6.12 Ye are not straitned in me but ye are straitned in your own Bowels Our hearts are narrow towards Spiritual and Heavenly things because they are so enlarg'd towards earthly and visible things when the heart is enlarged as Hell and death that cannot be satisfied Hab. 2.5 For these perishing things no wonder if there be little room for the Graces of the Spirit This is therefore our great concern to pray that God would enlarge our desires that he may satisfie and fill them 4. We ought to pray and strive That all the Powers and Faculties of the whole man may be filled according to their measures There is much room in our Souls that is not furnish'd much waste ground there that is not cultivated and improved to its utmost We might have more light in the Understanding more tractableness in the Will more heat in our Love and a sharper edge set upon our Zeal And we have warrant to pray for this measure of the fulness of God 1 Thess 5.23 Now the God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 5. Every gracious Soul ought to pray and strive for such a measure of Grace that he may be qualified for any Duty and Service that God shall call him to and engage him in The Hebrew word which we render Consecration or separation to an Office is Filling the hand Exod. 29.9 Consecrate ye Aaron and his Sons in the Hebrew Fill the hand of Aaron and his Sons Where God employs the hand he will fill the hand we have ground to believe that he will send us about no Errand but he will bear our Charges where-ever he gives a Commission he will bestow a competent qualification when we go about his Work we may expect his presence and assistance in the Work And Moses seems to stand upon these terms with God Exod. 33.15 If thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence As therefore there is great variety of Duties in our Christian Calling we may in Faith expect and from that believing expectation pray that we may be furnish'd with a suitable variety of Grace for the discharge of them 6. Every true Christian ought to pray strive for such a measure of Grace as may enable him to bear patiently chearfully and creditably those afflictions and sufferings which either God's good pleasure shall lay upon us or for his Names sake we may draw upon our selves We ought to pray that either he will lay no more upon us than our present strength can bear or if he encreases our trials he will encrease our Faith There 's no danger of excess in our Prayers when we confine them to the limits of his gracious promises Now here we have encouragement from his Word 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able but will with the temptation make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it 7. Every true Christian ought to pray and strive for such a measure of Grace as may bring the Soul to a settlement and stability that he be not soon shaken by the cross and adverse evils that he shall meet with in this Life And the Apostle Peter has gone before us in this Prayer 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you And herein especially let us keep an eye upon these particulars § 1. Pray that God would so stablish you in the truth that ye may not be blown away with every wind of Doctrin A sorry trivial Error many times oversets and puzzles a weak Understanding Now 't is our great Interest to pray and strive that we may reach such a clear distinct coherent Light into the Doctrin of the Gospel that every small piece of Sophistry may not perplex and stagger our Belief of it So the Apostle Paul Eph. 4.14 would have Believers be no more Children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive § 2. Pray also that God would so stablish you in the truth of the promises that your Faith may not be shaken with every wind of Providence We are apt to have our hearts tossed by contrary Dispensations So upon a rumour Isa 7.2 The heart of Asa was moved and the heart of his people as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind It argues great weakness of Faith that we cannot maintain an equality of mind under various Providences the only remedy of which evil is to pray that God would encrease and strengthen our Faith that we may be so firmly built upon the unmoveable rock that we may not be afraid of evil tidings having our hearts fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 112.7 And this was the glory of Job's Faith Job 13.15 That tho' God should slay him yet would he trust in him § 3. Let us pray and strive that God would so settle and stablish us in Love to himself that no blast of Afflictions from his hand may cool the fire of Divine Love in our hearts We want exceedingly the Faith that God carries on a design of Love under all his various and seemingly contrary dealings with us he can love and correct why then cannot we love a correcting God Whether he wounds or heals his love is the same and why not ours Can we not love God upon the security of Faith that he will do us good as well as upon the experience that he has done us good § 4. Pray we and strive that God would so settle and stablish us in our inward peace that no wind of temptation may overthrow it 'T is a slender and ill-made peace which every assault of the Tempter dissolves The Psalmist stood upon a firmer bottom when the terrifying Onsets from without made him fly more confidently to his God Psal 56.3 What time I am afraid I will put my trust in thee And we have Gods own promise to answer our Faith Isa 26.3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee because he trusteth in thee And thus I have return'd some Answer to the second Branch of the Question What is the measure of the fulness of God with which every true Christian ought to pray and strive to be filled There will still remain an enquiry How we may reach to such a measure of the Divine fulness as has been described To which tho' the limits of this discourse will not allow a full and just Answer yet the importance of the Question will oblige me to point at some few things upon which your own Meditations may find matter of enlargement 1. And first it is necessary that we be convinced that we are very far short
the Psalmist declaring their inward sentiments The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Lastly The sinner slights the power of God This attribute renders God a dreadful Judge He has a right to punish and power to revenge every transgression of his Law His judicial power is supreme his executive is irresistible He can with one stroke dispatch the Body to the Grave and the Soul to Hell and make Men as miserable as they are sinful Yet sinners as boldly provoke him as if there were no danger We read of the infatuated Syrians that they thought that God the Protector of Israel had only power on the Hills and not in the Vallies and renewed the War to their destruction Thus sinners enter into the lists with God and range an Army of lusts against the Armies of Heaven and blindly bold run upon their own destruction They neither believe his all-seeing Eye nor all-mighty Hand They change the glory of the living God into a dead Idol that has Eyes and sees not and Hands and handles not and accordingly his threatnings make no impression upon them Thus I have presented a true view of the evil of sin consider'd in it self but as Job saith of God how little a portion of him is known May be said of the evil of sin how little of it is known For in proportion as our apprehensions are defective and below the greatness of God so are they of the evil of sin that contradicts his Sovereign will and dishonours his excellent perfections 2. Sin relatively to us is the most pernicious and destructive Evil. If we compare it with temporal Evils it preponderates all that Men are liable to in the present World Diseases in our Bodies disasters in our Estates disgrace in our Reputation are in just esteem far less evil than the evil of sin for that corrupts and destroys our more excellent and immortal part The vile Body is of no account in comparison of the precious Soul Therefore the Apostle enforces his exhortation Dearly beloved brethren abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the Soul The issue of this War is infinitely more woful than of the most cruel against our Bodies and Goods our Liberties and Lives for our Estates and Freedom if lost may be recover'd if the present Life be lost for the cause of God it shall be restor'd in greater lustre and perfection but if the Soul be lost 't is lost for ever All temporal Evils are consistent with the love of God Job on the dunghil roughcast with Ulcers was most precious in Gods sight Lazarus in the lowest poverty and wasted with loathsom Sores was dear to his affections a guard of Angels was sent to convey his departing Soul to the Divine Presence But sin separates between God and us who is the fountain of felicity and the center of rest to the Soul Other evils God who is our wise and compassionate Father and Physitian makes use of as Medicinal preparations for the cure of sin and certainly the Disease which would be the death of the Soul is worse than the Remedy tho' never so bitter and afflicting to sense Sin is an evil of that malignity that the least degree of it is fatal If it be conceiv'd in the Soul tho' not actually finisht 't is deadly One sin corrupted in an instant angelical excellencies and turn'd the glorious Spirits of Heaven into Devils 'T is a poison so strong that the first taste of it shed a deadly taint and malignity into the veins of all mankind Sin is such an exceeding Evil that 't is the severest punishment Divine Justice inflicts on sinners on this side Hell The giving Men over to the power of their lusts is the most fearful judgment not only with respect to the cause Gods unrelenting and unquenchable anger and the issue everlasting destruction but in the quality of the judgment Nay did sin appear as odious in our Eyes as it does in Gods we should account it the worst part of Hell it self the pollutions of the damned to be an evil exceeding the torments superadded to them Sin is pregnant with all kinds of Evils the seeds of it are big with Judgments The evils that are obvious to sense or that are Spiritual and Inward Temporal and Eternal Evils all proceed from sin often as the Natural cause and always as the Meritorious And many times the same punishment is produc'd by the efficiency of sin as well as inflicted for its guilt Thus uncleanness without the miraculous waters of Jealousie rots the Body and the pleasure of sin is revenged by a loathsom consuming Disease the natural consequence of it Thus intemperance and luxury shorten the lives of Men and accelerate damnation Fierce desires and wild rage are fewel for the everlasting fire in Hell The same evils considered Physically are from the efficiency of sin consider'd legally are from the guilt of sin and the justice of God This being a point of great usefulness that I may be more instructive I will consider the evils that are consequential to sin under these two Heads 1. Such as proceed immediately from it by Emanation 2. Those evils and all other as the effects of Gods justice and sentence 1. The evils that proceed immediately by emanation from it and tho' some of them are not resented with feeling apprehensions by sinners yet they are of a fearful nature Sin has deprived Man of the purity nobility and peace of his innocent state 1. It has stain'd and tainted him with an universal intimate and permanent pollution Man in his first Creation was holy and righteous a beam of beauty derived from Heaven was shed upon his Soul in comparison of which sensitive beauty is but as the clearness of Glass to the lustre of a Diamond His understanding was light in the Lord his will and affections were regular and pure the Divine Image was imprest upon all his faculties that attracted the love and complacency of God himself Sin has blotted out all his aimiable excellencies and superinduc'd the most foul deformity the original of which was fetcht from Hell Sinners are the natural Children of Satan of a near resemblance to him The Scripture borrows comparisons to represent the defiling quality of sin from pollutions that are most loathsom to our senses from pestilential Vlcers putrifying Sores filthy Vomit and defiling Mire This pollution is universal through the whole Man Spirit Soul and Body It darkens the mind our supreme faculty with a cloud of Corruption it depraves the will and vitiates the affections 'T is a pollution so deep and permanent that the Deluge that swept away a World of sinners did not wash away their sins and the fire at the last day that shall devour the dross of the visible World and renew the Heavens and the Earth shall not purge away the sins of the guilty Inhabitants This pollution hath so defil'd and disfigur'd Man who was a fair and lovely type wherein
