Were there nothing in the Constitution of Man but that he could not be worthy to be compared with the vast bigness of the Earth and Heavens with the constant Motion the brightness and durableness of the Heavenly Bodies But the Soul of Man is in a Sense vaster and larger than these as it is capable to comprehend them It is of more unwearied motion than they it moves its self it is brighter far and far more durable than any of them It is then upon the account of the Spirit in Man that the making of him is thus set together with those great operations of the Creating Power Upon these grounds we may conclude that the Prophet Zachary does in our Text intimate the great excellency and dignity of the Soul of Man It shall be the business of this Discourse to insist upon some Proof and Application of this Truth And let us now perswade our selves for a little while to turn our Thoughts inward to view and consider our selves to know what a sort of Being God has given us Of all knowledge this may be reckon'd some of the most useful and important Hereby we shall come to understand what it becomes us to do what our true Interest is what great things we are capable of and should therefore pursue them To demonstrate the Excellency of the Soul of Man I shall insist only upon these two Heads of Discourse as containing what is sufficient for the present purpose They are the Nature of the Soul and the Capacities of it which do arise from and are the Consequents of such a Nature In the first place Let us consider the Nature of the Soul of Man And this I shall represent to you briefly under two Particulars 1. It is a Spirit 2. It is Immortal 1. The Soul of Man is a Spirit and therein it is an Excellent Being It is Invisible A thing that cannot be seen by the Eyes of the Body through the Excellency of it It is said of God in Praise of him that he cannot be seen The Apostle Paul calls him by way of Eminency the Invisible God 1 Tim. 1. 17. This then is an Excellency and does greatly recommend the Soul It is too pure and sublime a thing to fall under the gross apprehension of Bodily Senses It is a Pure Uncompounded and Unmix'd thing It is all the same is not made up of worse and better Parts It is in a sort all Light and has no Darkness is a bright celestial Ray sprung from the Great Father of Lights and Spirits Or at least it was very full of light and brightness in its Original State and before it was sullied with sinful Pollution in the Fall of our first Parents It has not diversity of Parts designed for divers Actions so as that what one Part can do another cannot which is the usual disparagement of Bodies But all the Soul can do whatever the Soul can do It can all of it understand and will apprehend or remember it can all chuse or refuse It has not some parts heavy and some active some to move and others to be moved but is all full of Action and is always working and busie It knows no weariness it needs no rest or refreshment It knows its own Actions and chuses what it does and acts freely and from its own Motion These are the Properties and Advantages that belong to it as it is a Spirit That the Soul of Man is a Spirit the Holy Scripture does abundantly declare When a man dies it says of his Body The Dust shall return to the Earth as it was and of his Soul The Spirit shall return to God that gave it Eccles 12. 7. This is a thing distinct from the Body it was not raised from the Dust as that was but came from God immediately nor does it return to the Dust but returns to God at our Death The Apostle says What man knoweth the things of a man that is the purposes wishes designs save the spirit of man which is in him speaking of the Soul of Man 1 Cor. 2. 11. And in the Fifth Chapter of that Epistle at the 5th Verse he directs the Corinthians to excommunicate an Eminent Person among them who had been Incestuous for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord meaning his Soul I shall add no more to this particular but proceed 2. To what was next mentioned as declaring the Excellent Nature of our Souls which was that they are Immortal These Beings have a beginning indeed as every thing else has but One who is the first Cause and Author of all others But the Souls of men shall never come to an End When a man dies there is only a separation made for a while of his Soul from his Body with a dissolution indeed of the Body but the Soul remains the same that it was That lives still though not here and continues to be though it has changed its Habitation Do not imagine said the dying Cyrus to his Children That when I depart from you I shall be no where nor any longer For whilst I was with you ye could not see my Soul only ye knew by the Actions ye observed that it was in my Body Be assured then that it is still the same tho ye do never see it Thus the Learned Heathen could speak of the Soul And it is in the Nature of this to be Immortal as it is a Spirit It has nothing in its self to put an end to its being as it is an uncompounded thing It cannot be destroyed by any thing else but only by God that made it The Soul of man knows no decay it admits of no encrease of its Substance It remains always the same and is herein a Noble Image of the Unchangeable God It shall out-last the strongest works of Humane Art It shall endure longer than the Heavens and the Earth It shall weary time and then run on with Eternity This is a very great and important Excellency of it That it shall never cease to be and certainly if we are in any respect Immortal this deserves our very serious consideration And this also the Holy Scripture that source of all Saving-Knowledge and Wisdom does sufficiently teach us When it speaks of our Being after this Life and even before the Resurrection of our Bodies As when Christ said to the penitent Thief when he was dying This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He was to Be therefore his Soul was not to be dissolved with his Body and he was to be in Paradise in a happy State When the Scripture calls Death a Departure out of this World it seems to intimate this The Apostle Paul who was to leave his Body in this World as all other dying Persons do yet speaks of his Death as a Departure 1 Tim. 1. 6. And in Phil. 1. 23. He speaks of his Death as what he desired in these words I desire to
depart and to be with Christ Which does most plainly shew he expected to Be still and to be more happy after Death than he was here Again this is also plainly suggested by our Saviour in the Parable of the Rich man and Lazarus Luke 16. 19 Verse to the End The Soul of Man then is at his Death disposed to such Abodes as it deserves and is suited to till the time of the General Resurrection of the Bodies of Men and then it shall be united to its own Body again and live with it for ever in a State of endless Happiness or endless Misery Thus much may suffice to shew the Excellency of the Soul of Man from its Nature The Second Head of Proof of this which I shall now speak to is the Capacities of the Soul arising from its Nature It will give us a further apprehension of its Excellency to consider what great and honourable things it is capable of And these I shall speak of under three Heads It is capable of Knowledge of Moral Qualifications and of a most sublime and elevated kind of Happiness 1. It is capable of Knowledge It can know the Creatures about us which are the Objects of our Senses can understand their Nature and Use by vertue of which it has and exercises a Dominion over these things It knows how to apply them to the serving our Necessity and Delight By vertue of this it can make those things which have no use of reason themselves to serve for rational and wise Purposes It can tame the wild and correct the hurtful Creatures It can govern the Strong and by artful application give strength to the weak Ones It often fetches wholesome Food or very effectual Physick out of mortal Poysons The Soul of Man is capable of knowing himself To understand his own Nature in the principles and end of it To know his Ornaments and Disparagements the causes and means of his Happiness or Misery and wherein these do truly consist and lie Man is capable to understand and know very much of the Ever-blessed God the Highest Being to apprehend and meditate upon the most glorious and delightful Perfections of his Infinite Nature He can see the Marks and Characters of these perfections upon the sensible things which is the most excellent Knowledge and the best use of them as the Apostle suggests Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible things of God are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead The Soul of Man renders him capable of knowing the Rules of true Wisdom of that Wisdom which is from above Those Rules which direct us to render our selves acceptable and amiable to God and one another to Become and Honour our selves Those Rules by which the Wise and Holy Angels govern their behaviour and those by which the most Holy God tho in an Infinite Eminency above all his Creatures governs his And surely this Capacity of Knowledge may be lookt upon as a great and honourable Advantage especially that of such a Knowledge as hath been mentioned Knowledge finds the mind of man pleasant and useful Employment which as it is an active and busie thing must have such employment or 't is uneasy and unhappy Knowledge presents us with the Objects of our Happiness and inables us to enjoy them This is the light and brightness and beauty of the Mind Ignorance is dark and deform'd and leaves the Soul unpolisht and ugly Ignorance like darkness is uncomfortable and sad Knowledge like the light is chearing and delightful This improves and raises the activity and freedom of the Mind but ignorance is clogg'd and wretchedly confin'd Of Knowledge then it may be said It is more to be desired than Gold yea than much fine Gold But especially is that true of that Knowledge which the Psalmist speaks it of even that which presents to us the Rules of good living Of which also Solomon speaks thus Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof than fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Prov. 3. 13 14 15. 2. Another Capacity which greatly recommends the Soul of Man is That it is capable of Moral Qualifications By which word I mean the glorious Vertues of Holiness and Justice Goodness and Mercy Faithfulness and Prudence It is not only capable of knowing the Rules of these Vertues but also of possessing the Vertues themselves and of expressing them in our Actions Our behaviour towards God may be adorn'd with the bright Rays of Faith and Love of Piety and Devotion of Reverence and Humility Our behaviour towards men may all be regulated and adorned with Justice and Charity Meekness and Sincerity Goodness and Mercy None of the other Creatures about us can be possest of such Qualifications A Stone or a Beast cannot be just or good or faithful A Beast does not know what its self does it has not freedom of will does not chuse any of its actions therefore cannot be vertuous or vicious The Soul of Man has in this the Advantage of all the visible World and when 't is endowed with these Vertues at least it is brighter and more glorious than the Sun or Stars These render us like to God himself in the highest manner that a Creature is capable of In these things consisted the best part of the Divine Image in man before the unhappy Fall of our Nature in our first Parents and tho we then lost the things themselves yet we did not lose the capacity of receiving them again And when the Scripture speaks of the renewing or restoring that Image in us again this is said to be done by enduing us with Righteousness and true Holiness These are Excellencies which God ascribes to himself which he glories in and therefore it must be our greatest Advancement and Honour to be partakers of them and it must be accounted an argument of great worth in the Soul of Man to be capable of such Honourable Ornaments 3. It is another Argument of this that the Soul of Man is capable of enjoying a very high and honourable kind of Happiness even the best that any creatures can attain to When the Manna which the Children of Israel were fed with in the Wilderness is called Angel's Food it is intimated that this wonderful Provision did as a figure represent that Mankind are capable of the same Happiness with the glorious Angels and all holy and devoted Souls do in some measure partake of it in this Life By vertue of his Soul is every man even from the Prince to the Beggar capable of a Spiritual and Eternal Felicity As this is a Spirit it has a very high sense of things and a very lively perception of Pleasure or Pain No meer Body or Matter however 't is refin'd or made up into
