It is an ungrateful work and for the most part maketh those our enemies that were our friends And men cannot bear the reproaches and unthankful returns of sinners It may be they are their chief friends on whom is all their dependance so that it may be their undoing to displease them Besides it is a work that seldom succeedeth at the first except it be followed on with wisdom and unweariedness you must be a great while teaching an ignorant person before they will be brought to know the very fundamentals and a great while perswading an obstinate sinner before he will come to a full resolution to return Now this is a tedious course to the flesh and few will bear it Not considering what patience God used towards us when we were in our sins and how long he followed us with the importunities of his Spirit holding out Christ and life and beseeching us to accept them Wo to us if God had been as impatient with us as we are with others If Christ be not weary nor give over to invite them we have little reason to be weary of doing the message See 2 Timothy 2.24 25 6. Another hinderance is self-seeking and self-minding Men are all for themselves and all minde their own things but few the things of Christ and their brethren Hence is that Cainish voice Am I my brothers keeper Every man must answer for himself Hence also it is that a multitude of ignorant professors do think only where they may enjoy the purest ordinances and thither they will go over sea and land or what way of discipline will be sweetest to themselves and therefore are prone to groundless separation But where they have the fairest opportunity to win the souls of others or in what place or way they may do most good these things they little or nothing regard As if we had learned of the Monks and were setting up their principles and practice when we seem to oppose them If these men had tryed what some of their brethren have done they would know that all the purest ordinances and Churches will not
it be only the voice of a Cain to say Am I my brothers keeper I would have one of these men that are so loath that private men should teach them to tell me What if a man fall down in a swoon in the streets though it be your father or superior would you not take him up presently and use all means you could to recover him Or would you let him lye and dye and say It is the work of the Physitian and not mine I will not invade the Physitians calling In two cases every man is a Physitian First In case of necessity and when a Physitian cannot be had and secondly in case the hurt be so small that every man can do it as well as the Physitian And in the same two cases every man must be a Teacher Object Some will further object to put off this duty That the party is so ignorant or stupid or careless or rooted in sin and hath been so oft exhorted in vain that there is no hope Ans. How know you when there is no hope Cannot God yet cure him and must it not be by means and have not many as far gone been cured should not a mercifull Physitian use means while there is life and is it not inhuman cruelty in you to give up your friend to the divel and damnation as hopeless upon meer backwardness to your duty or upon groundless discouragements What if you had been so given up your self when you were ignorant Object But we must not cast pearls before Swine nor give that which is holy to Dogs Ans. That is but a favorable dispensation of Christ for your own safety When you are in danger to be torn in pieces Christ would have you forbear but what is that to you that are in no such danger As long as they will hear you have encouragement to speak and may not cast them off as contemptuous Swine Obj. O but it is a friend that I have all my dependance on and by telling him of his sin and misery I may lose his love and so be undone Answ. Sure no man that hath the face of a Christian will for shame own such an objection as this Yet I doubt it oft prevaileth in the heart Is his love more to be valued then his safety or thy own benefit by him then the salvation of his soul Or wilt thou connive at his damnation because he is thy friend Is that thy best requital of his Friendship Hadst thou rather he should burn for ever in Hell then thou shouldst lose his favor or the maintenance thou hast from him Object But I hope though he be not regenerate and holy that he is in no such danger Ans. Nay then if thou be one that dost not believe Gods word I have no more to say to thee Joh. 3.3 Heb. 12.14 I told you before that this unbelief was the root of all TO conclude this Use that I may prevaile with every soul that feareth God to use their utmost diligence to help all about them to this blessed Rest which they hope for themselves let me intreat you to consider of these following Motives 1. Consider Nature teacheth the communicating of good and grace doth especially dispose the soul thereto The neglect therefore of this work is a sin against both Nature and Grace He that should never seek after God himself would quickly be concluded graceless