Object of it is real the Ground of it certain the Actings of it sensible to himself and the Effects of it evident to others This I shall endeavour to do I. As for the Object of a Believers Faith and Hope that good which he believes shall be and expects after this life a state of glory for the spirits of just men He that shall deny that such a thing is must not own the Name of Christian when even the light of Nature will go so far toward the proving of it for 1. That shews us that the Soul is immortal as being of a spiritual nature and independent on the Body in its most proper and noble Operations the actings of the Understanding and Will 2. That there is a reward after this life for them that do well no less than on the contrary Punishment for evil doers This the generality of the Pagan World that knew not distinctly wherein that Reward did consist yet have granted the thing and who is not instructed by his own Conscience in the knowledge of it The work of the Law written in the Heart †Rom. 2.15 and the secret pleasure and satisfaction men take in their own Innocence or good actions proves a reward on the one hand as well as the fears and horrors which the Consciences of the most slie and secret sinners subject them to speak the punishment they expect on the other And if these things were only impressions made upon mens Fancies in their tender years it were strange that all the Reason they grow up to exercise and all the Art many obstinate Sinners make use of on purpose to obliterate them and to impress the contrary upon their Minds together with a thousand other Species printed on their Imaginations by their Employments their Pleasures and all the various Occasions and accidents of their Lives should never be able to rid them of these so unpleasing Sentiments 3. Something may be said even from natural Reason to prove this reward to consist in the enjoyment of God and so not only to evince the reality of some Happiness but of this in particular in the other life For 1. It will scarce be denyed but that the soul of Man is capable of enjoying God as its Sovereign good i. e. of most intensely delighting and entirely acquiescing in him as a good suitable to the spiritual Nature and sufficient for the vast capacity of an immortal Soul Some of the Heathen came near this when they stated mans Happiness as consisting in the Contemplation of the highest being And indeed the very Nature and Operations of the Soul and its apprehending spiritual Objects amounts to little less than a demonstration of this 2. The enjoyment of God is the greatest good any Creature can be capable of God is in himself absolutely the greatest good because an infinite one and comprehensive of all Perfection and there can be no greater good than to be possessed of him that is the greatest 3. The reward and happiness of an holy Soul can be nothing less than the greatest good and therefore must needs be the enjoyment of God himself this appears in that 1. Less than the greatest good cannot satisfie mans Soul and then to be sure cannot make it happy when its happiness consists in its being fully satisfied All the riches and pleasures of this World and delights of Sense can never be to the Soul instead of God because they are unsuitable to its nature which is spiritual to its duration which is immortal and to those appetites God hath implanted in it It 's very capacity of enjoying God is attended with a secret Inclination to it insomuch that many times when a man may not have an explicit and distinct knowledge of the good he wants yet being unsatisfied with what he hath though never so great he finds a want of something else and because he wants it he desires it though he know not clearly what it is to make him happy 2. It is most congruous to the Wisdom and goodness of God to appoint the greatest good to be the Happiness of the noblest of his Creatures not that they deserve it but because he may be most glorified by it and because he hath given them a nature capable of it As he suits the good of other Creatures to the capacities he hath given them so he doth the good of man None but Angels and men are capable of enjoying or actively glorifying him and God having capacitated them for that sutes their good to their Capacity It had not been agreeable to the Wisdom of God for man to have had only some inferiour good in this Life assigned to him as his chief Happiness when he had made him capable of an higher Thus much hath been said and more might even from Reason it self to prove the reality of those things Believers look for in the other Life How much might be said from Scripture with respect to which only they are the Objects of Faith but this I referre to the next head the ground of a Christian Faith 2. That is certain The same things sometimes may both be believed with a Divine Faith and known too by natural Reason but then the Medium whereby they are known and the ground whereon they are believed are very different the one is some rational argument the other the Word of God In the case before us the being of Eternal Life the present Object of Faith we speak of may be proved by reason but then so far it is not the Object of Faith but of Knowledge but withall it may be proved by Scripture and so it is the Object of Faith and as such I am now to speak of it and so to shew that the ground on which a Christian believes Eternal Life is most certain and that is no other than the Word of God particularly the Promise of the Gospel The Scripture therefore is the ground of the Faith of Eternal Life 1. As it reveals it for that it doth more fully and clearly though something a man may know of future Happiness by his natural light as before was said yet the fairest and most distinct notion he hath of it is by Revelation in the Word that tells us plainly what is that great good in which mans Happiness consists 1 Joh. 3.2 Seeing God as he is and being like him Life and Immortality are brought to light especially by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 not only more distinctly discovered than ever Nature could discern them but than God himself had revealed them in the Old Testament 2. As it shews the way to it the terms on which it is to be obtained sets before us Eternal Life as in Christ it not only tells us of the thing it self but shews how man sinfull man may attain to the enjoyment of it declares true Holiness to be the way in which he is to walk and Christ the Door by which he is to enter 3. As it secures it upon
addes the admiration and acknowledgment of Gods forbearing goodness towards them Yet saith he vers 30. didst thou forbear them or as 't is in the Hebrew protract defer Memusbeka Ezek. 12.15 prolong over them yea many years didst thou forbear them and vers 31. when the Jewes were in their Enemies hands for their sins yet nevertheless saith he for thy great mercies sake thou didst not utterly consume nor forsake them When we mourn for the sins of our Places we should much admire Gods forbearing Goodness that he defers to punish those Sins and Sinners which we must not defer to mourn for We should lay Man low but at the same time set up God high and in nothing more than in his Patience towards Sinners Patience I say infinitely exceeding any ever exercised by Man 1. All the Sins we mourn for are most clearly seen by God and known to him He sees sin wherever 't is and infinitely more plainly understands all the odious Circumstances and aggravations of sin than we can do that mourn for them or than they can that did commit them And 2. As he sees sin in all its odiousness so he infinitely more hates it than all the Saints and Angels in Heaven can do as being the only object of his hatred all the Streams whereof are collected in this one Channel Sin being also against his very nature and being a destroying him in the desire of the Sinner and that which should he in the least measure love or less than infinitely hate he would cease to be God Further admire his Patience 3. In sparing those that are perfectly in his power to destroy Rebels that are under his feet Yea lastly whom in all their Rebellions he invites to repentance yea feeds supplies maintains daily and richly Say then in thy Mourning for the Abominations of others How patient art thou in forbearing to punish those sins which it is my duty with an holy impatience to see and hear 2. In mourning for the sins of the Wicked advance God in the acknowledgment of his Justice and spotless Righteousness should he with utmost severity take vengeance upon Offenders This we shall find also to be the temper of holy Nehemiah in the forementioned Chapter the 9th and the 33d verse where mourning for the sins of the People he clears and acquits God from any injustice in executing his heavyest severities upon sinners So Ezra 9.15 Psal 15. Howbeit saith he thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done right but we have done wickedly Say Lord I wonder not at the evils that doe but those that do not befall us Were the fire of thy wrath proportion'd to the fewel of our sins we should be utterly consumed 'T is thy Mercy Lord we are not so Thou wouldst be infinitely just and to be justifi'd if we were so And 3. In spreading before God the wickednesses of great Sinners admire his infinite Power that can not only stop the worst of men in but turn them from their course of opposing God by their Rebellions We are not so to mourn for as to despair of the Conversion of the worst They are as much within the Converting reach as the Destructive reach of Gods hand Say 1. This great Sinner whose Impieties I bewail can easily by thy irresistible Grace which no hard heart can reject as was Saul be made not only of a Wolf a Sheep but even a Shepherd too I censure his way but I dare not determ ine his end Thou hast made white Paper of as black and filthy dunghil raggs What cannot the infinite Power of God accomplish for the Conversion of the greatest Sinner I now bewail him Lord but thou canst also make him more to bewail himself and make him as zealous in setting up as now he is in destroying thy People It should more comfort thee that thou sinnest not with them than trouble thee that thou sufferest from them God can make strait timber of a crooked piece God can take his Garden out of Satan's Waste Oh! how glorious would pardoning Grace and converting Power appear in causing such a change 4. In mourning admire that Grace and Power that hath kept thee from their Excesses and Extravagancies 2. The second Branch of the Manner how we must bewail the Sins § 5 of others is as it respects those for whom and for whose Sins we lament and mourn You may take up this in several particulars 1. We must bewail the Sins of our bitterest Enemies as well as of our most beloved Relations A rare and seldom practised duty I fear that this will be found I suppose there 's no godly man but bitterly mourns for the Impieties of his dear Yoke-fellow or Child but to mourn because a cruel Enemy either dishonours God or damns his own Soul I doubt there are very few that are conscientious therein Nothing is more common than to rail at our Enemies for their Impieties and to expose them to Obloquy and publick Hatred but I fear there 's nothing more unusual than to bewail their Soul their self-destroying Sins before God in secret The former Pride and Self-love will easily put us upon the latter only flows from Christian Charity and holy sanctified Zeal and Compassion Jer. 13.17 To embrace the former and neglect the latter is to exchange a Duty for a Sin A miserable exchange The holy temper of Christ Luk. 19.41 and Paul acted by his Spirit discovered their bewailings and shedding tears for those that desired to shed their blood Doubtless such a mourning as this would if not prevail for the Conversion of Enemies yet be a comfortable evidence to our Consciences of the truth yea the strength of Grace in us and of pardoning Grace bestow'd upon us who discover so high a degree of forgiving our Enemies 'T is a thousand times more eligible that mine Enemies Sins should suffer Shipwrack in a Sea of my tears than their Persons should be born down by the stream of my Power 2. We ought to bewail the Sins of our near and dear Relations § 6 in a greater measure than those of meer Strangers Natural Affection sanctified is the strongest As Nature puts forth it self to nearest Relations in strong affection so Grace engageth to a proportionable degree of spiritualizing that Affection How earnest and desirous was holy Paul for his Kinsmen in the flesh that they should be saved Rom. 10.1 Never did a godly man in the World never durst he neglect the Duty of bewailing the Sins of his Children Job offered Sacrifices Job 1.5 and Prayers and Tears too no doubt for very fear his Children might offend God There is in the Saints a spiritual Storge a natural affection Spiritualized No Godly man knows how to spare any one Child of his for the Devil it must needs trouble him to fear that they who are so near in this should be so distant in the next Life His Soul desires especiasly
thereunto such as the Illumination of our Minds and the Renovation of our Natures the Justification of our Persons the Life of God in holy Worship and Obedience all leading unto our eternal enjoyment of him These are the Ends whereunto the Gospel is designed in the wisdom of God whereunto its efficacy is confined 3. There is an Experience to be obtained of the power and efficacy of the Word In that place of the Apostle it is expressed by tasting But there is something antecedent unto their tasting specially so called and something consequent unto it both inseparable from it and therefore belonging unto the Experience whereof we speak 1. Wherefore The first thing required hereunto is Light that is a spiritual supernatural Light enabling us to discern the Wisdom Will and Mind of God in the Word in a spiritual manner without which we can have no experience of its Power Hence the Gospel is hid unto them that perish though it be outwardly declared unto them 2 Cor. 3.4 This is the only Means which lets into the Mind and Conscience a sence of this efficacy This in the increases of it the Apostle prays for on the behalf of Believers that they may have this experience Eph. 1.16 17 18 19. Chap. 3.16 17 18 19. and declares the Nature of it 2 Cor. 4.6 2. The Taste intended follows hereon wherein consists the Life and Substance of the Experience pleaded And this Taste is a spiritual sense of the Goodness Power and Efficacy of the Word and the things contained in it in the conveyance of the Grace of God unto our Souls in the Instances mentioned and others of a like nature for in a Taste there is a sweetness unto the Palat and a satisfaction unto the Appetite By the one in this Taste our Minds are refreshed and by the other our Souls are nourished Of both Believers have an experience And this is let into the Mind by Spiritual Light without which nothing of it is attainable God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness shine into your hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 3. To compleat the Experience intended there follows hereon a Conformity in the whole Soul and Conversation unto the Truth of the Word or the Mind of God in it wrought in us by its power and efficacy So the Apostle expresses it Eph. 4.20 21 22 23 24. If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning the former Conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind and that you put on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Hereupon follows our last Principle which is the immediate foundation of the ensuing Discourse or that which is to be confirmed and it is this The Loss of an Experience of the Power of Religion hath been the Cause of the loss of the Truth of Religion or it hath been the Cause of rejecting its Substance and setting up a Shadow or Image in the room of it This Transformation of all things in Religion began and proceeded on these Grounds Those who had the Conduct of it were always possessed of the General Notions of Truth which they could not forget without a total Renunciation of the Gospel it self But having lost all Experience of this power in themselves they wrested them unto things quite of another nature destructive to the Truth as well as devoid of its Power Hereon it came to pass that there was a dead Image made and set up of Religion in all the parts of it called by the Name of that which was true and living but utterly lost All Experience I say of the power and efficacy of the Mystery of the Gospel and the Truths of it in communicating the Grace of God unto the Souls of men being lost retaining the general Notion of it they contrived and framed an outward Image or Representation of them suited unto their Ignorance and Superstition Thus was the truth of Religion once almost totally lost in the world as we shall see neither will it ever be lost any other way or by any other means When Churches or Nations are possessed of the Truth and the Profession of it it is not Laws nor Fines nor Imprisonments nor Gibbets nor Fires that shall ever dispossess them or deprive them of it Whilst an Experience of the Power of Religion continued in the Primitive Times all the bloody Rage and Cruelty of the world all the Craft of Satan and the Subtilty of Seducers who abounded did utterly fail in attempting to deprive Christians of the Truth and the Profession of it But when this began to decay and be lost amongst them they were quickly deceived and drawn off from the Simplicity of the Gospel Upon the Reformation of Religion in these parts of the world when the Truth was received in the Love and Power of it and multitudes had experience of the spiritual benefit and advantage which they received thereby in Liberty Holiness and Peace all the Prisons Tortures Swords and Fires that were applied unto its extirpation did nothing but diffuse the Profession of it and root it more firmly in the minds of men It cannot be lost but by another way and other means The Jesuites and their Associates have been for an hundred years contriving Methods and Arts for the dispossessing Nations and Churches of the Truth which they have received and the introducing the Romish Superstition They have written Books about it and practised according to their Principles in every Kingdom and State of Europe who own the Protestant Religion But the folly of most of their pretended Arts and Devices unto this end hath been ridiculous and unsuccessless and what they have added hereunto of Force hath been divinely defeated There is but one way one effectual Engine to deprive any People of the Profession of the Truth which they have once received and that is by leading them into such Prophaneness and Ignorance as whereby they may lose all Experience of its Power and Efficacy in communicating the Grace of God unto their Souls and therein of all sense of the advantage which they might have had by it When this is done men will as easily lay aside the Profession of Religion as burdensom Cloaths in Summer There is much talk of a Plot and Conspiracy to destroy the Protestant Religion and introduce Popery again amongst us they may do well to take care thereof who are concern'd in publick Affairs but as unto the Event there is but one Conspiracy that is greatly to be feared in this matter and that is between Satan and the Lusts of men if they can prevail to deprive the Generality of men of an Experience in their own minds of the Power and Efficacy of the Truth with the spiritual Advantage which
Agenda of the Church and thâ—â—eservedly for this Perswasion is built on infallible Divine Testimonâ—â—â— The Communication of Christ herein and our participation of him are expressed in such a manner as to demonstrate them to be peculiar such as are not to be obtained in any other way or divine Ordinance whatever not in Praying not in Preaching not in any other exercise of Faith on the Word or Promises There is in it an eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Christ with a spiritual Incorporation thence ensuing which are peculiar unto this Ordinance But This especial and peculiar communion with Christ and participation of him is Spiritual and Mystical by Faith not carnal or fleshly To imagine any other participation of Christ in this life but by Faith is to overthrow the Gospel To signify the Real communication of himself and benefits of his Mediation unto them that believe whereby they should become the food of their Souls nourishing them unto eternal Life in the very beginning of his Ministry he himself expresseth it by eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood John 6.53 Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you But hereon many were offended as supposing that he had intended an oral carnal eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood and so would have taught them to be Cannibals Wherefore to instruct his Disciples aright in this mystery he gives an Eternal Rule of the interpretation of such expressions v. 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life To look for any other communication of Christ or of his flesh and blood but what is Spiritual is to contradict him in the Interpretation which he gives of his own words Wherefore this especial Communion with Christ and Participation of him is by Faith If it were not unbelievers ought all partake of Christ aswell as those that believe which is a contradiction For to believe in Christ and to be made partakers of him are one and the same We must therefore find this peculiar participating of Christ in the special actings of Faith with respect unto the especial and peculiar exhibition of Christ unto us in this Ordinance And these actings of Faith are diverse and many but may be referred unto four Heads 1. It acts it self by Obedience unto the Authority of Christ in this Institution This is the foundation of all Communion with Christ or pâ—rticipation of him in any Ordinance of divine Worship whatever thaâ— is peculiarly of his own Soveraign Appointment and that in and with such circumstances as unto the Time or Season and manner of it as requires especial actings of Faith with respect thereunto For the Institution of this Ordinance was in the close of his Ministry or Prophetical Office on the Earth and in the entrance of the exercise of his Priestly Office in offering himself a Sacrifice unto God for the sins of the Church between them both and to render them both effectual unto us he interposed an act of his Kingly Office in the Institution of this Ordinance And it was in the same night wherein he was betrayed when his holy Heart was in the highest exercise of zeal for the glory of God and compassion for the Souls of sinners sâ—ith hath herein an especial regard unto all these things It doth not only act it self by a subjection of Soul and Conscience unto the Authority of Christ in the Institution but respects also the exerting of his authority in the Close of his Prophetical and entrance of the exercise of his Sacerdotal Office on the Earth with all those other circumstances of it which recommend it unto the Souls and Consciences of Believers This is peculiar unto this Ordinance and unto this way of the participation of Christ And herein faith in its due exercise gives the soul an intimate converse with Christ 2. There is in this divine Ordinance a peculiar Representation of the Love and Grace of Christ in his death and Sufferings with the way and manner of our Reconciliation unto God thereby The principal design of the Gospel is to declare unto us the Love and Grace of Christ and our Reconciliation unto God by his Blood Howbeit herein there is such an eminent Representation of them as cannot be made by words alone It is a Spiritual Image of Christ proposed unto us intimately affecting our whole Souls These things namely the ineffable Love and Grace of Christ the bitterness of his Sufferings and Death in our stead the Sacrifice that he offered by his Blood unto God with the effect of it in Atonement and Reconciliation being herein contracted into one entire Proposal unto our Souls Faith is exercised thereon in a peculiar manner and so as it is not in any Divine Ordinance or way of the Proposal of the same things unto us All these things are indeed distinctly and in parts set before us in the Scripture for our Instruction Edificacion But as the Light which was first made and diffused unto the whole Creation did suffice to enlighten it in a general way yet was far more useful glorious and conspicuous when it was reduced and contracted into the Body of the Sun so the Truths concerning Christ as they are diffused through the Scripture are sufficient for the Illumination and Instruction of the Church but when by divine wisdom and institution they are contracted into this Ordinance their taste and efficacy is more eminent and communicative unto the eyes of our Understandings that is our Faith than as meerly proposed by parts and parcels in the Word Hereby Faith leads the Soul unto a peculiar Communion with Christ wâ—â—ch is thereon made partaker of him in an especial manner 3. Faith herein respects the peculiar way of the communication and exhibition of Christ unto us by symbols or sensible outward Signs of Bread and Wine It finds the divine Wisdom ond Sovereignty of Christ in the choice of them having no other foundation in Reason or the Light of Nature and the Representation that is made herein of him with the Benefits of his Death and Oblation is suited unto Faith only without any aid of Sense or Imagination for although the Symbols are visible yet their Relation unto the things signified is not disceâ—nible unto any Sense or Reason Had he chosen for this end an Image or a Crucifix or any such Actions as did by a kind of natural and sensible Resemblance shew forth his Passion and what he did and suffered there had been no need of Faith in this matter And therefore as we shall see such things are found out unto this end by such as have lost the use and exercise of Faith herein Besides it is Faith alone that apprehends the Sacramental Vnion that is between the outward Signs and the Things signified by vertue of Divine Institution And hereby the one
