hath the world learnt his lesson How do the Catholicke Pharises pride themselves in a supererogatory devotion and thinke to climbe heaven by a ladder of their owne making glorying in a superabundant piety and triumphing in a meritorious excesse of dooing even more then they need How nimbly do our Trembling Enthusiasts too follow their leaders steps here in a sanctimonious pride by a supercilious purity presuming to reforme the world and new modell it againe That saint themselves Stylo novo and with the Pharisee not onely thanke but tell God plainly they are not as other men That raylingly proclaime themselves the great light of the world and in a pious Lunacy would new gospell it againe extravagantly proscribing all religions but their own These melancholy Pretenders seclude themselves from others and by a sullen devotion are become so strangely divine that they have almost lost their humanity So that if the Pharisee was not as other men yet these are as like the Pharisee as may be having so exactly learnt both his nature and religion So naturall is it for us O Lord to be deluded even in our best Performances and whilst we vainly thinke our selves not onely better then others but good enough in Thy Sight to be carried into presumption 'T is humility crownes all our Graces and puts a Beauty on our requests whilst the confidence of our owne merits does not onely deforme but seclude us from thee Teach us therefore with such gratitude to use thy gifts that we become not forgetfull of our selves or Thee Whilst others Pride themselves in a meritorious supererogation let us indeavour humbly to confesse and bewaile our imperfections Let not a spirituall Pride seise upon our souls so shall we be innocent from the Great Transgression Romans Chap. 6. v. 21. For the end of those things is death WHo then would propose that for his happinesse which shall perish with himself whose end is not only death but hell and will destroy him not onely now but hereafter too Indeed were there no hope that our remains should revive again or the ruins of our frame rise up to a finer shape we might well drown our selves in enjoyments heere and fixe our felicity in pleasures Every man might then without sin become an Epicure and he that could invent new fashions of luxury would not only be more ingenious but more fortunate too Morality would be all vice yet vice it self no more a crime but our felicity not to be extravagant then were a sin against nature he that is most Brutish would be most Rational Law would then become an enemie to Humanity there could be no society but in confusion and in spight of policy were there no heaven no hell we should pleasantly mingle to a chaos and obey no other discipline then that of riot Every one might then turne Atheist without scandall to be without God in the world would be no misfortune every man might be his own without blasphemy Could they that live dye like Brutes too and revive no more the comfort of not being damned would be greater then the sweets of sin But alas he that dies now must live againe that his life may be rememberd nor yet is it somuch the feare of Death as the horrours of a guilty conscence the terrible presages of a future eternity that scares the departing soul The pangs of expiring nature are nothing to those stings the memory of our crimes bring with them The sorrowes of the Grave and our being here no more for ever are joyes to the miseries that are to come Tell me thou that hug'st the world then and gropest for paradise in a grove of sins thou that makest earth thy treasure and wrap'st up the riches of thy hopes in time's bosome or the enclosure of a span when those bright and nimble guides of life thy eyes shall grow weak with age or weary with paine when every limbe shall become an object of sorrow and those parts that were so officiously employed in sin shall become instruments of despaire When that delicious frame that darling edifice thy Body shall by its tottering qualmes and trembling convulsions affrighten its disconsolate owner how will the flashes of a future justice and the terrours of thy end confound thee Can those enjoyments that flattered away thy soul restore it now can those pleasures that stole heaven from thee recover it again can thy vanities asswage thy sorrowes or the memory of thy sins the misery of thy end Where 's that musick whose aires like Davids harpe might charme the cries of conscience and by its straines drop a harmony that might still the trouble of thy anguisht soul Where are those trophies thy ambition purchased at the easy rate as onely sinning for that Honour for which thou hast sold heaven that soveraignty for which thou becamst a slave thy selfe and lost the freedome of thy soul Cannot all thy Greatnesse raise thee up a litle and by a power once so much feared and applauded reprieve thee from the grave or a more eternall prison Where are those treasures thou soldest thy best inheritance for whose ravishing splendours took away thy sight and made thee blinder then themselves Can they neither bribe nor buy thy pardon or will the grave know no other fee then so rich a misery Where are all those diversions that robb'd thee of thy piety and the thoughts of thy Maker those pleasing vanities that took away all sense of heaven and foresight of thy