said on this Subject 1. Let us with great Thankfulness acknowledge to the Creatour what he has made us and praise him for his Bounty towards us Let us consider and own it is God that hath made us and not we our selves It is one part of thankfulness to acknowledge the Benefits we have received Let us own this and endeavour to render to God all that which is due from us for it To shew forth his praise not only with our lips but in our lives by giving up our selves to his service Let each of us heartily say within himself Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his Benefits We may hereupon very justly thus expostulate with and admonish our selves Have I a power to think and shall my Thoughts neglect the excellent Being that gave it me Should he be seldom in my Thoughts by whom I constantly think How base and ungrateful a Character of a man is this That God is not in all his thoughts Am I capable of Knowledge and shall it not be my greatest Ambition to know him that made me so to know the most excellent of all Beings that I might thereby be inabled to render him the Homage that belongs to him Have I a Will to chuse good and shall I fix my choice on any thing before him Shall I not cleave to him by it who is the chiefest Good and who gave me this power for that Purpose Should I not always say it to him as the full Sense of my Soul Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I can desire besides thee Shall I not pay him the Homage of my Affections from whom I have them and the reason that I have wherewith to guide them I ought to love him above all things to fear him alone to entettain my Hope with the pleasing expectations of enjoying him I should be angry only with that which provokes his Anger and hate what he hates and forbids Thus ought we to admonish our selves upon this Foundation and to resolve accordingly Thus should we endeavour to honour him who hath crowned us with such Dignity and Honour 2. What has been said concerning the Excellency of our Souls should make all men prefer them before their Bodies and chiefly regard them The Soul of Man is plainly the chief and most important part of him as it is a Spirit and Immortal This ought then to have the chief Dominion in us All the Appetites and Passions of the Inferior Body ought to be subject to the Faculties of the Mind We should not suffer our Senses or the desires of the Flesh to force Objects and Thoughts upon the Mind but make it rather to chuse its own employment upon consideration and advice of our Judgment and Reason How much Folly and Sin would such a Course prevent And it highly becomes and concerns us to give this as absolute a Dominion in us as we can that it may not be clogg'd or biassed by particular Temper or Constitution The Obedience to Temper is a most effectual Hinderance both of Wisdom and Religion No man can govern himself well that does not set his Reason above his Constitution and make his Temper subject to the Rules of that and of Religion I confess that in some cases some severity towards the Body may be necessary to this purpose and a great deal of Self-denial and Mortification may be requisite to the bringing our selves to this But let us observe what our Saviour says to this Case If thy right hand says he offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to be cast into Hell Fire We were better wrong the Flesh if that must be than to endanger the Spirit and a little hurt the Body than damn the Soul To bring our selves to this State of the Bodies absolute and compleat subjection to the Mind is of so great use and advantage as that 't is worth all that it can cost us For so we shall become free and easy in all our Actions We shall possess and enjoy our own Souls we shall will to do what we should and shall do it the more readily and do it the better and the more perfectly Thus shall a man have the greatest Comfort in his Actions He shall exercise the brighter vertues and obtain by them the more praise and favour with God and Man Let us prefer our Souls above our Bodies and chiefly mind the Interests of them We should make the Interests of the Body stand by when they come into competition with those of the Soul We should govern our selves in all things as far as this can be done with a chief regard of these It were but just and fitting and due to our selves that we govern our selves so in what we chuse to love or hate in what we pursue or avoid and that it be the grand business of our Lives to promote the advantage of our Immortal Souls 3. Let us be greatly ambitious of those Divine and high Qualifications that we have been made capable to possess since we may be wise and holy just and good faithful and prudent let us earnestly endeavour to be so To be endowed with these Vertues is to put on the greatest excellency and worth The Scripture very justly says The righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour These Vertues in truth are the greatest and the most becoming Ornaments These make the brightest and most lasting Beauty such as Angels love and God himself takes delight in These will encrease and not fade or decay with Time and will last to Eternity These are the truest and the most useful Riches they do in a sense deliver the Soul from Hell and entitle it to everlasting Blessedness These are not uncertain Riches but are such a sure and durable Possession as Moth and Rust cannot corrupt nor can Thieves break through to and steal them These in the Exercises of them in good Works do lay up a treasure in Heaven Let it be consider'd that as we are capable of these Vertues we are also capable of being the Subjects of the contrary Vices And that if we are not vertuous and holy we must needs be vicious and impious He that is not just and true in his dealings must be unjust and persidious He that is not merciful and good must be hard-hearted and cruel And as we are acceptable and lovely to God by those Vertues in us so we are odious and detestable with these Vices The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth after Righteousness The pure Angels abhor Sinners and do not care to be near them to see what is so odious and offensive as the sins of men are to them As Holiness and Vertue do exalt and honour and become us so does
wickedness and impiety debase and disparage us These latter deform us into the likeness of the Devil and so make us truely more vile than the Beasts that perish So much reason is there that we earnestly endeavour then to adorn our Souls with Piety and Vertue 4. And Lastly The Excellency and Immortality of our Souls should make us greatly concerned to secure and attain for them an Everlasting Happiness Since we are capable of such an one we should not rest till we have some good assurance of it It would become us and it were our Wisdom to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure as the Apostle advises We should work out our salvation with fear and trembling Let every man then take it into his most deliberate Thoughts What shall become of him to all Eternity Let this be a great concern with us all When this frail Tabernacle of my Body shall be taken down in which my Soul now dwells Where then shall my poor banisht Soul abide Where Oh where shall that be then disposed of To what company shall I go for I cannot be happy alone And what good things shall I then enjoy for I have not a self-sufficiency within me I am told and assured of two very different States after this Life the one of perfect Happiness and the other of perfect Misery To which of these two States am I likely to be doom'd since I am immortal and must abide forever in that I am sent to it greatly concerns me to know which of them it shall be The one is designed for good Men and the other for the Bad Which is it then of these two Characters that I bear Since the course of my Life has a certain tendency towards the one or the other of these and I shall fare hereafter according as I have lived here let me consider well what a Course I take Am I sit to dwell in the kind and loving World above if I harbour any Malice or Envy or Hatred in my Heart Am I fit for the pure Mansions of Heaven if I live in sensual and brutish Sins Am I fit to live with those who are all faithful and true with the God of Truth and Righteousness if I am deceitful and unjust and had rather be cunning than sincere Am I fit to be in the presence of God and in the Company of those that Reverence and Adore him if I am habitually Prophane and accustomed to despise all things that are Sacred and to abuse the awful Name of God in vain Oaths and Perjuries Am I sit to leave this World and to be happy out of it if my Heart be so set upon it that I can love I can relish and delight in nothing but what is of this World If this be my Condition and this has been my Course of Life certainly this will not bring me to Heaven If a man finds then that it has been thus with him he should resolve to stop and divert his Course Since without Holiness no man shall see God we must follow after Holiness we must follow after these Divine Qualifications that have been mentioned as things necessary to our everlasting Happiness We must cease to do evil and learn to do well and devote our selves to the Service of God in a course of universal Obedience to his Commands we must repent of our past Sins that they may be blotted out we must purify our selves as God is pure Blessed says our Saviour are the pure in heart for they shall see God We must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and present our selves and our repentance and obedience all in the Name of Jesus Christ hoping for acceptance through him and for the favour of God to be bestowed upon us only for his sake Let it be consider'd that we must either dwell with God and his holy Angels in everlasting Joy and Bliss or be doom'd to the Prisons of the Devils and confin'd to dwell with enraged and wicked and spiteful Companions If we must not dwell in the Regions of Light we shall be dismissed to the gloomy Caves of everlasting Darkness If we are not admitted to the Joys and Hymns and Praises of Heaven we shall be condemned to the Howlings and Discords and Torments of Hell and there bear a sad part our selves in those Everlasting Sorrows There is no Middle State but the one or the other of these will be our everlasting and unalterable Portion Life and Death are set before us and we have leave to chuse between them But it is so That if we will not chuse Life we shall not be at Liberty to refuse Death If we do not chuse Life and Happiness and earnestly and steadily engage in the Course that leads to it we must fall into the other destruction and misery will come of themselves How shall we escape says the Apostle If we neglect so great Salvation Let it be consider'd that we must determine our choice between these two things while our present Life lasts not a moment more will be allowed us to do it in and this Life is of uncertain duration and most certainly is hastning away It is best for us therefore to hasten our choice in this Matter and to be very constant and steady in the way to Happiness when we have chosen that THE PRAYER OEternal and Almighty God! Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth or the World even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Thy duration is without beginning or end and thou art the Author and End of all things besides thy self It is thou O Lord that hast made us and not we our selves Thou hast sent us into this world to enjoy it a while to study and see Thee in the things about us to praise Thee for their Excellency and Goodness to love Thee for them and more than them as being the Fountain and Center of all that Goodness which is scattered and dispersed among them And thou hast made us for the high and noble Happiness of enjoying thy self O Lord how great and good things hast thou designed us for and how low and mean things do we consine our selves to We are ashamed to think how seldom we think of thee we use thy Creatures and thy Gifts and forget thy Self we are charmed and detained with that little Goodness that is in them and neglect that infinite Abundance which is in thee we commonly make but a low animal use of the things of this world considering in them only their suitableness to the Appetites and Necessities of our Bodies and valuing and delighting in them only for that and so they do not raise up our minds to thee And thus it comes to pass that we seek none but these things we live as if we were not made capable of better we seek our Happiness where it is not and neglect it where it is
as Idleness and that do and must needs dwell together If we apply our selves to this accomplishment in the proper Seasons for it that is on the Lords-Days and in the Intervals of Business and necessary Refreshment on other Days we shall have of this endeavour after such Knowledge a good Employment and we shall be so long kept from Idle and Vain Thoughts And then when a man does know much especially of Sacred things his Mind will not want good and useful Objects to entertain its self with at any time when he is at leisure for thinking He needs not at any time be idle but may be meditating on the Rules of Vertue and good living he may be applying them to his Actions and examining and regulating his Course of Life encouraging himself in the good he finds and rebuking himself for his Errours He may be very profitably meditating on the perfections of the Divine Nature and thereby raising in himself all those pious and devout Dispositions of Mind which are a suitable acknowledgment of those Perfections He may be often thinking of the World to come to which all Mankind are hastning and sending his Thoughts before him into Eternity and musing upon those two different States which will hereafter divide all Mankind between them and in one or other of which we must have our longest abode even to all Eternity These are Thoughts very fit to make the Mind wise and serious and to cure the levity of it and are certainly very good and profitable employment for it when no duty requires it attendance But he that is not acquainted with subjects worthy of his Thoughts will still think too and then he must needs think for the most part very idly and vain His Thoughts will seldom be employed about that which is his Duty nor will they be such as will dispose or lead him to it 3. We should accustom our selves frequently to review and reflect upon our Thoughts to think what we have been thinking upon and in what strain and way our Thoughts have been employed Let us endeavour always to know what passes within us what we do with our own Minds how we employ their noble powers and commune with our own Hearts as the Psalmist advises If we often do thus reflect upon our selves we cannot be long idle but we shall find our selves so and so may rectify our selves we shall apprehend our wanderings and may prevent our wild Imagination from polluting us with evil Thoughts and such as would actuate and cherish evil Inclinations and without this frequent reflection 't is impossible but we shall be often drawn away Besides if we are wont to call our selves thus to account we shall come to reverence our selves as the Philosophers speak we shall become desirous to be always able to give a good account to our own Consciences of the employment of our Thoughts we shall be liable to an wholesome Shame for all the Follies and Vagaries of our Minds and so by degrees we shall easily cure and prevent the vanity of them 4. Lastly We should endeavour to accustom our selves to good and pious Ejaculations Our constant dependance upon God and Obligations to him every moment and our constant danger and proneness to fall into Sin do greatly require this and without doubt it is a rule of special Usefulness to cure the vanity and levity of the Mind and to make it always serious and wise and directed to its main End the glorifying of God That which I mean by it is this Let us accustom our selves to make little short Addresses to