consensio intelligi necesse est esse Deos quoniam insitas corum val pollù Innetas cognitiones habemus de quo autem omnium natura consentit id verum esse necesse est esse igitur Deos confitendum est quod quoniam ferè constat inter omnes non Philosophos s lùm sed etiam Indect s. fateamur constare illud etiam hanc nos habere sive anticipationem ut an e dixi sive praenotionem Dâ—eâ—um Cicero de nat deorum lib. 1. By this Light and Law of Nature all men might know that there is a God The knowledg we have of God in this life is either natural or by revelation by the Book of Nature or by the Book of Scripture the Book of Nature is either External the vvorks of God's Creation which declare and shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things that might thereby be known of God Rom. 1.19 20. and this is acquired or objective knowledg of God or else Internal to which is referred those natural common principles the reliques of the Image of God in man lying in his rubbish after the fall and the inward testimony of Conscience which is innate subjective knowledg of God not that there is any actual knowledg born with man but by these we might at years of understanding draw as certain a conclusion that there is a God as that we are or that any thing is that we behold with our eyes For when we see the Earth and Heavens c. Light of Nature tells us that they had some cause by which they were produced because nothing could make it self because it would have been before it was which Reason tells us is impossible therefore things made must be made by something that is and was never made Reason tells us that if any thing be possible there is something that is necessary if any thing may be something must be that which is possible to be must have something to bring it into actual being Reason telleth us that if there had been one instant in which nothing was nothing could have ever been for nothing can make nothing All these four Propositions do but make way for that which is chiefly to our present purpose which is that which follows 5. Proposition The Light and Law of Nature doth dictate that it is man's duty to pray to God and that not only severally but conjunctly and that not only in publique Assemblies but in private Families For the clearing of this I shall lay down several Positions including certain truths and fetch the proof of them from the light of Nature and the testimony of Heathens themselves and then gather up the Argument from the whole Position 1. That the Light of Nature doth dictate that the souls of men are Immortal Maximum verò argumentum est naturam ipsam de Immortalitate animorum tacitam judicare quòd omnibus curae sunt maximae quidem quae post mortem futura sunt Cicero Tusc Quest Nihil animis admixtum nihil concretum nihil copulatum nihil duplex quod cùm ità sit certè nec secerni nâ—c dividi nec discerpi nec distrahi potest nec inâ—erire igitur est enim interitus quasi discessus secretio ac diremptus earum partium quae ante interitum junctione aliqua tenebanâ—ur Cicero Tuscul Quest Sed nescio quo modo inhaeret in mentibus quasi seculorum quoddam augurium fuâ—urorum idèmque in maximis ingenii altissimisque unimis existit maximè apparet facillimè Cicero Tusc Q. lib. 1. and do not dye when the body dieth This the Heathen did gather from the great care that there is naturally in all men at least that do improve their natural light and hearken to the voice of sober reason what shall become of them after death Though all men do not seriously provide for the soul after its separation from the body and the light of nature cannot direct us in this matter yet such cares and fears that there be in men about their state after death even in such as never had a Bible is a certain evidence that they believed the Soul's immortality Reason gathers also the immortality of the Soul from the simplicity and immateriality of its nature that it is not compounded of material parts as the Body is nor hath such contrary qualities combating one with another as the Body hath to cause its dissolution or cessation of being for the destruction of a thing is the tearing asunder those parts which before such destruction were joined together the Soul therefore that is not so compounded hath nothing in its own nature that should cause it to cease to be nor render it liable to be destroyed by any creature though it might be annihilated by Divine Power Position 2. Socrates supremo vitae die de hoc ipso multa disseruit cum penè in manujâ—m mortiferum illud peculum teneret locutus est ità ut non in mortem trudi verùm in caluâ—n videretur ascendere ita enim censebat itaque disseruit duas esse vias duplicésque cursus animorum è corpore excedentium nam qui se humanis vitiis contaminassent se totos libidinibus dedidissent quibus caecati velut domesticis vitiis atque flagitiis se inquinassent iis devium quoddam iter esse seclusum à concilio Deorum qui autem se integâ—os castósque servassent quibúsque fuisset minima cum corporibus contagio seséque ab his semper se vocassent esséntque in corporibus humanis vitam imitati Deorum his ad illos à quibus essent profecti reditum facilem patere In Cicerone Tusc Quaest lib. 1. The Light of Nature tells us that the immortal Souls of men must be happy or miserable after their separation from the Body and that there is a life of Retribution after this Heathens have plainly taught that there are two ways that the Souls of men do go after they are loosed from the Body according as their lives were in this world that such as have wallowed in sin and given themselves to gratifie their lusts that these Souls are shut out from God and shut up in extremity and eternity of torment Hence Heathens mention Tityus who being cast down to Hell had a Vulture that came every day and did gnaw his Liver and in the night it was repaired and made up again that what was torn by the Vulture one while again did grow that his punishment might be perpetual and some that are punished by being put to labour in rolling huge Stones and racked upon Wheels and to be there in this misery for ever Saxum ingens volvunt alii radiisque rotarum Districti pendent sedet eternúmque sedebit Infoelix Thoseus Virgil. Aeneid 6. Some roll huge Stones and stretch'd on Wheels do lye Damn'd Theseus sits there to eternity Thus they make mention of Pluto by whom those that were most vicious were most tormented and of
the pouring out his blood for you now your magnificent feasts were not so fitted for such a Commemoration for they rather would have tended to have clog'd your spirits made them dull and stupid and far less apt to have contemplated such Divine and Heavenly things as those now named are And therefore that this Supper is so mean as it is it is far better than if it were so great and royal as you conceive There are others are well enough satisfied with the wisdom of their Lord and in the nature of the things appointed for the remembrance of him which yet may be and ought to be inquisitive as to the reason of them Which I shall reduce to these 4 Questions 1. Why did the Lord appoint bread rather than any other kind of food 2. Why must it be broken bread 3. Why must it be taken and eaten 4. Why wine as well as bread and why Wine rather than any other drink 1. To the first I say he appointed bread as most apt to signifie the thing thereby to be presented to our Faith and that is himself as he is bread of life to our Souls for so he calleth himself Joh. 6.33 The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world And 35. Jesus said I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger This is evident that man's natural life doth not more depend on the vertue of the bread that perisheth than the Soul's life of Grace and Glory depends on that vertue that proceedeth from a suffering Jesus I live saith the Apostle Paul yet not I but Christ liveth in me all that life of Faith all the indwellings of Grace in our hearts comes from and is maintained by the vertues and influences of Jesus Christ this bread of life and so likewise doth our eternal life depend on him as he likewise tells us v. 27. Labour for the meat that endureth to eternal life which the Son of man shall give you this meat is the Lord himself who by his sufferings made our peace and purchased the life of grace and glory for us And indeed no other meat as bread could so aptly set forth this Mystery because no food is so suitable to man's nature none for a constancy so pleasant none so strengthning a man can better subsist with bread without other meats than with any other meats without bread thereby the Mystery of conveighing Soul-lâ—fe to the sinner is excellently set forth for as there is other meat for the body besides bread so there is another way of giving life to the Soul besides that of a Saviour and that is an exact obedience to the Law of God but alas the sinner through the weakness of the flesh can never digest that strong meat and so cannot live by it But for a poor weak infirm sinner to be maintained in a life of grace and acceptance with an offended God in and by a Saviour is a way of living so suitable to a sinner that Men and Angels could never have thought of one so suitable and therefore nothing as bread was so fit to set forth this Mystery 2. But why must it be broken bread Christ himself acquaints us with the mystical reason thereof in the verse of the Text it is to set forth the breaking of the body of Christ by breaking his body must be taken to comprehend all the sufferings of his Humane nature as united with the Divine as all his soul-sufferings of which there are 3 Phrases used by the Evangelists very emphatically as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all signifie those dolors of mind he underwent through the dereliction of God and likewise all other sufferings of his body which are by Isaiah set forth with great variety of Phrase speaking of Christ he saith He was despised and rejected of men Isaiah 53. a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and v. 4. He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows and v. 5. He was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed and v. 7. he was oppressed and he was afflicted Now all these sufferings were consummated in his Crucifixion 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree These are those sufferings that made that one sacrifice of himself by which he put away sin and hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 9.26 Heb. 10.14 Upon this account it is that the bread of this Supper must be broken before it be taken and eaten the broken bread that is the sign and Christ's sufferings that is the mystery signified by it as I have shewed 3. Why must this broken bread be taken and eaten This is not without its Mystery for thereby is meant that these Breakin gs Bruisings Woundings of Christ's Soul and Body was not for any sin of his own for he was a lamb without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 but it was for our sins and for our benefit Our dear Jesus sows in tears and we reap the harvest of his tears in joy he by the meritorious extraction of his bloody sweat and agony in the Garden by his tremendious dolors of Soul and Body on the Cross prepares a Cordial and perfects it by his death which prepared Cordial we by Faith drink up and from a state of sin and death revive he offered himself as good wheat to be ground by the law and justice of God that thereby he might be made bread of life for us by Faith to feed on that we may live for ever So that Christ's breaking and giving the bread in this Sacrament to his Church doth mystically declare that the sole intentions of all his sufferings was for us and therefore he saith this is the bread that was broken for you and likewise taking and eating it doth further signifie that we do profess to believe in him for life and do rely wholly on him for acceptance with God and for the salvation of our souls 4. But why did he add wine also to this supper and commanded us to drink thereof in remembrance of him I Answer this addition was for a very good reason for thereby a further mystery of our Salvation by his bloody death is explained 1. As first if you consider that man's natural life is not maintained by eating only except he drink also for we may dye as well by thirst as by hunger Christ therefore by giving us his blood to drink which is signified by the Cup as well as his body to eat doth thereby declare that his suffering of Death for us is every way compleat and sufficient for the spiritual and eternal life of our souls So that as he that hath bread and drink wants nothing for the sustaining his natural life so he that hath by Faith an interest in a broken bleeding Christ wants nothing to the upholding the Soul in a state of
Charon's Boat whom they imagined was Ferry-man of Hell of Radamunthus the Judg of Tantalus thirsting in the midst of waters of the Stygian and other Infernal Lakes of Cerberus a Dog with three heads Porter in Hell and give descriptions of the place of torments Spelunca alta fuit vastóque immanis hiatu Scrupea tuta Lacu nigro nemorúmque tenebris Quam super haud ullae poteraut impunè volantes Tendere iter pennis talis sese halitus atris Faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat Vnde locum Graij dixerunt nomine Avernum Virg. Aeneid 6 There was a deep Cave with a mighty Gulf With black Lakes moted and a horrid Grove O're which not safely swiftest wings could move Such were the vapours from these foul jaws came This place the Graecians did Avernus name And as they set forth the eternity of their hellish torments so they did acknowledg the variety of them to be more than could be expressed Non mihi si linguae centum sint oráque centum Ferrea vox omnes scelerum comprendere formas Omnia poenarum percurrere nomina possem Virg. Aeneid 6. Had I an hundred mouths as many tongues A voice of Iron to these add brazen Lungs Their crimes and tortures ne're could be displaid Take the Testimony of another that you may see what a common received opinion this was among the Heathen of misery of many in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod Theogon The sense take thus God Mighty ones in chains of darkness bound And cast them down to Hell which under ground So deep and black so far remote doth lye As th' earth is distant from the Starry skie Yet bear with me once more Another of them brings in God threatning the disobedient with Hell torments where he useth the same vvord for Hell as the Apostle doth 2 Pet. 2.4 describing Hell to be a place far remote from Heaven a great gulf or deep pit whose gates are of Iron and whose pavement is of Brass a place of utter darkness in sense so near the former that I shall not need any further to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Iliad 8. All these testimonies of the Heathens and there are many more do plainly manifest that the Light of Nature doth discover a place of punishment where wicked men after this life shall be sorely tormented I might bring as many of them also that by the Light of Nature did determine of a place of happiness for good men in another world but that I would not be too tedious in this point The use of these and how they make to our present business in hand will appear in the following Positions Position 3. Nemo sibi nascitur Non nobis solùm nati sumus sed ortus nostri partem patria paâ—tem parentes vindicant partem amici atque quae in terris gignuntur ad usum hominum omnia creantur homines autem hominum causa generantur ut ipsi inter se alii aliis prodesse possent In hoc naturam debemus ducem sequi communes utiliâ—ates in medium afferre mutatione officiorum dando accipiendo tum artibus tum opera tum facultatibus devincire hominum inter homines societatem Cicero de Offio lib. 1. Quae est melior in hominum genere natura quam eorum qui se natos ad homines juvandos tutandos conservandos arbitrantur Cicero Tuscul Quaest lib. 1. As the Light of Nature tells us all this so also it doth dictate to us that no man is born for himself to mind only his own good and to escape evil and punishment himself but to our utmost power in the places and societies of which we are heads or members to endeavour the good of that Society and every member thereof He that will help no other who should help him or with what reason can he expect it He that is so selfish is unprofitable to any Society and good for nothing Man being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nature hath inclined him to a sociable life not only for his own but also for the good of others which whoso doth neglect sins against that Society Come then you Parents and Masters of Families see now why I alledged before what the Light of Nature doth dictate concerning the Soul's immortality and the state of Souls in another world even that you may do your utmost to save the precious Souls in your houses from this place of torment and to help them to prepare for an everlasting state The Law of Charity firmly binds you to it If your children were fallen into a pit would not nature tell you you are to help them out If any of your house were falling into the fire would not nature tell you you should prevent it if you can or snatch them out with haste and speed Doth nature tell you as hath been shewed that there is a place of torment where sinful Souls must suffer and do you see any in your houses in danger of falling into it and will you sit still and do nothing to endeavour to prevent their everlasting misery If they were sick or had drunk down poyson doth not nature tell you you should use means for their recovery to prevent their death And doth not nature tell you that their Souls are more precious than their Bodies and more to be regarded It doth Certainly it doth Are not their Souls sick and diseased and poisoned with the venom of sin and doth not nature tell you there is charity to be shewn to their Souls as well as to their Bodies and much more Certainly these are the dictates of nature if I suppose you have not one spark of grace the light of reason will tell you all this Position 4. All these things being suggested by the Light of Nature let me add that Reason tells you that for you to pray with them in your Family rendeth to their good and the neglect there if to their detriment and damage Let reason be heard and it will dictate to you that conjunct Prayer with them is a likely means for the good of their souls Will it not tell thee that to pray to God for them and to bring them to pray with thee may be for their benefit to escape the misery of another world and obtain happiness in the life to come Enter into thine own heart and debate this with thy self and judg impartially as thou wouldst do if thou wast a dying man and then tell me if the light that is within thee doth not prompt thee to all this Prayer is a part of natural worship which is due to God from all and would it not tend to the profit of their Souls to give God his due And shouldst not thou that art a Parent or a Master whom nature hath set over them and committed them to
not men nor creatures and if you do depend on him and want his help to supply your wants your own indigency should bring you upon your knees to pray to him as the Heathen Poet's Verse which Melancthon said was the best Verse in all Homer doth express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. Od. l. 3. All men need God therefore should Prayers use Reason 4. 4. You should pray in your Families DAILY because of your Families daily employments and labours (4) Ad candem q o â—dianis operibus promovendis permovemur Every one that puts his hand to work his head to contrive should set his heart to pray for will not your trading be in vain and your labouring and working your carking and projecting for the world be to no purpose without the blessing of God Will you be convinced if God himself doth tell you Then read Psal 127.1 Except the Lord build the house Panis multis laboribus cuâ—Ãsque conquisitus Geierus Panis plenus aerumnarum maximis molestiis parâ—u Vatablus Nec ita fidendum industriae ut divinam opem negligamus nec ita rursum pendendum ab illa ut nostrum praetermittamâ—â— officium Erasmus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocles in aureo comment in aurea Pythagor carmina p. 233. c. they labour in vain that build it v. 2. It is in vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows Bread of sorrows What bread is that Bread gotten with much care and labour and toil is bread of sorrows Without God you labour to get bread for your selves and Families in vain you might miss of it after all your labours and without God's blessing if you eat it when you have got it with much toil and care you eat it in vain for without him it cannot nourish your Bodies And yet is it not necessary to pray to God to prosper and succeed you in your Callings Prayer and labour should both promote what you aim at To pray and not to do the works of your Callings would be to expect supplies wh le you are negligent to labour and trade and not to pray would be to hope for encrease and provision without God Religion that puts you upon holy duties doth not teach you to neglect your Callings nor yet to trust to your own endeavours without praying unto God but both are to keep their place and have a share of your time Prayer is a middle thing betwixt God's giving and our getting How can you receive if God do not give And why do you expect that God will give if you do not ask Jam. 4. Ye have not because ye ask not What ye work for pray fâ—r and what ye pray for work and labour for and this is the true conjunction of labour and prayer Or will you be like to them the Apostle speaks to Jam. 4.13 Go to now ye that say to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain You will but will you not ask leave from God whether you shall or no You will go What! though God cast you upon a bed of sickness or into your graves do if you can You will continue there a year What! if death drag you out as soon as you come there if death fetch your bodies to the dust and grave and Devils fetch your souls to Hell after this will you continue in such a City for a year If one part of you be in the grave and the other part in Hell what is left of you to continue in the City You will buy and sell will you What if God give you neither money nor credit With whom I wonder And you will get gain you are resolved upon it you will thrive and prosper and grow rich What if God curse your endeavours and say you shall not You will all this and you would have your Will but your power is not equal to your Will Here is much Will but not a word of Prayer A Heathen will teach you a better lesson and that is that you should not go unto your work nor to your Shops and Callings till you have first prayed unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythagoras Nullius est foelix conatus utilis unquam Consilium si non détque juvétque Deus Reason 5. You should pray to God in your Families daily (5.) Ad candem ab hostibus animarum nostrarum diabolique insidiis urgemur because you are all every day liable to temptations As soon as you wake the Devil will be striving for your first thoughts and when you are risen he will be urgent with you to do him the first service and attend you all the day to draw you into some hainous sin before night and is the Devil a subtil watchful powerful enemy and unwearied and do you not all need to get together in the morning that Sathan might not prevail against any of you before night till you come to God together again How many temptations might you meet with in your Callings and your company which without God you will not be able to resist And how might you fall and dishonour God discredit your profession defile your souls disturb your peace and wound your consciences This Origen bewailed in his lamentation for that day he omitted prayer he hainously sinned But I O unhappy creature skipping out of my bed at the dawning of the day could not finish my wonted devotion neither accomplish my usual prayer folded and wrapped my self in the snares of the Devil Euseb Eccl. Hist lib. 7. cap. 1. Reason 6. 6. You should pray in your Families daily (6.) Ad candem variis casibus imminentibus instigamur because all in your Families are liable to daily hazards casualties and afflictions and prayer might prevent them or obtain strength to bear them and prepare you for them Do you know what affliction might befall your Family in a days time or in a nights time either in regard of sickness death or outward losses in your estate Might not you hear of one man's breaking in your debt and gone away with so much and another gone away with so much and are you indeed so vveaned from the World that this shall not put you into a passion and cause you to sin against God or that you can bear it without murmuring and discontent that you need not pray for a composed frame of heart if such things befall you Do you know if you go abroad your self or send a Son or Servant that you or they may return alive again though you go out alive you may be brought back again dead had you not then need to pray to God in the morning that he would keep you in your goings forth and comings in and bless him together in the evening if he do How many evils is man exposed to whether he be at home or
reverence her Husband This is the Dictate of our Creator both by the Light of Nature and of Scripture This is the constant language both of the Old Testament and of the New And is more purposely handled and prest by the two great Apostles of the Jews and Gentiles that so all Christians however descended should submit unto it The Apostle Paul Ephes 5.22 c. Col. 3.18 c. The Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 3.1 c. Not that these are all their respective Duties but these are specified either 1. (n) Mr. Byfield on Col p. 111. Because in these are the most frequent failings Husbands too commonly being defective in their Love and Wives most defective in their Reverence and Subjection Or 2. Because these two are the sum of the rest and no other Duties are either Possible or Acceptable without them And my present Work is to digest and urge these in a solemn and impartial manner that it may appear Our Religion doth not only propound Rewards to make us happy in the world to come but doth also direct the methods of setling our quiet and comfort in this present world For certainly it is not the Having of Husbands or Wives that brings contentment but the mutual Discharge of both their Duties and this makes their Lives though never so poor an Heaven upon Earth But herein I can but draw up an Abstract and send you where you may be far better provided In the mean time let us all in the prosecution hereof sadly reflect on our former failings and sincerely resolve on future amendment according to that whereof we shall be convinced by the word of Truth And here I shall indeavour these Four things 1. To propound the Mutual or Common Duties of Both. 2. The special Duty of every Husband 3. The special duty of every Wife 4. Directions how to accomplish them That so they may most certaily be Blessings to each oher First let us see what are those Mutual Duties that lie common between Husband and Wife wherein Both of them are equally at least according to the place and power of each concern'd and oblig'd And they are These following 1. Mutual Cohabitation For the man he (o) Gen. 2.24 must leave father and mother and cleave to his Wife And the Woman she (p) Psal 45.10 must forget her kinred and her fathers house The Husband (q) 1 Pet. 3.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he must dwell with the Wife and the Wife (r) 1 Cor. 7 10. she must not depart from the Husband though he be an Infidel And indeed the Ends and Duties of marriage are such as will not ordinarily dispense herewith For Example 1 Cor. 7.3 4.5 Let the husband render unto the Wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto the husband The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife Defraud you not the one the other except it he with consent for a time that you may give your selves to fasting and prayer and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency Which plainly shews that even the sober use of the Marriage-bed is such (s) The wife of Galeac Caracciola denying this debt upon the direction of her Confessor on pain of Excommunication was judg'd a sufficient Reason of Divorce In vita a mutual debt that it may not be intermitted long without Necessity and Consent Nay in the †Deut. 24 5. Old Law the greatest necessity should not send the husband from his wife the first year that their affections might be throughly settled and that he might chear up his Wife which he hath taken * For the man is the head the Woman is as the body for the head and body to be sundered it is present death to either Gataker Serm. p. 203. Neither indeed can any of the following Duties towards each others Souls or Bodies be throughly performed nor many grievous snares avoided without dwelling together And therefore neither desire of Gain nor Fear of Trouble no occasional Distasts nor pretence of Religion should separate those from Conjugal converse and (t) Alibi fluctuare sese existimet in domo autem apud uxorem suum tanquam in portu optat◠conquiescere Daven in Col. Cohabitation unless with consent and that but for a time whom God hath joyned together 2. Mutual Love This though in a peculiar manner it be the Duty of the Husband Col. 3.18 Husbands love your Wives yet it is required also of the Wife Tit. 2.4 they must love their Husbands Indeed this is the (u) First you must choose your Love and then you must love your choice Smith Serm. Conjugal Grace the great Reason and the great Comfort of Marriage Not a sensual or doting Passion but genuine conjugal and constant out of a pure heart fervently Not grounded on beauty wealth or interest for these may soon wither and fail nor only upon Graoe and Piety for this may decay to the least degree and in the opinion of both parties quite disappear but it must be grounded upon the Command and Ordinance of God whereby of Two they are made * Vna caro non nexu amoris nec commixtione corporum nec procreatione liberorum sed vinculo conjugii Zanch. One flesh So that though either of them be poor deform'd froward though unregenerate wicked Infidels yet in Obedience to God and in Conscience of the Marriage-Vow which obligeth for better and for worse they ought to love each other with a (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Eph. hom 29. superlative Love and when the sacred knot is once tyed every man should think his wife and every wife her husband the fittest for them of any in the world And hereupon the (y) Cael. Rhodig l. 28. p. 1575. Heathens took the Gall from their nuptial Sacrifices and cast it behind the Altar to intimate the removing of all bitterness from the Marriage-state there should be nothing but Love And this Love must be as durable and constant as are the grounds of it to the Persons of each other until death and to the memory and posterity of each other when they are dead and gone and thus the good wife is understood by some to do her husband good (z) Prov. 31.12 all the days of her life not only of his life but when he is dead to his Posterity What strange instances of this lasting love former (a) Portia the wife of Brutus A ria the wife of Cecinna Pae us In Valer. Max. Ages hath given and some (b) The Bannyon Wives among the Indians burn themselves to ashes at the funeral of their husbands Herbert in his Travels Pagans at this day is in History both evident and admirable This true-hearted Love will bring true Content and constant Comfort into that Condition will make all counsels and reproofs acceptable will
from God's arbitrary ordination but from the very frame and habitude and fitness of means and ends themselves and the sense is this as I have elsewhere lately and largely shewed on the forementioned place though not in print nor fit to be so that unless I be perswaded that God's Majesty deserves and that he can and will reward us for the cost and exercises of Godliness to infinite advantage no man could be prevailed on to be Religious The very difficulties burthens and temptations of Religion under the present circumstances of revolted man would press too sore upon the frailty and concernments of flesh and blood to suffer him to obtain of himself to submit to the discipline and severities of true and powerful Godliness Nor can I see if this be once denied where the Apostles argument prevails and pinches 1 Cor. 15.19 29 23 58. Adam in Innocency was influenced by arguments and I do not see that the oeconomy of grace destroys the frame of nature but rather comes in by way of Medicinal Ordination to repair it that so Religious government may revive again by such energetical arguments and influences as are proper to the case Psal 130.4 Nor did the Son of God and Saviour of the World appear for the supplanting of the Father as to his Throne and interest but rather acted all along in a professed state and way of delegation and ordinate substitution to this end that government might flourish and poor apostate man might be Encouraged to seek and sâ—rve and please his God again and were this well considered I think that all our censorious malignant flames would dye which have no other fewell but such confidences as are grounded on and fomented by our rash mistakes and we might peaceably Credere de verbis but not de jure veritatis And I confess I cannot see how the joys of Godliness can have the vim motivam of pressing arguments to quicken us to what activity faithfulness and resolution and perseverance are enjoyned us and expected from us if persevering Godliness which is the finishing of our course with joy be not the great condition of our Crown and triumph and therefore 't is ignorance and inconsiderateness that strengthens our infidelity and consequent reluctances to run the hazards of Religion and entertain the work and cost of this our Christian course to reach its compensations One piercing glance and sober look within the Vail would strangely help us unto a right estimate of things and make our quick reflections upon our foolish former choice and trifling carriages to minister to our present grief and shame 'T is but a dotage to imagine that any thing short of Holiness and Heaven or inconsistent with our present work can be the true enrichment or content of Souls What man can keep his heart below his work that knows and credits the blessed resolutions wherewith the all-sufficient God is fixt to recompence all self-denying regular and resolved Racers see 1 Joh. 3.3 Who can advance that life into a competition with the present work and Will of God which must be swallowed up of a surpassing immortality when he hath regularly finished his course so that now the way is clear to lead us to answer these Queries Quer. 1. What is this finishing our course with joy which is to influence us into this regardlesness of life and death and every thing in order thereunto 1. Joy is the * Privilegâ—um est Principis benefâ—ciu n contra jus commune indultum non enim est privilegium nisi aliquid indulgeâ—t speciale Say the Civilians priviledge and satisfaction of the Soul at rest in the possession and embraces of its both adequate and desired end and object which is the sum of what is intended by the expression in the Text. 1. I call it a Priviledge as it importeth some considerable excellency in the object or gift and thus 't is God in Christ when he becomes the portion of once Apostate man though now recovered by relative and real grace when he appears in the perfection of his Image favour and presence and that reciprocal intimacy which is consequent thereupon and as its a favour peculiar to some by way of discrimination and difference from others for 't is the joy of God dispenced only to the Godly And I call it 2. Satisfaction as importing sutableness to the subject on whom it is bestowed on all accounts and as such apprehended and resented by it And 3. I appropriate it to the Soul as being first and most concerned in it and most capable of it for till the Resurrection the Soul alone enjoys it Before the dissolution of the body the Soul is only capable of the prospect and improvement of it and therefore most concerned and engaged about it and after the Resurrection of the person and his introduction into glory the Soul is made the most immediate recipient of it and the comforts and perfection of the body are resultant from the Soul's satisfaction and delights and truly subordinate thereunto as both are subordinate unto God not to hâ—s joys but will and honour And 4. I fixt it on the Soul at rest as the result of all its aims and motions for 't is both the recompence and cessation of all its painful exercises and pursuits 5. I make the matter of this joy to be the Soul 's adequate End and Object which none but God can be since it is apparent that neither Heaven nor Earth have any besides God to make and be a portion for the Soul Psal 73.25 And then 6. I lay the formality of this joy in the possession and embraces of this End and Object both as adequate and desired for as it is adequate it speaks no want nor deficiency in the Object and as it is desired so it speaks the preparation of the Subject and as it is embraced and possess'd so it speaks no cost and labours lost nor expectations frustrated And now indeed the Soul is most ravished when all its motions are directed to their End and terminated there with unconceivable satisfaction when God is all in all and the poor painful Christian is through tedious oppositions difficulties and travels safely conducted to its most proper Portion Choice and Joy 2. By Course is meant the Time of Life in reference to our stated work and difficulties The Metaphor is fetcht from that Olympick Exercise which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which the Racers ran in Armour because of sharp Assaults and Oppositions all the way In armis Cursorum fuere Galea quam capite Ocreae quas tibiis Aspis sive Clypeus quem manibus ferrent qui eo certamine contenderent Pet. Fab. Agonistic lib. 2. cap. 23. p. 186. Hence we have something in our Christian Panoply answerable hereunto as The Helmet of Salvation Eph. 6.17 Feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace answering to the Ocreae v. 15. And the Shield of Faith v. 16. And therefore after the
comprehends both the Vegetative and Sensitive part To love God with the soul is to subject all those works that pertain to an Animal life unto the love of God Plainly and in short it is not enough to love God in our Will but we must not admit any thing contrary to the Love of God in our sensual delights Whatsoever sensualists do for the gratifying of their lusts and desires let those things be drained from the dregs of sin and consecrate them all unto God Whatever use wicked men make of their souls in a way of hatred of God we must make the contrary use in a way of loving of God And then Thou must love God with all thy Soul What it is to love God with all the soul we must be ready to lay down our lives for God d Origen if any one should be ask'd what in all the world was most dear unto him he would answer his life for life-sake tender Mothers have cast off the sence of Nature and fed upon their own children It is Life that affords us being sense motion understanding riches dominions If a man had the Empire of the World he could enjoy it no longer than he hath his soul in his body when that is gone he presently becomes a horrid Carkass or rather a loathsom dunghil Now then if a man love his Life so much why should he not love God more by whom he lives and from whom he expects greater things than this Life God is the soul of our soul and the life of our life he is nearer to us than our very souls e Acts 17.28 in him we live and move and have our being He that doth but indifferently weigh these things will acknowledge that it is no rashness to call that man a Monster that loves not God how then can we think of it without grief that the whole world is full of these Monsters almost all men prefer their Money or Pleasures or their Honours or their lusts before God So oft as you willingly break any Law of God to raise your Credit or Estate you prefer the dirt and dust of the world before God Alas what use do's a wicked man make of his soul but to serve his body whereas both soul and body should be wholly taken up with not only the service but the love of God Then may you be said to love God with all your souls when your whole Life is filled with the love of God when your worldly business truckles under the love of God the love of the dearest Relations should be but hatred when compared with your love to God When you eat and drink to the glory of God sleep no more than may make you serviceable unto God when your solitary musings are about the engaging your souls to God when your social Conference is about the things of God when all acts of Worship endear God to you when all your Duties bring you nearer to God when the love of God is the sweetness of your Mercies and your Cordial under Afflictions when you can love God under amazing Providences as well as under refreshing Deliverances then you may be said to love God with all your Souls What it is to love God with the mind 3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Mind though Anselm take this for the Memory that we should remember nothing whereby we are hinder'd in our thinking of God yet generally this is taken for the understanding and so the Evangelist Mark expresly interprets it when he renders this Command in these words f Mark 12 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy understanding to love God with our Minds is to have the understanding moved and commanded by the love of God to assent unto those things that are to be believed and to admit nothing into the understanding which is contrary to the love of God g Cajetan h Origen nihil cogitantes vel proferentes nisi ea que Dei sunt The Mind should let nothing go in or out but what payes tribute of love to God there 's one interprets the word by the Etymology of the word Mind from Measuring i Mens dicitur a metiendo c. Avendan The Mind must be so full of love to God that love must measure all our works k 1 Cor. 10 31. When we eat we should think how hateful it is to God that we should indulge our Palat and thence shun Gluttony when we drink we should think how abominable Drunkenness is in the sight of God and thence drink temperately l Rom. 14.8 so that whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords our Life and our Death must be measur'd by our Love to God We must love God with all our Mind What it is to love God with all our mind we must alwayes converse with God in our Minds and thoughts our thoughts must kindle our affections of love Love to God makes the hardest Commands easie while our thoughts are immers'd in love to God love to Enemies wlll be an easie Command the keeping under of our Bodies by Mortification will be an easie work Persecution for Righteousness will be a welcome Trial love will change Death it self into Life There 's another word added by Mark which indeed is in Deut. 6.5 whence this is taken Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength now because this word doth not express any other species or power of the Soul but only notes the highest and most intense degree of Love that flows from all the Faculties of the Soul I will close this Enquiry with a Word of this We are to love God with all the Powers of our Soul with all the members of our Bodies Our understandings wills inward and outward Senses appetite speech whatever we have whatever we are must be all directed into the Love of God and into Obedience flowing from Love You commonly hear that of Bernard the cause of loving God is God himself and the only measure is to love him without measure We must love God strongly because with all our strength our love to God must get above Interruptions no threatnings calamities or discommodities whatsoever must pull us away from God but that all the Powers of Soul and Body must be taken up into his service that our Eyes beholding the wonderful works of God the Sun Moon and Stars the clear evidences of his Divinity we may be in love with him that our Ears piously hearkning to his Instructions may be in love with him that our Mouth may love to praise him our Hands to act for him that our Feet may be swift to run the way of his Commandments that our Affections may be withdrawn from Earthly things and deliver'd over to the love of God that whatever is within us it may be bound over to