its just administration should not attain its ends is to reflect the greatest dishonour upon him Yea if any Church or Society of professed Christians be fallen into that State and condition wherein the Discipline appointed by Christ cannot be effectual unto its proper ends Christ hath forsaken that Church or Society Besides the Holy Ghost affirms that the Ministry of the Church in the Administration of it is mighty through God unto all its ends 2 Cor. 10.4 5. 3. The ends of this Discipline are the order peace purity and Holiness of the Church with a Representation of the Love Care and Watchfulness of Christ over it and a Testimony unto his future Judgment An Imagination of any other ends of it hath been its ruine And thus far all who profess themselves Christians are agreed at least in words None dare deny any of these principles no not to secure their abuse of them which is the Interest of many 4. But unto them all we must also add and that with the same uncontrollable Evidence of Truth that the Power and Efficacy of this Discipline which it hath from the Institution of Christ is Spiritual only and hath all its effects on the Souls and Consciences of those who profess subjection unto him with respect unto the Ends before mentioned So the Apostle expresly describes it 2 Cor. 10.4 5. For the Weapons of our Warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledg of God bringing into captivity every thought unto the Obedience of Christ These are the Ends as of preaching of the Gospel so of the Discipline of the Church and these are the wayes and means of its efficacy it is spiritually mighty to God unto all these Ends and others it hath none But we shall immediately see the total Reverse of this Order in an Image substituted in the room of it 5. Of the Power and Efficacy of this Spiritual Discipline unto its proper end the primitive Christians at least had experience For 300 years the Church had no other way or means for the preservation of its Order Peace Purity and Holiness but the spiritual efficacy of this Discipline on the Souls and Consciences of professed Christians Neither did it fail therein nor were the Churches any longer preserved in peace and purity than whilst they had this Discipline alone for their preservation without the least contribution of assistance from secular power or any thing that should operate on the outward concerns of mankind And there can be no other reason given why it should not be of the same use and efficacy still unto all Churches but only the loss of all those internal Graces which are necessary to make any Gospel Institution effectual wherefore All Sense and Experience hereof of the Spiritual Power and efficacy of this Discipline was utterly lost amongst the most of them that are called Christians Neither those who had assumed a pretence of the administration of it nor those towards whom it was administred could find any thing in it that did affect the Consciences of men with respect unto its proper ends They found it a thing altogether useless in the Church wherein none of any sort would be concerned What shall they now do what course shall they take Shall they renounce all those Principles of Truth concerning it which we have laid down and exclude it both name and thing out of the Church This probably would have been the end of it had they not found out a way to wrest the pretence of it unto their unspeakable advantage wherefore they contrived and made an horrid Image of the holy spiritual Rule and Discipline of the Gospel An Image it was consisting in outward Force and Tyranny over the persons liberties and lives of men exercised with weapons mighty through the Devil to cast men into prison and to destroy them Hereby that which was appointed for the Peace and Edification of the Church being lost an Engine was framed under its name and pretence unto its ruine and destruction and so it continues unto this day It had never entred into the hearts of men to set up a Discipline in the Church of Christ by Law Courts Fines Mulcts Imprisonments and Burnings but that they had utterly lost in themselves and suffered to be lost in others concerned all experience of the Power and Efficacy of the Discipline of Christ towards the Souls and Consciences of men But herein they laid it aside as an useless tool that might do some Service in the hands of the Apostles and the primitive Churches whilst there was Spiritual Life and Sense left amongst Christians but as unto them and what they aimed at it was of no use at all The Deformity of this Image in the several parts of it its universal dissimilitude unto that whose name it bears and which it pretends to be the several degrees whereby it was forged framed and erected with the occasions and advantages taken for its exaltation would take up much time to declare For it was subtilly interwoven with other abominations in the whole mystery of Iniquity until it became the very Life or animating Principle of Antichristianism For however men may set light by the Rule and Discipline of Christ in his Church and its Spiritual Power or Efficacy towards the Souls and Consciences of men the Rejection of it and the setting up of an horrid Image of worldly power domination and force in the room of it and under its name is that which began carried on and yet maintains the fatal Apostacy in the Church of Rome I shall instance only in one particular on the change of this Rule of Christ and together with it the setting up of Mauzzins or an Image or God of Forces in the stead of it they were compelled to change all the ends of that Discipline and to make an Image of them also For this new Instrument of outward Force was of no use with respect unto them For they are as was declared the Spiritual Peace Purity Love and Edification of the Church Outward Force is no way meet to attain any of these ends Wherefore they must make an Image of these also or substitute some dead Form in their room and this was an universal subjection unto the Pope according unto all the Rules Orders and Canons which they should invent Vniformity herein and Canonical Obedience is all the end which they will allow unto their Church Discipline And thâ—se things hang well together for nothing but outward force by Law and Penalties is fit to attain this end So was there an Image composed and erected of the Holy Discipline of Christ and its blessed Ends consisting of these two parts outward Force and fained Subjection For hardly can an Instance be given in the World of any man who ever bowed down to this Image or submitted unto any Ecclesiastical Censure out of a
Exercise of Faith is always accompanied with diligence and perseverance in all holy Duties of Prayer with Fasting Godly Sorrow daily renewed Repentance with a continual watch against all the Advantages of sin Herein consists principally that Spiritual warfare and conflict that believers are called unto this is all the killing work which the Gospel requires That of Killing other men for Religion is of a latter date and another Original And there is nothing in the way of their Obedience wherein they have more experience of the necessity power and efficacy of the Graces of the Gospel This Principle of Truth concerning the necessity of Mortification is retained in the Church of Rome yea she pretends highly unto it above any other Christian Society The Mortification of their Devotionists is one of the principal Arguments which they plead to draw unwary Souls over unto their Superstition Yet in the height of their pretences unto it they have lost all experience of its nature with the power and efficacy of the Grace of Christs therein and have therefore framed an Image of it unto themselves For 1. They place the eminency and height of it in a Monastical Life and pretended Retirement from the World But this may be hath been in all or the most without the least real work of Mortification in their Souls For there is nothing required in the strictest Rules of these Monastick Votaries but may be complyed withal without the least effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit in their minds in the application of the vertue of the death of Christ unto them Besides the whole course of life which they commend under this name is neither appointed in nor approved by the Gospel And some of those who have been most renowned for their severities therein were men of blood promoting the cruel slaughter of multitudes of Christians upon the account of their profession of the Gospel in whom there could be no one Evangelical Grace for no Murderer hath eternal Life abiding in him 2. The Ways and Means which they prescribe and use for the attaining of it are such as are no way directed unto by the Divine Wisdom of Christ in the Scripture such as multiplied Confessions to Priests irregular ridiculous Fastings Penances Self-Macerations of the Body unlawful Vows Self-devised Rules of Discipline and Habits with the like Trinkets innumerable Hence whatever their Design be they may say of it in the issue what Aaron said of his Idol I cast the Gold into the Fire and there came out this Calf they have brought forth only an Image of Mortification diverting the Minds of men from seeking after that which is really and spiritually so And under this Pretence they have formed a State and Condition of Life that hath filled the world with all manner of Sins and wickedness and many of those who have attained unto some of the highest degrees of this Mortification on their Principles and by the Means designed unto that End have been made ready thereby for all sorts of Wickedness Wherefore the Mortification which they retain and whereof they boast is nothing but a wretched Image of that which is truly so substituted in its room and embraced by such as had never attained any Experience of the Nature or Power of Gospel-Grace in the real Mortification of Sin SECT XIV The same is to be said concerning Good Works the second Evangelical Duty whereof they boast The necessity of these Good Works unto Salvation according unto mens Opportunities and Abilities is acknowledged by all And the Glory of our Profession in this World consisteth in our abounding in them but their Principle their Nature their Motives their Use their Ends are all declared and limited in the Scripture whereby they are distinguished from what may seem materially the same in those which may be wrought by Unbelievers In Brief they are the Acts and Duties of true Believers only and they are in them Effects of Divine Grace or the Operation of the Holy Ghost for they are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath ordained that they should walk in them But the principal Mystery of their Glory which the Scripture insists upon is that although they are necessary as a Means unto the Salvation of Believers yet are they utterly excluded from any influence unto the Ju-stification of Sinners so there was never any Work Evangelically good performed by any who were not before freely Justified Unto these Good Works those with whom we have to do lay a vehement claim as though they were the only Patrons of them and Pleaders for them But they have also excluded them out of Christian Religion and set up a deformed Image of them in defiance of God of Christ and the Gospel For the Works they plead for are such as so far proceed from their own free will as to render them Meritorious in the sight of God They have confined them partly unto Acts of Superstitious Devotion partly unto those of Charity and principally unto those that are not so such are the Building of Monasteries Nunneries and such pretended Religious Houses for the maintenance of Swarms of Monks and Friers filling the World with Superstition and Debauchery They make them meritorious satisfactory yea some of them which they call of Supererrogation above all that God requireth of us and the Causes of our Justification before God They ascribe unto them a Condignity of the heavenly Reward making it of Works and so not of Grace with many other defiling Imaginations but whatever is done from these Principles and for these Ends is utterly foreign unto those good Works which the Gospel enjoyneth as a part of our New or Evangelical Obedience But having as in other Cases lost all Sense and Experience of the Power and efficacy of the Grace of Christ in working Believers unto this Duty of Obedience unto the Glory of God and Benefit of mankind they have set up the Image of them in defiance of Christ his Grace and his Gospel These are some of the Abominations which are pourtraied on the Walls of the Chamber of Imagery in the Church of Rome and more will be added in the consideration of the Image of Jealousie it self which God willing shall ensue in another way These are the Shadows which they betake themselves unto in the loss of Spiritual Light to discern the Truth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel and the want of an Experience of their Power and Efficacy unto all the Ends of the Life of God in their own Minds and Souls And although they are all of them expresly condemned in the Letter of the Scripture which is sufficient to secure the Minds of true Believers from the admission of them yet their establishment against all Pleas Pretences and Force for a compliance with them depends on their experience of the Power of every Gospel-Truth unto its proper End in communicating unto us the Grace of God and transforming our Minds into the Image and Likeness
Millions of such as perished in the deluge of the old World or to keep the bodies from destruction of those wretches that perished by fire in Sodom and Gomorrah but when Souls were in danger and rather than they should perish he comes nay he delights to do God's Will in suffering for them And what did he suffer what did he not suffer Here we must draw a vail as that Painter did who could not express grief enough to the life Go with Christ a little cannot ye watch an hour with him to contemplate this go into the Garden to the Judgment seat to Golgotha behold him on the Cross hear his strong sighs and groans they will break thy heart if any thing will and broken it must be and why did God suffer his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased to be thus tormented Why God would rather afflict him for a time than lose our Souls for ever And why did Christ who might have chosen otherwise so freely give his cheeks to the smiters Why Only he had set his love upon our Souls which he would not suffer to perish Indeed the Text supposes that there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or exchange for a Soul 't is a Phrase borrowed from former times when men did not pay in coin for what they bought but did exchange Commodity for Commodity as yet in some of our Islands c. and it does imply that there is nothing no not the World that bears a parity of value with the Soul Now though this be most certainly true that our Soul out-vyes in worth the whole World 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Yet the Blood of Christ which is the Blood of God by reason of the Hypostatical Union of his Humane Nature with the Divine is a sufficient ransome for all the Souls that shall believe in him nay 't is sufficient were it but applyed for the whole World But how highly does God prize a Soul seeing that when they were to be purchased he ask'd and would receive no less a rate for it from his own Son than his Life-blood and yet men barter it away as Judas and the Priests did our Saviour for thirty pence at what rate how low soever the Devil and the World will give for it 2. I might add unto God's giving of his Son for our Souls his giving of his spirit to the Soul and this too that it might not perish but have Everlasting Life that he who dwelt in the highest Heavens and whom the Heaven of Heavens is not able to contain should dwell in the Soul or Heart of man after a more excellent manner than in the most glorious Temple that ever was made and therefore it must as far exceed it It is true our Bodies are said to be Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 3.16 1 Cor. 6 19. but they are only Temples of the Holy Ghost as they are the Bodies that are animated by such Souls otherwise they had been no more dignifyed than any other clay or earth That God should come and knock and stay and wait for entrance into our Souls until to speak with Scripture after the manner of men his head is wet with the dew of the morning and be grieved at any repulse unkindness or denyal he meets with Nay that God where he is entertain'd should never leave or depart from a Soul Nay with his good will would not absent himself for one moment from it It must needs declare his great love unto it and esteem of it Nay by thus loving of it he makes it worthy and valuable whatsoever it might otherwise have been 3. God's valuing of our Souls appears in the care and pains which he takes for our Souls dayly 1. In that he hath instituted means whereby he might come to obtain our Souls nay to strengthen and comfort them and have communion with them These are his Ordinances the Word Sacraments and Prayer He is brought in by the Prophet as one rising up early and sending his Messengers and Ministers Jer. 7.13 25. He neglects no time with the very first he is as it were seizing upon us and crying to us return why will ye dye 2. Nay secondly He bears with us and exercises a great deal of patience towards us if so be he might at length gain our Souls and says when shall it once be Every sin we commit presseth God as a Cart is pressed with sheaves All the Patience and meekness in all the best of Creatures if joyn'd together could not endure such an indignity as every sin offers to God but they would ease themselves of such a burden which yet God endures multitudes of only that his Long-suffering might be Salvation to our Souls 2 Pet. 3.15 3. Yet further His bearing with the whole World of wicked men notwithstanding their Blasphemies and open defyances of him is only out of Love to some few Souls who serve and fear him Hence the Psalmist says concerning the World Psal 75.3 I bear up the Pillars of it A gracious Soul is the true Atlas that keeps the World from falling God out of respect unto such withholds that destroying fire that shall when their number is made up consume it 4. And lastly All the Providences of God in which he worketh hitherto are intended by him for the good of our Souls and done by God out of respect unto them 1. By his Mercies God would allure our Souls to love and serve him Hosea 11.4 Plaintus these are the Cords of a man quo magis extendas eo astrugunt arctius by these God would oblige and tye our Souls the closer unto him Mercies are vocal they all have a Language or Speech which we ought to learn to understand whereby they recommend God unto our Souls and as they came from God so for this purpose they came from him that our Souls might by their means go to God who indeed sent them on that very errand to bring our Souls unto him 2. Nay the very Judgments of God in the World prove his value for our Souls who rather than miss of them does this his strange work Isa 28.21 God does not afflict willingly but rather than to be deprived of mens Souls he will do that which he is so loath to come unto Thus he does not only afflict the wicked who obstinately remain so to caution and instruct the Souls of his people as Princes Children are lessoned when their Proxyes are whip'd but he corrects his dearest Children and Servants though it goes to his heart and he himself is afflicted in all their afflictions Isa 63.9 Yet rather than their Souls should perish with the world he is ready to do nay to suffer any thing But when all is said these are but a few shreds of what might be layd before you God's Love to and prizing of our Souls need not so much to be proved I would hope that it is felt 2. But on the other side as God does endeavour 2.