end Are all vanisht to a toomb and an unwelcome period are all thy jollities terminated in a Coffin and no other object left to keep thee company but thy Crimes and those terrours thy guilt presents Behold now then ye Lovers of the world more then of God and see the picture of your end those ruines you have so smoothly built on Try if all your imaginary felicities are proofe against this shaft or can secure you from this intruder the single Conquerour of the world whose very prison is but a reserve for a worse and its execution here but a repriefe for a more lasting and yet living death He that liv'd in pleasures must live in flames and having revell'd it in sin riot it in tortures and the misery is that wishing not to live he can never die And yet how vaine are our desires still after the world O Lord how soon how smoothly are we led by the false and transitory pleasures of this life from Thee The wages of sin is death and yet how foolishly do we preferre its service before thine whose reward is life The end of prophaness is eternall ruine and the pleasures of impiety period in confusion and yet we sadly embrace the proffers of sin before the promises of thy glory Pitty O Lord the frailties of our natures and forgive the irregularities of our lives fill us with noble desires after Thee that the vanities of the world may be our scorne and thy Glory onely our Ambition
labours to refound back in dolefull and despairing Ecchoes How sadly doth it expostulate with heaven My dearest God what is become of that Lovely attribute thy Mercy are the treasures of it shut up from a poore sinner and wilt thou be a God of mercy to the whole world and wilt not to me O let me for ever dwell in dungeons deep beyond the reach and sight of man so I may but enjoy the brightnesse of thy face Let me live more poore and disconsolate then Job upon his Dunghill in a naked and forsaken deformity so I may but hide my spots and put on a Beauty in my soul which may invite thine eye again Who ever thou art that now riotts it in the world and dalliest with damnation didst thou but know the agonies of guilt the cruelties of a Murdering sin and the stings thy pleasures leave behind them how quickly wouldest thou sacrifice thy life to nobler services and employ thy time in sweeter thoughts Wert thou now to die how would the terrours of an evill Life affright thee when every sin would appear a Messenger of horrour and the flattering world prove but an infernall Comforter Shew me that Gyant-Conscience this would not at length Master that frozen soul these flashes would not melt and blast againe that Steel-backt sinner whom gentle loades will not at length numerously over-burden The world knowes not a misery like it the terrours of the Grave are trifles to it which could it but shroud the Guilty soul and in it's dark and solitary regions promise a freedome from future Misery how willingly will it buy its peace with death and beg its sharpest Dart for a speedier passage losse of friends or fortune Crosses to the very bone are but Scratches to these wounds give me a Catalogue of afflictions and there is none I think except this which is not tolerable But a wounded spirit who can bear How unsupportable O Lord is the burden of a Wounded Spirit how terrible are the Stings of Conscience and the apprehensions of thy wrath how miserable is he that securely wraps himselfe in Sinne and grows insensible of his guilt till the memory of his Crimes revive it and when death puts him in mind of the World to come hath nothing but the horrours of his Life before him Thou hast plac't an impartial Register in our bosomes which no flattery can bribe nor teares Silence from reminding us of thy Justice and yet how many are there whose Leviathan-consciences break the Silver Cords of thy Law like threds of Towe and are so farre from acknowledging their guilt that they are hardned in impenitence But teach me O Lord as I sinne so to sorrow dayly that so when I shall come and appeare before Thee I may find no other terrours no other sins my accusers then those which I have if not throughly crucified yet at least seriously repented of in my selfe before Eccles Chap. 12. v. 13. Feare God and Keepe his Commandements for this is the whole Duty of Man ANd yet how few are there that performe it which yet is not so much our duty as it ought to be our delight He that hath but once got the habit of adoring his Maker will quickly finde Religion but a pleasure and that Law which seemes so hard and unpleasing to the World will be but a recreation to his Soul But alas How little is there of Davids piety amongst us now when instead of delighting in Gods Law we deface it more are so far from meditating in it either day or night that we never think upon it at all 'T is the duty of the world now to sin confidently and an argument of much valour to banish this timorous religion of fearing either God or his Law The Preachers doctrine is now grown worse then a paradox mere Apocrypha 't is heresie to revive it To tell us of our duty is to scandalize the times that so officiously break the Law And no wonder there are so many Atheists there was never such a time to engender them as now Track Antiquity to its first rise and you cannot match this age again The world never multiplied so fast in sin