noluerint Adamum adorare Hoc suum peccatum non potuit celare Satan Luther Tom. 3. p. 82. b. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us says the beloved Disciple Joh. 1.14 He had a true body and a reasonable soul which soul of Christ considering its nearest union to the Divine nature and the light and joy and glory it must needs be full of may be look't upon by Milions of Degrees as the highest of Creatures and the chief of all the ways of God The Holy Ghost took care in the conception of Christ that his human nature should not be in the least defiled and his whole life was perfectly free from sin he did no evil neither was guile found in his mouth and his heart was alwayes pure And having taken mans Nature God is well pleased with that nature in Christ The man Christ Jesus always did those things which were pleasing to the Father The Sons of men may come with boldness to this Mediatour who is bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh He bears good will to men as the Angels sang aloud at his Nativity Man may be confident of a kind reception since Christ is so near akin to them and was in all things excepting sinful infirmities made like unto them that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest to make Reconciliation for their Iniquities Heb. 2.17 Christ is man and this man is Gods greatest favourite far greater than Joseph to Pharaoh or Mordecai to Ahasuerus Extra Christum oculos aures claudatis Vbi Iesus est ibi est totus Deus seu tota divinitas ibi Pater Spiritus Extra hunc Christum Deus nusquam invenitur Deus in carâ—e illa sic apparet ut extra hanc carnem coll cognosci non possit Luther Tam. 4. p. 491. a. He has the highest place in Heaven as well as in his Fathers heart let Saints search into his truth and they will find matters of unspeakable encouragement Here is the way to know the Father to worship him acceptably and to attain to fellowship with him here and for ever 3. Growing in the knowledge of Christ implies a more plain discerning and ful perswasion that he was foreordained to be a Redeemer Christ was the person pitched upon from eternity to be the Saviour of the Elect of God 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was foreordained befoâ—e the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you He is therefore caled the elect One in whom Gods Soul delights There was a compact and agreement made between the Father and the Son The Son agrees in fulness of time to be made of a Woman to take a body to offer up himself without spot to God and the Father promises eternal Life and Salvation and that he should have a Church givâ—â— him out of the world though the world is faâ—â—en into wickedness upon which Church this eternal life is to be bestowed The Prophet Zachariah tells â—s of a Counsel of Peace between the Lord of Hâ—â—â— and Christ whose name is the Branch Zach. 6.12 13. And the Apostle speaks of the promise of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised before the world began Tit. 1.2 This promise may very well be conceived to be made to the Son that he should give eternal life to all that were given him of the Father And when the Saints behold that Christ is the Person from eternity designed to be a Saviour they may include that God hath a love to them a care of them and a purpose of Grace towards them from everlasting and how securely and sweetly may they rest upon the blessed Jesus not doubting but he is a person every way fit and sufficient to finish that work of Redemption which he undertook according to the appointment of his Father 4. Growing in the Knowledge of Christ implies a greater insight into his sufferings It is not without reason that the History of these is so largely penned by all the four Evangelists certainly there is much in his Crucifixion which it concerns Believers to pry into The sufferings of Christ were great and that both in his body and in his soul his body was in a bloody sweat and his soul was amazed sore and full of heaviness and sorrow and in an Agony before he was condemned and fastned to the Cross but then all the pain and shame which he did undergo his Death was violent and accursed and just before he breathed out his last his Father hid his face his sufferings were unconceivably increased by a dreadful desertion which made him roar out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me When Christ died the sins of the whole Church were laid upon the head of the Church how many stings then had the death of Christ Isa 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray we haâ—e turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all And if all were laid upon him none shall be laid to the charge of them who believe in him But how came it to pass that Christ did not sink under such a burthen The first sin of the first man was enough to sink all the world into Hell how could Christ bear up under all the sins of so great a multitude The reason is because he is God the blood of Christ is the blood of God how loud does it cry for Pardon and Salvation and how easily does it drown the cry of sin for vengeance The blood and sufferings of Christ applied and relyed on by Faith justifie the sinner silence Satan the accuser purge the conscience from dead works and open a way into the holiest of all by the Cross of Christ we are to climb up to the Throne of Glory The more the death of Christ is studied the Spirit will be more contrite the heart more clean the conscience more calm and quiet The death of Christ puts the sin to death but delivers the sinner from it 5. Growing in the Knowledge of Christ implies a more fruitful eying of his Resuâ—rection and going to his Father Hark to the Apostle Phil. 3. 10. That I may kâ—â—â— him and the power of his Resurrection The Justice of God had Christ under an â—rrest and hath cast him into the Grave as â—nto a Prison and if he had not fully paid the debt of those whose surety he became it would have held him in prison to this hour If Christ were not risen faith would be vain the guilt and power of sin would refrain But being risen true believers are delivered from sins punishment and power Sin and death and Satan are triumphed over Know that there is a very great power and vertue to be derived from the resurrection of our Lord. A power to raise a drooping Spirit When Christ was riseâ— dâ—e sends this Message to his Disciples that they might be well assurâ—â— his God was theirs his Father their Father
Soul-mercies for his Children To see them poor in the World will not so much afflict him as to fear they will never be rich to God Besides the Sins of those that are nearly related are most frequently presented to our eyes and ears they cry nearest us and therefore they should cry loudest to us They are most committed to our care and therefore their miscarriages should be the greatest objects of our Fear Near Relations may also probably more endanger the residue of those that belong to our Family Sin in one or two though in a large Family may endanger and infect the whole We most strive to quench those Flames that destroy houses near us we are more fearful of them than of those at a greater distance A Snake in ones Bed is more formidable and a Toad there more odious and ugly than in my Field or Garden § 7 3. They that mourn for others Sins especially the Sins of those they most love must mourn more for their Sins than their Afflictions and outward Troubles They must be more troubled for the poysonful root of Sin than for the Branches and Fruits of Sufferings that spring from the Root We must more mourn for the sin of a Child than for the sickness of a Child More lay to heart what our Children have done than what they have undergone more for their Impiety than for their Poverty more because they have left God than because their Trades or Estates have left them more for fear they dy'd in Sin than because they dy'd The Troubles of the outward man must not so afflict us as the Unrenewedness of their Hearts and Natures To be afflicted for the death of thy Child's Body and not for his soul-Soul-death in Sin is as if a fond Parent should when his Child is drown'd only lament the loss of the Child's Coat and Garment and not for the loss of the Child's Person § 8 4. We ought to bewail the Sins of others according to the Proportion of the Sins of the times and places where we live When Sin grows impudent and hath a brazen brow when 't is declared as Sodom Jer. 3.3 and not hidden when men are asham'd of nothing but not being impudent in sinning when Sinners cannot blush Jer. 6. v. 8 12. have lost the very colour of Modesty then is a fit Season for Gods People with Ezra 9.6 to say We are ashamed and blush to lift up our faces to thee our God to bewail and blush before God for those Sins of which Sinners are not ashamed and for which they have not a tear to shed Further when the Sinners of the times are obstinate and inflexible in Impiety as Nehem. 9.16 Harden their Necks 17. refuse to obey 20. are disobedient and rebell cast the Law behind their back 29 withdraw the shoulder and will not hear when they make their face as an Adamant Stone When the Wicked say as Jer. 44. As for the Word that thou hast spoekn we will not hearken to thee we will do whatever goes forth out of our own mouth then is the time for the Godly to have broken and melted Hearts when the Wicked are so Obstinate and Obdurate Next when Sin becomes universal when Governers and Governed from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head are all prophane and impious Isa 1.6 When a man cannot be found in the streets of Jerusalem Jer. 5.1 that will stand up for God and his Interest when as in dayes of Noah all flesh hath corrupted it self then is the time for all Gods People to mourn before God and to oppose an holy universality to a profane Lastly When not ordinary but the most horrid and gross Impieties are committed as Murder Sodomy Perjury broad-fac'd Adultery when these mountainons Wickednesses are acted then is the time for the Godly to endeavour to overtop these high towering abominations with a Flood of tears 5. We ought to mourn for the Sins of others advantageously to § 9 those for whom we mourn with the using of all due means to reclaim and reduce them 1. By Prayer for their Conversion and Gods pardoning them My hearts desire and prayer to God saith Paul is that Israel might be saved Rom. 10.1 He tells Chap. 9.1 how he bewail'd them that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart for them but here we see he mingled his tears with prayers for them We cannot mourn for those for whom we cannot pray for every Evil that makes us grieve because of its continuance we must needs desire may be removed Exod. 32.11.27 Thô Moses when he was with the People maintain'd the Cause of God with the Sword yet when he was with God he endeavoured the preservation of the People with prayer 2. We must endeavour to follow the Mourning for Sinners with restraining them from Sin if we have it by Power We must not hate Sinners and suffer them to sin we destroy those whom we suffer to sin if we can hinder them None may permit Sin in another if he can restrain it but he that can produce a greater Good out of it than the permission is an Evil. Restraining of Inferiors is as great a duty as Prayer for Superiours See it in the case of Eli's negligence to restrain his Sons from their Impieties 3. We must mourn for Sinners with advantaging them by Example that they may never be able to tax us with those Sins for which we would be thought sorrowfull Examples sometimes have a louder voice than Precepts Tears will not in secret drown those Sins which publick Examples encourage We confute our Tears and Prayers before God by an unsuitable Example before the Offender The blots of others cannot be wip'd off with blurred fingers 4. We must follow our mourning for others Sins with labouring to advantage them by holy Reproof for the Sins we mourn for If our place and opportunities allow us we must not only sigh for their Sins but cry against them Ezek. 9.4 Lot was not only a Mourner for the Sodomites Sins but a Reprover I know not whether it be a greater sign of a Godly man to give a Reproof duly or to take a Reproof thankfully 1. But be sure Reproofs be given with Zeal for Gods Glory not either out of hatred to the Person reproved or out of desire to promote thine own Reputation and Interest by the Reproof The Apostles Acts 14.14.17.16 reproved Idolaters but Zeal for God purely put them upon it Paul and Barnabas rent their Cloaths as well as reproved Idolaters And Pauls Spirit was stirr'd with inward Zeal Act. 17.16 before his Tongue stirr'd against the Athenians Let Reproofs 2. Be mingled with Meekness Passion is seldom prevalent with a Sinner Sweep not Gods House with the Devils Besom Let the Sinner see thee kind to himself when thou art most unkind to his Sin 3. Let Reproofs be qualified with Prudence by observing the nature and degree of the Offence and the
comprizes all the rest is to die for the Brethren and this we ought to do when the Honour of God and Welfare of the Church require it Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren If Christians thus loved one another the Church on Earth would be a lively Image of the blessed Society above Thirdly The Love of God and Obedience to his Commands the Product of it are to be considered 1. The Love of God has its Rise from the consideration of his amiable Excellencies that render him infinitely worthy of the highest Affection and from the blessed Benefits of Creation Preservation Redemption and Glorification that we expect from his pure Goodness and Mercy This is the most clear and essential Character of a Child of God and most peculiarly distinguishes him from unrenewed men however accomplished by Civil Virtues Now the internal exercise of Love to God in the valuation of his Favour as that which is better than Life in earnest desires of Communion with him in ravishing Joy in the testimonies and assurance of his Love in mourning for what is displeasing to him is in the secret of the Soul but with this there is inseparably joyn'd a true and visible declaration of our Love in obedienc◠〈◊〉 him 1 Joh. 3.16 This is the Love of God the most real and undeceitful Expression of it that we keep his Commandments The Obedience that springs from Love is 1. Uniform and universal for that two principal and necessary Effects of Love are an ardent desire to please God and an equal care not to displease him in any thing Now the Law of God is the signification of his sovereign and holy will and the doing of it is very pleasing to him both upon the account of the subjection of the Creature to his authority and conformity to his purity he declares that Obedience is better than the most costly Sacrifice There is an absolute peremptory repugnance between love to him and despising his Commands And from thence it follows that Love inclines the Soul to obey all Gods Precepts not only those of easie observation but the most difficult and distastful to the carnal Appetites for the Authority of God runs through all and his Holiness shines in all Servile Fear is a partial Principle and causes an unequal respect to the divine Law it restrains from sins of greater guilt from such disorderly and dissolute actions at which Conscience takes fire but others are indulged it excites to good works of some kind but neglects other that are equally necessary But Love regards the whole Law in all its Injunctions and Prohibitions not meerly to please our selves that we may not feel the stings of an accusing Conscience but to please the Lawgiver 2. The Obedience of Love is accurate and this is a natural Consequence of the former The divine Law is a Rule not only for our outward Conversation but of our Thoughts and Affections of all the interior workings of the Soul that are open before God Thus it requires religious Service not only in the external performance but those reverent holy Affections those pure Aims wherein the Life and Beauty the Spirit and true Value of divine Worship consists Thus it commands the Duties of Equity Charity and Sobriety all Civil and Natural Duties for divine Ends to please and glorifie God Heb. 13.16 It forbids all kinds and degrees of Sin not only gross Acts but the inward Lustings that have a tendency to them Now the Love of God is the Principle of spiritual Perfection 'T is called the fulfilling of the Law 1 Cor. 10.31 not only as it is a comprehensive Grace but in that it draws forth all the active Powers of the Soul to obey it in an exact manner This causes a tender sence of our failings and a severe circumspection over our ways that nothing be allowed that is displeasing to the divine Eyes Since the most excellent Saints are Gods chiefest Favourites Love makes the holy Soul to strive to be like him in all possible degrees of Purity Thus St. Paul in whom the Love of Christ was the imperial commanding Affection declares Phil. 3.10 11. it is zealous endeavour to be conformable to the Death of Christ in dying to Sin as Christ died for sin and that he might attain to the Resurrection of the dead that perfection of Holiness that is in the immortal state 1 John 5.3 3. The Obedience of Love is chosen and pleasant This is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous Those that are strangers to this heavenly Affection imagine that a solicitous diligent respect to all Gods Precepts is a melancholy Task but it is delightful to the Saints for Obedience is the continual exercise of Love to God the Paradise of holy Souls The mortification of the carnal Appetites and the restraint from such Objects as powerfully insinuate and engage carnal Hearts is with a freer complacency to a Saint than a sensual fruition of them The sharpest sufferings for Religion are allayed nay sweetned to a Saint from the Love of God that is then most sincerely strongly and purely acted The Apostle more rejoyced in sharp Tribulations for Christ's sake than in divine Revelations 4. The Love of God produces persevering Obedience Servile Compliance is inconstant A Slave hates the Duties he performs and loves the Sins he dares not commit therefore as soon as he is releas'd from his Chain and his Fear his Obedience ceases but a Son is perfectly pleas'd with his Fathers Will and the Tenor of his Life is correspondent to it He that is press'd by fear to serve in an Army will desert his Colours the first opportunity but a Volunteer that for the love of Valour and of his Country lists himself will continue in the Service The motion that is caused by outward poises will cease when the weights are down but that which proceeds from an inward principle of Life is continual and such is the Love of God planted in the breast of a Christian Fourthly We are to prove that from the Love of God and willing Obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our Love to his Children There is an inseparable Union between these two Graces and the one arises out of the other Godliness and brotherly kindness are joyned by the Apostle And it will be evident that where this Affection of Love to the Saints is sincere and gracious there will be an entire and joyful respect to the Law of God by considering the Reasons and Motives of it 1. The Divine Command requires this Love These things I command you saith our Saviour that ye love one another This Precept so often repeated and powerfully re-inforc'd by him made so deep an impression on the first Christians that they had one Heart and one Soul and their Estates
Divine Perfections I. The many Doctrines which more immediately respect the Nature of God his Acts and Modes of Operation 1. More generally they are all such as represent somewhat of him who in all Perfections is infinite and infinitely above us God is a Spirit infinite infinite in his Essence or immense infinite in his existence or external There is according to the Conceptions we must form of God at least quoad nos a difference between Immensity and Externity Immensity denotes the Essence of God to be more large and comprehensive than can be measured but the import of Eternity is to be considered with regard to the Duration of the Divine Essence whence although we must assert the Essence and Existence of God to be so much the same that necessary Existence is included in the very Essence of God yet we may look on the divine Existence to be a pressior conceptus to that of the divine Essence for essence includes somewhat more than meer existence namely other perfections of the divine Nature which when considered as it fills Heaven and Earth and is infinitely beyond all without all bounds or limits 't is said to be immense but considered as enduring from everlasting to everlasting 't is Eternal The like of the other Attributes Thus our finite capacities may form some partial and inadequate Conceptions of these things but comprehend them we cannot If we look into any particular Attribute of God we are swallowed up as in a bottomless Ocean For there is not any one Divine Perfection that includes not in it Infinity the which is so far above us that we cannot reach unto it We cannot know him unto Perfection nor by searching find him out He is higher than the Heavens deeper than Hell longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea we cannot comprehend him His Nature his Attributes all his glorious Perfections being infinite are infinitely above us and seeing the Revelations made of God do after a sort represent somewhat of his glorious Nature they are not fully comprehended by us They point â—nto somewhat that is beyond us But to be more particular 2. God who is a Spirit Infinite is absolutely and simply One he is a pure Act but yet Three One absolutely and simply One God and yet Three Three Persons None can be more concerned in asserting the Oneness or Unity of the Godhead than the Christian how vehement soever the Mahometane Jew or Socinian may be in asserting the Simplicity and Oweness of the Divine Nature they cannot be more so than We are but yet a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead we must also affirm or our Religion is lost Whoever will but seriously acquaint himself with the Essentials of the Christian Religion will find that the believing a Trinity is as necessary to the being of our Religion as the believing the existence of God is to any Religion The Spirit of God has not only here and there expresly asserted the Doctrine of the Trinity but every momentous Doctrine of our Religion which is appropriate unto it as 't is Christian supposes it There are Three Fundamentals of our Faith all which conjunctly considered suppose a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead even God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost There is the Fall of Man his Redemption and Sanctification God at first made man upright and gave him a Holy Just and Good Law which was sanction'd with the Promise of a glorious Reward and with the severe Threat of Divine Wrath and Indignation Do this and Live but in the Day thou eatest thou shalt die Man transgresses this Law and is obnoxious unto the Threatning he must die For God who is Infinite in all Perfections is a God of Truth and must accomplish his Word He is essentially just and righteous and must proportion the punishment to the nature of the Crime An Infinite God is offended his Law is violated and this by Man by Adam the Head of Human Nature and therefore 't is impossible that any escape Infinite which is on finite Worms Eternal Wrath unless the Justice of God be satisfyed by proportionable Sufferings in that nature that sinned But if there had been but One Person as there is but One God there could not be an Infinite Person to undertake for us That one Person who was offended would be alone able to satisfie his own Justice but he is angry he demands satisfaction from another and should he enter into judgment with us we should not be able to stand He demands satisfaction and is ready to consume us unless an Infi-Person interposes on our behalf should he himself begin to capitulate with us singly he would be so far from offering himself to satisfie himself for us that he would immediately let out all his wrath Thus we see that the Doctrines about mans Fall and Redemption do necessarily infer that there is God the Father who gave us a righteous Law and who is highly provoked by the violation of it and as a righteous Judge proceeds to condemn us unless satisfaction be made unto his Justice and that there being God the Son a Person distinct from the Father who is also God sent by the Father and who assumed Humane Nature in which he suffered and satisfied the Justice of the Father whereby fallen man is in a way of recovery thus mans Fall and his Recovery suppose two Persons But whoever will more closely attend unto this Point will find that God being as Holy as he is Just and Righteous is as much concern'd for the Vindication of the Honour of his Holiness as that of his Justice whence our Sanctification becomes as necessary an Antecedent unto our Salvation as our Justification Though Justification and Sanctification are in their own natures formally and really distinct yet are ever in one and the same Subject You may and must distinguish them from each other but cannot separate them And the Reason is because God is as Holy as he is Righteous and as much concern'd for the Glory of his Holiness as for the Glory of his Justice And therefore the Holy as well as the Righteous Will of God must be satisfied But such are the Corruptions of our Nature so strong and powerful and we so weak and feeble that unless some one Almighty be our help we shall remain under the power of Sin unsanctified and no way advantaged by the Redemption of Christ's Death 'T is true Christ has died but not to save us in but from our sins It was never the Design of Christ that men should receive any special Blessings as the fruit of his Death while they continue under the power of Sin Enemies unto him He has made a purchase of Heavens Glories but will give it to none but such as submit themselves unto him He will that we humble our selves before him and be holy or continue in the state of Condemnation in which we are all by Nature but Holy we cannot