quoad modum tendâ—nd in objectam 1 Cor. 13.8 Voet. ibid. Love never faileth the same kind of love the same Numerical love that was in gracious Persons on Earth shall be continued in Heaven and receive it's perfection presently after its delivery from the Body of Death There will be a greater change in all our Graces than in our Love A great part of our Life is taken up in the Exercise of those Graces that I may in some respect say dye with us The one half of our Life is or should be spent in Mortification The whole of our time needs the exercise of our Patience Our Life at best is but a Life of Faith much of our sweet Communion with God is fetch'd in by secret Prayer But now in Heaven there shall be no sin to be mortifi'd nothing grievous to be endured Faith shall be swallow'd up in Enjoyment and your Petitions shall be all answer'd So that now Christians set your selves to love God and you shall no way lose your labour Other Graces are but as Physick to the Soul desirable for something else which when obtained they are useless but Love to God is the healthful Constitution of the Soul there 's never any thing of it in any sence useless Most of the Graces of the Spirit do by our Souls as our Friends by our Bodies who accompany them to the Grave and there leave them But now love to God is the alone Grace that is to our Souls the same that a good Conscience our best Friend in both Worlds 4. This Divine Love is so unknown to the World that when they behold the Effects and flames of it in those that love God in an extraordinary manner they are ready to explode it as meer Vanity Folly Madness Ostentation and Hypocrisie When Paul manag'd his Audience more like a Sermon than a Defence Festus cries out upon him as mad (h) Acts 26.24 Yea when Christ himself in love to God and Souls is more hungry after Converts than Food his nearest Relations think him craz'd and the multitude cometh together again Mark 3.20 21 32. so that they could not so much as eat bread and when his Friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself But were they any other but his carnal and graceless Relations that did this See behold thy Mother and thy Brethren without seek for thee (i) 1 John 3.13 No marvel then that Enemies reproach you Friend forsake you Relations slight you and the World hate you Christ tells us (k) Joh. 15.18 23. if the World hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you But how can the World hate Christ who in love to it came to dye for it Christ tells his Hearers the true Reason (l) Joh. 5.40 42. I know you this is no groundless surmise nor censorious rashness but I know you that you have not the love of God in you Let what will appear at the top this lies at the bottom And therefore judge I pray you who more phanatick those that hate God when they pretend to love him or those that are counted phrantick for their serious Love to God I shall neither name more nor enlarge further on this first rank of Characters but be brief also in the second The Absolute Properties of Love to God are among many some of them such as these 1. It is the most ingenious of all Graces In poor inconsiderable Loves not worth the mentioning how do persons contrive wayes for the expressing and exciting of Love and there 's no way to prevent it Oh how much more when the Soul loves God there 's nothing meliorates the parts like Grace Divine Love makes the best improvement of Wit Parts Time when a Person loves to pray though he can scarce speak sence to men he can strenuously plead with God a person that loves to meditate though he knows not how to make his thoughts hang together in other things they multiply on his hand with a spiritual and profitable consistency In short to do any thing that may engage the Heart to God what gracious stratagems doth Love abound with That (m) Nieremberg de art Vol. p. 114. as he that beholds his Face in a Glass makes the Face which he sees his very look is the Pensil the Colour the Art so he that loves God sees such a Reflexion of God's love to him that a proud person doth not more please her self in her own fancyed beauty than this gracious Soul is graciously delighted in the mutual dartings of Divine Love Keep from Will-worship and humane Inventions in the things of God especially from imposing upon others your Prudentials of Devotion and then I will commend it to you to try all the Experiments which the Scripture will warrant to encrease the flame of your Divine love 2. Love to God is the most bold strong constant and daring Grace of all the Graces of the Spirit of God (n) Cant. 8.6 Love is strong as Death every one knows what work Death makes in the World It is not the Power of Potentates nor the Reverence of Age nor the usefulness of Grace can prevent its stroke it conquers all So doth love to God Nothing can stand before it what dare not love to God attempt It designs impossibilities viz. Perfection and is restless for the want of it I may in some sence say it would fain have contradictions true viz. to be without the Body while in it the Body's being a clog is so wearisome Love to God not only baffles Satan but through God's gracious condescension it even prevails with God himself that God will deny nothing to the Soul that loves him 3. Love to God is the onely self-emptying and satisfying Grace (o) Nieremb p. 322 c. spaâ—siâ— Love 't is self's egress 't is a kind of Pilgrimage from self he that loves is absent from himself thinks not of himself provides not for himself But oh how great is the gain of renouncing our selves and thereby receiving God and our selves we are as it were dead to our selves and live to God nay more by love we live in God (p) 1 John 4.16 God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him By Faith we live upon God by Obedience we live to God but by Love we live in God It is herein alone that we can give something like a carnal though 't is indeed an highly spiritual answer to Nicodemus his question (q) Joh. 3.4 How can a man be born when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers Womb and be born We have our Soulâ— immediately from the Father of Spirits by Regeneration we return to God again from whom by Sin we are estranged and by love we live in him in some little resemblance to the Child's living in the Mother's womb what the mother loves the
under his burden and wouldest forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him Doth God take care for Oxen for mans sake doubtless this is written and so it appears plainly in the text Thou shalt surely help with him thou shalt bring it back again to him it was to be done not only in mercy to the beast but in love to the man Besides how can we think that God would require us to bring back a straying Ox and to relieve an Asse oppressed with his burden and lay no duty on us to a Man in such a condition doubtless if we are bound to bring back an Ox that goeth astray we are much more obliged to bring back a Man when we find him going astray from God and if we are to help an Asse that lyeth under his burden much more a Man when we see him oppressed with His. We see then whom we are to account our Neighbour any man whomsoever Friend or Enemy that lives nigh to us or at a greater distance from us 2. We come now to speak of the second thing propounded and that is the lawfulness of a mans loving himself Every man may yea it is a Duty lying on every man to love himself This may seem strange when we see self-love every where branded in the Scripture so that there is hardly any sin described in so black a character as this It is a sin indeed that includes many others in the bowels of it we may say of it James 3.6.8 as the Apostle James doth of the tongue It is a fire a world of iniquity it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison Unbelief and self-love are the immediate parents of all the mischiefs and abominations that are in the world and therefore we have this set in the front of all the evils that make the last times perillous 2 Tim. 3.1.2.3 In the last days perillous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false-accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God c. And if you can find a larger catalogue of abominations than you have here set down to your hand self-love is the mother of them all it is this that makes all the stir that is in the world It is this that disturbs Families Churches Cities Kingdoms in a word this is the grand Idol that is set up to be worshipped all the world over greater by far than Diana of the Ephesians Act. 19.27 whom yet all Asia and the world were said to worship It is that Idol which every man must endeavour to take down for until that be done we shall find little peace within our selves or quietness among men Notwithstanding this we must say that it is lawful and a duty incumbent on every man to love himself There is a two-fold self 1. A natural Self 2. A sinful Self This is to be hated the other loved We cannot hate sinful self too much though it be to the destruction of it this is that which we are bound to kill mortifie and utterly destroy Christ came into the world purposely to help and assist us in the destruction of it 1 John 3.8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil But we may lawfully love natural self soul and body because these are the works of God and therefore good He that came to destroy the works of the Devil came to save the soul and body Luke 19.10 the works of God The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost 1. A man may love his own body and is bound to preserve the life of it no man ever yet hated his own flesh Eph. 5.29 Mark 5.5 1 Kings 18.28 We read indeed of one out of the tombs who was day and night in the Mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones and of the Idolatrous Baalites who sacrificed to the Devil and not to God that they cut themselves after their manner with knives and launcers till the blood gushed out upon them but who in his right wits ever did such a thing or where did God require it at any mans hands The Lord forbids the Israelites to make such barbarous cuttings and manglings of their flesh after the manner of the heathen because they were his servants Lev. 19.28 A man may sin against his own body many ways as by excessive labour neglecting to take necessary food or physick intemperance and the like He that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body 2. A man may and ought chiefly to love his own Soul Every mans care should be that it may be well with his better part both here and hereafter And to this purpose it is every ones great concern 1 To get into Christ who is that ark in which only Souls can be safe They who after all the calls invitations and beseechings of God in the Gospel will persist and go on in impenitency and unbelief are murderers of their own Souls and their blood will be upon their own heads He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul Prov. 8.36 all they that hate me love death 2. John 15.4 Prov. 19.8 He that hath closed with Christ must endeavour to abide in him by putting forth fresh and renewed acts of Faith He must feed daily on the promises which are the food of his Soul and look to it that he keep alive the grace which is wrought in his heart The new nature or spiritual self is the best self we have and should be most of all loved by us They that have the charge of others Soules are a Part of their own charge Take heed to your selves and to all the flock Act. 20.28 They who are under the inspection of others must look to themselves also so John chargeth that Elect Lady and her Children Rom. 14.12 to whom he wrote his second epistle ver 8. look to your selves As Pastors must give an account of their flock so every sheep of the flock must give an account of himself Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God Quest If love to our selves be not only lawful but a duty why is there no direct and express command for it it in the Scripture 1. Answ (f) Nunquid est ullus hominum qui non omnia quae facit vel salutis suae vel certe militatis gratiaÌ„ facâ—at Omnes enim ad affectum a que apperitum utilitatis suae naturae ipsius magisterio atque impulsione ducuntur Sâ—lviâ—nus contra Avar. lib. 2. Prov. 22.3 Heb. 11.7 Mar. 3.6.7 Joh. 8.59 There is no such need of an express command for this Though the Law of Nature since the fall be very much defaced and obscured that much
might accuse him 3. A man may be guilty of evil speaking and offend against the law of love when he makes a fault greater than it is when he represents a mole-hill as big as a mountain (r) Vix centesimus reperietur qui aliorum famae ità clementer paâ—eat ut S bi cup at etiam in manifeâ—tis vitiis ignosci Calvinus in Deut 5.10 thinking that he can never aggravate anothers fault too much You may have seen how Boys by continual blowing with a reed in their nutshels have raised a little bubble to the bigness of a small globe which yet was but a drop of water stuft with a vapour even so do some men blow up others faults till they seem very great but if you examine them you will find that that which made them so was only this that they were filled up with the others malice Some may think themselves excusable in this as if they (Å¿) Obtrectario zeli ac Severitatis praetextu saepe laâ—daâ—ur H nc sit ut sanctis qâ—oque se iasinâ—et hoe vi ium atque obrepat virtutis nomine Calvinus shewed thereby their zeal against sin but let them look more narrowly into themselves and possibly they may find more malice than true zeal lying in the bottom 4. We may offend in speaking of the faults of others if we be not duly affected in speaking of them It is too (t) Equidem permul os novi qui propter conscientiae animorâ—m impuriâ—arem pâ—oximorâ—m delectis gaudeâ— Jest Mart. de viâ— Christ common a thing to speak of others sins in mirth and with some kind of rejoycing as if we were tickled with it all such rejoycing is evil If Christ should step into your company as †Luke 24. â—7 1 Co. 5 2. he did into the disciples while they were walking sadly one with another and say unto you while you are speaking of other mens sins to make your selves merry What manner of communication have you here Could you approve your selves to him in this matter It was a fault among some of the Corinthians that when they heard of the great sin of the incestuous person they were pussed up when they should have rather mourned 5. A man may be guilty of evil speaking when he speaks of others faults if his end be not good as when he doth it to please anothers humour or satisfie his own (u) Observamus p oximoâ—um peccaâ—a non ut lugeamus â—ed ut exprobâ—emus non ut cuâ—emuâ— sed ut perculiamus Nazâ—anz or to lay the person spoken of open to contempt or the like Our end in speaking of others faults if it be not the reforming of the persons themselves nor the securing and safe-guarding others from being hurt by them or ensnared in them is not like to be good 3. The third thing by which we shew our love to our selves is by our desires which are alwaies after something that is good or conceiv'd to be good for us Every man wisheth himself well Should we go through the congregation and ask every man severally what he would have every ones desire would be after something that is good or thought to be so (w) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Then this is that by which we should manifest our love to others even by desiring their good in all things as our own that all things temporal and spiritual may prosper and succeed well with them as with our selves to the glory of God and their eternal happiness That they may thrive in their estates bodies souls as well as we in ours Mat. 5.44 Thus it ought to be with us even in reference to such as do not bear the same good will to us It is (x) Qu s pâ—o iniâ—â— ici suis ista quae Deuâ— jussiâ— non dico voâ—is sed verbis saltem agere dignetur Aâ—t etiam siquâ—s se cogit ut faciaâ— facit tamen ore non mente Salvian de gub dei lib. 3. Luke 23.31 Act. 7.60 our Lords Command that we should pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us And herein he has left us an excellent example When his enemies were about that black piece of work busying themselves in taking away his life some piercing him others blaspheming him he breathes out this request for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do The like copy is set before us in Stephen the Protomartyr while his adversaries were throwing stones thick about his ears he kneeled down and prayed for them Lord lay not this sin to their charge How contrary is the spirit of (y) In omni animo â—m iudâ—gnantium moâ—u voâ—s maliâ— pro aâ—mi utimâ—r unde unuâ—quiqâ—e evidenâ—â—sli â—è probaâ— quicq od sieâ—i adversariis suis op tat totum le saceâ—e velle si possit Salvian de Gubernaâ— Dei liâ— 3. Act. 26.29 many that profess Christianity to the spirit that appeared in Christ and the primitive Christians who upon every provocation can be ready to desire the utmost evil to such as do offend them Were not the Jews Pauls greatest enemies wherever he came Who so cruel to him as his own Countrymen Yet see what desires were in his heart for them Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved So when he stood at the Bar before a heathen judge surrounded with many enemies what are his wishes for them He desires that they might all participate in the good he enjoyed but not in the evil he endured I would to God that not only thou but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds 4. Our love to our selves doth appear by our endeavours we do not content our selves with wishings and wouldings but we do actually and industriously endeavour that it may be well with us If a man be hungry and his stomach calls for meat or if he be pinched with cold and his back calls for cloathing his hand is ready in all good ways to procure it and so it is in all things else By this therefore ought we to manifest our love to others even by our (z) Habuit Christus in coâ—de câ—â— itatem quam nobis oper eâ—h buit ut exhiâ—itionis forâ—a nos ad diligendum instrueret Lombardus l. 3. dist 17. endeavours in our capacity and according to our ability to do them good supplying their wants spiritual and bodily God hath disposed men into several ranks He hath set some to move in a higher some in a lower Orb He hath dispenced his talents to some more to some fewer They that are in a higher place and have More talents may and ought to do More than others They that stand in a lower place and have fewer talents may and ought to do Something for the good of others Every man as he hath received the gift in what kind or degree soever it be
so he must minister the same to the souls and bodies of others 1 Pet. 4.10 Jam. 2.15.16 1 Joh. â— 13 If a brother or a sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them Go in peace he you warmed and filled notwithstanding you give them not the things that are needful to the body what doth it profit A man would find little profit in it himself if he should feed himself only with good words and wishes True love is not in Word and Tongue only but in Deed and in Truth Contrary to this endeavouring others good is to stand up in the way and stop the passage wherein good should flow in upon them and to be (a) Invidentia est aeg iâ—udo iuscepta p opter alterius res secundas quae nihil nocent invidenti Cic. Tuâ—t qu. l. 4. envious at the prosperity of others if they be able without our help to attain it Many men think themselves not well unless it be ill with others (b) Novum ac inaestimabile nunc in plutimis malum est parum alicui est si ipse sit felix nisi alter sec in infelix Salvianus de Gub. Dei it is not enough for them to be happy unless they see their brethren miserable 2. We have seen now in what things we do and may shew love to our selves we come now to speak of the manner of loving our selves and to shew that after the same manner we ought to love others also 1. We do or should love our selves holily i. e. in and for God we may not have a divided interest from God though God allows us to love our selves it must be in order to him and to his Glory Our love to our selves as it must be regulated by the will of God and extended or restrained according to that So God must be our utmost end in it whether it be exercised about the obtaining things temporal or spiritual for body or soul Salvation it self although it be our end must not be our last or utmost end but that God by it as by all things else may be glorified Therefore in this manner we must love others as God hath an interest in them and is or may be glorified by them and there is no man in the world but God is or may be glorified by him Every man is a creature upon whose Soul there is in a sort the Image of God and doth him some service in the place wherein he stands Isa 44.28 and 45.1 God calleth Cyrus a heathen his Shepherd and his Anointed and he did him eminent service in his generation The same may be said of every other man in some degree and proportion God hath given him some gifts whereby he is and may be serviceable to him at least in the affairs of his providential kingdom Besides all men having immortal souls within them are capable of blessedness with God for ever in the kingdom of Glory they who are at present enemies to God may be reconciled and made friends what was the most glorious Saint now in heaven but an enemy to God once when here on earth We our selves saith the Apostle were sometime foolish disobedient deceived Tit. 33.4 serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Obj. How could David then say do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee and am I not grieved with these that rise up against thee Psal 139.21.22 I hate them with a perfect hatred He says that he hated them perfectly and approves himself to God in the thing Do not I hate them O Lord Ans There is a twofold hatred Odium simplex Odium redundans in personam as the Schooles speak a simple hatred and a hatred redounding to the person A simple hatred which is of the Sin of any man is our duty Psal 97.10 ye that love the Lord hate evil but to hate the Person of the sinner would be our sin as we are to abhor that which is evil Rom. 12.9 so we must cleave to that which is good David who was a man after Gods own heart knew how to distinguish between the sin and the person See how he expresseth himself elsewhere I hate the work of them that turn aside not them but the work of them Psal 101.3 he hated their sin saying it shall not cleave to me Hear him again I hate every false way this shews us plainly Psal 119.104 that he hated sin perfectly he hated sin so as that it should not cleave to him he hated it where ever he found it Every false way For what is perfect hatred Austin describes it very well He est perfecto odio odisse ut nec homines propter vitia oderis nec vitia propter homines diligas This is to hate with perfect hatred not to hate men for their Sins sake nor to love the sin for the mens sake This is one manner how we ought to love our Neighbour as our selves it must be holily 2. Our love to our selves is or should be orderly we must first and chiefly love our souls and then our bodies The Soul is of far greater worth than the body A world of things for the body will stand a man in no stead if his soul be lost and where the soul goes either to a place of bliss or torment the body must follow after and therefore when we are charged to take heed to our selves we are charged to keep our souls diligently only take heed to thy self Deut. 4 9. and keep thy soul diligently if the soul be safe all is safe if the soul be lost all is lost In like manner we ought to love our Neighbour we must desire and endeavour that it may be well with him in every respect both as to his body and outward estate but chiefly that his Soul may prosper and his outward concerns as they may be consistent with that third Epistle John ver 2. I wish above all things that thou mayst prosper and be in health as thy soul prospereth 1. We must seek the conversion of those that are unconverted lest their souls be lost for ever If we can be instrumental in this we shew the greatest love imaginable to give a man bread when he is hungry or cloathing when he is naked is somthing but to convert a soul to God is a greater kindness by much Brethren Jam. 5 19.20 if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death He speaks of it as a great thing when he says Let him know that he
we ought to be the more afflicted they are with it themselves We should consider how we would desire to be dealt with our selves if we should be found in the same or the like fault and accordingly behave our selves towards them If any man be overtaken with a fault ye which are spiritual (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. nitimini eum quasi luxatum it embrum suo loco reponere Beza Job 30.25 Isa 58.10 restore such an one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self 3 We should shew our selves tenderly affected towards others in their wants and necessities and yield them relief with a feeling of their wants our selves Job when he was in a full and plentiful condition and estate himself was deeply affected with the necessitous condition of other men Did not I weep for him that was in trouble Was not my soul grieved for the poor The way to get this tenderness towards others is to put our selves in this or that mans case hungry thirsty naked until we find our hearts to grow soft and tender towards them and we are able to draw out our own (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag souls to them in giving them bread or what else they need But the greatest tenderness is to be exercised toward such persons as labour under soul troubles and necessities because the soul is of a quick sense and more capable of feeling than the body Christs greatest sufferings were in his Soul so all men spiritually distressed as under some temptation or soul-affliction are deeply distressed Therefore as they stand in need of counsel or comfort our souls should go forth in administring it to them 1 Thes 2.8 As Paul was ready to have imparted not only the Gospel of God but his own Soul to them who were dear unto him You have seen in what things and after what manner we may and ought to love our selves and that it is our duty to shew our love to others in the same things and in like manner It may be requisite that we speak something also about the degrees of love which we shall do in answering two questions Qu. 1. Whether it be our duty to love our Neighbour as much as our selves Ans The command to love our Neighbour as our selves doth not require that our love should be every way as much to our Neighbour as our selves The word As in the Commandment doth not denote a Parity but a Similitude It is not as much as but like as (h) Priùs intensius unusquisque Dei fruitionem sibi oprat quam alteri ita ut si non possit pluribus dari malit unus quisque sibi quam quilibet alii illam à deo communicari Davenantius It is indeed our duty to desire and endeavour that others may be blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity which is as much as we can desire for our selves but every man more intensely desireth this happiness to himself than to another If that grace which any man hath received of God would save another man and he could communicate it to him he were not bound to part with it to that end and purpose When the foolish Virgins said to the wise Give us of your oyl they answered Mat. 25 9. Not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go ye rather to them that sell and buy for your selves So it is in reference to temporal things We are charged with this as a duty to communicate to others in need (i) Ordo Charitatis postulat ut primùm necessitati propriae deinde de non necessariis etiam necessitati provideatur alienae Estius lib. 3. dist 29. Sect. 2. Luke 3.11 but if our own necessities be really and not in pretence so great that we should not have enough for our own subsistence if we did impart to them we are not bound in that case to yield it to them When the multitude asked John the Baptist what they should do He answered He that hath two coats let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do likewise By which he gave them to understand that it was their duty to impart to others in extream necessity if they had any more than was necessary for themselves Notwithstanding what hath been said there are several cases in which a man is bound to exercise his love to another more than to himself 1. A man is bound to hazard his own Life 1 Sam. 19.1.2 chap. 20.30.33 to save the Life of another who would certainly perish if he did not hazard himself in his behalf 2. Upon the same reason that a man is bound to prefer the (k) Consulet aurem pro se quisque utilitati communiter omnium Justin Martyr de vita Christ Omnis Praesidentiae ille debet esse finis ubique prae aliorum utilitate commodum suum despicere Greg. 2 Sam. 18.3 2 Cor. 11.28 Rom. 16.4 Rom. 5.7 publick advantage of a community before his own private he is bound to seek the safety of a publick person in whom the welfare of the Community is bound up more than his own safety One man of publick capacity may be of more value than thousands of other men So said the people of David Thou art worth ten thousand of us Priscilla and Aquila thought the life of such an Apostle as Paul was upon whom lay the care of all the Churches to be of greater concernment than theirs and therefore for his life they laid down their own necks for which they had the thanks of all the Gentile Churches A man also that is of a publick spirit and layes out himself in doing much good in the place and Country where he lives although he be of a private capacity is worth many other men For a good man one would even dare to die We might instance in many other cases but let it suffice that we say in General That when the glory of God is more concerned in another than in our selves we ought to shew a greater love to him than our selves upon the principle laid down above that we ought to love our selves and our neighbour in and for God And when there is a competition between an incomparably greater good to our neighbour especially if many be concerned in it and a less to our selves it is evident that our love to our selves must yeild to the love of our neighbour Qu. 2. Whether ought we to love every other man with the same degree of love Ans 1. All men good and bad should thus far be loved equally by us in that we should desire (l) Diligit Christianus inimicum ut hoc ei velit perverire quod sibi hoc est ut ad regnum coelorum correctus renovatusque perveniat Aug. lib. 1. de Serm. Dom. in monte that both the one and the other might come to perfect blessedness in the enjoyment of God for ever the first
poor prodigal spendeth above his estate Time in the whole compass of it is but short 1 Cor. 7.29 The time of particular persons is shorter and the time of season and present opportunity is the shortest of all Our present season our day it is but like the few sands in the little middle hole of the hour-glass The sand in the upper glass is uncertain whether ever to run one sand more or no that 's the time to come That in the lower glass is as the time spent and past but the few sands in the narrow middle hole are as the present season and only ours Non tam liberale nobis dedit tempus Natura ut aliquid ex eo liceat perdere saith Seneca Nature hath not dealt so liberally with us as that it doth allow us to mispend any of the little time it hath given us We are prodigal of time though covetous of a penny We are more profuse of our time cujus unius honesta est avaritia of which alone there is an honest covetousness You may have many pieces of gold together in your hand but you can have but one day of Grace at once 't is but one day 2. It is a day and therefore that which cannot be recalled when it is spent and done The loss of a day is an irrecoverable loss Who can restore the loss of a day nec cursum supprimit nec revocat tempus Time doth neither suppress it's course nor recall it neither doth it slack it nor revoke it As time stops not so time returns not If thy House be burnt or thy goods stoln or thy Lands forfeited Friends can make a supply of those losses but if all thy Friends nay Creatures in Heaven and in Earth should conspire to make thee happy they cannot with all their combined industry and united forces restore thee to one of those good hours in the day of Grace that thou hast foolishly mispent Esau lost his day and he could not recall it with tears The knocking of the foolish Virgins could not break open the shut door of Heaven When thy sun is set and thy day compleatly ended thy sun will never rise more I have heard of one that wantonly threw a Jewel into the Sea and they say the Jewel was brought to him in the belly of a fish that was served up to his table I know not how true this is but who or what shall ever bring back to thee the Jewel of thy lost day none shall ever bring back this Jewel to thy table if thou wilt throw it away by wantonness and negligence God will not turn thy glass when it is once out What the fall was to Angels that is death to man 3. It is a day and this should put us upon the present improving of it for it is a clear day a lightsome day The sun of Righteousness is risen The day-sping from on high hath visited our Horizon with the light of the Gospel Now a lightsome a sun-shiny day is to be regarded improved for the present 'T is a dark day indeed compared with Heaven but it is light compared with the shadows of Judaism or the fogs of Popery Work work work apace you that have the sun-shine of the Gospel I wish I could not say I see a Cloud far bigger than a man's hand and I hear a noise of much rain Now you have sun-shine cock your Hay shock your Corn a pace wanton not away your Summer least you beg in Winter God by giving of you so fair a day sheweth not that your Sun will alwaies shine but that now thou shouldst work Slumber not away a sun-shiny day in harvest The day and such a day is surely intended for working Man goeth forth to his work till the evening the night is for sleep but the day especially a sun-shiny day a clear day for working 4. It is a day and therefore puts us upon the present improving of it because it is a wasting day a day that passeth and runneth apace We usually say the day is far spent The day goeth whether you sit still or no the sun runs yea like a Gyant like a strong man though thou creepest like a cripple Though the passenger sleeps in the Ship the Ship carrieth him apace towards his Haven thou art idle but time hurrieth thee to the grave Time is winged thy hour-glass needs no jogging there is no stopping the stream of time It was a notable speech of one once to a person that was in a fit of anger Sir saith he Domine sol ad occasum the sun is going down this is my caution to every lazy Christian if the sun must not go down upon your wrath surely it must much less go down upon your loitering If the sun in the Heavens must not go down upon your Wrath the sun of your life should not be suffered to go down upon your Laziness Cum celeritate temporis utendi velocitate certandum est saith Seneca Our swiftness in work must contend with the swiftness of the time in which we work Thou dost not see thy time going but shortly thou wilt see it gone like the insensible moving hand of a dial which though thou dost not see it moving yet thou seest it hath moved 5. It is a day and therefore puts us upon the present improving of it For it is possible yet that in this thy day thy work may be done before sun set if thou beest speedy Despair not for then industry will be frozen The bridge of mercy is not yet drawn there is yet a possibility for thee to get over to a blessed eternity 'T is bad to say It is too soon though most have said so too often but it is worse to say It is too late I confess thy morning was thy golden hour and had been far the fittest for thy employment but the evening time is better than no time I dare not write despair upon any man's forehead If God will help us much work may be done in a little time but yet God must step in with a Miracle almost if thou shouldst run back the mispent age of 40 or 50 years in an hour or two surely you must fly rather than run 6. It is a day and for ought you know It may be your last day and therefore improve that present day You have no assurance of another from the upper glass of the hour-glass thou canst not be assured of one sand more Often say thou therefore to the day wherein thou livest art thou my last or may I look for another Though thou art young it may prove thy last day Death taketh us not by Seniority The new pitcher may be as easily broken as the old And which is a more severe consideration the Spirit of God possibly may never knock at the door of thy heart again never strive in thee never strive with thee Death may knock next and remember he will easily break into thy body though thy