abhominable Sects like Colonies new plant the earth prophaness is grown hereditary and sprouts out by propagation so that in time posterity may perhaps become Heathens Were God and his promise mutable a deluge would be but a sleight punishment We do not onely sin but glory in it more whilst some not content to be private and silent Atheists proclaim it loud and are mad to have the credit of being known so as if we could not be ingenious enough unless we denyed our Maker No wonder religion is out of tune when there is no harmony of a Church of that Christianity sounds low when common Morality is not heard And yet it is a lesson we cannot learn too well a tribute we cannot pay too much too often We owe our beeings to the bounty of his hand what homage then can we better pay then that which by glorifying of him purchaseth a Crown for our selves Tell me ye blind followers of the world what 's the glory ye pretend to Ye that laugh at heaven and make divinity a mantle for unrighteousnesse that with the Pharisee count formality your religion and make an outside-piety your duty Alass Heaven is not got by pious frauds guilded crimes or fortunate transgressions nor the divine Eye to be deluded with a painted zeal 'T is not a pretended sanctity that can cloathe us with immortality nor a fashionable devotion onely that will carry us to heaven How miserable is he whose god is the world and makes it his religion to neglect his Maker What didst Thou bestow our reason on us for O Lord but to harken unto the voice of thy Law that the Celestiall Oratory of thy Word might at least win us from an ignorant prophanesse Shall Heathens that had no other end no other reward for their piety than some temporary applause or the inward triumphs of their Spirits for doing well out-strip us in the beauties of a Morall life and we that have higher and purer hopes be scarce honest for thy sake Shall they that knew Thee not be more passionately Good than we that have found out Heaven and expect eternity to succeed Though it was not in the power of Man to find Thee till Thou didst reveal thy selfe in Christ yet now having so richly and fully shewn us the Treasures of thy Love shall we not strive to doe something for thy Glory Make us we beseech Thee to consider the advantages that are in thy Service the happinesse that attends obedience and that Crown which is the reward of Faith that so out affections being mortified unto these perishing objects here below may be enlivened onely with desires after those Eternall Excellencyes that are in Thee Luke Chap. X. v. 25. And a certaine Lawyer stood up and tempted him Saying Master what shall I doe
Rebell against Heaven 'T is such a Heart that prepares us for this Vision and happy is he that 's such a Puritan Strengthen us therefore O Lord against the vanities of the World and raise up our thoughts to the Contemplation of thy Glory Levell in us every proud thought that dares exalt it selfe against the power and purity of thy Law and Sanctifie us for thy selfe and thy Service more that the practise of a Holy life may be as it ought our chiefest employment that so when we depart from hence we may be received to Thee and being seen no more heere may for ever see there what before neither eye hath seen nor eare heard nor heart conceived the Glory thou wilt impart in the fruition of Thy selfe Matth. Chap. 8. Verse 2. Lord if thou wilt Thou canst make me cleane IS not sinne a Leprosie Then the Lepers Prayer is every Sinners too Hee that had seen the Leper's body would not have wondred at his Prayer and yet could he but have viewed his Soul he might perhaps have seen objects of more prodigie and Horrour the miseries of his blood which had lost its verdure and become but an unprofitable friend to Nature every part being as it were dead-alive by so unnatural a Nutrition taught his tongue this Necesary though Mournfull kind of Confidence Lord if thou wilt And Hee whose Compassion never failes to shew that his Goodnesse was as great as his power would not reject a Suite wherein his Mercy was concerned and those limbes which might have been sooner drown'd then bathed into a Cure re-assume new life and beauty by the bounty of a Touch. Thus the Leper is new bodyed againe but we read not of any Cure wrought upon his better part and that perhaps had more need The bedrid Man his Successour was farre happier whose sinne and disease were both taken away together How many are there that like the Leper looke no higher then their bodyes whose Superficies is all their religion whilst the nobler peece that gives them life lyes all neglected under some Chronicall infection Our blood shall have all the delicacies that Art or the most Chymicall Luxury can invent to feed its flames whilst our brighter part the Divine and Celestiall fire which inspires us lyes all quencht and rob'd of its immortall aliment and can carry back nothing but a dimme and Hectick lustre to it Maker The torment of Limbe shall teach us more devotion in an houre then all the concernments of our Soules could do in a yeer before and the deformity of the meanest part will be an object of more shame and sorrow to us then those pale and infernall shapes that attend sinne and disfigure Heaven in us Of all plagues this is the greatest and yet least feared as if Hell were