cured Would you take Pleasure in his witty sayings and be jested into your Grave Or if you go unto a Lawyer about your whole Estate though it were in Leases that will expire would you choose one that you think did not care whether you win or lose your cause Would you be pleased with some witty sayings impertinent to the pleading of your cause Would you not say Sir I am in danger of losing all I am worth my Estate lyes at stake deal plainly with me and be serious in your undertaking for me and tell me in words that I can understand the plain Law by which my case must be tryed And will you be more careful about the Temporal Life of a Body that must dy and about a Temporal Estate which you must leave when you dy and not about your Soul that must ever live and never dye No! not so much as to set your selves under faithful Preachers that shall in words that you can understand plainly tell you the Laws of Christ by which you must be tryed for your Life and according to them be Eternally damned or saved 11. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make you serious and lively in all your spiritual duties in all your approaches unto God If you have no Grace the serious thoughts of the unseen Eternal World would stir you up to beg and cry and call for it if you have to desire more and to exercise what you have to confess your sins with such contrite broken penitent hearts as though you saw the fire burning which by your sins you have deserved to be cast into To beg for Christ and Sanctifying Grace and pardoning Mercy with that lively Importunity as if you saw the Lake of boiling Brimstone into which you must be cast if you be not sanctifyed and pardoned to hear the Word of God that sets this Eternal World before you with that diligent attention as Men hearkning for their Lives to commemorate the Death of Christ with such life while you are at the Lords Supper while you do as it were see the Torments you are delivered from and the Eternal Happiness by Faith in a crucifyed Christ you have a Title to it will cause a fire and flame of Love in your Hearts to that Lord that dyed for you ardent desires after him complacential delight in him thankfulness hope of Heaven hatred to sin resolution to live to or dye for him that dyed for you If your Hearts are dead and dull and out of frame go and look into the unseen Eternal World take a believing view of Everlasting Joyes and Torments on the other side of time and you shall feel warmth and heat and lively actings to be produced in you Particularly this Eyeing of Eternity would make Ministers sensible of the weightiness of their work that it calls for all possible diligence and care our utmost serious study and endeavours our fervent Cryes and Prayers to God for ability for the better management of our work and for success therein for as much as our imployment is more Immediately about Eternal matters to save under Christ Eternal Souls from Eternal Torments and to bring them to Eternal Joyes When we are to Preach to people that must live for ever in Heaven or Hell with God or Devils and our very Preaching is the means appointed by God to fit men for an Everlasting state when we stand and view some Hundreds of Persons before us and think all these are going to Eternity now we see them and they see us but after a little while they shall see us no more in our Pulpits nor we them in their Pews nor in any other place in this World but we and they must go down unto the Grave and into an Everlasting World when we think it may be some of these are hearing their last Sermon making their last publique Prayers keeping their last Sabbath and before we come to Preach again might be gone into another World if we had but a firm belief of Eternity our selves and a real lively sense of the mortality of their Bodies and our own and the Immortality of the Souls of both of the Eternity of the Joy or Torment we must all be quickly in how pathetically should we plead with them plentifully weep over them fervently pray for them that our words or rather the word of the Eternal God might have Effectual Operation on their Hearts This Eyeing of Eternity should 1. Influence us to be painful and diligent in our studies to prepare a message of such weight as we come about when we are to Preach to men about Everlasting matters to set before them the Eternal Torments of Hell and the Eternal Joyes of Heaven Especially when we consider how hard a thing it is to perswade Men to leave their sins which do endanger their Immortal Souls when if we do not prevail with them to hearken to our message and obey it speedily and sincerely they are lost Eternally when it is so hard to prevail with men to accept of Christ the only and Eternal Saviour on the conditions of the Gospel You might easily see that Idleness either in young Students that are designed for this work or in Ministers actually engaged in it is an intolerable sin and worse in them than in any men under Heaven Idleness in a Shop-keeper is a sin but much more in a Minister in a Trader much more in a Preacher bear with me if I tell you an Idle Cobler that is to mend mens Shooes is not to be approved but an Idle Preacher that is to mend mens Hearts and save their Souls shall be condemned by God and Men for he lives in dayly disobedience of that charge of God 1 Tim. 4.13 Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them 16 continue in them 2. It would provoke us to be faithful in delivering the whole counsel of God and not to daub with untempered mortar not to flatter them in their sin or to be afraid to tell them of their evils least we should displease them or offend them Is it time to sooth men up in their Ignorance in their neglect of duty when we see them at the very door of Eternity on the very borders of an Everlasting World and this the fruit that they shall dye in their sins and their Blood be required at our hands Ezek. 33.1 to 10. but so to Preach and discharge the Ministerial Function that when dying might be able to say as Act. 20.25 And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men 27. For I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God 3. To be plain in our speech that every capacity of the weakest in the Congregation that hath an Eternal Soul that
Eternity it will be too late to prepare for it Preparation for Eternity must be done in time not in Eternity Now or Never if once Death stop your Mouth and close your Eyes dying in your sin you must bid farewel to God and Christ for ever When time is gone your hope and all is gone When time is gone it will never come again Yesterday you shall never see more and the time that is going while I speak and you hear when gone will never come that which is to come will be present but not that which is past If you lose your Health you might recover it again if your Estate you might get it again but if you lose your time it is gone for ever 6. If you go out of time unfitted for Eternity better you had never been in time Better for you if you had been alwaies nothing Or if a Being to have been a Dog a Toad or Serpent for these do live in time but after time they do not live in Eternal Misery as they are not capable of Eternal Happiness and when you lye in extremity and eternity of pains in Hell this will be your judgment that it had been better never to have been then to be for ever miserable 7. Multitudes have and more shall come short of Eternal Happiness and go do down to Everlasting Misery and yet doth it not concern us to be preparing for Eternity What means this sottishness of mind that when multitudes are going dayly out of time into Eternity from seen pleasures to unseen pains that we are thus secure and careless as if we should live so long in time as never to live in Eternity Or that our Being should end with time Have not we deserved Eternal punishment as well as they that in Eternity are now enduring of it and do you know you have deserved it and take no care to prevent it not so much as ask of God by serious Prayers and Tears that you might not be cast into Everlasting burnings Do you think you can make as light of the wrath of God when you shall feel it in Eternity as you do when you hear of it in time Can you be merry in the flames of Hell Can you jest and sport and play when you shall be filled with the Indignation of a provoked God or when the Arrows of the Almighty shall stiick so fast as never to be plucked from you Why then do you in time cry out and roar and bitterly complain under the smarting pain that the Gout or Stone or Cholick puts you to why do you say if this were to continue for one year without intermission or mitigation you had rather dye than live Do not many walk in the broad way that leads to Eternal Damnation Matth. 7.13 14. Are not the Holy Humble Penitent ones saved with much difficulty 1 Pet. 4.18 Are not many Professors gone to Hell Matth. 8.12 and Preachers too Matth. 7.22 23. and yet is it not time for you in good earnest to mind your Eternal state lest there being an Everlasting Kingdom you should never enter into it and Everlasting Torments and you should feel them to all Eternity 8. God doth give you all the helps and means you have that you should make ready for Eternity Have not you had Sermons and Sabbaths Have not Gods Ministers preached to you and warned you from God of the wrath to come and charged you in the Name of God to repent believe and turn and told you you must turn from sin or burn in Hell And will you go from hearing on Earth to howlings in Hell from the Light of the Gospel to utter Darkness with the sound of the voice of Mercy in your Ears After a thousand calls to mind your Souls to accept of Christ and remedying Grace Do you mean to have the hottest place in that Infernal Lake the heaviest load of Wrath in that Eternal Furnace Read and tremble when you read Matth. 11.20 to 25. 9. This will be approved Wisdom ere long by all the Sons of Men Those that now do mock at Praying and make a mock of Sinning and deride serious Godliness shall quickly be of another mind shall confess and know that they were the wisest Men that in time prepared for Eternity and they were the Fools that spent their time in Sin and Vanity Some do say as much when they lye a dying and wish oh that I had been convinced of this before my time had been so near an end before my glass had been so nigh out Oh my Folly Oh my Vanity that had Eternity to make preparation for and yet of all the time I had I never spent one hour in hearty Prayer unto God to save me from Everlasting Torments Wo is me my strength is almost gone my time is almost gone and I in danger of Eternal Torments that never shall be past and gone or if they be blind or hardned on their Death-beds yet a moment after Death they shall be convinced indeed that it was worse than madness to neglect Eternity When stept into the other World shall be amazed and confounded saying where am I now what a place is this what a state is this I heard of such a place before but it is worse than any Mans Tongue in time could tell What is time gone this is not time Here is no Sun to measure it by its motion here is no succession of Night and Day Here is no turning of an Hour-glass no striking or telling of Clocks No Morning Noon and Evening this is not time I see nothing like the things I saw in time But a little while ago I was among my Friends on Earth Did I say a little while ago Alas I am but lately come and this little while seems to me a Thousand years No while in this place is little and it will never be less because it doth not go Oh happy they that are in Eternity but in another place than I am in they were wise indeed that have prevented their coming hither and are got into a place that is as light as this is dark as joyful as this is sorrowful as full of ease as this is of pain and yet this must last as long as that and that makes this as bitter and dreadful as that is pleasant and delightful Wise were they that did foresee while they were in time but I like a blind Fool did not see before I felt what I must endure for ever I did not see but Death did draw the Curtain open the Door and let me in to an Everlasting State but wo is me it is of Misery and Damnation You are for being of the mind of the most and doing that which the Generality do approve take in but these words first or last and then do so even that which all first or last shall confess to be truest wisdom and the neglect of it folly and madness God Angels good Men do all approve of this as
let me for once name one pair the worst of Sins that have scarce any bare-fac'd Advocates yet have more hearty admirers than what really deserve it And that is a form of Godliness or downright Atheism whether of these is to be preferr'd I am sensible 't is dangerous to compare Sins for we are not to make choice of any thô the necessity be never so great or the excuses never so plausible Of afflictive Evils we may choose the less but of sinful evils we must choose neither but ratâ—â—â— suffer the worst of deaths than commit the least of Sins My only design therefore in this instance is to strip these Sins of the times of their specious pretences and to do what I can to perswade these Self-applauding Sinners to serious Godliness A shew of Godliness seems to carry it both with God and Man till his Hypocrisie is discovered he seems to be the favourite of Heaven and the Glory of Earth Some that are sincere think their Estates well bestowed upon them so they may but enjoy their Prayers They have Religion enough to get g Mat. 23.14 credit by it and to make their Markets of it and that 's all they care for on the other hand they have latitude enough to avoid danger that unless they be surprized by sufferings their Religion shall cost 'em nothing if they can't win what they play for alas they do but play with Religion they were never Religious in good earnest yet they 'l save their Stakes Are not these the only wise men that are as they call it Zealous with Discretion that will not expose themselves to danger but will more warily than conscientiously avoid it These censure those that are more venturous than themselves to befriend the Gospel when 't is despised and persecuted is not Religion of such a size a Conscience thus manageable most fit for doubtful times when dangers surround us h Gal. 2.18 What if I build again the things which I destroyed must I therefore needs make my self a transgressor Here 's the indifferent Moderation and Gallio-like Discretion is not this highly commendable Commendable say you Hypocrisie is odious to God and Man 'T is too true that Persons of no Religion decry the most sincere Christians by the Name of Hypocrites this is unreasonable and devilish but 't is not my business now to deal with them Thus far I 'le joyn with them whatever their most envenomed mouths can speak against Hypocrisie I 'le adde to it and say more and that from Scripture and that not from here and there a Verse scattered up and down thô that is sufficient proof for the highest Doctrines of Christianity but I shall commend to you above twenty Chapters together from Job 4. to the 27th inclusive wherein you have such a Dialogue none like it in the Bible between Job so eminently sincere God as it were boasts of him that there was none like him in the World thô at present God hid his sincerity from his Friends the discourse was between this Job and his three compassionate thô censorious Friends who could not but suspect there must some extraordinary guilt bring such extraordinary punishment they knew him to be free from open wickedness and therefore conclude it must be for secret Hypocrisie and thereupon they speak the most convincingly they can of the Evil of it Job addes considerably to all they say against it only denyes himself to be an Hypocrite His justifying himself makes them press more hard upon him and every one strives to be more close than other and to make a more home thrust into his Conscience to force the acknowledgement of his Hypocrisie So that upon the whole matter here 's something of Satans Temptation thô over-rul'd by the Spirit of God here 's something of the height of Grace thô allayed by humane frailty and something purely Divine eminently from the Holy Ghost and these all agree in the Conclusion thô they differ in the Premises viz. That Hypocrisie is the worst of Sins most odious to God most ruinous 〈◊〉 Man the better any one seems to be and is not what he seems the more severity he must expect from God and the less humanity from Man I know not whether 't is possible to speak worse of Hypocrisie than it deserves for thô studied Hypocrites who industriously set themselves to deceive others may long do it yet they are often in this World but alwayes in the next worst deceived themselves A meer Form of Godliness is not then to be rested in But what can the Power of Godliness do in this Case What! what can it not do 't is that alone that 's worth the Naming worth the getting worth the Owning and therefore O that I could perswade and prevail with all that have the Name of Christians that they would be as loth to be Hypocrites as to be thought so for what if you shall be accounted sincere while the Heart-searching God knows you to be hypocrites and will deal with you as such I grant the resting in a form of Godliness is a Disease rarely cured and therefore upon that as well as upon other accounts most dangerous But yet through Grace it may be both pardoned and cured Will you try an easie experiment 't is difficult I confess but as easie as possible for such a disease Hypocrisie is ordinarily defective in the manner of doing what is good and those who are most sincere complain most of their ill manner of performing of Duties and improving of Ordinances now if I can at once satisfie the sincere with the assurance of his Sincerity and cure the Hypocrite of his Soul-deceiving Hypocrisie and all this by a Prescription that the bare work done shall work the cure there 's little danger about the manner of doing it if you do it at all you can't but do it well and it can't but be effectual doth not this raise your Expectation to know what this infallible receipt is that never so much as once miss'd curing every one that took it I would I could hold you a little longer in suspence till you would resolve to try the Experiment before you reject it unless you can object something against it If you will but resolve thus I 'le referr it to your own Conscience to be Judge of the weight of your Objection What say you Will you upon this Condition resolve to make Tryal of my proposal Shall I take it for granted you will then here 't is and the blessing of God accompany it that you may not be the first successeless taker of it Do but endeavour to get and keep in your Hearts as actual apprehensions of the all-seeing God as it is possible a Gen. 16.13 Thou God seest me have I also here looked after God that seeth me q. d. Now I am come out of Abrahams Family where God is worshipped I ne're thought of Gods looking after me here but now I find he sees me
Sinners converted know the addictedness of an unconverted mans Heart to his Corruptions They have tasted most of the bitterness of Sin and of the sweetness of pardoning Mercy They know most of the terror of the Lord and therefore they should be most in perswading of 2 Cor. 5.11 and sorrowing for Sinners Paul so eminent in Sin was as famous for Compassion to Sinners Gal. 6.1 The overtaken with a fault he wills should be gently set in joynt with the Spirit of meekness He could not speak of Sinners without Weeping Phil. 3.18 He had great heaviness and sorrow of Heart for his unconverted Brethren Rom. 9.2 Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not 2 Cor. 11.29 He commends meekness toward Sinners upon this very ground for we saith he Tit. 3.3 our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another § 13 3. They that mourn for others Sins must more mourn because those Sins are offensive and dishonourable to God and hurtful to Sinners than because they are injurious to themselves that mourn over them To mourn for Sins of the times because hurtful to us is not Zeal for God or Charity to Sinners but self-love Godly Sorrow is when we sorrow for Sin as against God All Sorrow for our selves and our worldly Interest is but worldly Sorrow and dedolendus est iste dolor 'T is to be repented of when it puts the other-out of place We frequently mourn for the miscarriages of the times but more as they are afflictive than Sinful because we suffer rather than because Gods Honour or Souls suffer If we were not our selves concerned in the suffering of our worldly Interest few would hear of our mourning The complaint of What wilt â—â—ou do to thy great Name is much rarer than What shall become of my Family my Estate The precious Water of our Tears is not to be cast upon such Dunghils into such Sinks Sin brought in Tears and they should be principally shed for Sin 'T is observed by some that God who in times of publick mourning for Sin commands baldness forbids it for worldly troubles Isa 22.12 Lev. 21.5 4. They that mourn for others Sins should mourn more in secret § 14 than in open complaining Thus Jeremy ch 17. v. 13. I will mourn in secret places for your Pride Our Father saith Christ seeth in secret Mat. 6.18 though he recompenseth openly Publick Exercises of Religion may gain most applause and be most advantageous to observers but they testifie not so much sincerity to the Conscience as those in secret He mourns most truly that hath no other Witness thereof but the alseeing God Fasting and so Mourning is Feasting and Rejoycing to one that eyes only the eye of man in these services when men observe them Mat. 6.16 Our Saviour forbids appearing unto men to fast by putting on a wreathed grim sowre Countenance a lowring Look not that he forbids open expressions of sorrow used by Saints of old but the counterfeit semblance of Sorrow to make an Ostentation of Sanctimony to be noted by men Nor doth Christ here tax Mourners for seeming to fast when they did not but for desiring to be known abroad to fast when they fasted in private 2 Kings 10.16 'T is a Jehu's zeal which may be seen only and desires to be so 5. They that mourn for others Sins must mourn to an high degree § 15 who have been the occasions furtherers and promoters of their Sins either by neglecting to reprove them for restraining them from or giving them Examples of Sinning This Sanctified Conscience will make one of the bitterest ingredients into Sorrow for the Sins of others 'T was the trouble of David that he had occasion'd the Death of the Priests by receiving relief from Ahimelech 1 Sam. 22.22 I have occasion'd the Death said David to Abiathar of all the Persons of thy Fathers House I doubt not but some whom God hath converted may say Lord I have some way or other furthered the Sins of this or that great Offender if so what canst thou do less than drop the Balsom of thy Tears into his wounds of Sin Thô God have pardoned the Sin to thee and layes it not to thy Charge holy Compassion should put thee upon laying it to thy Heart This undoubtedly is a due piece of Spiritual Restitution of what thou hast wrong'd him of Canst thou do less than beg with Tears and Sobs that God would be more merciful to his Soul than thou hast been Canst thou do less than with an holy ingenuity endeavour to bring him home to that God from whom thou taughtest him to wander 6. They that mourn for the Sins of others must mourn with an § 16 Holy Reflexion upon themselves and that in these three particulars 1. They must reflect upon themselves with Sorrow because they have the same impure Natures that the most to be lamented Sinner in the World hath The holiest in thâ— World may say Lord this most extravagant Sinner speaks but the Sence of my Nature My Nature answers his as Face answers Face in the Glass But of this before 2. With a Reflection of Examination 1. Whether you have not some way or other furthered this Sinner in his much to be lamented impieties either by not endeavouring to hinder him from Sin so much as you might or by prompting him to it more than you ought If so how deeply this is to be resented you heard before 2. Whether the same open Sins that are acted by him the noted Offender or Sins almost or altogether as bad are not acted and entertain'd by thee in secret places 2 Chro. 28.10 Are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God or at least in thy Heart If so doubtless 't is thy duty to cast the first Stone at thy self and as Christ said to the Daughters of Jerusalem to weep first under the sence of thy own Unholiness and to remember thô thy Sins are not so infamous as those of a publick Sinner yet by being secret they may be Sins of greater danger And that First by occasioning Hypocrisie in contenting thy self with visible appearances of Holiness and freedom from open impieties Facile accedit tentator ubi non timetur reprehensor 2. Thy secreet Sins may be more dangerous in regard by their secrecy thou shalt not be so happy as to meet a reprover The loudly snorting Sinner every one will be ready to jog with a Reprehension whilest thou that sinnest silently in secret shalt be freed from any wholsom molestation by holy Reprehension He that would be watchful wants either a severe Censurer or a faithful Reprover 3. Thy secret Sins are not so like to trouble and awaken thy drowsie Conscience the Sins of publick offences having oft been the occasion to make People both asham'd of Sin and afraid of Vengeance 3.