God upon all occasions that occur to us to which purpose the Holy Scripture affords us an abundant Supply As for instance When we awake in the Morning to say I laid me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained me When the Light of the Day comes The Heavens declare the glory of God the Firmament sheweth his Handy-work When a man goes forth about his Business Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not When we hear of any other mens Faults and Sins Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil When we see Children One Generation shall praise thy Name unto another and shall declare thy mighty Acts. Thus we shall well employ our Minds and besides thus we may set the Lord always before us as the Psalmist speaks and so be possest with such a constant Reverence of the Almighty as shall make us careful of our Duty and prevent this Idleness of Thoughts and all the Mischiefs of it Which Grace that may obtain let us earnestly seek it of Almighty God and join the constant use of this Means with all the other THE PRAYER O Lord the Infinite and Eternal Spirit and Father of Spirits who searchest the Hearts and triest the Reins of Men and from whom no secrets are hid Thou O Lord we believe knowest us altogether and thou seest our Thoughts even afar off We are ashamed to think how much vanity and folly and sin thou hast seen within us How little our Minds have attended and applied themselves to our Duty and to the main end of our Beings the living to thy Honour and Glory How seldom this comes into our Thoughts What we were made for what the Creator justly expects from us Hence are our Minds so often engaged in that which does not concern us and that which will not at all profit us and so often employed in gratifying and exercising inwardly some sinful and foolish Inclination While we neglect to set our Minds to that good Employment which our Business and Duty gives us our Adversary the Devil or our sinful Inclinations or the evil Company of the World find them very ill Employment And from hence do our Lives and Actions wretchedly and shamefully wander from the ways of thy excellent Commandments Thus we do instead of serving thee in Body Soul and Spirit most unjustly and unworthily sin against thee in all We ought to meditate on thy Law Day and Night that we might bring forth fruit in due season to study thy Law and learn thy Statutes but we have been those that care not for the Knowledge of thy ways and therefore we have not followed thy Paths This our way O Lord is our folly we condemn we abhor our selves for it and own our selves obnoxious to thy wrath and deserving that thou shouldst reject us from thy Care but since thy Goodness has yet been mindful of us even while we forgot thee we hope thy Mercy will receive us when we return unto thee Our Hope is in thy Word which tells us that to the Lord our God belong Mercies and Forgiveness tho we have rebelled against him Forgive us then O Lord we pray thee all our transgressions upon the account of that great Propitiation and Attonement which is made for us by the precious Blood of thy Son our only Saviour for his sake look mercifully upon our Infirmities and heal
them Vouchsafe to direct sanctifie and govern both our Hearts and Bodies in the way of thy Law and in the works of thy Commandments Cleanse thou the Thoughts of our Hearts by the Inspiration of thy Holy Spirit that we may sincerely love thee and duly magnify thy Holy Name truly serving thee with Soul and Body which are thine Lord have mercy upon us and write all thy Laws in our Hearts we beseech thee Enlighten our Darkness cure our Ignorance with all necessary Knowledge of thee and of thy Christ Change our Wills and turn the biass of them from this World towards thy Self from empty and vain Goods to full and Substantial ones from the pleasures of Sense to the accomplishments of the Mind Make us more indifferent about our outward Circumstances and more concern'd about the inward State and Disposition of our Souls and to account it our greatest Felicity to do well to please thee and approve our selves unto thee Make our vain and light Minds serious and wise furnish us with the Gifts of thy good Spirit for every good work for thou alone art the Giver of every Good and every perfect Gift it is by thee alone O Lord that we can be inabled to please thee we alas are not able of our selves to think a good Thought Help us to set thee always before us in the frequent Thoughts of thee and an habitual reverence and fear of thee that a sense of thy continual presence and observance may restrain us from all evil and encourage and quicken us to mind and do our Duty We humbly implore thy Mercy upon all Men Convert unto thy Self all Jews Turks and Heathens bring them from their several Ways of Vanity to know and worship thee the only true God by Jesus the true Christ and Mediator Give the Heathen for an Inheritance and the utmost parts of the Earth for a Possession to thy well-beloved Son Give unto thy Church all that is necessary to it to amend and purge away what is amiss and to supply what is defective in it and to make it fruitful in all good Works and that all who profess and call themselves Christians may have their Conversation such as become the Gospel Bless we pray thee and defend these Nations in which we live Bless us with a continuance of wise and kind and righteous Governours and of loyal peaceable and obedient Subjects Give peace in our Days we humbly beseech thee for there is none we rely upon to fight for us but only thou O God Establish Truth among us for all Generations bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived Remember in Mercy all that are dear and related to us Give them things necessary for Life and Godliness Guide them O Lord by thy Counsel through this world and bring them at last unto thy Glory Sanctify us by thy word which has been this day spoken to us and promote in us thereby all Vertue and Godliness of living Forgive the wandring of our Minds in our attendance upon thee and all other defects in our Duty and comfort us with the light of thy Countenance Be thou our gracious Protector this Night for in thee alone do we put our Trust And if it please thee to allow another Day and yet a longer time on Earth Grant that it may be spent in thy fear and in a diligent and unwearied application to all that which is our Duty This we humbly ask and whatever thou seest to be most expedient for us committing and resigning our selves entirely to thy Conduct and disposal and hoping in thy Mercy through Jesus Christ to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost we desire to ascribe all Praise and Glory and Domihion for ever and ever Our Father c. OF True Happiness Wherein it lies DEMONSTRATED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Psalm 4. 6 7. There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my Heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine encreased IT is the natural and common desire of Mankind to be happy and is the End which they aim at and propose to themselves in their several Pursuits and Endeavours But as the Psalmist speaks here There be many that say who will shew us good The Many the most of men are at a great loss in this Matter and do not know where their true Happiness lies nor in what course or way to attain it Their uncertainty in this Matter is represented by these words of the Psalmist and is too evidently seen in the common Practice of the World The Human Nature is the same in all Mankind we have all of us reasonable immortal Souls we have all the same Capacities And our Happiness rightly and truly considered must be to all the same The same Object must make all men Happy and they must obtain that in the same way But alas how is the World distracted and divided in the pursuit of Happiness Some of them running one way after it and some another and the most of them neglecting and diverting from the true Object With some there is no Felicity like the heaping up of Wealth like the sight of full Bags or great purchases and they delight in nothing so much as in gainful Bargains With others there is nothing so pleasant as to spend and they delight in this as much as the others do in getting The Pleasures of this World are their beloved Felicity to eat and drink and rise up to play With others there is no Heaven like Honour and Command the having Authority and Power among Men the being courted and sought to respected and obeyed With some how great a Felicity is it to be fine and to have all things about them so To have Themselves their Houses their Entertainments and all that belongs to them gaudy and pompous and much adorned Thus are Mankind disperst thus they wander in the pursuit of Happiness And thus the Many are taken up and employed in this great Concern Having exprest the Uncertainty and intimated the wandering of the Generality in this Affair The Psalmist next expresses what he sought as the Object of Happiness in these words Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Which is as much as to say Lord let us have an Interest in thy Favour regard us with kindness and Love let us enjoy the Exercises and Benefits of thy peculiar Favour and Mercy It might be shewn you by the use of this Phrase in other places of Scripture that this is the sense and meaning of it When he had made this Request he adds
shew Mercy to all Mankind Pour out thy Spirit upon all Flesh that they may know thee and seek thee and find and praise thee and rejoice in thy abundant Goodness Let thy continual Pity cleanse and defend thy Church Lord look down in mercy upon us and bless us that all the ends of the World may fear thee We pray thee do good to these Nations in which we live according thy infinite Sufficiency and our Necessities Oh let not our Iniquities with-hold good things from us but according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions blot out all our Transgressions Bless our Gracious King and Queen and make the one a Nursing Father and the other a Nursing Mother to that part of thy Church which thou hast planted among us and let their good Influence extend further to the Benefit of it and make Them the Honourable Instruments of Establishing Peace and Truth not only in these but also in the Neighbouring Nations to the Glory of thy great Name Bless all Ranks and Degrees of Men among us and make them to live to thy Glory to be conformable and obedient to our Governours and useful peaceable righteous and charitable one towards another in their several Stations We humbly pray for all Friends Relations Benefactors bless and preserve them from every evil Work and conduct them to thy Heavenly Kingdom Let this Day Oh Lord be happy to us in the fruitful and effectual Influences of thy Ordinances upon our Hearts and Lives Let us not be forgetful Hearers but be Doers of thy Word that we may be blest in our Deed. Grant us to lie down in Peace this Night to rest in Safety And be thou O God our Portion and Refuge in the Land of the Living and hereafter our exceeding great Reward for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose Name and Words we further present our Requests unto thee saying OVR Father which art in Heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation But deliver us from evil Amen THE Heavenly Mind DESCRIBED and URGED Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Colos 3. 2. Set your Affections on Things above and not on things on the Earth HOW well did the Bounteous Creatour of all things contrive the Nature of Man for the making him exceedingly Happy He put into our Constitution an Immortal Spirit join'd to a Living and Sensible Body And so he made us capable of the Delights of both Worlds the Spiritual and the Material By our Souls we are capable to enjoy and delight in Spiritual Objects and their Properties and Qualities We are capable of a rational spiritual Delight in sensible Objects and we are capable to enjoy and delight in God himself and his Infinite Eternal Perfections And by our Bodies which are allied to this World we are capable of a sensual Delight in the things of it to enjoy and please our selves with the Properties Vertues and Qualities belonging to Material things So bounteous and kind was the Creatour to Man in the Forming of him But alas Man has not been kind to himself He did not remain long in the happy State which he was first set in but by following too much the Pleasures of his Sense he lost all the greatest Pleasures of his Mind By eating the Forbidden Fruit he sinned against God lost his Favour and the Enjoyment of him became alienated from God and his Mind became subject to the shameful Disease of Sensuality A low and sordid Propensity to Earthly things did from henceforth possess him and a wretched Incapacity and Averseness towards Heavenly and Spiritual things We are condemned to enjoy only the lowest and weakest and the least part of our Happiness to gnaw as it were on the Shell of Pleasure and enjoy no more than the Brute Beasts do We following the unhappy Fall of our Nature do amuse and entertain our selves only with the poor Objects of Sense utterly forget and neglect our higher Capacities and our true Happiness It is the whole Business of our Religion in all the parts of it to recover us from this shameful and deadly Fall to draw us off from this our wretched Attachment to this World and turn us from a false Happiness to a true one The scope and aim of all its Doctrins Precepts Promises Threatnings Motives and Assistances is this to make us truly happy And the Sum of all is to bring us to what the Apostle here exhorts to in saying Set your Affections on Things above not on Things on the Earth By Things above he means those very things which were recommended to you by the Discourse immediately foregoing this as the chiefest and the true Objects of our Happiness He means God himself who is our Chief Good and the Expressions and Exercises of his peculiar Favour and Love He meâ—â—â— the Graces which the Holy Spirit works 〈◊〉 the Souls of Men which perfect and adorn and compose the Mind He means the everlasting Blessedness which is to come the Happiness and Joys of Heaven By advising to set our Affections on those things he means they should be much the Objects of our Minds he intends the Application of the whole Soul to them and the employing of all our Powers about them The Original word which we render here set your Affections has this large Import and Signification and might be rendered Mind those things which are above Let your Judgments esteem them your Wills chuse and your Affections follow them And not on Things on the Earth that is rather than the Things of the Earth It is according to the Custom and Phrase of the Hebrew Language to express thus when it only intends to prefer the former things it speaks of before the latter So in Hos 6. 6. The Prophet in the Person of God says I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice that is rather than Sacrifice he intended to express God's preference of Mercy before Sacrifice Here then the Apostle who was an Hebrew of Hebrews speaking after the Phrase and Manner of his own Language must be understood to mean Set your Affections on Things above rather than on Things on the Earth Mind those Things most let them have the preference with you He does not forbid nor does our Religion forbid the moderate seeking and enjoyment of the Good things of this World We are not bound to be unsensible of their Goodness to take no delight in them nor absolutely and wholly to refuse or reject all sensual Pleasures The things of this World are good in their Kind and