in looking after riches and honour and the vanities of the World Oh! but now now now pursue Salvation It is a must-be and if the present time be gone you may be undone for ever 2. Salvation is that which imports rest and satisfaction Salvation it is the Soul's quietation and ease Heaven is that center of the Soul you are never at rest till you come there Now the object of rest is speedily to be pursued How doth every thing hasten to its rest its center how doth the stone with eagerness hasten to the Earth when thrown from the top of an high steeple how swiftly doth the fire fly upwards to its rest to its center with what a rapid motion with what a fierce career do the Rivers run into the Sea they are going to their place the place of waters Is Heaven thy rest is Heaven thy center why is thy tendency to it so sluggish You owe unto life Eternal all those propensions and all those inclinations wherewith all the things of the World are carried to the centers The speed that the wicked make in getting to Hell proclaims that Hell is their proper place and center though not for rest but restlessness Shall every thing hasten to rest but thy Soul it was the speech of Naomi to her Daughter my Daughter shall I not seek rest for thee Oh that every one would say unto his Soul my Soul shall I not look after rest for thee in the bosom of God and the eternal fruition of himself the little Infant that cryes for sleep will rise up in judgment against a sinner that doth not look after the rest of his Soul That little Infant that cryes for sleep out-goeth thee in wisdom 3. It is a day of Salvation and the pursuing of Salvation is Opus grande a great work a vast employment many things are required to accomplish it many lusts to be subdued many duties to be discharged many temptations to be resisted many relations to be filled Now a great work must be begun betimes If you had but a little to do in the day you might lie in bed a great while in the morning but you have a vast work to do and therefore get up early Some poor Creatures will rise up early to washing a pitiful work to the cleansing of thy Soul a far greater work surely than to wash clothes If you had a thousand Souls they might all be employed for the obtaining of Salvation If every singer were a hand they might all be employed in getting of Salvation He that hath many Children to look after and a small Estate many to feed and cloath he saith I must rise early and sit up late None have so much business as a Christian The work of Christianity is never at an end The art of Religion is never learned There is still an c. still something remaining to be done Blessed Paul thought himself far from perfection I do not look upon my self as having attained the best have much more to be done than they have already done I have read of a famous Limner who when he had wrought his picture in the best and most curious manner would never write at the bottom feci but faciebam I did it not I have done it because he judged he had never wrought any picture so well but he might work it better and add something more of art to it A Christian's art is never complete while he liveth in this world nor ever did a Saint think himself a complete Artist How exceeding large are the commands of God! how little is our most and how bad is our best compared with the rule 4. This delaying in the pursuit of Salvation is a delaying to be freed from the greatest evil What is that the wrath of God guilt damnation hell Delaying to be freed from extreme miseries is confuted by constant experience what condemned Malefactor will delay to get free from his chains from his dungeon from the sentence of death what tormented person upon the rack will say I must consider before I accept of ease and when ease and riddance from the rack are offered if instantly he will accept thereof will say I will consider of it I will give answer of it hereafter if a dust fly into the eye thou hastest to get it out and wilt thou not hast to ease thy soul who ever deliberated whether he would come out of the fire or no 't is more mad to deliberate whether thou wilt be saved or no and get out of the state of damnation Here is no place for deliberation 't is no measuring cast 5. Salvation it is our Own concern it is Opus proprium our own business it is not another's It may be a slothful apprentice will be backward to rise in the morning when he is to do his Master's business but when he sets up for himself and is to gather an Estate for himself he will go about his business speedily Salvation is a work for your selves the gain thereof is your own gain Whatever you get here goes into your own purse Here if you are wise you are wise for your selves Prov. 9.12 Oh that we had more true self-love the common self-love in the world is imployed about our bodily self the shell the sheath of the true self which is the body Few men truly love their true self 't is a common proverb interest will not lye yet the Soul that delays Salvation his interest lyes He walks contrary to it and neglects that wherein all his blessedness doth consist make sorts of his own Salvation 6. It is a day of Salvation and Salvation recompences for all earliness and earnestness Salvation maketh amends for all the sufferings and services of time How poor how short and slight is our work compared with our wages If there could be any trouble in Heaven it would be this that we have laboured for it no more and no sooner upon Earth Thou hast no more to live on to Eternity than what thou layest up here As our obedience is small compared with our rule prescribed so it is very small compared with our recompence promised Though nothing can recompence for the neglect of Salvation yet Salvation can recompence for the neglecting of all other things Nor only doth it recompence for our neglecting of all things but for our being neglected of all persons and for all our reproaches for our early pursuing it all which will easily be confuted with this answer 't is better to be reproached and derided for being too speedy than damned for being too slow in entring into Heaven's way 't is more easy to bear the scorns of the World than the scourges of Conscience I conclude We can never regard Salvation too soon for we can never either injoy it or think we can enjoy it too long What Spiritual knowledge they ought to seek for that desire to be saved and by what means they may attain it Serm. V. Isaiah 27.11
benefit of holiness the more holy you may be 2. Knowledge will be most useful for the Avoiding of sin The more knowledg you have of the nature of sin the abundance of it in your selves its offensiveness to God The more knowledg you have of the rule the exactness the purity the Spirituality and extent of the Law and so the better able you are to judge what sin is and what its consequences are the better you may escape it The clearer your knowledg and the stronger your convictions are of the evil of sin the more Arguments you are furnished with to perswade your hearts against it A good treasure of Spiritual knowledg will best help you to maintain your Spiritual warfare When you know not only your Leader and your weapons and your reward but your Enemies too and their stratagems and way of lighting you are like then to be most couragious in your combate 3. Knowledg will be greatly useful to you for your Profiting by ordinances The better you understand the nature and use and ends of them the more good you are like to get by them The more you know of the word the more you will still learn by it If the foundation of Spiritual knowledg be well laid Ordinances will more easily build you up Not only the work of Ministers would be more easie if their hearers were better Catechized there would not be such danger of missing the mark by shooting over peoples heads they would not lose so much labour nor spend so much strength in vain they should not need so much to study plainness and be inculcating principles and lisping out the first rudiments of Religion as to those that are but babes in knowledg But hearers likewise would receive the word with more profit they would more easily be brought down under convictions feel the power of Exhortations be quickned to duties yield to reproofs entertain admonitions and tast the sweetness of God's consolations and so more easily obtain the end of their hearing To conclude if your understandings were more enlightned your affections would either be sooner warmed or their heat be more regular if more truth were known more duty would be done if our doctrine were better understood our application would be more effectual 2. Spiritual knowledg is most delightful Prov. 24.13 14. The knowledg of wisdom is said to be to the soul as the hony and hony-comb to the taste The knowledg of truth which is the proper object of the understanding doth usually carry something of pleasure in it and the more excellency there appears in any truth the more delectable a thing it is to know it But there be no truths so excellent as Spiritual ones such as concern God and Christ and the mysteries of Salvation and therefore the knowledg of none is so delightful What high and refined delights doth the contemplation of God in all his holy attributes and excellencies afford to glorious Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect How do those Heavenly creatures despise the gross and faeculent pleasures of the sensual World And though Saints here upon Earth cannot rise so high in their delights because not so high in their knowledg yet they may find incomparably more pleasure in knowing the things of God even according to their present capacity than the greatest voluptuaries can in the enjoyment of the creature If a Philosopher can take more pleasure in the study of nature or a Mathematician in his demonstrations than a sensualist can in his feasts and treatments if lines and angles can do more for the mind of the one than meats and drinks for the palat of the other How far then do the delights a gracious soul finds in the study and search of Divine truths transcend both And this pleasure is yet more heightned by the Interest Saints have in the truths they know when they are not only excellent in themselves but of the greatest consequence to them To know God and that as their God to know Christ and that he is a Christ for them to know the Saints priviledges and that they belong to them to know the promises and that they have a share in them to know there is a Heaven a state of future glory and blessedness and that themselves are concerned in it this must needs be a delightful knowledg You can take some pleasure in seeing a rich country and pleasant seat and fine houses but much more if you see them as they that are to inherit them If a natural man may take some pleasure in the mere notion of divine truths how much more may he do it that is concerned in them 3. This knowledg doth greatly adorn and beautifie the Soul It is a considerable part of the soul's perfection Col. 3.10 The Image of God is said to consist as in righteousness and true holiness so likewise in knowledg How full of it was Adam in Paridise And how full of it are Angels in Heaven The more men know of God the more like they are to him and the more they resemble him the more beautiful and perfect they are You count a clear eye not only useful to the body but a piece of beauty in it Light in the mind is an ornament to the Soul as well as a help Saints in Heaven that are most perfect are most knowing and the fulness of their knowledg is a great part of their perfection 4. It is a most becoming thing most suitable to you as Christians suitable to your new nature your new state your Spiritual relations and Spiritual priviledges It ill becomes them who are called into Gods marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9 Who are the children of Light Eph. 5.8 and the children of him who is the Father of Lights Jam. 1.17 they that are said to be in the Light 1. Joh. 2.9 nay to be Light Eph. 5.8 yet to he without light An ignorant Saint is as great a Soloecism in Christianity as a Graceless Saint and that is such a Saint as is no Saint 5. Consider the mischief and danger of ignorance 1. It exposeth you to errors and delusions Math. 22.29 Who so apt to be misled as he that hath no eyes He that knows not which is the right way may easily be drawn into a wrong one He that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes Joh. 12.35 Affection is a good follower but a bad leader It is too blind to be a guide It embraces its object and yet knows it not It must be beholden to the eye of the mind light in the understanding or else all its motions will be but wandrings It will be sure to rove where it is not led It is an egregious paralogism of them that argue against the translation of the Scriptures into vulgar languages that that is the way to increase errors and divisions among Christians For that multitude of errors which is among us is not the effect of too much knowledg but too little as Mens losing
death and the grave and Hell and the Devil in chains after him as conquerors in war were wont to lead their vanquished enemies whom they had taken prisoners in chains of Captivity after them exposing them to the publick scorn of all spectators Thus we are to ascribe the glory of the work of Redemption to Jesus Christ the Son of God and thereby do honour God in our sanctifying of his holy Sabbath Thirdly We likewise glorifie the Holy Ghost when we ascribe to Him the honour of the work of Sanctification Whether we look upon it in that first miraculous effusion of the spirit which our Lord Jesus as the King and Head of his Church did first purchase by the blood of his cross and afterward ascended into heaven and obtained of his Father when he took possession of his Kingdom and lastly did abundantly pour down upon the Apostles and other officers and members of his Evangelical Church in the day of Pentecost Acts 2.1 Which was as it were the Sanctification of the whole Gospel-Church at once in the first-fruits Or whether we understand that work of sanctification which successively is wrought by the Holy Ghost in every individual elect Child of God happily begun in their first conversion and mightily upheld and carried on in the sâ—ul to the dying day This is a glorious work consisting in these two glorious branches of it mortification of corruption which before the Holy Ghost hath done shall end in the total annihilation of the body of sin that blessed priviledge groan'd for so much by the blessed Apostle Rom. 7.24 and the erecting of a beautiful fabrick of grace holiness in the soul which is the very Image of God Heb. 1 3â— an erection of more transcendent wonder and glory than the six days workmanship which the Holy Ghost doth uphold and will perfect unto the day of Christ And this is the great end and design of the Sabbath and of the Ordinances of the Gospel according to the word which the great maker and appointer of Sabbaths speaketh I give them my sabbath to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them Here then is the third branch of our sanctifying the Sabbath namely the ascribing to God the Holy Ghost the glory of the work of sanctification And this is proper work for Christians in the intervals and void spaces between the publick Ordinances to sit down and first seriously and impartially to examine the work of grace in our souls 1. For the truth of it 2. For the growth of it And then if we can give God and our own Consciences some Scriptural account concerning this matter humbly to fall down and to put the Crown of praise upon the head of Free-grace which hath made a difference where it found none And so much for this Text at this time How we may hear the Word with profit Serm. VII Jam. 1.21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls THese Jews to whom the Apostle writes were guilty of many foul and scandalous sins but their master sin was the love of this world c. 4. ver 4. (a) Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God and from this sin arose many other Evils wherewith they are charged in this Epistle as 1. Their tickling joy in hopes to get gain ch 4.13 (b) Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain 2. Their Hoarding up of riches ch 5.3 (c) Your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last daies 3. With-holding the pay of the labouring man chap. 5.4 (d) Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath 4. Their fightings and Contentions one with the other yea their killing one the other to get their Estates ch 4.1 2. (e) From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not even from your lusts that war in your members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have cannot obtain their desiring to have made them kill one the other as Ahab did Naboth 5. Their Admiring the rich and villifying the poor ch 2.3 (f) If there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel and there come in also a poor man in vile rayment And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing and lastly to name no more Hence arose their unprofitable hearing of the word ch 1.22 (g) But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves They heard they had the best places at meetings but they were hearers only they did nothing for Riches as Christ tells us Choak the word Luke 8.14 (h) And that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choaked with cares and riches And as they were guilty of these moral vices so erroneous in the Doctrine of faith especially in that main Article of Justification Holding an empty and inefficatious faith sufficient to interest a man in Christ ch 2.14 (i) What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith have not works can faith save him can such a faith save him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can that faith save him can such a faith save him that Faith that saves is alwaies fruitful and that faith which is not fruitful is no true Faith the Apostle doth not deny that we are justified by Faith by Faith only but he denies that faith without works is a true faith it s only an empty and aiery notion and such a faith cannot justifie nor save a man Well then this being the case and condition of the people it was impossible they should be quiet and patient hearers of the word but must needs fret and fume against it as that which contradicts their Lusts Errors and Delusions The Apostle therefore to take them off from this bitter and untoward spirit in Hearing the word gives them this wholsome counsel and advice from God Wherefore laying apart all filthiness c. All filthiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I 'le not restrain it to covetousness nor to scurrilous and reproachful speeches but take it in its utmost Latitude as denoting sin in the General 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies the filth of the flesh 1 Pet. 3.21
non eradicâ—nt Bern. Sin Let a Physitian prescribe never so good Receipts if the Patient takes Poison it will hinder the vertue and operation of the Physick The Scripture prescribes excellent Receipts but sin lived in Poisons all The Body cannot thrive in a Feaver nor can the Soul under the feaverish heat of Lust Plato calls the love of Sin Magnus Daemon a Great Devil As the Rose is destroyed by the Canker which breeds in it so are the Souls of men by those Sins they live in 2. Take heed of the Thorns which will choak the Word read These Thorns our Saviour expounds to be the Cares of this World Matth. 13.22 By Cares is meant (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covetousness A Covetous man is a Pluralist he hath such diversity of secular employments that he can scarce find time to read or if he doth what solecisms doth he commit in reading while his eye is upon the Bible his heart is upon the World it is not the Writings of the Apostles he is so much taken with as the Writings in his Account-Book is this man like to profit you may as soon extract Oyls and Sirrups out of a Flint as he any real benefit out of Scripture 3. Take heed of Jesting with Scripture this is playing with fire Some cannot be merry unless they make bold with God when they are sad they bring forth the Scripture as their Harp to drive away the evil (l) Procul hinc procul esse profani Ovid. Spirit As that Drunkard who having drunk off his Cups call'd to his Fellows Give us of your Oil for our Lamps are gone out In the fear of God beware of this (m) Quos Deus vult perdere iis permittit ludere cum sacris Scripturis Luth. King Edward the Fourth would not endure to have his Crown jested with but caused him to be executed who said He would make his Son Heir to the Crown (n) Speeds Chron. meaning the sign of the Crown Much less will God endure to have his WORD jested with Eusebius relates of one who took a piece of Scripture to jest with God struck him with frenzy The Lord may justly give over such persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a reprobate (o) Rom. 1.28 mind 2. If you would profit prepare your hearts to the reading of the Word the heart is an instrument needs putting in tune 1 Sam. 7.3 Prepare your Direct 2 hearts to the Lord. The Heathens as (p) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plut. Plutarch notes thought it indecent to be too hasty or rash in the service of their supposed Deities This preparation to reading consists in two things 1. In summoning our Thoughts together to attend that solemn Work we are going about the Thoughts are straglers therefore rally them together 2. In purging out those unclean affections which do indispose us to reading The Serpent before he drinks casts up his Poison in this we should be wise as Serpents before we come to these Waters of Life cast away the Poison of Impure Affections Many come rashly to the reading of the Word and no wonder if they come without preparation they go away without profit 3. Read the Scripture with reverence think every line you read God Direct 3 is speaking to you The Ark wherein the Law was put was overlaid with pure Gold and was carried on Bars that the Levites might not touch it Exod. 25. Why was this but to breed in the people reverence to the Law When Ehud told Eglon he had a message to him frrom God he arose from his Throne Judg. 3.20 The Word written is a message to us from JEHOVAH with what veneration should we receive it Direct 4 Read the Books of Scripture in order Though occurrences may sometimes divert our method yet for a constant course it is best to observe an order in reading Order is an help to memory we do not begin to read a Friends Letter in the middle Direct 5 Get a right understanding of Scripture Psal 119.73 Give me understanding that I may learn thy Commandments Though there are some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knots in Scripture which are not easily untied yet things essential to salvation the Holy Ghost hath plainly pointed out to us The knowledge of the sense of Scripture is the first step to profiting In the Law Aaron was first to light the Lamps and then to burn the Incense the Lamp of the understanding must be first lighted before the Affections can be inflamed Get what knowledge you can by comparing Scriptures by conferring with others by using the best Annotators Without knowledge the Scripture is a sealed Book every line is too high for us and if the Word shoot above our head it can never hit our heart Direct 6 Read the Word with seriousness If one go over the Scripture cursorily saith Erasmus there is little good to be got by it but if he be serious in reading of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the savour of life and well may we be serious if we consider the importance of those Truths which are bound up in this sacred Volume Deut. 32.47 It is not a (q) Non est verbum inane quod contemni debeat à vobis Pagnin vain thing for you for it is your life If a Letter were to be broken open and read wherein a man 's whole Estate were concerned how serious would he be in reading of it In the Scripture our Salvation is concern'd it treats of the Love of (r) Tit. 3.4 Christ a serious subject Christ hath loved Mankind more than the Angels that fell Heb. 2.6 The Loadstone despising the Gold and Pearl draws the Iron to it thus Christ passed by the Angels who were of a more noble extract and drew Mankind to him Christ loved us more than his own Life nay though we had a hand in his Death yet that he should not leave us out of his Will this is a Love (Å¿) Eph. 3.9 passeth knowledge who can read this without seriousness The Scripture speaks of the Mystery of Faith the Eternal Recompences the Paucity of them that shall be Saved Matth. 20.16 Few Chosen One saith (t) Flavius Vâ—piscus The Names of all the good Emperors of Rome might be engraven in a little Ring There are but few Names in the Book of Life The Scripture speaks of (u) Tanquam pro vita morte luctitandum Corn. á â—ap striving for Heaven as in an Agony Luke 13.24 it cautions us of falling short of the promised Rest Heb. 4.1 it describes the horror of the Infernal (x) Sic morientur damnati ut semper vivant sic vivent ut semper moriantur Bern. Torments the Worm and the Fire Mark 9.44 Who can read this and not be serious Some have light feathery Spirits they run over the most weighty Truths in haste like Israel who eat the Passeover in haste and they are not benefited by the
them from their Children shewing to the Generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful work that he hath done Deut. 4 9. 6.7 5. For he established a Testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their children 6. That the Generation to come might know them even the children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their children 7. That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God Thus Hezekiah upon his recovery from death Isa 38.19 The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the Father to the Children shall make known thy truth They that survive they alone can and each of them should praise the Lord this being the principal end to which men should live and for which they should desire life Psal 80.18 The Father to the Children shall make known thy truth i. e. they shall transmit the memory of thy faithfulness in the performance of thy promises to Posterity Psal 145.4 3. Arguments 1. The Souls of Children as well as their Bodies are committed to the care and trust of Parents by the Lord to whom they must give a strict account 'T is a grand mistake to think that the care of Souls belongs only to Ministers True indeed it eminently belongs to our Spiritual Pastors Ezek. 3.18 19. If they warn not the wicked from his wicked way to save his life the same wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his blood will God require at the negligent Pastor's hand Omnia quae deliquerint filii à parentibus requirentur qui non erudierint filios suos Orig. And no less doth God bespeak Parents in the same language that we find 1 Kings 20.39 Keep this man this child if by any means he be missing then shall thy life be for his life If he be lost and miscarry through thy neglect thy life thy Soul shall go for his As therefore Parents dread the guilt of Soul murther of their children they ought to be careful of their pious Education Psal 51.5 2. The state of poor childrens Souls calls aloud on Parents for the discharge of this duty Alas poor Creatures conceiv'd in sin brought forth in iniquity those whom we fondly miscall Innocent Babes come into the World with an Indictment on their Foreheads with ropes about their necks full of guilt full of filth bloody loathsom Creatures Gen. 8.21 Job 14.4 Prov. 22.15 Eph. 2.3 Children of wrath nothing in them by nature that is good Rom. 7.18 An averseness from all good Psal 58.3 Eph. 4.18 A proneness to all evil These young Lyons prone to cruelty they are Serpents in the very Egg and Cockatrices in the very shell Isa 59.5 And whence comes all this guilt and filth but from the hole of the Pit out of which they are digid from that unhappy Rock out of which they are hewn their unhappy Parents Job 14.1 4. 15.14 Isa 51.5 sinful Parents having utterly lost God's Image like Adam beget children in their own Gen. 5.3 Nay Abraham himself though a circumcised Saint as a Natural Father begets an uncircumcised Isaac The Vine they spring from is a Vine of Sodom and therefore the Children are the Grapes of Gomorrah Bloody Parents are we to our Children Exod. 21.19 how much then doth it concern Parents even in common Justice to endeavour to cure those wounds that they themselves have given and to preserve their Little Ones from perishing by that Leprosie infection poyson which they by Nature conveigh into them And here what Topicks do not offer themselves to convince the judgments of Rational Parents 1. There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural love and affection in Parents to their Children Nature gives bowels of pity to them that are in misery specially to children Isa 49.15 Psal 103.13 Will Parents then prove unnatural nay worse than beasts for even the Sea-monsters draw out their breasts and give suck to their young ones Lam. 4.3 Charity edifies saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 8.1 1 Cor. 8.1 David's and Bathsheba's tender love to their Solomon put them upon careful instructing of him wherein they shewed their love to his Soul as well as his Body 2. Parents either do or should principally aim at the Spiritual and Eternal good of their poor Children And what more profitable and effectual way to promote this than pious instruction and education The Earth often proves according to the seeds cast into it The Vessel usually retains a smack and tincture of that with which it was first season'd What Blessings might Parents prove to their Children What excellent things might be effected by them if they did but take the advantage of their tender years and then resolvedly set themselves to bring them in to God 3. Parentt cannot but love themselves their own peace their own comforts their own delights and what more probable means to advance these than the pious education of their children which fully appears by this Dilemma either their conscientious endeavours prove successful or not 1. If not If after all care pains prayer faithfulness the Crop should not answer the Seed why this may relieve and support Liberavit animam suam that it is not through the Parents default The Child dyes but not by the Father's hand He hath discharg'd his duty and thereby in the sight of God deliver'd his own Soul from guilt though he could not deliver his Child's Soul from ruine Where God sees such a willing mind backt with sincere utmost constant endeavours 2 Cor. 8.12 God accepts the faithful Parent according to that he hath and not according to that he hath not But 2. If the Lord please to smile on endeavours into what a transport and extasie of joy will it raise the serious Parent to see the corruption of his Child's Nature heal'd to see saving grace wrought in his heart If such a sight be so pleasing to Spiritual Fathers to Paul 1 Thess 2.10 to John John 3. Ep. v 4. how ravishing must it needs be to Natural Parents Prov. 10.1 and 23 24 25. But especially when this is wrought by their own means 4. When this grace is wrought in the hearts of children and that especially by their Parents this cannot but inflame the hearts of children with dearest love of and ingage them to the highest duty to their Parents they must of necessity be far more loving and dutiful than otherwise they could or would be A wise Son maketh a glad Father But how Prov. 15.20 viz. by a dutiful and respectful carriage 5. By this means Parents shall do unspeakable good to their Families and Posterity Hereby even many Ages after they are dead like Abel Deut. 4.9 they shall yet speak and Posterity hearing the voice of their Ancestors coming as it were from the dead they will be more
17 18. May we therefore say that by reason of their Ignorance they took that Name of God his Word in vain No this was not a vain business for in this way they understood the words of Christ at last the meaning whereof they knew not at first 3. Catechizing may be considered under a double notion 1. In regard of the present Action 2. As it is an Introduction and preparation to the future and further knowledg of God Now though little ones do not at first so understand as to use with due reverence the Name and things of God yet it follows not that they take God's Name in vain because they repeat good things in order to and for the gaining of such a knowledg of God and of those Holy things as whereby they afterwards come to use them more reverently And therein the first use of them though not so reverent hath a part as being preparatory to it and having an influence into it and working as a good means for the begetting of it Do not we teach little Ones their Letters by signs and certain petty devised sayings and resemblances which put them in mind of their Letters And this is not a vanity but a way suited to their narrow capacities to make them learn them the sooner So in this and the like cases the first Rudiments are still to be taken and judged of not in a way of disjunction from what follows after but as a preparation to it and being so taken they are not vain but material things because they serve to very considerable ends It is neither vanity nor Hypocrisie saith a reverend Author to help Children first to understand words and signs Baxter's Christian Directory p. 582. in order to their early understanding of the matter and signification Otherwise no Man may teach them any Language or to read any words that be good because they must first understand the words before the meaning If a Child learn to read in a Bible it is not taking God's Name or Word in vain though he understand it not for it is in order to his learning to understand it And it is not vain which is to so good a use Thus for Parents 2. Nor are Christian Ministers and Governors of Families together with School-Instructors and Tutors less obliged to take care of the Religious Instruction and Education of their respective Servants and Pupils which clearly appears from hence 1. The Lord commands it and expects it at the hands of Masters When others intrust Masters with the bodies of Servants God intrusts them with their Souls commands them to take care of them as for which they must and shall give a strict account Lo here saith God is a poor mean Servant but he hath a precious and an immortal Soul A Soul purchased with the same Blood of God-Man that his Master 's was and himself though never so vile in the eye of sense Col. 3.11 yet capable of being made a Co-heir with Christ in Heaven Take this Man and take care of him as thou wilt answer it at the great Day If this Soul perish through thy default thy Life shall go for his Look to it therefore Masters give to your Servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in Heaven Do not use them as Slaves as Beasts but rather as Fellow-servants of the same Lord Col. 4.1 In this Text we may observe a Divine Precept and a perswasive Argument to back that Precept 1. The Precept Ye Masters give unto your Servants 1. That which is just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecon. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatever is due to them by any positive contract legality or obligation Aristotle names three things as due to Servants Work Food Correction To which since our Servants are usually such as are not so by conquest but by compact we may add a fourth viz. Wages Moderate Work convenient Food due Correction proportionable Wages 2. Not only that which is just but that which is equal too 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dav. in Col. 4.1 And this refers not to the works themselves of Servants and Masters but to the mind and manner of doing which ought to bear a due proportion in both v. gr Col. 3.22 Servants are commanded to obey their Masters in all things not with eye-service but in singleness of heart fearing God and as serving the Lord Christ And Masters are required to return them that which is equal when they rule them piously and religiously That is just which the Law of Nature or Nations requires that is equal which true Christian Charity and meekness requires and which is due to servants by a moral obligation 2. The Argument Knowing i. e. holding this for an undoubted principle believing it and constantly remembring that Masters on Earth have a Superiour Master in Heaven As Servants if gracious are Gods Sons and thereby may be comforted so Masters are God's Servants and thereby may be caution'd Are Masters eyes on their servants to see whether they do their duties faithfully so God's eye watcheth them much more to observe whether they carry themselves in their Relation conscientiously Holy Job Job 31 13◠stood in aw of this great Master and acted accordingly Eph. 6.5 to 8. Servants must be obedient unto their Masters as unto Christ as serving the Lord Christ and the Masters must instruct and command in Christ Mr. Dod that great Servant of our Lord Jesus Christ from Exod. 20.10 gravely observes from those words Thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter nor thy Man-servant nor thy Maid-servant c. That it belongs to all Family-Governours to see that their servants and all inferiours under their charge holily observe and keep the Lord's Day 2. I argue from those many and great benefits which accrue from the holy instruction of Servants and other Family inferiours 1. The Church is in an immediate capacity to receive benefit by it If Mistresses of Families did their parts and sent such polished materials to the Churches as they ought to do the work and life of the Pastors of the Church would unspeakably be more easie and delightful What a reviving of heart would it be to us to Preach to such an Auditory to Catechize instruct examine and watch over them who are so prepared by a wise and holy education and understand and love the Doctrine which they hear How teachable and tractable will such be How successfully the labours of their Pastors laid out upon them How comely and beautiful the Churches be which are composed of such persons and how pure and comfortable will their Communion be The Orchard is according to what the Nursery is So Churches are according to what Families are Good Families make good Churches and good Education makes good Families 2. Not only the Church but State would receive much good by this Towns Cities Counties Kingdoms would gain by it and it must needs be so for what are they
Sure I am they that have not learned their duty to God will never rightly perform their duty to men I heartily wish that proud saucy debaucht behaviour and lame quarrels be not too sad proofs of this unhappy Truth I have done with the fourth I now proceed to the fifth and last Enquiry viz. How the whole affair may be so prudently piously Scripturally managed as that it may become most Vniversally profitable And here I shall first address my self to my Superiours and then close all with directions to Inferiours 1. Then for Superiours and among these Oeconomical ones 1. Let Parents begin betimes with their children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as soon as ever they find them to have any use of Reason as soon as ever their understandings begin to bud and blossom The discreet Gardiner begins to graff as soon as ever the Sap begins to arise and the Stock to swell In the Old Law we find more Lambs Kids young Turtles First-fruits and green Corn required than other Elder Sacrifices Levit. 2.14 Sow thy Seed in the Morn Eccl. 11.9 Begin I say betimes the sooner the better according to that of the Prophet Isa 28.9 To whom shall I teach knowledg and whom shall I make to understand Doctrine Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the Breasts Old men nay indeed and too many young men think themselves too wise as well as too old to learn Indeed Childhood and Youth are the fittest times to learn in Vdum molle lutum eâ—z nunc nunc prâ—pirandâ—s aâ—riâ—ingendus sine sinc rota 'T is bâ—st drawing a fair Picture on a Rasa Tabula The most legible Characters are best written on the whitest Paper before it be soild and slur'd The Twig whilest young is most easily twisted The Ground best sown when soft and mollified Hence that of the Royal Preacher Eccl. 72.7 Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth Little ones have not as yet imbibed such false Principles and Nations nor are they drencht with such evil habits as Elder ones are too too frequently died with He hath a very difficult Province whose task it is to wash out the spots of a Leopard or to whiten an Aethiopian And little less work hath he that undertakes to teach the Truth to one that hath been brought up in and is now as it were Naturalized to Err For those false notions must first be wholly rooted up before Truth can profitably be implanted Such must be untaught much before they can well be taught though but a little 2. Labour as much as in you lies to entertain their tender attention with such â—ruths as mostly affect their senses and fancies and are most easily conveigh'd to their little understandings To wit 1. Such Truths the sparks whereof are most alive in their corrupt nature v.g. To know God that made the whole World and them in particular That this God is to be worshipped That their Parents are to be hâ—noured That no lye is to be told That they must love others as themselves That they must certainly dye and after Death be judged to an Eternal state Begin to season them with the sence of God's Majesty and Mercy 2. Deal as much in Similitudes and plain and easie Resemblances as you can taking your Rise from the Creatures they see and hear always greatly respecting their weak capacity Are you sitting in your Houses you may thus bespeak them Oh my dear Child is this an handsom dwelling this house made with Stones and Timber O how much desirable is that House above with God that House not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens When they awake out of sleep mind them of their Duty Psal 139. Eph. 5.14 of giving their first thoughts to God and of awaking out of sin unto righteousness and of their awaking the last day out of the Grave by the sound of the Trumpet 1 Thess 4.16 Do they see the light of the day shining into their eyes Ask them Is it indeâ—d a pleasant thing to behold the Sun O how excellent then is God's goodness in causing the Sun of Righteousness to arise upon us with healing in his wings Mal 4.2 Are you putting on their cloaths O my Child think on sin which was the cause of your Soul's nakedness and of your Bodies need of apparel Be not proud of your cloaths which are given to hide your shame Never rest satisfied till your Soul be arrayed with the Robes of Christ's Righteousness When at the fire tell them of that Lake of fire and brimstone that burneth for ever into which all those that live and dye in sin shall be cast At Table how easie is it how profitable how delightful will it be out of every Creature there to extract spiritual food for our Souls The Bread minds them of the Bread of Eternal Life their hunger of hungring after Christ's Righteousness By a Rivers side how easie is it to mind them of the Water of Life and of those Rivers of pleasure at God's right hand for evermore Thus may you Psal 16.11 Hos 12.10 Assimilavi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properte â—â—enim multis rebus Deum compararunt Patri Pastori amâ—eâ— leâ—niâ— Pool's Synops without the least taedium or disgust teach those little Bees to such spiritual Honey out of every Flower By these similitudes as by so many golden Links you may draw Truths into their heads and memories Thus it pleased the Lord to teach his people of old by using Similitudes Isa 5.1 Ezek. 16.3 Hos 1.2 Thus the Great Bishop of our Souls taught his Disciples by Parables Mat. 13.38 3. Teach them the most useful delightful affectionate stories you can find in the Word of God v.gr. The Creation of Man Man's Fall The Deluge Isaac Sacrificed Lot and Sodom Joseph The Golden Calf David and Goliah Three Children in the Fiery Furnace Daniel in the Lyons Den. Jonah in the Whales Belly The Children devour'd by Bears 4. Betimes acquaint them with the practice of Religious Duties Read the Word Pray give Thanks sing Psalms in their presence 'T is conceived by the Learned that the little Children learnt to sing Hosanna to the praise of Christ by hearing their Parents sing the 118th Psalm out of which that Hosanna is taken 5. Endeavour to restrain them from all evil and to breed in them a Conscience of sin even from the very breast No playing no idle and vain chat on the Lord's Day Exod. 20.10 Ezek. 4.14 Ezekiel from his youth and infancy had not eaten any thing forbidden in the Law Made Conscience of meals when the Appetite was most unruly One fault amended by a Child out of Conscience that it is a sin is worth amending an hundred out of fear of the Rod or hope of reward only 6. Bring them to the publick Ordinances as soon as they can come to be there and kept there without the disturbance of the Church Exod. 20.9 10. The