like but worse than the Beasts for the fiercest Beasts of Africa or Hyrcania have a respect for their own likeness tho' they devour others yet they spare those of their own kind but Men are so degenerate as to be most cruel against their Brethren These are some of the Evils that proceed from sin as their natural Cause And from hence 't is evident that sin makes Men miserable were there no Hell of torment to receive them in the next State 2. I will consider the Evils consequent to sin as the penal effects of the sentence against sin of Divine Justice that decrees it and Divine Power that inflicts it and in these the sinner is often an active instrument of his own misery 1. The fall of the Angels is the first and most terrible punishment of sin God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell reserved in chains of darkness to judgment How are they fall'n From what height of glory and felicity into bottomless perdition How are they continually rackt and tormented with the remembrance of their lost happiness If a thousand of the prime Nobility of a Nation were executed in a day by the sentence of a righteous King we should conclude their crimes to be atrocious innumerable Angels dignified with the titles of Dominions and Principalities were expell'd from Heaven their native seat and the sanctuary of life and are dead to all the joyful operations of the intellectual nature and only alive to everlasting pain One sin of pride or envy brought this terrible vengeance from whence we may infer how provoking sin is to the holy God We read of King Vzziah that upon his presumption to offer incense he was struck with a Leprosie and the Priests thrust him out and himself hasted to go out of the Temple a representation of the punishment of the Angels by presumption they were struck with a Leprosie and justly expelled from the Celestial Temple and not being able to sustain the terrors of the Divine Majesty they fled from his presence 'T is said God cast them down and they left their own habitation 2. Consider the penal effects of sin with respect to Man They are comprehended in the sentence of death the first and second death threaten'd to deter Adam from transgressing the Law In the first Creation Man while innocent was immortal for altho his Bâ—â—y was compounded of jarring Elements that had a natural tendency to dissolution yet the Soul was endowed with such vertue as to imbalm the Body alive and to preserve it from the least degree of putrefaction But when Man by his voluntary sin was separated from the fountain of life the Soul lost its derivative life from God and the active life infused by its union into the Body It cannot preserve the natural life beyond its limited term A righteous retaliation Thus the Apostle tells us Sin came into the World and death by sin Even infants who never committed sin die having been conceived in sin And death brought in its retinue evils so numerous and various that their kinds are more than words to name and distinguish them Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble at his birth he enters into a labyrinth of Thorns this miserable World and his life is a continual turning in it he cannot escape being sometimes prick'd and torn and at going out of it his Soul is rent from the embraces of the Body 'T is as possible to tell the number of the waves in a tempestuous Sea as to recount all the tormenting passions of the Soul all the Diseases of the Body which far exceed in number all the unhappy parts wherein they are seated What an afflicting object would it be to hear all the mournful lamentations all the piercing complaints all the deep groans from the miserable in this present state What a prospect of Terror to see Death in its various shapes by Famine by Fire by Sword and by wasting or painful Diseases triumphant over all mankind What a sight of woe to have all the Graves and Charnel-houses open'd and so many loathsom Carcasses or heaps of dry naked Bones the trophies of Death expos'd to view Such are the afflicting and destructive effects of sin For wickedness burns as a fire it devours the Briars and Thorns Besides other miseries in this life sometimes the terrors of an accusing Conscience seise upon Men which of all evils are most heavy and overwhelming Solomon who understood the frame of humane Nature tells us The Spirit of a Man can bear his infirmity that is the mind fortified by Principles of moral Counsel and Constancy can endure the assault of external Evils but a wounded Spirit who can bear This is most insupportable when the sting and remorse of the mind is from the sense of guilt for then God appears an enemy righteous and severe and who can encounter with offended Omnipotence Such is the sharpness of his Sword and the weight of his Hand that every stroke is deadly inward Satan the cruel enemy of Souls exasperates the wound He discovers and charges sin upon the Conscience with all its killing aggravations and conceals the Divine mercy the only lenitive and healing Balm to the wounded Spirit What visions of horror what spectacles of fear what scenes of sorrow are presented to the distracted mind by the Prince of darkness And which heigthens the misery Man is a worse enemy to himself than Satan he falls upon his own Sword and destroys himself Whatever he sees or hears afflicts him whatever he thinks torments him The guilty Conscience turns the Sun into darkness and the Moon into blood the precious promises of the Gospel that assure favour and pardon to returning and relenting sinners are turn'd into arguments of despair by reflecting upon the abuse and provocation of mercy and that the advocate in Gods bosom is become the accuser Doleful state Beyond the conception of all but those who are plung'd into it How often do they run to the grave for sanctuary and seek for death as a deliverance Yet all these anxieties and terrors are but the beginning of sorrows for the full and terrible recompenses of sin shall follow the Eternal Judgment pronounc'd against the wicked at the last day 'T is true the sentence of the Law is past against the sinner in this present state and temporal evils are the effects of it but that sentence is revocable at death the sentence is ratified by the Judge upon every impenitent sinner 't is decicive of his state and involves him under punishment for ever But the full execution of judgment shall not be till the publick general sentence pronounc'd by the everlasting Judge before the whole World It exceeds the compass of created thoughts to understand fully the direful effects of sin in the Eternal State For who knows the power of Gods wrath The Scripture represents the punishment in expressions that may instruct the mind
more particularly and expresly and heartily you do this the better you will be able to give account of your attendance upon the Word This will be like the washing or scouring of a Vessel before you fill it that what you put into it may not be spoil'd According to that of the Apostle James (n) Jam. 1.21 Lay apart not only restrain and keep in but put off and throw away all filthiness ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sordes 'T is a Metaphor borrowed from the filth of the Body and thence transferr'd to the Soul Sin is a sordid thing and we must not only lay aside all things that defile us but all superfluity of naughtiness Some interpret of it those Excrements which we are in pain till we are rid of them q. d. Wash off all outward filth and purge out all inward for without this we can never savingly receive the Word 2. Propose to your selves such an End for your hearing that you will not be ashamed of If God should give you your Liberty propose what End you will to your selves provided it be such as upon serious reflection you will not be ashamed of e. g. You go to hear a Sermon to see a Mistriss is not that an End to be ashamed of or you fetch a Walk for your Recreation and sit down to rest you at the end of it to hear a Sermon and when you have rested you return may you not be ashamed of this You go to a Sermon for the Language or Notions of it though both these may be excellent your End is sinfull But yet I 'll close this with this Advice viz Hold on to hear Sermons though with an end to be repented of for while you play with the Bait you may be caught with the Hook while you are in the way of Grace you may be graciously surprized 3. Above all preface your hearing with Prayer As praying is the last thing the Minister doth before he Preacheth let praying be the last thing you do before you go out to hear Neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase (p) 1 Cor. 3.7 Many times our profiting is according to our praying But here again I advice you to hear though you pray not at all for by hearing you 'l be convinced that 't is your Duty to pray you 'l be instructed and incouraged in it 2. In hearing When you are engaged pray don't gratifie Satan then by a diversion for Preparation No tho it be by Prayer any other than Ejaculatory that must have been before herein likewise take these three Directions 1. Set your selves before God to hear Christ speaking to you from Heaven The more actually and seriously you presentiate Christ unto your selves the more you will give up your selves to him I grant we can't preach as the Apostles wrote by the immediate guidance of the Holy Ghost without all error and mistake Query whether all their popular Sermons were so infallibly guided it seems not (*) Gal. 2.11 yet Christ speaks through us as through a crack'd Trumpet though we betray our own frailties yet for the main of our Sermons we dare say Thas saith the Lord which is a proof of Christ speaking (q) 2 Cor. 13.3 in us this will be matter of thansgivings by both your Ministers and your selves when (r) 1 Thes 2.13 you receive the Word of God which ye heard of us not as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God then 't will certainly work effectually 2. Mix your hearing with Ejaculatory Prayers Ejaculations to God and Soliloquies to your selves will help to make and keep the heart tight Jogg your own hearts as you do your sleeping Neighbour call in your thoughts while they are within call and as far as 't is possible think of nothing but what you are about A Heart thus confin'd is like to be most enlarged both with Grace and Comfort 3. Be sure to hold fast the Seope of what you hear Not only those passages which more particularly affect you but that which is the main design of the Sermon I think this the weakest Memory may retain and I think this will do most good when 't is retained In short be be sure you retain something Do thus or somewhat like it in hearing 3. After hearing These Questions were proposed by Christ both negatively and affirmatively some months perhaps some years after they had heard John And Christ proposeth that with some vehemency That you may give a good answer I shall commend to you but two things 1. Consideration Chew the Cud this is the Metaphor that 's commonly made use of (ſ) Lev. 11.3 The Beasts that chewed the cud were clean for food and sacrifice◠these Creatures gather up their food into a kind of inward bag and then they sit down and bring it up to chew it over again and then convey it into the stomach for nourishment So that Christian whose self and service is a Sacrifice acceptable to God gathers up what he thinks the Best in a Sermon and when retired chews it over again for his spiritual nourishment and growth in Grace As your considering thinking Man is the only wise man so your considering thinking Christian is the only thriving Christian 2. Add something to your practice and continue that till it give way to something else of greater moment I am far from laying any stress upon any spiritual Prudentials that I can offer but I would humbly propose it to thinking Christians whether if every Lord's-day I do not exclude other days but Query Whether we may not expect more from Lord's-days Sermons than any other The Lord's-day being the time of Divine appointment and other days of humane conveniency The business of the Lord's-day is Devotion on other days we make a scape from worldly business to a Sermon and then rush into the World again as if we would redeem that time for the World that we spent with Go◠I query therefore If we do charge our selves upon what we hear on the Lord's-day to practise something more or something more carefully than before and to keep to that till that give place to something else of greater moment Did we begg something of God more this week than the last Did we single out some sin for mortification more this week than the last Did we do something enjoyned on the Lord's-day This would be to us like the Shew-bread to Israel which was made thus They brought twenty four pecks of Wheat-meal out of which they sifted twenty four Pottles of fine flower of which they made twelve unleavened Cakes every one was ten hand breadth long and five broad and seven fingers high which signified the multitude of the Faithfull presented unto God in his Church as upon a pure Table continually serving him (t) Lev. 24.8.9 as also the Spiritual repast which the Church of God obtaineth from