Degree and are useful and necessary to us in our present State and we may enjoy them with delight and give God Thanks for them But still we must prefer the things above to these below Spiritual Things to Material the better and nobler things to those that are worse and of a meaner Nature It shall be the Business of this Discourse by God's Assistance to explain or express to you more largely and particularly the Import and Meaning of the Apostle's exhortation here And then to urge our Obedience to it with a few proper Motives And thus will this Discourse as it was intended be very Applicatory of that which goes before it Explication In the first Place I shall shew you how we ought to mind and apply our selves to the things above With how much Concern and Care we should seek the Favour of God the matchless Blessings of his Love and the enjoyment of him therein This I shall represent to you under these three Heads 1. The Things above must have the Preference of our Judgments We must esteem and value them before all other 2. They must have the Preference of our Wills and Affections We must chuse and love them desire and delight in them more than in any other 3. They must have the Preference of our Actions and Course of Life We should seek and pursue them more than all other things I shall particularly insist and enlarge my Discourse upon each of these severally for the better Illustration of them 1. Those things ought to have the Preference of our Judgments We should esteem and value them as the best things We must account God our Chiefest Good and the enjoyment of him in his Love the highest Felicity This should be the setled and fixed Judgment of our Souls a Conclusion deliberately and firmly made The Apostle who gives this Direction in our present Text expresses thus concerning himself when he says Phil. 3. 8. I count all things but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him that is That I may through him have an Interest in God and in the Blessings of his peculiar Love This has been the constant Practice and State of all good and rectified Souls Thy loving kindness is better than life says David Psal 63. 3. More to be desired are thy Commandments than Gold yea than much fine Gold sweeter also than the Hony and the Hony-comb Psal 19. This preference and esteem of things above is several times exprest by Solomon in the words which he puts into the Mouth of a Holy Soul in his Book of Canticles in Chap. 1. Verse 2. She says to Christ Thy Love is better than Wine The expressions and exercises of thy Favour are better far and more chearing and refreshing to the Mind than the richest Wines are to the faint and thirsty Body Again she says Chap. 2. 3. As the Apple Tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons He is to be preferred before all other Yea she says in plain Terms Chap. 5. 10. He is the chiefest among Ten thousand These are all of them the expressions of such Souls as mind the things above rather than those below and prefer Spiritual Objects before Sensual God must have the Ascendant in our Souls He who truly is the Chiefest Good must be accounted so We must believe him the Center and Source of all Goodness the Fountain and Giver of all that which is in the Creatures And that he has not given away from himself what he has communicated to them but is still an inexhaustible Fulness of Good That in him does all desirable Fulness dwell and that he alone is able to afford full Content and Happiness to the Soul of Man We must account it a much happier State to enjoy the things above than the things below Much better to be vertuous and good than rich and great to enjoy the Favour of God than the Esteem of Men. And if we have the greatest value and esteem for the things above we shall value all other things according to the relation which they bear to them Those things which have a subserviency to them and are means of attaining them will be valued next to them and will for their sakes be in great esteem too Such are Prayer Hearing the Word of God Reading and Meditating on it and the Attendance upon Sacraments And again Those things which are contrary and opposite to these which hinder the enjoyment of them will not be lookt upon as Indifferent they will be accounted very evil things and be absolutely rejected from all esteem with us Such are all manner of Sins and Wickednesses Thus must the things above have the Preference of our Judgments 2. They must also have the Preference of our Wills and Affections We must chuse them before all other things love desire and delight most in them When those things are proposed described and offered to us we must not regard them with indifferent and careless Minds Our Souls must be moved towards them in chusing accepting and desiring above all things to be Partakers of them This also has been the Temper of good Souls as the Expressions that have fallen from such do abundantly declare The Holy Author of Psal 73. says to God Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I can desire besides thee The Spouse in the Canticles says Cant. 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the Kisses of his Mouth That which I chiefly desire is to receive the expressions of thy matchless Love And in Verse 4. she says We will be glad and rejoice in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wine If we can enjoy thy Favour Oh Jesus lover of Souls This is that we most value This is all we care for This is that will be most pleasing to us Ardent Desires after God the Psalmist expresses Psal 42. 1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God! If we are not assured of an Interest in the peculiar Love of God we should most earnestly and incessantly desire this We should make it the chief subject and matter of our Prayers The want of this should not be satisfied and madeup with any thing else Let us never say to our selves upon the mostplentiful Enjoyment of these things as that Man whom our Saviour describes Luke 12. who said Soul take thine ease because thou hast Goods laid up for many years Our Souls must take no Ease nor ever be at Rest till we have Goods laid up for Eternity God must be the only Center of our Hopes and Aims We should love him with a transcendent Love Nothing should grieve or trouble us so much as what does damp our Hopes of Heaven nothing so much transport and please as what does raise and promote and confirm them If we have been
that is Not he that only believes I am the true Messiah and the Redeemer of the World not every one that pretends to rely upon me for Salvation shall be saved But he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven This is required to Salvation as well as the other I come not to save Rebels continuing such but to save them who set themselves to do my Father's Will and to obey his Commands And from hencesorth to the end of his Sermon on the Mount and to the end of this Chapter does our Saviour very evidently set himself to enforce and urge the same thing The following Discourse on this Subject I shall divide into these 3 Parts 1. I shall shew that it is necessary and required even now under the Gospel that we set our selves to obey and keep the Commands of God 2. I shall shew how far we are bound to do this 3. I shall make some Application In the first place I shall make it evident that it is necessary and required of Christians that they set themselves to keep the Commands of God This is required of all those who are grown Persons and are come to the exercise of their Reason they who have opportunity to do this must do it and they cannot be saved without this by any Merits or Mediation of Jesus Christ Indeed Infants baptized and dying in their Infancy may be saved by the Merits of Jesus Christ without the exercise and practice of good Works which they had not capacity or opportunity to perform but grown Persons cannot Good works or the keeping the Commands of God are necessary to our finding Favour and to Salvation as Conditions required to precede and concur tho they do not gain Favour and Salvation for us as efficient or meritorious Causes For proof of this I shall to make the Discourse as short as I can only insist upon two Arguments omitting many other which might be produced to this purpose and they that I shall insist upon are these 1. We shall find the Duties of the Moral Law frequently urg'd and enjoined to Christians by Christ and his Apostles 2. So far is the Gospel from excusing our Obedience to the Laws of God that it makes this the necessary Condition of our having an Interest in Jesus Christ or in the Benefits of the Covenant of Grace 1. We shall find if we look fairly into the New Testament that the Duties of the Moral Law are there very frequently urg'd and enjoin'd to Christians by our Lord and his Apostles Our Lord himself says He came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them Mat. 5. 17. How can it then be a Doubt but that Christians are obliged to keep the Laws of God when our Saviour says He came not to destroy but to fulfil them That is He came not to take away the Force and Obligation of any but to fulfil and obey them Himself and to enforce the Observance of them by his Followers His whole Sermon in the Mount contained in the 5 6 and 7th Chapters of Matthew is made up of Moral Instructions wherein he rescues these from the corrupt Glosses and Interpretations of the Pharisees and establishes and confirms the pure Precepts themselves Again our Saviour does enjoin at once the Observation of the whole Moral Law as necessary to Salvation under these two general Heads The Love of God and of our Neighbour In Luke 10. it is said Ver. 25. A certain Lawyer stood up and tempted him saying Master what shall I do to inherit Eternal Life Jesus answers in the next Verse What is written in the Law How readest thou He answering said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength and with all thy Mind and thy Neighbour as thy Self Jesus replies in Verse 28. This do and thou shalt live Intimating that he knew no other way to Life that he could take than by a diligent Endeavour and Application of himself to the keeping of the Commands of God That this was the way always appointed to the Jews and that he came not to teach or procure a new way of Salvation He therefore intimates that he might learn in what was then written the way of Salvation that is in the Writings of the Old Testament Jesus Christ came not to alter the terms and way to Salvation which had been appointed to all the World since the Fall of Man but only to teach that way more perfectly Further the Apostles also after Christ and by the Direction of the Holy Ghost poured upon them do urge and require the Obedience of Christians to the Precepts of the Moral Law Out of the many Instances which might be produced from every one of them to this purpose I shall content my self to take but one from the Writings of St. Paul and another from the Epistle of St. James to shew how well these two Apostles agree in this Matter and to contract this head The Apostle Paul in Eph. 6. 1. 23. says Chidren obey your Parents in the Lord for this is right Honour thy Father and Mother which is the First Commandment with Promise that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the Earth We may see he presses there the same Duty which is enjoined in the 5th Commandment And we may observe moreover that he presses it as enjoin'd there He quotes the 5th Commandment as an obliging Law and a Rule still in force And herein he plainly allows and establishes the Force of all the Law that is Moral St. James also in the 2d Chap. to his Epist does enforce and urge the Obedience of Christians to the Moral Law Nothing less can be the meaning of the 8th Ver. If ye fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Thou shalt do well And in the following Ver. he further urges the Obedience to this general Precept and says He that offends in one Point is guilty of all and brings his Discourse to this Point That he who despises his poor Neighbour and neglects works of Mercy transgresses the Law as well as he that should kill or commit Adultery which things are also forbidden still as he there intimates Thus we see that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have unanimously urg'd the Christian Church to observe the Precepts of the Moral Law 2. Another thing that proves the Necessity of Obedience and a good Life under the Times of the Gospel is this That even the Gospel its self makes this the necessary Condition of an Interest in Jesus Christ Good works indeed do not constitute a justified State but they are necessary to the attaining it as they are the necessary Conditions of our being justified by Christ We are certainly not admitted into the Covenant of Grace without a sincere Engagement to be the Lord's Or without a solemn Vow and Promise to keep