Endeavours used by Satan for our Souls so does Satan to gain the Soul fas est ab hostes doceri We may learn this from our greatest Enemy that our Souls are worth all our care and pains in keeping being our Adversary the Devil thinks no pains too great to get them 1 Pet. 5.8 He goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour He compasses the Earth as we may read in the book of Job Job 1.7 Job 2.2 He had considered Job and so considers all others what temptation is likest to prevail what their tempers and distempers are what traps will take some and what snares others He knows our beloved sins and dresses them up so as we might be loath to part with them He did not desire to go into the herd of Swine that he might destroy them but that by that means he might tempt their owners as indeed it took effect the Gadarens preferring their Swine before their Souls or their Saviour When our Saviour came to cast him out of any one the Devil was tormented Why art thou come to torment us they cry it was not because they were forced to leave their Bodies but because by that means he should have no such opportunity to mischief their Souls Matth. 8.29 Luke 8.28 Oh this is a torment to Satan to be deprived of our Souls There is not a Sermon we hear but this Evil One is ready to take away the seed as soon as ever it is sown Matth. 13.19 there is not a Prayer we make but these fowls of air attend to light upon the Sacrifice and hardly can they be driven away Gen. 15.11 Wheresoever we are whatsoever we do the Devil attends and waits for advantage against us that he might but gain our Souls And oh that men were but so industrious to preserve their Souls as Satan is to ruine them The Philistines are upon thee and doest thou sleep The Thieves are up that intend to rob thee and doest not thou arise Satan does not do all this for nothing or for that which is worth but little This Eagle does not catch at Flyes he hunts for the precious Soul 4. The duration of our Souls 4. There is one Argument more to prove the Excellency of our Souls and that is if you consider their duration or lasting It is as a dead colour upon all the beauties and glories in the World that they are fading there is a worm at the root of the Gourd which men delight in and set with greatest content under Insomuch as 't is not yet resolved whether our comfort is greater whilst we have these outward things or our grief when we part from them to be sure the one must needs bear proportion unto the other and the more any thing is loved the loather we are to leave it Now that the Soul transcends in this respect the World and all that is in it It being to remain when they shall be no more may appear from the nature of the Soul which admits not those contrary qualities which acting upon one another destroy their subject in which they are There are many Treatises to prove the Immortality of the Soul which I will not so much as mention only one Argument Bernard uses Libro de Anima because I find it not elsewhere I shall set down here Immortalis anima est quoniam cum ipsa sibi vita sit sicut non est quo cadat à se sic non est quo cadat à vita The Soul of man being life unto its self as it cannot part with its self so it cannot part with its life the body therefore dyes because it hath its life not in its self but from the Soul which it may be severed from but the Soul lives not by vertue of its union with the Body but the Body lives by vertue of its union with the Soul I am the less intent upon my proving of this because all thinking men do grant it Nay it is an Antecedent verity to the Christian Religion unless our Souls be immortal our faith is vain and all those absurdities will follow which the Apostle reckons up 1 Cor. 15. as the consequents of denying the Resurrection of the Body Nay unless the Soul be immortal all Religion is but imposture and we are design'd upon and abused when we are call'd upon and perswaded to the worshipping and serving of God so that it is indeed as necessary forus to believe our Souls to be immortal as it is necessary for us to believe that there is a God and either a good man's hope or a wicked mans fears are sufficient Evidences of both That there is another life or a future state after this life a good man would not but believe and a wicked cannot but believe They are only inconsidering debauched men whose Lusts and Sins have made it greatly their Interest that they might dye like Beasts as well as they have lived like them Who did ever seem to question it I say seem to question it for their surda vulnera the wounds that Conscience makes in them would not pierce so deep nor look so sadly if they had such a lenitive as the thoughts that they might not be felt in the other world But o th Eternity Eternity What a shrill and dismal noise do it make in a wicked man's ear or heart rather when heard or thought on and on the contrary what melody is it to a gratious man to hear that his Soul is immortal and his Crown incorruptible But the Text supposes the Soul may be lost and what is that else Objection but that it dyes The Soul indeed may be lost and dye in a figurative sense Answer There is a great resemblance betwixt the death of the Body and that of the Soul The Body dyes when it is separated from the Soul by which it lives And the Soul dyes when it is separated from God who is its life Sicut anima vita est corporis sic Deus vita est animae Bern. Librâ—â— de Anima Take a Soul from the Body the Body stirrs breathes lives no more So if Gods Grace and Spirit be not in the Soul it moves not but is dead in trespasses and sins Sin does that to the Soul which Diseases and Mortal Wounds do to the Body In the day that thou eatest thereof i. e. whensoever thou sinnest thou shalt dye Gen. 2.17 I should here have concluded my Arguments for the preciousness of the Soul but I will add one or two more ad hominem which may affect men most according to what they are usually taken with and perswaded by And therefore 5. In the fifth place The Soul is the cause of that life 5. The Cause of our Life which we so prize and it preserves that body which we so value and certainly then if ye may be Judges your selves it is most considerable What is the Body of the most beloved Person without the Soul a stench and
some few particulars 1. It is an Union of Believers with God with the Father and the Son not an Union of Believers among themselves at least not this only For the Union expressed in those first words that they may be one is declared or illustrated in these following as thou Father art in me and I in thee and so is the same Union with that in the last words which is taken to be an Union with the Father and the Son that they may be one in or with us or else the words here used to illustrate one thing would not illustrate that but another That they may be one how as thou Father art one in me and I in thee so they may be one in us Besides the same words in effect are used ver 22. that they may be one even as we are one and the same explained immediately ver 23. I in them ver 26. I in them by which without question Christ both here and elsewhere expresses the Union of Believers with himself though I will not deny that the Union among Believers themselves may be included being a consequent of the other and that which Unites them with Christ unites them among themselves 2. This Union hath some resemblance of that between the Father and the Son that they may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as denotes not any thing of equality but only something of likeness That we may know what of resemblance there is we must inquire but very modestly as becomes those who are so much in the dark how the Father is said to be in the Son and he in the Father For this purpose Christ may be considered either as God or as Man As God he is in the Father and the Father in him or which is the same he is one with the Father because they are of one and the same Nature and Essence the same Infinite Excellencies and Essential Perfections that are in the Father are also in the Son upon this account the Son is said to be in the Father and the Father in him Joh. 14.10 11. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me so that he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father ver 9. and he that hath known the Son hath known the Father ver 7. because they are one and the same in Nature and Essence the very same as to all divine perfections And thus the Father and Son with the Spirit are said to be one 1 John 5.7 For there are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one one in Essence and all the perfections which are Essential to God though distinct in personality and manner of subsistence There is an Essential Union between the Father and the Son as he is God no such Union must be imagined between them and Believers the distance is no less than infinite and if there can be any resemblance it must be very remote If we consider Christ as Man he may be said to be one with the Father and is so because the same Spirit which is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Father dwells in the Humane Nature of Christ Matth. 12.18 Joh. 3.34 And this may help us better to apprehend how we may be said to be one in or with the Father and the Son Therefore 3. The most intelligible way of expressing this Vnion which I meet with is this believers are said to be one with the Father because that Spirit which proceeds from him and is called his Spirit is in them They are said to be one with the Son not only because that Spirit which proceeds from the Son and is called the Spirit of Christ resides in Believers but because the same individual Spirit which dwels in the Humane Nature of Christ dwels also in them 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit he that is one with the Lord hath one Spirit with him he is quickned and acted by the Spirit of the Lord dwelling in him They are not one essentially as the Father and the Son are one being of one and the same Essence nor one personally as the Divine and Humane Nature of Christ being united in one person nor one morally only as he whose Heart cleaves to another by love is one with him but one spiritually or one Spirit because one and the same Spirit is in both So elsewhere our Union with God and Christ is said to be by the Spirit in us Eph. 2.22 In whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit We are in Christ and God is in us as his habitation as those in whom he dwels how through his Spirit By his Spirit dwelling in us as it is expressed Rom. 8.9 10 11. But ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his and if Christ be in you and if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you c. Ye are Spiritual if the Spirit of God dwell in you but if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his none of his Members not united to him but if Christ be in you as is before signifyed by the Spirit of God dwelling in you c. So that this Union by the Apostles account consists in the Spirits dwelling in us and it will be farther cleared by shewing how the Spirit dwels in us 4. The Holy Spirit by virtue of whose inhabitation Believers are said to be united unto the Father and the Son dwells in them as a Principle of Spiritual Life and Motion quickens them to a new Life and all the acts of it There are some who will not have the person of the Holy Ghost to be in the Saints but I know not how this can be denyed without denying either the immensity or personality of the Divine Spirit For if he be a person and if he be every where his person will be present and reside in them It is true upon this account meerly nothing singular is ascribed to them for his person is not with them only but every where The peculiarity of this priviledge lies here that he is in them as a principle of spiritual Life and motion and thus he is not in any other Creature on Earth he quickens and acts them as a vital Principle like as an Humane Soul united unto the Body gives it Life and Motion suitable to its Nature so does the Spirit of God taking possession of the Soul of a Believer enliven and act it with the Life and Motions of a Divine and Spiritual Nature Not that the Spirit is united to the Soul as the Soul
House of Jacob is a Fire and the House of Joseph a Flame and the House of Esau as Stubble Obad. 1.18 God takes notice of the least Injuries done to his Children by their Enemies nay of their very Omissions and Neglects Deut. 23.3 4. The Moabite and the Ammonite were not to enter into the Congregation of the Lord to the Tenth Generation because they met not the Children of Israel with Bread and with Water when they came out of Aegypt and what then will become of them that grudg Gods Children Bread that robs them of their Spiritual Bread and Water of Life would take from them the Allowance their Father hath given them and so would starve their very Souls 3. Whoever shew'd Kindness to the Godly in vain A Cup of Cold Water given to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple or because he belongs to Christ shall not wants its Reward Christ takes the least Respect shewn them as done to himself Visiting the Prisoners Clothing the Naked Releiving the Poor are acceptable Offices and usually followed with some Blessing even in this Life And I wonder wherein are they that this Day Persecute Gods Children the worse for them or for any Countenance they have shewn them Nor are they ever like to be if it be not their own fault by stirring up Gods Jealousie and pulling down his Vengeance upon their own Heads Were but Truth effectually beleived what an alteration would it make upon the Spirits of Men How would those that are at present so unkind to the truly Religious become their Friends and Favourers And the Governours of Judah would say in their Hearts the Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my Strength in the Lord of Hosts their God Zech. 12.5 Quest Whether it be expedient and how the Congregation may say Amen in publick Worship SERMON XXXI The Text is Neh. 8.6 And Ezra Blessed the Lord the great God and all the â—â—ople answered Amen Amen OMnipotent and Eternal goodness never wants Instruments to deliver his Church from slavery or reform it from degeneracy All the Empires and Emperors in the World have served the Kingdom of God and been as Scaffolds set up about the House of God to be taken down when that is built up and finished They have been as Gibeonites and Nethamins to the Temple of the Lord. The Assyrian was Gods Rod upon Israels Back Persian was here Gods Shepherd whose Spirit was stirred up to raise up the Jews Alexander was a Servant and the Romans have been but Gods slaves to do his Will against their own The State of the Church at this juncture was the end of a desolation or beginning of a reformation The Jews had weathered out Seventy Years in Captivity wherein multitudes of them were wore off a Remnant being left God raised up Cyrus and moved him to set them free from Babylon according to the Prophesie of Isa 45.1 Two Hundred and Ten Years before Many of the People through lazy worldliness or despondency chose rather still to lie among the Pots in Caldea than return to Jerusalem to build their City and Temple though Cyrus gave them not only liberty by Proclamations but Accommodations for the Work But God raised up the Spirit of Zerobabel Joshuah Nehemiah and Ezra to carry it on This Ezra was a great Man of God one of the great Synagogue a Prophet a Scribe a Priest Some will have it that as Jehoiakim cut and burnt the roll Jer. 36.23 So the Caldeans burned all the Books of the Law and so Ezra restored them as a Prophet by Revelation or his Memory but this is false for Daniel 9.2 understood by Books the expiration of the Seventy Years and Cyrus himself read the Prophesie of Isaiah for Ezra 1.2 he says the Lord charged him to build his House at Jerusalem But he was a Prophet as he was directed by Gods Spirit to compose this History of his and a perfect Scribe living to Malachi's time he wrote the complete Old Testament and made a perfect Copy But here he Officiates as a Priest the Son of Seraiah Ezra 7.1 from Phineas Eleazar and Aaron to serve the Lord. When they had neither Temple nor Tabernacle they set up the worship of the God of Heaven in theopen Heaven which was neither Typical nor Topical but Natural and Evangelical Worship Upon the First Day of the Seventh Month in a Pulpit in the Street the People meeting as one Man Ezra 3.1 he read the Law of God and that distinctly giving the Sence of it verse 8. from Morning to Noon and all the Congregation stood attentively and at Noon probably he Dismissed them with a Blessing according to Numb 6.23 Gods command Bâ—â—â—re at the opening the Book Praying to God and praising him for his good hand over them and his good word before them he Blessed the Lord ere he Blessed the People and Ezra Blessed c. In which words there is 1. The Priests or Ministers Office Blessing And 2. The Peoples Office and all the People answered Amen Amen 3. The great God in the midst of this great Congregation the Object of the Priests Office and the Peoples also whence this Doct. That it is a lawful and laudable Practice for People in the conclusion of publick Prayer or Praysing God to pronounce an Amen This will answer the Question which is whether it be expedient and how the Congregation may say Amen in publick Worship 1. I will explain what is meant by Amen 2. Shew what warrant there is for the Practice 3. Deduce some inference from all 1. Then there is Amen Substantive and that is God himself who is what he is Alpha and Omega Truth it self Isa 65.16 he that blesseth himself in the Earth shall bless himself in the God Amen or of Truth Jesus Christ is God and the Amen the faithful and true Witness Rev. 3.14 he is that God in whom we may bless our selves his Being is of himself as God and he gives being to his Word 2 Cor. 1.20 all the promises of God being in him yeâ— and Amen whether Hebrew or Greek Old Testament or New Promises in him they are compleated and by him they are fulfilled 2. There is Amen Affirmative a Phrase used in the beginning of any momentous Truth as an asseveration what is Amen Matth. 16.28 Luke 9.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or verily Our Saviour hath this Phrsae peculiar to himself Amen Amen to give confirmation to the Doctrine and to raise our Attention and Faith or to show that not only Truth is spoken but by him who is Truth it self 3. There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Optative Amen which is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let it be so Blessed be God by us and Blessed be we of the Lord or as Jer. 28.6 It is expounded Amen the Lord do so the Lord perform the words which thou hast spoken This Amen was used to be set to when good was spoken as 1 Kings 1.36 when David
A CONTINUATION OF Morning-Exercise QUESTIONS AND Cases of Conscience PRACTICALLY RESOLVED BY SUNDRY MINISTERS In October 1682. 1 THESS II. 4 5 6. But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men but God which trieth our Hearts For neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a cloak of Covetousness God is witness Nor of Men sought we glory neither of you nor yet of others c. LONDON Printed by J. A. for John Dunton at the Sign of the Black Raven in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1683. To the READER WHat I have formerly endeavoured in these Exercises I need not here tell you My design is still the same when too many are contending about comparatively trifles or worse I would do my utmost by calling in better help than mine own to promote practical Godliness I 'll not mention the Cases unavoydably some by Sickness some otherwise omitted and for those here should I place them in this Preface as I intended them in the Book tbô it might somewhat rectifie their Order 't would not add to their Vsefulness and therefore take them as they are and the Blessing of God go along with them and certainly 't will as to you if you are willing it should pray try else 1 We are surrounded with Vanities let your Conversation be in Heaven you 'l be above them But be sure your 2 Godliness be such that you may feel its excellency and expose their Folly that deride it Then 3 God will not only be your Rewarder but your exceeding great Reward And 4 as you mind Religion mind Vnity be of a healing temper And 5 mourn for their sins from whom you must separate When 6 you can say thrô Grace you love God abide in his Love And 7 be as solicitous for your Childrens Salvation as your own 8 Do not flatter your selves to think that you need not be caution'd against Flattery 9 Let those of us that are Ministers thirst after the Conversion of Souls And 10 the practical Love of Truth will best preserve from Popery 11 Let not Melancholy persons neglect their Remedy And let all Persons 12 press after a growing Knowledge of Christ 13 Then whatever God doth in the World cannot but be well done because God doth it 14 What you hear and read do not let it slip 15 Let your obedient Love to God evidence your Love to his Children 16 Avoyd spiritual Pride as a mischievous Sin 17 Count a midling Condition best as to the World thô not as to Religion 18 Admire and improve those Truths and Works of God which are to you incomprehensible 19 Do all you do with an eye to God thô you meet with unanswerable returns from men 20 Still mind your present Duty 21 Mind something that 's better than the tricking of your Bodies 22 Let Child-bearing Women who dread the danger of their Travail take God's Prescription for their temporal Salvation 23 Take care of your Souls according to their worth And 24 follow the Conduct of the Holy Ghost to do it And 25 thereby you 'l be raised to a divine Vnion 26 To which your thoughtfulness of Eternity will much contribute 27 And singularly promote Communion with God Which 28 those that have are prepared for whatever God will do with them And 29 thô God hide his face he will not finally forsake them But 30 God will priviledge them at present to be the Strength of the Nation And 31 to all these Truths as well as to all Gods Praises let 's believingly say Amen These are the Cases several of them had been more polisht had not the Authors and their Books been separated and I must confess that the tolerable Errors of the Press are as many as an ingenuous Reader can well pardon what then can I say for those which are inexcusable Bear with this word of alleviation 't was next to impossible for every one in our present Circumstances to Correct his own Sermon and none else could so well do it I 'l add but this they are Cases most of them of great moment and daily use Do but bring or endeavour to get an honest Heart to the Perusal of them and I doubt not but you 'l bless God for them and I hope put up a Prayer for April 9. 1683. Your Soul-Servant Samuel Annesley The CONTENTS Serm. I. HOW is the adherent Vanity of every Condition most effectually abated by serious Godliness Eccles 6.11 12. Serm. II. How may we experience it in our selves and evidence it to others that serious Godliness is more than a Fancy 1 Pet. 3.15 Serm. III. How is God his Peoples great Reward Gen. 15.1 Serm. IIII. What may most hopefully be attempted to allay Animosities among Protestants that our Divisions may not be our Ruine Coloss 2.2 Serm. V. How ought we to bewail the sins of the places where we live 2 Pet. 2.7 8. Serm. VI. What must we do to keep our selves in the Love of God Jude vers 21. Serm. VII What may gracious Parents best do for the Conversion of those Children whose wickedness is occasioned by their sinful Severity or Indulgence Mal. 4.6 Serm. VIII How may we best cure the Love of being Flattered Prov. 26.28 Serm. IX By what means may Ministers best win Souls 1 Tim. 4.16 Serm. X. How is the practical Love of Truth the best Preservative against Popery 1 Pet. 2.3 Serm. XI What are the best Preservatives against Melancholy and over-much Sorrow 2 Cor. 2.7 Serm. XII How may we grow in the Knowledge Estimation and making Vse of Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 Serm. XIII How may our Belief of Gods governing the World support us in all worldly distractions Psal 97.1 2. Serm. XIV What are the Hindrances and Helps to a good Memory in Spiritual things 1 Cor. 15.2 Serm. XV. What are the Signs and Symptoms whereby we know we love the Children of God 1 John 5.2 Serm. XVI What must we do to prevent and cure spiritual Pride 2 Cor. 12.7 Serm. XVII Wherein is a middle worldly Condition most eligible Prov. 30.8 9. Serm. XVIII How may we graciously Improve those Doctrines and Providences which transcend our Vnderstandings Rom. 11.33 Serm. XIX How ought we to do our Duty towards others thô they do not do theirs towards us Rom. 12.21 Serm. XX. How may the well discharge of our present Duty give us assurance of help from God for the well discharge of all future Duties 1 Sam. 17.34 35 36 37. Serm. XXI What distance ought we to keep in following the strange Fashions in Apparel which come up in the days wherein we live Zeph. 1.8 Serm. XXII How may Child-bearing Women be most encouraged and supported against in and under the hazard of their Travail 1 Tim. 2.15 XXV for Serm. XXIII How may we best know the worth of the Soul Matt. 16.26 XXVI for Serm. XXIV How may we get Experience