With a reflection of Care and Watchfulness that thou mayst never dare to fall into the Sins that thou bewailest in another and that thou mayst never admit a temptation to a Sin in thy self which is the object of thy Lamentation in another That thou who labourest to quench the fire that hath seized upon thy Neighbours house mayst be careful to preserve thine from being set on fire also To conclude that thou mayst not dare to do that which doth or should grieve thee to see another do § 17 III. To shâ—w why this holy Mourning is 1. The Disposition and 2. Duty of the Righteous I shall express the Reasons of both distinctly 1. It is their Disposition and that under a threefold qualification 1. Because they are a knowing People They know what tears and heart-breakings Sin hath stood them in they know that Sin will cost the Wicked either Tears of Repentance or Damnation They know that Sin is but gilded Destruction and Fire and Brimstone in a disguise Knowing the terror of the Lord saith Paul we perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 'T is as true we mourn for men that will not be perswaded In one word the Godly know that when the Wicked sin they know not what they do The Word threatning Sin makes Woe as present to a knowing Saints Faith as the evil threatned can in its execution be present to a Sinners sense To a Saints eye sinning is but the Seeds-time of Wrath and Eternal Vengeance in the root But principally the Godly know what Sin hath cost Christ not tears of Water only but great and many drops of Blood 2. As to a Saints Disposition He is Compassionate and tender-hearted § 18 If Sinners mourn he mourns with them If not he mourns for them The Wicked are more the objects of his Pity than Anger The Saints only have Bowels Col. 3.12 and Christs Bowels Phil. 1.8 The Wicked as the High Priests were to Judas are hard-hearted in drawing to Sin and in leaving those whom they have drawn into it Good men are full of tears see it in David Ezra Joseph Josiah Jeremiah Quanto quisque sanctior tanto fletus uberior The more holy the more plentiful are our tears Saints have received and return Compassion Grace kills not but only cleanseth Affection 3. The Righteous are a purifi'd sanctifi'd People A Saint as such § 19 hates nothing but Sin Grace ever conflicts with Sin where it sees it either in a mans own Soul or in the Life of another Holiness contends with Sin where it cannot conquer it Now where an Object is truly hated it ever causeth Sorrow till it be removed Further every sanctifi'd Soul labours to keep it self holy Now sorrow for Sin puts us upon carefulness to avoid it 2 Cor. 7.11 All take heed of that which occasions their grief 2. 'T is the Duty as well as the Disposition of the Righteous to § 20 mourn for the Sins of others And that as they are considerable in a threefold Relation 1. In their Relation to God they are his Sons Phil. 2.15 As the Sons of God they are commanded to be blameless without Rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation This Relation of Sonship doth as truly make us mourn for the Sins of others as it engageth us to avoid Sin in our selves It suffers us not to put up dishonour offered to God our Father with sinful Patience It makes us quietly to bear our private troubles but not quietly to suffer the Sufferings of Gods Name Exod. 32.11.27 Thô Moses when with God pray'd for the People yet when with the People he vindicated the honour of God with the Sword Job 2.10 Thô Job when a Sufferer from God was holily patient yet when an hearer of the Counsel of his Wife to curse God he was as holily impatient A Son of God cannot bear the abuses offered to his Father Saints can no more endure the dishonour done to their heavenly Father according to that measure of Grace given unto them than the Angels which are in Heaven do according unto theirs Jesus wept for Lazarus's death because his Friend and should not we much more weep for Gods dishonour because our Father Gods Glory should be dearer to us than our Lives He that toucheth it should touch the Apple of our Eye and that soon makes it water § 21 2. Their Relation to the Mediator the Lord Christ Here I shall mention only a double relation between Christ and Saints that engageth them to mourn for the Sins of others The first is his Relation to us as a suffering Surety in respect whereof he sustain'd and pay'd the debt of Penalty which we owed to Gods Justice for 't was Sin in man that made Christ a man of Sorrows Saints have but one Friend and He but one Enemy how then is it possible that that Enemy when seen should not be the Object of Sorrow Sin drew not from our dear Lord Jesus's eyes only tears of Water but from his sacred face great drops of Blood 'T was Sin that pierced not his feet hands and side only but his Soul Who can look upon the bloody Knife that stabb'd Christ without some Sorrow 2. There 's a second Relation between Christ and Saints that should make them mourn for the Sins of the Wicked and that is the Relation of Teacher and Instructer We are his Disciples and Scholars and 't is our Duty as much to make him our Example as to expect he should obtain our Pardon Christ never had a Pollution but oft a Commotion of Affection Christ never wept but for Sin or its effects How full of Zeal was he for his Father when he saw his Glory blemished Joh. 2.17 Joh. 19.9 10 11. Mar. 3.5 his House defiled did it not after a sort eat him up and consume him The Reproaches of them that reproached God fell upon Christ Rom. 15.3 'T is observable thô Christ in his own cause gave Pilate no answer but stood silent yet when he heard Pilate arrogate to himself the Power of Life and Death over Christ he could not forbear to shew Pilate his Sin by telling him of an higher Power than his from whence his was derived How full of grief was Christ Luk. 19.41 seeing the hardness of the Jews hearts to their own destruction In his approach to Jerusalem filled with Enemies to God and him he wept over it for their Blindness and Impieties and approaching Destruction He bewail'd the Sins of those that rejoyced in them and shed his tears for those that thirsted to shed his blood Either resemble Christ or lay off the name of Christian § 22 3. Their Relation to the Wicked for whose Sins they should mourn 1. The Saints are men with the worst they have the Relation of humane nature to the greatest Sinners upon Earth they are ex eodem luto formati In the Body as the Apostle expresseth it Heb. 13.3 'T is a wickedness to hide our selves from
Word by the Rod as Shepherds let loose their Dogs to hunt the stragling Sheep into their Bounds As Parents use Bug-bears to make their Children run into their Arms all in Love and to keep them in it by keeping them from excursions XI Another Means to keep our selves in the Love of God is to keep in our Hearts a quick sense of the Pardon of Sin of the wonderfull love of the Lord to a poor sinfull Soul to pardon great and many sins This puts such an Obligation upon a Sinner that he cannot chuse but express his great love to the Lord for it See a famous Instance of this in Mary Magdalen who having received this great Mercy from the Lord Luc. 7.38 47. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came where he was in Simon the Pharisees house kneeled down at her dear Saviours feet and instead of Water her Eyes were Ewers and she wept tears upon the feet of Christ and washed his feet with them so abundant were they and then instead of a Towel she wiped his washen feet with the hair of her Head and not only so but kissed his feet All which thô the envious Pharisee blamed yet the Lord Jesus allowed and highly praised with tart reflexion upon the proud Pharisee who omitted those Civilities which that humble loving Convert performed Moreover the Lord that knew her Heart testifies for her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she did it all in much love to him for the forgiveness of her many sins 1. Because Forgiveness of Sin is an act of the greatest Grace condescension and kindness of God to a poor Soul Because by the guilt of Sin a Soul is bound over to eternal Death and Wrath in Hell there to make satisfaction which will be ever a doing and never done Pardon of Sin loosneth the Sinner from that by Christs satisfaction for him 2. Because every one thus Pardoned Psal 51.12 Vphold me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with thy ingenuous or generous Spirit is made truly sensible of the Kindness of God to him in it and by converting Grace hath an ingenuous and noble Spirit created in his heart that will never suffer him to forget it nor think he can ever sufficiently prize or express it XII A further Means to keep our selves in the Love of God is not only to love the Lord but to keep up our Love to him to the height Such a love as the Bride and Bridegroom have to each other which is brisk and highest then Jer. 2.2 Rev. 2.4 5. I remember saith the Lord the love of thine espousals And again I have somewhat against thee because thou art fallen from thy first love repent and do thy first works The Lord commands our Love towards him in the most intense degree of Affection with all the heart with all the soul with all thy might Cum omni valdè tâ—o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy utmost power Deut. 11.1.13.22 Cap. 19.9 Cursed be the deceiver that hath this Male in his flock Mal. this Masculine Love and yet giveth God the lame and the lean The highest Love of the Soul is a Present for the greatest King in the world Therefore labour to keep up thy Love to the height towards God Thou canst never be excessive in thy Love to God to the Creature thou mayst and commonly art But behold the perversness of Man in this Affection We stint our Love to God where it should know no bounds nor measures and we are boundless in our love to Creatures which alwayes ought to be bounded XIII If we will keep our selves in the Love of God let us labour to grow in Grace and to carry on the work of it in our Souls to the highest perfection This is grounded upon the Verse immediately before the Text viz. Ye beloved building up your selves in your most holy Faith where the Participle building agrees with the Verb in the Text keep your selves in the love of God Noting this growth in Grace and Knowledge to be an effectual means to keep our selves in the Love of God Whether we understand this Clause building up your selves in your most holy Faith to be understood of the Doctrine of Faith or the Grace of Faith or of both for we cannot well sunder them they being helps to each other according to that of Peter who puts them both together to grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and this is a Soveraign Remedy against falling away 2 Pet. 3.17 18. Now there is good reason why our growth in Grace and particularly in Faith is a principal means to keep our selves in the Love of God 1. Because the Power of God goes with Faith to keep us firm unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are kept thereby as with a strong Guard 2. Because by building up our selves in our most holy Faith we please God without Faith we cannot do that and we gain upon his Love for we are in the way of God and doing his Will this is the Will of God even our Sanctification He that hath my commandments and doth them Joh. 14.21 he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me my Father and I will love him Joh. 15.9 10. As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love XIV A great Means of keeping our selves in the Love of God is this to Pray in the Holy Ghost ver 20. the verse after my Text Now we shall see how forcible and cogent this means is Consider 1. All good things come from God Jam. 1. Prayer is the Key of Gods Closet and Treasury we are meer Beggers and have nothing of our own but are fain to beg our daily Bread of God who keeps us from Hand to Mouth God will have it so because he will have us know to whom we are beholding for all Moreover he Loves to see our Face and hear our Voice and the oftner the more welcome And this he doth as tender Fathers use to do with their Children who know what they need but will have them come to them for all with bended knees for their Fathers Blessing nor shall they come in vain 1. For the Lord commands it and approves it Mat. 6.9 2. He hath annexed great Promises to Prayer 3. Even the Holy Spirit Rom. 8.15 26 27. And hath given us a Mediator to Intercede and plead for us by Office Heb. 4.15 16. and this is the great Office of his High-Priest-hood Heb. 2. two last verses By all which we see how seasonably the duty of Prayer and the Priviledge of Prayer is here annexed ver 20. to keep our selves in the Love of God How can Friends maintain their Amity without frequent converse Abraham was called the Friend of God Jam. 2.23 Gen. 18.17
flatter themselves whilst they please that on one consideration or other they shall be the Objects only of their kindness if these men according to their Profession be obliged in conscience to execute whatever their Superiors shall command them no less than Abraham was to sacrifice his Son on the Command of God they hold their Lives at the Mercy and on the good Nature of these Superiors who are always safe out of the reach of Revenge It is marvellous that Mankind doth not agree to demolish this cursed Image or the Ascription of a Godlike Power unto men to require blind Obedience unto their Commands especially considering what effects it hath produced in the world All men know by whose Device it was first set up and erected by whom what means and unto what end it was confirmed and consecrated and at this day it is maintained by a Society of men of an uncertain Extract and Original like that of the Janizaries in the Turkish Empire their Rise being generally out of obscurity among the meanest and lowest of the People Such they are who by the Rules of their Education are taught to renounce all respect unto their Native Countreys and Alliances therein but so as to make them only the way and matter for the advancement of the interest of this new Society And this sort of men being nourished from their very first entrances into the conduct of the Society unto hopes and expectations of Wealth Honour Power Interest in the disposal of all publick Affairs of Mankind and the Regulation of the Consciences of men it is no wonder if with the utmost of their Arts and Industry they endeavour to set up and preserve this Image which they have erected from whence they expect all the advantage which they do design But hereof I may treat more fully when I come to speak of the Image of Jealousie it self SECT X. From these Generals I shall proceed unto more particular Instances and those for the most part in important Principles of Religion wherein Christian Faith and Practice are most concerned And I shall begin with that which is of signal Advantage unto the Framers of these Images as the other also are in their degree for by this craft they have their Livelihood and Wealth and most pernicious to the Souls of other men It is a Principle of Truth that such as wherein the whole course of Christian Obedience is concerned that there is a Spiritual defilement in Sin This the Scripture every where declares representing the very Nature of it by spiritual Uncleanness And this Vncleanness is its contrariety unto the Holiness of the Divine Nature as represented unto us in the Law This Defilement is in all men equally by Nature all are alike born in Sin and the pollution of it Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean And it is in all personally in various degrees some are more polluted with actual Sins than others but all are so in their degree and measure This pollution of Sin must be purged and taken away before our entrance into Heaven for no unclean thing shall enter into the Kingdom of God Sin must be destroyed in its Nature Practice Power and Effects or we are not saved from it This Purification of Sin is wrought in us initially and gradually in this Life and accomplished in Death when the Spirits of just men are made perfect In a compliance with this work of Gods Grace towards them whereby they purifie themselves consists one principal part of the Obedience of Believers in this world and of the exercise of their Faith The principal internal immediate efficient cause of this purification of Sins is the Blood of Christ the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth us from all our Sins 1 John 1.7 The Blood of Jesus purgeth our Consciences from dead works Heb. 9.14 He washeth us in his own Blood Rev. 1.5 And there is an external helping Cause thereof which is Trials and Afflictions made effectual by the Word and accomplished in Death But this way of purging Sins by the Blood of Christ is mysterious There is no discerning of its Glory but by spiritual Light no experience of its Power but by Faith Hence it is despised and neglected by the most that yet outwardly profess the Doctrine of the Gospel Men generally think there are a thousand better ways for the purging of Sin than this by the Blood of Christ which they cannot understand See Micah 6.6 7. It is Mysterious in the Application of it unto the Souls and Consciences of Believers by the Holy Ghost it is so in the Spring of its efficacy which is the Oblation of it for a Propitiation and in its relation unto the new Covenant which first it establisheth and then makes effectual unto this end The Work of it is gradual and unperceptible unto any thing but the eyes of Faith and diligent spiritual Experience Again It is so ordered by Divine Wisdom as strictly to require to begin excite and encourage the utmost diligence of Believers in a compliance with its efficacy unto the same End What Christ did for us he did without us without our aid or concurrence As God made us without our selves so Christ redeemed us but what he doth in us he doth also by us what he works in a way of Grace we work in a way of Duty And our Duty herein consists as in the continual exercise of all gracious Habits renewing changing and transforming the Soul into the Likeness of Christ for he which hopes to see him purifieth himself as he is pure so also in universal permanent uninterrupted Mortification unto the end whereof we shall speak afterwards This also renders the Work more Mysterious and difficult The improvement of Afflictions unto the same end is a principal part of the Wisdom of Faith without which they can be of no spiritual Use unto the Souls of men This Notion of the Defilement of Sin and that of the Necessity of its purification were retained in the Church of Rome for they could not be lost without not only a rejection of the Scripture but the stiffling of natural conceptions about them which are indelibly fixed in the Consciences of men But Spiritual Light into the Glory of the thing it self or the mystical Purification of Sin with an experience of the power and efficacy of the Blood of Christ as applied unto the Consciences of Believers unto that end by the holy Ghost were lost amongst them In vain shall we seek for any thing of this Nature either in their Doctrine or their Practice Wherefore having lost the Substance of this Truth and all experience of its Power to retain the Use of its Name they have made sundry little Images of it creeping things whereunto they ascribe the power of purging Sin such as Holy Water Pilgrimages Disciplines Masses and various commutations But they quickly found by experience that these things would neither purifie the Heart nor