by all And is not he as certainly graceless that doth not labor the salvation of others when we are bound to love our neighbour as our self Would you not think that man or woman unnaturall that would let their own children or neighbors famish in the streets while they have provision at hand And is not he more unnatural that will let his children or neighbors perish eternally and will not open his mouth to save them Certainly this is most barbarous cruelty Pity to the miserable is so natural that we account an unmerciful cruel man a very monster to be abhored of all Many vicious men are too much loved in the world but a cruel man is abhorred of all Now that it may appear to you what a cruel thing this neglect of souls is do but consider of these two things First How great a work it is Secondly And how small a matter it is that thou refusest to do for the accomplishing of so great a work First It is to save thy brother from eternal flames that he may not there lye roaring in endless remediless torments It is to bring him to the Everlasting Rest where he may live in unconceivable happiness with God Secondly And what is it that you should do to help him herein Why it is to teach him and perswade him and lay open to him his sin and his duty his misery and the remedy till you have made him willing to yield to the offers and commands of Christ. And is this so great a matter for to do to the attaining of such a blessed End If God had bid you give them all your estates to win them or lay down your lives to save them sure you would have refused when you will not bestow a little breath to save them Is not the soul of a Husband or Wife or Childe or Neighbor worth a few words It is worth this or it is worth nothing If they did lye dying in the streets and a few words would save their lives would not every man say that he were a cruel wretch that would let them perish rather than speak to them Even the covetuous hypocrite that James reproveth would give a few words to the poor and say go and be warmed be cloathed What a barbarous unmerciful wretch then art thou that wilt not vouchsafe a few words of serious sober admonition to save the soul of thy neighbor or friend Cruelty and unmercifulness to mens bodies is a most damnable sin but to their souls much more as the soul is of greater worth then the body and as eternity is of greater moment then this short time Alas you do not see or feel what case their souls are in when they are in Hell for want of your faithful admonition Little know you what many a soul may now be feeling who have been your neighbors and acquaintance and dyed in their sins on whom you never bestowed one hours sober advice for the preventing of their unhappiness If you did know their misery you would now do more to bring them out of hell but alas it is too late you should have done it while they were with you it is now too late As one said in reproach of Physitians that they were the most happy men because all their good deeds and cures were seen above ground to their praise but all their mistakes and neglects were buried out of sight so I may say to you many a neglect of yours to the souls about you may be now buried with those souls in Hell out of your sight and hearing and
therefore now it doth not much trouble you but alas they feel it though you feel it not May not many a Papist rise up in judgment against us and condemn us They will give their lands and estates to have so many Masses said for the souls of their deceased friends when it is too late to bring them out of a feigned Purgatory And we will not ply them with perswasions while we may to save them from real threatned condemnation Though this cheaper means may prove effectual when that dearer way of Papists will do no good Jeremy cryed out My bowels My bowels I cannot hold my peace because of a temporall destruction of his people And do not our bowels yearn and can we hold our peace at mens eternall destruction 2. Consider What a rate Christ did value souls at and what he hath done towards the saving of them He thought them worth his blood and sufferings and shall not we then think them worth the breath of our mouths VVill you not set in with Christ for so good a work Nor do a little where he hath done so much 3. Consider What fit objects of pity they are It is no small misery to be an enemy to God unpardoned unsanctified strangers to the Churches special priviledges without hope of salvation if they so live and dye And which is yet more they are dead in these their trespasses and miseries and have not hearts to feel them or to pity themselves If others do not pity them they will have no pity for it is the nature of their disease to make them pitiâ—less to their own souls yea to make them the most cruel destroyers of themselves 4. Consider It was once thy own case Thou wast once a slave of Satan thy self and confidently didst go on in the way to condemnation What if thou hadst been let alone in that way Whither hadst thou gone and what had become of thee It was Gods