Parent is to take care that the Child Sanctifies the Sabbath day Joshua read all the words that Moses commanded before all the Congregation of Israel Josh 8.35 Joel 2.15 16. Jon. 3.5 Omnes sine ullo discrimine ne infantibus exceptis Drusius Mark 10.13 Luk. 18.15 Vt Patres majores natu in illis perspicerent quid essent meriti magis exhorrerent scolerasua prâ—pter quae nou sibi solum sed et liberis suis imminebat interitus Calv. Deut 66. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et exacues ea accuratè commodissimè mâ—â—lcabis â—â—no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proverbium quod in ore sit inculcetur Act. 17.11 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of better descent Non per civilem dignitatem sed per spiritualem dignationem Trap. with the women and the little ones And Deut. 29.11 not only Captains and Elders and Officers with all the men of Israel but their little ones also stood before the Lord to enter into Covenant with him Mat. 19.13 14. There were brought unto Christ little Children that he should put his hands on them and pray but the Disciples rebuked them But our Saviour gives check to their rebukes and commands them to suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto him and that on a weighty reason because of such is the Kingdom of Heaven and those little ones enjoyed the benefit and blessing of Christ's hand and prayer Sanctifie a Fast call a Solemn Assembly gather the children and those that suck the breast Joel 2.15 16. Isa 17.5 7. After their return from the publick be sure to call them to an account according to their capacity Examine and try how they profit how they understand and remember anything at all that they have heard Repeat it and make it still more and more plain to them and in repeating it apply it also to their Consciences This is that which some Divines understand by that whetting or sharpning of the Word on our Children i. e. teach them by way of repetition going over and over again as men do with knives when they whet them that so as knives by such whetting are more keen and fit to cut so the Truths of God by often turning and returning them on the ears and tongues of children may pierce more deeply into their hearts consciences for their better understanding and affecting of them This was our Saviour's practice to call his Disciples to an account and to know of them what they remembred and understood of what they heard Mat. 13.51 Jesus saith unto them have ye understood all these things and Mark 4.34 when they were alone he expounded all things to his Disciples How careful will the child or servant be heedfully to mark what he hears if he knows he shall be examined when he comes home How much will this course help and confirm your children and servants yea your selves also to understand believe and practice that which hath been taught you When those Noble Bereans had publickly received the Word with all readiness of mind i. e. took the heads of Paul's Sermon truly they privately searched the Scriptures daily to see whether things were so and finding on their search that the Truths deliver'd were consonant to the Scriptures 't is said therefore i. e. for that very reason many of them believed and not your understandings only but your memories also This way with your Family will make you the Governours of it better able to retain This is clearly infer'd from Deut. 4.9 Take heed to thy self and keep thy Soul diligently lest thou forget the things c. But how shall this forgetfulness be prevented Why by teaching them thy Sons and thy Sons Sons 2 Pet. 1 13. And this refreshing of your memories will not a little conduce to the stirring up of your affections and to work in you greater sense and deeper feeling of the Truths you have heard 8. In all your instructions most carefully avoid all tedious prolixity Nothing more disgusts a Child's spirit than long and tedious discourses Make up the shortness of your discourse by frequency a little now and a little then not all at once Drop by drop as you pour liquor into narrow-mouth'd Bottles As you do when you first begin to feed their Bodies with a Spoon so must you do when you first begin to feed their Souls with instruction Long Speeches burthen their small memories too much and through mens imprudence may unhappily occasion them to loath spiritual Manna As Physitians therefore in their Diuretick Precepts prescribe to children little and often so must we Young Plants may quickly be even over-glutted with rich manuring and rotted with too much watering Weak eyes newly open'd from sleep at the first can hardly bear the glaze of a Candle Line upon line therefore and Precept upon Precept here a little and there a little Isa 28.10 Gen. 33.13 You must drive the little ones towards Heaven as Jacob did his towards Canaan very gently Fair and soft goes far 9. Having thus far season'd your little ones Dr. Jacomb Dom. Deo 167. and their understandings being somewhat grown with their years now is the fittest time to put a Catechism into their hands i. e. a plat-form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 by way of Question and Answer in a short compendious Method whose terms being clear and distinct Morn Exercise at Cripplegate p. 196. should be phrased as near as may be out of the Holy Scripture and fitted to their capacities by a very plain and solid stile and to their memories by brief expressions And here I would humbly offer this advice make use of a double Catechism a shorter and a larger A shorter to be learned by those that have weak memories and capacities A larger to be got by heart by those that have more years greater parts and larger capacities Nov. 30. 1618. Sess 17. Lib. 2. Cap. 2. Thus I find the Synod of Dort prescribing in their Act for Catechizing In this we agree with that burning and shining Light Mr. Crook of Winton in Somerset and that acute grave and pious Pastor of Sutton in Bedfordshire Mr. Bowles in his Pastor Evangelicus and especially we find it done to our hands by the late Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster in their lesser and larger Catechism And that upon this solid reason lest on the one hand whilest we impose a burthen on such weak shoulders as are not able to sustain it they should despond and sink and on the other hand when we require of others that which is much beneath their supposed ability they should pass it by with neglect at least if not throw it off with scorn But what are the Forms of Catechizing I would propose I answer 1. For the youngest and lowest Rank I suppose the Articles of the Christian Faith contained in that very Antient Creed commonly called the Apostles Creed The Decalogue or Ten Commandments the Lord's Prayer and
but incur the great displeasure of God for so doing 2. But there is another way of discerning the Lord's body in this supper and that is by a spiritual tast and relish for the palate hath not a greater ability of discerning the different relish in the variety of meats man feeds on than the soul of man that hath its spiritual senses exercised hath in tasting the things of God and of judging the different sweets thereof This is that spiritual faculty that Jesus Christ speaks of when he tells Peter that he savoured of the things of man Math. 16.43 but not of the things that be of God Now this you must well observe you that do partake of this Supper whether you do relish the love of the Lord Jesus in his dying for sinners and for you in particular is this great love of Christ sweet to your souls sweeter than honey or the honey comb can you admire the heights and depths of this love and wonder that the Son of God should take a body to be bruised wounded slain for the vilest of sinners among which you reckon your self as one do you find this love of his to you draw your hearts to a love of him and a delight in him and a readiness to part with all for him this is indeed to discern the Lord's body in this supper and by this you are enabled to see a vast difference betwixt this supper and all the feasts of fat things that ever you were at in all your lives If it be so with you then are you qualified for this supper and are by Christ's command obliged to partake thereof 2. Those that have fellowship with God in Christ they are those Christ hath obliged by his command to partake of this supper This is another qualification the Apostle gives us in 1 Cor. 10.18 20 21. where discoursing of the nature of Divine and likewise of Diabolical sacrifices of the reason of the Priests and Peoples eating some part thereof he also shews the reason of our partaking of the Lord's Table which though it is not properly a sacrifice that is there offered yet it holds some resemblance unto the sacrifices of the Law and to the Peoples eating thereof inasmuch as it is a Commemoration of that one sacrifice Christ offered up to the Father for our sins of the benefits of which one sacrifice those that communicate at the Lord's Table do as effectually partake as if Christ was offered up as often as you there do eat and drink Now saith the Apostle of the Legal sacrifices v. 18. they which eat thereof are partakers of the Altar that is are partakers of the blessings of that God to whom that altar is erected and to whom those sacrifices are offered And not only so but there is yet a further meaning which is that those that eat of the Altar do thereby declare that they take the God of that Altar to be their God from whom they expect all that good they are capable of in this life and that which is to come and likewise they thereby declare that him and him only will they worship and serve Now this engagement of themselves to God signified by eating of the sacrifice is that fellowship spoken of v. 20. where the Apostle further tells you that there is the very same intendment in those sacrifices that are offered to Devils and the peoples eating of those feasts that attended those sacrifices they thereby did signifie that they took those Devils to be their Gods and resolved for the future to worship and serve them as Gods which is the proper meaning of that 20 v. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils and not to God and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils i.e. I would that you would not associate with devils or enter into a confederacy with them to serve and worship them as the Idol-feasts do signifie Now if the Idol-feasts signified the confederacy betwixt the Devils and their worshippers so also did the feast that attended the Jewish sacrifice signifie a fellowship betwixt the true God and his worshippers whereby the true God was acknowledged as their God and that they would worship and serve him only Thus the Apostle having illustrated the meaning of eating of the Jewish and also of the Gentile sacrifice he proceeds to accommodate those notions to that of the Lord's Table v. 21. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils ye cannot be partakes of the Lord's Table and of the table of devils The meaning is this you cannot serve two such contrary Masters as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus and devils also for if you eat of Idols feasts you thereby declare you own devils as Gods and then coming to the Lord's Table you thereby declare you only acknowledg the true God to be your God in and through Jesus Christ your Sacrifice and Mediator which practices are very absurd and contradictory The Conclusion is this that those that partake of the Lord's Table are such that from the heart do take the God of that Christ whose death is remembred in that Supper to be their God and that do believe that God is really reconciled to them by that sacrifice and they declare likewise hereby they will worship and serve this God in this Christ and him only now if any of you are thus engaged to God in Spirit you have fellowship with him and you are those that have right to partake of this Supper Having thus opened the words of the Text I shall now give you that chief point I would have you observe which is this Doct. That it is the indispensable duty of all such members of Jesus Christ that can discern the Lord's body in this Lord's Supper and have fellowship with the Father by this crucified Jesus to come to this Supper and to partake thereof There is not any thing in the Doctrine I shall insist on except this one which is to prove it is your duty to partake of it and that it is therefore indispensable because the neglect of it is a very great sin Which I prove by this one argument Jesus Christ who instituted it he hath commanded you to remember him in it and therefore if you do it not you break his command and what is that but to sin against him for what else is sin but either to do what your God and Saviour forbids or not to do what he commands this is so plain that it were but to waste time to use more words for the clearing thereof What I have therefore more to say is to shew you those many things that accompany this sin that tend to aggravate it that when you understand not only that the neglect of this duty is a sin but a very great one you may be deterred from continuing any longer in it 1. I beseech you consider whose command it is you break it
humiliations more affectionate and evangelical As in that fast I mentioned before Neh. 9. The Levites did stand up among the people and begin the day with blessing God Blessed be thy glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise ver 5. and so they proceed to recite a catalogue of God's mercies even from the first call of Abraham to their settlement in the Land of Canaan which reacheth to ver 25. And all this was to bring in the Nevertheless mention'd v. 26. with the greater Emphasis to their humiliation Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy Law behind their backs and shew thy Prophets c. and the same we may observe in Ezra chap. 9. He takes notice of the reviving God had given them in their bondage and the Nail in his holy place and the Wall in Judah and Jerusalem ver 8 9. the more to aggravate the peoples sin in doing according to the abominations of the Canaanites and mingling themselves with the people of the Land ver 1 2. The goodness of God is said to lead men to Repentance Rom. 2. And therefore mention is to be made of it upon a day when the exercise of Repentance is specially in season Yea Thanksgiving also is requisite as an attendant of supplication for the giving thanks for mercy received is an effectual way to obtain New mercy According to that known saying Efficacissimum genus rogandi est gratias agere Giving thanks for mercy received is the most effectual way to obtain new mercy Thanksgiving carries supplication in the spirit of it And if according to the Apostle Phil. 4. We are in every thing to make known our request with supplication and thanksgiving then when ever we come to God with Supplications we are to couple them with thanksgiving 6. The last duty I mention which is the Appendix to the rest is that of Alms-deeds for when we come to beg mercy from God we should not forget to shew it to men And he that stops his ear to the cry of the poor Prov. 21.13 he may cry but shall not be heard yea his prayers are so far from coming up as incense before God that they are an abomination Cornelius that was a man much in prayer and fasting also as is noted of him Act. 10.30 was full also of Alms-deeds Act. 10.31 and both together came up as a memorial before God Alms-deeds as they are not to be confined to a fast day so surely are not to be excluded He that vvill on such a day shut up his purse let him take heed least God shut up against him his ear his heart and his hand The People complain Isa 53.8 Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not God tells them they fasted but shewed not mercy and therefore fasted not aright and then tells them what was the fast that he had chosen ver 7. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and when thou seest the naked that thou cover them c. Certainly those duties that ought to follow our fasting or else it avails nothing with God ought not to be shut out of the duties of such a day if there be call and opportunity thereunto Thus I have shewn the duties of a fast day which are external with respect to the outward performance And next I shall shew what frame of spirit is requisite to such a day without which all these duties may be externally performed and yet the fast not accepted Rom. 2. ult For as the Apostle saith of Circumcision It is that of the heart and of the spirit so is that fasting that is well pleasing to God There may be confession supplication renewing the Covenant Thanksgiving Alms-deeds and yet if there be wanting a suitable frame of heart all this may be but as a body without the soul or matter without form that may have praise with men but none with God Now this frame of soul consists in 1. Self-debasement 2. Godly sorrow 3. Filial fear 4. Ingenuous shame 5. Inward purity 6. Evangelical faith and hope I shall speak briefly to them all 1. Is self-debasement God complains of the Jews fasting Isa 58.5 they did hang down their heads like a bulrush but their souls did not bow down within them We call a fast day a day of humiliation but we have the name but not the thing if the soul be not humbled What is it for the body to wear sackcloth if Pride cover the heart or to spread ashes under us if the soul lye not down in the dust or to fast from bodily food if the soul be not emptied of self-fulness 2. Godly sorrow A fast day is for afflicting the soul and how is the soul afflicted without true sorrow The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies a fast is derived from a root that signifies to afflict so essential is the afflicting the soul to the day It was a charge against the Jews Isa 58.2 Behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure What kind of pleasure it was is not there mentioned but it was some sinful pleasure that was not congruous to the day Daniel speaks of his fast ch 10.3 I sat full three weeks mourning As at our funerals many enter the house of mourning and wear black but there is no mourning within nor no garment of heaviness covers their soul So do many enter the day and duty of fasting but no godly sorrow enters with them into it or attends them in it Every thing is beautiful in its season Eccl. 3.11 A fast day wants its beauty if no true sorrow attends it We make confession of sin but if there be no sorrow we feel not what is spoken and what will words of confession avail Ephraim is said to bemoan himself Jer. 31.18 And God is said to hear it and he bemoaned him also But how can we think God's heart should be affected with our confessions when our own are not The Jews upon their solemn days had their solemn sacrifices A fast day is a solemn day and it is not to be without its sacrifices and the great Sacrifice or Sacrifices of the day is a broken and contrite spirit psal 51. 3. Filial fear Natural fear hath sometimes brought a people to the duty and a filial fear is to be exercised in the performance of it as Jehoshaphat feared and then proclaimed a Fast 2 Chron. 20.3 And so did the King of Nineveh Jonah 2. when God's judgments are abroad we ought to fear and this fear should lead us to meet him in the ways of his judgment by prayer and fasting for all our serving God is to be coupled with fear Psal 2.11 our rejoycing is to be with trembling much more our mourning In a fast day we especially deprecate God's wrath and therefore we ought to have such a sense of it as may cause sacred fear There is no affection of the soul but ought to be
Elders for the Churches they commended them to the Lord with prayer and fasting Acts 14.23 4. For Conquest over some eminent Temptation This may be the occasion of a private fast when a private person lies under it or of a more publick fast if the temptation reacheth further As Christ speaks of some kind of Devils that are not cast out but by Fasting and Prayer And the Rule may reach to Soul-temptations as well as bodily possessions whereof our Saviour there speaks But I hasten 4. I shall next speak of the concern that abstinence from food hath in the duties of a fast 1. That hereby the soul may be more fit for its operations Jejunium purgat mentem sâ—blevat sensum carnem spiritui subjicit concupiscentiae nebulas dispergit as Austin speaks of it Tom. 10. Ser. 230. de Temp. the pampering and feeding the body is usually injurious to the free exercise of the soul And therefore the chastening it with due fasting may befriend the soul therein especially in such exercises wherein the soul is to have least communion with the body As the body ought not to be robbed for the serving of God of that which is necessary for it for God hates robbery for sacrifice so by undue providing for it we may rob the soul and rob God of that service which it ought to perform unto him The body is call'd by Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or bruta pars hominis the brute part of man And a brute is not so fit for man's service if he be kept either at too high or too low a rate nec suprà negotium nec infrâ negotium sed par negotio is a good rule for the body to be treated by and as Aquinas speaks abstinence from food upon a solemn fast is requisit ob elevationem mentis for the elevation of the mind that it may get loose from the sensitive part and so more freely ascend to things above As the Apostle kept his body in subjection that he might with more freedom run the race to obtain the Crown that is incorruptible 1 Cor. 9.26 27. Severity to the body may in some cases be mercy to the soul As David chastened his soul with fasting Psal 69.10 It was its sensitive part he immediately chastned that the rational and intellectual part might be more vigorous and active 2. In this bodily abstinence there is something of a self-judging in it for by abstaining for a while we judg our selves unworthy of returning to such refreshings and comforts of nature at all We are by abstaining from food to reckon our selves unworthy of it 3. By it we also express our sympathy with the Churches sufferings I mean in those fasts that are kept upon that account And nature seems to teach men this as when David would have had Vriah go to his own house when he was come from the Camp 2 Sam. 11.11 he answered The Ark and Israel and Judah are incamped in the open field shall I thou go to my house and eat and drink c. As by eating and drinking we express our gladness so by abstaining we properly express our sorrow and sympathy with others suffering Whiles David's child lay sick he fasted and would eat nothing but when the child was dead 2 Sam. 12.20 he then would declare his shaking off his sorrow by calling for food and eating 5. Lastly I shall speak of the abuse of a religious fast And this great Ordinance is several ways abused 1. There is a Pharisaical abuse of it by ostentation When men fast to put on a disguise of extraordinary devotion and sanctity as the Pharisees did thus and by disfiguring their faces and counterfeiting a solemn and dejected countenance and by mortified habits c. did seek to gain the reputation of extraordinary holiness among the people As the Pharisee in the parable among other things boasted of his often fasting I fast twice a week Strict piety hath such a real value in it that some that have it not yet will pretend to it as thinking to advance their reputation by it 1 Kings 21. 2. There is a mischievous abuse of it if I may so express it when mens hearts are full of malice mischief and cruelty and will hide it under the disguise of a religious fast As Jezebel when she was designing against Naboth's vineyard and life also she proclaims a fast and those Jews that are reproved Isaiah 58. they fasted and fasted but it was for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness They opprest the poor laid heavy yokes upon their necks and ruined them by their cruelties and yet were very zealous fasters as our Saviour speaks of the Pharisees who made long prayers for a pretence while they were devouring widows houses Math. 23.14 3. There is a formal abuse of it when men have not such sinful ends as I mentioned but yet rest in the externals of the day and care not to reach the spiritual part of the duty They go along with the several duties of the day but deest aliquid intùs there is that wanting within that is the proper work of the day They sit before God as his people as if they were humbling themselves before him 1 Cor. 11. but there is nothing in their hearts that answers before God to the outward shew they make before men Religious duties according to Scripture-language are not done if not done aright so that as the Apostle tells the Corinthians This is not to eat the Lord's supper because they did not eat aright so when men are formal in fasting this is not keeping a fast 4. There is a Popish abuse of it 1. By groundless fasting as on the vespers of their Saints days and their Quadragesima's fasting the holy time of Lent in imitation of Christ's fasting in the wilderness which was miraculous and so not imitable 2. By making fasting meritorious and that which is part of satisfactory pennance for the expiation of sin as Aquinas speaks expresly fasting is to be used ad satisfaciendum pro peccatis to make satisfaction for sin 3. By their prohibition of certain meats which God hath commanded to be received with thanksgiving and yet allowing others in their room Aquin. 22. Q. 147. Art 1. They forbid Carnes ova lacticinia but all sorts of fish and other viâ—nds and junkets are allowed Aquin. 22. Q. 148. Art 8. which are as inconsistent with the abstinence of a true fast as those that their Church prohibits but yet they have the salve of a dispensation in such cases and if men will open their purses they may gratifie their palats 5. Lastly fasting may be abused by too frequent use especially publick fasts It is an extraordinary duty and therefore not to be practised upon ordinary occasions The too ordinary use of it may take off from the reverence and solemnity of the duty We find the several publick fasts upon record in
then follows song and praise This streams from the sense of divine love and love is the fountain of thankfulness and of all spritely and vigorous services that prayer that does not end in chearful obedience is called by Cyprian â—e Orat. p. â—7 oratio sterilis and preces nudae barren and unfruitful naked and without ornament and so we may glance upon the expression of holy James the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 a working prayer within will be working without and demonstrate the labour of love 2. Obs The principal subject-matter of prayer the mark the white that the arrow of prayer is shot at the scope it aims at there 's usually some special sin unconquer'd some untamed corruption some defect some pressing strait that drives the soul to prayer and is the main burden of the spirit take notice how such a sin withers or such a grace flourishes or such a need supplied upon the opening our hearts in prayer Watch unto prayer Eph. 6.18 watch to perform it and then to expound the voice of the divine oracle and to know that ye are successful Cry to thy soul by vvay of holy soliloquy Watchman Isa 21.11 what of the night 3. Obs Ensuing providences Set a vigilant eye upon succeeding passages examine them as they pass before thee set a wakeful centinel at the posts of vvisdom His name is near his wondrous works declare His name of truth Psal 75 1. his glorious title of hearing prayers When prayer is gone up by the help of the spirit mark hovv all things work together for good Rom. 8.28 v. 27. Isa 58.9 11. and note the connexion there the working of things together follows the intercession of the Spirit for all Saints God is pleased often to speak so clearly by his vvorks as if he said here I am I will guide thee continually and thou shalt be like a watered garden whose waters fail not Secret promises animate prayer and open providences expound it Isa 45 4 11 19. Cyrus was promised to come against Babylon for the Churches sake But Israel must ask it of God and they had a vvord for it that they should not seek his face in vain Psal 107.19 20. and then follows Babylon's fall in the succeeding chapters When we cry unto the Lord in trouble he sends his vvord of command and heals us There 's a set time of mercy a time of life when Abraham had prayed for a son the Lord told him Gen. 15.2 18.10.14 Esth 4.16 6.1 Psal 3.4.5 Eliezer Gen. 24.15 at the time appointed I 'le return In a great extremity after the solemn fast of three days by the Jews in Shushan and the Queen in her Palace on the fourth day at night the King could not sleep and must hear the Chronicles of Persia read and then follows Haman's ruine Prayer has a strange vertue to give quiet sleep sometimes to a David and sometimes a waking pillow for the good of the Church When Jacob had done wrestling and the Angel gone at the springing of the morning then the good man saw the Angel of God's presence in the face of Esau Sometimes providence is not so quick Rev 6.11 the Martyr's prayer as to compleat answer is deferred for a season but long white robes are given to every one a triumphant frame of spirit and told they should wait but a little season till divine justice should work out the issue of prayer the thunder upon God's enemies comes out of the temple the judgments roar out of Zion Rev. 11.19 Joel 3.16 the place of divine audience but the means and methods and times of God's working are various such as we little forethink Submit all to his infinite wisdom prescribe not but observe the Embroidery of Providence its difficult to spell its characters sometimes but 't is rare employment (d) Isa 64.5 Psal 111 2â— Eccl. 3.11 2 Sam. 23.4 His vvorks are searcht into by such as delight in his providences for all things are beautiful in his season 4. Mark thy following communion vvith God Inward answers make the soul veget and lively like plants after the shining of the Sun upon rain lift up their heads and shoot forth their flowers A Saint in favour does all with delight Isa 61.3 Answer of prayer is like oil to the spirits and beauty for ashes The sackcloth of mournful fasting is turned to a wedding garment He grows more free and yet humbly familiar vvith heaven This is one I vvould wish you to pick acquaintance vvith that can come and have what (h) Joh. 16 23. Gen. 20.7 he vvill at Court. As the Lord once told a King by night that Abraham was a Prophet and vvould pray for him he vvas acquainted vvith the King of heaven O blessed person I hope there 's many such among you vvhose life is a continued prayer Psal 109.4 As David that gave himself to prayer Heb. But I prayer he 's all over prayer prays at rising prays at lying down prays as he walks he 's always ready for prayer like a prime favourit at Court that has the golden key to the privy stairs and can vvake his Prince by night Christians there are such whatever the besotted profane world dreams vvho are ready for spiritual ascents at all seasons besides the frequency of set communions His wings never vveary his willing spirit is flying continually and makes God the rock of his dwelling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into which he may upon all assaults have holy retirements Psal 71.3 But so much for the main Question with its branches There be many particular queries of some weight that may attend the princ pal subject and such I shall briefly reply to as Qu 1. What 's the proper time for secret prayer Ans Various providences different temperaments and frames of spirit motions from heaven opportunities dictate variously Some find it best at even others in the night when all is silent others at morning when the spirits are freshest I think with respect to others that conscientious prudence must guide in such cases when others are retired and the spirit in the best frame for communion Qu. 2. How often should we pray in secret Ans If we consult Scripture-president we find David at prayer in the morning our blessed Lord early before day in the morning Psal 5.3 Mark 1.35 Chrys in Psal 5. p. 542 Etim Mat. 14 23. Gen. 24.63 Psal 55.17 Dâ—n 6 10. Psal 119.164 Chrysostom advises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. wash thy soul before thy body for as the face and hands are cleansed by water so is the soul by prayer At another time our Lord went to secret prayer in the even and Isaac went to prayer in the eventide David and Daniel pray'd three times a day and once 't is mentioned that David said seven times a day will I praise thee that is very often Such cases may happen that
in your houses upon earth Psal 6.5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Isa 38.18 For the grave cannot praise thee death cannot celebrate thee they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth 3. Pro re familiari 3. For earthly riches possessions and goods Mat. 23.14 These cannot serve God but with these men might serve and honour God by laying them out when and as God commands Prov. 3.9 4. For our weak and frail body in which our souls do dwell in a state of sin and imperfection 2 Cor. 5.1 4. Pro corpore naturali This house must serve the Lord though the Soul be the principal part which God requires Rom. 12.1 5. For the state and place and glory of the blessed 5. Pro sede seu statu beatorum Reliquorum sententiae spem afferunt si te fortè hoc d lectat posse animos cum è coâ—poribus excesserint in coelum qu si in domicilium suum pervenire Cicero Tusc Quest And blessed are they that are in this house for sure I am they in this house are still praising God loving him and delighting in him 2 Cor. 5.1 an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens This is called an house 1. Because there the Saints do dwell with God as children in their father's house 2. Because there they have clear distinct knowledg of and perfect love to God their Father 3. Because there they are safe from all their enemies and from all dangers as houses are our castles of defence 4. Because there all God's children shall be gathered together and called home and live in love for ever 5. Because of the excellent beauty of that state and place as houses of Kings and Nobles are set forth with rich and costly furniture what is that then of the King of Kings the place of the glorious God! 6. For persons belonging to the house or family And thus it is taken either (1) Deo adorando venerando adoravit veneratus est religioâ—è coluit More generally for a People or whole Nation 6. Pro domesticis Ezek. 2.3 the children of Israel are called a rebellious nation ver 5. a rebellious house Ezek. 3.1 Speak to the house of Israel ver 4. go get thee to the house of Israel ver 7. but the house of Israel will not hearken for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted or (2) Homini operando vel opera officiis subjectus fuit More strictly for a stock or tribe So the house of Benjamin is taken for the tribe of Benjamin 2 Sam. 3.19 Or (3) Terrae lâ—borande arando sementem praeparande aravit coluit exercuit Schind Lexic Pentag Most strictly for an houshold or persons living together in one proper house The whole people of the Jews did consist of several Tribes a tribe of several Families a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Serviit Deo homini terrae a family of several housholds an houshold of several persons Josh 7.14 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by housholds and the houshold which the Lord shall take shall come man by man In this place I take it strictly for an houshold properly at least necessarily included of which more in the first Argument to prove the Question before us Will serve the Lord The original word is used concerning God concerning Men concerning the Earth The first is only to our present purpose and signifieth the Religious worship which we ow to God Deut. 6.13 Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and him shalt thou serve Psal 2.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Serve the Lord with fear Of this more also in the first Argument to the Question which I am limited to which is well enough grounded upon the Text as will appear in the proof drawn from it The Question is this How might the duty of daily Family Prayer be best managed to the spiritual benefit of every one in the Family For the more distinct proceeding in this Question I shall inquire after these five things 1. Q. How it will appear or be proved that it is a duty incumbent upon proper Families jointly to pray to God 2. Q. Whether it be the duty of proper Families or those that live together in one house under the government of the Master of the Family to pray daily to God together or what are the reasons for the daily performing of it 3. Q. How these daily Family Prayers should be so performed and managed that every one in the Family might be benefited thereby 4. Q. With what Arguments Masters of Families might be urged and they press their own hearts withall to a conscientious serious and constant performance of Family Prayer 5. Q. What are the common pleas and excuses ordinarily alledged to stop the mouth of Conscience or to shift off the guilt from themselves in the neglect of it and how they may be made appear to be frivolous and vain In the first I shall speak of the duty it self In the second of the time and frequency of it In the third to the manner of it In the fourth to the motives to it In the last to the Objections against it Question First Q. 1 Whether it be the duty of proper Families or Housholds to pray to God together Aff. Argument 1. That it is the duty of those that live together under the government of the Master of the Family to pray together will appear and be proved from this chapter whereof the Text is a part by making good these four propositions 1. That by Joshua his house is meant or at least necessarily included Joshua his houshold or proper family 2. That serving of God taken generally as here it is doth comprehend and include prayer as one way whereby Joshua and his house together would serve the Lord. 3. That Joshua made this resolution as he was guided by the Holy Ghost 4. That Joshua in the name of God and by Authority received from him doth exhort all the Families of Israel to do the same in their houses which he doth promise and resolve for himself and his house and this upon moral grounds and reasons for which all Families are obliged to do the like Proposition 1. By Joshua 's house is meant or at least included 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Instrumento veteri non simpliciter pro aedificio capitur sed pro ipsa familia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continens pro contento Pro quaque familia nempe mi ore in una domo degente Pisc t. in loc Domus patris pro domo in qua est pâ—terfamilias Oleaster Mariana his houshold or proper family That this