pacifie the Consciences of sinners any more than the Blood of Bulls and Goats could do it under the Law yea any more than the Lustrations and Expiations of Sin amongst the Heathen could effect it Wherefore they have at length formed a more stated and specious Image of it to serve all the turns of convinced Sinners and this is a Purgatory after this Life that is a subterraneous place and various means where and whereby the Souls of men are purged from all their Sins and made meet for Heaven when the Lord Christ thinks meet to send for them or the Pope judges it fit to send them to him Hereunto let them pretend what they please the People under their conduct do trust a thousand times more for the purging of their Sins than unto the Blood of Christ But it is only a cursed Image of the vertue of it set up to draw off the minds of poor sinners from seeking an interest in a participation of the efficacy of that blood for that end which is to be obtained by faith alone Rom. 3.25 Only they have placed this Image behind the curtain of mortality that the cheat of it might not be discovered none who find themselves deceived by it can come back to complain or warn others to take care of themselves and it was in an especial manner suited unto their delusion who lived in pleasures or in the pursuit of unjust gain without exercise of afflictions in this world From these two sorts of persons by this Engine they raised a revenue unto themselves beyond that of Kings or Princes for all the endowments of their Religious houses and Societies were but commutations for the abatement of the fire of this Purgatory But whereas in its self it was a rotten Post that could not stand or subsist they were forced to prop it with many other imaginations for unto this end to secure work for this Purgatory they joyned the distinction of Sin into mortal and venial not as unto their end with respect unto Faith and Repentance not as unto the Degrees of sin with respect unto the aggravations but as unto the nature of them some of them being such namely those that are Venial as were capable of a purging expiation after this life though men die without any repentance of them And when this was done they have cast almost all the sins that can be named under this order And hereon this Image is become an Engine to disappoint the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and to precipitate secure sinners into eternal Ruin And to strengthen this deceiving security they have added another invention of a certain storehouse of Ecclesiastical merits the keys whereof are committed to the Pope to make application of them as he sees good unto the ease and relief of them that are in this Purgatory For whereas many of their Church and Communion have as they say done more good works then were needful for their salvation which they have received upon a due ballance of Commutative Justice the Surplusage is committed to the Pope to commute with it for the punishment of their sins who are sent into purgatory to suffer for them then which they could have found out no engine more powerful to evacuate the efficacy of the blood of Christ both as offered and as sprinkled and therewith the Doctrine of the Gospel concerning faith and repentance Moreover to give it farther countenance as one-lie must be thatched with another or it will quickly rain through they have fancied a separation to be made between guilt and punishment so as that when the guilt is fully remitted and pardoned yet there may punishment remain on the account of sin For this is the case of them in Purgatory their sins are pardoned so as that the Guilt of them shall not bind them over to eternal damnation though the wages of sin is death yet they must be variously punished for the sins that are forgiven But as this is contradictory in it self it being utterly impossible there should be any punishment properly so called but where there is guilt as the cause of it so it is highly injurious both to the Grace of God and blood of Christ in procuring and giving out such a lame pardon of sins as should leave room for punishment next to that which is eternal These are some of the rotten Props which they have fixed on the minds of persons credulous and superstitious terrified with guilt and darkness to support this tottering deformed Image set up in the room of the efficacy of the blood of Christ to purge the souls and consciences of Believers from sin But that whereby it is principally established and set up is the darkness ignorance guilt fear terrour of conscience accompanied with a love of sin that the most among them are subject and obnoxious unto being disquieted perplexed and tormented with these things and utterly ignorant of the true and only way of their removal and deliverance from them they greedily embrace this sorry provision for their present ease and relief being accommodated unto the utmost that humane or Diabolical craft can extend unto to abate their fear ease their torments and to give security unto their superstitious minds And hereby it is become to be the life and soul of their Religion diffusing it self into all the parts and concerns of it more trusted unto then either God or Christ or the Gospel Spiritual light and experience with the consequents of them in peace with God will safeguard the minds of Believers from bowing down to this horrid image though the acknowledgments of its divinity should be imposed on them with craft and force otherwise it will not be done for without this there will a strong inclination and disposition arising from a mixture of superstitious fear and love of sin possess the minds of men to close with this pretended relief and satisfaction The foundation of our preservation herein lies in Spiritual light or an ability of mind from supernatural illumination to discern the Beauty Glory and efficacy of the purging of our sins by the blood of Christ when the glory of the wisdom and grace of God of the love and grace of Christ of the power of the Holy Ghost herein is made manifest unto us we shall despise all the paintings of this invention Dagon will fall before the Ark and all these things do gloriously shine forth and manifest themselves unto believers in this misterious way of purging all our sins by the blood of Christ Herein will ensue an experience of the efficacy of this heavenly truth in our own souls There is no man whose heart and ways are cleansed by the blood of Christ through the effectual application of it by the Holy Spirit in the ordinance of the Gospel but he hath or may have a refreshing experience of it in his own soul and by the power which is communicated therewith he is stirred up unto all that exercise of Faith and all those duties
of obedience whereby the work of purifying and cleansing the whole person may be carryed on toward perfection see 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Thes 5 2â— 1 John 3.3 And he who is constantly engaged in that work with success will see the folly and vanity of any other pretended way for the purging of sins here or hereafter The consequent of these things is peace with God for they are assured pledges of our justification and acceptance with him and being justified by Faith we have Peace with God and where this is attained by the Gospel the whole Fabrick of Purgatory falls to the Ground for it is built on these Foundations that no assurance of the love of God or of a justified state can be obtained in this life For if it may be so there can be no use of Purgatory This then will assuredly keep the souls of believers in a contempt of that which is nothing but a false relief for sinners under disquietment of mind for want of peace with God SECT XI Some other instances of the same abomination I shall yet mention but with more brevity and sundry others must at present be passed over without a discovery It is granted among all Christians that all our helps our relief our deliverance from sin Satan and the world are from Christ alone This is included in all his Relations unto the Church in all his offices and the discharge of them and is the express Doctrine of the Gospel It is no less generally acknowledged at least the Scripture is no less clear and positive in it that we receive and derive all our supplies of Relief from Christ by Faith other wayes of the participation of any thing from him the Scripture knoweth not Wherefore it is our duty on all occasions to apply our selves unto him by Faith for all supplies Reliefs and deliverances But these men can find no life nor power herein at least if they grant that somewhat might be done this way yet they know not how to do it being ignorant of the life of Faith and the due exercise of it They must have a way more ready and easy exposed to the capacities and abilities of all sorts of Persons good and bad yea that will serve the turn of the worst of men unto this end An Image therefore must be set up for common use instead of this spiritual application unto Christ for relief and this is the making of the sign of the Cross Let a man but make the sign of the Cross on his forehead his breast or the like which he may as easily do as take up or cast away a straw and there is no more required to engage Christ unto his assistance at any time And the vertues which they ascribe hereunto are innumerable but this also is an Idol a teacher of Lies invented and set up for no other end but to satisfie the carnal minds of men with a presumptuous supposition in the neglect of the spiritually laborious exercise of Faith an Experience of the work of Faith in the derivation of all supplies of spiritual Life Grace and Strength with deliverance and supplies from Jesus Christ will secure Believers from giving heed unto this triffling deceit SECT XII One thing more amongst many others of the same Sort may be mentioned it is a notion of Truth which derives from the Light of Nature That those who approach unto God in divine Worship should be careful that they be pure and clean without any Offensive defilements This the Heathen themselves give Testimony unto and God confirmed it in the Institutions of the Law But what are these defilements and pollutions which make us unmeet to approach unto the presence of God how and by what means we may be purified and cleansed from them the Gospel alone declares And it doth in opposition unto all other ways and means of it plainly reveal that it is by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon our Consciences so to purge them from dead Works that we may serve the Living God see Heb. 9.14 chap. 10.19 20 21. But this is a thing mysterious nothing but spiritual Light and saving Faith can direct us herein Men destitute of them could never attain an Experience of purification in the way Wherefore they retained the notion of Truth it self but made an Image of it for their use with a neglect of the thing it self And this was the most ludicrous that could be imagined namely the sprinkling of themselves and others with that they call Holy Water when they go into the places of sacred Worship which yet also they borrowed from the Pagans So stupid and sottish are the minds of men so dark and ignorant of heavenly things that they have suffered their Souls to be deceived and ruined by such vain superstitious Trifles This Discourse hath already proceeded unto a greater length than was at first intended and would be so much more should we look into all parts of this Chamber of Imagery and expose to view all the abominations in it I shall therefore put a close unto it in one or two instances wherein the Church of Rome doth boast it self as retaining the Truth and Power of the Gospel in a peculiar manner whereas in very deed they have destroyed them and set up corrupt Images of their own in their stead SECT XIII The first of these is the Doctrine and Grace of Mortification That this is not only an important Evangelical Duty but also of indispensable necessity unto Salvation all who have any thing of Christian Religion in themselves must acknowledg It is also clearly determined in the Scripture both what is the nature of it with its causes and in what acts and duties it doth consist For it is frequently declared to be the crucifying of the Body of Sin with all the Lusts thereof For Mortification must be the bringing of something to death and this is sin and the dying of sin consists in the casting out of all vitious habits and inclinations arising from the Original depravation of nature it is the weakning and graduate extirpation or destruction of them in their roots principles and operations Whereby the Soul is set at liberty to act universally from the contrary principle of Spiritual Life and Grace The means on the part of Christ whereby this is wrought and effected in believers is the communication of his Spirit unto them to make an effectual application of the vertue of his death unto the death of sin for it is by his Spirit that we mortifie the deeds of the flesh and the flesh it self and that as we are implanted by him into the likeness of the death of Christ By vertue thereof we are crucifyed and made dead unto sin in the Declaration of which things the Scripture doth abound The means of it on the part of Believers is the exercise of Faith in Christ as crucifyed whereby they derive vertue from him for the crucifying of the Body of death And this
John 20.17 Go in my Brethren and say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God A power to spirituallize carnal affections Col. losâ— 3â— â— If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God set your affectiâ—n on things â—bove and not on things upon the earth Finally a power to conâ—â—rm and establish the soul in Grace for Christ being â—â—ised from the â—ead diâ—th no 〈◊〉 death hath no more dominion oâ—er him and they that are once really quickened by him shall never more become dead in sins and 〈◊〉 passes but shall continue faithful to the death and may confidently expect a joyful resurrection Christ is risen as the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 Therefore there will be an Harvest at the end of the world when all the bodies of the Saints that were sown in Corruption shall be raised in Incorruption that were sown in dishonour shall be raised in Glory 6. Growing in the Knowledge of Christ implies greater satisfaction aboue his imputed righteousness The Apostle having spoken of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ presently declares his desire to be found in him not having his own Righteousness but that which is through the Faith of him the righteousness which is of God by Faith Phil. 3.9 This righteousness of Christ is called the righteousness of God Because 't is that which God accepts and upon the account of which he justifies the ungodly moreover Christ himself is Jehovah the true God else his obedience and sufferings would not have been sufficient to have been our justifying Righteousness * Cur insane Sophista assâ—ris dilectionâ—m spem alias virtutes scio has esse insignia Dei dona divinitus mandata per Spiritum sanctum in nostris cordibus excitari ali Scio fidem sine his donis non â—xistere Sed nunc nobis quaestio â—st quid cujusque proprium sit Tenes manu varia semina non autem quaero quae cum quibus conjuncta sint Sed quae cujusque propria virtus Hic aperte dic quid faciat sola fides non cum quibus virtutibus sit conjuncta Sola fides apprehendit promissionem credit promittenti deo deo porrigenti admovet manum et accipit hoc proprium soliuâ— fidei opus est Charitas spes patientia habent alias materias circaquas vâ—rsantur habent alios limites intra quos consistunt non enâ—m complectuntur promissionem sed mandata exequuntur Luther Tom. 2. in Gen. p. 57. a. This Righteousness is said to be imputed and imputed by the Lord himself and that without works and this Doctrine was preached in the Old Testament by David as well as in the New by the Apostle Paul Rom. 4.6 Nay as Christ is called the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 So Jerusalem the Church is called after her Husbands Name the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 33.16 to shew the reality of the imputation of this righteousness and the real and blessed benefits that follow upon it T is by this righteousness applyed by Faith that we are justifyed from all our Transgressions of the Law and from our sins against the Gospel That guilt which we have contracted by our impenitency and unbelief which are sins against the Gospel can be removed out of Gods sight only by the righteousness by the blood and death of his Son All Justification therefore before God whether our sins have been against the first or the second Covenant is purely meerly by this righteousness of Jesus Christ whereof Faith is medium applicationis a means to apply Oh the compleatness and perfection of this Righteousness of Christ there is no need of any addition He is called the Sun of Righteousness and therefore in the business of Justification all other righteousness should vanish as the Stars do at the Sun rising Let Satan rage let Rome deride and reproach this Article of imputed righteousness must stand or the Church will fall And the better Christ is known the more confidently shall we own his righteousness 7. Growing in the Knowledg of Christ implies a more constant and fiducial eying of his Intercession and the pity and compassions of him that intercedes Believers should better know this Friend and Advocate in the Court of Heaven who always appears for them there He presents to his Father what he did and suffered upon Earth and how effectual is this on the Churches behalf Though the head be in Heaven yet he is mindful of his Members on Earth and is ready to plead for them here is the ground of boldness in coming to the Throne of Grace for we have a great high Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God Heb. 4.14 16. Here is the reason why the Saints Prayers are so mighty and prevalent they are backt with the Intercession of Christ nay 't is upon this that the Apostle concludes believers Salvation to the uttermost Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make Intercession for them 8. Growing in the knowledg of Christ implies being better acquainted with his great Power and continual presence with his Church which is so nearly related to Him Behold All Power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth at his Name every knee does bow and every tongue if it will speak truth must confess that Christ is Lord. He is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords The mightiest Monarchs are more under his Power then their meanest Slaves are under theirs He has all the reprobate Angels in a Chain the Key of Hell is in his hand he commands all there and in Heaven the elect Angels are his Ministers to fulfil his pleasure He is indeed exalted far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this World but also in that which is to come Eph. 1 21. Now this Lord who is so powerful has assured his Church which is his Spouse nay his Body that he will be with her always to the end of the world Mat. 28. ult The Church therefore in spight of Earth and Hell shall last while the world lasts Let fear give way and Faith increase Believers may contemn their proudest adversaries See Zions carriage towards Sennacherib the great King of Assyria Esa 37 22. The Virgin Daughter of Sion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn the Daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at ther. 9. Growing in the knowledg of Christ implies a better understanding him as Mediatour of the new Covenant so he is called Heb. 12 23. On this Covenant pardoning mercy renewing grace and eternal glory are promised Earth and Heaven the Creature and the Creator himself by himself are made over to Believers Now you must know that
unbelievers but address my self to you that are Saints who have known Christ with a saving Knowledg and shall shew you how Christ and the knowledg of him may be used and improved 1. Improve the knowledg of Christ with reference to God himself God out of Christ is very dreadful thus considered sinful man must look upon him as the Devils do and tremble Jam. 2.19 He has fury in his Face curses in his mouth and a glittering Sword in his hand and what flesh can stand before him But you that are Believers are to look upon him as he is in Christ now his wrath is taken away he is the God of Love and Peace and Grace and comfort you may discern his bowels yearning towards you his everlasting arm embracing you his Language is most sweet and full of kindness nay He swears he will bless you with all sorts of blessings but especially with the best namely spiritual and everlasting Under the Old Testament God was called the Lord that brought Israel out of Aegypt Afterwards the Lord that brought Judah out of the Land of the North. But under the New Testament he is styled again The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 1.3 1 Pet. 1. â— Behold him in Christ and you will see him to be a Father a Guide a Shield an exceeding great reward you may abound in Faith and Hope and Joy in the Lord for he is the God of your Salvation 2. Improve the Knowledg of Christ with reference to the Law of God The Law considered in it self since the fall of Man is the ministration of Death it condemns the Transgressors and concludes and leaves them under wrath and t is so weak through the flesh that it can give righteousness and Life to none but if this Law be lookt upon in the hand of Christ the Mediator its Curse is removed its rigour abated The Believer may delight in the Law of God Ps 1.2 and prefer it before thousands of Gold and Silver Ps 119.72 and is to account it one of the choice new Covenant Blessings to have this Law written in his very heart Heb. 8.10 Christ heals the natural enmity against the Law of God which was in the hearts of believers and strengthens them to yield obedience to it and that promise is fulfilled Ezeck 36. â—7 I will put my Spirit within yoâ— and cause you to walk in my Stutures and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them 3. Improve the knowledge of Christ with reference to Sin Behold the Lord Jesus for Sin condemning Sin in the flesh that is by being made a sin offering he condemned sin Sins cause Falls sin is as it were cast and the sinner believing in Jesus is acquitted If you are in Christ Sin though it has damned thousands yet you are freed from it's condemning Power Rom. 8.1 There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Behold this Lamb of God who bare your sins himself a Load too heavy for you to bear Are you afflicted with the remainders of Lusts and Corruptions Still look to Jesus No Lust so strong but he can easily mortify it The death of Christ has a killing Power in reference to sin without this all means of mortification will be of little efficacy The Apostle speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being planted together in the Likeness of his death Rom. 6.5 As the branch derives vertue from the Vine so the Christians mortifying Power from Christ's death When he the second Adam was crucifyed the old Adam was crucifyed with him and truly the old Man with his Lusts and Deeds must be mortifyed by the improvement of Christs Crucifixion Rom. 6.6 Knowing this that our Old Man is crucifyed with him that the Body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve Sin Hoc benâ—ficium Christo acceptum ferre convenit quia sine ipso hostile potius Angelis nobiscum diâ—cidium est quam familiaris juvandi nostri cura Ideo super ipsum ascendere descendere dicuntur non quod illi soli ministrent sed quod ejus respectu in ejus honorem complectantur sua cura totum Ecclesiae corpus Calvin in Johan c. 1. 4. Improve the Knowledg of Christ in reference to Angels and that both good and evil Angels The good ones have Christ to be their Head Col. 2.10 And they holding this Head are confirmed and established These good Angels are said to ascend and descend upon Christ John 1.51 Which Luther refers to their Contemplation of Christs divinity and humanity V. derâ— in eadâ—m Persona summa infima conjunctissima But Calvin refers it to the Angels Ministration here is an allusion to Jacob's Ladder Christ is that Ladder whereby we may ascend 't is through Him that Heaven is open and 't is upon his Account that the Angels are ready to do Offices of kindness to believers and are so ready to be ministring Spirite to minister for them that are Heirs of Salvation Heb 1.14 And as from Christ you are to expect care from the good Angels so he can easily defend you from the bad ones He stops the mouth of the Devil who is the Accuser of the Brethren by that full satisfaction he haâ— made to divine Justice He detects him as a Lyar and discovers his wiles and devices He opposes Satan as a Murtherer and hinders him from devouring the least Lamb of his flock he is ready to aâ—m you with the whole armour of God and strengthens you both to combate and to conquer He has tryed Satans Strength in his own person and had got the Victory He had spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them Col 2.15 5 Improve this Knowledg of Christ with reference to this present World Christ in the days of his flesh had little of the world and in the hour of Temptation he despised the offer of the whole Surely 't is a thing of small value and it usually proves a great snare else Christians should have more of it They are enemies to the Câ—oss of Christ who mind eâ—rthly things Phil. 3.18 19. They are Strangers to the power of his resurrection whose hearts and Treasure are not in Heaven Look unto Jesus and look off from the World or look upon it with contempt Be not so eager after that which Christ lost his Life to deliver you from Gal. 1.4 He gave himself that he might deliver us from this present evil world acccording to the Will of God and our Father 6. Improve this knowledg of Christ with reference to Duties Grace and perseverance in Grace Let all your Duties be done in his Name Gal. 3.17 that is in his Strength and with expectation of acceptance â—â—â—â—rely upon the account of his Mediation Apply your selves to him for grace to help in every time of need Heb. 4.16 for grace to do for grace to suffer for grace to persevere and stand perfect and