Argument to the Israelites to be kinde to strangers because themselves were sometime strangers in Egypt so may it perswade you to shew compassion to them that are strangers to Christ and to the hopes and comforts of the Saints because you were once as strange to them your selves 5. Consider The Relation that thou standest in toward them It is thy neighbor thy brother whom thou art bound to be tender of and to love as thy self He that loveth not his brother whom â—e seeth daily most certainly doth not love God whom he never saw And doth he love his brother that will stand by and see him go to hell and never hinder him 6. Consider What a deal of guilt this neglect doth lay upon thy soul. First Thou art guilty of the murder and damnation of all those souls whom thou dost thus neglect He that standeth by and seeth a man in a pit and will not pull him out if he can doth drown him And he that standeth by while theeves rob him or murderers kill him and will not help him if he can is accessory to the fact And so he that will silently suffer men to damn their souls or will let Satan and the world deceive them and not offer to help them will certainly be Judged guilty of damning them And is not this a most dreadful consideration O Sirs how many souls then have every one of us been guilty of damning What a number of our neighbors and acquaintance are dead in whom we discerned no signs of sanctification and we never did once plainly tell them of it or how to be recovered If you had been the cause but of burning a mans house through your negligence or of undoing him in the world or of destroying his body how would it trouble you as long as you lived If you had but killed a man unadvisedly it would much disquiet you We have known those that have been guilty of murder that could never sleep quietly after nor have one comfortable day their own consciences did so vex and torment them O then what a heart maist thou have that hast been guilty of murdering such a multitude of pretious souls Remember this when thou lookest thy friend or carnal neighbor in the face and think with thy self Can I finde in my heart through my silence and negligence to be guilty of his everlasting burning in Hell Me thinks such a thought should even untye the tongue of the dumb 2. And as you are guilty of their perishing so are you of every sin which in the mean time they do commit If they were converted they would break off their course of sinning and if you did your duty you know not but they might be converted As he that is guilty of a mans drunkenness is guilty of all the sins which that drunkenness doth cause him to commit So he that is guilty of a mans continuing unregenerate is also guilty of the sins of his unregeneracie How many curses and oathes and scornes at Gods wayes and other sins of most hanious nature are many of you guilty of that little think of it You that live godlily and take much pains for your own souls and seem fearful of sinning would take it ill of one that should tell you that you are guilty of weekly or daily whoredomes and drunkenness and swearing and lying c. And yet it is too true even beyond all denial by your neglect of helping those who do commit them 3. You are guilty also as of the sin so of all the dishonor that God hath thereby And how much is that And how tender should a Christian be of the Glory of God the least part whereof is to be valued before all our lives 4. You are guilty also of all those Judgments which those mens sins do bring upon the town or countrey where they live I know you are not such Atheists but you believe it is God that sendeth sickness and famine and war and also that it is only sin that moveth him to this indignation What doubt then is there but you are the cause of Judgments who do not strive against those sins which do cause them God hath stayed long in patience to see if any would deal plainly with the sinners of the times and so free their own souls from the guilt But when he seeth that there is almost none but all become guilty no wonder then if he lay the Judgment upon all We have all seen the drunkards and heard the swearers in our streets and we would not speak to them we have al lived in the midst of an Ignorant worldly unholy people and we have not spoke to them with earnestness plainness and love No wonder then if God speak in his wrath both to them and us Eli did not commit the sin himself and yet he speaketh so coldly against it that he also must bear the punishment Guns and Canons speak against sin in England because the inhabitants would not speak God pleadeth with us with fire and sword because