but a Toy Damnation a Pleasure and the miseries of our Soules a Recreation to us Shew me that beauty that 's not a Leper that innocence which carries not a guilt to blush at that Saint that infant man that knowes not what it is to sinne Were our veines purer then the lips of Violets that perfume the Chymistry of the aire the drops of the Morne were Adam's sinne a stranger to our blood and our birth cleer as the Morn innocent as the new-blown Rose yet the deformity of our lives would soon teach us this prayer and the blacknesse of our very thoughts would silently proclaime our ugliness And yet was not there not in those dayes a Generation that were cleane in their own eyes that justified themselves even in their impurity and counted all the World but Lepers to them Was not the Pharisee a greater Leper than the Publican though so proudly he displayed his best plumes His very Pride carried more Contagion with it than the other Mans Sinns all put together Hee that trusts to the merit of his owne paint may lose Heaven and those joyes which an humbler Confidence secures O Lord though I am not so bad perhaps as some yet am I so bâ—d in my selfe that the Leper heere is a beauty to my Soul Lazarusse's Corps a comelinesse to my sores yet were I more impotent then the Cripple of Bethesda more Leprous then the Nine whose ingratitude was more loathsome then their disease were those Legions ejected by thy word received in me were I as bad as Satan could wish to make me yet I know thy Goodness and I do not doubt thy power For Lord if Thou wilt Thou canst make me clean Matth. Chap. 24. v. 39. And knew not untill the Flood came and took them all away HOw securely did these sinners cram themselves for destruction or as if forseeing their inundation they would by full stomacks labour to prevent an entrance Life and luxury were such inseparable companions here that nothing but Death could part them They had waded so long in an Ocean of sin it was impossible to escape drowning and not be surrounded with the depths of a quick and overflowing judgment Noah might have preach't himselfe dumb and have sooner talk't himself asleep in mild and fluent admonitions than awake these drunkards had not the waves made use of a rougher language and in their owne swelling dialect the prodigious roring of the depths buried them and their riotts in silence together Had not God otherwise promised the world how often had it since been delug'd They were but eating drinking but we do even glut and carrouse it in sin commit ryots upon Hell and can teach the Epicure himselfe to revell Our forefathers were but dwarfs to us in sin whose transgressions have to far transcended theirs in bulk that we are become greater Giants in iniquity then those of the first age So monstrous is Sin still in its productions that the whole earth like an infernal Africk brings forth new prodigies of vice daily that were the world in a consumption as some think 't is in vertue onely and the iniquities of the times when they seem to be quite full are but increasing still They were but cold phlegmatick crimes that drown'd the world to the fiery sins of this hotter age that shall and have already almost set it in a combustion 'T is another element then that of water must punish the feared Consciences of this age and chaines of darknesse must fetter those that run after new lights the metors of their owne invention The world was already drown'd in sin when the waters to compleat it's excesse came and carried away these living-dead men and buried them in the same grave together Such is the fruit of a carelesse life the miseries of a retchlesse impenitency they were revelling in their feasts when the greedy element devoured them and they that drank iniquity like water had a fit punishment for their iniquity The waves grow high and mount up to a tombe the sea becomes a spatious monnument both to hide and wash away their sin and they that swam in mirth are now swallowed up in streames and
that we may not for a present enjoyment in this life lose the hopes and inheritance of a better Luke Chap. 15. v. 10. There is joy in the presence of the Angells of God over one sinner that repenteth SO great are the Concernments of an immortall Soul that it's recovery from the world sets heaven in a triumph and it 's return to it's Maker is welcom'd back in Quires the angells sing his recantation and rejoyce as if they themselves were made happier by his conversion And yet is not the joy of Angells greater then that of the soul it selfe when it hath found and regain'd it's Maker its sighs are turnd into songs and it's teares to raptures each drop is not onely counted and kept up but turn'd into a streame of joy His sorrowes are turnd to consolation his troubles into peace and the stormes of conscience into calmes of love Such are the fruits of a holy penitence the happinesse of a religious contrition He that went mourning all the day and turned Anchoret for greif whose life was a torment and the grave his feare that desired not to live and yet was afraid to die is now transformed into sweeter passions and breathes nothing but the praises of his Deliverer See with what indignation he lookes upon the world whose embraces had so long imprisoned him to whose false allurements he had been so much a servant