Persons the unpitied Poverty of Huffing Gamesters and in a word the unpleasant Exit of most Pleasure-mongers and for those that escape these common effects they as commonly contract a carnal Security which is as bad as the worst of these And for those pleasures that are above sensual I 'le say no more at present but this the better the Objects of our delights are on this side God and the pleasing of God the more our carnal Wisdom is fortified against the true method to real happiness Upon the whole matter then Pleasures are a kind of dangerous fruit which if not well corrected are Poyson we can scarce taste without danger of surfeiting But now what doth the Power of Godliness in this case What 't will not meddle with unlawful pleasures thô never so tempting 't will strain out the dregs of lawful pleasures that they may not be unwholsome 't will moderate the use of unquestionable delights that they may not be inordinate And 't will teach us to be thankful to God for making our Pilgrimage any way comfortable 't will raise the Soul to prepare and long for Heaven where are pure and full Joyes and that for evermore Thus for a Life of Pleasure What shall we say to a Life of Sorrow and Pensiveness to live 〈◊〉 Recluse from the flattering Vanities of the World a Eccles 2.2 ◠I said of Laughter it is mad and of Mirth what doth it What Musick is the gigling Mirth of the World to a serious Soul Those that the Frothy part of the World count Melancholy the sober part of the World count them Wise But yet to give way to Sorrow disspirits us for any considerable service either to God or Man it unfits us for every thing b 2 Cor. 7.10 the Sorrow of the World worketh Death Such are burdensome to themselves and others they are weary of themselves and every body else is weary of them If a Melancholy mopish temper be not checkt 't will lead to hard thoughts of God to blasphemy infidelity In short a Life of Sorrow is a degree of Hell upon Earth and such Persons torment themselves before their time But what can Religion do in this case Serious Godliness bears up the Soul from sinking under worldly sorrow c Eccles 7.3 4. Sorrow is better than Laughter for by the sadness of the Countenance the Heart is made better The Heart of the wise is in the house of Mourning but the Heart of Fools is in the house of Mirth Religion will teach us how to turn worldly Sorrow into Sorrow for Sin d 2 Cor. 7.9 10. to sorrow to Repentance after a godly manner and godly Sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of 'T is Serious Godliness that teacheth how to mourn for the Sins and Dangers of the Times we live in And Christians pray take special notice that this is our present great duty a duty that every Christian not only ought but may perform and none can hinder it And O that this duty were frequently thought of and more universally practised The Land is even drown'd in Pleasure the Conscientious performance of this duty would be a token for good for the abating of the deluge And thô the times should be such that their own Sorrows should be encreased yet then even then how chearing would the forethoughts of Heaven be to such serious Christians How may they chide their Hearts out of their Dejections e Psal 42.11 Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me hope thou in God for I shall yet aye and ever praise him who now is and for ever will be the health of my Countenance f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salutes faciei mei and the Salvation of my face and my God Because thou art my God g Psal 67.6 my own God my exceeding great not only rewarder but h Gen. 15.1 reward And thus much for the second Pair Pleasure and Sorrow III. Who knows whether Honour or Obscurity be best for man in this Life At first sight it seems easie to determine but when both sides are heard 't will seem otherwise For Honour every one would be Some-body in the World would be esteemed and preferr'd before others disgrace and infamy seem most intolerable when Job had done contesting with his censorious Friends he is greatly concern'd about the contempt poured upon him thô but by infamons Enemies Job 29. 30. And David thô he could even in desperate cases encourage himself in God yet complains i Psal 69.20 Reproach hath broken my Heart matter of Honour and Reputation is a tender point not any of what rank soever but deeply resent the being slighted But for Honour when we consider how hazardous it is to get thô all are clambering few reach it consider further when 't is got 't is slippery to hold others envy and their own fear distract 'em and then if you adde the falling from it that 's worse than if they never had it but there 's worse than all this the insuperable temptation to pride oppression and impenitency all which nothing but Grace can prevent or cure And for that lesser reputation and esteem which comes short of the Name of Honour 't is troublesom to carry it like a Venice-glass that the least touch may not crack it What can Religion do in this Case Serious Godliness 't will never be beholding to Sin nor Satan for worldly Honour It values it no more than as it adds to a capacity of honouring God He that 's truely Religious is neither so fond of Honour as to Sin to get or keep it neither doth he count himself undone to lose it he values the priviledge of Adoption beyond all the Honours in the World k Isa 43.4 Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable he is graciously ambitious of doing God and Christ some service in the World he appears for God to discountenance prevent or remove Sin to encourage promote and advance Holiness this God in condescension accounts an honouring of him and hath accordingly promised l 1 Sam. 2.30 Them that honour me I will honour and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed In short you may know what Faith you have by what Honour you prize m John 5.44 How can ye believe that receive honour one of another and seek not the Honour which cometh from God only This for Honour Some preferr Obscurity in the World to snudge in quiet to live retired and reserved out of the Vexatious hurry of a captious World to keep in the shade out of the scorching Sun to steal out of the World without any noise or notice O how sweet is this to many wise and judicious Persons that are every way above what 's Vulgar But how do these in running from one Vanity fall into another They debase the humane Nature and the reasonable Soul while they
receive it i. e. To acknowledge receive resign entrust and subject our selves unto God in Christ revealed in it 2ly And of how vast importance this is towards our establishment the confirming fortifying and uniting of our hearts and our joynt preservation in our Christian state the main thing we are to design and be solicitous for we may see in these particulars 1. Hereby we should apprehend the things to be truly great wherein we are to unite That union is not like to be firm and lasting the center whereof is a trifle It must be somewhat that is of it self apt to attract and hold our hearts strongly to it To attempt with excessive earnestness an union in external formalities that have not a value and goodness in themselves when the labour and difficulty is so great and the advantage so little how hopeless and insignificant would it be The mystery of God even of the Father and of Christ how potently and constantly attractive would it be if aright understood and ackowledg'd Here we should understand is our life and our all 2. Hereby we should in comparison apprehend all things else to be little And so our differences about little things would languish and vanish We should not only know but consider and feelingly apprehend that we agree in far greater things than we differ in and thence be more strongly inclin'd to hold together by the things wherein we agree than to contend with one another about the things wherein we differ 3. Hereby our Religion would revive and become a vital powerful thing and consequently more grateful to God and awful to men 1. More grateful to God who is not pleased with the stench of Carkasses or with the dead shewes of Religion instead of the living substance We should hereupon not be deserted of the divine presence which we cannot but reckon will retire when we entertain him but with insipid formalities What became of the Christian interest in the world when Christians had so sensibly diverted from minding the great things of Religion to little minute circumstances about which they affected to busie themselves or to the pursuit of worldly advantages and delights 2. More awful to men They who are tempted to despise the faint languid appearances of an impotent inefficacious spiritless Religion discern a Majesty in that which is visibly living powerful and productive of suitable fruits Who that shall consider the state af the Christian Church and the gradual declining of Religion for that three hundred years from Constantines time to that of Phocas but shall see cause at once to lament the sin and folly of men and adore the righteous severity of God For as Christians grew gradually to be loose wanton sensual and their leaders contentious luxurious covetous proud ambitious affecters of Domination so was the Christian Church gradually forsaken of the divine presence Inasmuch as that at the same time when Boniface obtained from Phocas the title of universal Bishop in defiance of the severe sentence of his Predecessor Gregory the great sprang up the dreadful delusion of Mahomet †Brerewood's Enquiries And so spread it self to this day thorough Asia Africa and too considerable a part of Europe that where Christians were twenty or thirty to one there was now scarce one Christian to twenty or thirty Mahometans or grosser Pagans And what between the Mahometan infatuation and the Popish Tyranny good Lord what is Christendom become when by the one the very name is lost and by the other little else left but the name 4. Hereby we shall be inabled most resolvedly to suffer being call'd to it when it is for the great things of the Gospel the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ clearly and with assurance understood and acknowledg'd Such a faith will not be without its pleasant relishes 'T is an uncomfortable thing to suffer either for the meer spiritless uncertain unoperative notions and opinions or for the unenlivened outward forms of Religion that we never felt to do us good in which we never tasted sweetness or felt power that we were really nothing ever the better for But who will hesitate at suffering for so great things as the substantials of the Gospel which he hath clearly understood whereof he is fully assured and which he hath practically acknowledged and embraced so as to feel the energy and power of them and relish their delicious sweetness in his soul And thô by such suffering he himself perish from off this earth his Religion lives is spread the more in the present age and propagated to after ages So seminal and fruitful a thing is the blood of Martyrs as hath alwaies been observ'd And as such a faith of the Mystery of the Gospel appears to have this tendency to the best firmest and most lasting union among Christians and the consequent preservation of the Christian Interest this mystery being more generally considered only So this tendency of it would be more distinctly seen if we should consider the more eminent and remarkable parts of it The mystery of the Redeemers person The Emmanuel God uniting himself with the nature of man His Office A reconciler of God and Man to each other His Death as a propitiatory sacrifice to slay all enmity His victory and conquest over it wherein is founded his universal Empire over all His triumphant entrance into Heaven whither he is to collect all that ever lov'd trusted and obey'd him to dwell and be conversant together in his eternal love and praises How directly do all these tend to endear and bind the hearts and souls of Christians to God and him and one another in everlasting bonds Thus then we have the answer to our question in the two parts of the Text. The former pointing out to us the subjects of our union with the uniting principle by which they are to be combin'd with one another The other the center of it with the uniting principle whereby they are all to be united in that center Vse And what now remains but that we lament the decay of these two principles And to our uttermost endeavour the revival of them 1. We have great cause to lament their decay for how visible is it and how destructive to the common truly Christian Interest It was once the usual cognisance of those of this holy profession See how these Christians love one another and even refuse not to dye for each other Now it may be How do they hate and are like to dye and perish by the hands of one another Our Lord himself gave it them to be their distinguishing character By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another Good Lord what are they now to be known by And what a cloudy wavering uncertain lank spiritless thing is the Faith of Christians in this age become How little are the ascertaining grounds of it understood or endeavoured to be understood Most content themselves to profess
temper of the Offender A small Offence like a Fly on the forehead is not to be kill'd with a Beetle nor is a Venice Glass and so tender are some tempers to be scowred with as much strength as we scowre an Iron Pot with Prudence is also to be observed in Reproofs by care to preserve our own safety and not to expose our selves by indiscreet and lavish expressions to the malice of those whom we reprehend 4. Reprove Sinners with Patience knock twice nay thrice at the door of a Sinners Conscience Importunity may prevail with a Sinner for his own Soul if with the unjust Judge for another Wait if peradventure God may give the Sinner Repentance 5. With expressing that Commiseration towards a Sinner in private which thou expressest for him before God in secret A profane person going once to hear a Play and telling of a Godly man whom he met whither he was going this good man intreated him to forbear and not to go to so wicked a Meeting that might easily endanger his Soul but the man was obstinate and notwithstanding all the Arguments the good man could use to hinder him from going he told him he was resolved to go to the Play-house with that the good man shed abundance of tears upon the beholding his obstinacy They part one from the other the one the resolute person goes towards the Play-house but just as he was entering into it the remembrance of the tears shed by the godly disswader so wrought upon him that he durst not adventure to go into that hurtful place but returned from it without incurring the danger of that temptation § 10 6. We must mourn for those Sins of others that are in appearance advantageous to our selves Thô a Sin may bring us profit or honour yet it must bring us no Pleasure if it bring God dishonour and the Sinner destruction Act. 14. 'T is very observable in Paul and Barnabas that they rent their Cloaths the usual sign of mourning for a Sin that did cast the greatest Honour imaginable upon them that attributed a Divinity to them by doing Sacrifice to them Act. 14.14 We must never endure the advancement of our Interest by the diminution of Gods Glory through Sin As God will not give his glory to another so God not giving it we must not dare to take it That he may be advanced we must be willing to be debased and depressed We should not desire any Glory that promotes not his nor should we shun any disgrace that sets up his honour All our Glory and Gain are unprofitable to us that further not the End why we had out beings Nothing done to a Tree is profitable to it which makes it not more fruitful Though its Leaves be gilded though its Branches should have Pearls and Diamonds hung thick upon them thô the Body be adorned with Sattens and Cloath of Gold yet this makes not the Tree better as a Fruit-tree It would be better for the Tree to dung it than to adorn it To cut its bark than to beautifie its body We should embrace the vilest debasures and the most torn and poor condition if they conduce to our end the glorifying of God rather than by any ones Sin to shine and be advanced in the World 'T was an excellent option of that ingenious Writer Nierembergius to this purpose I had rather L. 4. de ador c. 11. Lord could it be without Sin that all should hate me than that they should love me for my self for if all should hate me I should have but what is mine if they should love me for my self I should usurp what is thine Besides we purchase any temporal Benefit at too dear a rate if it be with the loss of an eternal Soul that sins to obtain it for us If David poured out the water to the Lord 2 Sam. 23.17 and would not drink thereof because it was brought with the jeopardy of the lives of the bringers how far should we be from delighting in those Gains that are obtained by endangering the Souls of those that procure them for us A Factor an Apprentice by whose sin thou gainest should more grieve thee than if by his weakness thou hadst been never so great a loser 3. I shall consider how we should mourn for the Sins of others § 11 in respect of our selves 1. They whom God hath set in any Place or Station of Superiority over others either more publick or in Families should be the most eminent Mourners for the Sins of those committed to their charge Persons who have publick Relations must have publick Affections They have greater opportunities and authority to advance Gods Glory and benefit Souls than their Inferiors have To them much is given and of them much shall be requir'd They are more responsible to God for publick abuses than the Common People The Heads of Places and People are more concern'd to reform than private members If they lay not the Sins of Inferiors to their Hearts they shall be laid to their charge One great if not the greatest reason why England is so full of Ungodliness is because it is so full of Gallio's Acts 18.17 who regard none of those things Now they who resent no Sin will reform no Sinners All must give account for their idle words and Governours especially Magistrates and Ministers for their idle Silence Superiors will not reform those Sinners publickly for whom they do not mourn privately How abominable is it for base Bribery or Face-fearing to deterr Governours from reforming 'T is as cruel to spare all as to pare none Solomons Throne was not held up by Apes but by Lyons Tenuisse silentia Clerum 't is the basest tenure in the World for a Minister to hold his Living by holding of his Peace Luther once said That sinful silence in a Minister was Peccatum irremissibile an unpardonable fault That blessed man * See his Life in his Works Mr. Samuel Hieron mourn'd upon his Death-bed for his defectiveness in the Duty of private Reproof thô blessed Saint he knew upon whom to lay that and his other Sins I doubt not but God makes the World so bitter to us by sufferings Joel 2.17 because we make their Sins no bitterer to them by Reproofs A Minister and Magistrate in Love and Christian Condescension ought to be flexibiliores arundine but in opposing of Sin duriores adamante 2 Cor. 11.29 Heb. 23.17 in the former as flexible as a reed in the latter harder than an adamant § 12 2. Those who now converted have been the most open Sinners in their unconverted state should more lay to Heart the Sins of the openly wicked than those who have lived more Civilly and without scandal The greatest Sinners converted should have the greatest Compassion They who have obtained most should shew most Mercy Ye know saith God the Heart of a Stranger Exod. 23.9 and therefore they are enjoined to be kind to Strangers Great
With a reflection of Care and Watchfulness that thou mayst never dare to fall into the Sins that thou bewailest in another and that thou mayst never admit a temptation to a Sin in thy self which is the object of thy Lamentation in another That thou who labourest to quench the fire that hath seized upon thy Neighbours house mayst be careful to preserve thine from being set on fire also To conclude that thou mayst not dare to do that which doth or should grieve thee to see another do § 17 III. To shâ—w why this holy Mourning is 1. The Disposition and 2. Duty of the Righteous I shall express the Reasons of both distinctly 1. It is their Disposition and that under a threefold qualification 1. Because they are a knowing People They know what tears and heart-breakings Sin hath stood them in they know that Sin will cost the Wicked either Tears of Repentance or Damnation They know that Sin is but gilded Destruction and Fire and Brimstone in a disguise Knowing the terror of the Lord saith Paul we perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 'T is as true we mourn for men that will not be perswaded In one word the Godly know that when the Wicked sin they know not what they do The Word threatning Sin makes Woe as present to a knowing Saints Faith as the evil threatned can in its execution be present to a Sinners sense To a Saints eye sinning is but the Seeds-time of Wrath and Eternal Vengeance in the root But principally the Godly know what Sin hath cost Christ not tears of Water only but great and many drops of Blood 2. As to a Saints Disposition He is Compassionate and tender-hearted § 18 If Sinners mourn he mourns with them If not he mourns for them The Wicked are more the objects of his Pity than Anger The Saints only have Bowels Col. 3.12 and Christs Bowels Phil. 1.8 The Wicked as the High Priests were to Judas are hard-hearted in drawing to Sin and in leaving those whom they have drawn into it Good men are full of tears see it in David Ezra Joseph Josiah Jeremiah Quanto quisque sanctior tanto fletus uberior The more holy the more plentiful are our tears Saints have received and return Compassion Grace kills not but only cleanseth Affection 3. The Righteous are a purifi'd sanctifi'd People A Saint as such § 19 hates nothing but Sin Grace ever conflicts with Sin where it sees it either in a mans own Soul or in the Life of another Holiness contends with Sin where it cannot conquer it Now where an Object is truly hated it ever causeth Sorrow till it be removed Further every sanctifi'd Soul labours to keep it self holy Now sorrow for Sin puts us upon carefulness to avoid it 2 Cor. 7.11 All take heed of that which occasions their grief 2. 'T is the Duty as well as the Disposition of the Righteous to § 20 mourn for the Sins of others And that as they are considerable in a threefold Relation 1. In their Relation to God they are his Sons Phil. 2.15 As the Sons of God they are commanded to be blameless without Rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation This Relation of Sonship doth as truly make us mourn for the Sins of others as it engageth us to avoid Sin in our selves It suffers us not to put up dishonour offered to God our Father with sinful Patience It makes us quietly to bear our private troubles but not quietly to suffer the Sufferings of Gods Name Exod. 32.11.27 Thô Moses when with God pray'd for the People yet when with the People he vindicated the honour of God with the Sword Job 2.10 Thô Job when a Sufferer from God was holily patient yet when an hearer of the Counsel of his Wife to curse God he was as holily impatient A Son of God cannot bear the abuses offered to his Father Saints can no more endure the dishonour done to their heavenly Father according to that measure of Grace given unto them than the Angels which are in Heaven do according unto theirs Jesus wept for Lazarus's death because his Friend and should not we much more weep for Gods dishonour because our Father Gods Glory should be dearer to us than our Lives He that toucheth it should touch the Apple of our Eye and that soon makes it water § 21 2. Their Relation to the Mediator the Lord Christ Here I shall mention only a double relation between Christ and Saints that engageth them to mourn for the Sins of others The first is his Relation to us as a suffering Surety in respect whereof he sustain'd and pay'd the debt of Penalty which we owed to Gods Justice for 't was Sin in man that made Christ a man of Sorrows Saints have but one Friend and He but one Enemy how then is it possible that that Enemy when seen should not be the Object of Sorrow Sin drew not from our dear Lord Jesus's eyes only tears of Water but from his sacred face great drops of Blood 'T was Sin that pierced not his feet hands and side only but his Soul Who can look upon the bloody Knife that stabb'd Christ without some Sorrow 2. There 's a second Relation between Christ and Saints that should make them mourn for the Sins of the Wicked and that is the Relation of Teacher and Instructer We are his Disciples and Scholars and 't is our Duty as much to make him our Example as to expect he should obtain our Pardon Christ never had a Pollution but oft a Commotion of Affection Christ never wept but for Sin or its effects How full of Zeal was he for his Father when he saw his Glory blemished Joh. 2.17 Joh. 19.9 10 11. Mar. 3.5 his House defiled did it not after a sort eat him up and consume him The Reproaches of them that reproached God fell upon Christ Rom. 15.3 'T is observable thô Christ in his own cause gave Pilate no answer but stood silent yet when he heard Pilate arrogate to himself the Power of Life and Death over Christ he could not forbear to shew Pilate his Sin by telling him of an higher Power than his from whence his was derived How full of grief was Christ Luk. 19.41 seeing the hardness of the Jews hearts to their own destruction In his approach to Jerusalem filled with Enemies to God and him he wept over it for their Blindness and Impieties and approaching Destruction He bewail'd the Sins of those that rejoyced in them and shed his tears for those that thirsted to shed his blood Either resemble Christ or lay off the name of Christian § 22 3. Their Relation to the Wicked for whose Sins they should mourn 1. The Saints are men with the worst they have the Relation of humane nature to the greatest Sinners upon Earth they are ex eodem luto formati In the Body as the Apostle expresseth it Heb. 13.3 'T is a wickedness to hide our selves from