we would not plead with sinners with our tongues God locketh up the clouds because we have shut up our mouthes The earth is grown hard as Iron to us because we have hardened our hearts against our miserable neighbors The cryes of the poor for bread are lowd because our cryes against sin have been so low Sicknesses run apace from house to house and sweep away the poor unprepared inhabitants because we swept not out the sin that breedeth them When you look over the woful desolations in England how ready are you to cry out on them that were the causers of it But did you consider how deeply your selves are guilty And as Christ said in another case Luk. 19 40. If these should hold their peace the stones would speak So because we held our peace at the Ignorance ungodliness and wickedness of our places therefore do these plagues and Judgments speak 7. Consider What a thing it will be to look upon your poor friends eternally in those flames and to think that your neglect was a great cause of it and that there was a time when you might have done much to prevent it If you should there perish with them it would be no small aggravation of your torment If you be in Heaven it would sure be a sad thought were it possible that any sorrow could dwell there To hear a multitude of poor souls there cry out for ever O if you would but have told me plainly of my sin and danger and dealt roundly with me and set it home I might have scaped all this torment and been now in Rest O what a sad voice will this be 8. Consider What a Joy is it like to be in Heaven to you to meet those there whom you have been means to bring thither To see their faces and joyn with them for ever in the praises of God whom you were instruments to bring to the knowledge and obedence of Christ. What it will be then we know not But sure according to our present temper it would be no small Joy 9. Consider how many souls have we drawn into the way of damnation or at least hardened or setled in it And should we not now be more diligent to draw men to life There is not one of us but have had our companions in sin especially in the dayes of our Ignorance and unregeneracy We have enticed them or encouraged them to Sabbath-breaking drinking or revellings or dancings and stageplayes or wantonness and vanities if not to scorn and oppose the godly We cannot so easily bring them from sin again as we did draw them to it Many are dead already without any change discovered who were our companions in sin we know not how many are and will be in hell that we drew thither and there may curse us in their torments for ever And doth it not beseem us then to do as much to save men as we have done to destroy them and be merciful to some as we have been cruel to others 10. Consider how diligent are all the enemies of these poor souls to draw them to Hell And if no body be diligent in helping them to Heaven what is like to become of them The Divel is tempting them day and night Their inward lusts are still working and withdrawing them The flesh is still pleading for its delights and profits Their old companions are ready to entice them to sin and to disgrace Gods wayes and people to them and to contradict the doctrine of Christ that should save them and to encrease their prejudice and dislike of holiness Seducing Teachers are exceeding diligent in sowing tares and in drawing off the unstable from the doctrine and way of life so that when we have done all we can and hope we have won men what a multitude of late have after all been taken in this snare And shall a seducer be so unwearied in Proselyting poor ungrounded souls to his Fancies And shall not a sound Christian be much more unwearied in laboring to win men to Christ and Life 11. Consider The neglect of this doth very deeply wound when conscience is awaked When a man comes to dye conscience will ask him VVhat good hast thou done in thy life time The saving of souls is the greatest good work what hast thou done towards this How many hast thou dealt faithfully with I have oft observed that the consciences of dying men do very much wound them for this omission For my own part to tell you my experience when ever I have been neer death my conscience hath accused me more for this then for any sin It would bring every ignorant prophane neighbor to my remembrance to whom I never made known their danger It would tell me Thou shouldst have gone to them in private and told them plainly of their desperate danger without bashfulness or dawbing though it had been when thou shouldest have eaten or slept if thou hadst no other time Conscience would then remember me how at such a time or such a time I was in company with the ignorant or was riding by the way with a wilful sinner and had a fit opportunity to have dealt with them but did not or at least did it by the halves and to little purpose The Lord grant I may better obey conscience hereafter while I live and have time that it may have less to accuse me of at death 12. Consider further It is now a very seasonable time which you have for this work Take it therefore while you have it There are times wherein it is not safe to speak it may cost you your liberties or your lives It is not so now with us Besides your neighbours will be here with you but a very little while They will shortly dye and so must you Speak to them therefore while you may set upon them and give them no rest till you have prevailed Do it speedily for it must