taking pleasure in the promoting of the Graces and Comforts of others in our way to Heaven Christians forget not that the joy of the Lord is your strength (m) Neh. 8.10 The serving of God with chearfulness strengtheneth both Body and Mind whereas excess of grief damps the Spirit and infeebles the Body unfitting us for the Service of either God or Man But the complaining Soul will still complain Say what you will or can Comfort belongs not to me (n) Ps 77.3 4. I may say with Asaph My Soul refuseth to be comforted I remember God and am troubled I complain and my Spirit is overwhelmed God holds mine Eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak q. d. I cannot but reject all the Consolations that my Friends suggest to me The thoughts of Gods Goodness Wisdom and Power have sometimes been refreshing to me but now they are matter of terror to me God is angry with me and I cannot bear it my trouble is so great I can't express it your speaking Comfort to me is but as the Singing of Songs to a heavy Heart 3. Notwithstanding all this and a great deal more of such Complaints yet I 'll assert and make good my assertion That Comfort belongs to them that conclude against themselves that their case is hopeless and I 'll try to make those very persons confess it We are not to take Mens own word that either the Promises or Threatnings are their portion but we must examine the grounds of their peremptory assertion e. g. If a wicked wretch shall confidently boast he doth not in the least doubt but he shall as certainly be saved as any of those that take most care about their Salvation though he ne're troubles his thoughts about it Do you think that in taking his Accounts Chist will let his Confidence pass for saving Faith and give him Heaven for his Presumption surely you can't think he will while he hath given us so plain a Rule how to judge of words by things viz. By their fruits you shall know them (o) Mat. 7.16 c. A good Tree cannot bring forth evil fruit So then as a Man shall not save his Soul for his groundless Presumption so neither shall he lose his Soul for his groundless despondency Thou complainest of thy self not of Christ he is precious (p) 1 Pet. 2.7 in thine eye therefore thy Faith is saving thou fearest that thou dost not cleave to Christ yet thou hadst rather die than offend him this is a Faith of adherence and that is saving Thou complainest but restlesly strivest to be more inwardly outwardly universally holy that is a good Evidence thy state is good though while under a Temptation or under a Cloud thou canst not see it to be so But thou still sayest I am an unprofitable Hearer and I cannot believe that Christ will pardon what is amiss and accept of any thing as good of what I can do and therefore pray quit this way of answering my complaint by telling me of Comfort If you have any thing else to offer I 'll hear it I may expect rather to hear of Christ in a clap of Thunder than in a soft and still voice 4. I 'll speak to thee no more directly of Comfort but only ask thee a Question about the Comforts of others What are thy thoughts about the Comforts and Joys of the Holy Ghost are there any such things or are they meer Fancies If there be any such things what thinkest thou of those that partake of them Is the enjoyment of them desirable Are they happy that have them Whether is more eligible to spend your Life in mourning Complaints or to spend it in the joyfull Praises of the Lord our Redeemer Are these Questions hard to be answered These Questions are out of question Oh! there are no joys like the joys of the Holy Ghost the best of carnal joys are incomparably below them Though I fear I shall never be so happy as to enjoy them yet I can't but admire them that do Do you ask which is more eligible a life of mourning Complaints or a life of Joys Ask a Man under a fit of the Stone whether that is more eligible than a state of health Well dost thou speak this heartily Ask thy Heart again that thou mayest not mistake me or go back from thine own answer Are the joys of the Holy Ghost Realities Are they unspeakably beyond all other joys Are they happy that enjoy them Wilt thou stand to thy word Then they are all thine own thou hast a title to them at present and as sure as thy Redeemer lives thou shalt be put into the possession of them Mark how I prove it Every one that hath Truth of Grace hath an indefeasible Title to Glory (q) 1 John 5.13 These things which I have written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that you have eternal life (r) 2 Cor. 1.22 They have a Seal for Assurance but an earnest which is a begun possession elsewhere called the first-fruits (Å¿) Rom. 8.23 but every one that prizeth the holy joys of the Holy Ghost hath Truth of Grace Graceless Persons make a mock of the joys of the Holy Ghost they can scarce forbear sneering at the mention of them he perfers carnal Comforts before them (t) Psal 4.6 7 Many say who will shew us any good But the gracious Soul says Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased ver 3. This is the godly Man whom the Lord hath set apart for himself Not any one that is not a Saint himself hath any esteem for a Saint as a Saint (u) 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren He that loveth not his brother abideth in death Now I dare appeal to your selves in the very midst of all your complaints when thou fearest thou shalt never have any of these joys yet thou hast a value for them above any other Thou preferrest thy complaints before worldly Pleasures thou dost not thou canst not but follow Christ though it be tremblingly If all these be not infallible Evidences of Grace what are Chide thy self and pray thy self out of thy complaining temper (w) Eccl. 9.7 Go thy way eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy Wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth thy works And thus you have my Answer as well to the Complaint as to the Case God make it beneficial to all that shall read it There remains some questions depending upon the Case that require some Answer I 'll attempt that also Qu. 1. When we make choice of a Minister to be under Christ the special Guide of our Souls How shall we avoid the sinfull preferring of one before another How may we escape that
should attempt to re-build it Vse Last From all that hath been said we may lastly conclude That Sinners that are impenitent have little reason to flatter themselves because of their present impunity Let them consider how it will fare with them in the day of Judgment Christ refers to that in the Text. And those who have Eyes to see afar off will look so far as that day So did Paul 2 Cor. 5.11 Wherefore we strive whether present or absent to be accepted for we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ And hereupon he counted it a small thing to be judged of Men or at Man's day looking to the Judgment to come and that great Day of the Lord 1 Cor. 4.5 6. The fal'n Angels are said to be bound in Chains of Darkness reserved to the Judgment of the great Day and so are impenitent Sinners reserved to that day when notwithstanding their present Impunity they shall then fall under Judgment more intolerable than that of Sodom As a Malefactor that is kept in the Gaol under Bolts and Fetters till the Assize hath little reason to rejoyce in his present freedom from the Sentence of the Judge And this is the case of Sinners Because Sentence is not speedily executed their hearts are fully set to do evil Eccles 8.11 And so I make the Conclusion of this Discourse with that which Solomon makes the Conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments c. For God will bring every work to Judgment and every secret thing whether Good or Evil. Quest How the uncharitable and dangerous Contentions that are among Professors of the true Religion may be allayed SERMON III. GALAT. V. 15. But if ye bite and devour one another take heed that ye be not consumed one of another MY Business from this Scripture is to enquire into the Cause the Danger and the Cure of uncharitable Contentions in the Church of God The Holy Apostle Paul having some few Years before planted a Church in Galatia a region in the upper parts of the lesser Asia there soon crept in a sort of false Teachers who contended that the Mosaical Ceremonies in particular that Circumcision was still to be observed even by the believing Gentiles and that the Christians were not justified before God by Faith but by the Works of the Law Which two Errors when he had fully confuted in the former part of this Epistle he Applies in this Chapter and in the Next 1. By way of Exhortation to stand fast in this their Christian Liberty ver 1. which he backs with divers Arguments 2. By way of Direction to use the same aright not for an occasion to the Flesh ver 13. the Works whereof he afterwards reckons up at large but rather that they should by Love serve one another and abound in all Holiness and Goodness which he inlargeth upon in the rest of this Chapter and in the Next This Text in hand lies within the Verge of this latter Vse where the Apostle using their own Weapon the Law whereof they crack'd so much against themselves he roundly tells them that the whole Law to wit the second Table which also hath an inviolable connexion with the first is fulfilled in loving their Neighbour as themselves and so though they were free from the Law of Ceremonies yet not from the Law of Love and though the Moral Law had now no power to justifie the Sinner nor to condemn the Believer yet still it hath the force of a Rule to guide them in that grand Duty as much as ever before These Words then come in as a Motive to press the Galathians to exercise that Charity which he had affirm'd before to be the summe and scope of the whole Law and it is drawn from the Danger of the contrary temper Plain Commands of God should be sufficient to sway us to our Duty but generally we have need of the most powerful Motives especially when the violent streams of Rage Lust or Revenge do oppose it as in the Case â—efore us But if ye bite and devour one anothir take heed that ye be not câ—â—â—â—med one of another In which Words you may see 1. The Sin specified whereof they were suppos'd to be guilty But if ye bite that is reproach and defame one another some violently maintaining these Jewish Ceremonies and others passionately opposing them and devour one another that is tear and oppress each other by all the mischievous Hostilities ye can for religious Feuds are always sharpest 2. Here is the Danger forewarn'd in Case they proceeded therein take heed that ye be not consumed one of another that is you will certainly destroy one another The Division of the Members must issue in the Dissolution of the Body The Decay of your Love will weaken your Faith both parties will rue it ye will be in danger of total ruine Body and Soul here and hereafter Now if we consider these words only in Hypothesi or in Relation to these Persons in the Text they teach us 1. That there were Contentions in the Church of Galatia So that Vnity is no infallible Mark of a true Church Unity may be out of the Church of Christ and Dissention may be within it 2. That many People were Violent in them For the Apostle would scarce have express'd himself in such terms of biting and devouring unless there had been some outragious Carriage among them toward one another 3. That these Contentions were very dangerous to them all They threatned no less than the overthrow of both the contending Parties the consumption of them all But considering the words of the Text in Thesi or Absolutely which we may safely do seeing the same Causes do still produce or at least dispose unto the same Effects we may collect this Conclusion That Vncharitable Contentions do prepare for utter Destruction And here I shall 1. Clear and open the Terms 2. Amplifie and confirm the Truth And 3. Apply and bring home the Influence of this Point unto our selves I. To understand the Subject of this Proposition to wit Vncharitable Contentions we must distinguish 1. Of the Matter of Contentions and they are either of a Civil or of a Spiritual Nature 1. Of a Civil Nature which concern Men in their Lives Liberties Names or Estates And these are either Private or Publick 1. Private Contentions which are about Meum and Tuum and these are troublesome to those which are in the right and damnable to those that are in the wrong and oftentimes ruinous unto both and therefore are by all good means to be prevented or else by all fair and just means to be managed and all fit opportunities are to be watched not so much to obtain a full Victory as a quiet Conclusion lest the Remedy prove as it doth frequently worse than the Disease 2. Publick Contentions which are usually about the Succession Power or Prerogative of Princes and the Liberties or Properties of Subjects And here