State with a Loyal Obedient Peaceable and Loving People Grant that we may all live to thy Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. In whose own words we further say Our Father c. THE GREAT DUTY OF THANKFULNESS Urged and Directed Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 1 Thes 5. 18. In every thing give Thanks THere is an exceeding great evil and disorder which we may too frequently observe in the World and which every Man's reason condemns in others and yet all are apt to be often guilty of it themselves It is that we we do commonly remember long and retain a very deep resentment of an Injury whether it be a real or but an imagined one but we soon forget the Benefits we receive and lose the Impressions of them Thus do Mankind often deal with one another and thus also do they behave themselves towards God Tho he cannot wrong or injure us yet we are apt to think he does so when he does in any thing displease us and we behave our selves towards him as if he did We murmur against him and grow discontented and froward are ready to think 't is in vain to serve him and to throw off our Duty And on the other side we do at the same time forget his Benefits and take no notice of what we have many times through desire of what we want We are very earnest and importunate in our Requests for what we would have and are cold in our Thanksgivings or neglect to be thankful at all when we have obtain'd it The Spirit of God taking notice of this Fault in Mankind repeats his Instructions in Holy Scripture to the contrary He bids us take care to join with all our Prayers Thanksgivings in Phil. 4. 6. he says by the Apostle Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God However desirous ye are however sollicitous to obtain what ye want of God be sure to be thankful for what ye have Again in this Chapter where our present Text is he joins the Command of Thanksgiving with that of Prayer the 17th Ver. bids us Pray without ceasing and this 18th says In every thing give Thanks whatever your condition be recommend it to Almighty God by Prayer and how long soever it pleases God to deny or delay what you desire yet continue to pray And with your Prayers remember also to give Thanks In every thing give Thanks that is in every State and Condition endeavour to retain always a Sense of the Divine Benefits to praise him for what he has done for you and be free from all hard Thoughts of God and undecent Murmurings against him I confess this Command in this place seems to be chiefly directed to those Holy and good Men who are the peculiar Favourites of Heaven by the Interest of Jesus Christ But because this Duty is urged more generally elsewhere and there is no Duty requir'd of such good Men but it is also required of all Men at least by consequence and as all Men are required to be good I shall therefore take the words as exhorting to an universal Duty And I conclude from them that all Men are bound to express a thankful Acknowledgement unto God of the Benefits they receive from him and that in all Estates and Circumstances whatsoever In discoursing upon this Matter I shall endeavour these 2 things 1. To prove that every Man has Reason for great Thankfulness to Almighty God 2. To direct the right Expressions and Declarations of our Thankfulness In the first place I shall endeavour to make it evident That every Man has some reason to be thankful to God some reason to praise and love him and to be patient and contented in every Condition And this I think will evidently appear upon the making good the following Particulars 1. Let us consider That all Men are in some measure Partakers of the Divine Benefits There is not one among the Race of Mankind that can justly reckon himself not at all obliged to God Every man is beholden to God for his Being for the preservation and continuance of his Being so long as he subsists and for some things that comfort him in his Being and without doubt the Death of Christ is in some sense an universal Benefit Every Man is beholden to God for that Being which he has It is God that hath made us and not we our selves And from that sort of Being which God has given us are we engaged to be thankful We were made but little lower than the Angels and crowned with Honour and Dignity as the Psalmist says of all Men Psal 8. The meanest Man is next in Dignity to them in the Order of the Creation It is an exceeding Honour of our Bodies and their greatest Worth and Commendation that they are made fit to serve and entertain so noble a Guest as an immortal Spirit and this Honour the most deformed the weakest and the most crazy Body has belonging to it But our greatest Worth and Dignity lies in the Soul which God has given us There is in every Man an excellent Spirit which is capable of very great things however it is in some Men wretchedly neglected and deprest By this are all Men capable of the sublime Knowledge of the Creatour capable to love and praise and delight themselves in him by such a Being then we are capable of Happiness to a great and excellent Degree and even of the highest kind of Happiness that can be as we can enjoy or delight our selves in him who is the highest Good And our immortal Soul renders us capable of Everlasting Happiness in the Eternal fruition of an Infinite Eternal Good Every Man may reach this Happiness if he will This is that he was made and designed for and no Man shall fall short of it but by his own default Thus our Being then should engage us to be thankful to God that gave it Further 'T is to him we owe the continuance of our Being he supports and maintains us in this Life while it lasts and after it in the other This is a continual Obligation to Thankfulness it is a continual Creation As no Being can make its self so none can preserve or continue its self at all but all things have always a most necessary dependance upon the great Creatour We ought then all of us to acknowledge it is he that holds our Soul in Life And while he continues this Life he obliges us in that we are so long capable in some measure to see and enjoy the pleasant and good things of this World If we have good and vertuous Souls and are free from Envy and
this Exhortation we may consider that without doubt the Pleasures of Religion are the strongest and sweetest of any They sink deeper into a Man than any other and affect him more as they enter into his Mind and put all the inward Powers of that into a pleasing Exercise and Motion They possess more of a Man than those that touch only his Body and Senses The Mind of Man is the most and as we may say the greatest part of him It has most Desire and greatest Capacity of Pleasure It is much more sensible both of Pleasure and Pain than the duller Body The Psalmist speaks the greater Sweetness and Excellency of Religious Pleasure when he says of the Law of God If it sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb Psal 19. 10. He means the practice of Religion and Vertue the doing any Duties commanded by the Law of God afforded him a far greater Pleasure and Delight than e're he could by his Senses receive from the most pleasant things of this World 2. Since there is so much Pleasure in well-doing this may justly persuade Men off from the guilty Pursuit and Enjoyment of the Pleasures of this World Why should a Man suffer himself to be guilty for the sake of any Pleasure when he may enjoy that which is very Rich and Sensible without being so It is most certain that Guilt will greatly allay the briskest Pleasures of this World In the midst of guilty Laughter the Heart is sad These are always best and sweetest to him that regularly and soberly uses them that uses them according to the Rules of Religion Thus he shall hurt neither his Body nor his Soul nor his Estate nor his Neighbour while he pleases his Appetites and gratifies his Senses and so he avoids the unpleasing Farewell of a troubled Conscience He does not destroy the Appetite while he pleases it but keeps himself in a capacity to have always a very lively Relish and Sense of his Pleasures The irregular and intemperate Man makes a Drudgery of those of this World and turns their fine Relish eager and four And the other sort that is the high and delicate ones of Religion he utterly deprives himself of In a vertuous and religious Course of Life a Man may enjoy both sorts but in that which is guilty and irreligious he cannot well enjoy either This is the First Use may be made of this Discourse 2. A Second is this It ought to persuade Men to betake themselves steadily to a religious and good Course of Life It was said by the Spirit of God that the ways of Religion are ways of Pleasantness with Design to recommend them to the Sons of Men. He spoke this in a kind Condescention to our Nature and Inclination to make a Bait of Pleasure which we are so apt to dote upon And this surely should be a very powerful Argument to this purpose This ought much rather to induce Men to be Wise and Vertuous to act as becomes them and pursue their true Happiness than to make them guilty of Folly and Sin of what is shameful and hurtful to them and of what will incur their everlasting Misery And how great an Obligation to Obedience is it that the Laws of our Religion are thus contriv'd that the Universal Sovereign has made the Instances of our Duty so reasonable and so good that we may delight in our Duty and the Performance of it will reward it self They would exceedingly aggravate our Wickedness and shew a strange Obstinacy in Sin and Enmity to God if we should rather refuse all this Happiness and Pleasure than submit our selves to the Laws of Religion And thus I have far enough urg'd this Argument in our Text to shew that they who will do wickedly do obstinately refuse their own Interest And to furnish the Consciences of Sinners with such a Conviction as will at one time or other prove a sharp Sting and Torment if they will not suffer it now to restrain them from Wickedness THE PRAYER MOst Great and Glorious Lord God! the Infinite and Perfect Being The greatest Excellency among thy Creatures lies in their greatest Likeness and Conformity to thee We give thee Thanks O Lord for that thou hast made us capable of so great Honour as the resembling of thee in our Actions for that thou hast laid upon us such Laws as guide us to a noble Conformity to the Divine Nature Thou didst of thy bounteous Goodness make Man upright inclin'd to such Actions and suited to thy excellent Law But alass we have defiled and polluted our selves with Sin and are become averse and unwilling impotent and unable to keep thy Commandments Our carnal Minds are Enmity to thee and are not subject to thy Law nor can be till they be Renewed Sanctified and Created again in Christ Jesus unto Good Works O Lord open thou our Eyes to behold the wondrous and alluring Excellencies of thy Law Work in us to will and to do according to thy good Pleasure Rectify the Apprehensions the Relish of our Souls that we may find thy Commandments to be sweeter than the Honey and the Honey-comb Lord make us so steddy and diligent in our Duty so practised and inured to it and so in love with it that we may find thy ways to be to us as they are in themselves ways of Pleasantness Shew and convince us of the Equity and Reasonableness of all thy Service that it is perfect Freedom that it is our greatest Honour that the Wisdom of good Living is our best Ornament even as a Chain of Gold about the Neck Encourage us we beseech thee to our Duty with a constant Sense of thy Presence with us of thy gracious Eye and Regard to all we do Let us know thou dost accept our sincere Endeavours and imperfect Performances through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ Inable us to hope in thy Mercy and assure us that if we put our Trust in thee in Well-doing we shall not be confounded But especially we pray thee O Lord shed abroad thy Love abundantly in our Hearts Let Love possess us Love move Love direct and byass us make us to love thee with all our Hearts and our Neighbours as our selves so shall we be reconcil'd to thy Commandments so shall we run and not be weary we shall ever walk before thee and not faint in that blessed way Renew us O Lord after thine Image and make us Holy as thou art Holy and Good as thou art Good Merciful as thou our Heavenly Father art Merciful and Forgiving as thou art ready to Forgive Let our Lives and Conversations shew forth the Vertues of him that has called us to his Kingdom and Glory Look down in Mercy upon all Mankind rescue the miserable Slaves of the Devil who is the Ruler of the Darkness of this World from their sad Bondage under him and bring them into the happy Liberty of the Children of God Save thy People O Lord and bless thine