be now or never A Roman Emperor when he heard of a neighbor dead he asked And what did I do for him before he dyed and it grieved him that a man should dye neer him and it could not be said that he had first done him any good Me thinks you should think of this when you hear that any of your neighbors are dead But I had far rather while they are alive you would ask the question There is such and such a neighbor alas how many that are ignorant and ungodly what have I done or said that might have in it any likely-hood of recovering them They will shortly be dead and then it is too late 13. Consider this is a work of greatest charity and yet such as every one of you may perform If it were to give them moneys the poor have it not to give if to fight for them the weak cannot if it were to suffer the fearful will say they cannot But every one hath a tongue to speak to a sinner The poorest may be thus charitable as well as the
souls Peter reasons the clean contrary way If the righteous be scarcely saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.18 And so doth Christ Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many shall seek to enter and not be able Other mens miscariages should quicken our diligence and not make us cast away all VVhat would you think of that man that should look over into his neighbors garden and because he sees here and there a nettle or weed among much better stuffe should say Why you may see these men that bestow so much pains in digging and weeding have weeds in their garden as well as I that do nothing and therefore who would be at so much pains Just thus doth the mad world talk You may see now those that pray and read and follow Sermons have their faults as well as we and have wicked persons among them as well as we Yea but that is not the whole garden as yours is it is but here and there a weed and as soon as they spy it they pluck it up and cast it away 4. But however if such men be as wicked as you imagine can you for shame lay the fault upon the Scripture or Ordinances of God Do they finde any thing in the Scriptures to encourage them to sin You may far better say It is long of the Judg and the Law which hangs them that there are so many Theeves Did you ever read a word for sin in the Scripture Or ever hear a Minister or godly man perswade people to sin or from it rather I speak not of Sectaries who usually grow to be enemies to Scripture Lord what horrible impudence is in the faces of ungodly men When a Minister hath spent himself in studying and perswading his people from sin or when Parents have done all they can to reform their children yet people will say it is long of this that they are so bad What will reproving and correcting for sin bring them soonest to it I dare challenge any man breathing to name any one Ruler that ever was in the world that was so severe against sin as Jesus Christ or to shew me any Law that ever was made in the world so severe against sin as the Laws of God! And yet must it be long of Christ and Scripture that men are evil When he threatneth damnation against impenitent sinners is it yet long of him Yea see how these wicked men contradict themselves What is it that they hate the Scripture for but that it is so strict and precise and forbids them their pleasures and fleshly liberties that is their sins And yet if any fall into sin they will blame the Scripture that forbids it I know in these late yeers of licenciousness and Apostacy many that talk much of Religion prove guilty of grievous crimes But then they turn away so far from Christ and Scripture As bad as the godly are I dare yet challenge you to shew me any society under Heaven like them that most study and delight in the Scriptures or any School like the Scholars of Christ. Because parents cannot by all their diligence get their children to be as good as they should be shall they therefore leave them to be as bad as they will Because they cannot get them to be perfect Saints shall they therefore leave them to be as incarnate divels Certainly your children untaught will be little better SECT XIII 2. SOme will further object and say It is the Work of Ministers to teach both us and our children and therefore we may be excused Answ. 1. It is first your duty and then the Ministers It will be no excuse for you because it is their Work except you could prove it were onely theirs Magistrates must govern both you and your children doth it therefore follow that you must not govern them It belongs to the Schoolmaster to correct them and doth it not belong also to you There must go many hands to this great Work as to the building of a house there must be many Workmen one to one part and another to another and as your corn must go through many hands before it be bread the Reapers the Threshers the Millers the Bakers and one must not leave their part and say it belongs to the other so it it is here in the instructing of your children first you must do your work and then the Minister must do his you must be doing it privately night