thy trust and requireth thy help to the utmost power for their good assist them herein and see that they do it and use thy gifts and parts and knowledg in praying with them that they also by thy example might be induced to this duty and by hearing thee pray in their company may learn to pray also Light of Nature did dictate to the heathen Mariners Jon. 1. that prayer to God was a means to save them in the storm therefore the Master of the Ship the Head of that Society called Jonah from sleep to Prayers and this they did not only severally but conjunctly v. 14. they cried unto the Lord and said We beseech thee O Lord We beseech thee c. and shall the Heathen Master of the Ship do more in that Society whereof he was chief than a Christian Master of a Family in that Houshold Society whereof he is head Moreover 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lores Penates Dii domestici qui domi coluntur Ego Deos Penates hinc salutatum domum devortar Ter. Phorm Vestae vis ad aras focos pertinet itaque in ea dea quae est rerum Custos intimarum omnis precatio sacrificatio extrema est nec longè absunt ab hac vi dâ—i penates sive à penu ducto nomine sive ab eo quod penitùs insident Cic. de nat Deor. l. 2. that the Light of Nature doth dictate that there should be conjunct worshipping of God in mens houses the practice of the Heathen makes manifest they had their houshold gods so call'd because they thought they had the rule over them and their Housholds and the keeping and preserving of their Families though indeed they could not defend themselves nor them that did in their houses worship them as Juno in her speech to Aeolus Gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor Ilium in Italiam portans victósque penates Yet these Gods they served in their houses and sacrificed to them in which Sacrifice their custom * Godw. Rom. Ant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Videntur fuisse dii penates qui ad tuendam rem domesticam colerentur De Dieu in Gen. 31.19 was to eat up all that was left at the Offering thinking it an hainous matter to send any of that Sacrifice abroad to their friends or to the poor Of this sort were the Teraphim an Idol or Image made for mens private use in their own houses Laban had such houshold Gods Gen. 31.19 30. Why hast thou stollen away my Gods By this you see that the Light of Nature doth dictate houshold worship to be given to God and the Heathens did it to their false Gods And if you called Christians will not in your houses jointly pray unto the true God let the Heathens stand up as witnesses against you However take this Argument containing the sum of the five foregoing Propositions 2. Arg. If all men are bound to take God for their Ruler governing them by a Law writen in their hearts which doth dictate to them that there is a God and jointly to be prayed unto in mens Families then it is their duty so to do The reason of this is because if they be bound to do it and do it not they sin But all men are bound to take God for their Ruler as in the first Proposition is shewn governing them by a Law as in the second written in their hearts as in the third which doth dictate to them that God is as in the fourth and to be jointly prayed to in their Families as in the fifth Therefore it is their duty so to do For the proof of the last part of the minor Proposition viz. That the Light of Nature doth dictate that Men or Masters of Families ought to pray conjunctly with the Members of their Families consider this Seeing Societies as such are totally dependent upon God and mens gifts are communicative and solemnities are operative nature teacheth us that God ought to be solemnly acknowledg'd worship'd and honour'd both in families and in more solemn appointed assemblies Mr. Baxter Reasons of Christ Rel. part 1. p. 74. If the Light or Law of Nature doth dictate that Masters of Families ought to use all means to prevent the damnation of the immortal Souls in that Domestick Society of which they are Heads and Governours and to further their eternal happiness having opportunities so to do then it doth dictate that they ought to pray conjunctly with them The reason of this is because Prayer is a means made together with them which the Light of Nature doth dictate profitable to prevent their misery and further their happiness as in the fourth Position before laid down and they have opportunities for this means But the Light or Law of Nature doth dictate that Masters of Families ought to use all means to prevent the damnation of the immortal Souls in that Domestick Society whereof they are Heads and Governours and to further their eternal happiness having opportunities so to do For if the Light of Nature doth dictate they ought to take care of their bodies that are mortal it doth tell them they are much more to take care of their Souls which are immortal and must for ever live in happiness or misery as in Position first second and third Therefore the Light or Law of Nature doth dictate that it is their duty to pray conjunctly with their Families and if the Law of Nature doth the Lavv of God doth because the Law of Nature is God's Law Argument 3. The third seat or head of Argument shall be taken from what God is to Families as such in these four Propositions God is the founder of all Families as such therefore Families as such should pray unto him 1. Familia est inter plures pirsonas quae sunt sub unius potestate vel naturâ vel jure subjectae vel societas constituta secundùm naturam quotidiani usus gratia Estque conjugalis patria Herilis Liebent Col. Polit The houshold Society usually is of these three Combinations Husband and Wife Parents and Children Masters or Servants though there may be a Family where all these are not yet take it in its latitude and all these Combinations are from God The Institution of Husband and Wife is from God Gen. 2.21 22 23 24. and of Parents and Children and Masters and Servants and the authority of one over the other and the subjection of the one to the other is instituted by God and founded in the Law of Nature which is God's Law The persons singly considered have not their beings only from God but the very being of this Society as such is also from him and as a single person is therefore bound to devote himself to the service of God and pray unto him so an houshold Society is therefore bound jointly as such to do the same because as such a Society it is from God utriusque est par ratio And hath God
esse non cogitans quia Deus ludibrio habetur rogando semper inopiam nostram verè sentiamus ac seriò cogitantes omnibus que petimus nos indigere Generalis quidem confusus necessitatis suae affectus illuc eos ducit sed non cos sollicitat quasi in re praesenti ut egestatis suae le vamen petant Calv. Inst 3. Direct Get and keep upon your hearts a true real lively sense of your sins and wants and mercies Hereby shall every part of prayer confession petition and thanksgiving be more profitably managed and you better disposed for the work you have to do upon your knees Know your sin in the intrinsecal malignity of it the vileness of it in its own nature as it is sin Know it also and understand it as to the dreadful consequents of it in its several kinds acts and aggravations of them Get also a sense of your wants and of the necessity of the things you are to pray for If you want grace know that you want it and are undone without it and pray accordingly Pray as persons that believe you must be damned if you are not sanctified that you must perish if you do not repent and pray as men that do believe it And if you have grace already in truth know how much you want of it in respect of growth that you love God but a little which is your shame and Oh what a blessed thing were it to love him more Pray as those that would get at least one degree of love to God more by every prayer you make Think seriously what a little grace you have 1. to what you may have 2. to what you might have had 3. to what you ought to have 4. to what others have 5. to what you need And that 1. to fight against such strong corruptions 2. to resist such strong temptations 3. to bear such afflictions that might befall you 4. to perform such duties as are required from you 5. that you dye at last with peace comfort and joy Know also your mercies personal to body to soul relative what mercy you have one in another by being made mercies one to another Mercies for this life and the life to come think how many how great how precious how suitable how durable how sufficient how satisfying good God hath given you himself Son Spirit promises priviledges much in hand and more in hope and all undeserved A real abiding sense of these things will make you think and say Why me Lord why me and will wind up your hearts to lively praises too much neglected in Family duties so that you shall find the benefit and sweetness of drawing near to God in prayer Direction 4. 4. Direct Realize invisible things to yourselves Istuc est sapere non quod ante pedes modò est videre sed etiam illa quae futura suâ—t prospicere Ter. Adelph Act. 3. by believing of them as certainly as if you saw them with your eyes When you are going to pray look into the unseen world stand and take a view of departed souls and seriously think what is their state and what they are enjoying or suffering that are already gone into eternity and from thence fetch arguments to quicken your hearts when dull and to be laborious when slothful and lively and fervent in your duty O how would a believing view of souls in Heaven and Hell help you to pray in prayer Suppose then you saw the glorious Saints in Heaven and the happiness they there enjoy in that they shall sin no more and suffer no more and be tempted no more and sigh and sob nor weep nor sorrow any more for ever all sin is expelled from those glorious souls and all tears are wiped from their eyes and now are full of love to God solacing themselves in the perfect perpetual and immediate suition of the chiefest good and then think this is the state that I am hoping for and looking longing waiting for and that now I am going to beg and pray I may be fitted and prepared for and hereafter be possessed of and then pray as becometh such that unfeignedly desire to be partakers of their joy and felicity Again stand and take a view of poor damned Souls and suppose you saw them with your eyes rolling in a lake of burning Brimstone full of the fury of the Lord Suppose you heard their direful execrations their doleful outcries their hideous roarings and bitter lamentations ringing in your ears saying Wo and alas that ever we were born that are come to this place of torment to this place of torment Oh! it is it is a place of torment In scipsos furenter exordescent damnati assiduè sibi ipsis iugubrem hanc caâ—tilenam occinent O tempus rerum omnium preciâ—sissimum O dici O horae plusquam aurcae quò evanuistis aeterium non rediâ—urae nos coeci excordes obstructis oculis auribus libidine furebamus mutuis nosmet exemplis trahebamus ad enteritum post longissima annorum spatia nihil de poenis nostris accisum erit sed iterum quasi ab initio pati tormenta incipiemus aâ—que ilà sine interruptione sine fine sine mâ—do volvetur assiduè nostrorum tormentâ—rum rota ibi erit calor ignis rigor frigoris erunt ibi perpetuae tâ—nebrae eâ—it ibi fumus perpetuae lachrymae erit ibi aspectus terrificus daemonum erit clamor in perpetuum O aeternitas interminabilis O aeternitas nullis temporum spatiis mensurablìs Quam grave est in mollissimo lectu per triginta annos immobilem â—â—cere quid erit in sulphureo isto lacu triginta millia millium annorum ardere O aeternitas aeternitas tu sola ultra omnem modum supplicia damnatorum exaggeras Mor erit sine morte finis erit sine fine defectus sine defectu quia mors semper vivit finis semper incipit defectus deficere nescit Quid gravius quam semper velle quod nunquam erit semper nâ—llo quod nunquam non erit In aeternum damnati non assequenâ—ur quod volunt quod nolunt in aeternum pati cogentur Gerhard Meditat. sparsim Once we had praying time and hearing time but we did not improve it for our good else we had not been now in this extremity of pain no we had not no we had not We did pray but we did but triflle in our prayers and did but dally with that God whom now we find and feel to be to us consuming fire and yet we burn and are not consumed we were not in good earnest in those prayers we were at but now we suffer in good earnest and are damned in good earnest Oh! this place is hot it is hot it is exceeding hot Will not God pity us will not God have mercy on us we once thought he would but we did flatter and deceive our selves and thought it would be well because we lived
in a praying Family and were frequent at the duty but we did not pray as they should do that were to pray for the escaping of such dreadful torments we did sleep often in our prayers but there is no sleeping here no ease no resting here O that God would try us once more once more were it but for a moneth or two and set us out and send us to a praying life again O that we were in time again in time again and in the same circumstances again as once we were and had the same possibility yea probability of escaping those restless torments But this cannot be this must not be this will not be time is gone is gone and we must pray no more for ever O time how didst thou slip away How swift was thy motion O that this eternity would hasten as fast as time did hasten When we had lived twenty years our life was so much nearer expiration but here we have been a thousand years and yet as far from an end as the first moment we came into this dreadful place and dark and doleful dungeon This then addeth to our misery that here we are and must be here for ever here we are woe be to us that here we are and that without all hopes of recovery and possibility of redemption and deliverance Had our pain been extreme yet if it had not been eternal it might have been the better born or if it were to be eternal if it had not been extreme it might have been more easily endured but to FEEL it is EXTREME and to THINK it is ETERNAL makes our misery unexpressible What! O what extreme and eternal too extreme and eternal too Cannot we dye cannot we dig into our own bowels and take away our own beings but must we live in pain and torment extreme and eternal too O miserable Caitiffs that we are those creatures that were Toads and Serpents feel none of this as they are not happy so they are not miserable but we are not happy no no there is no happiness here misery is our portion Oh cursed wretches Oh foolish sinners that we were that prayed with no life to escape eternal death Damnation is a dreadful things we find we feel to our own confusion that damnation is a dreadful thing Thus realize the happiness and the misery of souls in the unseen world and take a believing view of them beyond this life and try whether you shall not find much benefit by such prayers that after such a sight are put up unto God Direction 5. 5. Direct Then next consider Quemadmodum â—ovem mensibus noâ— tenet maternus uterus praeparaâ— non sibi sed illi loco in quem videmur emuti jam idonei Spiritum trahere in apâ—rto durare sic per hoc spotium quod ab infantia patet in sâ—nâ—ctutem in alium naturae sumimur partum alia erigo nos expectat alius rerum status detrahetur tibi haec circumjecta novissimum vehimentum tui cuâ—is detrahetur care suffusus sanguis discurrensque per totum detrahentur essa nervique sirmamenta fluâ—dorum labentium dies iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est Senec. Epist p. 816 817. Vigilandum est nisi preperamus relinquimur agit nos agitur velex dies Inscii rapimur omnia in futurum disponimus inter praecipitia lenti sumus fugit des fugere currendi genus concitatissimum est quid ergo câ—ssamus nos ipsi concitare ut velocitatem rapid ssurae rei possia â—s aequare Idem Epist p. 834. that one of these two places you must shortly very shortly be in When you are going to prayer look behind you and you shall see death hastning after you that death is at your backs and look forward and you shall see Heaven and Hell before you your selves standing upon the very brink of time and the next step might be into eternity of joy or sorrow where you did but now by faith see others were there you your selves must quickly really be where you shall rejoyce with them or suffer and sorrow with them Do but look a little before you fall down upon your knees and you might see your selves cast down upon a bed of sickness your friends weeping and fearing you will die the Physicians are puzled and at a loss giving you over for the grave and your self gasping for life and breathing out your last Look but a little before you and you might as it were hear your friends saying he is dead he is dead he is gone he is departed and then as it were you might see them haling you out of your bed and wrapping you in your winding sheet and nailing you up in your Coffin you might see your Grave a digging and men hired to carry you on their shoulders from your house to your grave Relations and Neighbours following after to see you lodged in the dust to lie and rot among the dead Then think before all this can be done unto your body your Soul hath taken its flight into eternity where it is without change and alteration for ever to be with God or Devils Work it on your hearts that you must quickly and O how quickly will it be that you must be in Heaven or Hell that when you die Heaven must be won or lost for ever and everlasting torments escaped or endured for ever Try whether such believing thoughts as these will not stir you up to manage all your praying together as well as apart in that manner that you shall find great benefit thereby Direction 6. Id ago ut mihi instar totius vitae sit dies nec mehercule tanquam ultimum rapie sed sic illum aspiciâ— tanquam esse vel ultimus possit hoc animo tibi hanc Epistolam scribo tanquam cum maxime scribentem morâ— ea oâ—atura sit Son Epist p. 634 6 5. 6. Direct Since this is so consider next that you do not know but now you are going to make your last Family Prayer together You do not know but God and death might seize upon some of you before the next time of prayer do come again that God might single out the Master or Mistris of the house this Child or that Servant and every one think I might be the first that you may never pray all together again Pray then as if you were to pray no more and see if you shall not find real spiritual benefit by such a Prayer A Heathen writing a Letter to his Friend did say I write unto you not knowing but death might call me away whilst the pen is in my hand and should not Christians pray as such as do not know but death might seiz upon them with their prayers in their mouths Direction 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anton. lib. 2. §. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vehementer assiduè incumbere rei alicui difficili laboriâ—sae donec eum ad
oplatum finem perduxeris quasi victoriam obtinueris significat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 igitur haec duo involvit vehementem quandam animi intentionem quasi pugnam dum veâ—satur in actu orandi assiduam frequentationem orationis Davenant in loc 7. Direct Be laborious and importunate in your prayers If your thoughts do wander call them in if your thoughts be dull stir them up An Heathen advised to do as becomes a man like a Roman and should not you pray as becomes Christians to do but that is not in a dull and sluggish manner Labour at your prayers together as you use to do at your worldly work together and more too for in this you are concerned more Strive and wrestle with joynt fervency and faith as becomes a society to do that are all a praying for their lives for their souls for the pardon of their sin for the favour and the love of God as becometh those that are praying against everlasting flames and for eternal happiness Pray together as persons desirous that you may live in Heaven all together and praise God in Heaven for his love and mercy to you all together But pray not coldly and lukewarmly together lest you be damned and hereafter lye in scorching flames all together You must be instant in this work You will meet with opposition from the Devil and the world and your own hearts You must then strive and tug and labour hard or else your prayer will be spoiled Col. 4.2 the word there is very significant Be present at your work in heart as well as body attend your work and stand to it continue in prayer not only with continuance of time but of earnest importunity till you prevail with God and get the victory over sin and Satan Let me therefore warn praying Families as you love your Souls Defunctiorè multi preces ex formula recitant ac si pensum Deo solverent apparet hoc officio ipsos defungi ex more quia interim frigent animi neque expendant quid postulent Galv Inst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. ad Magnes as you would have God incline his ear to what you say take heed of customariness and formalities Do not rest in the work done in pouring our words before God This is your great danger It must be a fervent Prayer that pleaseth God and profits you Jam. 5.16 Be praying Christians indeed and do not seem only to be so that you might all be happy indeed and saved indeed and not only to be thought to be so And because we are apt to slide into such formality and lukewarmness when we use constant Family Prayer which eats out the very heart and life thereof and hinders our benefit thereby I shall propose twenty five Questions some of which at one time and some at another you may put unto your selves to make you lively in your duty But I shall I must but name them because I would not willingly take up more paper than comes unto my share as also that lying close together you may the better have them in your eye When thou art called to Family Prayer put some of these Questions to thy self WHAT AM I A sinful Sinner Dust Ashes Guilty Oh how should Q. 1 a guilty person going to the dust pray for pardon WHERE AM I In whose presence do I kneel is it not before God Q. 2 and doth not he know whether I trifle or am serious Where might I NOW have been In Hell among Devils and damned Q. 3 Souls and shall I not pray indeed with all my might that I never may be cast into that place or company Whither am I going To eternity Where shall I shortly be In eternity Q. 4 and shall I trifle in my way What am I come about What is now my business About the highest Q. 5 matters that concern my Soul What if this were to be my last Prayer before I dye Should I then fall Q. 6 asleep upon my knees What if my everlasting state should be determined according to my sincerity Q. 7 or hypocrisy in this duty I am now going to Should I dally then with God What if God should tell me if I trifle with his Majesty he would strike Q. 8 me sick or dead or blind or deaf and dumb upon my knees Should I not then watch my heart in Prayer What if I were to speak to an earthly King or were to see some glorious Q. 9 Angel Should I not be filled with fear and reverence and is not God infinitely above these What if I were to give an account to God immediately how I pray and Q. 10 should appear at his Bar as soon as I rise from off my knees Should I then be formal and lukewarm Am I come to have communion with God to pray down my sin to please Q. 11 God and profit my Soul Will careless praying do it What if those that joyn in Prayer with me could look into my heart and Q. 12 see how I do discharge my duty Should I not be ashamed of many of my thoughts and of the deadness of my heart and is not the eye of God ten thousand times more to awe my heart than the knowledg of a fellow Creature Q. 13 Will dead and careless praying yield me comfort when I review it when I come to die Or should I not so pray now that I might have comfort then Q. 14 Should I cozen and deceive my self in matters of the greatest weight Shall I crawl to Hell upon my knees What! pray now and be damned hereafter Awake my heart and mind thy business Q. 15 Will God be mocked And is not heartless praying a mocking of God Q. 16 Should I not do more than Hypocrites do Or shall I not be damned if I do not But may not an Hypocrite pray at that rate as I have too often done Q. 17 Doth not the same God that commands me to pray command me also to give him my heart in Prayer and to do it with life and fervency Do I obey him in the one and shall I not in the other in the lesser and not in the greater and if I do not do I not rebel upon my knees Q. 18 If dead and dull and formal praying stops the mouth of my Conscience now will it do so at the Bar of God And should I not endeavour now to have the witness of my Conscience for me then Q. 19 Will it do me any good to have a name to live among men if I be dead in the sight of God and if others think and say when I am dead my Soul is gone to Heaven but is indeed cast down to Hell Will it lessen my torments that I was applauded dy men and condemned by God Will it ease my pain to be an applauded damned man Q. 20 Should I so pray as to make Prayer a burden to me Liveless heartless Prayer is a burden when lively Prayer is
yet we perish much through our Parents and Masters neglect There stands my Father saith the Son and there stands my Master saith the Servant that never prayed with us we do accuse them they never did and they cannot say they did Will you not then wish you had never been Parents to such Children nor Masters to such Servants As you would avoid this be faithful to your trust and mindful of your duty lest thou wish O Vtinam coelebs mansissem ac prole carerem MOTIVE III. 3. Consider You have but a little time before you for the performance of this trust You and your Families shall live together but a while and if once you are parted by death it will be too late whether you die first or some of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoc. Sâ—es est in vivis non est spes ulla sepultiâ— 1. Suppose some of them dye before you if your Conscience be not feared and your hearts past feeling will you not be almost distracted when you follow them to their Graves to reflect and consider here is one dead out of my house with whom I never prayed we did dwell together and eat together and work together many years but we never prayed together Oh! what if his Soul be gone to Hell through my neglect What if he be damned and I be found guilty of his damnation Prayer was a means appointed by God to have done him good but I did not do it who knows if I had called him to Prayer and I had been confessing sin but God might have broke his heart for sin and given him repentance of which I saw no sign before he died And now Oh! what now if there be one Soul the less in my house and one the more in Hell Oh! this is that which wounds my Soul this is that for which my Conscience now doth sting me that when I had him with me I did not do my duty and now he is gone he is gone and now it is too late O my child my child whither art thou gone whither art thou gone O that he may live with me again were it but for a year or two a month or two that we might do together our before neglected duty If you be wise timely prevent such uncomfortable reviews 2. Suppose you die before them for if they do not die and leave you you must die and leave them and can you die without trembling for anguish of your heart without terrours in your Souls and fearful gripes in your Consciences more bitter than the pangs of Death to consider you leave a wicked prayerless Family behind you through your own neglect Would it not trouble you to leave them poor Wife and Children nothing to live upon if this hath been through your sloth and will it not should it not much more trouble you to leave an ignorant Wife Children and Servants unacquainted with God unaccustomed to prayer and all through your neglect Might you not then say if I had left them poor yet if I had left them good and fearing God and given to prayer by my example I could now have died with joy and left them all with comfort but now I lie a dying it is the wounding of my Soul to take so sad a farewel of my Family If I do live it shall be otherwise if I recover and God trust me with life and time yet further I will hereafter do it but my heart is sick my Spirits fail me and I perceive the symptomes of death are upon me and though I am loth to take my leave of my Wife and Children because I have been no more careful of the good of their Souls yet I see I must I must bid farewel unto them Come then dear Wife farewel Gemitúquo haec addidit alio Non alias hinc ad lacrymas Fata vocant Salve aeternum aeternúmque vâ—le Virg. Aeneid l. xi farewel I shall now be no longer thine and thou shalt be no longer mine but this had been no matter if I and thou had both been his whom we should have prayed unto together but we did not Woe is me poor dying man that we did not Farewel dear Children now farewel adieu adieu for ever but oh how shall I take my leave of you with whom I have not done what God required But yet I must whether I will or no I must now leave you But let me give among you what I have gotten for you Therefore to you my Wife I give so much and to this Child so much and to that so much But when I think I worked for you but never prayed with you this doth trouble me Oh! this doth trouble my departing Soul However you will have my Goods the grave and worms shall have my body but who oh who must now have my Soul This will be a sad parting when ever it shall come and yet this parting hour is a coming Pray now with them and in that manner too that then you may be comforted On the contrary if you discharge your duty faithfully and unfeignedly whether your Family be good or bad when you shall die you might take comfort that you did your duty So Mr. Bolton that was abundant in conjunct Prayers in his Family could comfort himself and did say on his Death-bed to his Children I think verily none of you dare think to meet me at the great Tribunal in an unregenerate condition MOTIVE IV. 4. The love that you should bear unto your Families should engage you often to pray together with them Diligatur Proles non ut nascatur tantum verum-etiam ut renascatur nascitur enim ad paenam nisi renascatur ad vitam Aug. de nupt conc l. 1. cap. 17 Ipsae ferae saevae immanes bestiae prolem nutrire solent at non tantùm curare debent parentes ut liberi sui vivant sed etiam ut Deo benè vivant Ames Cas Cons Will you shew your love unto your Children in providing Portions for them that they may live in credit in this life and will you not so much as pray with them that they may live in glory in the life to come Will you do much for their Bodies and nothing for their Souls You that are fondest Husbands and Fathers never love Wife and Children as you ought till you love their Souls The Soul is the best and more noble part and love to the Soul is the best and more noble Love But to love the Body and neglect the Soul is but cruel brutish Love What do you more for your young ones than the birds and beasts do for theirs Do you feed their bodies do not birds and beasts do the same for theirs Love your Wife Children and Servants as you ought and this will provok you to pray together with them MOTIVE V. Oeconomia est veluti paradisus in quo plantantur arbores quarum fructus odore dulcore suo imbuunt omnes vitae
shouldest sometime sustain some loss in thy outward estate if it be made up with the favour of God and true peace of Conscience in the way of duty and with the real advantage of thy own Soul and the Souls of all thy Family Canst thou be willing to lose nothing for the gaining of Heaven or hadst thou rather that thou and they should lose God and Christ and Glory and Souls and all Surely when you come to cast up your accounts what you have got and what you have lost your gains will prove your loss 10. If God should bring back some from the Grave and Hell and set them in this world again dost thou think that they would so follow the World and run up and down after money that they would say they could find no time to pray that they might escape that dreadful place of Torment they had been in If some of those that have been in Hell but a Moneth or two were now in thy circumstances dost thou think they would not let their work stand still or rise the sooner and sit up the later or would deny themselves much of their eating time and sleeping time that they might have time to pray Lord let us not go down to Hell again O let us not return to the place which we have found to be so restless and so dreadful And shouldst not thou be as much and often and as earnest with thy Family that neither thou nor any of thine be cast into it I durst not let this pass though I am sensible I have taken up too much room without endeavouring to remove this hindrance that lyes in the way to keep many Families from their knees in Holy Prayer I beg for the Lord's sake and for your Soul's sake that you would watch against it and resolve against it and that your worldly Interest shall no longer keep you from Family Prayer In the close then of all that hath been said Let me in the Name of God exhort you all to the practice of Family Prayer You have heard it proved to be your duty you have been directed how you might manage it for the good of all in your houses you have had motives to press you to the performance of it your pretences and excuses brought against it have been manifested to be frivolous and vain What say you Sirs Will you resolve upon it here in the presence of the Lord or will you still neglect it Shall I lose all my labour or shall it be in vain that I have preached and you have heard this Doctrine I tell you to your faces it shall not be in vain the word of the blessed God shall convince you and reform you or condemn you What come we hither for but faithfully to shew you your duty and earnestly to perswade you to obey Do Ministers study for you when you are sleeping in your beds and declare the mind and will of God in the Congregation and will you cast all our counsel behind your back I hope you will be wiser for your own everlasting happiness Say then Are you convinced in this point that it is your duty If not view over again what hath been said and seriously consider it and let me beg this at your hands that you would think of all Now as you would do if you were with an awakened Conscience upon your dying bed or if you were standing at God's Judgment barr and when this question is put to you whether you ought to pray in your Families Let Conscience say Yes or No according as its verdict and dictate shall be at Death and Judgment and then I am perswaded you will say you are convinced you ought to do it And are you indeed What! and yet go on in the omission of it Will you so sin against your Consciences will you dare so to do You Parents for God's sake consider in what a condition you have brought your Children into the world are they not by nature enemies to God dead in sin children of wrath unfit for Heaven Such Parents are like the Ostrich You negligent Parents read Job 39.13 to 19. and Lam 4.3 Look your faces in that Glass Do you not blush Look that you are so like to such a foolish bird Struthio-camelus derâ—linquit ova sua in terra crudelis in prolem nihil praestupiditate oblivione crudelitate filiis suis timet Vales. Phil. Sac. Sicut haec avis non curat sua ova ita insipientes non curant instrui liberos in pietate Franzius The Ostrich if it thrust her neck or head into any shrub or bush and get that hidden thinks her self safe and that no man seeth her Plin. Nat. Hist Such fools are these ungodly Parents that if they get their heads under their roofs remember not that God seeth their great neglect there and in danger of damnation and will you not so much as pray daily with them that they may be delivered out of this condition and be saved from damnation is it nothing to you whether your Children are damned or saved is it nothing to you whether they live with the blessed glorious God or with cursed Devils and damned Souls have you no pity nor compassion for them that are flesh of your flesh where are the earnings of your hearts where are the workings of your bowels if their bodies were a dying would you not pray by their bed sides that they may be preserved from â—he grave and will you not that their Souls might be saved from Helâ— Dare you not be guilty of the murder of their bodies and dare you of their Souls do not the Laws of men justly hang those that do the one and will not the Laws of God righteously damn them that do the other You Fathers and you Mothers can you look upon your Graceless Christless Children and not pity them and weep over them and call them to you to come and pray with you have you not a word to say to God for them in their hearing will you not call them to this duty and let them be eye-witnesses of the tears that you should shed in lamenting their sinful state and misery thereby and ear-witnesses of the requests you put up to God for their conversion and how might this work upon their hearts if they were But what shall I say to you Fathers and to you Mothers that do neglect your duty which God requireth for the good of your Children the Father doth not pray the Mother doth not perswade him nor intreat him so to do and by the negligence of both the Children are ungodly Are they more wicked or you more cruel They are full of Impiety and you are full of cruelty both Father and Mother because it is so much long of you that they are so bad Crudelis Mater magis an puer Improbus ille Improbus ille puer crudelis tu quoque mater Virg. Eclog. 8. Appendatur hoc Crudelis pater es per te
pauper te divite quodque inter amicos contingere non potest quomodo in tanta amoris animorum copula contingeâ— Lud. Vives de off mar sick in one anothers sickness The husband must improve all his skill and strength to procure a competence of estate and the wife all hers to help and further it The Reputation of the wife the husband must tender as the apple of his eye and the wife must every way advance the good name of her husband And in short the Holy Ghost hath determined that he that is married careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife and she that is married careth for the things of the world (f) Circa ejus lectum sunt sacra omnia ibi arae ibi Deus ubi pax concordia charitas Deum facilè tibi amicum reddes si hominem reddideris Lud. Viv. de Christ. foem p. 710. how she may please her husband 1 Cor. 7. 33 34. This will bring honour to Religion comfort to their lives and a blessing on all they have This will make them digest all the pains and troubles of that condition seeing they find two to be better than one and do never miss of a sweet and constant (g) Summus autem amicitiae gradus est foedus conjugale Melan. l. c. friend in their bosom Without this care the one will be a perpetual burden to the other and a daily torment When the one is unconcern'd in the others trials when the one gathers and the other scatters when the one blasts the others reputation when one perpetually crosseth and vexeth the other There follows a Hell of disquiet in the mind ordinarily a blast upon the estate besides guilt and shame unspeakable Think therefore often God hath made us One if my wife be sick I am not half well if my husband be poor I cannot be rich if he be discontent how can I be content we 'l laugh and weep together nothing but Death shall separate our Affections or Interests 9. Mutual Prayer Hence the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 3.7 advises that their Prayers be not hindred which implies that they should pray for and with one another Thus Isaac is said Gen. 25.21 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Verba fudit magna copia ante è regione ante oculos multiply prayers with or before his wife and it follows how prevalent these prayers were This Common Debt we owe to all much more to them that are so nearly united to us The purest love is written in Prayer This Duty must constantly be done for and frequently with each other No better preservative of real love and peace than praying together There they must bewail their failings in their conjugal Relations the (i) Cum vero non amor procreandae sobolis sed voluâ—tas dominatur in opere commixtionis habeant conjuges etiam de commixione sua quod defleant Lombard l. 4. d. 31. pollutions that cleave to the marriagebed There they should beg the blessing of Children and blessings upon their Children a blessing upon their Estates and especially all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ upon their souls Who knows but that God may touch the heart of the Wife when the husband is pouring out prayers for her Certainly they are in the discharge of their duty to which God hath annexed a promise And it will be the wisdom of them both to espy Fit times for their joynt-Prayers if they cannot keep Pace with Holy Mr. Bolton who prayed twice daily alone twice with his Wife and twice with his Family And herein consider what particular grace or mercy your Relation wants what sin and temptation they are most liable to and press God with an humble importunity in the case till your prayer be answered You owe each other a spiritual as well as as a matrimonial love and if you only eat and drink together what do you more than others do not the Beasts of the field so If your love reach only to the body and the things of this life do not the Publicans the same but if you love one anothers souls and be restless after the salvation thereof you do more than others and your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And thus you have heard a plain Breviate of these Common Duties which Husbands and Wives should discharge towards each other I follow now the Order of my Text to declare in the Second place the special Duty of the Husband in this Position namely The great Duty of every Husband is to Love his own Wife This is the foundation of all the rest this must be mixed with all the rest this is the Epitome of all the rest of his Duty And hence this is expresly mentioned four times in this Chapter vers 25 28 33. as being the great wheel which by its motion carries about all the other wheels of the affections that are within us and the actions that are without us Fix but this blessed Habit in the heart and it will teach a man yea it will enforce a man to all that tenderness honour care and kindness that is required of him These are but the beams from that Sun they are but the fruits from that root of real Love that is within Love suffereth long and is kind it envies not is not puffed up seeks not her own is not easily provoked thinketh none evil beareth all things 1 Cor. 13.4 6. It is here as it is in Love to God which you know doth both instruct and thrust a man on to the utmost of his Duty excluding those wary fears wherewith hypocrites abound lest they should do too much Even so Love to a man's Wife suggests all fit expressions thereof and carries a man to perform the highest effects of it when as the want of this causes him to dispute every inch of God's command and to be jealous of every prescription I shall trace this comprehensive Grace or Duty 1. In its nature and property 2. In its Pattern 3. In its effects which done you will see that the greatest part if not all the Husbands Duty is contained in Loving his Wife as himself 1. For the First The Nature and Property of this Love It is Conjugal true aed genuine such as is peculiar to this Relation Not that fondness which is proper in Children nor the brutish lust which is peculiar to Beasts but that which is right and true 1. For the ground of it which is the near Relation which Gods Ordinance hath now brought him into and his will revealed in his Word Such was the Love of Isaac to Rebeka Gen. 24.67 She became his Wife and he loved her The Ordinance of God hath made her (k) Not only by original creation so she is part of his flesh but by nuptial coâ—junction so she is one flesh Gatak Serm. p. 200. One Flesh with me and the Law of Nature obligeth me to love my own flesh