here the feast is reserved for hereafter wrath to come and life to come are unconceivable and therefore unexpressible we can neither order our Speech by reason of our inward darkness nor of that ineffable Light thoughts fail us words fail us we are lost in the thoughts of future blessedness as well as in those of our former misery What therefore we cannot perfectly understand let us silently and reverently Admire and Adore What a prodigious height did Man fall from when he fell from his God What a desperate Abyss of misery did he fall into when he fell into sin And therefore what a stupendious height is that which Love shall raise him to in Glory All we can do is to put no bounds to our Love to Christ The true measure of our Love to Christ should be to Love him without measure and the true degree of our Love to a Redeemer is to Love him in the highest Degree But alas Where is our Love to Christ How weakly do we express our Love to him who has given us the fullest clearest demonstrations of his to us beyond all expressions His was stronger then death ours ready to die the water-floods coulds not quench his a few drops extinguish ours he shed blood for us with more freedom than we a few tears over him and his bleeding almost dying interest in the World he loved sinners better than we can love Saints he died for us with more flame of zeal than we can live to and for him Let us be ashamed that we can find a love so vehement for our perishing comforts nay for our killing corruptions and yet have so indifferent affections for a Saviour How shall we be able to Love our enemies for his sake when we can neither Love him with an intense Love for his sake nor our own Let us mourn therefore bitterly that the Love of Christ should be unconceivable and invisible and that our Love to him should be so too upon such different accounts his for the greatness of it ours for its smallness II. Prop. There is a sufficiency of the Love of Christ to us that may be known The Love of Christ to sinners may be considered either in the cause or as in the effects in the Spring and Fountain or in the streams that flow from thence into Souls Love as it was in the heart of Christ is unmeasurable the Spring the original cause and reason of it was his own unaccountable Love and can only be measured by the Love of the Father to his Son which is equally unmeasurable John 15.9 As the Father has loved me so I have loved you But Christs Love in the effects that it has been pleas'd to produce in and upon our Souls may be understood and in some good measure apprehended If we cannot fix our eyes immediately upon the body of the Sun in its meridian glory yet we may comfortably refresh our selves with its beams and feel the healing warmth of the Sun of righteousness arising and shining upon our Souls If we cannot measure Christs Love when it dealt with God in making his Soul an offering for sin nor what that Love was wherewith he loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2.20 yet we may know that Love wherewith he loved us and washt us from our sins Rev. 1.5 The Love of Satisfaction passes knowledge the Love of Sanctification may be known As that poor Man John 9.15 tho' he could not give a Philosophical account to the Scribes and Pharisees how Clay and Spittle should contribute to the opening his Eyes yet could say This one thing I know that whereas I was born blind I now see So may a renewed Soul say Tho' I know not from what unmeasurable Fountain this Grace and Mercy did proceed tho' I am ignorant of the manner of its working yet this one thing I can say Whereas I was a lover of sin I now hate it and whereas I have been a despiser of Christ I now prize and love him as the chiefest of Ten thousand I can say That that vanity that corruption which sometime had a mighty power over me is now subdued and conquered More particularly 1. Altho' we cannot perfectly know the Love of Christ yet may we know so much of it as may raise our desires to know more As he that meets with a Vein of precious Metal tho' it be small yet it gives him hopes of meeting with more and those hopes encourage his labours to dig deeper and search further so that little we can attain of the knowledge of Christs Love in our wayfaring state makes the Soul labour and strive and hope and pray that it may come to fuller knowledge of that love in its own Country As that sight which Moses had of God encouraged him to pray Exod. 33.18 I beseech thee shew me thy glory So that view we have of Christ in a glass darkly serves to engage our endeavours and sharpen our desires to see him face to face in glory As we gain upon the knowledge of Christ so we grow and as it were encroach upon him still if God will condescend and come down to visit the Soul the Soul will make an argument from thence that he would take it up to himself A taste of Christs Love whets the Spiritual appetite after a feast 1 Pet. 2.2 As new born babes desire ye the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious 2. However our knowledge of Christs Love is imperfect yet we may know so much as may shame us that we have loved him no better we know the Love of Christ carried him out to suffer most dreadful things upon our account and may hence reflect upon our selves with great shame that our love has been so weak as not to carry us out to suffer for his Name he endured the cross we are terrified at the sight of it The argument is very strong 1 John 3.16 Thus if Christ laid down his life for us we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren But how weakly does it work upon us How little a matter can this love constrain us to lay down for their sakes And it s a most concluding argument Col. 3.13 that we should forbear and forgive one another if any man have a quarrel against any as Christ forgave us but alas how little does this instance of the Love of Christ prevail upon us That Love which prevail'd with him to forgive us Talents will not does not prevail with us to forgive our brethren a few Pence Matth. 18.27 28. The Love of Christ was a conquering a triumphant Love it bore down what-ever stood in its way It grapled with the displeasure of God with the malice of Devils the fury of unreasonable Men and with the unkindness of his Friends it broke through all Discouragements and trampled upon all Oppositions the waters could not quench it the floods could not drown
of Scripture hath he revealed it where doth he promise you repentance and pardon at the last when you had never seriously sought either all your days 2. The wickedness and profaneness of them You resolve you will repent when you die and that implies you will not repent till then i. e. you do and resolve still to love sin as long as you live but you intend to leave it when you can live no longer in it you hate God now and resolve to hate him till you die and then you will begin to love him You will make work for repentance now and seek for repentance at last offend God and provoke him and make work for pardoning mercy all your days and then sue to him for it You will persevere to affront the grace of Christ and throw his blood back into his face and then expect to be washed in it from your sins and saved by it when you go out of the World It is to as little purpose to say Object You will then send for the Minister to instruct you to pray with you c. For what if you do your case may be such that all the good Men Ans good Ministers good Instructions good Counsels in the World may not help you not save you All may come too late and signifie no more to your Souls than Physitians and Physick at that time do to your Bodies Alas what can Ministers do for you Can their instructions enlighten your minds when God hath blinded them Can their counsels soften your hearts when he hath hardned them Can the breath of prayer waft your Souls to Heaven in the last moment of your life when you have been stearing towards Hell all your days What can your Spiritual Physitians do for the cure of your Souls when the great Physitian of all hath left you as incurable and will never any more visit you Do not tell me on the other side That repentance is Gods gift Object and you cannot have it till he give it you and therefore you must tarry till he do For 1. It is as much Gods gift at last as at first Ans and you can no more have it at your death if he do not give it you than you can have it now 2. Tho it be Gods gift and you cannot work it in your selves yet cannot you seek it of God desire him to work it in you And can you not use the means by which he ordinarily works it And are you not as capable of so doing when you live and are in health as when you are sick and dying When you are sick you cannot heal your selves health is Gods gift as well as grace is tho of another kind But do you then use to lie still and say you must wait till God restore you Or do you not rather send for your Physitian and betake your selves to the use of means by which God is wont to work it You cannot get an estate unless God give it you riches are his gift Prov. 10.22 Do you therefore sit still and fold your hands in your bosom and say you must tarry till God give you an estate Or do you not rather engage in some honest Calling or Trade as the ordinary way God is wont to bless to that end The diligent hand maketh rich vers 4. and why do you not do so here too If you will go on in sin and say you wait till God give you repentance you may wait long enough when every day you continue in sin so much the farther off from repentance you are and so much the more you provoke God to deny it you To conclude Take heed especially of those things which are the ordinary hinderances of a timely repentance I. Wrong notions of repentance 1. That it is an easie thing and so may be done at any time that it is but sorrowing for sin and crying God mercy for having offended him This prevails with too many that know not wherein the nature of it consists Remember therefore that it is no easie thing to get a through change wrought in your hearts to divorce your lusts to which you have been so long wedded to part with those sins you love best and engage in those ways of strict holiness which of all things in the World you hate most The old Man will fight hard ere he die The flesh will never yield and hardly be overcom And if ever God work repentance to you he will so work it as to make you work at it too and labour after it his grace using and employing your faculties And what can you ever do either in seeking repentance before the infusion of the grace or exercising it when infused but you will find sin opposing you in it and so creating difficulties in your work 2. That it is a sour and an unpleasant thing made up of sorrow and sadness and unquietness of Spirit They know no delights but sensual ones and think if they part with the pleasure of sin they part with the comfort of their lives Do not therefore look meerly on the dark side of repentance or what may make it seem uneasie to you look through it and you will find that which will make it more pleasant In the very sorrow you fear if it be right i. e. godly sorrow there will be such a mixture of Love as will make it in a good measure delightful to you If it seem painful to you to strive against sin and there be trouble in the combat yet when you prevail over it you will find comfort in the Victory You will be more pleased with having denied your selves than you could with having gratified your selves Our Saviours promise Matth. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted one would think should reconcile you not only to any seeming trouble in the work of repentance but to all the greatest difficulties and severities of the most strict and mortified life If indeed your repentance be meerly legal proceeding from fear of wrath or Popish for the expiation of your sins I grant it may be a sad and unpleasant thing but if it be a true Protestant repentance i. e. an Evangelical one mixed with Love to God and proceeding from the Faith of Free Grace and remission of sin through the Blood of Christ it need not be such a scare-crow to you as to make you hazard your Salvation by shifting your duty II. Presumptuous thoughts of Gods mercy that God may be merciful to them and give them repentance and pardon their sins at the very last Consider therefore 1. As merciful as God is yet his will sets bounds even to that infinite mercy as to the actings and outgoings of it and beyond those bounds it will never pass There is a time a day a now of grace which when it is once over no mercy will be shewn you Offers of mercy invitations made to sinners and the acceptation of them are but for a time the door is