spiritually Bone of each others Bone and Flesh of each others Flesh Ephes 5.25 to vers 33. ¶ We maintain our Communion with Christ not only by Eating with him Joh. 6.53 to ver 57. but also by Eating of him ¶ God the Father calls us into Fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Ephes 3.12 ¶ Christ is said to dwell in our Hearts by Faith and by his Spirit also for he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Heb. 3.14 This our fellowship and Communion with Christ is evidenced by our Perseverance in Grace firmly to the End This our Fellowship with Jesus Christ is confirmed by the Sacraments 1. He that is Baptized into Christ hath put on Christ Gal. 3.27 2. By the Supper which is therefore called the Communion because the Saints gather together in that as the highest act of their Fellowship with the Lord and with one another 1 Cor. 10.16 The Bread that we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ The Cup that we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ The Children of God walking in the light have thereby fellowship with Christ and one with another 1 Joh 1.7 As Christ is God and Man in one Person so we have fellowship with him in both Natures 1. In his Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 2. In his Humane Nature Heb. 2.14 Partaking with him in the same Flesh and Blood ¶ In the Spirit He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 Rom. 8.11 There is one Body and one Spirit Eph. 4.4 ¶ In Afflictions Phil. 3.10 That I may know the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death ¶ We have Communion with Christ in Glory Rom. 8.17 18. If so be we suffer with him that we may be glorified together Who shall change our vile Body and fashion it like to his glorious Body So Joh. 17.21 22 23 24. ¶ In all good things Wisdom Righteousness Redemption Faith 1 Cor. 1.30 Repentance Regeneration Adoption Justification Sanctification and Spiritual Liberty All these are Benefits and high blessings communicated from the Father by the Spirit through the Purchase and Merit of Jesus Christ See that place it is very Pregnant 2 Cor. 5.17 and apposite 1. He tells you We know Christ no more after the Flesh Because that Dispensation is over we are now under the dispensation of the Spirit 2. Therefore If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature 3. Our Communion with Christ is not hereby lost but advanced Higher if any be in Christ he is a new Creature In Christ still and a New Creature by Christs Spirit working in us all new things and working out all old 4. All this is the Work of God in us and for us by the Son reconciling us and the Spirit perfecting us in the Ministry of Reconciliation ver 18 19.5 All this arose from Love ver 14. the Root of the Communion of Saints with the Blessed Trinity 6. As ye have heard founded in Union expressed in a Communication of all good things by Christ our Head and Husband with Reciprocation and returns of Love on our part in all the Acts of it by intire and Sincere Obedience also in mutual Interchanges of Dutyes respecting our fellow-members of the same Body This is so fully set forth by the Apostle Paul according to the Grace of God given to him that I need say no more about it but commend the reading of that whole Chapter to you 1 Cor. 12. from ver the 4th to the end I fear this Relation and Fellowship is little minded with the Dutyes of it by many that yet think themselves in the Body and presume of the Priviledges of it Mark these few things for your help 1. The differences of Gifts and Administrations Offices and Services in the Body Spiritual as in the Body Natural vers 4. 12. 2. All these coming from one Spirit and one Head Jesus Christ the Fountain Head of all ver 13. 3. That all these Gifts and Graces are divided to every member as the Lord pleaseth for the same use and end to profit withall without Schism without a conceit of self-sufficiency and unconcernedness for others ver 7. 11. 4. All this called Christ to shew the near and Blessed Communion of Saints ver 12. XVIII The last Means I shall name to you is in the words immediately following my Text Vers 21. in the same verse Which doubtless the Holy Ghost points us to as an Effectual means to keep our seives in the Love of God Reason 1. Because it is the Highest Act of Gods Love to us to bestow Eternal Life on us 2. The Lord that hath provided Eternal Life for us will have us alwayes walk in Expectation of it Gen. 49.18 Tit. 2.13 3. We have no Ground at all to expect Eternal Life from God without keeping our selves in the Love of God Rom. 8.23 compared with the last verse 4. We keep our selves in Gods Love by being found in such a State and in such a Way as leads to Life which is chiefly Faith and Obedience 5. Such as are found out of this Way and State are not Children but Strangers and Enemies therefore have no Reason to expect an Inheritance they have no Title nor Right to it Now a Son that 's Heir apparent by Adoption in Christ to such an Estate of Eternal Life in Heaven he will not only be alwayes in Expectation of it but will judge himself bound to study all the wayes he can possibly do to please God to keep in his Love and favour and withall fear and take heed of forfeiting the Love of God 1. Because it is an Act of Mercy and free Grace it is not a Debt or any thing thou canst challenge the Lord Jesus is sole purchaser Text. Rom. 6. ult The Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. If we look for all as an Act of Mercy it will keep the Soul humble Jam. 4.6 1 Pet. 5.5 and thankful Such a frame of Soul the Lord loves and favours Micah 6.8 2 Cor. 4.18 chap. 5.1 3. The Prospect of Eternal Life will keep us from being much enamoured with this Life which is Vain and Sinful and Sorrowful and Transient 4. The Prospect of a better Life will make us prepare for it 1 Tim. 6.12 Rev. 21.2 Phil. 3.12 13 14. and lay hold on it 2 Pet. 11.12 13 14. By Watchfulness as the wise Virgins Math. 25.4 10. By Constancy in our course and race 1 Tim. 6.19 By casting away every Clog Heb. 12.1 2. 5. Because all Creatures wait for this Glory and are Rom. 8.19 in earnest Expectation of it 6. Because all Saints have ever lived up to it 1 Thes 4. ult Heb. 4.1 9 Heb. 6.19 20. this is the Haven of their rest here they cast Anchor with this they comfort themselves for this they groan
Now let me propound a few Incentives to blow and stir up the dying embers of Divine Love in our Souls 1. No man can love God truly unless he know God truly 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him therefore examine what knowledge thou hast of God especially what practical Knowledge It is clear practical Gospel Knowledge to know God in Christ this is saving and brings Life Eternal Joh. 17.3 This is Knowledge that transforms 2 Cor. 3.18 This is a Sanctifying Knowledge Ephes 4.21 22. This is a justifying Knowledge or the Knowledge of Faith Isa 53.11 Philip. 3.8 9 10. This Light and Knowledge comes in to the Soul by the Illumination of the Spirit of God turning our darkness into light and is the teaching of God and the anointing of God teaching all things Joh. 6.46 Joh. 2.20 27. This principally teacheth us these two things 1. The Love of God in Christ to us 2. The Loveliness of Christ to inflame our love to him by his Beauty and Excellency Now when we clearly see and duely consider this our Hearts are marvellously drawn out in Love to the Lord And without this knowledge of God we can never truly love him O pray for it and attend and improve the Means of it This is that which the Apostle points at as the most transcendent of all other in the World which carnal Hearts are no wayes capable of without the work of Gods Spirit in the Soul 1 Cor. 2.9 to the end read and mind that Scripture well There are some things which we can never see in their Excellencies without the help of Telescopes and Perspective glasses by reason of the weakness and dimness of our sight In like manner we can never see the Amiableness of God in Christ without the help of Gods Spirit This sets the Soul upon the Top of a high Mountain as Moses upon the Top of Pisgah whereby he gains a prospect of the Heavenly Canaan or as Christ and his Disciples upon Tabor in the Transfiguration 2 Pet. 1.17 18. 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. from that excellent Glory Or such a sight as Paul had in his Rapture 2. A second means and Motive to blow up the Flame of Divine Love in us is to consider That the Lord is incomparably the most lovely Object in the World Psal 119.68 Mat. 19.16 17. being the chief of all good and goodness For which reason our Saviour saith Why callest thou me good there is none good but one that is God If we Love a drop of good in the Creature how should we be ravished with an Ocean Psal 36.7 8.9 10. many Oceans in God! Happy he that enjoyes the Fountain of good for with him is the well of Life c. God is purely good without Mixture infinitely good without Measure absolutely good without Dependency communicably good without Failure eternally good without End say the Schools therefore most amiable O consider this And this good this God is ours for ever and ever may every Believer say O let this inflame our Love to this good 3. Examine thy Faith in the Truth of it and labour for the growth of it and observe the working of it for true Faith works by Love and the stronger thy Faith is the stronger thy Love is Gal. 5.8 The Apostle Peter shewing the excellency of Faith and of a tryed Faith that it is more precious than Gold he saith by it we love Jesus Christ though we never saw him with our bodily Eyes and we love him by Believing and rejoyce in it with unspeakable glorious Joy 1 Pet. 1.7 8. Aug. Tract 7. in 1 Joh. Faith is the first Principle and chief root of all Operation in the Soul and it is therefore a vain thing to talk of loving God without Believing Bern. for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin God doth not put the Oyl of his Mercy but into the Vessel of Faith We believe therefore we speak saith the Apostle we believe therefore we love What made the Saints not value worldly Treasures and Delights What made them Love not their lives to the Death What made them so wonderful in their Active and Passive Obedience for Christ but their Faith by seeing him that is invisible for there is not such an Eye on Earth Heb. 11.24 25 26 27. that see Spiritual things in their Spirituality and notwithstanding their remotest distance such a Faith doth break forth in the flames of Love to God that thereby the Heart where it is is ravished by it the Lord saith his Heart is also ravished with that Eye Cant. 4.9 4. Consider that God best deserves thy Love All the World cannot vye with God in loving us therefore are not worthy to be Rivals with him It is a horrid and an amazing thing how the glorious God should so far be provoked by such Rivals and bear so long Of this he complained severely in his People of old Jer. 2.5 11 12 13 31 32. Read the Prophets and that one Chapter for instance And this is true of the greatest part of the World one silly Idol or other courts all of them yet they never did any man any good nor can it but hurt By loving them they cannot love us again they cannot save us in our trouble they cannot hear us when we cry Jer. 2.28 no more than Baal did his Priests 1 Kings 18.26 Our love is lost upon them they distress us but help us not Like Summer-Brooks that are dry when we most need them Job 6.15 16 17 18. What say you doth not the Lord best deserve your Love what is there that he hath not done for you you owe him not only for your Blessings but for your Being You stand indebted to him for all things pertaining to life and godliness for all in hand and hope And how many grow fat and wanton under the Mercyes of God Deut. 32. yea Jeshurun kicking at his Bowels and beating the Breasts that feed them Strange degenerate Brats Isa 1.2 3. Jer. 3.1 so far that the Lord cryes out to Heaven and Earth to be astonished at it yet for all this continues loving them still and like a good Shepheard seeks after straying Sheep that of themselves would never return without fetching Will any Creature in the world whom thou Idolizest do this for thee Is this after the manner of men No it is the peculiar kindness of God only think on it 5. Consider if thou love the Lord truly and keep thy self in his Love thy heart will cease to love any thing else in the World and be dead to Creatures and they will be dead to thee Gal. 6.14 Si cor amore Christi inardescit omnis creatura vilescit All things are contemptible to one that truly loves God Phil. 3.8 When the Sun shines the Stars vanish and when it shines upon a Fire it puts the Fire out So doth the Love of God in the Soul
design'd by God himself to succeed in the Throne of Israel yea and against his solemn Oath sworn unto him to bring him to him that he might be murthered 1 Sam. 20.31 This both griev'd and provok'd Jonathan ver 34. Or with that incestuous bloody Creature Herodias who commands Her Dancing Daughter to ask of Herod more than half His Kingdom viz. John Baptists head Mat. 14.8 3. When Parents meerly to gratifie their Humour Self-will Lusts Passions Fury chastise beat and almost kill their Children with unjust and immoderate lashes stripes punishments 1. Vnjust when the Parent hath no lawful cause or reason so to do What just Plea could that unnatural Saul make for casting his Javelin to smite his Innocent Son Jonathan 1 Sam. 20.33 After he had spit out the Poison of his Heart in his words he fills up the measure of his wickedness in this bloody deed suitable to his murtherous Heart 2. Immoderate when the sharpness of the punishment exceeds the greatness of the Crime Here the Lord the Righteous-Judge takes care by his Supream Authority that those that have authority over others should not according to their own Lusts Will and Pleasure rage and vent their fury and passion on criminals Deut. 25.2 3. Now if Justice oblige us to keep our mind free and compos'd in punishing the greatest Strangers and most hainous Malefactors that we may exactly proportion the penalty to their fault how much more should a Father whose Name breathes nothing but benignity and sweetness observe the same moderation when his business is to chastize the Child of his own Bowels And if not instead of reforming he doth but provoke his Child Thus much concerning Sinful Severity what it is and how far provoking in all which I neither have nor could bring one instance either Father or Mother in the whole Scripture that had the Character of a Godly Person that is charged with the crimson-guilt of a Sinfully severe Parent 3. What may godly Parents best do for the Conversion of those Children whose wickedness is occasion'd by their sinful Severity To this I answer 1. More generally Physician heal thy self To cleanse the polluted stream let 's begin at the puddl'd fountain 1. As much as may be cease your complaints to men of finding so much cause of grief and sorrow in your untoward Children instead of Joy and Comfort That they are pungent thorns instead of refreshing roses stabs instead of staffs Exclaim no more at least not morosely or in passion against thâ— pride Levity vanity frowardness obstinacy debauchery incorrigibleness of your wretched Children especially in the hearing of those Children 'T is too probable they will be apt to lay their own Bastards at their Fathers door and impute all their gross miscarriages to their rigid Fathers harshness contempt and want of Love Had not I been unhappy in so stiff a Father he might have been happy in a more complaisant Son Had my Father treated me with more Bowels 't is possible I should have readily answer'd his tenderness with a melting heart bended knee and sincere obedience 2. Instead of opening your mouths to men go immediately and in sincerity unbosom your whole Souls to God Cast your selves at his foot humbly acknowledge your great defects and failings in the management of that Authority that God the supream Father hath stampt upon you Humble your self deeply before the Lord for all your former Irregular and exorbitant Passions stabbing looks hard speeches morose behaviour partial demeanour dreadful Omens and forejudgeings of the sad fate of your at present disobedient Child Weep I say not not so much but not only for your Child but for your self Had the root been sound as it ought the branch had not been so rotten as it is Had the Father been more a Fig-tree the Son had not been so much a Thistle If the Vine hath the least taint of Sodom no wonder if the Wine hath an ugly tang of Gomorrha Weep I say and pray pray and weep and instead of a Bead drop a Tear at the close of every Petition for the full and free pardon of these thy Relational Sins in and through the Blood of that Son that never offended his and thy Father Begg and Begg earnestly for Grace Strength Wisdom which is first pure then peaceable that thou mayst be kept from the like misdemeanour for the future 3. Act towards your Children in all things as a Father Keep your Relation in your Eye 1. Love your Children as a Father A Man would think this advice were * 1 Thes 4.9 As touching Love ye need not that I write unto you for ye your selves are taught of God to Love Isa 49.15 needless It seems all one as if I should perswade the Sun to shine the Fire to burn nay a man to be a man This Law of Love to Children is written by the Finger drawn by the Pencil stampt and ingraven by the deepest impress of Nature on the Hearts and bowels of all Parents Indeed I have spent more than a few minutes in searching the Scriptures on this account and thô I find many express Texts that oblige us to Love God Christ our Neighbour the Brother-hood our Wives yea our Enemies yet I can light but on one that doth in express Terms command Parents to Love their Children viz. Tit. 2.4 where we find the young Women are to be taught to Love their Children For which the Best reason that I can give for the present is the same that he gave why the Romans among all their Laws had enacted none against the horrid Sin of Parricide viz. Because the Romans either could or would not suppose men to be such Monsters as to be guilty of so black a Crime The Scripture supposes that while we retain the Nature of men or own the Name of Fathers we cannot but love our Children Well then Love your Children but Love them as Fathers Fathers This very single Word contains an Iliad of Arguments Were I at leisure 't were easie to draw out all the Rhetoricans Topicks of Perswasion out of its Bowels Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Name is as an ointment poured forth it sends forth nothing but the perfume of Lâ—ve meekness tenderness Do but sincerely Love your Children as Fathers and then be sinfully severe if you can Love your Children not so much for their lovely countenance their pleasing Grace and sweetness which how charming soever is but a fading flower a skin-deep vanity but principally as those that are bone of your bone flesh of your flesh to whom you have communicated your blood and very nature And let not this Love be like a dead picture or Idol in your breast without Life or Action but a living active principle a spring that may vigorously and effectually influence all the powers of your Soul for the procuring of all that which is truly good to your poor Children Obj. But how can I possibly love such naughty
such provoking Children 1. Doth your Duty of loving your Children admit of that exception Love them i. e. If they are or while they are free from all fault did not the Lord that enjoyns this Duty know full well that no mortal man is without his Spots Imperfections Failings In vain is that Precept that is limited to a Condition which is impossible to fulfil Jam. 3.2 Tangat memoriam communis fragilitas 2. Look inward and then look upward Are not you naught have not you often and do not you daily hourly provoke your Heavenly Father and yet would you not desire that he should Love you Let your own Prayers and Tears be Witnesses in the Case Had a man laid his ear close to your Closet might he not have heard you Ephraim-like bemoaning your self thus Heavenly Father I am vile I have done Iniquity I have not only toucht upon the verge of Vice but entred the Circle nay my sins are aggravated by Perverseness in ill-doing and by resisting counsel I cannot dare not clear my self by a just defence nor being rightly depriv'd of thy love and favour seek for any other Mediators but thy Christ and free Grace for my relief And therefore give me leave to hope that a Fathers Bowels are as Potent Orators as a Sons Misery and that while my Transgressions Damm up the way to favour fatherly Compassion will not forget to be merciful he that bears the name of a Father cannot forget the tears of a Child Tell me severe Parents is not this a true Echo of some of your most pathetick Prayers But what answer have you expected and your Heavenly Father return'd 3. Possibly while you have been speaking God hath answer'd as he did Jer. 31.20 Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child No no he is naught he is a Prodigal True but yet he is a repenting a returning Prodigal though not a pleasant Son yet a Son a Child and therefore since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still Therefore my Bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord Read consider and often Pray over those pertinent Texts Deut. 32.36 Isa 63.15 16. Hos 11.7 8 9. Luk. 15.19 20. All this is true to a repenting Ephraim but my Child lies stinking in his filth 4. But I pray In what case and posture did your Heavenly Father find you when he first manifested his Love unto you Ezek. 16.6 8. I saw thee polluted in thine own blood and I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live ver 8. Behold this time was the time of thy Gods Love God the Father commended his Love towards you in that while you were yet Sinners Christ died for you Rom. 5.8 2. Govern your Children as a Father and so remember 1. That your Parental power is not absolute or despotical but regulated and circumscrib'd within due bounds and limits Parents may not think they may do what they list according to their own Will and Pleasure with their Children Stat pro ratione voluntas is the language of a Tyrant not of a Father And here 1. Beware of secret Pride of inordinate self-exalting of magnifying your Office and overvaluing your selves and of esteeming your selves to be greater than indeed you are and an Eager desire that your Children should so think of you and so treat you 2. Beware of thinking more of the dignity of your place than of your duty you owe to God and your Children in that Station wherein God hath fixt you 3. Beware of being excessively hard and difficult to be pleased and of being too rigid an Exactor of observance and respect from your Child and of slighting undervaluing vilifying of him when he hath done his utmost of discontent and murmuring if you have not all you desire in your Child 4. Beware that you respect not your Child more for the seeming regard he shews to you than for any real worth that is in him All these are dangerous Rocks to which your secret Pride exposes you enough to destroy Pilot and Vessel 3. Be Angry with your Child but be Angry and sin not Eph. 5.26 Be angry but then let it be the Anger of a displeased Father against an offending Child not the Anger of a Bloody enemy against an Irreconcilable Foe be angry as your Heavenly Father is said to be Angry Of this before 4. Exhort admonish reprove rebuke chastize offending Children but then still Remember whose deputy you are whom you represent even your heavenly Father Fury is not in him Judgment is his strange work But he delights in mercy When he is as it were forced to put forth his Anger he then makes use of a Fathers rod not an Executioners Ax Psal 89. from 30. to 35. 2 Sam. 7.14 He will neither break his Childrens bones nor his own Covenant He lashes in Love Heb. 12.6 Rev. 3.19 in measure in pity and compassion In all their Affliction he is afflicted Every stroke on his Childs back recoils on his own Bowels and if the member be gangren'd and there is an absolute necessity to cut it off to save the Life the Soul of his Child then like a Chyrurgeon who is the Father of the Patient He makes use of the Saw not forgetting that he is now cutting off his own flesh and would never do it but for the Child 's good Rom. 8.28 Go you and do likewise 5. In all you do take heed you do not provoke them on the one hand nor discourage them on the other 1. Not provoke them Of this somewhat before Let me adde when Children find themselves contrary to their hopes and it may be their deserts to be hardly and sharply dealt withall and that nothing which they attempt or perform finds acceptance with their morose and rigid Parents specially if of fiercer Spirits in the heat and bitterness of their inraged Souls they are apt to throw off all Reverence to break their bands asunder and to cast away their cords from them Like wild and untamed Colts to kick and winch and harden their necks foreheads hearts against all admonitions and threatnings against all words and blows Their Father hates them say they sink they must and sink they will but not alone if possible they 'l draw their cruel Fathers Heart and Peace into the same gulf with them Oh dreadful Take heed therefore do not provoke Nè animam despondeant 2. Not to discourage dishearten dispirit them Col. 3.21 Fathers provoke not your Children least they be discouraged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is nothing that doth more deject and sink the heart of a poor Child specially if ingenious and of a softer and more meek temper than the severe rigour and roughness of a Father It quite unsouls the poor Child when in the countenance and deportment of his Father to whom of all men in the World he should in reason be dearest he sees nothing but anger and