and day the Minister must do it publikely and privately as oft as he can 2. But as the case now stands with the Ministers of England they are disabled from doing that which belongs to their Office and therefore you cannot now cast your work on them I will instance but in two things First It belongs to their Office to govern the Church and to teach with authority and great and small are commanded to obey them Heb. 3.7.17 c. But now this is unknown and Hearers look on themselves as free men that may obey or not at their own pleasure A Parents teaching which is with authority wil take more then ones that is taken to have none People think we have authority to speak to them when they please to hear and no more Nay few of the godly themselves do understand the authority that their Teachers have over them from Christ They know how to value a Ministers gifts but not how they are bound to learn of him and obey him because of his Office Not that they should obey him in evil nor that he should be a final decider of all controversies nor should exercise his authority in things of no moment But as a Schoolmaster may command his Scholars when to come to School and what Book to read and what form to be of and as they ought to obey him and to learn of him and not to set their wits against his but to take his word and beleeve him as their Teacher till they understand as well as he and are ready to leave his School Just so are people bound to obey and learn of their Teachers and to take their words while they are learners in that which is beyond their present capacity till they are able to see things in their proper evidence Now this Ministerial Authoritie is unknown and so Ministers are the less capable of doing their Work which comes to pass first From the pride of mans nature especially Novices which makes men impatient of the Reins of Guidance and Command secondly From the Popish error of implicite Faith to avoid which we are driven as far into the contrary extream thirdly From the usurpation of the late Prelates who took almost all the Government from the Ministers and thereby overthrew the very essence of the Office by robbing it of that part which is as essential at least as preaching fourthly And from the modesty of Ministers that are loth to shew their Commission and make known their Authoritie
make use of discovering Signs drawn from the Nature Properties Effects Adjuncts c. 4. So far as this Trial hath discovered thy neglect and other sins against this Rest proceed to the reprehension and censuring of thy self chide thy heart for its Omissions and Commissions and do it sharply till it feel the smart as Peter Preached Reproof to his Hearers till they were pricked to the heart and cried out And as a Father or Master will chide the childe till it begin to cry and be sensible of the fault so do thou in chiding thy own heart This is called a use of Reproof Here also it will be very necessary that thou bring forth all the aggravating Circumstances of the sin that thy heart may feel it in its weight bitterness and if thy heart do evade or deny the sin convince it by producing the several Discoveries 5. So far as thou discoverest that thou hast been faithful in the duty turn it to Incouragement to thy self and to Thanks to God where thou maist consider of the several aggravatiors of the mercy of the Spirits enabling thee thereto 6. So as it respects thy duty for the future consider how thou maist improve this comfortable Doctrine which must be by strong and effectual perswasion with thy heart First By way of Dehortation from the forementioned sins Secondly By way of Exhortation to the severall duties And these are either first Internal or secondly External First Therefore admonish thy heart of its own inward neglects and contempts Secondly And then of the neglects and trespasses in thy practice against this blessed state of Rest. Set home these severall Admonitions to the quick Take thy heart as to the brink of the bottomless pit force it to look in threaten thy self with the theatnings of the Word tell it of the torments that it draweth upon it self tell it what joyes it is madly rejecting force it to promise thee to do so no more and that not with a cold and heartless promise but earnestly with most solemn asseverations and engagements Secondly The next and last is to drive on thy soul to those positive duties which are required of thee in relation this to Rest As first to the inward duties of thy heart and there first To be diligent in making sure of this Rest secondly To Rejoyce in the expectation of it This is called a use of Consolation It is to be furthered by first laying open the excellency of the State and secondly the certainty of it in it self and thirdly our own interest in it by clearing and proving all these and confuting all sadning objections that may be brought against them thirdly So also for the provoking of Love of Hope and all other the Affections in the way before more largely opened And secondly press on thy heart also to all