who is weak in the Faith who though he hath embraced the Doctrin of our Saviour yet is not of a mature concocted judgment clear enough about the abolition of Ceremonial observations things he judgeth ought to be forborn or done Now let things be never so indifferent in the general definition or Thesis yet when they come to be used and exercised in their individual circumstances they will be determinately good or determinately evil in all moral agents and actions And that which in general seemeth indifferent to one is not so to another these Gentiles could freely eat things strangled but the Jews could not Therefore it is a very strong weakness or wilfulness in some who love to turn Straws into Trees and Feathers into Birds and not to leave things as Christ hath left them and as they are in their own nature but will transpeciate as others transubstantiate by their own breath in their own Opinions and more fiercely contend for their own Laws than the commands of God as Saul was more severe on Jonathan for tasting hony than on himself for rebelling against Gods express command These heats indicate an Hectick Fever to be in the body preternatuâ—â—â—â—y eating up and preying on the vital heat Love to God and our Neighbour the zeal for Mens own Chimnies eateth up the House of God II. Here is the injunction of Charity towards weak ones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take them to you receive them into your Houses use Hospitality towards them supply their necessities Rom. 12.13 not magnificent receptions such as Levi gave our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 5.29 But when they fly for their Religion and Lives supply their wants though they be not just of your size or Opinion do not force him to practise what he cannot freely do to buy your Charity this is a dear purchase and a cruel sale Generous hospitality is a duty of another fashion receive them into your Arms into your bosoms into your Love and Converse that you may instruct them and win upon them receive them into your Society into your Communion treat this weak Brother with all humility condescention love and kindness yea with all the warm graces Christianity hath indued you with Let not these least differences cause the greatest distances as often they do if he hath so much candor as he will be received and be not sullen and angry receive him and by strength of Love bear with him and forbear him till by Love you soften and overcome him by heaping coals of fire upon his Head For if he be weak yet seriously and sincerely a lover of Christ and beloved of him the Lord hath received him vers 3. therefore do you also receive him 3. The limitation of this exception not to doubtful Disputations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some would render it discerning of thoughts and 1 Cor. 12.10 there was such an extraordinary guift as the discerning of Spirits So there may be an ordinary prying into Mens thoughts and what is Mark 9.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Luke 5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus seeing their thoughts and thoughts are but Mens dialoguing and discoursing with themselves and so the sense it thus Receive him but not to the discerning or judging of his Opinion or Thoughts or that he should be hardened to judge others Thoughts to be altered because they receive him But receiving is receiving him into their Society therefore not receiving him must be not to something which was apt to be in their Society and among them which was not the discretion of the strong but their disputes which were not fit for these weak ones And the word most commonly signifies disputing with others Acts 19.9 Paul disputed dayly in the School of Tyrannus And Mark 9.34 The Disciples disputed who among them should be greatest But in Jude 9. both words are met together Michael contending with the Devil disputed about the body of Moses Doct. Christians are to receive such as are weak in the Faith into their Hearts by Love and not to trouble or heat their Heads with cramping disputes For practical Piety will sooner rectifie the judgment of the weak than fierce argumentations Lay aside this heat about Ceremonies on all Hands and attend to Reading and Hearing the Word and Exhortation Pray and Praise God together and Converse in holy Ordinances in Love to each others Souls let but this fire live upon the Altar of your Hearts and then all other strange fire and heats will die away 1. I will shew you that weak Christians cannot well judge of arguments 2. That the practice of known duties is the way to get more light 3. That Christian Love will sooner win others from error than rigid Arguments 4. The Inferences from all for Instruction and Direction First then Disputations and Arguments are not easily judged of by such as are weak in Faith and Knowledge of Christian liberty Now this is evident from the first Dispute that ever was in the World For Satan was a Disputer from the beginning and is still the Father and Author of all insnaring and contentious Disputations The first thing he disputed was Gods command The Prohibition and Threatning was absolute 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moth tamuth Gen. 2.17 but the Woman who was first in the Transgression faltreth in the recital of it with a perhaps we shall die Gen. 3.3 But by this first dispute with the Serpent our first Parents when in uprightness and strength of the image of God newly stamped on them in knowledge and holiness yet this Father or fomenter of Disputes foiled them and so all mankind being naturally and federally in them was drawn into their guilt and filth So that reason is ever since debased and deposed and no Man is able to rule himself much less another his rule and measures being broken he hath only some fragments and splinters of the Tree of Knowledge which he darts against God and himself The holy Lamp and Flame is so extinguished that now he only compasseth himself about with his own sparks till he lie down in sorrow Isa 50.11 Creatures as Creatures are fallible and failable witness Men and Angels especially by the impulse of false Arguments It is God's only Prerogative to be intrinsecally Infallible and Immutable And it is a perfection incommunicable to Men or Angels But now sinful Man is in a much more dark and doleful state For 1. He cannot form an Idea of any thing nor frame a true notion of any thing as it is in it self but he conceives by the Air of Metaphors Smilitudes and Phantasms he cannot see into things themselves nor their Essences He is hardly put to it to tell what dull Matter or Body is much more what nimble forms motion or Spirits are or what his own Soul is though so nigh to him and part of himself He is so in the dark he cannot define what light it self is If any be so confident as to think he knoweth
eateth up both Truth and Love For such contentions are rather for Victory than Truth Now passion doth nothing well which made one Emperor say over his Alphabet to get the Dominion over his anger Ahasuerus fann'd himself in his Garden Esth 7.7 and he in Plutarch would not smite his Servant because he was angry Passionated persecution makes only Hypocrites become Proselites and in their Breasts also lodge such a revenge as will be satisfied one time or another upon them who have made them offer violence to their Consciences Religion is a free choice upon judgment or 't is not Religion therefore it gets in by perswasion not persecution Yet 't is strangely true they who are so tender of their own Wills that God must not touch them unless by Argument yet laxate themselves to Club Law with their Brethren not content with a moral swasion 2. Loving converse taketh off those prejudices which hinder Mens minds from a true knowledge of others Principles and Practices which at a distance seem horrid and monstrous Opinions and Practices when as a little free converse with them breedeth quite other apprehensions The Papists picture the Protestants as bruits with Tails as Devils with Horns to terrifie the Vulgar but knowing Merchants dare trust them So some Protestants have represented the Puritans as Pestilent and Seditious persons as Mad and having a Devil as the Scribes and Pharisees did John Baptist and Christ but the plain hearted people saw thorough those pious frauds and tricks and were astonished at their Doctrin and Life when they healed Souls and Bodies on the Sabbath day 3. Sincere love and converse breedeth a good opinion of persons who differ from us they can taste humility meekness and kindness better than the more speculative Principles of Religion These get into Mens affections and so bore away into their judgments and cause them to alter their minds Two Heads like two Globes touch but in one point the whole Bodies at a distance but two Hearts touch in plano and fall in with each other in all points Love openeth the Heart and Ear to cooler consideration and second thoughts The Spirit of God directed Elijah 1 Kings 19.12 not in the strong Wind which rent Rocks and Mountains nor in the Earthquake or Fire but in the silent whisper or tranquil voice Vse of Instruction How to carry our selves towards them who are weak in the Faith in these days and doubtless it is a sickly season when there are so many feverish heats among us I will not say what once a Romanist said to me That these are the spuria vitulamina the Bastard frisks of our Reformation in Henry the Eighths days But I rather think the violent endeavours after External Uniformity without the Inward the smothering of the industrious Bees in one Hive was a great cause of their castling into several Swarms Threshing the Corn hath driven it out of the Floor and the grasping so hard the Granes all into the Hands and Power of some hath made them creep out through their Fingers Rigid Impositions and violent Prosecutions and Exactions of Conformity to things extra Scriptural and Divine Institution and without any manifest tendency to Edification have and will make fractions without end As D. W. said Till Men be Infallible and the World Immutable moderation becometh every Man who is in his senses and considereth himself 1. There are some who have all Faith believe incredibly as that Katharina Senensis praying for a new Heart she had her real Heart cut out of her Body and after some days had a new Heart formed by Christ put into her That making a cross on the Body with a Finger driveth the Devil away That a Priest by these words this is my Body transubstantiateth the Bread into the Body of Christ and so he offereth that Sacrifice to deliver Souls out of Prison and then by his Dirges conducteth them to Paradise 2. Others have no Faith at all as that Infallible one who said What vast Wealth hath this Fable of Christ acquired to the Church So when some had Disputed about the Immortality of the Soul most gravely determined in a Verse Et redit in nihilum quod fuit ante nihil That which is nothing must needs come to nothing And I fear there are more Atheists than Papists who seem to believe all on the Stage nothing in their retiring thoughts We are not bound to receive such into our Bosoms or Communion lest we sting our own Breasts out of charity to our Souls we must take heed of receiving such 3. But there are others who seem seriously to believe the Doctrin of the Gospel yet have a weakness in their judgments about little things These we must receive and instruct them Rom. 14.17 That the Kingdom of God is not in Meat or Drink but Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Shew them all kindness pity them pray for them and let them see Col. 2.5 Nothing but your order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ 1. Stand fast and fix'd in the good Word of God which is setled for ever in Heaven Psal 119.89 as the Copy of the Divine Nature and Law Stand having your Loins girt about with Truth Ephes 6.14 and having on the Breastplate of Righteousness This is the grand and perfect rule of Faith Worship and Life Keep within these Trenches and you have an assurance of protection I know no other method possible to Peace but in an universal resolution to impose nothing upon others but what Christ himself hath imposed what Scripture commands Matth. 28.20 Teach Men to observe whatever I have commanded you and then I am with you to the end of the World This is a Minister of Christs Commission and he cannot look for Christ to be with him if he go either coâ—trary to beyond or not according to his instructions Let this be first done and then Men may consider whether any thing further be necessary or convenient Let us therefore in the Name of God beg his holy Spirit whom Christ hath promised and that he shall lead us into all Truth John 16.13 He is the only infallible Interpreter of Gods mind He shall take of mine says our Saviour and shew it unto you vers 14. Then read the Scriptures as Christ himself did Luke 4.16 his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read and when the Book of God was delivered to him he read the 61 of Isaiah a Prophesie of himself and so he closed the Book and gave it to the Minister then he expounded and applied it to the present circumstances That he came to preach to the poor heal the broken hearted give deliverance to the captives open the Eyes of the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised Oh blessed pattern for every Minister of Christ to follow And sing the Psalms or Hymns as we read he also did Matth. 26.30 and the Ancient Christians