Wounds ver 4. And thô this place speak of the Flattery of a strange woman whose flattery in some cases may be more dangerous and deadly yet the Flatteries of others strange Sons is dangerous and destructive also Psal 55.21 The words of such are smoother than Butter Perniciem aliis ac postremò sibi inveniunt Tacit annal l. 1. but war is in their Heart softer than Oyl yet drawn Swords Wherewith others are first slain and which doth first or last enter their own bowels God doth in his own season send forth commission'd Officers to destroy an hypocritical Nation as Isa 10. ver 6. In a word wheresoever you find Flattery predominant and culminating it presages an approaching ruine whether in Kingdoms and States or in Church in Families or particular Persons Flattering and Fawning Counsellors ruine Princes and Principalities Flattering Clergy ruine the Church Flattering Captains their General Lawyers their Clients Physicians their Patients and flattering Companions destroy those that keep them Company For fuller declaration of this Affection to undue praise destroys I will tell what is ruin'd by that flattery which becomes predominant by our love to it under the Notion of Praise and friendship due to our vertues Uncured Love of such praise and smoothing us is pernicious 1. To Good moral Principles and vertuous Habits 1. Vertuous principles implanted by the care and wisdom of such as had the Educating of us so we may observe Men and Women too often degenerate and wear out the Impressions of vertuous Habits and imbibe the quite contrary Vices Of Modest become Impudent of Chaste become Unclean Adulterers and Adulteresses c. How many in our Age have by the help of Flatterers conquer'd their vertuous Education and triumph'd over it in a debauched Bravery which is to glory in their shame 2. To All the remainders of any tolerable innate 2. Natural Inclinations to Good and congenite capacity of receiving Good advice Examples and helps for their recovery The very Stock is corrupted that no Graffe of Vertue can be planted on them They become reprobate to every good work There is in many from the Birth a promising Receptivity we look on them as more susceptible of Vertue than others Now love to vitious Flatterers and hearkening to them very frequently overthrows these very foundations on which we might build that the person remains for ever a Cage of unclean Birds and leaves such hopeless 3. To their Wealth and Estates 3. Estates So many an imprudent and unexperienced Heir is gull'd out of his Estate and Inheritance The Flatterer by his wiles derives the Substance and Labours of the deceas'd Father from the Children to himself and his Solomon notes this Prov. 5.10 as the consequencé of love to be flatter'd Strangers are filled with the wealth of such 4. Reputation 4. To their Honour and Reputation A vitious Seducer hearkned to and his Flatteries yielded to will blast all the Credit of those that are seduced how great soever their Reputation might have been before their turning aside Solomon proposeth this as argument to disswade us from hearkning to Flatteries Prov. 5. vers 9. 5. Safety and Life 5. To the Safety Peace and Life of the imprudent lover of Flattery When nothing else remains nor surviveth the wasting and consumptive mouth of a Flatterer but the disgraced impoverisht and miserable Life of the deceived this is made a prey too and the unthankfull unsatiate and unmerciful Seducer hunts for the precious Life also 6. Soul and its Happiness 6. To the Soul and its happiness The Flatterer is too powerfull and too successeful an Instrument in promoting sin and ruining of Souls he drawes into Sin into remisness and neglect of Good Such seduced ones call evil Good and then do it think great evil little and repent not of it are perswaded their Good is great enough already and are surpriz'd in a sinful and Impenitent state Thus pernicious is Flattery loved A dangerous disease you see yet curable if proper means be apply'd And what those means are which may best effect this Cure 4th General is the last but chiefest of our Enquiry these in the Fourth place we must speak of And here I propose that 1. Ill name of Flattery 1. You would impartially consider the bad name that Flattery hath ever had and still hath and ever will have among all sorts of men How all condemn it as unworthy of the least degree of their love as worthy of their utmost hatred and abhorrence * Mellitum venenum Circes pocula It is sugred Poyson a bewitching Cup the greatest Plague in Societies and the most barbarous Torturers †Nulla in amicitiis pestis est major quam assentatio c. for they pick out the Eyes and flay off the flesh of the Living worse than hungry Crows as Antisthenes observed Like corroding Worms which eat out the substance verdure and life of the root they were bred in That very man who too soon was perverted by Flattery to think himself greater than to be Philip's Son Dignior eras qui eodem pracipitareris yet in soberer temper judged a Flatterer worthy to be thrown into that River in which his flattering History was cast and drowned Thô Aeneas Sylvius de dict Sigism as Sigismund the Emperour observed we affect pleasant flattering Companions yet he professed he hated them like as he hated the Plague Would you look on the Flatterer as Condemned and most worthy to be cut off from humane Society you would neither over-love him or his Flatteries It is but rarely that a foolish Virgin falls in Love begs the Life and chooseth the most intimate converse of a Condemned Felon Let us look on this condemned Vice as most do on the handsomest condemned Felon and Murtherer A fair and goodly outside but not worthy to live 2. Look how ill an uncured love of Praise becomes another 2. Ill becomes other men see how great a blemish and stain it is to them how it lessens all other commendable Qualities It is to dote on our own Shadow and perish in the Love of it as the Mythologists report of Narcissus Such one is the most unfit of all men for humane Society whether in a Converse of Friendship Service or Command A most untractable and useless piece not fit to rule others who wants a Prudence to rule himself nor fit to receive Commands while he admires himself and dotes on his own contrivance not fit to be a Friend since all his Love runs waste on himself The Emblem of such Persons is ingeniously drawn from the Ape the ugliest as the Lord Bacon observes of Creatures the most mischievous in his Pranks useless and saucy And are such worthy to be loved How comely a sight do you think an ill shap't Ape grinning on his own Features in a flattering Glass would be Such is the man that loves to see himself
the praise of God Add hereunto the Celebration of Divine Worship in it with its Rule and Order according to the Câ—mmandments of Christ and we have the Substance of this Glory And this Glory Believers do discern so as to be satisfied with its Excellency They know that all the Glories of the World are no way to be compared to it for it consists in and arises from such things as they do value and prefer infinitely above all that this world can afford They are a reflexion of the Glory of God or of Christ himself upon the Church yea a Communication of it thereunto This they value in the whole and in every Member of it neither the Nature Use nor End of the Church will admit that its Glory should consist in things of any other Nature But the Generality of mankind had lost that Spiritual Light wherein alone this Glory might be discerned They could see no Form or Beauty in the Spouse of Christ as only adorned with his Graces To talk of a glorious State of men whilst they are poor and destitute it may be cloathed with rags and haled unto Prisons or Stakes as hath been the Lot of the Church in most Ages was in their Judgment a thing absurd and foolish Wherefore seeing it is certain that the Church of Christ is very Glorious and illustrious in the sight of God holy Angels and Good men a way must be found out to make it so and so to appear in the World Wherefore they agreed on a lying Image of this Glory namely the Dignity Promotion Wealth Dominion Power and Splendor of them that had got the Rule of the Church And although it be evident unto all that these things belong unto the Glories of this World which the Glory of the Church is not only distinguished from but opposed unto yet it must be looked on as that wherein it is glorious and it is so though it have not one saving Grace in it as they expresly affirm When these things are attained then are all the Predictions of its Glory accomplished and the Description of it answered This corrupt Image of the true Spiritual Glory of the Church arising from an Ignorance of it and want of a real experience of the worth and excellency of things internal Spiritual and Heavenly hath been attended with pernicious consequents in the World Many have been infatuated by it and inamoured of it unto their own perdition For as a Teacher of Lies it is suited only to divert the minds of men from a comprehension and valuation of that real Glory wherein if they have not an Interest they must perish for ever Look into Forreign parts as Italy and France where these men pretend their Church is in its greatest Glory what is it but the wealth and pomp and power of men for the most part openly ambitious sensual and worldly Is this the Glory of the Church of Christ do these things belong unto his Kingdom But by the setting up of this Image by the Advancement of this notion all the true Glory of the Church hath been lost and despised Yet these things being suited unto the Designs of the carnal minds of men and satisfactory unto all their lusts having got this paint and gilding on them that they render the Church of Christ Glorious have been the means of filling this World with Darkness Blood and Confusion For this is that Glory of the Church which is contended for with Rage and Violence And not a few do yet dote on these Images who are not sharers in the advantage it brings unto its principal worshippers whose infatuation is to be bewailed The means of our preservation from the Adoration of these Images also is obvious from the principles we proceed upon It will not be done without Light to discern the Glory of things Spiritual and invisible wherein alone the Church is glorious And in the Light of Faith they appear to be what indeed they are in themselves of the same nature with the Glory that is above The present Glory of the Church I say is its imitation unto the Glory of heaven and in general of the same nature with it Here it is in its dawnings and entrances there is its fulness and perfection To look for any thing that should be cognate or of near Alliance unto the Glory of Heaven or any near resemblance of it in the outward Glories of this World is a fond Imagination And when the mind is enabled to discern the true beauty and glory of spiritual things with their Alliance unto that which is above it will be secured from seeking after the Glory of the Church in things of this World or putting any value on them unto that end That Self-Denyal also which is indispensably prescribed in the Gospel unto all the Disciples of Christ is requisite hereunto For the power and practise of it is utterly inconsistent with an Apprehension that secular Power Riches and Domination do contribute any thing unto the Churches Glory The mind being hereby crucifyed unto a value and estimation of these things it can never apprehend them as any part of that Raiment of the Church wherein it is glorious But where the minds of men through their native Darkness are disenabled to discern the glory of Spiritual things and through their carnal unmortified affection do cleave unto and have the highest esteem of worldly Grandeur it is no wonder if they suppose the beauty and glory of the Church to consist in them SECT VI. I shall add one Instance more with reference unto the State of the Church and that is in its Rule and Discipline Here also hath been as fatal a miscarriage as ever fell out in Christian Religion For the Truth herein being lost as unto any sense and experience of its Efficacy or Power a bloody Image destructive to the Lives and Souls of men was set up in the stead thereof And this also shall be briefly declared There are certain principles of Truth with respect hereunto that are acknowledged by all as 1. That the Lord Christ hath appointed a Rule and Discipline in his Church for its good and preservation no Society can subsist without the power and exercise of some Rule in it self For Rule is nothing but the preservation of Order without which there is nothing but confusion The Church is the most perfect Society in the Earth as being united and compacted by the best and highest bonds which our nature is capable of Eph. 4.16 Col. 2.19 It must therefore have a Rule and Discipline in it self which from the wisdom and authority of him by whom it was instituted must be supposed to be the most perfect 2. That this Discipline is powerful and effectual unto all its proper ends It must be so esteemed from the wisdom of him by whom it is appointed and it is so accordingly To suppose that the Lord Christ should ordain a Rule and Discipline in his Church that in it self and by
conscientious respect unto it Force and Fear rule all This is that Discipline in whose execution the blood of an innumerable company of Holy Martyrs hath been shed that wherein all the vital Spirits of the Papacy do act themselves and whereby it doth subsist and although it be the Image of Jealousie or the Image of the first Beast set up by the Dragon yet it cannot be denyed but that it is very wisely accommodated unto the present State of the Generality of them that are called Christians amongst them For being both blind and carnal and having thereby lost all Sense and Experience of the Spiritual Power of the Rule of Christ in their Consciences they are become an Herd not fit to be governed or ruled any other way Under the Bondage of it therefore they must abide till the vail of Blindness be taken away and they are turned unto God by his Word and Spirit for where the Spirit of the Lord is there and there alone is Liberty SECT VII Unto the foregoing particular Instances with respect unto the Church I shall yet add one more general which is indeed comprehensive of them all or the root from whence they spring a root-bearing Gall and Wormwood And this is concerning the Catholick Church What belongs unto this Catholick Church what is comprized in its Communion The Apostle declares Heb. 12.22 23 24. It is the Recapitulation of all things in Heaven and Earth in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.10 His Body his Spouse or Bride the Lambs Wife the glorious Temple wherein God doth dwell by his Spirit An holy mystical Society purchased and purified by the blood of Christ and united unto him by his spirit or the Inhabitation of the same spirit in him and those whereof it doth consist Hence they with him as the body with its head are mystically called Christ 1 Cor 12.12 And there are two parts of it the one whereof is already perfected in Heaven as unto their spirits and the other yet continued in the way of faith and obedience in this world Both these constitute one family in Heaven and Earth Ephes 3.15 In Conjunction with the holy Angels one Mystical-Body one Catholick Church And although there is a great difference in their present state and condition between these two branches of the same Family yet are they both equally purchased by Christ and united unto him as their Head having both of them effectually the same principle of the life of God in them Of a third part of this Church neither in Heaven nor in Earth in a temporary State participant somewhat of Heaven and somewhat of Hell called Purgatory the Scripture knoweth nothing at all neither is it consistent with the Analogy of Faith or the promises of God unto them that do believe as we shall see immediately This Church even as unto that part of it which is in this world as it is adorned with all the graces of the Holy Spirit is the most beautiful and glorious effect next unto the forming and production of its Head in the Incarnation of the Son of God which Divine Wisdom Power and Grace will extend themselves unto here below But these things the glory of this State is visible only unto the eye of Faith yea it is perfectly seen and known only to Christ himself We see it obscurely in the light of Faith and Revelation and are sensible of it according unto our participating of the graces and privileges wherein it doth consist But that spiritual light which is necessary to the discerning of this Glory was lost among those of whom we treat They could see no reality nor beauty in these things nor any thing that should be of advantage unto them For upon their principle of the utter uncertainty of mens spiritual estate and condition in this world it is evident that they could have no satisfactory perswasion of any concernment in it But they had possessed themselves of the notion of a Catholick Church which with mysterious Artifices they have turned unto their own incredible secular Advantage This is that whereof they boast appropriating it unto themselves and making it a pretence of destroying others what lies in them both temporally and eternally Unto this end they have formed the most deformed and detestable Image of it that ever the world beheld For the Catholick Church which they own and which they boast that they are instead of that of Christ is a company or society of men unto whom in order unto the constitution of that whole society there is no one real Christian grace required nor spiritual Vnion unto Christ the Head but only an outside profession of these things as they expresly contend A Society united unto the Pope of Rome as its head by a subjection unto him and his rule according to the Laws and Canons whereby he will grant them This is the formal reason and cause constituting that Catholick Church which they are which is compacted in it self by horrid Bonds and Ligaments for the ends of Ambition worldly Domination and Avarice A Catholick Church openly wicked in the generality of its rulers and them that are ruled and in its State cruel oppressive and died with the blood of Saints and Martyrs innumerable This I say is that Image of the Holy Catholick Church the spouse of Christ which they have set up And it hath been as the Image of Moloch that hath devoured and consumed the Children of the Church whose cryes when their cruel step-mother pittied them not and when their pretended Ghostly Fathers cast them into the flames came up unto the ears of the Lord of Hosts and their blood still cries for vengeance on this idolatrous generation Yet is this pretence of the Catholick Church pressed in the minds of many with so many Sophistical Artifices through the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive proposed with the allurements of so many secular advantages and imposed oftimes on Christians with so much force and cruelty that nothing can secure us from the Admission of it unto the utter overthrow of Religion but the means before insisted on A spiritual light is necessary hereunto to discern the internal spiritual beauty and glory of the true Catholick Church of Christ Where this is in its power all the paintings and dresses of their deformed Image will fall off from it and its abominable filth will be made to appear And this will be accompanied with an effectual experience of the glory and excellency of that grace in the souls of those that believe derived from Christ the sole head of this Church whereby they are changed from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord. The Power Life and sweetness hereof will give satisfaction unto their souls to the contempt of the pretended order of dependance on the Pope as an head By these means the true Catholick Church which is the body of Christ the fulness of him that filleth all in all growing