in fear O Lord that the nations may know themselves to be but men They desired evil no otherwise than good Men that are in Place of Authority over others may and ought to use it viz. not to make others poenâ miseros sed correctione beatos miserable by putting them to pain but happy by amendment 2. If you find them sometimes to have a farther reach and to look beyond time to eternity you must consider they were extraordinary persons and by the spirit of Prophesie did foresee what God had irrevocably determined concerning some men and upon this supposition they might not only acquiesce in the judgment of God against them but were obliged to approve of it too As all the Saints shall at the last day approve of the Sentence of Christ against such as they loved and earnestly prayed for when here on Earth before they knew what their final state would be That these had such a foresight is plain by what David spake of Judas many years before he was born He saw plainly what Judas his cursed end would be as you may see by reading the 109th Psalm which Peter tells us the Holy Ghost spake before concerning Judas by the mouth of David Acts 1.16 So that these being Persons and Cases extraordinary are not to be drawn into example by ordinary persons It is good for us to mind what Christ says of great sinners Mat. 12.31 32. I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men When Christ says all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men and excepts none but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost no not a word spoken against the Son of Man himself we may well think a word spoken or a deed done against our selves may be pardoned and that it may be so should pray for it and we may hope fot a good effect of it Acts 7.60 Stephen's prayer when he was stoned probably had an influence on Paul's conversion St. John tells us 1 John 5.16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death So that unless a Man could be assured that another hath sinned that sin which is unto death he may nay he ought to pray for him He shall ask c. In any case where there is but an if so be or a who can tell or a perhaps there is room left for prayer In that mighty Tempest that arose in the Sea to arrest Jonah as he was going to Tarshish which was like to have broken the Ship he is called on to arise and call upon his God Jonah 1.6 If so be that God will think upon us that we perish not Their case was very doubtful yet they pray So when Jonah had delivered his Message to the Ninevites Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown they cry mightily unto God saying Who can tell if God will turn and repent Jonah 3.9 Simon Magus was in a very bad state In the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity and Peter perceived it Si fieri possit ab ipsis inferis extrahendi nobis sunt homines Calvinus in locum yet he bids him repent and pray If perhaps the thoughts of his heart might be forgiven him and can we think that he who put him upon praying for himself would not pray for him too especially considering Simon requested it of him Acts 8.21 24. 3. The Third good means to be used to overcome evil in others is to use good words in speaking 1. Of them 2. To them 1. To speak well of them so far as with truth we may Peter Martyr thinks this is required Rom. 12.14 Bless them that persecute you bless and curse not Where by blessing in the the former part of the verse he understands speaking well of them in the latter praying for them But possibly the Apostle might double the word only for the greater Emphasis it being a duty of great necessity and not easie to be performed However it must be acknowledged a duty to speak well of them for what is praise-worthy in them Indeed we may not call evil good nor praise any for the evil they do but must say in that case as the Apostle doth to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11.22 Shall I praise you in this I praise you not On the other hand we must not call good evil There being none so bad but have some good gifts and commendable qualities in them we should acknowledg them in them and praise them for them The positive part of the Ninth Commandment requires this at our hands to bear a true witness to our Neighbour Therefore as Christ when he blames this and the other Church for the faults he found in them acknowledgeth the good he found among them saying to one This thou hast and to another This thou hast Rev. 2.6 and 3.4 so should we do And how this tends to overcome evil the Wise-man will tell us Prov. 27.21 As the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold so is a man to his praise or as others so is to a man his praise That is it tries him and refines him too 2. As good words of them tend to overcome evil in others so good words to them Respectful language and modest answers are of great efficacy to allay and abate corrupt affections in others It was spiritual wisdom in Paul to answer Festus saying he was mad and besides himself calmly and respectfully I am not mad most noble Festus Acts 26.25 With what respect and reverence doth David speak of and to Saul when he was pursuing him for his life Speaking of him he calls him the Lords anointed 1 Sam. 26.16 and speaking to him he doth as it were in one breath for 't is within the compass of the Three following verses call him My Lord the King And what he spake as well as what he did at that time did for the present mollifie his heart towards him as appears by his saying to him again Is this thy voice my son David By long forbearing a Prince is perswaded and a soft tongue breaketh the bone Prov. 25.15 A Flint is sooner broken on a Pillow than on a Rock We find the men of Ephraim very angry with Gideon Judg. 8.1 because he called them not when he went out against the Midianites for the Text saith they did chide with him sharply He tho a mighty man of valour gave them this modest answer What have I now done in comparison of you Is not the gleaning of the graves of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer Intimating that they had done greater service in pursuing than he had done in routing of them Then says the Text their anger was abated toward him when he had said that Prov. 15.1 Grievous words might have stirred up anger but his soft answer turned away wrath 3. The Third thing
because it pleased him to make them no other till they utterly spoil them 5. But yet we must know that there is a mid-siz'd Beauty a moderate rate of comeliness which the Ancients called formam statam such a mediocrity as is below envy and above contempt concerning which I observe 1. That this moderate assize of beauty is the safest posture and most secure from doing or receiving mischief from tempting or being tempted that we could be placed in It is so in all outward concernments The Cedar of Lebanon is exposed to storms The Thistle of Lebanon liable to be trampled on and trodden down by the insolent foot of every wild Beast of the Forest And when we come to cast up our Accounts in a dying day or to give up our Accounts in the last day we shall find and acknowledge it to have been so 2. It is Lawful by Natural means to recover what preternatural accidents have taken away If sickness has impair'd thy complexion and beauty health will restore it let the Physician do his part and restore health and health will not be wanting to hers and restore decay'd comeliness better than the Painter That the Physician is Gods Ordinance primarily to preserve life and restore health I know but whos 's the Painter is when employ'd about the redintegrating of faded beauty you were best to inquire of Jezabel for I confess my ignorance 3. It is not lawful to aspire after nor endeavour to procure the highest pitch of beauty that is attainable by Art when Nature has denied it in things of greater value and nobler use than perishing complexon God has set due bounds to our towring thoughts I cannot conceive it lawful for me to desire Paul's gifts unless I had his employment and we may possibly overshoot our selves in begging for the highest measures of some Graces unless what God calls us to shall need them 4. Nor is it lawful to endeavour to restore by Art what the ordinary course of time and age has deprived us of It seems to me that we should acquiesce in the devastations which time has made upon our Bodies otherwise than as a rate of health suitable to that declining may make us more lively active chearful and vigorous in Gods work The hoary head is a crown of glory Prov. 16.31 Prov. 20.29 And the beauty of old men is the gray head And are we asham'd of our Glory Do we despise our Crown Will nothing serve but juvenile hairs on an aged head must we needs try conclusions to fetch back the Spring in Autumn the former is indeed more pleasant the latter more fruitful and profitable who would exchange the Harvest for the Seed-time Yet such is our frowardness youthful Perukes must if not make yet counterfeit black hairs where age has made them gray and thus not seeking true Glory in the way of Righteousness we affect and pursue a false an imaginary honour in a way of unrighteousness Let this suffice for the first inquiry What are the ends for which God appoints and Nature needs Apparel 2 Come we to the second What is the true rule of decency in Apparel That all indecent Apparel is a transgression of a general rule Let all things be done decently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a right Scheme in a decent habit is easily granted but to fix and settle the rule of decency 1 Cor. 14.42 will be a matter of greater difficulty especially since much controversie has been raised about it on another and greater occasion what influence it may have upon our main inquiry will appear from this confessed truth That the suitableness or unsuitableness and by consequence the lawfulness or unlawfulness of all Apparel to the person that wears it will depend very much on its agreeing or disagreeing with this rule of decency There are six things which in conjunction as I conceive will compleat this rule 1. The outward condition 2. The Age. 3. The Sex of the wearer 4. The Climate 5. The Law of the Land 6. The Customs of the place where or under which Providence has cast our habitation § 1. The condition of the wearer in outward respects is of great consideration for tho all men are made of the same Metal and Materials by Creation yet all are not cast in the same Mold by Providence one wears a publick and politick another a private Character God has placed one on the Throne whilst he has set millions to grind at the Mill some are Rich others poor some cut out for Masters others shaped for Servants And it seems to me that there should be some distinction in the outward habit proportionable to what Providence has made in the outward condition But to render this Observation serviceable to the main design take these Propositions 1. Proposition It is lawful and in some respects necessary that Kings Princes and Magistrates especially in the Solemn exercise of their proper and respective Offices be distinguished by their Robes from private persons and from each other All civiliz'd Nations have so unanimously concurred in this distinction that we may receive it as the dictate of Nature the Vote of Universal reason 1 King 22. Jehosaphat wore his Royal Robes tho the wearing them once had like to have cost him dearer than the matter and making Solomon's outward glory was the admiration of the Queen of Sheba and yet when he shone in all his external Luster and Splendor was not array'd like the Lilly of the field Matth 6. which gloried only in the bravery of Natures own spinning so short are the finest Works of Art Acts 12.21 of the coursest manufactures and meanest pieces of the God of Nature And tho Herod in his Royal Apparel was eaten by the Worms who fell to and spared not what vengeance had set before them before Death had said Grace yet the sin lay not in the richness of his Robes but the rottenness of his Heart who affecting to be more than a Man became less than a Worm and because he was ambitious of being a God had not the civility usually given to Men. 2. Proposition There is a Lawful difference of Apparel arising from the difference of Wealth Titles and Honours tho distinguisht by no publick Office which our Saviour seems to approve of They that wear soft cloathing are in Kings houses Matth. 11.8 Courtiers then may assume a Garb somewhat above that of meaner persons suitable to the glory of the Prince on whom they attend And our Lord and Saviour in his practise justifies some diversity who used both a more liberal Diet and agreeable Cloathing than John the Baptish whose raiment was of camels hair with a leathern girdle about his loins Matth 3.4 and his meat was locusts and wild honey one Garb was decent enough in the rude Wilderness which had been uncomely to him whose habitation was much in the City Luk. 16.19 Should I quote that rich man who was cloathed
an abomination Oh bury her out of my sight says Abraham of his beloved Sarah Gen. 23.4 What do men take pains and care about What are they at cost and charge upon rising early and going to bed late but only for such things as may serve and please the Body VVhich very Body must be beholden to the Soul for to keep it from becoming worms meat and rottenness VVe might value our Bodies and their concerns as much as we do or as we list to do would it but cause us so much the more to esteem our Souls as they deserve for keeping our Bodies in a capacity for our care and kindness 6. Our Bodies follow their Condition 6. It is in the last place very considerable as to us to enhance our opinion of the Soul that our Bodies follow the condition of our Souls As our Souls are so shall our Bodies be when raised up to all Eternity and therefore St. Stephen when he was a dying commends only his Soul to our Saviour Acts 7.59 and our Saviour himself in his last breath commends his Spirit or Soul to his Father Luke 23.46 neither making any mention of their Bodies as knowing that their Bodies by consequence would be happy that they would be cared for by God and raised up in Gods time to be blessed with their Souls to all Eternity If our Souls be found unbelieving and impenitent without Gods Image and favour all the rich attire and sumptuous fare will not keep our Bodies no more than they did Dives his Body from being tormented in those flames that shall burn and none can quench them on the other side if our Souls be sanctified and accepted notwithstanding any present poverty disease or misery they shall hereafter sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Shall I carry this a little further it may be more home and close unto you The welfare of the Body even in this life depends upon the Soul As the case of thy Soul is so are all those very things that befal thy Body even in this world VVe judge amiss and call good evil and evil good take all things together and stay till the conclusion and you will then see that all the prosperity that befel a man his riches health friends reputation c. were all evil if his Soul be evil that is unpardoned unregenerated oh very evil Isa 3.10 11. Psal 7.11 God is angry with the wicked every day In his healthful prosperous days he hath the wrath of God the least drop whereof will imbitter all his sweets and this is mixt in the Cup and is as death in the Pot But one that hath his Soul pardoned and purged from sin by the Blood and Spirit of the Son of God All his very torments and Miseries if any such befall him are what God in wisdom hath chosen for him Rom. 8.2 8. and in faithfulness hath layd upon him they are the very best providences that God could find out for him thus to the pure all things are pure c. Titus 1.15 And now I hope that the pretiousness of the Soul being manifest although I have all a long enforc'd my Argumenes as practically as I could I may yet have room for the remaining Application which I am now come unto APPLICATION Informaâ—â—â—â— 1. If the Soul be so pretious we have heard enough to make us abhor sin for ever Sin must needs be the most mischievous thing to us It being that only which can ruine our Souls whereby only we can lose our Souls Other Evils can but bereave us of our Estates or at most of our Lives but they have no more mischief which they can do but sin does deservedly cast Body and Soul into Everlasting Fire Isa 59.2 they are only our iniquities which separate betwixt God and us not tribulation and anguish c. no loss or cross these can and do work for good but sin is such a bitter root that it can bring forth nothing but bitter fruits Sin is the Souls sickness nay its death causing a divorce betwixt it and God the fountain of its life Hence it is said to war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 and to pierce the Soul through 1 Tim. 6.10 I appeal to any whether they would not detest and oppose those that should do such things to their Bodies O fools and slow of heart to believe Luk. 24.25 If ye will not believe God who hath said there is no peace nothing truly good no Salvation to be sure to the wicked believe at least your selves who cannot but find that as sin grows stronger your Souls grow weaker and that by it you forsake your own Mercies and get Boiles and Ulcers nay the Plague in your Souls 2. This does recommend and endear our Blessed Saviour to us who is the Saviour of our Souls and the Shepheard of our Souls and therefore only it is that they do not want he washed them in his blood 1 Pet. 2.25 and quickens them by his Spirit and keeps them by his power and crowns them with his glory to them which believe these things he is pretious 1 Pet. 2.7 If ye value your Souls above the World ye will value our Saviour above all the world too for had it not been for his love and care your Souls had been the miserablest things in it 3. This commends Holiness in all its parts to us Holiness is nothing else but the right Temper and Healthful Constitution of the Soul 't is the beauty of the Soul without which 't is most deformed and loathsome in God's sight To be Heavenly and Holy is to be as God is and to have the Spirit of Glory rest upon you Heb. 12.14 nay without Holiness none shall see God For though there was no defect in the price that Christ pay'd he did and suffered till all was fulfill'd yet if we be wanting in our applying of it we may perish and it will be our sore condemnation that light is come into the World and we love darkness Colos 1.27 't is Christ within us that is our hope of Glory I must not take occasion to commend those comprehensive Graces Faith and Repentance unto you but in a word as ye love your Souls value and esteem them they are to you as tabula post naufragium a plank to get safely to shoar withal If you do not make timoâ—s use of it your Souls will be drowned and perish Everlastingly Godliness is the Souls food ye cannot live a day without it or your Souls will be weak and faint nay expire and dye It is indeed the Souls Life as Jacobs Life was bound up in Benjamins life so is the Souls Life bound up in Godliness where Godliness decays there the Soul goes down with sorrow to the Grave nay to Hell Where Godliness thrives the Soul exults and cryes out Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Luk. 2.29 nay in this world What a Feast does Godliness