Those pleasant trifles he once admired are now his contempt and those shadowes of felicity he once so much pursued he hath now exchanged for more celestiall enjoyments and enduring pleasures And indeed Who that hath once truly tasted heaven can well rellish the world againe whose choisest feasts are worse then an Egyptian diet to this Manna and its largest roade of pleasure but a precipice to that way whose narrowest path carries freedome and felicity He that hath once found the goodnesse of his Maker and those joyes that flow from his service will sacrifice himselfe in pious resolves and grieving that he was so long a stranger to his law all transported beg both pardon and support Tell me who can character the pleasures of this new birth the joyes of a converted soul restored to heaven and his maker He that feels it can expresse it but in raptures and silent signes the ecchoes of his heart Even the Angells here can sing it onely not describe it and in Seraphick consorts give us notice not a copy of it Thus the heavens become harmonious the frame of nature that groaned under the disorder of mans sin is againe revived and set in tune by pardon And no wonder if the creation feel a silent musicke in it's limbs when the Lord our Maker is not onely the Author but a partner in this triumph proclaming even his delight in such happy renovations and that he is best pleased when sinners flie to the refuges of his mercy and humbly beg the riches of that Grace and favour which he onely can give and which he never refuses to them that seek him So infinitely good art thou O Lord that thou dost not onely invite but bring us to thy self and not onely call but cause us to returne We know thou desirest not the the death of a sinner having so freely sacrificed thy Son for sin and that thou delightest in pardoning it for thou hast proclaimed thy self so Though thou didst not spare thine Angells when they fell yet in the riches of thy mercy thou hast contrived a Redemption for our souls even by the blood of Jesus Fill us with perpetuall adorations of thy love that thy goodnesse which is so ready to pardon sin may encourage us to beg it and to continue constant waiters on thee in thy worship here till we are made companions of those blest spirits hereafter that rejoyce in the recovery and salvation of a sinner Matth. c. 6. v. 33. But seeke yee first the Kingdome of God and his Righteousnesse and all these things shall be added unto you AND He that loved his Saviour would no Question do it but alass that which ought to be the first is scarce the last of our thoughts the least and worst of our performances Such Lovers are wee of Heaven that we think it no sinne to serve our selves first and make our Creatour waite the leisure of our Devotion Miserable Creatures whose Religion reaches no higher then their bodyes for whose very Superfluities wee study to provide whilst our Brighter part lyes all naked and unthought of Such Strangers are we even to our own Soules so insensible of the joyes to come that we looke no higher then the World and in sphearing all our hopes within Mortality as if we had nothing durable beyond our breath suffer Eternity to be forgotten Wee cannot live without our Maker and yet how do our lives neglect Him how eager how ambitious after an enjoyment heere but carry not the smallest passion for his Glory The jollities of the World swallow up all thoughts of Heaven and in the pleasures of sense we can drown Immortality What is that we sacrifice our selves to but the hopes of a felicity The very Pagans rather then want a Blisse would fancy one in lovely shades and place the triumphs of immortality in those amorous walkes their Ghosts should revell in And who can hope for Heaven that neglects it or expect the joyes of this Kingdome that looks not after it Without Holynesse no man shall see God and he cannot be Master of much Sanctity that prophanely loses himselfe in sinne and is a Stranger to that piety which can truly Enrich Him beyond all the treasures of the most splendid and fortunate transgression How miserable are they then whose pleasures onely divert them from their Maker and have no other Apologie for their neglect of Heaven than what sinne can make that Court the World and for a fading embrace exchange a Diadem of Blisse a Crown of Life Were the whole World turn d into a Seraglio of delight and every region to an Arabia could every field become a Paradise and every object we meet bring a Magazine of pleasure with it had we all the enjoyments this Life can triumph in yet we should quickly finde them without God but miserable fruitions Is there any thing dearer then our lives and yet even these are of no valew in respect of a better the very exigencies of Nature are trifles to the concernments of our Soules It is better to starve then dye for ever and lose God 't is better to goe naked then not to be cloathed with immortality 't is better we should want heere then hereafter that fullnesse which knows none And yet How many are there that had rather lose Heaven then the World pawn their Consciences sooner then want and for a fortune sell away their very Christianity How many make sinne their study and thinke it a credit to invent new methods of impiety and are such carefull providers for Eternity that they will be