pacifie the Consciences of sinners any more than the Blood of Bulls and Goats could do it under the Law yea any more than the Lustrations and Expiations of Sin amongst the Heathen could effect it Wherefore they have at length formed a more stated and specious Image of it to serve all the turns of convinced Sinners and this is a Purgatory after this Life that is a subterraneous place and various means where and whereby the Souls of men are purged from all their Sins and made meet for Heaven when the Lord Christ thinks meet to send for them or the Pope judges it fit to send them to him Hereunto let them pretend what they please the People under their conduct do trust a thousand times more for the purging of their Sins than unto the Blood of Christ But it is only a cursed Image of the vertue of it set up to draw off the minds of poor sinners from seeking an interest in a participation of the efficacy of that blood for that end which is to be obtained by faith alone Rom. 3.25 Only they have placed this Image behind the curtain of mortality that the cheat of it might not be discovered none who find themselves deceived by it can come back to complain or warn others to take care of themselves and it was in an especial manner suited unto their delusion who lived in pleasures or in the pursuit of unjust gain without exercise of afflictions in this world From these two sorts of persons by this Engine they raised a revenue unto themselves beyond that of Kings or Princes for all the endowments of their Religious houses and Societies were but commutations for the abatement of the fire of this Purgatory But whereas in its self it was a rotten Post that could not stand or subsist they were forced to prop it with many other imaginations for unto this end to secure work for this Purgatory they joyned the distinction of Sin into mortal and venial not as unto their end with respect unto Faith and Repentance not as unto the Degrees of sin with respect unto the aggravations but as unto the nature of them some of them being such namely those that are Venial as were capable of a purging expiation after this life though men die without any repentance of them And when this was done they have cast almost all the sins that can be named under this order And hereon this Image is become an Engine to disappoint the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and to precipitate secure sinners into eternal Ruin And to strengthen this deceiving security they have added another invention of a certain storehouse of Ecclesiastical merits the keys whereof are committed to the Pope to make application of them as he sees good unto the ease and relief of them that are in this Purgatory For whereas many of their Church and Communion have as they say done more good works then were needful for their salvation which they have received upon a due ballance of Commutative Justice the Surplusage is committed to the Pope to commute with it for the punishment of their sins who are sent into purgatory to suffer for them then which they could have found out no engine more powerful to evacuate the efficacy of the blood of Christ both as offered and as sprinkled and therewith the Doctrine of the Gospel concerning faith and repentance Moreover to give it farther countenance as one-lie must be thatched with another or it will quickly rain through they have fancied a separation to be made between guilt and punishment so as that when the guilt is fully remitted and pardoned yet there may punishment remain on the account of sin For this is the case of them in Purgatory their sins are pardoned so as that the Guilt of them shall not bind them over to eternal damnation though the wages of sin is death yet they must be variously punished for the sins that are forgiven But as this is contradictory in it self it being utterly impossible there should be any punishment properly so called but where there is guilt as the cause of it so it is highly injurious both to the Grace of God and blood of Christ in procuring and giving out such a lame pardon of sins as should leave room for punishment next to that which is eternal These are some of the rotten Props which they have fixed on the minds of persons credulous and superstitious terrified with guilt and darkness to support this tottering deformed Image set up in the room of the efficacy of the blood of Christ to purge the souls and consciences of Believers from sin But that whereby it is principally established and set up is the darkness ignorance guilt fear terrour of conscience accompanied with a love of sin that the most among them are subject and obnoxious unto being disquieted perplexed and tormented with these things and utterly ignorant of the true and only way of their removal and deliverance from them they greedily embrace this sorry provision for their present ease and relief being accommodated unto the utmost that humane or Diabolical craft can extend unto to abate their fear ease their torments and to give security unto their superstitious minds And hereby it is become to be the life and soul of their Religion diffusing it self into all the parts and concerns of it more trusted unto then either God or Christ or the Gospel Spiritual light and experience with the consequents of them in peace with God will safeguard the minds of Believers from bowing down to this horrid image though the acknowledgments of its divinity should be imposed on them with craft and force otherwise it will not be done for without this there will a strong inclination and disposition arising from a mixture of superstitious fear and love of sin possess the minds of men to close with this pretended relief and satisfaction The foundation of our preservation herein lies in Spiritual light or an ability of mind from supernatural illumination to discern the Beauty Glory and efficacy of the purging of our sins by the blood of Christ when the glory of the wisdom and grace of God of the love and grace of Christ of the power of the Holy Ghost herein is made manifest unto us we shall despise all the paintings of this invention Dagon will fall before the Ark and all these things do gloriously shine forth and manifest themselves unto believers in this misterious way of purging all our sins by the blood of Christ Herein will ensue an experience of the efficacy of this heavenly truth in our own souls There is no man whose heart and ways are cleansed by the blood of Christ through the effectual application of it by the Holy Spirit in the ordinance of the Gospel but he hath or may have a refreshing experience of it in his own soul and by the power which is communicated therewith he is stirred up unto all that exercise of Faith and all those duties
of obedience whereby the work of purifying and cleansing the whole person may be carryed on toward perfection see 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Thes 5 2â— 1 John 3.3 And he who is constantly engaged in that work with success will see the folly and vanity of any other pretended way for the purging of sins here or hereafter The consequent of these things is peace with God for they are assured pledges of our justification and acceptance with him and being justified by Faith we have Peace with God and where this is attained by the Gospel the whole Fabrick of Purgatory falls to the Ground for it is built on these Foundations that no assurance of the love of God or of a justified state can be obtained in this life For if it may be so there can be no use of Purgatory This then will assuredly keep the souls of believers in a contempt of that which is nothing but a false relief for sinners under disquietment of mind for want of peace with God SECT XI Some other instances of the same abomination I shall yet mention but with more brevity and sundry others must at present be passed over without a discovery It is granted among all Christians that all our helps our relief our deliverance from sin Satan and the world are from Christ alone This is included in all his Relations unto the Church in all his offices and the discharge of them and is the express Doctrine of the Gospel It is no less generally acknowledged at least the Scripture is no less clear and positive in it that we receive and derive all our supplies of Relief from Christ by Faith other wayes of the participation of any thing from him the Scripture knoweth not Wherefore it is our duty on all occasions to apply our selves unto him by Faith for all supplies Reliefs and deliverances But these men can find no life nor power herein at least if they grant that somewhat might be done this way yet they know not how to do it being ignorant of the life of Faith and the due exercise of it They must have a way more ready and easy exposed to the capacities and abilities of all sorts of Persons good and bad yea that will serve the turn of the worst of men unto this end An Image therefore must be set up for common use instead of this spiritual application unto Christ for relief and this is the making of the sign of the Cross Let a man but make the sign of the Cross on his forehead his breast or the like which he may as easily do as take up or cast away a straw and there is no more required to engage Christ unto his assistance at any time And the vertues which they ascribe hereunto are innumerable but this also is an Idol a teacher of Lies invented and set up for no other end but to satisfie the carnal minds of men with a presumptuous supposition in the neglect of the spiritually laborious exercise of Faith an Experience of the work of Faith in the derivation of all supplies of spiritual Life Grace and Strength with deliverance and supplies from Jesus Christ will secure Believers from giving heed unto this triffling deceit SECT XII One thing more amongst many others of the same Sort may be mentioned it is a notion of Truth which derives from the Light of Nature That those who approach unto God in divine Worship should be careful that they be pure and clean without any Offensive defilements This the Heathen themselves give Testimony unto and God confirmed it in the Institutions of the Law But what are these defilements and pollutions which make us unmeet to approach unto the presence of God how and by what means we may be purified and cleansed from them the Gospel alone declares And it doth in opposition unto all other ways and means of it plainly reveal that it is by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ upon our Consciences so to purge them from dead Works that we may serve the Living God see Heb. 9.14 chap. 10.19 20 21. But this is a thing mysterious nothing but spiritual Light and saving Faith can direct us herein Men destitute of them could never attain an Experience of purification in the way Wherefore they retained the notion of Truth it self but made an Image of it for their use with a neglect of the thing it self And this was the most ludicrous that could be imagined namely the sprinkling of themselves and others with that they call Holy Water when they go into the places of sacred Worship which yet also they borrowed from the Pagans So stupid and sottish are the minds of men so dark and ignorant of heavenly things that they have suffered their Souls to be deceived and ruined by such vain superstitious Trifles This Discourse hath already proceeded unto a greater length than was at first intended and would be so much more should we look into all parts of this Chamber of Imagery and expose to view all the abominations in it I shall therefore put a close unto it in one or two instances wherein the Church of Rome doth boast it self as retaining the Truth and Power of the Gospel in a peculiar manner whereas in very deed they have destroyed them and set up corrupt Images of their own in their stead SECT XIII The first of these is the Doctrine and Grace of Mortification That this is not only an important Evangelical Duty but also of indispensable necessity unto Salvation all who have any thing of Christian Religion in themselves must acknowledg It is also clearly determined in the Scripture both what is the nature of it with its causes and in what acts and duties it doth consist For it is frequently declared to be the crucifying of the Body of Sin with all the Lusts thereof For Mortification must be the bringing of something to death and this is sin and the dying of sin consists in the casting out of all vitious habits and inclinations arising from the Original depravation of nature it is the weakning and graduate extirpation or destruction of them in their roots principles and operations Whereby the Soul is set at liberty to act universally from the contrary principle of Spiritual Life and Grace The means on the part of Christ whereby this is wrought and effected in believers is the communication of his Spirit unto them to make an effectual application of the vertue of his death unto the death of sin for it is by his Spirit that we mortifie the deeds of the flesh and the flesh it self and that as we are implanted by him into the likeness of the death of Christ By vertue thereof we are crucifyed and made dead unto sin in the Declaration of which things the Scripture doth abound The means of it on the part of Believers is the exercise of Faith in Christ as crucifyed whereby they derive vertue from him for the crucifying of the Body of death And this
of Jesus Christ THE CVRE of MELANCHOLY AND OVERMUCH-SORROW BY FAITH and PHYSICK Quest What are the best Preservatives against Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow SERMON XI 2 COR. II. VII Lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow THe Brevity of a Sermon not allowing me Time for any unnecessary Work I shall not stay to open the Context nor to enquire whether the Person here spoken of be the same that is condemned for Incest in 1 Cor 5. or some other nor whether Chrysostom had good Tradition for it that it was a Doctor of the Church or made such after his Sin nor whether the late Expositor be in the right who thence gathers that he was one of the Bishops of Achaia and that it was a Synod of Bishops that were to excommunicate him Dr. Hammond who yet held that every Congregation then had a Bishop and that he was to be excommunicated in the Congregation and that the People should not have followed or favoured such a Teacher It would have been no Schism or sinful Separation to have forsaken him All that I now intend is to open this last Clause of the Verse which gives the Reason why the censured Sinner being penitent should be forgiven and comforted viz. Lest he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow as it includeth these three Doctrines which I shall handle all together viz 1. That Sorrow even for Sin may be overmuch 2. That overmuch Sorrow swalloweth one up 3. Therefore it must be resisted and asswaged by necessary Comfort both by others and by our selves In handling these I shall observe this Order 1. I shall shew you when Sorrow is overmuch 2. How overmuch Sorrow doth swallow a man up 3. What are the Causes of it 4. What is the Cure I. It is too notorious that overmuch Sorrow for Sin is not the ordinary Case of the World A stupid blockish Disposition is the common Cause of mens perdition The Plague of a hard Heart and seared Conscience keeps most from all due sense of Sin or Danger or Misery and of all the great and everlasting Concerns of their guilty Souls A dead sleep in sin doth deprive most of the use of Sense and Understanding they do some of the outward Acts of Religion as in a Dream they are vowed to God in Baptism by others and they profess to stand to it themselves they go to Church and say over the Words of the Creed and Lords Prayer and Commandments they receive the Lords Supper and all as in a Dream They take on them to believe that Sin is the most hateful thing to God and hurtful to man and yet they live in it with delight and obstinacy they dream that they repent of it when no perswasion will draw them to forsake it and while they hate them that would cure them and will not be as bad and mad as they who feel in them any effectual sorrow for what is past or effectual sense of their present badness or effectual resolution for a new and holy Life They dream that there is a Judgment a Heaven and a Hell but would they not be more affected with things of such unspeakable Consequence if they were awake would they be wholly taken up with the Matters of the Flesh and World and scarce have a serious thought or word of Eternity if they were awake O how sleepily and senselesly do they think and talk and hear of the great Work of mans Redemption by Christ and of the need of Justifying and Sanctifying Grace and of the Joys and Miseries of the next Life and yet they say that they believe them When we preach or talk to them of the greatest things with the greatest evidence and plainness and earnestness that we can we speak as to the dead or to men asleep they have Ears and hear not nothing goeth to their hearts One would think that a man that reads â—n Scripture and believes the everlasting Glory offered and the dreadful punishment threatned and the necessity of Holiness to Salvation and of a Saviour to deliver us from Sin and Hell and how sure and near such a passage into the unseen world is to us all should have much ado to moderate and bear the sense of such overwhelming things But most men so little regard or feel them that they have neither time nor heart to think of them as their Concern but hear of them as of some foreign Land where they have no interest and which they never think to see Yea one would think by their senseless neglect of preparation and their worldly minds and lives that they were asleep or in jest when they confess that they must die and that when they lay their Friends in the Grave and see the Skulls and Bones cast up they were but all this while in a Dream or did not believe that their Turn is near Could we tell how to waken Sinners they would come to themselves and have other thoughts of these great things and shew it quickly by another kind of Life Awakened Reason could never be so befooled and besotted as we see the wicked world to be But God hath an awakening day for all and he will make the most senseless soul to feel by Grace or Punishment And because a hardned Heart is so great a part of the Malady and Misery of the unregenerate and a soft and tender Heart is much of the New Nature promised by Christ many awakened Souls under the work of Conversion think they can never have Sorrow enough and that their danger lies in hard-heartedness and they never fear overmuch sorrow till it hath swallowed them up yea though there be too much of other Causes in it yet if any of it be for sin they then cherish it as a necessary Duty or at least perceive not the danger of Excess and some think those to be the best Christians who are most in doubts and fears and sorrows and speak almost nothing but uncomfortable Complaints but this is a great mistake 1. Sorrow is overmuch when it is fed by a mistaken Cause All is too much where none is due and great sorrow is too much when the Cause requireth but less If a man thinketh that somewhat is a Duty which is no Duty and then sorrow for omitting it such sorrow is all too much because it is undue and caused by errour Many I have known that have been greatly troubled because they could not bring themselves to that length or order of meditation for which they had neither Ability nor Time And many because they could not reprove sin in others when prudent instruction and intimation was more suitable than reproof And many are troubled because in their Shops and Callings they think of any thing but God as if our outward Business must have no thoughts Superstition always breeds such sorrows when men make themselves Religious Duties which God never made them and then come short in the performance of
them Many dark Souls are assaulted by the erroneous and told that they are in a wrong way and they must take up some Errour as a necessary Truth and so are cast into perplexing difficulties and perhaps repent of the Truth which they before owned Many fearful Christians are troubled about every Meal that they eat about their Cloaths their Thoughts and Words thinking or fearing that all is sinful which is lawful and that unavoidable infirmities are heinous sins All such as these are Troubles and Sorrows without Cause and therefore overmuch 2. Sorrow is overmuch when it hurteth and overwhelmeth Nature it self and destroyeth bodily Health or Understanding Grace is the due qualification of Nature and Duty is the right employment of it but neither of them must destroy it As Civil and Ecclesiastick and Domestick Government are for edification and not for destruction so also is personal self-government God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and he that would not have us kill or hurt our Neighbour on pretence of Religion would not have us destroy or hurt our selves being bound to love our Neighbour but as our selves As Fasting is a Duty no further than it tendeth to some good as to express or exercise true humiliation or to mortifie some fleshly Lust c. so is it with sorrow for sin it is too much when it doth more hurt than good But of this next II. When Sorrow swalloweth up the Sinner it is overmuch and to be restrained As 1. The Passions of Grief and Trouble of mind do oft overthrow the sober and sound use of Reason so that a mans Judgment is corrupted and perverted by it and is not in that case to be trusted As a man in raging Anger so one in fear or great trouble of mind thinks not of things as they are but as his Passion represents them about God and Religion and about his own Soul and his Actions or about his Friends or Enemies his Judgment is perverted and usually false and like an enflamed Eye thinks all things of the colour which is like it self When it perverteth Reason it is overmuch 2. Overmuch Sorrow disableth a man to govern his Thoughts and ungoverned Thoughts must needs be both sinful and very troublesom Grief carrieth them away as in a Torrent you may almost as easily keep the Leavs of Trees in quietness and order in a blustring Wind as the Thoughts of one in troubling Passions If Reason would stop them from perplexing Subjects or turn them to better and sweeter things it cannot do it it hath no power against the stream of troubling Passions 3. Overmuch Sorrow would swallow up Faith it self and greatly hindereth its Exercise They are Matters of unspeakable Joy which the Gospel calleth us to believe and it is wonderful hard for a grieved troubled Soul to believe any thing that is matter of Joy much less of so great Joy as Pardon and Salvation are Though it dare not flatly give God the Lie it hardly believes his free and full Promises and the expressions of his readiness to receive all penitent returning Sinners Passionate Grief serveth to feel somewhat contrary to the Grace and Promises of the Gospel and that feeling hinders Faith 4. Over much Sorrow yet more hindreth Hope when men think that they do believe Gods Word and that his Promises are all true to others yet cannot they Hope for the promised Blessings to themselves Hope is that Grace by which a Soul that believeth the Gospel to be true doth comfortably expect that the benefits promised shall be its own it s an applying Act. The first act of Faith saith the Gospel is true which promiseth Grace and Glory through Christ The next act of Faith saith I will trust my Soul and all upon it and take Christ for my Saviour and Help And then Hope saith I hope for this Salvation by him But Melancholly overwhelming Sorrow and Trouble is as great an Adversary to this Hope as water is to fire or snow to heat Despair is its very pulse and breath Fain such would have hope but they cannot All their thoughts are suspitious and misgiving and they can see nothing but danger and misery and a helpless state And when Hope which is the Anchor of the Soul is gone what wonder if they be continually tost with storms 5. Over much sorrow swalloweth up all comfortable Sense of the Infinite Goodness and Love of God and thereby hindereth the Soul from Loving Him And in this it is an Adversary to the very Life of Holiness It is exceeding hard for such a troubled Soul to apprehend the Goodness of God at all but much harder to judg that he is good and amiable to him But as a man that in the Desarts of Lybia is scorched with the violent heats of the Sun and is ready to dyâ— with draught and faintness may confess that the Sun is the Life of the Earth and a Blessing to mankind but it is misery and death to him even so these Souls overwhelmed with Grief may say that God is good to others but he seems an Enemy to them and to seek their destruction They think he hateth them and hath forsaken them and how can they love such a God who they think doth hate them and resolve to damn them and hath decreed them to it from Eternity and brought them into the world for no other end They that can hardly love an Enemy that doth but defame them or oppress and wrong them will more hardly love a God that they believe will damn them and hath remedilesly appointed them thereto 6. And then it must needs follow that this distemper is a false and injurious Judg of all the Word and Works of God and of all his mercies and corrections Whatever such a one reads or hears he thinks it all makes against him every sad Word and Threatning in Scripture he thinks meaneth him as if it named him But the Promises and Comforts he hath no part in as if he had been by name excepted All Gods mercies are extenuated and taken for no mercies as if God intended them all but to make his sin the greater and to encrease his heavy reckoning and further his damnation He thinks God doth but sugar over poison to him and give him all in Hatred and not in any Love with a design to sink him the deeper in Hell And if God correct him he supposeth that it is but the beginning of his misery and God doth torment him before the time 7. And by this you see that it is an Enemy to Thankfulness it rather reproacheth God for his Mercies as if they were Injuries than giveth him any hearty thanks 8. And by this you may see that this distemper is quite contrary to the Joy in the Holy Ghost yea and the Peace in which Gods Kingdom much consisteth Nothing seemeth Joyful unto such distressed Souls Delighting in God and in his Word and Ways is the flowâ—r and life of true Religion But