make for the Soul whilst it may be the Body hath only a dish of Herbs 2. Reprehension I may then in the next place blame and bewail the folly and madness of most men who live as if they had no Souls or as if their Souls were fit only to be placed with the Dogs of the fold Like a woman I have heard of who when her house was on fire was very busie in saving of her stuff carrying out with all her might as much as she could at last she bethought her self of her Child which was left in a Cradle but when she returned to look after that she found that the fire had destroyed it and there she was first aware of her praeposterous care for her Goods before her Child running up and down as one distracted crying my Child my Child as David for his son Absalom So â—las when 't is too late all that neglect their Souls in this life will how I out in the midst of their scorching flames 2 Sam. 18.33 Oh my Soul my Soul I would I had dyed for thee my dear and pretious Soul We would have nothing bad by our good Will we would not have bad Relatives Children or other no not so much as a bad piece of Coin and how comes it to pass that men can be so content with bad Souls Thy Soul is thy self and if thy Soul be bad thou art bad thy self and how hast thou deserved so ill of thy self that thou shouldest neglect thy self and care not what become of thy Soul which is thy self Xerxes when he beheld his numerous Army wept Oh sayd he what a many here are that in a very short space must yield to Death and be devoured by VVorms It is a far sadder consideration that such multitudes of mens Souls are lost and perish Eternally and let the abounding of sin speak whether this be a causeless fear When the Apostles heard that one of them though but one was the Son of Perdition and should lose his Soul Every one of them was jealous over his Condition and cryed out Is it I Is it I Matth. 26.22 I cannot tell who particularly it is yet I cannot but know there are many sins that speak men ripe for judgment and many other sins which though they be not so notorious and visible are yet certainly as truly destructive and damnable A leak in any part of the Ship may sink it And now oh that my words might reach your hearts I speak in the behalf of your pretious Souls These words are not about trifles which you may consider or neglect as you please but as Moses said in the like case These words are your Life and no less than Life or Death Eternal depends upon your receiving of them When your Bodies are distemper'd what sending is there for a Physitian How are the symptoms of the Disease considered Or if an Estate be doubtful what counsel do we not take What cost and charge are we not at to ensure it Yet we let our Souls run all imaginable yea and unimaginable hazards without the least care to be sure without suitable care to their worth or danger and how can we any longer go for Christians or the Disciples of him who taught us here the pretiousness of our Souls and himself valued them accordingly Whatsoever we may flatter our selves with only such as are of the same mind with him shall have Salvation by him It is high time then to be Exhorted 3. Exhortation and prevailed with to suitable affections and dispositions shall I say or rather to suitable Lives and Conversations unto what ye have heard The truths that have been spoken unto are not so much speculative as practical they meet with little or no controversie in the Theory but in the practice of them The Devil knows that let men believe what they will concerning their Souls he is sure enough to obtain them and that with great advantage to a more sore condemnation if they do not practice according to what they are convinc'd of Shew then that thou doest value and esteem thy Soul according to the worth and dignity Children or Fools or Barbarous Africans preferr Beads and Toyes before Gold and real Pearls but it were folly and madness if we should do so and yet I am afraid we do worse every day Whatsoever is the price the tempter offers or perswades to sin with remember that it is for thy Soul if thou consentest and yieldest the bargain is struck thou doest what in thee lies to give thy Soul for the pleasure or advantage of the sin Judas had an ill bargain that lost his Soul and his Saviour for thirty pence though many sell their Saviour and their Souls too cheaper every day a goodly price be it what it will God gave his Son for thy Soul and entrusted thee with it and thou ungrateful and vile wretch doest barter it away for trifles You know Nathan 's Parable of the Ew-Lamb 2 Sam. 12. so tenderly beloved by the right owner of it and yet it was slain to entertain a stranger That Parable respects more than David Thou art the Man Thy Soul is the beloved Lamb and the Devil is the Stranger whom to be sure thou art no way concern'd to entertain when thou sinnest thou slayest this Ewe-Lamb to entertain and gratifie this stranger Oh that the Parallel might be carryed a little further and that some or other upon the reading of this would cry out with David I have sinned And if thou wouldest indeed value thy Soul be perswaded from what thou hast heard that all those things which concern thy Soul are far more excellent than those which concern thy Body as for instance That 1. Thy Souls riches are the best riches call'd by our Saviour true riches Considerations to facilitate this duty Luk. 16.11 Ah that any should be contentedly without them 2. The Souls pleasures are the choicest pleasures True Joy is not a superficial thing that affects the countenance and produces smiles or laughter many poor wretches in Bedlam are thus merrily mad but res severa est verum gaudium The Heart is the seat of all our Affections and so of our Joy and nothing can rejoyce that but the favour of God to the Soul 3. The Souls honour is the truest honour if honour be in honorante what honour is it to have the applause or homage of sorry sinful men But it is God that delights to honour the Soul and will put off his own glory upon it I shall say nothing to vilifie the Body which is the other part we consist of and we overprize and value it is enough to say with Bernard quantumcunque excolatur caro est Trim thy Body pamper it bestow all thy care and pains upon it 't is but flesh still t will be wormes meat and by all thy carking and caring for it thou art but preparing to feast those contemptible Creatures more delicately or if that will
be some while first yet I may ask you as Plato did one of his Schollars who minded his Table and cheer what he did mean to make his Prison so strong Alas the Body is but the Prison of the Soul the Soul is at liberty only when it gets out of it Let these things frequently come into your minds To which add 1. If the miseries and wants which concern the Body be so great as indeed we esteem them and sometimes feel them to be what then are the necessities and calamities of the Soul The Soul being so excellent nay the meanest humane Soul being more worth than all the Bodies in the world Is there any pain which torments thy Body how intolerable will the pain be that will torment thy Soul the biting of a Scorpion and the raging of fire are but faint resemblances of it If bodily hunger be so sharp what did it not cause the poor Women in the siege of Samaria to do or to part with 2 Kings 6.26 how intense is the hunger and thirst in the Soul whilst yet we are under the dispensations of mercy but if once God's offended Patience turns to Anger who can endure to be scorched with the flames of it 2. If the Pleasures and advantages men have for the Bodies be so desirable Oh what are those Pleasures and advantages we have or may have for our Souls For God hath provided for all his Creatures suitably to their Natures The Herbs and Plants have Earth and dung Beasts have grass to nourish them with The Body of man is plentifully provided out of the store-house and ward-robe of the Creatures with food and rayment but there is nothing amongst them all found good enough for the Soul The Soul can only be satisfyed with the good things of Gods house even of his holy Temple Psal 65.4 Or as David says elsewhere Ps 17.15 I shall be satisfyed with thy likeness â—articulars â—hich we must practice this duty But that I may not be only in generals perswading you to a practical valuation for your Souls let the esteem you have for your Souls appear in these particulars 1. Value thy self upon the account of thy Soul How do men stand upon their tip-toes if they may by any means over-top others This will almost make thy Pride commendable if thou gloriest only that thy Soul is so near akin so much alike to God thou art not so far remov'd as tertius a Jove Oh Reverence thy self more and think thy self too good for the most fashionable or creditable sin Should such aâ— one as thou sin Neh. 6.11 Should any whose Souls are Spiritual in their Original be sensual in their Conversation Far be it from you But 2. Use your Souls well if they be so excellent do not set them upon trifles A meaner Soul than ours would serve to do those Offices we put our Souls upon viz. to eat and drink and sleep A Kings Son sent to a Philosopher his Governour to know whether he might not take such pastimes as other Young men did he only returned for Answer that he should remember that he was a King's Son Oh remember who it is you call the Father of your Spirits and pick not straws you may easily know what I mean with those very Souls which are given thee for higher and better purposes Remember that known Maxime Corruptio optimi est pessima A degenerate filthy or sinful Soul is worse than any Body can be A degenerate Soul is so much worse than a blind or lame body or ulcerous as the Soul otherwise is in its self better than the Body We cannot use our Souls well unless we give them their due superiority over our Passions and Affections and indeed over all the things relating to the Body God did make these Souls for to rule in man and he set up our Understanding in the Throne and commanded our other faculties to obey it as his Vice-Roy and Deputy When men prefer ther Humours or Lusts they make their vile Bodies to Lord it over these precious Souls and imploy their Souls as purveyors nay as drudges for the Body The Servant rides on Horseback and the Prince goes on foot nay there is a greater disparity where the Soul is made to truckle to the Body 3. Thirdly And above all have a care that ye do not lose these Souls that are so valuable I have shewn you how that they may be lost let me now leave some considerations to be enlarged upon by you 1. The danger your Souls are in is very great The Philistines are upon thee thou dost not only run a hazard and it may be or may not be but unless thou doest mightily and in time even to day whilst it is called to day bestirr thy self thy Soul is certainly and may be inevitably lost As David said to Jonathan in another case concerning himself As the Lord liveth there is but a step between thee and Death 1 Sam. 20.3 So there is but a step between thy Soul and Death Nay your Souls are dead in trespasses and sins Luk. 19.10 they are lost but God hath sent his Son to seek and to save 2. The loss of your Souls is very great It is much to lose an Estate or Wife or Child but if thou losest thy Soul thou dost not lose only much but thou losest all For the whole World cannot now profit thee and though the clatter and noise that worldly things make about our Ears will not suffer us to hear or mind this yet dare but to be alone converse with thy self ask thy Heart and Conscience and it will tell thee as much especially when thou art in affliction or on a sick bed c. 3. The loss of thy Soul is never to be repaired Men may meet with losses which yet they may otherwise recover or may have something else that may countervail them but not only nothing can countervail this loss no more than dross and dung can Jewels of the greatest price but if thou doest once lose thy Soul nothing can retrieve or regain it in this case non licet bis peccare If thou once losest thy Soul in this life there is no means hereafter whereby thou mayest recover it but as the tree falls so it lyeth Thou that readest this upon this moment for ought either you or I know depends thy Eternity nunquid aut alter Christus an idem iterum crucifigi habet pro anima as Bernard asks the question Bernard Epist 54. is there says he another Christ Or do you think that he will be crucifyed again for thy Soul 4. Shall I add that this Soul is thine own and thou hast not nor never shalt have another and therefore it stands thee upon to keep it safe The Text calls our Souls ours his own Soul what shall a man be profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own Soul Christ does not call the World or any thing in it ours but
reference both to the Way and to the End He led them on safely Psal 78.53 I do but allude to it Here 's no such Leader as Those the Prophet speaks of Is 9.16 The Leaders of this people cause them to err they that are led of them are destroyed Oh who then would not be desirous to be led by him The skilfullest faithfullest safest Guide the Traveller pitches upon O Christian wilt not thou do the same for thy precious and immortal Soul 5. The Advantages Benefits Blessings that attend and result from this Leading of the Spirit are great and glorious As to instance in a Few inward Peace and Comfort whereever the Spirit is a Leading Spirit there he is or will be a Comforting Spirit A Readiness to all Dutys of Holiness so as to do them spontaneously and with Delight Gal. 5.18 If ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law i. e. so as in your Obedience to act from a servile Spirit and from the meer External Compulsions of the Law but having the gracious Conduct of the Spirit this will make you do all Freely with the greatest Promptitude and Alacrity Sonship to God so it here comes in as many as are led by the Spirit are the Sons of God As it leads to Conversion it makes us the Sons of God as it leads after Conversion it evidences us to be the Sons of God as has been already said If the Spirit be thy Leader God is thy Father And what a Priviledge is this John 1.12 1 John 3.1 And then as the Consummation of all comes the Glory and Blessedness of Heaven as the certain portion of such who are led by the Spirit Death and Hell are not more sure upon the leading of Sin and Satan than Life and Heaven are sure upon the leading of this Spirit God ever saves in Heaven such whom he leads on Earth Gal. 6.26 As many as walk according to this Rule mercy and Peace be upon them Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel Psal 73.24 and afterward receive me to Glory All being put together and seriously weighed have I not said enough and enough to excite you all to attain and close with this Blessed Leading of the Spirit of God Much more might have been added by way of Motive but if what has been said will not prevail I despair of ever prevailing with you A Third Enquiry follows 3. Enquiry How may this Leading of the Spirit be attained What is to be done by us that we may be thus led by Him Answ In order to this take the following Directions 1. There must be the having of the Spirit before there can be the Leading of the Spirit This Order is founded in the Nature of the Thing We cannot expect to participate of the Spirits Operations such as are saving before we participate of the Spirit Himself Therefore pray attend upon the Gospel by which He is convey'd to Sinners and then when you have once received him he will not be * Non est spiritus sanctus otiosus movet Mentes et ducit Mel. Idle and Ineffective but an Operative and Leading Spirit in you 2. The Antecedent First leading of the Spirit must be had before there can be the having of his Subsequent and Secondary Leading That is to say He must First lead you to God by Conversion first bring you into a state of Grace and then way is made for his subsequent Leading and Direction When he has been a quickning Spirit in the infusing of a vital Principle into the Soul then succeeds this Act which I am upon And not till then for who will attempt to lead a thing that is dead This Method of the Spirit therefore must be regarded and comply'd with 'T is first Sanctification then Manuduction in the several Things contained therein 3. Be willing to follow the Leading the Motions of the Spirit He gives again and again his secret Guidance to you shewing what you are to do what not if this be followed and comply'd with he 'l continue it if not he 'l withdraw and leave you to follow the Conduct of your own Inclinations a sore Judgment Psal 81.11 12. My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own Hearts Lust and they walked in their own Counsel Oh dreadful Word The same will the Spirit do upon our rejecting or resisting of his Leading He may long strive but he will not always strive Gen. 6.3 If the person led shall once begin to struggle with him that leads him and shall refuse to follow his Guidance what is then to be done but to leave him to himself Continued rooted allowed Resistance to to the Spirit makes him so to cast off a person as to lead him no more His Initial Workings in this are to be closed with or he goes no further That one Act in the Leading of the Spirit viz. his Powerful Inclining of the Heart to comply with what he leads unto secures all the Rest If thou art an Opposer of the Spirit he will not be thy Guide Yield to Him and close with Him and he will not withhold this Grace from thee 4. Let your dependance be upon God and his Spirit for Guidance and Direction Would you have Him to lead you Oh let your Trust and Relyance be upon him and see that you renounce all confidences in yourselves He that thinks he has Wisdom or Grace enough in himself to order his Conversation aright shall never find the Spirit to be a Guide to him The meek will he guide in Judgment the meek will he teach his way Psal 25.9 VVhen a man is brought to this meek humble Frame then he is in the way of the Spirits Leading Prov. 3.5 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thy own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Christian Prudence Caution and Circumspection is our Duty but do we lay the stress of our Confidence upon that The steps of our strength shall be straitned and our own Counsel shall cast us down as he speaks Job 18.7 Mans goings are of the Lord how can a man then understand his own way Prov. 20.24 So long as thou thinkest thou canst go by thy self the Spirit will not take thee by the hand to lead thee 5. Pray much for this Grace of the Spirit It being a free and Arbitrary Act on his part he will be sought to for it and give it forth in that way which best suits with his Soveraignty Psal 25.5 Psal 5.8 Psal 31.3 Psal 139.24 Psal 143.10 How much was David in Prayer to God for this Lead me in thy Truth and teach me Lead me O Lord in thy Righteousness Make thy way strait before my face For thy names sake lead me and guide me Lead me in the way Everlasting Teach me to do thy will for thou art my
Eyes are dazled with them and their Souls damned for them But at the things which are not seen Men in this World minding another World stand looking at these who have an Eye to see those things that are not seen There is a Mystery in Godliness 3. The Persons exerting this Act upon these Objects We that have the Spirit of God Who have our Eyes opened who consider we are hasting posting out of time into Eternity These things are set before the Men of the World who have Eyes but they do not see 4. The Property of these Objects 1. Things seen are Temporal 2. Things not seen are Eternal 5. The Reason moving Believers to keep a stedfast Eye upon Things unseen and to look off from things seen is the Eternal duration of the one and the short continuance of the other While we look for or because the things that are seen are Temporal not seen Eternal The good things in this World that are seen as Riches Pleasures Honours are things of time and only for time therefore we are not much concerned whether we win or lose them and the bad things in this Life which are seen as Poverty Imprisonment Persecution are at longest but for a short space and therefore we are not much concerned whether we endure them or be freed from them But that which addeth Weight to the things in the other World now not seen by the Men of this VVorld and draws our Eyes towards them and keeps them fixed thereon is the Eternity of them 6. The Influence that this looking upon things not seen hath upon the Beholders of them in keeping them from fainting under any Afflictions while we look c. Three words require a little Explication Looking Temporal Eternal I. While we look 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Verb is used six times in the New Testament and is variously translated 1. To take heed Luk. 11.35 Take heed therefore that the Light in thee be not darkness have a care see to it in this sense it is as if the Apostle had said We take not so much heed nor are we so full of care about these visible transitory things as we are of the Eternal Joys of Heaven and the unseen Happiness of the Saints above 2. To Consider Gal. 6.1 Considering thy self lest thou also be tempted q. d. We seriously consider and weigh in our Minds the Vanity Insufficiency and short Continuance of all visible things both good and bad whether Profit or Poverty Honour or Disgrace and the â—ulness excellency and everlasting Nature of things unseen and therefore prefer these before them 3. To mark observe and take notice of Rom. 16.17 Mark them that cause divisions among you Phil. 3.17 Be followers of me and mark them that walk so as ye have us for an example It is the Observation that Believers make that all seen things are Temporal unseen Eternal which worldly men take no notice of to influence them in what they do 4. To look Phil. 2.4 Look not every one on your own things To look with a diligent Eye as the Archer to the mark whereat he shoots to make a thing our scope and aim and so the Substantive is used Phil. 3.14 I press towards the mark In this respect the sense is the thing that we do aim at in all we do is to get a Title to and hereafter the possession of Eternal things to secure our Everlasting happy state to have treasures not for a while but for ever to have Honour and Glory and Joy not in hasty time but in abiding Eternity Believers are lowly in Heart but they look high the Men of this World are of an haughty Spirit but they aim at low things II. Temporal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Used four times in the New Testament twice concerning temporary Believers Matth. 13.21 but dureth for awhile Mar. 4 17. dureth but for a time Once concerning the pleasure of sin Heb. 11.25 then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and in the Text comprehensively of all visible things take then a summary account of all that wicked worldly men have and all is but for a while What the richest among them have their grandure dureth but for a time and then is past and gone and hath no more existence What the merriest among them have Pleasures Mirth carnal Delights and Joy and this is but for a season their merry bouts will be quickly over and then succeeds weeping and wailing for ever What the best among them have even their Faith is but for a time and their Hope but for a short time at longest 't is Death shall close their Eyes and then ly down in Everlasting despair that all their comings in whether profits from the World or pleasures from their Sin or supposed happiness from their supposed Graces have their goings out that upon all they have you may write all is temporal They had Riches but they are gone Honours and Pleasure but they are gone Many good things in time but at the end of time all have an end and then when their endless misery comes this will be their doleful tune all our good is past and gone III. Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alwaies existing all duration even time it self taken metaphysically is nothing else but the permanency of Essence Time External in sensu Physico is but ens rationis or nothing Therefore according to the manner of Beings must be the manner of their Abidings All Beings may be ranked into three sorts whence arise three sorts of Duration 1. Some things have both beginning and end as Beasts and other corruptible Creatures and their duration is time which hath both beginning and end 2. Some things have a beginning and no end as Angels and the Souls of Men and the state of both in the other World and the duration by which these are measured in Philosophy to distinguish it from Time and Eternity strictly taken is called Aeviternity which imports only an Initial defectibility of the things in themselves though by the absolute power of God there might be a period put unto their being once begun but there is no principle of corruption in their own Nature which should cause a cessation of their existing Essence nor is it in the verge of any created Power or second Cause to take that Being from them which was given to them by the first and these things because they have no end are Eternal 3. One only Being hath neither beginning nor end nor can have and that is God and his duration is Eternity properly and most strictly taken which is a duration inferring simple interminability of Essence all at once existing without succession Eternity in the most proper acceptation doth exclude not only actual beginning and end but all possibility of both and denotes indefectibility of Essence a parte ante a parte post existing all at once in one continued immoveable instant without consideration of any thing in it past