and terrifie the imagination that may work upon the Principles of Reason and Sense by which Men are naturally and strongly moved 1. Sinners shall be excluded from Communion with the blessed God in Heaven in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore In the clear and transforming vision of his glory and the intimate and indissolvable union with him by love consists the perfection and satisfaction of the immortal Soul The felicity resulting from it is so entire and eternal as God is great and true who has so often promis'd it to his Saints Now sin separates lost Souls forever from the reviving presence of God Who can declare the extent and degrees of that evil For an evil rises in proportion to the good of which it deprives us it must therefore follow that Celestial blessedness being transcendent the exclusion from it is proportionably evil and as the felicity of the Saints results both from the direct possession of Heaven and from comparison with the contrary state so the misery of the damned arises both from the thoughts of lost happiness and from the lasting pain that torments them But it may be replied if this be the utmost evil that is consequent to sin the threatning of it is not likely to deter but few from pleasing their corrupt appetites for carnal Men have such gross apprehensions and vitated affections that they are careless of Spiritual glory and joy They cannot taste and see how good the Lord is nay the Divine Presence would be a torment to them for as light is the most pleasant quality in the World to the sound Eye so 't is very afflicting and painful to the Eye when corrupted by a suffusion of humors To this a clear answer may be given in the next state where the wicked shall for ever be without those sensual objects which here deceive and delight them their apprehensions will be changed they shall understand what a happiness the fruition of the blessed God is and what a misery to be uncapable of enjoying him and expell'd from the Celestial Paradise Luke 15.28 Our Saviour tells the infidel Jews There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves shut out How will they pine with envy at the sight of that triumphant felicity of which they shall never be partakers Depart from me will be as terrible a part of the judgment as eternal Fire 2. Gods justice is not satisfied in depriving them of Heaven but inflicts the most heavy punishment upon Sense and Conscience in the damned for as the Soul and Body in their state of union in this life were both guilty the one as the guide the other as the instrument of sin so 't is equal when reunited they should feel the penal effects of it The Scripture represents both to our capacity by the worm that never dies and the fire that never shall be quenched and by the destroying of Body and Soul in Hell fire Sinners shall then be tormented wherein they were most delighted they shall be invested with those objects that will cause the most dolorous perceptions in their sensitive faculties The lake of Fire and Brimstone the blackness of darkness are words of a terrible signification and intended to awaken sinners to fly from the wrath to come But no words can fully reveal the terrible ingredients of their misery the punishment will be in proportion to the glory of Gods Majesty that is dishonour'd and provok'd by sin and the extent of his power And as the Soul was the principal and the Body but an accessary in the works of sin so its capacious faculties will be far more tormented than the more limited faculties of the outward senses The fiery Attributes of God shall be transmitted through the glass of Conscience and concenter'd upon damned Spirits the fire without them is not so tormenting as this fire within them How will the tormenting passions be inflam'd What rancour reluctance and rage against the power above that sentenc'd them to Hell What impatience and indignation against themselves for their wilful sins the just cause of it How will they curse their Creation and wish their utter extinction as the final remedy of their misery But all their ardent wishes are in vain for the guilt of sin will never be expiated nor God so far reconcil'd as to annihilate them As long as there is justice in Heaven and fire in Hell as long as God and Eternity shall continue they must suffer these torments which the strength and patience of an Angel cannot bear one hour From hence we may infer what an inconceivable evil there is in sin and how hateful it is to the most High when God who is love who is stiled the Father of mercies has prepared and does inflict such Plagues for ever for the transgression of his holy Laws and such is the equity of his judgment that he never puniâ—â—es offenders above their desert I shall now apply this Doctrin by reflecting the light of it upon our minds and hearts 1. This discovers how perverse and depraved the minds and wills of Men are to chuse sin rather than affliction and break the Divine Law for the obtaining temporal things If one with an attentive Eye regards the generality of mankind what dominion present and sensible things have over them how securely and habitually they sin in prosecution of their carnal aims as if the Soul should not survive the Body as if there were no Tribunal above to examine no Judge to sentence and punish sinners if he has not marble bowels it will excite his compassion or indignation What comparison is there between the good things of this World and of the next in degrees or duration Aiery honour Sensual pleasures and Worldly riches are but the thin appearances of happiness shadows in masquerade that cannot afford solid content to an immortal Spirit the blessedness of Heaven replenishes with everlasting satisfaction What proportion is there between the light and momentary afflictions here and a vast eternity fill'd with indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish and desperate sorrow What stupid Beast what monster of a Man would prefer a superficial transient delight the pleasure of a short dream before ever-satisfying joys Or to avoid a slight evil venture upon destruction Yet this is the true case of sinners if they can obtain the World with the loss of Heaven they count it a valuable purchase if they can compound so as to escape temporal troubles tho involved under guilt that brings extream and eternal misery they think it a saving bargain Amazing solly Either they believe or do not the recompenses in the future state if they do not how unaccountable is their impiety If they do 't is more prodigious they do not feel the powers of the World to come so as to regulate their lives and
Favour of God he is eminently precious Who can break the Constraints of such Love If there be a spark of reason or a grain of unfeigned Faith in us We must judge that if one died for all then all were dead and those that live should live to his Glory who died for their Salvation Add to this that in the Sufferings of Christ there is the clearest Demonstration of the Evil of 〈◊〉 and how hateful it is to God if we consider the Dignity of his Person the Greatness of his Sufferings and the innocent recoilings of his humane Nature from such fearful Sufferings He was the eternal Son of God the Heir of his Fathers Love and Glory the Lord of Angels he suffered in his Body the most ignominious and painful Death being nail'd to the Cross in the sight of the World The Sufferings of his Soul were incomparably more afflicting For though heavenly Meek he indured the Derision and cruel Violence of his Enemies with a silent Patience yet in the dark Eclipse of his Fathers Countenance in the desolate state of his Soul the Lamb of God opened his Mouth in that mournful Complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His innocent Nature did so recoil from those fearful Sufferings that with repeated ardency of Affection he deprecated that bitter Cup Abba Father all things are possible to thee let this cup pass from me He address'd to the Divine Power and Love the Attributes that relieve the Miserable yet he drank off the dregs of the Cup of Gods Wrath. Now we may from hence conclude how great an Evil Sin is that could not be expiated by a meaner Sacrifice then the offering up the Soul of Christ to atone incensed Justice and no lower a Price than the Blood of the Son of God the most unvaluable Treasure could Ransom Men who were devoted to Destruction 4. The consideration of the evil of sin in it self and to us should excite us with a holy circumspection to keep our selves from being defiled with it 'T is our indispensable duty our transcendent interest to obey the Divine Law entirely and constantly The tempter cannot present any motives that to a rectified mind are sufficient to induce a consent to sin and offend God Let the scales be even and put into one all the delights of the senses all the pleasures and honours of the World which are the Elements of carnal felicity how light are they against the enjoyment of the blessed God in glory Will the gain of this perishing World compensate the loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between empty deluding vanities and celestial happiness the choice would be more difficult and the mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the comparison so that to commit the least sin that makes us liable to the forfeiture of Heaven for the pleasures of sin that are but for a season is madness in that degree that no words can express Suppose the tempter inspires his Rage into his Slaves and tries to constrain us to Sin by Persecution how unreasonable is it to be dismayed at the Threatnings of Men who must dye and who can only touch the Body and to despise the terrors of the Lord who lives for ever and can punish for ever Methinks we should look upon the perverted raging World as a swarm of angry Flies that may disquiet but cannot hurt us Socrates when unrighteously prosecuted to Death said of his Enemies with a Courage becoming the Breast of a Christian They may Kill me but cannot Hurt me How should these Considerations raise in us an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against the Tempter in all his Approaches and Addresses to us And that we may so resist him as to cause his flight from us let us imitate the excellent Saint whose Example is set before us 1. By possessing the Soul with a lively and solemn Sense of Gods Presence who is the Inspector and Judge of all our Actions Joseph repell'd the Temptation with this powerful Thought How shall I sin against God The fear of the Lord is clean 't is a watchful Sentinel that resists Temptations without and suppresses Corruptions within 'T is like the Cherubim plac'd with a flaming Sword in Paradise to prevent the Re-entry of Adam when guilty and polluted For this end we must by frequent and serious Considerations represent the Divine Being and Glory in our Minds that there may be a gracious Constitution of Soul this will be our Preservative from Sin for although the habitual thoughts of God are not always in act yet upon a Temptation they are presently excited and appear in the view of Conscience and are effectual to make us reject the Tempter with Defiance and Indignation This holy Fear is not a meer judicial Impression that restrains from Sin for the dreadful Punishment that follows for that servile affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the Eruption of a Lust into the gross act yet it does not renew the Nature and make us Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct affection to it Besides a meer servile Fear is repugnant to Nature and will be expell'd if possible Therefore that we may be in the fear of the Lord all the day long we must regard him in his endearing Attributes his Love his Goodness and Compassion his rewarding Mercy and this will produce a filial Fear of Reverence and Caution lest we should offend so gracious a God As the natural Life is preserved by grateful Food not by Aloes and Wormwood which are useful Medicines so the Spiritual Life is maintained by the comfortable Apprehensions of God as the Rewarder of our Fidelity in all our Trials 2. Strip Sin of its Disguises wash off its flattering Colours that you may see its native Ugliness Joseph's reply to the Tempter How shall I do this great wickedness Illusion and Concupiscence are the Inducements to Sin When a Lust represents the Temptation as very alluring and hinders the Reflection of the mind upon the intrinsick and consequential Evil of Sin 't is like the putting Poison into the Glass but when it has so far corrupted the mind that Sin is esteemed a small Evil Poison is thrown into the Fountain If we consider the Majesty of the Law-giver there is no Law small nor Sin small that is the Transgression of it Yet the most are secure in an evil course by conceits that their Sins are small 'T is true there is a vast difference between Sins in their nature and Circumstances there are insensible Omissions and accusing Acts but the least is Damnable Besides the allowance and number of Sins reputed small will involve under intolerable Guilt What is lighter than a grain of Sand you may blow away a hundred with a Breath and what is heavier than a heap of Sand condenst together 'T is our Wisdom and Duty to consider the Evil of Sin