outward duties that are to be performed in thy way to Rest whether in worship or in civil conversation whether publike or private ordinary or extraordinary This is commonly called A use of Exhortation Here bring in all quickning Considerations either those that may drive thee or those that may draw which work by Fear or which work by Desire These are commonly called Motives but above all be sure that thou follow them home Ask thy heart what it can say against them Is there weight in them or is there not and then what it can say against the duty Is it necessary is it comfortable or is it not when thou hast silenced thy heart and brought it to a stand then drive it further and urge it to a Promise As suppose it were to the duty of Meditation which we are speaking of Force thy self beyond these lazy purposes resolve on the duty before thou stir Enter into a solemn Covenant to be faithful let not thy heart go till it have without all halting and reservations flatly promised thee That it will fall to the work write down this promise shew it to thy heart the next time it loiters then study also the Helps and Means the Hinderances and the Directions that concern thy duty And this is in brief the exercise of this Soliloquy or the Preaching of Heaven to thy own Heart SECT III. BUt perhaps thou wilt say Every man cannot understand this Method this is for Ministers and learned men every man is not able to play the Preacher I Answer thee First There is not that ability required to this as is to the work of publike Preaching here thy thoughts may serve the turn but there must be also the decent Ornaments of Language here is needful but an honest understanding heart but there must be a good pronunciation and a voluble tongue here if thou miss of the Method thou maist make up that in one piece of Application which thou hast neglected in another but there thy failings are injurious to many and a scandal and disgrace to the Work of God thou knowest what will fit thy own heart and what Arguments take best with thy own Affections but thou art not so well acquainted with the dispositions of others Secondly I answer further Every man is bound to be skilful in the Scriptures as wel as Ministers Kings and Magistrates Deut. 17.18 19 20. Josh. 1.8 And the people also Deut. 6.6 7 8. Do you think if you did as is there commanded Write it upon thy heart lay them up in thy soul binde them upon thy hand and between thine eyes meditate in them day and night I say if you did thus would you not quickly understand as much as this See Psal. 1.3 Deut. 11.18 6.6 7. Doth not God command thee to teach them diligently to thy children and to talk of them when thou sittest in thy house when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest down and when thou risest up And if thou must be skilled to teach thy children much more to teach thy self and if thou canst talk of them to others why not also to thine own heart Certainly our unskilfulness and disability both in a Methodical and lively teaching of our Families and of our selves is for the most part meerly through our own negligence and a sin for which we have no excuse You that learn the skil of your Trades and Sciences might learn this also if you were but willing and painful And so I have done with this particular of Soliloquy SECT IV. 2. ANother step to arise by in our Contemplation is from this speaking to our selves to speak to God Prayer is not such a stranger to this duty but that ejaculatory requests may be intermixed or added and that as a very part of the duty it self How oft doth David intermix these in his Psalmes sometime pleading with his soul and sometime with God and that in the same Psalme and in the next verses The Apostle bids us speak to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and no doubt we may also speak to God in them this keeps the soul in minde of the Divine Presence
Justin Martyr said He would not beleeve Christ himself if he had preached any other God besides him who is the Creator of all so may I say I would not beleeve the Spirit that should take me off my duty and obedience to God Vid. Nicephor Eccles histor tom 1. lib. 4. cap. 6. 1 Sam. 14.29 §. 3. ☜ §. 4. Rev. 1.10 §. 5. Joh. 15.5 As Gerson in the forecited place saith This Art or way of Meditation is not learned chiefly out of Books but the spirit of God bestoweth it as he pleaseth on some more plentifully on some more sparingly §. 6. Gen. 8.8 9. Joh. 16 21. §. 7. Deut. 32 49 50. Read Master Symmonds Deserted soul. p. 225 226 227. §. 