Thess 2.13 God hath from the Beginning chosen you to Salvation 1 Thess 5.9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain Salvation which Salvation doth include absence of all evil and presence of all good and this Salvation being Eternal Heb. 5.9 infers the absence of all evil for ever and the presence of all good for ever and whosoever is delivered from all privative Evils and possessed of all positive Everlasting good and that for ever can not be denyed to be happy for ever II. Christ hath redeemed some to be infallibly brought to Eternal Glory What reason can be given of the Incarnation and Death of the Son of God if there be no Eternal misery for men to be delivered from nor any Eternal happiness to be possessed of For 1. Did Christ dye to deliver his Followers from Poverty and Prisons from Sorrow and Sufferings from Trouble and Tribulation What! and yet his Holy Humble and Sincere people lye under these more than other Men that are wicked and ungodly why was Paul then in stripes and imprisonments in hunger and thirst in cold and nakedness in perils and jeopardy of his Life continually and such as Pilate Faelix and Festus in great worldly prosperity Or can it be imagined that Men persisting in Sin should be more partakers of the fruits of Christs Death than those that forsake their sin repent and turn and follow him 2. Did Christ suffer and dye to purchase only Temporal good things as Riches Honours for his Disciples Were these worth his precious Blood VVhatever Christ dyed for it cost him his most Sacred Blood Was it then for Temporal enjoyments only which Turks and Pagans may and do possess more than Thousands of his true and faithful Followers Did Christ intend the benefits of his Death for these in more especial manner then for such as remain finally impenitent and yet shall such reap the fruit of all his Sufferings and those that believe on him go without them Sober reason doth abhor it and all the Scripture is against it Would Christ have humbled himself to such a contemptible Birth miserable Life lamentable painful shameful Death only for transitory temporal fading Mercies If we consider the variety of his sufferings from God Men and Devils the dignity of the Sufferer I profess I cannot imagine any reason of all Christs undertakings and performances if there be not an Eternal state of Misery in suffering of evil things by his Death that Believers might be delivered from and of Glory in enjoying of good things to be brought unto III. The Spirit of God doth sanctifie some that they might be made meet to be partakers of the Eternal Inheritance of the Saints in light As all are not Godly so all are not Ungodly Though most be as they were born yet many there be that are born again there is a wonderful difference betwixt men and men the Spirit of God infusing a principle of spiritual Life and making some all over new working in them Faith in Christ Holy Fear and Love Patience and Hope longing Desires renewing in them the Holy Image of God is as the earnest and first fruits assuring of them in due time of a plentiful harvest of Everlasting Happiness Faith is in order to Eternal Life and Salvation Joh. 3.16 Love hath the promise of it 1 Cor. 2.9 2 Tim. 4.8 Jam. 1.12 Obedience ends in it Heb. 5.9 Hope waits for it Rom. 8.25 and because their hope shall never make them ashamed Rom. 5.5 therefore there must be such an Eternal-Blessed state they hope for IV. The Souls of all men are immortal though they had a beginning yet shall never cease to be therefore must while they be be in some state and because they be Eternal must be in some Eternal state This Eternal state must be either in the Souls enjoyment of God or in separation from him for the wit of Man cannot find out a third for the Soul continuing to be must be with God or not with God shall enjoy him or not enjoy him for to say he shall and shall not or to say he shall not and yet shall is a contradiction and to say he neither shall nor shall not is as bad if therefore the Soul be Eternal and while it shall be shall perfectly enjoy God it shall be Eternally happy If it shall for ever be and that without God it shall be Eternally miserable because God is the chiefest good the ultimate end and perfection of man The great work in this then is to prove that the Soul is Eternal and shall for ever be For which I offer these things 1. There is nothing within nor without the Soul that can be the cause of its ceasing to be here except God who though he can take away the being of Souls and Angels too yet he hath abundantly assured us that he will not Nothing within it because it is a Spiritual Being and hath no Internal Principle by contrary qualities causing a cessation of its Being and because it is simple and indivisible it is immortal and incorruptible for that which is not compounded of parts cannot be dissolved into parts and where there is no dissolution of a Being there is no corruption or end of it there is no Creature without it that can cause the Soul to cease Matth. 10.28 Not able to kill the Soul Luc. 12.4 Fear not them that kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do if they would kill the Soul they cannot when they have killed the Body they have done their worst their most their all 2. The Soul of man hath not dependance upon the Body as to its Being and Existence It hath certain actings and operations which do not depend upon the Body and if the operations of the Soul be independent from the Body such must the principle be from whence such operations do arise and if it can act without dependance on the Body then it can exist and be without the Body In the Body without dependance on the Body it hath the knowledge of immaterial Beings as God and Adgels which were never seen by the eye of the Body nor can because there must be some proportion between the object and the faculty and the Soul doth know it self wherein it hath no need of the phantasie for when it is intimately present to it self it wanteth not the ministry of the phantasie to its own intellection Besides it can conceive of universals abstracted from its singulars in which it doth not depend upon the phantasie for phantasmata sunt singularium non universalium therefore since it can act in the body without dependance on the Body it can exist without the Body and not dye when the Body doth which yet is more plain and certain from the Scripture which telleth us that the Soul of Lazarus after death was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosom Luc. 16.22 but they did not carry it dead or alive but alive
Dead quickned and peeping out of their Graves to see why they are raised as if you saw the wicked come forth fearfully amazed with vile and filthy Bodies like Toads from their holes with pale and gastly countenances with trembling hearts and their knees for horrour knocking one against another tearing their hair smiting on their breasts and crying out what is the matter What meant that loud Alarm that thundring Call that awaked us out of the deep sleep of Death Oh! the Lord is come the slighted Christ is come Come how doth he come How cloathed with vengeance with fury in his face and his wrath like fire burns before him because of his Indignation the Heavens melt over our heads and the Earth burns under our feet and all is in flames round about us Oh terrible day such as this we never saw Oh the storms the storms Oh such burning scorching storms we never saw nor felt before We have been sleeping all the night of Death and the morning is come the day doth dawn Dawn Oh it is broad day all about we were wont to wake and go to work and go to sin to swear and lye to drink and take our pleasure but now we wake and must to Hell to Pain and Punishment Now we must go from God to Devils from the only Saviour to Eternal Torments Oh what day is this What day it seems to be rather night than day for it is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wastness and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness a day of the trumpet and alarm against us all Impenitent Sinners and to us all it would prove the great Damnation day When our Souls and Bodies by Death were separated it was a sorrowful parting but this is a sorer meeting the Body with doleful groans doth strangely greet its reunited Soul Oh thou cursed Soul must I be tyed to thee again with a faster knot than ever Death did heretofore part thee and me but all the pains of Hell hereafter cannot do it thou wast Commander over me and shouldst have managed thy Government better thou shouldst have used this Tongue to call upon thy Maker thou shouldest have used these Ears to have hearkned to the calls of Christ to the wooings of Grace to the entreaties of Mercy these feet to have carryed thee to the means of Grace these hands to have been Instruments of good they were all at thy command what thou biddest them do they did and whither thou commandest them to go they went Oh that I might have lyen rotten in my Grave for then I had been at rest for though in the Grave I had no pleasure yet there I felt no pain but since I have been again united to this before-damned Soul I feel intolerable punishment and I now perceive it is past doubt that it will be Eternal the Soul will give no better salutations to the Body Oh cursed flesh what alive again Must I be linked to such a loathsome lump worse than any Carrion thou didst rebel against the commands of reason and thy Appetite was pleased and thy Lusts were obeyed and all the time of Life on Earth was spent and fool'd away in feeding clothing and adorning thee and as I was led away and entic'd by thee to live with thee a sensual flesh-pleasing life so formerly sowing to the flesh now of the flesh we reap that Damnation that shall be Eternal For the Judge is come his Throne is set and all the World is summoned to appear the separation is made the Books are opened all on the right hand are acquitted and called to the possession of an Everlasting Kingdom while we are doom'd down to Eternal Torments Lo they are going with their Blessed Glorious Lord unto Eternal Glory and we with cursed Devils like cursed Wretches to Everlasting shame and pain and banishment from God and Christ and Saints and Angels for ever Look thus believingly on these unseen things as if you saw all these and a thousand times more terrible and more joyful transacted now before your eyes 2. Look directly at unseen Eternal things Many do look indirectly at things Eternal but directly at things Temporal pretending things not seen intending things that are seen in praying preaching and professing seem to have an eye to God and Christ and Heaven but they look asquint to their worldly profits credit and applause Should pray that they might see God but it is that they might be seen of Men Mat. 6.5 Mat. 23.14 But this is to look awry contrary to Solomons advise Prov. 4.25 Let thine Eyes look right on and let thine Eye-lids look straight before thee 3. Let unseen Eternal things be the first that you look at Do not first look at Riches Honours Pleasures and please your selves with purposes after that to look after God and Christ and the happiness of Heaven when sickness cometh and Death approacheth and when near the end of time begin to make preparation for Eternity Men spend their days in getting a visible state while the unseen Eternal God and Glorious Saviour and Heavens Happiness is neglected by them but it would make a considering man to tremble to think what a sight these Sinners shall have after Death hath closed their eyes when the separated Soul shall see an angry God a condemning Judge the Gates of Heaven shut against it and its self in Everlasting misery Unseen Eternal things are first in order of duration for the invisible God was when nothing was besides himself and first in order of dignity and should have the priority of our thoughts care and diligent endeavours Matth. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you When we first take care about Eternity the things of time shall be given to us over and above but the Eternal happiness of Heaven shall never be given over and above to those that primarily look at and seek the things of time for amongst men the overplus doth not exceed in worth the things contracted for But this damnable preferring things Temporal and cursed post-poning things Eternal is the setting of God in the room of the Creature and the Creature in the Throne of God as if they would set the Heavens where the Earth doth stand and the Earth where the Heavens are and so subvert the order of things which God hath appointed to be observed in the Nature of things 4. Look heedfully at Eternity All the things that are only for time are toyes and trifles the things for an Eternal World are the grand concerns we should narrowly look to in time the gathering of Riches in time to the getting of Grace and an interest in Christ for the escaping of Damnation and obtaining of Happiness to Eternity is busie Idleness careful Negligence and laborious Sloth If God that inhabiteth Eternity looks narrowly to all our actions done in time
bodily Eyes yet you do with an Eye of Faith and Love and therefore may rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 When you look up unto the Heavens and see and say yonder is the place of my Everlasting abode there I must dwell with God there I must be with Christ and joyfully joyn with Angels and Saints in praising of my Lord and Saviour the foresight of this will make you joyful for the present and pleasant in your looking at it 10. Look fiducially at unseen Eternal things with an Holy Humble Confidence by Jesus Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the Gospel they shall be all your own that by turning from all your Sin by Repentance and Faith in Christ you trust you shall be possessed of them that when you see there are Mansions now unseen there are Eternal Joyes an Immoveable Kingdom an Incorruptible Crown the Eternal God to be enjoyed and for all this you have a promise and you know this promise is made to you by the performance of the Conditions annexed to the promise you trust in time to come unto it or rather when you go out of time into Eternity you shall be blessed in the Immediate Full Eternal Enjoyment of all the Happiness that God hath prepared in Heaven to give you wellcome joyful entertainment in that unseen Eternal World that you so eye that World while you live in this that when by Death you are going out of this World into that you might have this well-grounded confidence to say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.7 8. If you get such a sight as this as now hath been set forth before you upon such Eternal Objects as before were propounded to you you will be able from your own experience to answer the third question contained in the general case but yet I will proceed unto that branch Q. 3. What influence will such an Eying of Eternity have upon us in all we do In all we do Will its Influence be so Universal Will the efficacy of such a sight be so extensive to reach forth its virtue in all we do yes in all we do Whether we Eat or Drink or go to Sleep whether we Trade or Work or Buy or Sell. Whether we Pray or Hear or search our Hearts or Meditate or Receive or Study or Preach or Sin or Suffer or Dy it will have a mighty influence upon us in any thing wherein we are active or passive culpable or praise-worthy in any condition be it Poverty or Riches Health or Sickness in any Relation be it of Husband and Wife of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants In any Office and Imployment Sacred or Civil out of such an heap because I am limited I will take an handful and because I have not room to speak of all I will not cast them into method according to their nature connexion and dependance one upon another but take them as they come in some few particulars only 1. Such an Eyeing of Eternity in all we do would make us careful to avoid Sin in any thing we do or however we might fail in all we do yet that we suffer it not to Reign or have Dominion over us Look at Eternity with a believing Eye and you will look at sin with an angry Eye you will cast a deadly look at Sin when you have a lively look at Eternity of Joy or Misery 1. Sin would deprive me of Eternal Life therefore I will be its Death it would keep me from Eternal Rest therefore I will never rest till I have conquered and subdued it nothing in the World would bring upon my Eternal Soul the Eternal loss of the Eternal God his Glorious Son and Holy Spirit of the Company of his Holy Angels and Saints of Eternal Treasures of a Blessed Kingdom and Incorruptible Crownâ— but cursed Sin Poverty Sickness Men Death Devils cannot nothing but Sin therefore I will be its bane that shall not Reign in me that would not suffer me to live in Everlasting Happiness 2. Sin would plunge me into unseen Eternal Torments into Endless Flames and Everlasting Burnings If you could speak with a Soul departed but a Moneth ago and ask him what do you now think of the delights of Sin of sporting on the Sabbath day of your pleasant Cups and Delightful Games of pleasing of the Flesh and gratifying of its Lusts What a sad reply would he return and what a doleful answer would he make you Sin Oh that was it that was my ruine that was it which hath brought me miserable wretch to Everlasting Torment that was it which shut me out of Heaven that sunk me down to Hell O ye foolish Sons of Men that are yet in time be not mad as I was mad and do not do as I did let not the seen pleasures and profits of the World which I have found were but for a time deceive you and bewitch you the Devil shewed me the seen delights of Sin but concealed from me the Extremity and Eternity of the pain that it hath brought me to the pleasure is past and the pain continues and I am lost for ever and all this Sin hath brought me to Let your eyeing of Eternity whilst you are standing in time be instead of ones speaking to you in time that hath been in Eternity for the Eternal God doth tell you as much as any Damned Soul can tell you and would you believe one from Hell and not the Son of God that came from Heaven Oh look and view Eternity in the Glass of the Scripture and firmly believe it and it will make slaughtering work amongst your Sins and destroy that which would damn you 2. Such Eyeing of Eternity would be a mighty help to quiet your hearts under the dispensations of Providence here to Men on Earth When you look at the seen Afflictions Distresses Disgraces Stripes Imprisonments Persecutions and Poverty of the People and Children of God and the Riches Ease Honours Pleasures and the seen flourishing prosperity of the worst of Men that by the Swearing Drinking Whoring hating of Godliness being patterns of wickedness proclaim themselves the Children of the Devil and you are offended and your Mind disquieted except in this you have a better heart than Job cap. 21.6 to 16. or David a Man after Gods own heart Psal 73.2 to 16. or Jeremiah cap. 12.1 2. or Habakkuk cap. 1.13 14. Now amongst the many helps to allay this Temptation the eyeing of the last yea Everlasting things is not the least Look upon these two sorts of Men which comprehend all in the World as going to Eternity and lodged there and then you will rather pity them because of their future Misery then envy them for their present Prosperity What if they have their Hearts desire for a
sober Wisdom and the Devils cannot deny it and all Damned Souls in Hell and all the Wicked upon Earth as fast as they go down to them and feel what now they do not believe and fear shall not deny it to be Wisdom in them that escaped that and got to a better place in the Eternal World 10. In Eternity there will be no mixture In the other World there is all pure Love or all pure Wrath all Sweet or all Bitter without all Pain or without all Ease without all Misery or without all Happiness not partly at Ease and partly in Pain partly Happy and partly Miserable but all the one or the other This Life is a middle place betwixt Heaven and Hell and here we partake of some good and some Evil No Judgment on this side Hell upon the worst of Men but there is some Mercy mixed with it for it is Mercy they are yet on this side Hell and no Condition on this side Heaven but there is some Evil mixed with it for till we get to Heaven we shall have sin in us In Heaven all are good in Hell all are bad on Earth some good but more bad In Hell Misery without mixture of Mercy or of Hope they have no Mercy and that is bad and they can hope for none and that is worse while they be in time they are pityed God doth pity them and Christ doth pity them and good Men doth pity them their Friends and Relations do pity them pray for them and weep over them but when time is past all pity will be past and they in Misery without pity to all Eternity Rev. 14.10 The same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11. and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night No! then for the Lords sake for your Souls sake as upon my knees I beseech you if you have any dread of God any fear of Hell any desire of Heaven any care whither you must go take no rest night nor day in time till you have secured your Everlasting happy state that you might have Everlasting rest night and Day in Eternity or that you might pass into that Eternity where it is alwayes day and no night and not into that where it shall be alwaies night and never day Sirs what say ye What are ye resolved upon to sin still or to repent that ye have already sinned and by the Grace of God to sin so no more To work in time for things of time or in time to prepare for Eternity Will ye obey my message or will ye not Speak in time or I will not say hold your peace for ever but repent in time or ye shall cry and roar for ever The time of this Sermon is out and the time of your Life will be quickly out and I am afraid I shall leave some of you as unfit for Eternity as I found you and my heart doth tremble least Death should find you as I shall leave you and the Justice of God and the Devils of Hell should find you as Death shall leave you and then vengeance shall never leave you and the Burning Flames Tormenting Devils and the Gnawing Worm shall never leave you Will ye then work it upon your Hearts that ye came into Time unfit to go into Eternity that in time ye have made your selves more unfit that the only remedy is the Lord Jesus Christ that in the fulness of time did dye that Sinners might not be damned for ever that this Crucifyed Christ will not save you from Eternal Misery nor take you to Eternal Glory except ye do perform the Conditions of the Gospel without which his Death puts no Man into an actual state of Happiness ye must Repent and be Converted ye must take him for your Saviour and your Lord ye must be Holy sincerely Hate Sin universally love Christ superlatively or else the Saviour will not save you Mercy it self will not save you from Everlasting Misery Ye must persevere in all this to the end of your time and then ye shall be Happy in Eternity to Eternity Otherwise ye shall not give audience Sirs otherwise ye shall not be Happy Happy no ye shall be Miserable If the loss of God and Christ and Heaven will make you Miserable for ever ye shall be Miserable for ever If the pains of Hell the company of Devils the stingings of Conscience the terrors of Darkness total final despair of having any end of your damned condition will make you miserable ye shall be miserable If all that God can lay upon you if all that Devils can torment you with if all that Conscience can for ever accuse you for if all that is in Hell can make you miserable except you repent in time and believe on Christ in time and be sanctifyed in time ye shall be miserable for ever O my God! be thou my Witness of this Doctrine All ye that fear God that hear me this day bear me witness that I have published this in the Ears of all that hear me Thou Conscience that art in that Man that is yet going on in Sin and posting with speed to Eternal Misery bear me witness now and at the day of Judgment that I told him what must be done upon him in him and by him if he would escape Eternal Torments If he will not hearken nor obey while he is in time Conscience I bespeak thy witness against him and that thou bring thy Accusation against him and upbraid him to the Confusion of his face among all the Devils in Hell and all that shall be damned with him that he was told he could not keep his sins and be kept out of that place when he dyed he could not reject Christ and finally refuse him and be saved for ever Sinner carest thou not wilt thou still on Good God! must we end thus Must I come down without hopes of his Repenting and he dye with foolish hopes of being saved and after Death be cast into that Eternity where the Worm dyeth not and the Fire is not quenched But in those Endless Flames shall cry out and roar oh cursed Caitif what did I mean all the while I was in time to neglect preparation for Eternity Oh miserable Wretch this is a doleful dreadful state and still the more because it is Eternal Wo is me that I cannot dye nor cease to be Oh that God would cut me off Oh that Devils could tear me into a Thousand Thousand pieces or that I could use such violence to my self that I might be no longer what I am nor where I am But alas I wish in vain and all these desires are in vain for though the union of my Soul and Body in