compleated by their Successors And what little reason we have now to think to ingratiate our selves with the Pagan-Christians as some think they have ground enough to stile the Papists I would rather ye should hear from a learned Doctor than from me who delivers this among his Documents as he calls them Seeing we are so well assured that the Papacy is the Kingdom of Antichrist or that City of Babylon wherein the people of God were held captive we should leave no string or tassel of our ancient captivity upon us such I mean as whereby they may take hold on us and pull us back again into our former Bondage but look upon our selves as absolutely free from any tie to them more than in endeavouring their Conversion and Salvation Which we knowing so experimentally not to be compassed by needless symbolizings with them in any thing I conceive our best policy is studiously to imitate them in Nothing But for all indifferent things to think rather the worse of them for their using them As no Person of Honour would willingly go in the known garb of any lewd and infamous Persons Whatsoever we court them in they do but turn it to our scorn and contempt and are the more hardened in their own wickedness Dr. Hen. More Divine Dialogues Part ii pag. 398. How easily soever Pagan Rites were admitted into the Christian Church I am sure many of them have taken such deep root that it is very difficult to eradicate and purge them out So much for the third Obstruction Fourthly They who desire to be helpful in promoting the entertainment of the Gospel must not unnecessarily provoke and exasperate those whom they would win over to it Moses refused to permit the Israelites to sacrifice to the Lord before the faces of the Egyptians lest they should be enraged thereupon and stone them Exod. viii 25 26. They must not indeed forbear to do that which under all due circumstances God hath made to be their present duty Yet even in such cases they should remember my Text Walk in wisdom toward them that are without And learn what that meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice They must declare against their idolatry and endeavour to convert them to the true God as Paul did Acts xiv 15. We preach to you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God And his success therein was wonderful as Demetrius testifies Act. xix 26. Moreover ye see and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost throughout all Asia this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much people saying that they be no Gods which are made with hands But this must not be done with revilings reproaches and insultations but with judgment tenderness and meekness 2 Tim. ii 25 26. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves We may conclude then that it is none of Gods way from whomsoever men have learnt it to convert Heathens by robbing them of their Goods and Estates and butchering their Persons which was the method that the Spaniards took to Gospellize the Indians or to send Dragoons as Missionaries to torment those whom they call Hereticks thereby to reduce them to their Catholick Church That 's the fourth Obstruction Fifthly They must religiously avoid that which is the greatest Obstruction of all The profligate and flagitious lives of some that call themselves Christians If men were prompted and employed by the Devil himself they could not take a more effectual course to make the Gospel to be abhorred than by living as some Christians do How can it be expected That the poor ignorant Heathen should have any reverence for the great and Sacred Name of God when they hear those who pretend that they have a deep veneration for him to Reproach and Blaspheme it They will conclude That men do but prevaricate when they tell them That Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. and yet live so as if Christ died only to procure for them a Licence to continue in sin or to purchase impunity for them that do so Will they believe those that tell them Christ was made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil and that they act under him as the Captain of their Salvation while they employ all their time parts and power to establish and defend Satan's Kingdom Can ye perswade men That ye believe there is an Hell and eternal Flames prepared for the ungodly and impenitent and that the wicked shall be cast into it when they observe those that say They believe this to run posting sporting and laughing unto it They will never apprehend That the Heaven which they are told the Gospel promiseth to the Faithful and Holy is any other than a Poetical Elysium or a Mahometan Paradise while they perceive that such as call themselves Christians do prefer the world and sensual pleasures before it Can any man convince them That the Saints are such excellent Creatures when they see those who call themselves so to live like Bruits or Devils It is a vain attempt to perswade others To believe and obey the Gospel until they who profess it have learnt better what it teacheth them Tit. ii 11 12. To deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present world These are some of the stumbling Blocks which are to be removed out of the way before any successful perswasions Motives Inducements or other Means will prevail to dispose and incline those who have not received the Gospel to embrace it 2. But these Obstructions being removed what ways are to be taken to help on the Entertainment of the Gospel To answer that Question I shall recommend unto you some Few among many which I conceive to be most obvious practicable and effectual e. gr 1. Private Christians should endeavour to oblige those whom they would perswade by Civilities Kindness and doing good Offices for them that they may be assured that they love them and seek their real and eternal good Our blessed Saviour who best understood what Attractives were most proper and powerful to draw men to receive Him and his Gospel took this Method Act. x. 38. He went about Doing good He did Good to mens Bodies that he might do good to their Souls The Miracles which he wrought were generally of Beneficence and Obligations as To heal the Sick To give Sight to the Blind c. It 's true He had a superior Aim and End in working Miracles which was To shew forth his Glory to confirm his Doctrine to strengthen the Faith of his Disciples c. Joh. ii 11. and xx 31. yet secondarily it was To testifie his Kindness and Compassion toward those whom he designed to perswade to believe on him Matth. xv 32. I have compassion on the multitude and thereupon he wrought a Miracle for their Refreshment ver 36 37 38. feeding Four thousand
or less angry with Men holds up Satan in a longer or shorter Chain Being less Angry with you Young People he suffers him not to fall upon you with such strength of Fraud or Force as upon Old Transgressors So much reach at you God doth allow him as maketh needful your Watching and Prayer and Wariness of his Devices But God allows him so very much less at you than at others that he may be repelled more easily by you than others And you have less reason to doubt of Victory when you fight against him than others have And may be certain that if you abide Unconvert in your sins and go on to incense God more against you you shall then have a much more powerful Enemy of him than now you have Now Would any General of an Army delay to Fight with his Enemy till he himself were Weaker and his Enemies stronger O do not any of you say practically I will not yet fight for my Translation out of the Kingdom of Darkness I will have the Prince of Darkness get an Hundred times more forces against me and more advantagious ground before I will encounter him How kind to Satan are Delaying Children C. 3. Your Hearts which are your Rulers under God be not yet so bad within you as Old Peoples be and as they will themselves be sure to be if you now Convert not Your Hearts the Lord shew it you are they that do most under God for your Conquering or your being Conquered by Sin Death and Hell These Hearts of yours be blind and foolish proud and perverse enough they be sufficiently Unteachable Untractable Unfaithful The Lord humble you deeply in the deepest sense of it But still they be not near so bad as Old Sinners Hearts be Believe it there is a sense in which Nicodemus his words be smart How can a Man be born when he is Old God has in his Offence departed farther from Old Men than you Satan in his long stay in them has hammered them into a greater hardness than he has yet brought you into Actual Sins have put more strength into their Habitual than into Yours And they have more Milstones about the neck of their Souls than yet are about yours Insomuch that you have as much the better of them as those who have in War a less unqualified Commanded have of them whose Leader is most blind most Lame and most Lunatick it self Your Work is more easie and your Encouragement to expect Victory is more ample than Old Sinners And both such as they will not continue unto you unless you now Convert unto God Which if you do not you do like Soldiers that should say We will have no Battel with our Enemy as yet The Leader whose Conduct and Action are our Life or Death will shortly be Stone-blind and under the Dead Palsie And we will stay till he be so before we employ him O plotted Self-Destruction O Chosen Ruine If this Consideration go for nothing with you ye are Blind against Sun-shine and Deaf unto Thunder C. 4. Your Bodies the Instruments of your Souls Action be not yet so sorry as Old Peoples be and as yours will be most certainly if you Convert not presently Sirs An Unsanctified Body is a Souls Unknown Enemy A Trojan Horse a Pandora's Box a Forge of Mischiefs Your Young ones are such that almost proverbially the Blood of Youth is Satan's Tinder and Match 'T is seen you have warm Bosom for all Snakes Legions of Devils are a less formidable Army than your own five Senses unhallowed Beware of the Flesh But withal know ye an Unruly Horse is more desirable than a Dead one He may be Bridled and made serviceable 'T is better with you than Old Folk if you will but well use that whereof they want the use Health and Strength in general reading Eyes and hearing Ears and walking Feet in particular Old Age is it self say some a Disease a very Hospital of all Many are deprived of the means of Grace by Blindness and Deafness Most do use them with much pain and great disadvantage None have so few Clogs about them as you So that great is your advantage for working out your Salvation Your Labour is less to read or hear an Hundred Sermons than theirs to hear or read one And to go Twenty Miles for Advice than theirs to go Twenty Steps Being that Sin and so Death came in at the Eye and Ear and it is God's Will to drive them out at the same and to transmit the Wisdom that saves our Souls through those Bodily Senses these are not inconsiderable things O that you had heard but what I have done of poor Old Creatures Outcryes Cursing the Courses and Companies that devoured their strength Wailing with sighs and tears their disability to Read difficulty of hearing and utterly lost faculty of Remembring The Memory ought to cut my Heart may the Notice sway yours If you will yet put off your Conversion this is the Language which that Delay utters I have a work given me to do that is for my Life Eternal I have yet Eyes and Ears and Hands and Feet I have Ease and Strength But these all have Wings and will shortly fly and be gone as others be When gone I cannot work or if I do it must be in the Fire as it were Nevertheless I will not set to my Work till my Sun and Moon and Stars be darkned I will not stir one Foot for Heaven till my other Foot is in the Grave If my Peace be ever made with God it shall be even at the Graves brink When I am just come to the Mouth of Hell and can scarce open my own Mouth to deprecate it I will bestow a wish for Heaven if that may possess me of it Sensless Creature that wantest nothing of a Bruit but Hair and two Feet more C. 5. The World another back friend of yours hath not yet lain so many Loads on your backs as upon Old Peoples and as it will lay on yours if you live longer and live under its Power and Vnsubjected and Vnconvert unto God This I speak to you especially of the Younger sort Children and next to Children I hope you have heard what an Enemy the World and the things of it do make to Conversion and Sanctification Read the Texts in the Margent Read Ecclesiastes 1 Jo. 2.15 16. Jam. 4.4 Matth. 6.24 a whole Book of Sacred Scripture took up in warning us against this said Enemy More or less Woe is to every Dweller in it because of the Avocations the Distractions and Interruptions of this Old Adam's World But here also you have the better ordinarily of Old People For themselves or their more Beloved Selfs their Children they are swallowed up of Designs Bargains c. Gains and Losses make their Souls a Sea of tempestuous Cares knowing little calm or quietness You are yet free comparatively and Unladen You may Contemplate and Act for next World without the