de Clementia That your servants are the inferior and poor friends and are to be accounted next to children and came not into the house for servitude and vassalage but patronage Fifthly Take heed of letting them have too littie employment It 's of dangerous consequence to get a habit of idleness It was none of the least commendations of that worthy woman Prov. 31.27 that she would suffer none in her house to eat the bread of idleness As you must give an account of your own time so must you also of your servants too how it is spent When your Servants are idle the Devil is at work If you have nothing for them to do remember God hath something Set them to reading the Word praying and put them upon using all diligence in making their calling and election sure It is far better to have no Servant than to keep one to do nothing but look about him This this hath laid the foundation of some young mens ruin this is unfaithfulness to God and man by this you wrong body and soul Sixthly Take heed of bitterness and threatning of cruelty and injustice of wronging them in meat drink clothing or lodging and neglecting them when they are sick and denying them that tendance physick and care that is fit for them at such a time Take heed of calling them names and cursing them and of correcting them with unreasonable weapons for slight or no faults and using them worse than a merciful man would do his beast Are not your Servants of the same mettal with your selves they have sense and feeling as well as you their flesh is not iron nor their bones brass Would you have God give you such mercy as you give your Servants If he should mark what you do amiss what would soon become of you Did you never read the woes that God denounceth against oppressors and do you think God threatens in jest can't he easily give life and execution to his woes and where are you then man What if God should curse when you curse what if he should strike as well as you are you able to bear the strokes that his hand can lay on can thy heart endure or thy back bear what he can inflict when you are just lifting up your hand consider a little the nature of the fault and do as thou would'st have God do by thee and then be outragious and cruel if you can Remember your Servants are God's Servants and you must not rule them with rigour Lev. 25.42 43 Deut. 24.14 Jam. 5.4 read those Scriptures which you find quoted in the Margent Some may wonder that I insist upon this caution so long but I wish the empty bellies the thin checks the black and blew skins of many poor Servants did not give me too good reason for what I say Anton. l. 5. 〈◊〉 l. 6. n. 21. I shall desire such Masters to ask themselves sometimes Whose Soul do I now properly possess a Tyrant's a Mad-man's or a Beast's Suppose your Servant is not so wise strong and active as you would have him it may be for this he more needs pity than blows or curses But if he be really faulty were you never so too and when punishment is due remember that Religion Reason and Humanity must always measure punishment Think not they are in your power and poor and friendless and that they have none that can or will right them If this were a good warrant for oppressing another how many are there who would soon crush you to pieces Seventhly Take heed of neglecting your Servants souls Their souls as well as their bodies are your charge and you must be accountable shortly for them O! how few consider seriously of this Are not the souls of Servants slighted as if they were little better than the souls of Brutes Sirs is that which Christ thought worth his blood not worth your care The neglect of most Masters in this thing is horrible How seldom do they speak a word of God to their Servants how great a rarity is it for them to pray with them and read the Scriptures before them and to call upon them to mind what they read who endeavours to convince their Servants of the corruption of their nature and that they are born slaves of Sin and Satan who commends Christ as the best Master and commands his Servants to obey him where is the Master to be found that is frequently and importunately endeavouring to convince all under his charge of the necessity of faith in Christ repentance and a holy life how little are Masters concerned for God's honour and service nay are there not some that are so far from minding the souls of their Servants that if once they perceive a poor Servant begins to set his face towards Heaven how are they set against him what scoffs and jeers shall he then have 2 Kings 21.11 Isa 57.24 and scarce live a quiet life after it and there are others that put their Servants upon sin that keep them up to work so unreasonably late upon Saturday-nights that they lose half the Lords-day with sleeping How many that put their Servants upon work and serving of Goods upon the Lords-day How many do we see keeping their Stalls open to sell Fruit O where are our Nehemiah's who reproves his Servants for neglecting God's service more than for neglecting of his own who observes what company they keep how the Sabbath is spent who reproves them for lying and cheating for their profit are there not too many that put them upon telling lyes to cover their own neglect do such Masters as these deserve the name of Christians do they look like God's Servants whose fault is it that Moor-fields is so full of idle youths and that the Houses and Taverns are so frequented on the Lord's-day who may we thank for many of our disorders judgments and miseries but careless Masters whence is it that so many vile women are maintained so high that bastards are so common and that we hear so oft of murdered Infants how comes it to pass that Prisons are so full and Tyburn so fruitful if the matter were well canvased we should find that Masters and Parents neglect of catechising instructing reproving and correcting them under their charge is not the least cause of this and other evils Sirs can you prove the Bible to be a lye and souls and invisibles to be but fancies O! what then do you mean by your strange neglect of these affairs Ezek. 3.18 God hath made you watchmen and if you be asleep or give not warning at whose hand do you think must the blood of the Souls in your Family be required The very Heathens have declaimed notably against this sin Epictetus If saith one a friend had but a dog under your care you would not starve him but in some measure proportion your care of him to the love you bear to your friend and hath not God put souls
most just and righteous in all his dealings Isa 45.21 Psal 92.15 Jam. 6.3 Psâ—l 103.14 Mat. 3.17 Mic. 7.18 Exod. 34.6 Psal 25.4 Job 36.22 Isa 28.26 Rom. 8.26 Psal 32.8 Isa 43.2 Dan. 3.25 Psal 23.1 Psal 34.10 Psal 19.11 Psal 31.19 20 who can accuse him of the least unrighteousness who can say he hath done him wrong and that be is a hard Master Come let any testifie against God and make good their charge if they can Is not he full of pity and ready to forgive how ready to moderate his anger when he is highly provoked It is not without good reason that the Prophet saith Who is a God like unto our God and he is ready to teach his servants and to help their infirmities and if their work be hard he doth bear the heavier part of it He is ready to keep them company to succour and encourage and comfort them he provides all things needful for them he delights in the prosperity of his Servants and loves to see his Servants thrive he gives them many a token of his love here But O what great things hath he laid up for them eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive it Their reward is exceeding great sure and eternal O what harm would it do you to be like God do not your Servants deserve more kindness from you than you or any other doth from God Secondly Consider what need your Servants have of your utmost care in the fore-mentioned particulars They are young unexperienced heady nay naturally ignorant proud dead Children of wrath enemies to God every moment in danger of miscarrying and at whose hand will their blood be required think you if you do not your duty to warn reprove correct them Thirdly Consider how much it will be for your honour How high an esteem will all good men have for you how great a value must wise Magistrates set on you what reason hath the City and Corporation to rise up and call such blessed how great and how common a good such are is scarce to be expressed such shall have a good report in spite of wickedness your Servants can't but look upon you as their Counseller Master Father and give you suitable respect and honour Fourthly Consider how pleasing and acceptable this is to God Such the Lord is nigh to his eyes behold with delight It is not he that observes his great Sacrifices it is not he that makes many Prayers it is not he that makes the greatest show of Religion outwardly that is accepted Hierocles Josh 24.15 Psal 1.3 Mat. 25.34 but it is he that gives up his heart first to God as a warm Sacrifice full of love and then his house unto the Lord this this is the man that God will visit comfort bless this is he that ere long shall hear his great Master's commendation and have a welcome to Glory Fifthly Consider how much profit and pleasure you shall have here by your diligence and care you may be enriched there 's God's promise for your security By this your Trade is like to thrive your credit rise greatly Prov. 28.20 Prov. 10.6 your custome increase And when the careless Master makes hast to poverty a wise diligent and faithful is in the most likely way to get improve and keep an estate I might say what pleasure and comfort a man can't but take in his Family when every one acts regularly in their place Sixthly Consider how much good your faithfulness may do others Your Servants may for ought that I know call you their Spiritual Fathers and bless God for ever for your examples exhortations prayers and your Servants may instruct your Children and be frequently instilling one good thing or other into them and influence them more than you are aware of You are a mighty help to poor Ministers you help to plow up the ground and make it fit for the Divine seed you pull out the stones you weed up the roots of bitterness or at least keep them from thriving and growing up you harrow in the good seed you water it with your tears and God will make it fruitful you pluck up the darnel and the tares Of all the persons living we Ministers are most beholding to good Masters and good Parents we beseech you if you have any love for us or our Master either be faithful in this thing Epictâ—tus O make us glad when so many thousands are making us sad with their wickedness I might add your Examples draw others and make bad Citizens good Seventhly Consider the danger of your neglect if you be unfaithful you expose body soul estate wife children servants and all to sin ruine shame and the curse of God for ever you break the rules of equity and humanity you forfeit your reputation you go the likeliest way to work to bring upon you dismal calamities in your life worse at death and worst of all after death Mat. 25.26 Mat. 24.48 49.50 51. O consider this you that forget God and your duty and read that Scripture often you see quoted in the Margent I shall now crave leave to expostulate the case with Masters about their duty for I am loth to leave you till I have prevailed with you to set to your work like Christians Sirs you have heard your duty and what have you to object against it can you prove that that which I have desired of you is not required by God himself Have I not proved what I have said by plain Scriptures and doth not reason and humanity as well as Christianity oblige you to the putting these duties in practice have I not laid down many Motives to press you to your duty have I not told you what a Master God is to his Servants and put you upon being followers of him as dear children Would it be any disparagement to you to follow so perfect and unerring an example Doth not he teach direct help encourage and reward his Servants Is not he faithful to his promise tender pityful and easie to be reconciled and ready to forgive And are you not very well pleased with these properties in God And if this be amiable in God why should it not be lovely in you God humbleth himself to look upon what is done on earth and is it below you to look upon and take care of your Servants What great difference is there I pray between you and them Are they not of the same mould And shortly your bones and skuls will not be distinguished Why did you take them into your Family if you intended to take no more care of them than of a Dog Was it not a piece of base falshood in you to promise and engage what you never intended to perform Methinks I have a mind to debate this matter fairly with you so as to leave you resolved for your duty or without any reason or excuse for the neglect of it Sirs Is
rational to sleeting and giddy fancies No it binds the soul as the principal agent the body only as the instrument For if it were given only for the sensitive part without any respect to the rational it would concern brutes as well as men which are as capable of a rational command and a voluntary obedience as man without the conduct of a rational soul It exacts a conformity of the whole man to God and prohibits a difformity and therefore engageth chiefly the inward part which is most the man It must then extend to all the acts of the man consequently to his thoughts they being more the acts of the man than the motions of the body Holiness is the prime excellency of the Law a title ascribed to it twice in one Verse Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment holy just and good Could it be holy if it indulged loosness in the more noble part of the creature Could it be just if it favoured inward unrighteousness Could it be good and useful to man which did not enjoyn a suitable conformity to God wherein the creatures excellency lies Can that deserve the title of a spiritual Law that should only regulate the brutish part and leave the spiritual to an unbounded licentiousness Can perfection be ascribed to that Law which doth countenance the unsavoury breathings of the Spirit and lay no stricter an obligation upon us than the Laws of men Mat. 5 28. Must not God's Laws be as suitable to his soveraignty as mens Laws are to theirs Must they not then be as extensive as God's Dominion and reach even to the privatest closets of the heart 'T is not for the honour of God's holiness righteousness goodness to let the Spirit which bears more flourishing characters of his Image than the body range wildly about without a legal curb 2. They are contrary to the order of nature and the design of our Creation Whatsoever is a swerving from our primitive nature is sin or at least a consequent of it Eccles 7.29 God made man perfect but they have sâ—ught out many inventions But all inclinations to sin are contrary to that righteousness wherewith man was first endued Man was created both with a disposition and ability for holy contemplations of God the first glances of his soul were pure he came every way compleat out of the mint of his infinitely wise and good Creator and when God pronounced all his Creatures good he pronounced man very good amongst the rest But man is not now as God created him he is off from his end his understanding is filled with lightness and vanity This disorder never proceeded from the God of order infinite goodnesâ— could never produce such an evil frame none of these loose inventions were of God's planting but of man's seeking No God never created the intellective no nor the sensitive part to play Domitian's game and sport it self in the catching of Flies Psal 49.20 Man that is in honour and understands not that which he ought to understand and thinks not that which he ought to think is like the Beasts that perish Gen. 3.6 he plays the beast because he acts contrary to the nature of a rational and immortal soul And such brutes we all naturally are since the first woman believed her sense her phancy her affection in their directions for the attainment of wisdom without consulting God's Law or her own reason The phancy was bound by the right of nature to serve the understanding 'T is then a slighting God's wisdom to invert this order in making that our Governour which he made our Subject 'T is injustice to the dignity of our own souls to degrade the nobler part to a sordid slavery in making the brute have dominion over the man as if the Horse were fittest to govern the Rider 'T is a falseness to God and a breach of trust to let our minds be imposed upon by our phancy in giving it only feathers to dandle and chaff to feed on instead of those braver objects it was made to converse withal 3. We are accountable to God and punishable for thoughts Nothing is the meritorious cause of God's wrath but sin The Text tells us that they were once the keys which opened the floud-gates of divine vengeance and broach'd both the upper and neather Cisterns * Acts 8.22 If perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Prov. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man of thoughts i. e. evil thoughts the word being usually taken in an ill sense to overflow the world If they need a pardon as certainly they do then if mercy doth not pardon them justice will condemn them And 't is absolutely said that a man of wicked devices or thoughts God will condemn 'T is God's prerogative often mentioned in Scripture to search the heart To what purpose if the acts of it did not fall under His censure as well as His cognizance He weighs the Spirits Prov. 16.2 in the ballance of His Sanctuary and by the weights of His Law to sentence them if they be found too light The word doth discover and judge them †Heb. 4.12 13. It divides asunder the soul and spirit the sensitive part the affections and the rational the understanding and will both which it doth dissect and open and judge the acts of them even the thoughts and intents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is within the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whatsoever is within the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one referring to the Soul the other to the Spirit These it passeth a Judgment upon as a Critick censures the Errata's even to syllables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Letters in an old Manuscript These we are to render an account of as the Syriack renders those words v. 13. with whom we have to do Of what Of the first bubblings of the heart the notions and intents of it The least Speck and Atome of dust in every chink of this little world is known and censured by God If our thoughts be not judged God would not be a righteous judge He would not judge according to the merit of the cause if outward actions were only scann'd without regarding the intents wherein the principle and end of every action lies which either swell or diminish the malignity of it Actions in kind the same may have different circumstances in the thoughts to heighten the one above the other and if they were only judged the most painted hypocrite might commence a blessed spirit at last as well as the exactest Saint 1 Cor. 4 5. 'T is necessary also for the Glory of God's omniscience 'T is hereby chiefly that the extensiveness of God's knowledg is discovered and that in order to the praise or dispraise of men viz. To their Justification or condemnation Those very thoughts will accuse thee before God's Tribunal which accuse thee here before conscience His Deputy Rom. 2.15 16. Their thoughts the
mind be tired with sucking one object it can with the bee presently fasten upon another Senses are weary till they have a new recruit of spirits as the poor horse may sink under his burden when the rider is as violent as ever Thus old men may change their outward profaneness into mental wickedness and as the Psalmist remembred his old songs * Psal 77.5 6. so they their calcin'd sins in the night with an equal pleasure So that you see there may be a thousand thoughts as ushers and lacqueys to one act as numerous as the sparks of a new lighted fire 2. In regard of the Objects the mind is conversant about Such thoughts there are and attended with a heavy guilt which cannot probably no nor possibly descend into outward acts A man may in a complacent thought commit fornication with a woman in Spain in a covetous thought rob another in the Indies and in a revengeful thought stab a third in America and that while he is in this Congregation An unclean person may commit a mental folly with every beauty he meets A covetous man cannot plunder a whole Kingdom but in one twinkling of a thought he may wish himself the possessor of all the estates in it A Timon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot cut the throats of all the world but like Nero with one glance of his heart he may chop off the heads of all mankind at a blow Ambitious men's practices are confined to a small spot of land but with a cast of his mind he may grasp an Empire as large as the four Monarchies A beggar cannot ascend a throne but in his thoughts he may pass the Guards murder his Prince and usurp the Government Nay further an Atheist may think there is no God Psal 14.1 i. e. as some interpret it wish there were no God and thus in thought undeifie God himself though he may sooner dash heaven and earth in pieces than accomplish it The body is confined to one object and that narrow and proportionable to its nature but the mind can wing it self to various objects in all parts of the earth Where it finds none it can make one for phancy can compact several objects together coyn an image colour a picture and commit folly with it when it hath done It can nestle it self in cobwebs spun out of its own bowels 3. In respect of Strength Imaginations of the heart are only i. e. purely evil The nearer any thing is in union with the root the more radical strength it hath The first ebullitions of light and heat from the Sun are more vigorous than the remoter beams and the steams of a dunghil more noysom next that putrified body than when they are dilated in the air Grace is stronger in the heart-operations than in the outward streams and sin more soul in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart than in the act In the Text the outward wickedness of the world is passed over with a short expression but the Holy Ghost dwells upon the description of the wicked imagination because there lay the mass Mans * Psal 5 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inward part is very wickednesses a whole nest of vipers Thoughts are the immediate spawn of the original corruption and therefote partake more of the strength and nature of it Acts are more distant being the children of our thoughts but the Grand-children of our natural pravity Besides they lye nearest to that wickedness in the inward part sucking the breast of that poysonous dam that bred them The strength of our thoughts is also reinforced by being kept in for want of opportunity to act them as liquors in close glasses ferment and encrease their spriteliness Musing either carnal or spiritual makes the †Psal 39.3 fire burn the hotter as the fury of fire is doubled by being pent in a furnace Outward acts are but the sprouts the sap and juice lies in the wicked imagination or contrivance which hath a strength in it to produce a thousand fruits as poysonous as the former The members are the instruments or * Rom. 6.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weapons of unrighteousness now the whole strength which doth manage the weapon lyes in the arm that wields it the weapon of it self could do no hurt without a force imprest Let me add this too that sin in thoughts is more simply sin In acts there may be some occasional good to others for a good man will make use of the sight of sin committed by others to encrease his hatred of it but in our sinful thoughts there it no occasion of good to others they lying lock'd up from the view of man 4. In respect of Alliance In these we have the nearest communion with the Devil The understanding of man is so tainted that his †Jam. 3.15 wisdom the chiefest flower in it is not only earthly and sensual it were well if it were no worse but devillish too If the flower be so rank what are the weeds 1 Cor. 2.11 2 Cor. 10.5 Satan's devices and our thoughts are of the same nature and sometimes in Scripture exprest by the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he hath his devices so have we against the authority of God's law the power of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ The Devils are call'd spiritual wickednesses because they are not capable of carnal sins Ephes 6.12 Prophaneness is an Uniformity with the world and intellectual sins are an Uniformity with the God of it 1 Ephes 2.2.3 v. 3. There is a double walking answerable to a double pattern in v. 2. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh is a walking according to the course of this world or making the world our copy and fulfilling the desires of the mind is a walking according to the Prince of the power of the air or a making the Devil our pattern In carnal sins Satan is a tempter in mental an actor Therefore in the one we are conformed to his will in the other we are transformed into his likeness In outward we evidence more of obedience to his laws in inward more of affection to his person as all imitations of others are Therefore there is more of enmity to God because more of similitude and love to the Devil a nearer approach to the Diabolical nature implying a greater distance from the Divine Christ never gave so black a character as that of the Devil's children to the prophane world but to the Pharisees who had left the sins of men to take up those of Devils and were most guilty of those high imaginations which ought to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 5. In respect of contrariety and odiousness to God Imaginations were only evil and so most directly contrary to God who is only good Rom. 8.7 Our natural enmity against God is seated in the mind The sensitive part aims at its own gratification and in mens serving their
with crosses and then it breeds murmuring thoughts and sometimes it is crown'd with success and then it starts proud and self-applauding thoughts 1 Tim. 6.9 Those that will be rich fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts Such lusts that make men fools and one part of folly is to have wild and sensless fancies Mists and fogs are in the lower region near the earth but reach not that next the Heavens Were we free from earthly affections these gross vapours could not so easily disturb our minds but if the World once settle in our hearts we shall never want the sumes of it to fill our heads And as covetous desires will stuff us with foolish imaginations so they will smother any good thought cast into us as the thorns of worldly cares choak'd the good seed and made it unfruitful Mat. 13.22 As we are to rejoyce in the world as though we rejoyced not so by the same reason we should think of the world as though we thought not A conformity with the world in affection is inconsistent with a change of the frame of the mind Rom. 12.2 3. Avoid idleness Serious callings do naturally compose mens spirits but too much recreation makes them blaze out in vanity Idle souls as well as idle persons will be ranging As idleness in a State is both the mother and nurse of faction and in the natural body gives birth and encrease to many diseases by enfeebling the natural heat so it both kindles and foments many light and unprofitable imaginations in the soul which would be sufficiently diverted if the active mind were kept intent upon some stated work So truly may that which was said of the servant be applyed to our nobler part Mat. 25.26 Thou wicked and slothful servant Mat. 13 25. that it will be wicked if once it degenerates into slothfulness in its proper charge As empty minds are the fittest subjects for extravagant fooleries so vacant times are the fittest seasons While we sleep the importunate enemy within as well as the envious adversary without us will have a successful opportunity to sow the tares Whereas a constant imployment frustrates the attempt and discourageth the Devil because he sees we are not at leasure Therefore when any sinful motion steps in double thy vigour about thy present business and the foolish impertinent will sneak out of thy heart at this discountenance So true is that in this case which Pharaoh falsly imagined in another that the more we labour the less we shall regard vain words †Exod 5.9 As Satan is prevented by diligence in our callings so sometimes the Spirit visits us and fills us with holy affections at such seasons as Christ appeared to Peter and other Disciples when they were a fishing †Joh. 21.3 4. and usually manifested his grace to men when they were engaged in their useful businesses or religious services But these motions as we may observe by the way which come from the Spirit are not to put us out of our way but to assist us in our walking in it and further us both in our attendance on and success in our duties To this end look upon the work of your callings as the work of God which ought to be done in obedience to Him as He hath set you to be useful in the community Thus a holy exercise of our callings would sanctifie our minds and by prepossessing them with solid business we should leave little room for any spider to weave its Cobwebs 4. Awe your hearts with the thoughts of God's omniscience especially the discovery of it at the last judgment We are very much Atheists in the concern of this Attribute for though it be notionally believed yet for the most part it is practically deny'd God understands all our thoughts afar off †Psal 139.2 as He knew every creature which lay hid in the Chaos and undigested lump of matter God is in us all * Eph. 4.6 as much in us all as He is above us all yea in every creek and chink and point of our hearts Not an Atome in the spirits of all men in the world but is obvious to that all-seeing eye which knows every one of those things that come into our minds †Ezek. 11 5. God knows both the order and confusion of them and can better tell their natures one by one than Adam named the creatures Fancy then that you hear the sound of the last Trumpet that you see God's tribunal set and His omniscience calling out singly all the secrets of your heart Would not the consideration of this allay the heat of all other imaginations If a foolish thought break in consider What if God who knows this should presently call me to judgment for this sinful glance psal 44 21. Say with the Church Shall not God search this out Is it fit either for God's glory or our interest that when He comes to make inquisition in us He should find such a nasty dunghil and swarms of Aegyptian lice and frogs creeping up and down our chambers Were our heads and hearts possest by this substantial truth we should be ashamed to think what we shall be ashamed to own at the last day 5. Keep a constant watch over your hearts David desires God to set a watch before the door of his lips Psal 141.3 much more should we desire that God would keep the door of our hearts We should have grace stand sentinel there especially for words have an outward bridle they may disgrace a man and impair his interest and credit but thoughts are unknown if undiscovered by words If a man knew what time the thief would come to rob him he would watch We know we have thieves within us to steal away our hearts therefore when they are so near us we should watch against a surprize and the more carefully because they are so extraordinary sudden in their rise and quick in their motion Our minds are like idle School-boys that will be frisking from one place to another if the Master's back be turned and playing instead of learning Let a strict hand be kept over our affections those wild beasts within us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato because they many times force the understanding to pass a judgment according to their pleasure not its own sentiment Young men should be most intent upon their guard because their fancies gather vigor from their youthful heat which fires a world of squibs in a day which mad-men and those which have hot diseases are subject to because of the excessive inflammation of their brains and partly because they are not sprung up to a maturity of knowledg which would breed and foster better thoughts and discover the plausible pretences of vain affections There are particular seasons wherein we must double our guard as when incentives are present that may set some inward corruption on a flame 1 Tim. 5.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Timothy's office
of perturbation but like himself gentle and dove-like solicitings Gal 5 22. warm and holy impulses and when cherished leave the soul in a more humble heavenly pure and believing temper than they found it 'T is a high aggravation of sin to resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 Yet we may quench his motions by neglect as well as by opposition and by that means lose both the profit and pleasure which would have attended the entertainment Salvation came both to Zacheus his house and heart upon embracing the first motion our Saviour was pleased to make him Had he sleighted that 't is uncertain whether another should have been bestowed upon him The more such sprouts are planted and nourished in us the less room will stinking weeds have to root themselves and disperse their influence And for thy own good thoughts feed them and keep them alive that they may not be like a blaze of straw which takes birth and expires the same minute Brood upon them and kill them not as some birds do their young ones Psal 139.23 Try me and know my thoughts by too often flying from their nests David kept up a staple of sound and good thoughts he would scarce else have desired God to try and know them had they been only some few weak flashes at uncertain times 2. Improve them for those ends to which they naturally tend 'T is not enough to give them a bare reception and forbear the smothering of them but we must consider what affections are proper to be rais'd by them either in the search of some truth or performance of some duty Those gleams which shoot into us on the sudden have some lesson seal'd up in them to be opened and learned by us When Peter upon the crowing of the cock call'd to mind his Master's admonition he thought thereon and wept †Mark 14 72. he did not only receive the spark but kindled a suitable affection A choice graff though kept very carefully by us yet if not presently set will wither and disappoint our expectation of the desired fruit No man is without some secret whispers to disswade him from some alluring and busie sin †Job 33.14 17. God speaks once yea twice that he may withdraw man from his purpose as Cain had by an audible voice Gen. 4.7 which had he observed to the damping the revengeful motion against his brother he had prevented his brother's death his own despair and eternal ruin Have you any motion to seek God's face as David had Let your hearts reply Thy face Lord will I seek * Psal 27.8 The address will be most acceptable at such a time when your heart is tuned by One that searcheth the deep things of God †1 Cor. 2.10 and knows his mind and what ayres are most delightful to Him Let our motion be quick in any duty which the Spirit doth suggest and while he heaves our hearts and oyls our wheels we shall do more in any religious service and that more pleasantly and successfully than at another time with all our own art and industry for his injections are like water poured into a pump to raise up more and as Satan's motions are not without a main body to second them so neither do the Spirit 's go unattended without a sufficient strength to assist the entertainers of them Well then lye not at anchor when a fresh gale would fill thy sails but lay hold of the present opportunity These seasons are often like those influences from certain conjunctions of the Planets which if not according to the Astrologer's opinion presently applied pass away and return not again in many ages So the Spirit 's breathings are often determined that if they be not entertained with suitable affections the time will be unregainable and the same gracious opportunities of a sweet entercourse may be for ever losts for God will not have his holy Spirit dishonoured in always striving with wilful man Gen. 6.3 When Judas neglected our Saviour's advertisement John 13.21 the Devil quickly enters and hurries him to the execution of his traiterous project v. 27. and he never meets with any motion afterwards but from his new Master and that eternally fatal both to his body and soul 3. Refer them if possible to assist your Morning meditation that like little brooks arising from several springs they may meet in one channel and compose a more useful stream What stragling good thoughts arise though they may owe their birth to several occasions and tend divers ways yet list them in the service of that truth to which you have committed the government of your mind that day As Constables in a time of necessary business for the King take up men that are going about their honest and lawful occasions and force them to joyn in one employ for the publick service Many accidental glances as was observed before will serve both to fix and illustrate your Morning proposition But if it be an extraordinary injection and cannot be referred to your standing Thesis follow it and let your thoughts run whither it will lead you a Theme of the Spirit 's setting is better than one of our own choosing 4. Record the choicer of them We may have occasion to look back upon them another time either as grounds of comfort in some hour of temptation or directions in some sudden emergency but constantly as perswasive engagements to our necessary duty Thus they may lye by us for further use as money in our purse Since Mary kept and ponder'd the short sayings of our Saviour in her heart †Luke 2.17 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesych committing and fitting them as it were in her common-place book why should not we also preserve the whispers of that Spirit who receives from the same mouth and hand what he both speaks and shews to us It is pity the dust and filings of choicer metals which may one time be melted down into a mass should be lost in a heap of drossy thoughts If we do not remember them but like children are taken with their novelty more than their substance and like John Baptist's hearers rejoyce in their light only for a season †Joh. 5.35 it will discourage the Spirit from sending any more and then our hearts will be empty and we know who stands ready to clap in his hellish swarms and legions But howsoever we do God will record our good thoughts as our excusers if we improve them as our accusers if we reject them and as He took notice how often He had appear'd to Solomon †1 Kings 11.9 so He will take notice how often His Spirit hath appeared to us and write down every motion whereby we have been solicited that they may be witnesses of his endeavours for our good and our own wilfulness 5. Back them with ejaculations Let our hearts be ready to attend every injection from heaven with a motion to it since 't is
you to be Christians nor better than Infidels and Heathens Look not that men should think you better than your fruits do manifest you to be nor that they take you to be good for saying that you are good nor judge you to excel others any further than your works are better than others And marvel not if the World ask What do you more than others when Christ himself doth ask the same Matth. 5.47 If ye salute your Brethren and those of your own Opinion and way and if ye love them that love you and say as ye say do not even Publicans and Infidels do the same Matth. 5.46 Marvel not if men judge you according to your works when God himself will do so who knoweth the heart He that is all for himself may love himself and think well of himself but must not expect much love from others Selfishness is the Boil or Imposthume of Societies where the Blood and Spirits have an inordinate Afflux till their corruption torment or gangrene the part While men are all for themselves and would draw all to themselves instead of loving their Neighbour as themselves and the Publick Good above themselves they do but hurt and destroy themselves for they forfeit their communion with the body and deserve that none should care for them who care for none but themselves To a Genuine Christian another's good rejoyceth him as if it were his own and how much then hath such a one continually to feed his joy and he is careful to supply another's wants as if they were his own But the scandalous selfish hypocrite doth live quietly and sleep easily if he be but well himself and it go well with his Party however it go with all his Neighbours or with the Church or with the World To himself he is fallen to himself he liveth himself he loveth himself he seeketh and himself that is his temporal prosperity he will advance and save if he can whatever his Religion be and yet himself he destroyeth and will lose It is not well considered in the World how much of sin consisteth in the narrow Contraction of mens love and regard unto their natural selves and how much of goodness consisteth in a Community of love and what a glory it is to the Government and Laws of God that he maketh it so noble and necessary a part of every man's duty to love all men and to do good to all as he is able though with a difference God could do us all good enough by Himself alone without one another But what a mercy is it to the World that as many Persons as there are so many there are obliged by God to love their Neighbours as themselves and to do good to all about them And what a mercy is it to the Actor that God will thus make him the Instrument and Messenger of his Beneficence Ministers and Christians all Would you be thought better than others Are you angry with men that think otherwise of you What good do you more than others in your places What good do you that other men 〈◊〉 see and feel and taste and judge of Every man loveth himself and can feel what doth him good in natural things And God that by giving you food and other mercies to your bodies would have you therein taste his love to your Souls would use you just so for your Brethrens good Do you give them good words and counsel It is well But that is not it that they can yet taste and value You must do that sort of good for them which they can know and relish not that this will save them or is any great matter of it self no more than God's common bodily mercies to you but this is the best way to get down better And he that seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him 1 Joh. 3.17 Give to him that asketh and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away Matth. 5.42 That is let not want of Charity hinder thee at any time from giving though want of ability may hinder thee and prudence may restrain thee and must guide thee If you say Alas we have it not to give I answer 1. Do what you can 2. Shew by your compassion that you would if you could Take care of your poor Brethren 3. Beg of others for them and put on those that can to do it Say not These carnal people value nothing but carnal things and cannot perceive a man's love by spiritual benefits For it is not Grace but the means and out-side of things spiritual that you can give them and for ought I see the most of us all do very hardly believe God's own love to us if he deny us bodily mercies If you languish in poverty crosses and painful sickness any thing long your murmuring sheweth that you do not sufficiently taste God's goodness without the help of bodily sense And can you expect that natural men believe you to be good for your bare words when you so hardly think well of God himself though he promise you Life Eternal unless he also give you bodily supplies VIII He that will glorifie his Religion and God before men must be strictly just in all his dealings just in governing just in trading and bargaining just to Superiours and to Inferiours to Friends and to Enemies just in performing all his promises and in giving every man his Right He that in love must part with his own Right for his Neighbour's greater good must not deprive another of his Right for Charity includeth Justice as a lower Vertue is included in a higher and more perfect He must not be unjust for himself for riches or any worldly ends he must not be unjust for Friends or Kindred he must not be drawn to it by fear or flattery no price must hire him to do an unrighteous deed But above all he must never be unjust as for Religion as if God either needed or countenanced a lye or any iniquity No men are more scandalous dishonourers of Religion and of God than they that think it lawful to deceive or lye or be perjured or break Covenants or be rebellious or use any sinful means to secure or promote Religion as if God were not able to accomplish his Ends by righteous means This cometh from Atheism and Unbeliâ—f when men think that God will lose his Cause unless our wits and sinful shifts preserve it as if we and not He were the Rulers of the world The unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 and seldom scape the hatred or contempt of men IX He that will glorifie God must know and observe the Order of Commands and Duties and that God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and must prefer the End before the Means as such He must not pretend a lesser Duty against a greater nor take the lesser at that time for a Duty