Opinion or Practise especially if they are not imposed as necessary For this hath made such woful Divisions in the Church the making things unnecessary and doubtful the necessary terms of Church-Communion Was the Church of Rome it self the truly Ancient Catholick and Apostolick Church as she stiles her self I could have Communion with it They that leave the Apostles shake the Foundation of the Churches stability and forsake the center of its Unity The Lord help us all to understand the way of Peace and Union in this miserably divided Age. Vse VI Lastly And now from all that hath been said we may take a prospect of Heaven Heaven is not a Turkish Paradise it is Communion with God that is the very Heaven of Heaven as the loss of it is the very Hell of Hell And this makes Heaven not desirable to the Carnal Man who hath no desire after or delight in Communion with God but it doth commend it the more to the Spiritual Man that he shall then enjoy that in its highest perfection which he hath been pursuing and had the fore-tasts of in this World Quest What is the best way to prepare to meet God in the way of his Judgments or Mercies SERMON XXVIII 1 John XII 28. Beginning of the Verse Father Glorify thy Name IN this Chapter we find the Lord Jesus under two very different Exercises in the one attended with much Solemnity in the other under great Perplexity much Courted much cast Down highly Honoured and exceedingly Troubled and he beareth both with wonderful Equanimity He is Feasted at Bethany v. 1 2. Anointed with Oyle of Spiknard very costly v. 3. Rideth Tryumphantly into Jerusalem v. 12 13. c. His Disciples bless and entertain him upon the way with Hosannas v. 13. Matth. 21.8 9. Strangers desire to see him and give him their Acknowledgments v. 20. And the Multitude throng after him v. 12. And strow his way with Palm Branches v. 13. But immediately the Scene is changed As our blessed Lord was not much affected with these things so contrary to all Expectation he enters upon a discourse of another Nature v. 23. The hour is come that the Son of Man should be Glorified Why Had he not been Glorifying throughout this Chapter yea But not comparably to what he here intends q. d. my Feast my Tryumph my applause bear no Proportion to the glory I am hasting to These are but Dull low Glories to what is at Hand The hour is come i. e. is near That the Son of Man shall be Glorified upon the Cross by Expiating the Sins of his Elect Glorified thereupon in Heaven at the right hand of the Father Christ had his Eye upon an higher Glory which would redound to him upon the Performing and Finishing our Redemption And a true Christian frame overlook's present Comforts and Honours from Men and fixeth mainly upon the Honour to be received from God in the way of Obedience here and hereafter Nor will our Lord Jesus pass over this Meditation till he have improved it 1. Inferring thence the Fruitfulness of his Death Verrily Verrily I say unto you v. 24. Except a Corn of Wheat fall into the Ground and Dye it abideth alone but if it Dye it bringeth forth much Fruit. Alluding to the Propagation of his Church by his Death 2. The Proportionable advantage of the Death of his Saints for his Sake v. 25.26 and Testimony and the disadvantage of forbearing and refusing to suffer for his Name But passing thence to the consideration of his Dreadful Agony and Passion ensuing v. 27. beginning His Thoughts are at a Stand his Soul is Troubled yea the Extremity of his grief stopt his Mouth so Amazing so Astonishing was the Fore-sight of his Sufferings At last Prayer breaks out Father Save me from this Hour and is presently Corrected But for this cause came I to this Hour q. d. I would escape but must not resist thy Will I 'd save my self yet not without a Salvo to thy purpose and councel I am in a Strait between Nature and Faith between Fear and Subjection between Death and Duty First Meer Trouble is no Sin Christs Soul was Troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Water when it is Mudded Jo. 5.4 7. Not that thier was any mixture of Sin in his Trouble it was such as might consist with his pure unspotted Nature If grief be not groundless if not extravagant no Sainted with unbelief or effected of disobedience 't is but Natures Weakness Grace induceth no Stoical Stupidity 'T is no property of the Gospel to make Men Sensless Secondly Fear of Death and sense of the Wrath of God are of all things most Perplexing Now is my Soul Troubled Now I am to conflict with the Father's Anger Mens Malice and Death's Pains and Terrours and now not my Flesh only but my Soul is Troubled Thirdly Extream distress of Spirit is of an amazing Nature Christ had not the Freedom of Prayer What shall I say and then what he did say was corrected Matt. 26.39 42. Fourthly No Extremity can Ordinarily or should really put an Holy Soul by the Plea of or hope in his Relation to God Christ calls God Father My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matt. 27.46 Fifthly Prayer must be suited to the Occasion Save me from the Hour c. A great Argument against most forms is that an Holy Soul cannot relish them nor can I see how God accepts them because they are impertinent or not full to the case Sixthly In our Extremitys we may be importunate must not be Peremptory with God in Prayer Our Saviour here Prayed not more Heartily then submissively Matt. 26.39 Our Text is the Result of the Lords Wrastling both with his own Soul and with his Father Here is first Christs Prayer Father Glâ—rify thy Name And the Fathers Answer in the next words but I meddle not with that now In the Text we have Two things 1. The Compellation Father 2. The Petition Glorify c. 1. The Compellation Father Prayer ought to be Ushered in with some Suitable Title of God which is expressive of his Supremacy our Reverence of him and Relation to him All these are Couched in the Single word Father Read Matt. 6.10 Malach. 1.6 Rom. 8.15 1. This Title expresseth God's Authority and Chirst's Allegiance both owned by him in this little Word 2. Relation The Lords Petitioners must ask so as to assure themselves of Acceptation which the Recognition of our Interest in God Read Isa 63 16. as our Father in Christ is very proper to Effect Hence the Rule of Prayer enters with Our Father And it is most Suitable to the Spirit of the Gospel that believers call God Father in Prayer having the Spirit of the Son poured out upon them to this End Gal. 4.6 2. The Petition Father Glorify thy Name q. d. Be thou rather Glorified then I Spared If I dye thy Glory will make amends for my Torment and
religious actually in being among a People may not be able by any means to deliver them or keep off the greatest evils from them for 1. Sometimes they cannot keep off such evils from themselves Sometimes they may suffer as deeply as any in the common Calamities of a Nation and perish themselves as to their outward condition be crushed in the Ruins of the State where they are Jeremiah and Baruch could not hinder the destruction of Jerusalem nor prevent the Captivity of their Nation but suffered themselves in a great measure among them And if we look to the external State of the best in the World how often doth God destroy the perfect as well as the wicked Job 9.22 2. Sometimes the sins of a People may be such that God will not pardon them as to temporal punishments nay not to the godly themselves even they may have been pertakers with others in their Sins or may have so provoked God themselves and sinned in such a way as to cause his Name to be blasphemed so that he is concerned in honour to bring some exemplary punishment upon them So it was with David 2 Sam. 12. though he pardoned him as to the Guilt of Eternal Death saved his Soul and spared his Life which was forfeited to Divine Justice for the Murther of Uriah that smart afflictions must come on him the Sword must never depart from his house verse 10 and the Child begotten in Adultery must dye verse 10. and his Wives must be given to his Neighbours verse 11. so Psal 99.8 it seems to be spoken of Moses himself and other godly among the Israelites who died in the Wilderness and were not permitted to come into the Land of Promise that God forgave them yet took vengeance of their inventions and Jer. 14. as God would not hear the Jews Prayers for themselves verse 12. so nor the Prophets Prayers for them who is therefore forbid to Pray for them verse 11. and it is said expresly of the Sins of Manasseh and particularly the Innocent Blood to shed that God would not pardon them 2 Kings 24.4 pardon them he did to Manasseh who humbled himself for them so as to save his Soul and remit his temporal punishment in part for he brought him back from his Captivity but to the Body of the People who had been pertakers with him in them and never repented of them he would not pardon them but they must be destroyed or go into Captivity In this case the religious of a Nation may not be able by all their Intercessions and with all their righteousness to deliver any more than their own Souls as is said of Noah Daniel and Job though so Eminently Holy Ezek. 14.14 3. Sometimes God may make a difference between the Holy Seed and the Sinners in the same People so as to Deliver the one when he Destroys the other so he provided for Noah when he Drown'd the World and saved Lot when he Destroyed Sodom and the Christians at Pella when Jerusalem was Sack'd by Titus God may sometimes hide them when he exposeth others cover their Heads in the Day of Battails when his Arrows are sharp in the Hearts of his Enemies He may set a mark upon them that Cry and Sigh for the Abominations of a Land and Command the Destroying Angel when he Slays others Young and Old and begins at the Sanctuary too yet not to come near them Ezek. 9.4 6. By what hath been said it appears that the proposition is not Universal That God always spares a People for the sake of the Holy Seed among them at least that are not Actually in Being I add therefore 3. By way of Position That the Religious of a Nation either that are or are to be among them are frequently ordinarily the means of a Peoples Deliverance and when God spares the Sinners of his People it is usually for the sake of the Saints and were it not for them he would not have any respect to the others even as the Prophet would not have looked to the King of Israel had it not been for the presence of Jehosaphat 2 Kings 3.14 1. Sometimes Judgments may be kept off from a People for their sake Had there been but Ten Righteous in Sodom God would have spared it Gen. 18.32 And he tells Jeremiah Chap. 5.1 That if there were any in Jerusalem that Executed Judgment and sought the Truth he would pardon it Jeremiah himself there was and Baruch and Ebimelech and it may be some few others but the generality were Corrupt and the Godly so few that they were next to none none to speak of as we say as few in Jerusalem proportionably as in Sodom in the time of Abraham and indeed Isa 1.10 it is compared to Sodom and probably from this reason among others and Jerem. 6.28 God calls them all grievous Revolters all Corrupters the few Righteous Ones among them are otherwise provided for and they were a People whom God would not pardon as before was said and in Honour could not And yet in another Case we find a City saved for the sake of a Saint Two Thousand was not Destroyd at Lots Entreaty Gen. 19.21 2. Sometimes Judgments may be defer'd and a Peoples Peace and Tranquility lengthned out for the sake of the Religious among them There was to be Peace and Truth in Hezekiah's Days though Dreadful Times to come after Isa 39.8 And Josiah was to go to his Grave in Peace and not see the Evil that should come after his Death 2 Kings 22.20 God takes away the Righteous from the Evil to come Isa 57.1 Which implies that God defers the Evil till he hath taken the Righteous and secured them It was a sign that Evil was coming on that People because the Righteous perished and it was their Sin that they did not Observe it the Death of the Righteous was the Fore-runner of Judgments which were defer'd while they Lived While God hath any Corn in the Field he keeps up the Hedges but when that is once Housed he breaks down the Fence and lets in the Beasts He may not sweep a Land with the Beesome of Destruction Isa 14.23 for a time because he may have some Jewels among the Rubbish but when he hath pick'd them up he defers no longer Thus though he would not spare Sodom for Lots sake yet he delayd its Vengeance till he was clear of it Gen. 19.22 I can do nothing says the Angel to him till thou be come thither i. e. to Zoar. And God would not bring on the Deluge till Noah were safe in the Ark. The Romans could not Conquer Jerusalem till the Christians were got out of it and the Judgment of Mystical Babylon is defer'd till all Gods People be gone out from her Rev. 18.4 3. Sometimes Judgments though they do come upon a People yet may for the sake of the Godly among them be abated and lessened and mingled with Mercy So Matth. 24.22 for the Elects sake those Days
Exercise of Faith is always accompanied with diligence and perseverance in all holy Duties of Prayer with Fasting Godly Sorrow daily renewed Repentance with a continual watch against all the Advantages of sin Herein consists principally that Spiritual warfare and conflict that believers are called unto this is all the killing work which the Gospel requires That of Killing other men for Religion is of a latter date and another Original And there is nothing in the way of their Obedience wherein they have more experience of the necessity power and efficacy of the Graces of the Gospel This Principle of Truth concerning the necessity of Mortification is retained in the Church of Rome yea she pretends highly unto it above any other Christian Society The Mortification of their Devotionists is one of the principal Arguments which they plead to draw unwary Souls over unto their Superstition Yet in the height of their pretences unto it they have lost all experience of its nature with the power and efficacy of the Grace of Christs therein and have therefore framed an Image of it unto themselves For 1. They place the eminency and height of it in a Monastical Life and pretended Retirement from the World But this may be hath been in all or the most without the least real work of Mortification in their Souls For there is nothing required in the strictest Rules of these Monastick Votaries but may be complyed withal without the least effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit in their minds in the application of the vertue of the death of Christ unto them Besides the whole course of life which they commend under this name is neither appointed in nor approved by the Gospel And some of those who have been most renowned for their severities therein were men of blood promoting the cruel slaughter of multitudes of Christians upon the account of their profession of the Gospel in whom there could be no one Evangelical Grace for no Murderer hath eternal Life abiding in him 2. The Ways and Means which they prescribe and use for the attaining of it are such as are no way directed unto by the Divine Wisdom of Christ in the Scripture such as multiplied Confessions to Priests irregular ridiculous Fastings Penances Self-Macerations of the Body unlawful Vows Self-devised Rules of Discipline and Habits with the like Trinkets innumerable Hence whatever their Design be they may say of it in the issue what Aaron said of his Idol I cast the Gold into the Fire and there came out this Calf they have brought forth only an Image of Mortification diverting the Minds of men from seeking after that which is really and spiritually so And under this Pretence they have formed a State and Condition of Life that hath filled the world with all manner of Sins and wickedness and many of those who have attained unto some of the highest degrees of this Mortification on their Principles and by the Means designed unto that End have been made ready thereby for all sorts of Wickedness Wherefore the Mortification which they retain and whereof they boast is nothing but a wretched Image of that which is truly so substituted in its room and embraced by such as had never attained any Experience of the Nature or Power of Gospel-Grace in the real Mortification of Sin SECT XIV The same is to be said concerning Good Works the second Evangelical Duty whereof they boast The necessity of these Good Works unto Salvation according unto mens Opportunities and Abilities is acknowledged by all And the Glory of our Profession in this World consisteth in our abounding in them but their Principle their Nature their Motives their Use their Ends are all declared and limited in the Scripture whereby they are distinguished from what may seem materially the same in those which may be wrought by Unbelievers In Brief they are the Acts and Duties of true Believers only and they are in them Effects of Divine Grace or the Operation of the Holy Ghost for they are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath ordained that they should walk in them But the principal Mystery of their Glory which the Scripture insists upon is that although they are necessary as a Means unto the Salvation of Believers yet are they utterly excluded from any influence unto the Ju-stification of Sinners so there was never any Work Evangelically good performed by any who were not before freely Justified Unto these Good Works those with whom we have to do lay a vehement claim as though they were the only Patrons of them and Pleaders for them But they have also excluded them out of Christian Religion and set up a deformed Image of them in defiance of God of Christ and the Gospel For the Works they plead for are such as so far proceed from their own free will as to render them Meritorious in the sight of God They have confined them partly unto Acts of Superstitious Devotion partly unto those of Charity and principally unto those that are not so such are the Building of Monasteries Nunneries and such pretended Religious Houses for the maintenance of Swarms of Monks and Friers filling the World with Superstition and Debauchery They make them meritorious satisfactory yea some of them which they call of Supererrogation above all that God requireth of us and the Causes of our Justification before God They ascribe unto them a Condignity of the heavenly Reward making it of Works and so not of Grace with many other defiling Imaginations but whatever is done from these Principles and for these Ends is utterly foreign unto those good Works which the Gospel enjoyneth as a part of our New or Evangelical Obedience But having as in other Cases lost all Sense and Experience of the Power and efficacy of the Grace of Christ in working Believers unto this Duty of Obedience unto the Glory of God and Benefit of mankind they have set up the Image of them in defiance of Christ his Grace and his Gospel These are some of the Abominations which are pourtraied on the Walls of the Chamber of Imagery in the Church of Rome and more will be added in the consideration of the Image of Jealousie it self which God willing shall ensue in another way These are the Shadows which they betake themselves unto in the loss of Spiritual Light to discern the Truth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel and the want of an Experience of their Power and Efficacy unto all the Ends of the Life of God in their own Minds and Souls And although they are all of them expresly condemned in the Letter of the Scripture which is sufficient to secure the Minds of true Believers from the admission of them yet their establishment against all Pleas Pretences and Force for a compliance with them depends on their experience of the Power of every Gospel-Truth unto its proper End in communicating unto us the Grace of God and transforming our Minds into the Image and Likeness