way to pursue it He that finds not this in one sort and train of Vices will hope to find it in another He that sees the Emptiness and Vanity of Voluptuousness and Pleasure will after that think there is great Reward in Covetousness and Ambition great Happiness in the Riches and Honours which he thinks to gain by them and thus the delusion continues with many men to the end of their days and to their final and eternal vexation and disappointment I shall therefore industriously prove this Truth and then add some Application of it And we may be fully convinced of this that He that soweth Iniquity shall reap Vanity if we will consider well the following Particulars 1. The Sinner does not always gain the things he pursues by his guilty Endeavours An over-ruling Providence governs all things and brings to pass whatsoever the Universal and Sovereign Disposer pleases And this Providence often blasts the Endeavours of wicked Men. The Lawless Voluptuary cannot always catch the guilty Pleasures he pursues Every covetous man cannot be rich nor does Ambition certainly rise to the Honour and Authority and Respect it aspires to We may often see men giving themselves up to worldly pursuits and neglecting every thing else and yet that they can with all this Application and Endeavour gain but very little of this World We may often see that the very ways they take to accomplish their Desires as seeming to them the most likely to do so do tend to frustrate them The Wise Man expresses this in the Instance of Covetousness Prov. 11. 24. There is that scattereth and yet encreaseth says he And there is that with-holdeth more than is meet and it tendeth to poverty A man may liberally bestow all that is due to Justice and Charity and Generosity and yet increase and another may think to grow rich by fordid saving by withholding his Neighbours due by crafty and fraudulent Bargains by refraining from Acts of Charity and Generosity and yet notwithstanding these thriving Tricks may be but poor In this Respect is their Iniquity vain that it does not always attain the things it seeks And it must needs be that the Wickedness of the World must sometimes meet with this sort of Disappointment since as the Scripture tells us The Curse of the Lord is in the House of the Wicked Prov. 3. 33. If this be so it shall work to the Sinners Vexation and Misery in one way or other and it does this sometimes in this way Though 't is also true that God does many times give Men the things which they seek even by guilty Endeavours He lets the wicked Voluptuary accomplish his guilty Desires and the Covetous or Ambitious person thrive in Wealth and rise to Honours by ill Arts there is many a Villany thus far prosperous in the World But then to make good still what our Text says it may be added 2. All that a Man can gain by Wickedness is of very little worth and goodness The Fruits of Sin are very empty things The Sinner gains but the Goods of this World the Accommodations of this present Life He at best enjoys but Creatures and they have all their sufficiency from God their greatest Goodness comes from his Blessing and that the Sinner cannot enjoy with them They are like gaudy Clouds but such as are empty and without Rain they are as broken Cisterns that can hold no Water The Sinner feeds on Husks like the wretched Prodigal These things may please him much while they are new but in a little time he has suckt out all the Sweetness of them and they please no more and like the Bee he often spoils the Flower which he sucks the Honey of his Pleasure from How often may we see those Enjoyments after a little while loath'd and disdain'd which were sought with the most earnest Desires which the Man was ready to do any thing to gain them and which at first perhaps he thought he should take a great and a long delight in What he thought would be a great Pleasure and Happiness he after a little while finds to be an ungrateful Drudgery and that which he expected would be the Comfort of his Life proves the redious Burthen of it Men commonly expect more from the things of this World than they are able to afford and so are disappointed Besides the Goodness and Usefulness of all that which is gotten by Wickedness terminates in the Body of a Man all the Rewards of Sin are but outward Goods They may serve sometimes the Necessities and Conveniences of his Body but are of no use to his Soul And they cannot serve all the Necessities of his Body neither so little goodness and worth is in them A man's Wealth and great Estate cannot give him a strong Constitution nor certainly preserve him in Health nor always purchase the Recovery of it when 't is lost as by all our taking Thought we cannot make one Hair white or black nor add one Cubit to the Stature Wealth cannot make the crooked body streight nor the deformed beautiful The Body may be pleased but 't is hurt too by guilty and intemperate Pleasures they destroy the Appetites they please they impair the Health and Strength and wither the Beauty of the Body they are usually closely attended with uneasie Loathings and painful Diseases Wealth and Honours cannot defend a man from a Pestilential Air nor possibly hinder but that he shall be sometimes incommoded by extremities of Weather they cannot purchase him a fair Day nor a warm or cool one according as he has occasion These cannot reprieve a man from the Grave nor cure him of Mortality the Rich as well as the Poor the Honourable as well as the Mean must die and go down to the place of Darkness and Contempt They that trust in their Wealth and boast themselves in the Multitude of their Riches says the Psalmist None of them can by any Means redeem his Brother nor give to God a Ransome for him that he should live for ever and not see corruption Psal 49. 6 7 9. Thus they are but some of our Necessities that the things of this World can serve and they are only outward ones too as well as not all them And besides as was said These things are of no use to the Soul of Man which is his Noblest part His Soul is utterly neglected and the Interest of that are forgotten and quitted while he in the ways of wickedness pursues and enjoys the things of this World The Mind can take no delight in guilty and forbidden Pleasures it is never exercised in a serious Reflection upon them but with Pain and Torment This is the meaning of what Solomon says of them Prov. 14. 13. In laughter the heart is said and the end of that mirth is heaviness And as it has no Pleasure in these so much rather has it no profit or advantage from them They indeed hurt and prejudice the Soul they suppress and
Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry because he is allarm'd with fears of losing what he has and is troubled with the Uncertainty of his Condition He is now perhaps in more care and engag'd in greater toil and labour to keep than it cost him to get what he has And thus is he further hindered from the comfortable enjoyment of it 3. This very often comes to pass from the smart lashes of his own Conscience His own Mind will not let him enjoy what he has with any comfort while that is upbraiding and condemning him for base treachery and perfidiousness or barbarous cruelty and oppression which he used in the getting it That gives him great disturbance while it calls him fool and brute in the midst of his guilty Pleasures and tells him how he hurts his Body impairs his Estate wrongs his Neighbour offends God while he follows them What pleasure can a man take in the applause of Flatterers in the respect of Inferiors while his Conscience tells him that God above hates and despises him with the world of Holy Spirits he is odious and contemptible There can be no enjoyment of what a man has while his Mind tells him 't is all forfeited by his Sins he has it not with the favour of God but with his displeasure that He whom he has offended in getting it can take it away when he pleases that he is therefore in continual danger of losing it all he is always obnoxious to a divine Vengeance If he can hope to defend himself from Men he cannot hope to defend himself from God How unhappy must he be who considers that as he has heaped up riches he has treasured wrath too that this wrath shall be likely to course his Family that they shall never have a comfortable enjoyment of what he has gathered for them and that it shall lie heavy upon himself at farthest when he comes to die and must go to give an account for what he has done in the Flesh As it is no profit to a man so he shall have no comfort in the thoughts of it if he would gain the whole world and lose his own Soul for it And such Thoughts as these the guilty Conscience will often afflict a man with But the Stings and Rebukes of a guilty Conscience will make themselves incomparably more sensible than any sensual pleasures can be for while these stroke and tickle the Senses and reach but to the Body they pierce even to the Center of the Soul as some Philosophers would speak and fix themselves and dwell there 4. This often comes to pass by the Just Judgment of God upon the Sinner Here we may remember again what was said before that the Curse of the Lord is in the House of the wicked He in Judgment gives them up to the Temptations of the Devil and to the Conduct of their own violent Lusts He condemns them to suffer the Tyranny of their own Passions and the disorder of their Appetites their hearts shall be continually knawn with Envy their Spirits may be opprest with excessive griefs even for the smallest or for meerly Imaginary inconveniences their Minds shall be rost and continually agitated with vain fears doubtfull and anxious hopes with restless and inordinate desires And what comfort can a man take in his life when he is tormented with these painfull diseases of the Mind what can be the consequence of these things but offence and distast weariness and tribulation they know not what it is to moderate a Passion to curb a Desire to mortifie a Vice and so are subject to divers Masters are enslaved to many Tyrants and exposed to a multitude of Tormentors which like a Legion of Devils will not let a man rest Day nor Night Besides We are in this vale of tears surrounded with many outward calamities exposed to Innumerable Evils and we cannot be safe among them but from the constant protection of the Divine Providence And this the Sinner has no right to and he often wants it The just Providence of God often leaves him to the assaults of these and sometimes one cross shall make him uneasie and when that is gone another shall vex him one while he shall be afflicted with pain at another time with losses at another with contempt and reproaches The supream disposer of all things sets himself to mingle sorrows and grief and inconveniences with his portion He will not let him enjoy any thing pure or without the mixture of some sorrow in it And further there is sometimes a strange and secret dispensation of Providence attends the Sinner which hinders him from taking any delight or comfort in what he has and we can hardly tell why he does not This is exprest by Solomon Eccles. 6. 2. where he says he had seen A man to whom God had given riches wealth and honour so that he wanted nothing for his Soul of all that he desired yet God had not given him power to eat thereof that is God with-held from him a power to enjoy to comfort himself and take delight in what he had This is a strange case but is what we may see sometimes happening We may see some pining and discontented in that condition wherein they thought to be very happy and they cannot give a good reason why they are so they cannot take delight in what they thought would have been very delightful and that which is so to others But the power to enjoy is it seems from God and is another and a different gift from the things that we possess and the Sinner may gain large possessions by his guilty endeavours but may want the blessing of God upon them and the power to enjoy them How many covetous persons may we see wanting what they have while they have no heart to use it to their Credit or Comfort to what purpose are such men made rich And many may we see thinking themselves mighty unhappy in circumstances which others are ready to envy and afflicting themselves with Imaginary Inconveniences while they are under no other real one but onely that of their own sick and foolish Imagination Thus does the powerfull curse of God mingle its self with the Sinners Portion and spoil the pleasure of what he has while he possesses it And this is the third Proof of our Text. 4. It may be said he that soweth Iniquity shall reap but Vanity in that all the Felicity of a Sinner is of a very short and a transitory duration Let him gain what he will let him take what delight and comfort he can in it this will last but a very little while It is a Felicity but of a few moments continuance His happiness is like a fire of thorns which is almost as soon out as it is kindled It can last no longer than this present life and then it must needs be short This Life is continually hasting away and so is all his happiness The Psalmist truly says Man
Interest require and begin to treasure up joys to lay up rewards and happiness for our selves These are things surely that cannot be done too soon If there be good reason to forsake a wicked Life at all 't is unreasonable in the least to delay the doing so When we come to condemn our selves in earnest for our Sins we shall condemn our selves too for continuing so long in them Let us all then be able to say with David at least from this time I made hast and delayed not O Lord to keep thy Commandments THE PRAYER O Lord the eternal God Creator and Owner and Sovereign Lord of all things By thee the Heavens were framed and all the Host of them by the breath of thy Mouth Thou hast made the Earth and the Sea and all that is in them and all that thou hast made is thine the World is thine and the fulness thereof all is of thee and through and to thee We who are now before thee here are a small handful of Creatures whom thou hast brought into Being from the Ground thou raisest our living Bodies and by thy mighty Power hast formed the Spirit within us And we Lord are thine thy Right and Property we are in nothing our own our Tongues are not our own our Thoughts are not our own the Members of our Bodies the Faculties of our Minds are not our own but thou art Lord over us We owe thee the entire Homage of our Souls and Bodies which are thine for we are thy People O Lord and the Sheep of thy Pasture We are those whom thou hast oblig'd to Love and Honour thee by innumerable benefits Thou hast fed and clothed and nourisht and protected us thou hast given us all our Enjoyments and thou holdest our Soul in Life We humbly acknowledge O Lord thy Right in us and we now own the Obligations thou hast laid upon us And we here present to thee our Bodies to be a Holy and living Sacrifice which is our just and most reasonable Service O Lord let us be accepted with thee through Jesus Christ We Confess that we have deserved thou shouldest reject and abhor us who have been hitherto so little concern'd to please thee who have so often and so exceedingly polluted our selves with that which is most odious and offensive to thee We are exceeding guilty and obnoxious to thy wrath and vengeance in that we have been Rebels against thy Sovereignty over us We have been unjust to thy Propriety in us we have been ungrateful to thy Goodness towards us We judge we condemn we abhor our selves for these things O do not thou enter into Judgment with us for in thy sight shall no Man living be justifyed We are heartily sorry for all our mis-doings the remembrance of them is grievous to us the burden of them is intollerable but thou O Lord whose Property is always to have mercy who hast promised Forgiveness to all that with a penitent Heart and true Faith in the Blood of Christ turn unto thee have mercy upon us Deal not with us after our Sins neither reward us according to our Iniquities Have mercy upon us O Lord according to the multitude of thy tender Compassions and blot out all our Transgressions We fly from thy Justice to the Footstool of thy mercy and there prostrate our selves in the Name of Jesus Christ O Lord for his Sake forgive