So 2 Pet. 2.2 He had spoken of some who by their Doctrines denyed the Lord Christ that bought them by reason of whom the way of truth was evil spoken of by the false Doctrines and flagitious lives of Professors the Name and Religion of Christ is rent and torn in pieces and brought into contempt among the worst of men And therefore we find that when Professors are pressed to walk as becometh the Gospel one great Argument is taken from the great reproach that else will follow 1 Tim. 6.1 he presseth servants to account their Masters worthy of double honour that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed The like Argument we have upon Wives that they be discreet c. obedient to their own Husbands Tit. 2.4 that the Word of God be not blasphemed that the way of Religion in which they profess to serve God be not made vile and contemptible in the eyes of such as have little regard to any Religion at all Averroes was most taken with the Christians Sect as he called it but when he saw the Christians do what he thought was a great offence against the God whom they served or worshipped he said Moriatur anima mea cum Philosophis Let me die amongst the Philosophers and not among the Christians It is reported of one Hathway an Indian as blind as he was so possessed with prejudice against the Christian Religion by the cruelty of the Spaniards that he refused to be Baptized because of their vile carriage and said he would not go to the same Heaven with them Of all persons Christians have cause to walk most wisely and uprightly in reference to that honourable Name which they bear lest otherwise they expose it to contempt Let us do as the Primitive Saints did Acts 9.31 of whom it is said they walked in the fear of the Lord and the Churches had rest They were in the midst of persecuting bloudy Enemies who seeing them walk in the fear of the Lord and according to the Rules of the Christian Religion which did strike such an awe into them of the Majesty of their Religion which did shine forth in their holy heavenly Conversation as brought their Enemies under so great Convictions as they durst not at that present attempt them or hinder their peace A Saint sanctifies the Name of the Lord in the course of his life while he walks in the fear of the Lord Isa 8.13 This was a great Argument which prevailed with Nehemiah and he propounded it to the people to walk in the fear of the Lord because of the reproach of the Enemy Nehem. 8.9 It is not the Jew which denieth the Name of Christ or the Turk which defieth it or the Pagan Dragon Rev. 12.2 3. which persecuteth the Name of Christ that casts so soul a blot and reproach upon the Name of Christ as he which takes upon him the Name of Christ and under a form of godliness lives in the practice of those foul abominations spoken of 2 Tim. 3.1 2 5. from which turn away How we may steer an even Course between Presumption and Despair Serm. XXIV Luke 3.4 5. As it is written in the Book of the words of Isaiah the Prophet saying The voice of one crying in the Wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his Paths streight Every Valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low and the crooked shall be made streight and the rough wayes shall be made smooth THIS Chapter begins with the Ministry of John the Baptist the Forerunner of Christ In which you have 1. The Time of his Ministry when it began set down and ascertain'd by some particular and very memorable remarks upon it from the names of those who were then in Authority chief Governours and Rulers both in Church and State whose several Offices and Commands bore the same date with John's preaching ver 1 2. The reason of this I shall not now trouble you with 2. His Call unto this Office ver 2. The Word of God came unto John 3. The Subject matter of his preaching viz. The Baptism of Repentance for remission of Sins ver 3. 4. The occasion that prompted him to this subject and made him fix his thoughts upon it which was an ancient prophecy out of Isaiah ch 40.3 The Holy Ghost bringing this into his mind telling him it was now to be fulfilled by his preaching and therefore no doubt directed him to pitch upon such a subject as might tend most to the accomplishment of that Prophecy The Prophecy or Promise for it is both you have in the words of my Text and in the last Clause of the succeeding Verse I shall not insist upon the several Metaphors in the Text but in short give you the general sence of the whole By mountains and valleys I understand all sorts of Men high and low rich and poor who considered in their natural condition whether convinced or unconvinced do all stand in a direct opposition to Jesus Christ are exceeding averse from and unprepared for the Doctrine of the Gospel will not submit to the Law of Faith some upon one account and some upon another till God by a further work of the Spirit doth open their eyes and draw their hearts to Christ Now the words of the Text do contain this Preparatory Work of the Gospel upon poor Sinners in order to due reception of Christ and aright application of him by Faith unto the Soul It consists of two parts 1. Pulling down Mountains 2. Filling up Valleys both very difficult work John had to do with some who were puft up with a conceit of their own Righteousness and would be their own Saviours and not be beholding to Christ and free Grace for any thing thinking themselves to be something when indeed they were nothing Gal. 6.3 Revel 3.16 17. These were the proud Pharisees boasting of their own Righteousness and besides these there are also a company of Profane Atheistical Sadducees who gloried in their sins and denying the Resurrection of the Body and the Immortality of the Soul ran out into all licentiousness Others again were so convinc'd of Sin and of the dangerous consequence of it that they were ready to sink into Despair knew not what to do fearing their sins were greater than could be forgiven these are the Mountains and Valleys in the Text. Presumption on the one hand and Despair on the other that rises too high this sinks too low that inclines too much one way this too much the other and there is a crookedness and obliquity in both which must be rectified and straightened by the Preaching of Repentance in order to the Remission of Sins This John doth first urging the necessity of Repentance upon the proud Pharisees who thought they needed no Repentance Luke 15.7 Secondly urging the great Gospel Priviledge that Christ hath purchased for Believers upon their repentance viz. Remission of Sins upon poor dejected Sinners that both
they shall be like the Angels not only vvithout Marriage but vvithout sin they shall be like to them in Holiness and in happiness and this vvill be their happiness to attain perfection in Holiness 5. In Heaven pardoned Persons shall attain a state of perfect happiness and Glory in Soul and Body their Souls shall be glorified and their Bodies glorified in Heaven 1. In Heaven the Souls of pardoned Persons shall be glorified a shining excellency and marvellous spiritual beauty shall be put upon them the Image of God vvill there be drawn to the life in them all the faculties of their Souls vvill there be elevated ennobled and beautified vvith vvonderful perfections and filled brim full vvith glory such as doth far exceed their present capacity they shall have the brightest beams of light in their minds the purest and sweetest flames of love in their hearts and that vvith such heart-ravishing joy as is to us unconceivable but to them vvill both be full and everlasting Psal 16.11 2. In Heaven the Bodies of pardoned Persons vvill be glorified their vile Bodies vvill be fashioned into the likeness of Christ's most beautiful and glorious Body Phil. 3.21 All the defects and deformities vvhich some of their Bodies have here vvill be removed and they shall shine like the new burnisht Heavens vvhat a rare mixture of colours vvhat an exact Symetry of parts their Bodies shall have vvhat lovely Proportion and feature in their Face vvhat sparkling motions in the eye vvhat graceful gestures in the vvhole Body there vvill be it is not for us to describe for the beauty of glorified Bodies vvill be beyond all descriptions And thus much concerning the future blessedness it self vvhich pardoned Persons shall have 3. The second thing is to prove that pardoned Persons shall assuredly attain this future blessedness This will appear by several Scriptures and several Arguments drawn from the Scriptures 1. The Scriptures which prove that pardoned Persons shall assuredly attain future blessedness are these Eph. 1. v. 7 and 11. compared v. 7. In whom we have redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of his Grace v. 11. In whom also we obtained an Inheritance This Inheritance here spoken of can be no other than the Heavenly Inheritance and the Apostle plainly asserteth that such who had obtained the forgiveness of sin they had also obtained the Inheritance in whom we have obtained that is they shall as certainly obtain it as if they had it already in Possession A more full proof is in Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified This is that Golden chain so much spoken of by Divines the links of which are so fast joyned together that all the power of men or Devils can never be able to pluck them asunder As such whom God hath Predestinated before time shall certainly be called and justified in time so those who are called and justified and so pardoned in time shall certainly be glorified at the end of time and when time shall be no more And the third Scripture to prove this is Rom. 5.10 For if when we were sinners we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Pardoned persons are reconciled persons and if when they were sinners they were reconciled through Christ's death and satisfaction surely when reconciled taken into favour and become friends they shall be saved not with a temporal but with an eternal Salvation by Christ's life and intercession which hath sufficient efficacy and prevalency to effect this thing for them Here besides the Apostle's assertion he doth insinuate an Argument for the proof of it but I shall add some other Scripture-Arguments to prove that pardoned persons shall most assuredly attain future blessedness Arg. 1. The first Argument may be drawn from God's decree of predestination or election Whom God hath predestinated or elected to the blessedness of Heaven they shall most assuredly attain it But God hath predestinated or elected all pardoned persons to the blessedness of Heaven therefore they shall certainly attain it That all such whom God hath predestinated or elected unto the blessedness of Heaven shall certainly attain it is evident to any who impartially do read and weigh the Scriptures which clearly do reveal the eternity of God's decree of particular predestination or election Ephes 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the World Ver. 5. Having predestinated us according to the good pleasure of his will God's decree of predestination or election which is to eternal happiness therefore called an ordination to eternal life Acts 13.48 an appointment and election to Salvation 1 Thes 5.9 2 Thes 2.13 being eternal is therefore unchangeable and therefore shall certainly be accomplished If any thing hinder the accomplishment of God's decree it must be either something within him or something vvithout him 1. Nothing vvithin him can hinder its accomplishment unless he should change his own mind and alter his decree and this vvould infer a changeableness in God vvhich is against both reason and Scripture and besides other imperfection it vvould infer an imperfection in God's knowledg and vvisdom that he did not foresee or consider those after-reasons vvhich should incline him unto a change from his first determination and this is inconsistent vvith his infinite fore-knowledg and eternal counsel of his vvisdom in his vvilling and decreeing this thing Men may change their purposes upon this account but God so infinitely vvise and sore-knowing cannot do it If he had fore-seen reason to have altered the thing he vvould never have decreed or determined it 2. Nothing vvithout God can hinder the accomplishment of his decree because of his infinite power to effect vvhat he hath designed and against infinite power no resistance can be made the Elect vvhich the Apostle Peter vvriteth unto 1 Pet. 1.2 As they are chosen to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for them V. 4. So they are sure to be kept by the power of God to Salvation V. 5. And surely there can be no hindering of the Salvation and Blessedness of the Elect vvho are kept for it or unto it by the Almighty power of God And thus I think it is very clear that all vvhom God hath predestinated or elected to blessedness shall certainly attain it Hence are the vvords of the Apostle vvhich may put all out of doubt Ephes 1.11 In whom also we have obtained an Inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will That all pardoned persons are predestinated or elected unto the blessedness of Heaven is also evident because pardon of sin is the effect of predestination Rom. 8.30 Whom he hath predestinated them he also called and justified Because
whose person is of infinite dignity that thence may arise an equivalency of merit in his sufferings as may prove satisfactory to God's infinite justice and because no mere man being a finite creature hath this dignity and God cannot suffer because this would argue weakness and infirmity which is infinitely removed from him therefore it is requisite that the person who can satisfie should be God-man that as in one nature he may be capable of suffering so the other nature may put a vertue and efficacy upon it and such a person was Jesus Christ 3. That Jesus Christ hath done that which is sufficient to satisfie God's justice for the sins of men is evident from his Death and other sufferings which we have upon record in the Gospel which sufferings were not for himself he being an innocent person and it would have argued injustice in God had he permitted such sufferings to have been laid on his body especially had he himself inflicted such dreadful inward sufferings on his Soul were it not that he stood in the room of sinners and endured all these sufferings for their sins that he might give satisfaction to his justice hereby 4. That Christ's sufferings have given to God satisfaction and that he hath accepted of this satisfaction in the behalf of sinners is evident from the Compact and Covenant which he made with Christ that if he would offer up this sacrifice of himself he would be well pleased and sinners should hereby be justified from his sending his Son into the world for this very end and anointing him to the office of High-Priest that he might first make satisfaction and then Intercession for the people from his owning him when here raising him when dead receiving him to glory when raised which he would not have done had not he accepted his satisfaction from his Covenant he hath through him made with man and promises therein of remission of sins through his blood which he would never have made had not Christ's death given him satisfaction Moreover all those places of Scripture which speak of Christ's death as a sacrifice as a ransom as a punishment which he endured that sinners might be and whereby believers are actually reconciled unto God do clearly and abundantly prove that Christ hath given satisfaction to God's justice and which God is well pleased withal 5. That all sinners must know and believe this Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction that they may attain remission of sins is evident because God never did never will forgive any sin without respect unto it this way of remission is the chief thing which he hath revealed in the Scriptures In the Old Testament it was shadowed under the sacrifices for sin which were offered in the New Testament it is the end of the Revelation of Christ this being the chief design of his sufferings and death to give satisfaction to God's justice in order to the forgiveness of man's sin And they that are ignorant hereof or do not believe this do not know nor believe in Jesus Christ and him crucified and therefore cannot obtain forgiveness by his death 2. Sinners must know and believe the doctrine of Justification by Christ's Righteousness that they may attain remission of sins 1. They must know the nature of Justification it self that it doth consist in the remission of our sins and the acceptation of our Persons as perfectly Righteous in God's sight they must know that they have no Righteousness of their own to present God withal because guilty of sin and the least guilt is inconsistent with a perfect Righteousness and therefore if they were as some are really Holy yet that they could not be accepted as perfectly Righteous in God's sight upon the account of a perfect Righteousness of their own which none here do attain unto much less when they are naturally void and empty of all good and real Holiness and polluted all over with Sin 3. They must know that the Righteousness of Christ is perfect and was intended for them and held forth to them which they must submit unto and accept of if they would be justified in God's sight 4. That the Righteousness of Christ is made theirs by Faith God imputing it and accounting it unto believers as if it were their own and they had wrought it out in their own persons This way of Justification by Christ all must know and be perswaded of that would obtain Justification which doth include forgiveness of sin 2. Some things must be done and practised by sinners that they may attain this blessedness of forgiveness 1. They must get conviction of sin 2. They must make confession of sin 3. They must by Faith make Application of Jesus Christ 4. They must forsake sin 5. They must make Supplication and earnest Prayer unto God for pardoning Mercy 6. They must forgive others 1. Sinners would you attain the blessedness of forgiveness Labour to get conviction of sin get conviction of your Original sin the guilt of Adam's first sin in which you are involv'd your present emptiness of all Spiritual good and the Universal depravation of all the powers and faculties of your Souls with inherent pollution which renders you opposite unto all real good and naturally prone unto nothing but evil get conviction of your actual sins of all your hainous breaches of God's Law whether the first or second Table of it whether sins against God more immediately his Nature his Worship his Name his Day or against your Neighbour whether relative sins or sins against the life or chastity or estate or good name of any and get conviction that all inordinate motions that have not the consent of the will and much more inordinate affections which are influenced by it are sinful and provoking unto God Get also convictions of your more hainous disobedience to the Gospel what an aggravation it is of all your other sins that you have repented of none when you have so much need and have been so often called hereunto what an affront is it unto God a disparagement unto Christ that you have neglected your Salvation by him and have been guilty of unbelief in not receiving yea refusing Christ so able and willing to save you and when you have had such frequent and earnest as well as gracious and free tenders of him Get conviction of the guilt of your sins and what an Obligation you are under hereby to undergo eternal Destruction in the flames of Hell fire for it and let this awaken you out of your security let the thoughts of this pierce and wound your consciences and make you cry out with those Sinners which were convinced by Peter's Sermon Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do Get conviction also of the horrid baseness and ungratefulness of sin as it dishonours and displeases that God by whom you were at first created are continually
which Christ hath provided and in the Gospel is profered unto you and withal break off your sins by repentance yet no words or arguments will perswade you to use the means of prevention but still you live in the neglect of pardon and so great salvation and are secure however great your danger be O the folly and strange madness of unconverted sinners O the unspeakable sottishness and senslesness they are under Although we make it appear to their consciences that their condition is unutterably miserable they are not moved except it be with choler against the Minister that warns them of the sword of God's vengeance which hangeth over them and they champ at the Bridle that would hold them from running to their destruction But O that you would rather turn your anger against your sins and say this iniquity will be my ruine and that sin without pardon will be my damnation Vse 3. Therefore in the next place let me exhort all of you that lye under the guilt of sin that you would labour after this blessedness of forgiveness O that you would pity your own souls think what provision you have made for them think whither they are like to go upon their separation from your bodies and what you will do at the last day when Christ cometh to judg and punish unpardoned sinners think how you will be able to dwell with devouring fire to inhabit everlasting burnings Methinks you should take up such thoughts as these and argue thus with your selves What! Shall I undo my self for a filthy lust Shall I lose my Soul to gain a little uncertain earthly riches Shall I forfeit a Crown of Glory for the empty honour of this world Shall I cast my self into everlasting horrour and pain for a little vain fading carnal delight and pleasure Can I be contented to be tormented for ever in Hell to satisfie the desires of my flesh on earth and that when they will never be satisfied Shall I hugg a viper in my bosom that will kill me Harbour lusts in my heart that will slay me Shall I dishonour God and damn my own soul to gratifie the Devil my enemy and please my flesh which will soon be turned into dirt and rottenness and withal throw away the hopes of a glorious resurrection for my body hereby Away then ye foolish filthy lusts I 'le no more hearken to you or be entangled or enslaved by you Be gone thou deluding tempting Devil I 'le lend my ear no longer to thy lying suggestions nor yield any more to thy beguiling and bewitching temptations farewel thou glozing flattering world with all thy charmes and allurements thy gold is but dross thy wine mixt with water thy honour but wind and vanity thy delights are bitter-sweets such as will end in death and ruine I 'le choose another portion and look after a better blessedness than thou canst give me even the blessedness of forgiveness which will bring me unto eternal blessedness Methinks you should take no sleep nor rest and find no comfort in house or trade or friends or any thing until the anger of God be appeased your sins all pardoned and so your souls set in safety from all that ruine unto which they are exposed by unpardoned iniquity The absolute necessity of forgiveness should quicken you to look after it you have not so much need of food to remove your hunger as you have need of mercy to remove your guilt you have not so much need of clothes to cover your bodies as you have need of righteousness to cover your iniquities Better be starv'd than damn'd better be hang'd than burn'd better be exposed to the misery of the weather and any bodily distemper than to be exposed unto the storms and strokes of God's vengeance and the eternal ruine of body and soul in Hell which there is no possibility of escaping without a pardon And that which may encourage you to seek after forgiveness is the attainableness of it and that by the vilest and most guilty amongst you others have obtained pardoning mercy that have been found as guilty Manasseh was pardoned who was so hainous a transgressor Paul who was so Zealous a Persecutor Mary Magdalen who was possessed with seven Devils the Corinthians some of whom were Idolaters Adulterers effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind Theeves Covetous Extortioners Drunkards Revilers yet they were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus some of them who had imbrued their hands in Christ's Blood had the guilt of their sins washed away by it There is Mercy enough in God to give a pardon for the greatest Transgression there is merit enough in Christ to purchase a pardon and prevalency in his Intercession to procure it whatever your offences have been the invitation unto Christ for Remission and Salvation is General none are excluded but such as exclude themselves the promises are full Crimson sins such as are of the deepest dye God promiseth to make as Wool and the promises are free the acceptation of a pardon by Faith makes it yours without any price or merit on your part We Ministers have a commission to preach Remission of sins in the Name of Christ and to declare to you the glad tidings of Salvation yea we have instructions as Embassadors in the Name of God and Christ to beseech you that you would be reconciled that you would accept of forgiveness 2 Cor. 5.20 Now then we are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God Give me leave to press this Argument upon you the great God of Heaven and Earth so glorious in Holiness and Righteousness is so infinitely Merciful and Gracious as to beseech you that you would be reconciled although you are so infinitely inferiour unto him He condescends to intreat you not that you would shew kindness unto him but that you would shew kindness to your selves and accept of the greatest kindness at his hands of Forgiveness and Reconciliation God might command and upon once the least refusal he might execute his vengeance upon you but although some of you have stopped your Ears so long refused his gracious prosfer so often though you have abused his kindness trampled upon his Patience slighted his invitations despised his threatnings disregarded his promises and turning all his rich Grace into wantonness do continue still in your disobedience yet the Lord doth again make suit unto you stretcheth forth his hands unto you however disobedient and gain-saying you have been and by me doth intreat you that you would be reconciled Need we use intreaties with condemned Malefactors to accept of a pardon if we had commission to preach pardoning Mercy unto Devils would they need intreaties to accept would they be fooled out of such a gracious prosfer by any as you hitherto have been by them Sinners I beseech you in the name of the great and glorious Jehovah and the Lord Jesus Christ your
from things below and wedding them to things above and managing all our Duties with all diligence and resolution the very oppositions and difficulties of the way and of our work in this world would make us weary of our entertainment here and full of vehement longings and desires to be gone We should have little heart to wish for long continuance where we can have neither welcom nor satisfaction Our very works and sufferings would abate our love to Life and our incumbrances about many things and from them when they are apprehended as prejudicial to the one thing needful would be rejected by us because distastful to us Direct 4. Keep up your ordinate fear of Death as the Corrective of your inordinate love to Life and see that this be well improved Psal 49.6 14. Why should our hearts be where we must not stay Had Eve but thought more upon Death the forbidden Fruit had never been betwixt her teeth We fancy Immortality in a maze of Vanity and our imagined continuance here inflames our hearts and did we more consider how short a time we have to stay and how much work to do how sure we are to die and why Death came into the world and how suddenly yea and surprizingly the King of Terrors who receives not Bribes may make dispatches of his sharp and hasty Arrows into our sides and hearts the enamouring influences of this mortal Life vvould more effectually be mortified and obstructed Why should I doat on that to day from vvhich I may be gone to morrovv The fear of Death hath its ordained place and use and calls upon us to prepare Job 14.14 He that is sensible of his ovvn vanity here belovv and capable of Immortality above ought to be ready for his change and call If vve be negligent in the Discipline of our Affections vvithin the prospect of our dying day our misery becomes our choice and we betray our souls to startling sorrows and surprizals and give our hearts avvay for trifles in the very face of danger Security makes us prodigals and vvantons and exposes us to the povverful charms of fearful fascinations Extinguished Lamps and empty vessels are only in the hands of slumbring Virgins by vvhom the Midnight-cry is clear forgotten Treasures and Goods laid up for many years and then the heart is gone and sold to empty confidences and vain delights until that Cry Thou Fool this night thy Soul must go correct the Cheat and shame the dreaming vvanton Methinks the avvful thoughts and looks of Death should quench those flames of Love vvhich have no other Fewel but a Vapour or thin exhalation vvhich hath no light and glory but in its ovvn destruction and they should rather make us careful to secure that Treasure in the Heavens vvhich remains to be possess'd vvhen our Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life Our daily instances of Mortality should start such fresh remembrances in us of our ovvn approaching dissolution and that amazing alteration of our comforts and employments which vvill ensue thereon as should irresistibly prevail upon us to guard and fortifie our hearts against the inrodes and invasions of such addresses as the corrupting flatteries and pretences of Life and Comforts here below are apt to make upon our hearts for this inordinacy of love to Life gives Death a fatal sting to strike us with Direct 5. As to the inordinate fear of Death labour to get a perfect understanding of its Grounds and Cure for our mistake herein may make the application of the Medicine both dangerous and successless And therefore let us first enquire into what it is that makes us loath or afraid to die and then what Antidotes are expedient for this Cure of such inordinate Fears and then direct your Application 1. That which makes Death terrible to us is either relating to 1. What we leave behind us as Life Comforts or Advantages here for getting and exercising Grace in order to eternal Glory Or 2. The state we are going to as to which we either 1. Doubt of its existence as to eternal comforts Or 2. Want a Title to them and so fear the loss of them and pains of Hell for ever Or. 3. A value for them Or 3. The passage from one state to another and that either 1. As to its pains or 2. Its conflicts or 3. It s separation of Soul and Body and 4. A remaining in that state of separation of Soul and Body through a defect of Divine Power or Faithfulness to and Mercy for us 2. The proper Antidotes and Expedients for the Cure of these excessive Fears vvhich I shall briefly give you are in these following Propositions Propos 1. There is a state of Life and Immortality designed and prepared for holy persons It is prepared Mat. 25 34. Discovered 2 Tim. 1.10 Purchased by Christ and proposed by God Eph. 1.11.14 Promised Tit. 1.2 And reserved in Heaven for such 1 Pet. 1.4 We have all the imaginable proofs demonstrations of it that things invisible and at a distance from us can be capable of God hath made us capable thereof and hath implanted in us a desire of and longing for it though some through sin have rotted these desires at the roots And further on these desires capacity and inclinations God hath grounded Laws for Moral Government and rules the world by hopes and fear whose vital influences are derived from this future state And further still God hath sent his Son to tell us of these preparations who in the humane nature publish'd such reports which God attested by frequent apparent uncontroulable Miracles and sealed them with his blood and rose again as the first fruits of them that sleep and after taught this Doctrine and went to Heaven to take possession and make necessary preparations for our conduct thither and title and possession there and sent the Spirit down for the repeated Seals and Publication of this Doctrine of a Life to come who did inspire Apostles to write and preach it and urge it upon the Consciences of men and to prepare the heart of man for this Inheritance to urge it as an Argument of weight upon them and start joys and sorrows in them as they carry in relation hereunto And he hath declared that he will judge the world by Christ in order to their legal settlement in this state Prop. 2. Our present state of life and comforts is no way comparable to what is designed hereafter It is a State and City in respect whereof God is not ashamed to be called our God Heb. 11.16 with Luke 20.34.38 Oh what a change of persons shall we meet with there Phil. 3.21 1 John 3.2 1 Cor. 15.49 54. Our bodies shall not be what they now are even the wracks and loads and chains of souls What are they now but foul unactive lumps of Clay they are pierced with cold and worn with labours appaled with griefs and dangers and griped with pains and macerated with keen and envious passions and
consolations proper for that hour O! what refreshments do oft times issue and arise from those discoveries of God's image in us presence with and favour for us which are made by us when we are forced to retire within when all things round about us fail and lose their interest in and favour with us because our flesh decays and wasts through pains and rottenness to which the bewitching dotages of time could make their easiest and most successful applications And it oft-times happens that our fears exceed our pains and that the King of Terrors doth not gripe so hard nor stab so painfully as we are apt to think and look for but when the stroke is given indeed and the pains are gone how easily and quickly do the first openings of our eternal morning even swallow up all the remembrances of our dying sorrows Oh when the joys and visions of our God invade and exercise our departed Souls then comes the great prelusion and welcome pledge of our eternal conquest of this last enemy and after a short sleep of Bodies in the dust whilst Souls retire and go to God the Trump will found the Lord will come the World shall perish or be refined by the flames and the dead rise again and die no more 3. Is it because you fear a change of state to your great disadvantage when you are dead that you are loath and dread to die If so then it is because either 1. You credit not or question the certainty and excellency of the world to come Or 2. Because you do not understand and value it Or 3. You do suspect your interest in and fitness for it If it be the first concoct those Arguments and Intimations which God hath given you by diligent enquiries sober pauses faithful meditation reflect upon the first and second Propositions and those more cogent useful Treatises which are written on this Subject and wherewith the world abounds and let not the bribes and flatteries of a vain world divert you nor the malignant influences of a wanton Fancy corrupt and mortifie the Faculties which God hath given you for this end for here the light is ready for the prepared eye 2. If you do not understand its excellence and so have no value for it compare both states together that so your choice and value may result from wisdom and be the product of true and sober judgment Is it so good to dwell delight and perish in the flames of smart contention betwixt God and you or to have your breath and spirits expended in dreadful groans and ecchoes to the Apostle's deep complaints and cries in Rom 7.18 21 23 24. Is there no melody like heart-reproaches for practical despising and displeasing God Psal 51.3 4. Is there such harmony and advantage in the sluggish exercises motions of diseased souls Is there such pleasure in dark and difficult discoveries which are but one remove from the thick darkness of damning Ignorance and Blindness as that your aversation to be sent away unto that Element of clearer views and visions in the other world may well be fixed there Can you delightfully be exposed to temptations to injurious and unworthy thoughts of God and dwell where God is little discerned prized and served What! is an Hospital such a desirable habitation that you are loth to quit it Are the distractions pains and vanities of a forsaken world such Charms and Loadstones to your hearts as to set you on building Tabernacles and fixing there Who ever loved to be exposed to miseries or to build his Palace on the sands or hasty Streams and what is this state of Life but the true Theatre and Center of all these woes and miseries But of this see more in Prop. 2. But if you look above and pierce the Heavens there you will meet with clear discoveries and vehement flames of Love and all desirable unconceivable vigour liberty and satisfaction in an immortal state 4. Is it because you do suspect your interest in and fitness for the life to come If so then know the terms of Life and try your state thereby Do you not know what God is believe what he saith accept what he tenders and do what he commands Know you not who Christ is what he hath done what he expects what he promises and will do Are you an enemy to the Graces Truths and motions of the Spirit and to his directing quickning and comforting influences Are ye not dead to sin alive to God through Christ Is not another Life the exercise and object of your chief desire pursuit and satisfaction have you no prevalent inclinations affections and resolutions to renounce the World Flesh Devil and to discharge all your Duties to God yourselves and others with wisdom holiness activity and courage And to do all this as in the sight of God and with delight as in the hopes and prospect of a better world and to expect what God hath promised in the ways which he commands If these things be in you and abound your hearts are right condition safe and title good If you be wanting here this is your way of reparation and security Do these things and Death is yours and when these things are done all your discouraging doubts fears are answered and dispelled by being clearly understood For 1. It is one thing to be fit to die and another thing to know it 2. It is one thing to have your Title good another thing to be sinless and so fully ripe for Heaven immediately 3. It is one thing to have a serious fixed heart and will for God and another thing to have passionate affections which depend more upon the temper of the Body than the power and ripeness of the Grace of God upon the heart 4. It is one thing what we cannot be though we would be with strength and readiness of will another thing what we have little or no will to be 5. It is one thing to love and hate proportionably to what God and sin are and deserve and 't is another thing to love and hate as God requires in proportion to our strength and with reference to our Work and Joy And 6. It is one thing to have Corruption dwell in us and another thing to have it rule 7. It is one thing to be tempted of the Devil and another thing to yield thereto And 8. It is one thing to have ground of Hope and Joy and another to have the sense thereof 9. Joy is also considerable as our Duty and God's Gift And these 9 Distinctions well observed rightly applied and carefully improved will go exceeding far towards answering all those Doubts which animate unwarrantable Fears of Death in those whose hearts are right whilst their hopes are low their jealousies great their Spirits faint and so their Lives uncomfortable through their own ignorant and sad Mistakes Infer 1. Christian Religion at the worst is better than a course of wickedness at the best Inf. 2.