weights of this depressing you And go to Jesus Christ without Farms and Oxen and Wives haling you back Haling you as they do hale away multitudes before your Eyes and as they will ere long be haling your selves If now ye will not come unto him that ye may have Life if you will not now begin running your Race toward the Redeemer what do you do Truly just as a Man that is to run for his Life but cannot be perswaded to stir a foot till he has gotten many more Sheets of Lead upon his back and many more Fetters upon his feet Rise Sinner rise If not these Words shall be thy Souls Eternal Loads R. 6. The Providence of God lendeth you more Physicians and kinder ones than it doth lend Old Diseased Sinners and then it will lend you if you live much longer Especially if you live Vnconvert True it is Gods Love and Mercy unto all is wonderful God sends abundance of Helpers unto all poor sinful Creatures Every Baptized Professor is obliged to be his Brothers Keeper All Believers are bound to be Charitative Ministers unto each other Ministers of Reproof Counsel Comfort In Christ's Body no Member should be all for himself or for less than the good of all But a double Portion of Spiritual help is ordinarily vouchsafed unto you Young People Of Soul-Physicians you have more than two for Old Peoples one They have Ministers so have you or may have if you please They have Religious Friends so have you I hope But then you have Parents which they have not You have Masters and Tutors which they have not And be it considered the Aged People have few or none that will deal so boldly with them as almost all deal with you Ministers and Friends do mostly either fear to offend or despair and think impossible to benefit old Sinners with any Counsels They think it the same thing to give Advice to an Old Body and Physick to a dead one And if they give any 't is as cold as Elie's rebukes But both come more couragiously upon you They less fear your Displeasure and more hope your Reformation And therefore with more frequency and acrimonie deal with you Besides your Parents Love and your Masters and Tutors Interest and the Comfort and Credit of both do engage them to follow you close And to do more than Ministers and Friends are ordinarily capable of doing for the Conversion of your Souls Upon all hands 't is best with you You have the help of most Physicians in number and of all the number you have most of their help Incomparably more than Old Folk have and then you must look to have in your evil days approaching But you will still delay will you not I doubt many will And will as 't were in so many words shew us this is their mind Sick they think themselves Sinners they confess it they are A store of Spiritual Physicians now they have they own it But of these Physicians and Helpers some will by and by die others decay and none be so helpful hereafter as now Nevertheless Live Soul or Dye they will not till hereafter engage in any serious care of their Spiritual Cure and Recovery They will stay till they have Helpers fewer in Number more Chill in their Affection and Care and less capable of taking pains for their Salvation Sad Infatuation A wondrous Will to get out of Probability unto bare Possibility of Life if so much C. 7. You have special Encouragements to Convert now from all general Observation and Experience such as Old People are past and you will e're long be past I must remember my bounds and therefore will name but three One would think they should be enough to move any thing not twice dead And to pull out your Folly unless it be extraordinarily bound up in you Young People 1. God Regenerates the most of his chosen in Early Years If that Early Risers were mostly the Men that grew Rich and lived long in the World who of you would not leave lying late in Bed Truly They that rise in the Morning of their Days and turn unto God be mostly the Men that ever overcome the Devil They that continue in the Bed of their security late are in danger of having their Bed in Hell for ever A Young Saint and an Old Devil is a Proverb which was certainly hatched in Hell God and Men break Colts when they are Young 2. God doth Regenerate most easily those Souls whom he turneth early Know it Sirs Pain is necessary thank Sin for it Had not Sin entred never had we known Pain Grief Fear or Shame But now there is a very natural necessity for it Sin is a painful grievous fearful shameful thing Nor can I see how the Honour of God's Justice could possibly have excused Repentance Spiritually as well as Naturally we are born in Sorrow Both sorts of Children cry before they laugh All New Creatures be first Mourners But all are not in the same degree so Nor are all equally long sowing in Tears before they do reap in Joy Some Sinners are Launced more deeply than others and God keeps open the Wounds of some of his Children longer than others as he pleaseth But ordinarily we see young Timothies be not struck down like Sauls Or if they be they be not kept so many days in frightful darkness And is this a small thing Think of it and say If my Body had a Sore of easie and speedy cure if the Chirurgeon were applyed quickly unto I should not suffer a little matter to hold me from him My Soul and Body is all Spiritual Wounds God alone can heal them Those he doth heal easiest and soonest they be of first Comers most commonly Tardie and late Comers are healed rarely and so as by Fire when they be What should ail me Why should I not presently arise and go to my Father Why should I buy dearly God's hardest blows 3. God doth honour Singularly and Reward with Grace extraordinary his Early Converts If any they be those that have two Heavens Great Service and Sweet Assurance on Earth and greater degrees of Glory also than others above Most Divines think so Late Converts too much imitate the Indians that eat the Hony themselves and offer but the Wax unto their Deities They give God but the Bran of their Life when Satan has had the Flower as some have exprest themselves None so much honour God and none are so honoured by him as those who give Honour to him and accept it from him in your early days Infer you then my Young Folk You must Convert presently or delay with Loss Even with certain danger of Hell and certain loss of much of Heaven And may I not now suppose the Objections of your minds against my Doctrine in good measure removed O that the Oppositions of your Wills were but as much overpowred I conclude that your own Hearts do tell you by this time unless they be
feared in them is yet of some sense in you Parents and other Reprovers that have done long ago with them are still plying you And yet as they you say unto God Depart from us we desire no Communion with thee With more violence than they you take the Kingdom of Hell by force The path to Hell is harder unto your Feet than theirs Infer 9. It is your Duty to shame your Vnconvert Fathers and Mothers For observe you you shame them if you remember and they forget God If you come to Christ and they either come not or come behind after you God Angels and Men will pronounce you Wise and them Fools But what then Would God have you stay for them and not Convert until they do By no means He commands you to Convert just now and consequently to shame them if they have not and do not By so shaming them some Children have been the blessed Instruments of Converting their Parents Of Spiritually Begetting their Natural Fathers The only way this seems wherein a Child can requite a Parent For if a Beggers Child win a Kingdom and give it his Father his debt to him is too big to be so paid But if he Converts him he pays him in broad Gold methinks Parents think ye of this And Children this know ye 't is therefore I do not caution you against all sinful ways of shaming your Parents because well I know Becoming dutiful to God you cannot but honour and love your Parents next unto God himself That which I see of many Parents in City and Countrey hath extorted this Inference from me Infer 10. Your Present dayes are your precious and best So the Word in the Text and words following speak plainly Sirs your young Dayes be but Dayes and of Short Continuance yea and dubious Some are Old as we speak sooner then others Their Flowers sooner fade and their Grass more quickly withers But when ever your Evening falls you shall wish it again Morning with you If nothing else will do it Old Age will convince you of the Excellence of Youth It was wittily that by some Time was thus pictured of old Time to come had the head of a fawning Dog Time present the head of a stirring Lion Time past the head of a biting Wolf So teaching that though silly Souls fancy still that their best days are tâ—â—ome yet if they bestir not well themselves in their present ones they will be very miserably bitten and torn in their future I sadly remember sometimes the Tears and Words of a very ancient Gentleman to my self and my School-fellows in our Childhood Children said he Your Age is good for every thing that you can desire to get mine is good for nothing but to spend whatever one has got A thousand Worlds I would give for a few of your learning getting dayes again Of all things prize your time and of all time your young which is your Sowing-time 'T is upon Eternities account that any thing can be judged Excellent Nor doth ought make for our blessed Eternity but vital Piety And surely for that there is no season like to Lifes Morning Poets say 't is a friend to the Muses Divines must proclaim it the Friend of Graces For why as incongruous as Atheistic Vermin do conceit Youth and Religion 't is plain as Noon-day Light that Religion is specially framed for Youth and Youth for Religion Let Shame be their Portion who are ready to drop the Italian Proverb upon every Religious young head Tanto buon This Puritan Youth is so good that he is good for nothing Young people remember the seven Stars in your Firmament and tell me how fit they are for Religion and Religion for them Quick Wit and Fruitful Invention What are these for but Religion and what appearance makes Religion without these Age will make you Lame and Barren in Mind as in Body Tenacious and Prompt Memory What is this Treasury for but Religion and how Poor must Religion live if Live without it Age will dry your Brains and make Sieves of your Memories Lively and Stirring Affections VVhat are these Horses for but the Chariot of Religion and how heavily must the wheels move if move without them Age keeps no such Horses nor Travel old Souls but upon Crutches and the pace of Snails Flexibleness and Self-denial VVhat are these Spiritual Joints for but Religious bowings And how little can the most profoundly Religious Soul stoop to its Maker without them Old Age has stiff joints of Soul as well as Body Amatoriousness and Love of Love VVhat is this Soul of the Soul for but Religion And how is Religion her self if her Soul has lost it self Love is all the Religion that I know of But Old Age layes your Souls in Frost and Snow Alacrity and Cheerfulness What is this Godlike quality for but Religion toward God and what likeness has Religion to it self without it For God taketh all things not cheerfully given as forced Spoils rather than free Gifts Now Old Age's Clouds do so return after the Rain that it admit's little of this Sunshine Rarely 't is that old Sanahs bear Isaac's Vigor and Strength of Body What is this for but Religious Service to him whose the Body is as well as the Soul And how little can the Soul while 't is in this Body do without it But where 's the Old Body that can let the Wind blow on it at least where is the Head of Gray Hairs that has a Body of Brass for a Soul of Gold Sirs in a word The Truth I beg deepest engravement of upon your Hearts is this of the Matchless Excellence of your present days Verily so fit is Youth the best of Life for Religion the best of Employment and so Useless yea Harmful are the endowments of Youth without Religion and so poor and unlovely an aspect has Religion without the use of Youths Endowments that it is a pity but Youth and Religion should Marry and Unite All time is too good for Satan but if he must have any let him not have the best which is your Youth But Cynthius aurem I was minded to wave all partâ—â—ular Exhortation and remit you unto my Call unto Sinners in which I have said the things which you do most of all need and with more Plainess and Brevity then I have discerned any where else But second thoughts bid me give you these Directions to improve my Doctrine And the rather because they are of experienced Usefulness Direction 1. Chuse each of you a Spiritual Guide in the affairs of your Souls There are Men ordained by God to be Eyes unto the Blind and Feet to the Lame and Fathers to all that would be Gods Children Refuse not Eyes and Feet for your Souls nor live you Orphans when you may have Fathers Go unto some one or another of them tell him you hear that Christ's Ministers are his Representatives And that Christ's Word without his appointed Ministry of it