us all that is past and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in Newness and Holiness of Life to thy Honour and Glory Do thou make us sincere in the Dedication of our selves again unto thee in this renewal of our Resolutions to serve thee Create in us O Lord a clean Heart and renew in us a right Spirit Do thou make us to love thy Law and to hate every false Way Cause us without delay to turn our Feet unto thy Testimonies and make us to delight in the way of thy Testimonies more than in all Riches O Lord rescue us we pray thee from the Bonds of our Beloved or habitual Sins save and deliver us from the Pollutions of a wicked World let us be blameless and harmless the Children of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation Deliver us from all the Craft and Subtilty and from all the fiery Darts of the wicked One And let us never be hardened by the deceitfulness of any Sin We pray also O Lord for the Conversion of others as well as of our selves O Let thy Gospel run and be Glorified from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same and let many be turned from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God That the Dominion of the Enemy may be diminisht and the happy Kingdom of thy dear Son may be enlarged We especially pray for the good Estate of thy Catholick Church that thou wouldest purge out of it all that does offend thee and Grant that all who profess and call themselves Christians may hold the Faith in Unity of Spirit in the Bond of Peace and in Righteousness of Life Look in Mercy upon these Nations to which we belong forgive our crying Sins and turn us from every evil way Bless us with the continuance of pure Ordinances and with a mighty Efficacy and Effect of them for the promoting of Piety Righteousness Charity and Sobriety amonst us Bless we pray thee our most Gracious King and Queen our Subordinate Magistrates those that Minister to thee in Holy things amongst us and all Ranks and Degrees of Men besides make us to fear thee to depart from all Iniquity to serve to thy Glory and to the Happiness and Welfare of each other and defend us all from all foreign or domestick Enemies of our Peace We commend also to thy infinite Mercies all our Friends Relations or Enemies those that have done us kindness we pray thee O Lord abundantly to requite them and those that have done us any Injury Father forgive them Let thy Word which we have this day heard have power to sanctifie and cleanse us from all unrighteousness We humbly hope for the mercy we have sought of thee this Day and desire we may commit our selves to thy careful and gracious Providence this Night and for evermore Lord bless and keep us lift up the Light of thy Countenance and guide us by thy Counsel till thou hast brought us to thy Glory All we humbly ask upon the Merits of Jesus Christ beseeching thee to hear us for his Sake and further in his own Words saying Our Father c. The MEANNESS of THIS PRESENT LIFE Prov'd and Apply'd Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Job 14. 2. He cometh forth like
a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not TO know who it is that these words of Job do describe in so mean and disparaging a Character we need but look back to the first verse of this Chapter where we shall find he is speaking of Man It is man that Cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth as a shadow and continueth not It was his design to represent by this Expression the contemptible and wretched Condition of our present Life which we very foolishly and unreasonably dote upon and admire This Life on Earth was never intended to be our happiest State and by reason of the Sin of Mankind it is fallen much below that degree of Happiness which the Creatour had intended it should enjoy Yet this pitiful State is that the wretched Sons of Men are most extreamly fond of Here they would always be this takes up all their Thoughts and Care They know or at least mind no Heaven but Earth and think to heap up felicity as they gather worldly Enjoyments We study how to live happily till we die and dote upon fading Pleasures as if we were always to enjoy them We commonly live here as if after this Life we were to be no longer and there were no better things attainable than what this Life possesses And while we mind this World we neglect the other we do not seek the better Happiness of that and lose it for want of seeking it Yea we forfeit that Happiness which is to come and deserve and incur everlasting Misery by what our too great love of this Life and its Enjoyments does engage us in Very much of the wickedness of this World and the misery of the next is due to this unhappy Cause To render a temporal Life happy as we suppose we spoil an Eternal one or incur an Eternal Death we serve our Bodies to the Destruction of our Souls The great Folly of which our Saviour suggests by that Question Mark 8. 36. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World and lose his Soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul To meet with this unhappy and dangerous Errour as much as this Text without straining it will allow I shall employ the following Discourse about three things 1. I shall enquire and make it appear from other Scriptures what intimations concerning our present Life this Text affords us 2. I shall insist a little upon the Illustration of those Intimations 3. I shall add the due Improvement and Application of them In the first place let us compare this Text of Scripture with others that we may derive from it the more certainly and evidently the Instructions it contains In 1 Pet. 1. 24. 't is said All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass The grass withereth and the flower falleth away And in the next verse he adds But the word of the Lord endureth for ever By this opposition of the Word that endureth to the Grass and the Flower of it which falleth away we may understand that by the Comparison of a Flower the Holy Spirit would teach us this Life is not of long continuance The Flower is the shortest liv'd part even of those Plants that have the shortest duration and is upon that account fit to mind us of the short continuance of this present Life Further in Ps 103. v. 15 16. we are told As for man his days are as grass as a Flower of the Field so he flourisheth For the wind passeth over it and it is gone This short liv'd Flower is exposed as the Flower of the Field 't is liable to many destructive and mortal Accidents yea if but the Wind passes over it it is gone 't is most easily destroyed 't is a thing may look fair and beautiful but has very little strength Thus it is with Man is the Psalmists meaning here He is as feeble as the Flower of the Field a small mischief may snatch him away in his prime Thus the Scripture teaches by this comparison the frailty and weakness as well as the shortness of human Life Again in Psal 102. v. 11. the Psalmist speaking of himself says My days are like a shadow that declineth which is as if he had said while my afflictions last and I hope for better days my Life declines apace it wasts continually away In Psal 144. v. 4. 't is said Man is like to Vanity his days are as a shadow that passeth away From these Scriptures we may learn that by the Comparison of a Shadow is taught us how transitory our present Life is It is continually passing away and spending it self And the rather may we be allow'd to conclude this from our present Text because 't is said of Man He fleeth as a shadow and then 't is added too He continueth not From this Text then it appears we may learn these three serious Intimations 1. The present Life of mortal Man is very short as is the continuance of a Flower 2. It is very feeble and frail is most easily cut off and destroyed and yet is exposed too as the Flower of the Field 3. This our present Life in this World is altogether transitory it is continually passing away As a shadow always moves and passes on till it is lost in the Nights Universal Darkness These are very obvious Truths and such as every Man's thoughts may easily suggest to him And they are very important and worth our considering and would be to those that would well consider them the Springs of much Peace and Wisedom But as obvious and useful as they are it appears they are much neglected and men commonly live as if they knew not these things At least 't is certain they seldom or never consider them Let us then not be unwilling to fix our minds upon them for a little while at present and let none fear any harm will follow if thereby they should make impression upon his mind and for the future so stay there as never to be forgotten again The next thing then that I proposed to do is to illustrate these particulars to express and speak of them in a few more words on purpose that our Thoughts may be detained a while upon them and that we may give them some advantage to make a due Impression 1. Let us consider that the present Life of mortal Man is very short They that live the greatest Number of Years have but a short Life on Earth A little time passes over the Innocence and Ease of our Infancy and Childhood A little more withers the flourishing Beauty and Gayety of Youth A little more weakens the Strength and spends the Usefulness of riper Manhood And if beyond this we live a little time more buries the decays and infirmities of Old-age The longest distance from the Cradle to the Grave is but a short one And the Wisedom of God would have
Let us further take notice and consider that this present life is altogether transitory The life of man fleeth as a shadow and continueth not We may think it stays with us but it does not it continually passes away Every shadow is in continual motion as the Sun that makes it does constantly move And so this short life is continually passing away it never makes one moments stop And surely that which is but short and yet is continually passing must needs be quickly done we have here no continuing city the Scripture tells us Heb. 13. 14. we are but pilgrims and strangers on Earth Heb. 11. 13. We cannot have here a settled abiding State That we may the better apprehend how transitory our life is let us fix our Eye sometimes or our thoughts at present upon a rapid and violent Stream As in a river one wave thrusts on another and while we look on still new water succeeds to our view so one year one day one moment thrusts on and succeeds another This day will not stay with us any more than all that are gone before it Let us consider that whatever we are doing life spends and wasts it self precious time is spent whatever else we save or get While we work while we sleep life goes on if we are busie if we are idle it will not stay for us but passes away Our Life passes like a shadow with a very silent and unheeded pace but a very steady and constant one And thus indeed it comes to pass that it steals away from a great many of us It is gone ere we are aware of it While we are promising our selves what we will do for our own advantage and comfort hereafter while we are expecting what the time to come will do for us the time to come is some of it come and gone this time to come grows every day less and less Time flies away we cannot hold it and when 't is gone will never be recall'd We can neither keep it with us nor bring it back again All the art and skill of Philosophy and Physick is not able to make an old man young We may redeem time by a wise and diligent improvement of that we have but can never recall it And that must needs be reckon'd a very transitory thing which is always spending and passing and will never recover or return This Life we shall never live over again when it is once gone this we cannot hope for tho' we may hope for or fear another I think enough is now said to illustrate the three particulars contain'd in our Text. I shall therefore proceed in the last place to mention and urge the Improvement and Use we ought to make of them This I shall divide into two parts to direct our behaviour hereby both towards this world and the next For some Important Instructions regarding both may be deriv'd from these particulars Let us see first what behaviour they require of us relating to this world This you may observe in the following particulars 1. Since the case is thus with us in this World it should make our desires towards all things here very moderate and regular It cannot be worth our while to be very much concern'd about matters that we shall not long have any thing to do with It is very foolish to let our Thoughts abide and fix where we our selves cannot Since this life is frail and short and yet transitory too this utterly forbids us to engage all our thoughts about it to let it employ all our care to suffer all our wishes and endeavours and our whole Soul to pursue any thing here It forbids an eager and uneasie concern for any thing that we have not 'T is unreasonable to pine and grieve much for the want of that which I could but a little while enjoy Since we cannot possess any of these things but a very little while we must be long without them and should content and satisfie our selves that we may not be uneasie under an inevitable necessity Say to your self If I cannot be a few days without such a thing How shall I do to be many years without it as I must be all the while that my Body shall lie in the Grave and my Soul be separated from this world How shall I bear to be for ever without it as I must be when all this world shall be dissolved and the enjoyments of it at an end This further forbids all our anxiety and sollicitude about the time to come some hardly enjoy what they are and have at present by reason of their care and fear about what may be hereafter The time to come cannot be a long time when 't is but part of a short life And let every man think with himself while I am sollicitous about the remainder of my days they grow still fewer and fewer and so I have still the less reason for my care about them Further this should effectually restrain men from all ill ways of seeking the conveniences of this present life We desire That too much whatever is it that we resolve to obtain by any means All the happiness this world can afford is not worthy of such a desire And he pays too dear for the best enjoyments of this world who purchases them at the cost of his Innocence Treasures gotten by wickedness profit not He that allows himself to be wicked that he may accomplish his desires loses much to gain a little He forfeits the true happiness to gain a false one For transitory satisfactions he abdicates abiding pleasures He loses Eternal goods to gain Temporal and incurs everlasting misery for the sake of a very short and transient and small felicity What proportion can there be between the joys of Heaven which are most pure and ravishing most satisfying and eternal and the short flashes of delight and pleasure which this world affords Or what recompence can these feeble and short pleasures make for the exposing our selves to the most exquisite and eternal torments Nothing then can be so foolish and unreasonable as the guilty pursuit of the things of this world 2. The shortness and frailty of this present Life may teach us to use with fobriety and temperance the Enjoyments of this World A quite contrary use I know is made of this Consideration by too many but how absurdly and foolishly will appear upon a very little consideration They allow themselves the most excessive gratifications of their appetites in Gluttony Drunkenness and Uncleanness yea they endeavour and study to enflame their Appetites and make them immoderate and excessive that they may have the more pleasure in gratifying them and because they can live but a little while they will live apace But unless the way were a great deal longer to the Grave than it is methinks there is no need to hurry thither There is no reason to live out a short life apace Thus they shorten the life which would not be very long