Minister could not get into thy Soul Death never cometh without a warrant yet it often comes without a warning We do not live by patent but we live at pleasure How knowest thou that the candle of the Ministry shall shine one Sabbath longer The message shall alwaies live but the messenger is alwaies dying The clods of the Earth may soon stop that mouth that so frequently and unfruitfully hath given thee the word of life He the light now of his place and of his people may be blown out by violence as well as burnt out by death Thou canst not say but God may soon make that ear of thine deaf that now thou stoppest God may soon blind those eyes which now thou shuttest It is a peradventure whether God will ever give repentance or no. God hath made many promises to repentance but he hath made none of repentance If to day thou saist thou wilt not to morrow thou maist say thou canst not pray It is just with God that he who while he liveth forgets God when he dies should forget himself I have heard of a profane miscreant that being put upon speedy repentance and turning to God scoffingly answered if I do but say three words when I come to dye Miserere mei Domine Lord have mercy upon me I am sure to be happy This miserable wretch shortly after falling from his horse and receiving thereby a deadly wound had indeed time to speak three words as the relation informed me but those three words were these Diabolus capiat omnia Let the Devil take all Thou dost not know what thy last words shall be the very motions of thy tongue and of thy heart are all in the hands of that God whose grace thou hast despised 7. It is a day That requireth present improvement because it is followed with a night a night that is dark as pitch The night cometh wherein no man can work So saith our Lord Joh. 9.4 There is neither work nor invention in the grave In the dark thou mayest see to bewail thy not working in the light but in the dark there is no working Sorrow then will not help thee couldst thou make hell to swim with thy tears Thy tears are only of worth in time Put not off your working till the time wherein you must leave work It is perfect madness not to think of beginning to work till the time of working is at an end Nemo finitis nundinâ—s exercet mercaturam What man after the fair will go then to buy and sell There is no negotiation but in the time of the fair the season of grace The spiritual manna of grace is only to be gathered in the six days of thy life The time after this is a time of rest wherein there is no more work to be done to procure Salvation If this be the day of thy death tomorrow cannot be the day of thy repentance It is miserable to have that to do for lack of time which is to do for loss of time Thus I have shewn you how we are put upon present improving the season of Grace As 't is here termed a day or in respect of the nature of the Season Sect. 13 2. Secondly In regard of the workers in this day we are urged from hence to a present improving of the season of grace 1. How little have we wrought in this day of grace What a pitiful account and yet an account must be given of this Day can we give unto God of thousands of Sabbaths and repetitions of ordinances and opportunities of life that we have enjoyed You have been perhaps long in the world and under the means of grace but can you say you have lived long 'T is one thing for passengers in a ship to be a great while tost in the Sea and another thing for them to sail a great way You have been long in the world tossed up and down with many temptations and impetuous corruptions and violent affections but which of you have sailed much or gone forward in your course to Heaven with any considerable progress Little is to be seen in the copies of your lives besides blots and empty spaces Much paper hath been spent with wide lines Had you not need now towards the end of the side to write the closer to redeem the time as the Apostle expresseth it Eph. 5.16 We should redeem our time out of the hands of those that have taken it captive out of the clutches of those vain employments that have so often taken it captive Now in all redemptions there is the laying down a price for the party that is redeemed But what is that price you are to lay down for your time when it is to be redeemed I will tell you Id quod perdis pretium est saith Augustin That which you lose in your worldly employments in your idle recreations in your vain visits in your exorbitant eatings and drinkings that time that you take from these to give to God and your Souls that is the price that you lay down for the redeeming of seasons for your Souls It is miserable for our work to be undone for want of time when we are dying when it is undone for the loss of time while we are living 2. How great is the wo of those whose Day is done and yet their work is not done but still to do You have seen their end upon Earth but you have not heard their cries and their self-bewailings in hell How many have been cut off before your eyes who ceased to be before they began to live Improve examples lest you become examples Your Schooling is cheap when it is at the cost of another Let the lashes of Divine severity that have fallen upon others quicken thee in thy Spiritual pace and travelling towards Heaven Why should God stay for you rather than for them Thou canst not mispend thy time at so cheap a rate as they did by whom God hath warned thee Hell is not so full of Souls as it is of delayed purposes What would not lost Souls give for a crum of that time of which now in this world they make Orts If the foresight of their tears for neglecting the Day of grace fetched tears from Christ Luk. 19.41.42 How great shall the feeling be of the Eternal effects of their inexcusable folly How Exuberant but unfruitful shall be the flood of their own tears for their former slothfulness never enough to be bewailed because never at all to be repaired Surely a small loss could not draw tears from so great a Person as the Son of God 3. Many by beginning betimes in the morning of their day have done more work than thou a delayer canst now accomplish They should provoke thee to a holy jealousie They setting forth for Heaven in the morning have travelled further in that morning than thou hast done in that long Summer's day wherein thou hast been slothful What a shame is it that some should be
receive a Prophet into the House without advising with her Husband 2 King 4.10 In disposing of her Husband's Goods we find still the man's hand in it the propriety is in him and the use is to her So that unless there be a notorious Impotency in him or some Tacite or General Consent or some case of present and absolute Necessity as in the case of Abagail she ought not to dispose her Husbands Goods Indeed he ought according to the general Obligation of their Relation and according to the particular Discretion of his Wife intrust her in the ordinary affairs of her sphear and by his Bounty enable her to do good where there is need and not to put her by his penuriousness upon the temptation of purloining from him but if he do forget his duty let not her forget hers which is to do him good and not evil all the days of her life Prov. 31.12 But her hardest task is in the loving and thankful bearing of Reproof which is a bitter pill to flesh and blood especially when there is a proud and contentious spirit But herein she ought to consider that she is not without infirmities which as none hath so much opportunity to see so none is so much obliged to represent unto her as her Husband And to answer him with a froward tongue or a cloudy brow or a careless negligence is the greatest ingratitude and discouragement in the world But if her heart be full of Reverence to him and especially if she believe his heart to be full of love to her this pill will be well digested and by the blessing of God work a real amendment in her 3. The Real effects of the Wife's Reverence to her Husband is seen in her Bebaviour towards him which ought always to be chearful and respectful She must not allow or nourish that crossness of humour to be sullen or dumpish when he is pleasant or on the contrary contemptuously frolick when he is sad but must (u) Omnes illius vultus sumet ridenti arridâ—bitâ— moesto se praebebit mâ—stam servata semper authoritate matronalis integritatis virtutis ut magis illa ex amico proveniant animo quam adulterino L. Vives ubi supra compose her carriage her garments her converse to give him content and to increase his delight in her For if his heart be once estranged from her unless the fear of God with-hold him he may quickly render her condition unspeakably miserable She ought therefore always to express Contentedness in her estate and that will help and move him to be content in his She must entertain him into his House with a (x) Magna amaritudo est in domo uxor tristis Ambr. to 5. p. 265. chearful countenance that he may delight to be at home and study the arts how to pacifie him if ought have provok'd him or how to convince and reform him if ought have insnar'd him She must observe when and how his meals his clothes his lodging do please him and shew the greatness of her respect in these lesser things For even about such things arise the most frequent and sharp contests which a discreet and godly woman will labour to prevent not only because disquiets do (y) Nec aliquid est quod ita alienet virum ab uxore ut crebra rixa uxoris lingua omaruleâ—a Compar'd to a continual dropping which drives a man out of his house Prov. 27.15 Lu. Vives ubi supra alienate the heart but because she cannot live under his frown nor eat nor sleep contentedly while he is angry And notwithstanding the freedom and familiarity of their converse together yet she must still behave her self with all respect towards him and that familiarity must not beget contempt His love must not make her to forget her (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Col. hom 10. duty nor his fondness her respect The more he condescends to her the more she must descend into her place and thus oblige him by her demeanour She must consider that it 's better to (a) Quae malunt fatuis imperare viris quam obtemperare prudentibus eorum sunt similes qui in via coecos ducere malunt quam videntes itineris peritos sequi Plutarch praec conj obey a wise man than to rule a fool as it is better to follow a skilful guide than to lead one that 's blind Few Husbands so bad but the discretion and respect of a Wife would reform them and few Wives so ill-temper'd but the wisdom and affection of a Husband would make them better And so much for their particular Duties to each other I know that many will turn off all this by saying We all fall short of our Duty in these things we ever did and ever shall and so they neither grieve for their miscarriages past nor seriously indeavour to reform them and so leave the cure desperate because the Disease is common But a just and holy God will not be so mocked He gives not his sacred Laws to be so lightly put off If we make not conscience here we make a conscience no where yea though the best will fail unless we study with all our skill and strive with all our strength to be faithful in all these things our other Duties will be abhorred He that regards not all regards not at all in God's account And if Divine Vengeance do not meet with them in this life as it often doth yet without doubt it waits for them in another But I hope better things of you and things that accompany salvation though I thus speak I come at last in the Fourth place to present you with some Directions how to accomplish these Duties that so husbands and wives may most certainly be blessings to each other And they are these 1. Maintain Purity in Soul and Body in Single-age This will greatly dispose you for the Duties of a Married life and also lay up a Blessing for it Let every one of you know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour 1 Thess 4.4 He that gives the reins to his vitious affections before Marriage will find them as impetuous after Marriage For Marriage as (b) Mr. Whately One well saith is like Salt which will keep sweet that which is untainted but restores not that which is already unsavoury A chast and honest heart will with the blessing of God by marriage be preserved but a filthy heart will find occasion to be naught in any condition Beware therefore of the beginnings of Lust flee them like poyson forbear such (c) Laâ—aena quaedam marita juveni rem foedam roganti Darem inquit si meum peteres nam quod petis patris erat dum essem virgo nunc mariti postquam nupsâ— Lu. Viv. de Cr foem p. 699. company and discourse as debauch the heart avoid speculative uncleanness snd keep the heart stored with religious thoughts and the body imployed
in a constant calling Consider that the greatest flames begin with a spark and therefore tamper not with the pleasant motions of original concupiscence Subject not the soul of a Man to the pleasures of a Brute this is sure that they perish in the using and leave nothing but a sting behind and foolish is that pleasure where that which delights instantly (d) Verum nimium miserandi plangenda conditio est ubi cito praeterit quod delectat permanet sine fine quod cruciat Id. p. 725. vanishes and that which remains perpetually torments If you have been overtaken with these faults O cleanse your hearts and hands by the merits of Christ's blood in the use of Fasting and Prayer that God may not visit upon you your Old sins by giving you up to New ones or by bringing some signal curse upon you in husband wife or children And get a blessed taste of those more sirm safe and ravishing delights which are to be found in the favour and promises of God in the pardon of sin and assured hopes of life and immortality These will sufficiently disgrace those gross and base absurdities and make you to take no delight in the muddy stream that have drunk of the Spring 2. Be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 festina eme ag u n expecta ducturus uxorem Buxtorf ex Jevam. considerate in your choice You see how severe the Rules of that Condition are when you are once engaged in it And therefore when you find that you are called to it be sure to recommend it earnestly to God by (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Câ—rys de uxore duo Prayer as Abraham's servant did Gen. 24.12 In this way be sure to acknowledg him and he shall direct thy paths No business so critical none so weighty and therefore no business so calls for (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. in Col. solemn and earnest Prayer And let Reason and (h) For Fitness in special as well as Goodness in general must be one main ground of our choice Gatak Serm. p. 176. Judgment have some stroke in your choice Do not first love and then consider but first consider and then love Chiefly fix your observation on the Soul of the party many marry to lay lands to lands or money to money but see you that his or her (i) In the life of the lady Falkland Soul lie well for yours For no (k) Florem decoris singuli carpunt dies Senec. Beauty Friends or (l) Quicunque ducit uxorem propter divitias ei erunt liberi non probi Buxt ex Prov. in Kiddusch Portion will settle upon you a comfortable life if pride passion or any other lust predominate in the Soul And why will ye espouse a perpetual cross for some present profit or delight It concerns therefore the man and especially the woman to endeavour to marry a member of Christ a religious person where they may most rationally expect the conscionable discharge of their respective duties If such be not the best husbands and wives it is not by reason of their piety but their defect of it Add to this a Discovery of the (m) If thou wert to take an house thou wouldst enquire what commodities or inconveniences what neighbours c. and yet that thou maist sell upon a dislike how much more c. Chrysost tom 8. de uxore ducenda natural tempers of those you mean to marry If they be proud and imperious to others ten to one they will be so to you if they be cholerick sour or sullen you will hardly find an Heaven upon Earth And you ought to deal plainly with one another both concerning your natural Defects concerning your moral Dispositions and concerning your civil Condition that you may not give and that Satan may not take an advantage whereby to cause disquiet or repinings afterwards You count it a cheat to have an unfound ill-condition'd decrepid beast put upon you for a sound young and towardly one certainly it is the greatest injury in the world to defraud one whom you pretend to love and to wrong them in that wherein you can never make them reparation 3. Study the Duties of Marriage before you enter into it Leap not into this solemn condition at adventures There are crosses to be born there are snares to be avoided there are Duties to be done and do you make no provision Hence slow the frequent miscarriages in that honourable estate Hence that Repentance that is both too soon and too late The Husband knows not how to Rule and the Wife knows not how to obey Both ignorant both conceited and both miserable And therefore Parents ought to teach their children the Duties of Wedlock before they enter into the State of Wedlock neither can they be ever acquitted before God that hurry young people ready or unready willing or (n) Hostis uxor est ubi invita ad virum venit Plaut unwilling yea sometimes very (o) Hoc etiam sciendum est quod pueri ante 13 annos puellae ante 12. annos secundum leges matrimonium inire nequeunt Quod si ante predicta tempora copulam inierint separari possunt quam vis assensu parentum juncti fuerunt Lombard lib. 4. dest 36. children for secular advantages into this Relation A course that hath been signaliz'd by infinite disastrous consequenees And most people step into that estate merely to obtain pleasure and gain but as ignorant of their Duty as the Beasts that perish and so families that should be the Nurseries of the Church and Commonwealth prove to be the very Seed-plots of disorder and debauchery Indeavour therefore to read over besides the Scripture which is the Book of all Books Dr. Gouge his Treatise of Domestical Duties or Mr. Bolton or Mr. Gataker or Mr. Whately on the same Subject And the learned will lose no labour in reading Ludovicus Vives de officio Mariti de Christiana foemina fron each of whose Garden I have made up this small Posie and wherein you will find especially in the first and last a more full and clear stating and proving these things then can be expected from so simple a man in so small a time 4. Resign up your selves both of you unfeignedly unto God and to his will until you be savingly regenerated and sanctified you cannot (p) If he be pleased he will turn thy water into wine if he be displeased he will turn thy wine into vinegar Gataker Serm. p. 141. please God nor be intire blessings to one another You may indeed live together like civil Pagans but what 's this to the life of Christians Religion will most firmly bind you to God Religion will most firmly bind you to one another A good temper may do much but a new nature superadded to it will do more The Husband that truly I say that truly fears God dares not be bitter to
many dare not do that the image of God being present which they will do God himself being present hearing seeing and observing exactly all that they do The all seeing eye of God is a good Motto I would this were written upon our Doors Counters Counting Houses Studies over our Tables I shall conclude this with an excellent one of Epictetus his sayings When you are at home and have shut the doors and are in the dark remember you never say you are alone but God is within and he needs no Candle to see what you are doing Secondly both Masters and Servants must have an eye to the glory of their great Master in Heaven There is not an action in our whole lives but we should either habitually or actually respect God's glory in it and it is but reasonable that he of whom all things are and by whom all things are preserved and from whom are all our hopes of good here and hereafter should have all Glory for ever and ever Actions loose their excellency when they have not a right end and to make any thing our end below God Hierocles is little less than idolatry It was excellent advice given more then once by that brave Moralist Refer all things to God make him your center your end I shall conclude with another of that noble Emperour Marcus Aurelius Antoninus sayings Remember always in all things thy Relation to God for without respect to him thou wilt never perform any action aright while thou livest Thirdly both Masters and Servants must have an eye to the command of their great Master in Heaven Psal 119.6 Ask David how you shall escape a state and act of shame and he will tell you by having respect unto all God's commands If men would never command any thing but what they have warrant for from the Word of God commands would then be just and obedience easie then the poor Servant would never be put upon that sad Dilemma whether he should obey his earthly or heavenly Master Acts 5.29 The Pythagoreans were not at all out in that Doctrine of theirs That man is under an Oath of Allegiance to God to be obedient to his Laws and never willingly to transgress them If the Master consult God's commands then he will forbear threatning and not make his Servants to serve with rigor and be faithful meek putting on bowels and pity warning instucting and correcting like a Christian in love to them and obedience to God If the Servant had still an eye to their great Master's commands how singly uprightly diligently and chearfully would they obey To the Law to the testimony and peace will be to them that walk according to this Rule and the whole Israel of God Both Masters and Servants Enchiridion yea all men in all things should still be of Epictetus his mind and still use his Petition Lead me O God whither thou pleasest I will follow thee chearfully and if I be something unwilling yet notwithstanding I am resolved to look to thy command and obey it Let God's Word be our Counsellor and we can't do an unjust and imprudent act Fourthly Both Masters and Servants must have an eye to the assistance of their great Master in Heaven Our heavenly Master is so humble and kind that he never bids any Servant do any work but he is willing to put his own hand to it and to say the truth of it the best Servant of all is so weak and foolish that he is not able to manage the least piece of work his Master sets him about except himself be at one end of it and do the most of it nay I had almost said do all of it himself And if God stand by direct and assist how wisely John 15.4 gently and piously will Masters do their part and how patiently diligently and readily will Servants do theirs then the Masters will not threaten nor the Servants groan or complain But I may have occasion to speak something of this nature elsewhere Fifthly Both Masters and Servants must have an eye to the soveraignty power and justice of their great Master He is higher than the highest he hath us in his hand as the Clay is in the hand of the Potter and none of his ways are unequal he will do righteously when men do not and the day is coming when Masters and Servants King and Subjects must stand upon even ground before him and he will do unto every one according to their works O that Masters would remember that God is infinitely more above them than they are above the poorest Servant Were this well weighed how soon would the heat of some Masters be cooled their storms be calmed and their fury turned into meekness Remember man God can easily without doing any injury at all make thee and thy Servant change places O that Servants could still remember that they have a greater and a better Master that must be pleased whosoever is displeased the deep sense of God's soveraignty would quickly make the proudest heart stoop this this would pull down the stout insolent rebellious spirit of a wicked Servant and make him judge obedience far more tolerable then flames and if any thing of injury be done him by his Master the thoughts of God's justice and righting will quiet his mind I come now to the third thing proposed which vvas to shew you What is the Master's duty and to exhort him to it And this I shall do by giving him 1. Some cautionary Directions 2. Positive Directions First I shall give you some cautionary Directions First Let Masters take heed of being servants to sin and Satan and rebels to God A bad man is not like to be a good Master With what face can any man expect others should obey him whose commands are usually unreasonable whilst he disobeyeth God whose commands are always good and equal How can a drunken prayerless swearing wretch look for better service than he gives to his Master By sin man at first forfeited that Soveraignty that he had over the creatures and by a constant habit of sin especially gross sins which the light of Nature doth condemn a man prostitutes his reason debaseth his authority and looseth that majesty which else he is invested with How can a drunken Master rebuke or punish his servant for tipling Is an intemperate Sensualist a fit person to censure gluttony Can an unclean person condemn wantonness Is it likely that the Servant should be faithful who seeth his Master cheat and lye every day If the Master be a profuse Gamester and given to his pleasure is it like that his Servant should be frugal and diligent Are not lying and swearing and cursing and wickedness as soon learned of a Master as a Trade And is it worth the while for a man to give twenty fourty a hundred pound to teach his child to serve the Devil and a short cut to hell and a sure way to ruin and misery of body
and soul Is that man fit to govern another that can't rule himself Is he that hath drowned his reason capable of instructing one that which requires some vvisdom to understand and learn and more to teach Are not Sots that can't speak sense in a sweet frame to speak to God in Prayer or to read a Chapter What have such to do to take God's name into their mouths which hate to be reformed O that wicked Masters would consider that their wickedness doth not only hazzard the damnation of a single soul but even of all that are under their charge Is it not enough to have your own sins to be lay'd to your charge are all your oaths and lyes and wickedness too little to sink you but you must make your Servants sins yours Is one damnation too little but you must seek to double it Are those flames so cool and tolerable that you are busie in adding fuel to that terrible fire to make it burn seven times hotter What a hell must such a mans house be in which the Name of God is scarce heard except it be in an oath or a curse Is there a blessing like to be in the house on which God's curse rests Friends I believe you would be loth your children should have Cham's curse and be servants to a Tyrant and a Slave Prov. 3.33 Pythagoras a wicked man is both Masters if you would have your servants obey your commands you must not break God's If you would have them sober you must not be drunk if you would have them chast you must not be filthy if you would have them true you must not be false if you would have them good you must not be bad your selves Your example signifieth more to them than your precept do not undo that by your actions and life which you would build up by your words O! little do wicked Masters think what a plague they are to a City what a curse to a Family and what inevitable ruin they expose their own and other souls bodies and estates to except infinite power and mercy step in quickly to prevent it Secondly Take heed of idleness carelessness and trusting your Servants too much A master's negligence tempts the Servant to unfaithfulness When Masters are idle abroad usually the Servants are so at home It can't well be expected that when the Master is spending his time foolishly and unaccountably in the Coffee-houses Ale-houses or Taverns the Servant should spend his wisely in the Shop especially where he observes that the Master never minds which end goes foremost never examines his Books nor calls him to any account O this sin of idleness that Sodomitical soul-debasing body-weakning Ez. 16.49 estate-wasting sin Have we a mind to try whether God will rain such another storm of brimstone upon us as once he did upon them Seneca O how many persons are very prodigal of that commodity which will shortly be very precious Sirs do you never take a Bible in your hands do you never read how much God is displeased with sloth how oft he forbids it Rom. 12.11 Prov. 18.19 Can you call your spending three or four hours together in an idle house in insignificant chat redeeming the time Is neglecting your Servants the way to make them faithful O think of these things before it is too late I know men have their excuses and can easily evade what I say But believe it it is one thing to deal with a poor Minister and another thing to deal with God and a thousand of your pleas when they are cast into his ballance at the Day of Judgment will be found light If men must be judged for idle words I believe they will scarce be acquitted for idle actions I wish we that are Masters could oft speak to our selves in that brave Emperor's language Antoninus l. 5. n. 1. In the morning when thou findest thy self unwilling to rise consider with thy self presently it is to go about a man's work that I am stirred up am I unwilling to do that for which I was born and brought into this world was I made for this to lay me down and make much of my self in a warm bed O but this is pleasing And was it for this that thou wert born that thou mightest take thy pleasure Was it not in truth that thou shouldest alwayes be busie and in action Seest thou not how every thing is busie in its kind to perform what belongs to it in its place c. and you use to say If you keep the shop the shop will keep you If you keep not your eye upon your servant when you hope to find an honest man you may meet a thief Thirdly Take heed who you admit into your Family One that is born of wicked debauched Parents and hath had nothing but bad examples and seldom good precepts that hath been accustomed to lying and baseness from the Cradle that hath not been taught to read and knows neither his duty to God nor man that is ignorant of God Christ Soul Heaven Hell and consequently is not capable of lying under the force of the most powerful motives to faithfulness Psal 101 3. David was huge cautious in this point a lyer should not dwell in his house As good servants bring a blessing along with them into the Families where they come Gen. 39 5. so sometimes wicked servants bring a curse with them into the house where they come Little do Masters think how much dammage a neglect in this may bring upon them their estate may insensibly be wasted their other Servants infected their Children be corrupted and provisions laid in to feed their sorrows all their days Never talk of what thou shalt have with them how responsable their Parents be will this ballance the hazard of your Childrens Souls Sooner take a toad into your bosome then a wicked servant into your Family Fourthly Take heed of putting your Servants upon too much work It 's the way to alienate their affections to make them almost uncapable of doing their duty as they should to God it puts them upon cryes and groans to him Exod. 2.24 that hath ever an ear open to the complaints of the oppessed by this you make them more blockish and less ingenuous and consequently not so fit to carry on your business so much for your interest as else they might do remember how contrary this is to humanity How would you like this in others Were the Egyptians to be justified for their great burdens wherewith they loaded the Israelites and the Turks to be commended for the hard vassalage they put poor Christians to I know you readily censure both these and how can you condemn either when you imitate both Is your sin less because against greater light except you desire the curse of God and man too take heed of this sin You may learn more mercy from an Heathen than you ever practised For he tells you Seneca