8. Vide Gerson ubi infra cap. 24. * Dominus docet nos ut opera sua imitemur sicut ipse secit ita et nos saciamus Ecce oraturus erat asceâ—dit in montem Oportet etiam nos a negotijs otiosos orare non in medio multorum sed pernoctantes ne statim ut caeperimus cessemus The ophylact in Luc. c. 6. Yet the principal secrecie and silence must be in the soul within rather then without that is that the soul shut out of it self all humane worldly cares all vaine and hurtful thoughts and whatsoever may hinder it from reaching to the end which it doth intend For it oft falls out that a man is alone separated from the company of men and yet by fantasies thoughts and melancholies doth suffer the most grievous and burdensome company in himself Which fantasies do beget him various tumults and conferences and pratlings bringing before the eyes of his understanding sometime one thing sometime another leading him sometime into the Kitchin sometime into the Market bringing thence to him the unclean delights of the flesh shewing him dances and beauties and songs and such kinde of vanities drawing to sin As Saint Jerom humbly confesseth of himself That when he was in the wilderness without any company save wild beasts and Scorpions yet he was often in his thoughts in dances and in the company of the Ladyes at Rome So these fantasies will make the soul even when it is alone to be angry and quarrel with some one that is absent as if he were present To be counting money It will pass over the seas it will fly abroad the land sometime it will be in high dignities and so of innumerable fancies the like such a soul is not secret nor alone Nor is a devout soul in contemplation alone For it is never lesse alone It is in the best company even with God and Saints by holy desires and cogitations Gerson par 3. fol 382. De monte contemplationis cap. 23. §. 9. §. 10 Jer. 5.22 §. 1. Matth. 22.4 Luke 14.17 Luke 14.23 §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. §. 8. §. 1. * For I am 〈…〉 I call them diâ—stinct faculties because it is the common Judgment and not my own §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. John 4.32 §. 5. * He that doubteth whether the Philosophers themselves did acknowledg these Divine Excellencies Let him read Fernel De abditis Rerum causis cap 9. Plato in Epinom Deos asserit scire videre audireque omnia nihil ipsos fugere quod aut sensu aut mente percipi posset Eos omnia posse quaecunque mortales immortalesve possunt Bonos illos immo optimos esse Quicquid mortale est quicquid vivit spirat quicquid usquam est coelum terram maria ab iis omnia facta esse possideri Et in Parmenide Nullum nisi Deum supremam habere rerum scientiam neque illarum cognitione privandum Et in Epinomide Ego assero Deum causam omnium esse nec aliter peri posse Lege etiam Aristotel de caelo lib. 1. Jum nona Psal. 23.4 5. Isai. 9.6 Luke 24.36 37 38 39. Joh. 7.27 Isai. 59.1 Joh. 20.19.21.26 Lam. 1.12 Ezek. 16.6 7 8.9 Luke 10 30. c. If the Love of God in us were but as the love of the world in others it would make us wholly despise this world and forget it as worldly love maketh men forget God and it would be so strong and ardent and rooted a in mans heart that he would not be able voluntarily and freely to think of any thing else He would not fear contempt nor care for disgrace or the reproaches of persecutions nor would he be afraid of death it self because of this Love of God and all the things of this world which he seeth and heareth would bring God to his memory and themselves would seem to him but as a dream or a fable and he would esteem them as nothing in respect of God and his Glory And to be short in the judgment of the world he would be taken for a fool or a drunken man because he so little careth for the things of this world This is that Love of God to which we should aim to attain by this contemplative life Gerson de monte Contemplationis in parte operum tertia fol. 382. Melanc Epist. 457. Memini cum infantula mihi lacrimas a genis detergeret suo indusiolo quo uno aerat induta mane Hic gestus penetravit in animum meum c. Gen. 21.15 16 17 18 19. 1 Kings 19.9 2 Kings 6.16 17. Matth. 14.37 Luke 22.45 46. Matth. 26.41 Luke 22.61 Cant. 2 3 4 5. John 21.15 16 17. §. 6. * 〈…〉 Si in Cor hominis non ascendit Cor hominis illuc ascendat Cor ibi habeamus surfum Corda levemus ne putrescant in terra quoniam placet nobis quod ibi aguct angeâ—â— August â— 3 de Symb. c 11. Melch Adam in vitâ Zuingeri inter vitas Medicorum Germanorum Judg. 18.24 Beza in tit Calvin Luk. 8.20 21. §. 7. Ezek. 18.32 33.11 §. 8. 1 Tim. 6.12 19. 1 Pet. 1.13 Heb. 12.1 1 Cor. 9.24 Matth. 11.12 Rom. 8.31 §. 9. Gal. 4.1 Psal. 87.3 Psal. 46.4 §. 10. §. 1. Gen 49.6 Judg. 5.21 Psalm 16.2 Jer. 4.19 §. 2. 1 Explication 2 Confirmation 3 Application 1 Vse of Information 2 Vse of Instruction 3 Of Examination 4 Of Reproof §. 3. Object §. 4. LXX Legunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Ludendum se exercendum sed alienè inquit Paraeus §. 5. §. 1. 1 Fetch help from Sense * Quantalibet intentione se humana mens extenderit etiamsi phantasiaes imaginum corporalium a cognitione compescat si omnes circumscriptos spiritu ab oculis cordis admoveat adhuc tamen in carne mortali pasita videre gloriam Dei non valet sicut est Sed quicquid de illa quod in mente resplendet similitudo non ipsa est Greg. sup hom 8. * Aequum est meminisse mi qui disseram vos qui judicabitis homines esse ut si probabilia dicentur nihil ulterius requiratis Plato in Timaeo Idem in Epistola ad Dionys monet ut eos