alleviate our present Pains and a sence of favour and reconcilement with God would conquer the fears of Death and make us ready and willing to appear before our Judge 3. But if a man has the warning of a lingring and slow Sickness to repent of his Sins and prepare for his Death 't is yet a very great Hazard whether he will repent under it or not If he has not such a Disease as will necessarily hinder this yet many other things may and often do so We do not seldom see men that deferred their Repentance till this time as far from performing it then as ever they were before A man may think while he is in health and engaged in the World and exposed to the Temptations of it that the danger of that time and the confinement and separation from the World will mightily help him to do this necessary work then and put him upon it but alas the contrary to this does very ordinarily come to pass With some the very pain and trouble of their Disease though it does not take away their Sences and the use of their Reason yet it is able to distract their minds and divert them from all Thoughts of Repentance and making their peace with God Does not daily experience teach us that a severe pain if it be but at a tooth and that even in a Person habitually pious and good is able to disturb the mind and unfit one for any exercise of Devotion and so detain the Thoughts that they can fix on nothing but that All that we are commonly sensible of in such a case is the present pain and all that we can be concern'd about is to get rid of the present importunate grievance And is it not much rather likely to be thus with a man under the pain and trouble of Sickness If so little an inconvenience can divert even a good man from fixed and good Thoughts how much more likely is it that greater pain and uneasiness will divert him from such who is habitually wicked who has lived all his Life an utter stranger to such Thoughts has never tasted the pleasure nor found the benefit of them Besides as the delaying Sinner has been wont to love his Body better than his Soul to contrive the satisfaction and convenience of that rather than the everlasting Happiness of this he must needs be apt in this distress to be still in the same disposition and to be so busied about the griefs and pains of his Body as to neglect his Soul still as he has done all his days before And if so what a madness is it for a man to expect and wait for the very worst disposition and state of his Body that he may then perform the greatest and most important business of his Soul Again the very fear and apprehension of dying quickly may happen to take away all thought or concern of preparing for Death This may seem unlikely but yet it does sometimes come to pass I knew a man says one who had been wont to visit sick and dying Persons and he not altogether a careless Liver neither who being at the point of Death when he was admonisht by a Minister to prepare himself for his departure was so possessed and overwhelmed with the Thought that he was in danger of speedy Death that he could think of nothing else but of sending for this and the other Physitian of taking this and the other Medicine and all the care and thought that he could be possest with was only how he might recover and escape the present and imminent danger and in the midst of such thoughts he breathed his last And thus it is very likely to be with many men he who has great affairs upon his hands and especially if they be a little entangled he who leaves a Family but ill provided for or likely to need his presence among them He who would fain see a Son or a Daughter well disposed of and setled as we call it will be apt to be wholly devoured with the same care Thus sure it is very likely to be with a great lover of the World with him that loves nothing but what is here that has no treasure in Heaven nor expectations of any thing comfortable in the other World When he apprehends himself in danger to leave all at once what he has here to leave it for ever and go he knows not where and he knows not to what but fears exceedingly a great deal of ill such a man must needs be liable to a great Consternation at the Summons of Death and to think of nothing but by what means he may avoid it for the present and gain some more time to make a better preparation for it than he has done And further it may be the sick man is not in danger of a speedy Death or perhaps if he be so he will not believe it as it is with a great many He hopes perhaps to recover this Sickness and promises himself after it many years of life when he has but a few moments to live And the Flatteries of Friends will be apt to encourage this conceit and the Physitian must give him it may be more hopes than himself has to support this sick mans Spirits and assist his own prescriptions And then though the concern to avoid Death does not put him by his Repentance yet the hopes of longer Life may do it he will think he needs not yet repent the dangerous period before which he purposes to do it is yet a great way off and thus he goes on to cheat himself into everlasting perdition And it is no wonder if a man who has been habitually wicked and lived many years in his Sins does take any encouragement to put off his Repentance still and can hardly find in his Heart even upon his Death-Bed to do this The custom of sinning is like a second Nature and is not but with the greatest difficulty and labour overcome It will hardly ever forsake a man Of the habitual Sinner is that for the most part true which is said Job 20. 11. His Bones are full of the Sins of his Youth which shall lie down with him in the Dust How unlikely indeed is it that a man should in a moment so fall out with his Sin as to hate it and throw it off for ever when he has many years loved and cherished it or that he should now all at once be possest with an hearty Love of God and Goodness which for many years he has neglected and hated Accordingly we often see Persons upon their Death-Bed still the very same that they were before as they lived so they die there is no change or alteration in the least appears in the state and disposition of their minds We find them exercising the beloved Sin in their Discourse when they cannot do it in their Actions it appears to have still a fast possession of the Soul even when the opportunities of
for such a particular occasion Our Saviour himself in the History of his Family by the Evangelists has left a pattern of this last sort which may justly be regarded as a direction in this case both by Ministers and People His Disciples desired him to teach them to pray he complyed with their Desire and did so by composing a Form for them It is without doubt part of the Duty of his Ministers in the Church after this example of the great Pastour to teach the faithful People to pray and this they may do in the same way as he did and the People shall certainly do well if they use the Prayers which such have composed for them Thus they shall be edified and profited by the Gifts which God has communicated to his Ministers Whatever Gift or Spirit of Prayer can reasonably be pretended to be afforded the Church in these days it may be exercised in the composing and writing down our Prayers before we offer them to God and there is no man but must needs exercise his Gift more suitably to the great God he worships and more to his own or other Peoples edification and to a better degree of performance truly in this way than in depending upon sudden and unpremeditated Thoughts and Expressions So that without doubt both Ministers and People ought to use composed Forms of Prayer ordinarily to perform this duty in the fittest manner I shall only add to this matter thus much that if any Master of a Family uses these Prayers in his Family it is but as if he should desire a Minister to pray with them as People are commonly wont to do when such a Person happens to stay a Night at their House And I have said so much to this matter because I have observed the unjust and erroneous disparaging of Prayer by a Form which has been amongst us has had a great influence towards the too frequent omission of Family Worship Now to conclude this Preface I shall only suggest these advices concerning the use of this Book That it is as I think ordinarily most fitting that this Exercise be performed by the Master of the Family himself But if any Circumstances hinder that it may be done by a Child or Servant but should always be done in his presence if possible that his Authority may give it the more respect with the inferiour parts of the Family When the introductory Prayer is said all should be standing to make themselves sensible of the Presence of God and to dispose them to a reverent and serious frame of Mind and so to make the more solemn and fit enterance upon what they are going about The latter Prayer should be used by all the Company kneeling and joining in it with heart and devout Affection If any young Persons who are devoutly inclined have it their lot to live under such Governours of their Families as are negligent of their duty in this matter I advise them if they may be permitted it to spend an hour in their Chamber alone on the Lord's Day in these Meditations and Prayers This they may very profitably do and perhaps their good Example in such a practice may shame the Master of the Family out of his neglect Now I commit this Endeavour to the Providence of God humbly dedicating it to his service And I do most willingly say Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the Glory for thy loving Mercy and thy Truths sake And that it may be accepted with him through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and accompanied with his powerful Blessing so as it may also be well accepted in the Church and succesful to the promoting of true and pure Religion in many Souls to their Comfort and Salvation and his Glory thereby I heartily pray THE EXCELLENCY OF THE SOUL Let us Pray PRevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorify thy Holy Name and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Zach. 12. Last Part of the First Verse And formeth the Spirit of Man within him THE Words that I have now read from the Holy Scripture are part of a very Majestick Preface or Introduction to a favourable Prophecy concerning Judah and Jerusalem which is understood to foretell the Times of the Maccabees the distresses of those times and the mighty Deliverances which God would give the Jews by the Conduct and Courage and Resolution of those Men. In so great and lofty Expressions the Prophet was directed to introduce it that he might encourage the Faith and raise the Expectations of that People who were now in a very weak and low Condition For they were but newly returned from their Captivity and were envied and hated and opposed in their present Interests by wicked and powerful Neighbours He reminds them herein of the great Works of that God in whom he would have them now put their trust The whole Verse and Preface contains thus much The Burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord Who stretcheth forth the Heavens and layeth the Foundations of the Earth and formeth the Spirit of Man within him That which we may observe in this Text is That the Prophet places this work of God His forming the Spirit of Man within him together with his stretching out the wide and spacious Heaven and his laying the Foundations of the ponderous Earth and that when he design'd to represent the Greatness of God his ability and fitness to do what he had promised by shewing them the works he had already done This then we may reckon is here intimated to be a workparallel with those that are mentioned with it and fit to be mention'd with them to the same purpose This is a great and mighty Work as well as the other two All God's Works of Creation do declare their Authors Greatness and as the Psalmist speaks Praise him But some do this more than others as they are more excellent and greater than others Elsewhere also the Scripture mentions the making of Man as one of the more excellent and wonderful Works of God and sets it together with his making the Earth and stretching out the Heavens As in Isa 45. 12. where God to magnify himself in the Esteem of that People and to assure them that he could raise up one that should deliver them from Captivity says by his Prophet I have made the Earth and created man upon it I even my Hands have stretched forth the Heavens Now when the making of Man is here spoken of as one of the greatest Works of God this must needs be understood with relation to the Soul of Man For certainly a thing so small and weak so gross and heavy and so dark and so decaying as is the Humane Body cannot justly be reckoned worthy of this great comparison