either it takes of none of their trouble or else it returneth the next day for the cause remaineth in their bodily Disease quiet them an hundred times and their sears and hundred times return 3. Their misery is that what they think they cannot choose but think You may almost as well perswade a man not to shake in an Ague or not to feel when he is pained as perswade them to cast away their self-troubling thoughts or not to think all the enormous confounding thoughts as they do they cannot get them out of their heads night or day tell them that they must forbear long musing which disturb them and they cannot tell them that they must cast out false imaginations out of their minds when Satan casts them in and must turn their thoughts to something else and they cannot do it Their thoughts and troubles and fears are gone out of their power and the more by how much the more melancholly and crased they are 4. And when they are grown to this usually they seem to feel something besides themselves as it were speaking in them and saying this and that to them and bidding them do this or that and they will tell you now it sâ—ith this or that and tell you when and what it hath said to them and they will hardly believe how much of it is the disease of their own imagination 5 In this case they are exceeding proue to think they have Revelations and whatever comes into their minds they think some Revelation brought it thither They use to say This Text of Scripture at such a time was set upon my mind and that Text at another time was set on my mind when oft the sence that they took them in was false or a false application of it made to themselves and perhaps several Texts applyed to contrary conclusions as if one gave them hope and another contradicted it And some of them hereupon are very prone to Prophesies and verily believe that God hath foretold them this or that till they see that it cometh not to pass and then they are ashamed And many of them turn Hereticks and take up errours in Religion believing verily that God believed them and set such things upon their minds And some of them that were long troubled get quietness and joy by such changes of their opinions thinking that now they are in Gods way which they were out of all this while and therefore it was that they had no comfort Of these I have known divers persons comforted that have fallen into the clean contrary opinions some have turned Papists and superstitious and some have run too far from Papists and some have had comfort by turning Anabaptists some Antinomians some contrarily called Arminians some Perfectionists some Quakers and some have turned from Christianity it self to Infidelity and denied the life to come and have lived in licentious uncleanness But these melancholly Hereticks and Apostates usually by this cast of their sadness and are not the sort that I have now to deal with 6 But the sadder better sort feeling this talk and stir within them are oft apt to be confident that they are possessed by the devil or at least bewitcht of which I will say more anon 7 And most of them are violently haunted with blasphemous injections at which they tremble and yet cannot keep them out of their mind either they are tempted and haunted to doubt of the Scripture or Christianity or the life to come or to think some ill of God And oft-times they are strangely urged as by something in them to speak some Blasphemous word of God or to renounce him and they tremble at the suggestion and yet it still followeth them and some poor souls yield to it and say some bad word against God and then as soon as it is spoken somewhat within them saith now thy damnation is sealed thou hast sinned against the Holy Ghost there is no hope 8 When it is far gone they are tempted to lay some law upon themselves never to speak more or not to eat and some of them have famished themselves to death 9 And when it s far gone they oft think that they have apparitions and this and that likeness appeareth to them especially lights in the night about their beds and sometimes they are confident that they hear voices and feel something touch or hurt them 10 They fly from company and can do nothing but sit alone and muse 11 They cast off all business and will not be brought to any diligent labour in their callings 12 And when it cometh to extremity they are weary of their lives and strongly followed with Temptations to make away themâ—elves as if something within them were either urging them either to drown them selves or cut their own throats or hang themselves or cast themselves headlong which alass too many have done 13 And if they escape this when its ripe they become quite distracted These are the doleful symptomes and effects of melancholly And therefore how desireable is it to prevent them or to be cured while it is but beginning before they fall into so sad a state And here it is necessary that I answer the doubt whether such persons be possessed with the Devil or not and how much of all this aforesaid is from him And I must tell the melancholly person that is sincere that the knowledge of the Devils Agency in his Case may be more to his comfort than to his despair And first we must know what is meant by Satans Possession either of the Body or the Soul It is not meerly his Local Preseâ—ce and Abode in a man that is called his Possession for we know little of that how far he is more present with a bad man than a good But it is his exercising Power on a man by such a stated effectual operation As the Spirit of God is present with the worst and maketh many holy Motions to the Souls of the impenitent but he is a setled powerful Agent in the Soul of a Believer and so is said to dwell in such and to possess them by the Habit of Holiness and Love even so Satan maketh too frequent Motions to the Faithful but he possesseth only the Souls of the ungodly by predominant Habits of Vnbelief and Sensuality And so also he is permitted by God to inflict Persecutions and Crosses and ordinary Diseases on the just but when he is Gods Executioner of extraordinary Plagues especially on the Head depriving men of Sense and Understanding and working above the bare Nature of the Disease this is called his Possession And as most evil Motions on the Soul have Satan for their Father and our own Hearts as the Mothers so most or many bodily Diseases are by Satan permitted by God though there be Causes of them also in the Body it self And when our own Miscarriages and Humors and the Season Weather and Accidents may be Causes yet Satan may by these be a superiour Cause
and they have it not to pay them its hard to keep all this from going too near the heart and hard to bear it with obedient quiet submission to God especially for Women whose Nature is weak and liable to too much Passion 2. And this Impatience turneth to a setled Discontent and Vnquietness or Spirit which affecteth the Body it self and lieth all day as a Load or continual Trouble at the Heart 3. And Impatience and Discontent do set the Thoughts on the Rack with Grief and continual Cares how to be eased of the troubling Cause they can scarce think of any thing else and these Cares do even feed upon the Heart and are to the Mind as a consuming Feaver to the Body 4. And the secret Root or Cause of all this is the worst part of the Sin which is too much Love to the Body and this World Were nothing ovâ—â—loved it would have no power to torment us if Ease and Health were not overloved Pain and Sickness would be the more tolerable if Children and Friends were not overloved the Death of them would not overwhelm us with inordinate sorrow if the Body were not overloved and worldly wealth and Prosperity overvalued it were easie to endure hard Fare and Labour and Want not only of Superfluities and Conveniences but even of that which is necessary to Health yea or Life it self if God will have it so at least to avoid Vexations Discontents and Cares and inordinate Grief and Trouble of mind 5. There is yet more Sin in the root of all and that is it sheweth that our Wills are yet too selfish and not subdued to a due submission to the Will of God but we would be as Gods to our own chusing and must needs have what the Flesh desiâ—◠〈…〉 â—â—â—t a due Resignation of our selves and all our Concerns to God and 〈…〉 as Children in due dependance on him for our daily Bread but â—â—â—t needs be the keepers of our own Provision 6. And this sheweth that we be not sufficiently humbled for our sin or else we should be thankful for the lowest state as being much better than that which we deserved 7. And there is apparently much Distrust of God and Vnbelief in these troubling Discontents and Cares could we trust God as well as our selves or as we could trust a faithful friend or as a Child can trust his Father how quiet would our minds be in the sense of his Wisdom All-sufficiency and Love 8. And this Unbelief yet hath a worse Effect than worldly Trouble it sheweth that men take not the Love of God and the Heavenly Glory for their suffâ—cient portion unless they may have what they want or would have for the Body this world unless they may be free from Poverty and Crosses and Provocations and Injuries and Pains all that God hath promised them here or hereafter even everlasting Glory will not satisfie them and when God and Christ and Heaven are not enough to quiet a mans mind he is in great want of Faith Hope â—nd Love which are far greater matters than Food and Rayment III. Another great cause of such trouble of mind is the guilt of some great and wilful sin when conscience is convinced and yet the foul is not converted sin is beloved and yet feared Gods wrath doth terrifie them and yet not enough to overcome their sin some live in secret fraud and robbery and many in drunkenness in secret fleshly lusts either self-pollution or fornication and they know that for such things the wrath of God cometh on the Children of disobedience and yet the rage of appetite and lust prevaileth and they despair and sin and while the sparks of Hell fall on their consciences it changeth neither heart nor life there is some more hope of the recovery of these then of dead hearted or unbelieving sinners who work uncleanness with greediness as being past feeling and blinded to defend their sins and plead against holy obedience to God Bruitishness is not so bad as Diabolisme and malignity But none of these are the persons spoken of in any Text Their sorrow is not overmuch but too little as long as it will not restrain them from their sin But yet if God convert these persons the sins which they now live in may possibly hereafter plung their souls into such depths of sorrow in the review as may swallow them up And when men truly converted yet dally with the bait and renew the wounds of their consciences by their lapses it is no wonder if their sorrows and terrours are renewed Grievous sins have fastened so on the consciences of many as have cast them into uncurable melancholly and distraction IV. But among people fearing God there is yet another cause of Melancholly and of sorrowing overmuch and that is Ignorance and mistakes in maâ—â—â—â— which their peace and comforts are concerned in I will name some particulars 1. One 〈◊〉 Ignorance of the tenor of the Gospel or Covenant of Grace as some Libertines called Antinomians more dangerously mistake it who tell men that Christ hath Repented and believed them and that they must no more question their Faith and Repentance than they must question the righteousness of Christ so many better Christians understand not that the Gospel is tidings of unspeakable joy to all that will believe it and that Christ and Life are offered freely to them that will accept him and that no sins how great or many soever are excepted from pardon to the soul that unfeignedly turneth to God by faith in Christ that whoever will may freely take the water of life and all that are weary and thirst are invited to come to him for ease and rest And they seem not to understand the conditions of forgiveness which is but true consent to the pardoning saving baptismal Covenant 2. And many of them are mistaken about the use of sorrow for sin and about the nature of hardness of heart they think that if their sorrow be not so passionate as to bring forth tears and greatly to afflict them they are not capable of pardon though they should consent to all the pardoning Covenant and they consider not that it is not our sorrow for it self that God delighteth in but it is the taking down of pride and that so much humbling sense of sin danger and misery as may make us feel the need of Christ and mercy and bring us unfeignedly to consent to be his Disciples and to be saved upon his Covenant terms Be sorrow much or little if it do this much the sinner shall be saved And as to the length of Gods sorrow some thinks that the pangs of the new birth must be a long continued state whereas we read in the Scripture that by the penitent sinners the Gospel was still received speedily with joy as being the gift of Christ and pardon and everlasting life humility and self-loathing must continue and increase but our first great sorrows may be swallowed up with
Earth and went thither grieving because your bodies suffered here Study more to live by Faith on hope on the unseen promised Glory with Christ and you will patiently endure any Sufferings in the way V. And study better how great a Sin it is to set our own Wills and Desires in a discontented opposition to the wisdom will and providence of God and to make our Wills instead of his as Gods to our selves Doth not a murmuring heart secretly accuse God All accusation of God hath some degree of blasphemy in it For the accuser supposeth that somewhat of God is to be blamed and if you dare not open your mouths to accuse him let not the repineings of your hearts accuse him know how much of Religion and Holiness consisteth in bringing this rebellious self-will to a full resignation submission and conformity to the Will of God Till you can rest in Gods Will you will never have rest VI. And study well how great a Duty it is wholely to Trust God and our blessed Redeemer both with Soul and Body and all we have Is not infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness to be trusted Is not a Saviour that came from Heaven into flesh to save sinners by such incomprehensible ways of Love to be trusted with that which he hath so dearly bought To whom else will you trust Is it your selves or your friends Who is it that hath kept you all your Lives and done all for you that is done Who is it that hath saved all the Souls that are now in Heaven what is our Christianity but a Life of Faith And is this your Faith to distract your selves with cares and troubles if God do not fit all his Providences to your Wills Seek first his Kingdom and Righteousness and he hath promised that all other things shall be added to you and not a hair of your head shall perish for they are all as it were numbred A Sparrow falls not to the ground without his Providence and doth he set less by those that fain would please him Believe God and trust him and your Cares and Fears and Griefs will vanish O that you knew what a mercy and comfort it is for God to make it your Duty to trust him If he had made you no promise this is equal to a promise If he do but bid you Trust him you may be sure he will not deceive your Trust If a faithful friend that is able to relieve you do but bid you trust him for your relief you will not think that he will deceive you Alass I have friends that durst trust me with their Estates and Lives and Souls if they were in my power and would not fear that I would destroy or hurt them that yet cannot trust the God of Infinite Goodness with them though he both command them to trust him and promise that he will never fail them nor forsake them It is the refuge of my Soul that quieteth me in my fears that God my Father and Redeemer hath commanded me to trust him with my Body my health my liberty my estate and when Eternity seemeth strange and dreadful to me that he bids me trust him with my departing Soul Heaven and Earth are upheld and maintained by him and shall I distrust him Obj. But it is none but his Children that he will save Answ True And all are his Children that are truly willing to obey and please him If you are truly willing to be holy and to obey his commanding Will in a godly righteous and sober Life you may boldly rest in his disposing Will and rejoyce in his rewarding and accepting Will for he will pardon all our Infirmities through the Merits and Intercession of Christ VII If you would not be swallowed up with sorrow swallow not the Baits of sinful Pleasure Passions and Dulness and defective Duâ—ies have their degrees of guilt but it is pleasing Sin that is the dangerous and deep wounding Sin O fly from the Baits of Lust and Pride and Ambition and Covetousness and an unruly Appetite to Drink or Meat as you would fly from guilt and grief and terror The more pleasure you have in Sin usually the more sorrow it will bring you and the more you know it to be Sn and Conscience tells you that God is against it and yet you will go on and bear down Conscience the sharplier will Conscience afterward afflict you and the hardlier will it be quieted when it is awakned to Repentance yea when a humbled Soul is pardoned by Grace and believeth that he is pardoned he will not easily forgive himself The remembrance of the wilfulness of sinning and how poor a Bait prevailed with us and what Mercies and Motives we bore down will make us so displeased and angry with our selves and so to loath such naughty hearts as will not admit a speedy or easie reconciliation Yea when we remember that we sinned against knowledge even when we remembred that God did see us and that we offended him it will keep up long doubts of our Sincerity in the Soul and make us afraid lest still we have the same hearts and should again do the same if we had the same Temptations Never look for Joy or Peace as long as you live in wilful and beloved Sin This Thorn must be taken out of your hearts before you will be eased of the pain unless God leave you to a senceless heart and Satan give you a deceitful peace which doth but prepare for greater sorrow VIII But if none of the forementioned Sins cause your Sorrows but they come from the meer perplexities of your mind about Religion or the state of your Souls as fearing Gods wrath for your former sins or doubting of your Sincerity and Salvation then these foregoing Reprofs are not meant to such as you but I shall now lay you down your proper Remedies and that is the Cure of that Ignorance and those Errors which cause your Troubles 1. Many are perplexed about Controversies in Religion while every contending party is confident add hath a great deal to say which to the ignorant seemeth like to Truth and which the Hearer cannot answer and when each party tells them that their way is the only way and threatneth Damnation to them if they turn not to them The Papists say There is no Salvation out of our Church that is to none but the Subjects of the Bishop of Rome The Greeks condemn them and extol their Church and every Party extols their own Yea some will convert them with Fire and Sword and say Be of our Church or lie in Gaol or make their Church it self a Prison by driving in the uncapable and unwilling Among all these how shall the ignorant know what to chuse Answ The Case is sad and yet not so sad as the case of the far greatest part of the world who are quiet in Heathenism or Infidelity or never trouble themselves about Religion but follow the Customs of their Countreys and the
noluerint Adamum adorare Hoc suum peccatum non potuit celare Satan Luther Tom. 3. p. 82. b. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us says the beloved Disciple Joh. 1.14 He had a true body and a reasonable soul which soul of Christ considering its nearest union to the Divine nature and the light and joy and glory it must needs be full of may be look't upon by Milions of Degrees as the highest of Creatures and the chief of all the ways of God The Holy Ghost took care in the conception of Christ that his human nature should not be in the least defiled and his whole life was perfectly free from sin he did no evil neither was guile found in his mouth and his heart was alwayes pure And having taken mans Nature God is well pleased with that nature in Christ The man Christ Jesus always did those things which were pleasing to the Father The Sons of men may come with boldness to this Mediatour who is bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh He bears good will to men as the Angels sang aloud at his Nativity Man may be confident of a kind reception since Christ is so near akin to them and was in all things excepting sinful infirmities made like unto them that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest to make Reconciliation for their Iniquities Heb. 2.17 Christ is man and this man is Gods greatest favourite far greater than Joseph to Pharaoh or Mordecai to Ahasuerus Extra Christum oculos aures claudatis Vbi Iesus est ibi est totus Deus seu tota divinitas ibi Pater Spiritus Extra hunc Christum Deus nusquam invenitur Deus in carâ—e illa sic apparet ut extra hanc carnem coll cognosci non possit Luther Tam. 4. p. 491. a. He has the highest place in Heaven as well as in his Fathers heart let Saints search into his truth and they will find matters of unspeakable encouragement Here is the way to know the Father to worship him acceptably and to attain to fellowship with him here and for ever 3. Growing in the knowledge of Christ implies a more plain discerning and ful perswasion that he was foreordained to be a Redeemer Christ was the person pitched upon from eternity to be the Saviour of the Elect of God 1 Pet. 1.20 Who verily was foreordained befoâ—e the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you He is therefore caled the elect One in whom Gods Soul delights There was a compact and agreement made between the Father and the Son The Son agrees in fulness of time to be made of a Woman to take a body to offer up himself without spot to God and the Father promises eternal Life and Salvation and that he should have a Church givâ—â— him out of the world though the world is faâ—â—en into wickedness upon which Church this eternal life is to be bestowed The Prophet Zachariah tells â—s of a Counsel of Peace between the Lord of Hâ—â—â— and Christ whose name is the Branch Zach. 6.12 13. And the Apostle speaks of the promise of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised before the world began Tit. 1.2 This promise may very well be conceived to be made to the Son that he should give eternal life to all that were given him of the Father And when the Saints behold that Christ is the Person from eternity designed to be a Saviour they may include that God hath a love to them a care of them and a purpose of Grace towards them from everlasting and how securely and sweetly may they rest upon the blessed Jesus not doubting but he is a person every way fit and sufficient to finish that work of Redemption which he undertook according to the appointment of his Father 4. Growing in the Knowledge of Christ implies a greater insight into his sufferings It is not without reason that the History of these is so largely penned by all the four Evangelists certainly there is much in his Crucifixion which it concerns Believers to pry into The sufferings of Christ were great and that both in his body and in his soul his body was in a bloody sweat and his soul was amazed sore and full of heaviness and sorrow and in an Agony before he was condemned and fastned to the Cross but then all the pain and shame which he did undergo his Death was violent and accursed and just before he breathed out his last his Father hid his face his sufferings were unconceivably increased by a dreadful desertion which made him roar out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me When Christ died the sins of the whole Church were laid upon the head of the Church how many stings then had the death of Christ Isa 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray we haâ—e turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all And if all were laid upon him none shall be laid to the charge of them who believe in him But how came it to pass that Christ did not sink under such a burthen The first sin of the first man was enough to sink all the world into Hell how could Christ bear up under all the sins of so great a multitude The reason is because he is God the blood of Christ is the blood of God how loud does it cry for Pardon and Salvation and how easily does it drown the cry of sin for vengeance The blood and sufferings of Christ applied and relyed on by Faith justifie the sinner silence Satan the accuser purge the conscience from dead works and open a way into the holiest of all by the Cross of Christ we are to climb up to the Throne of Glory The more the death of Christ is studied the Spirit will be more contrite the heart more clean the conscience more calm and quiet The death of Christ puts the sin to death but delivers the sinner from it 5. Growing in the Knowledge of Christ implies a more fruitful eying of his Resuâ—rection and going to his Father Hark to the Apostle Phil. 3. 10. That I may kâ—â—â— him and the power of his Resurrection The Justice of God had Christ under an â—rrest and hath cast him into the Grave as â—nto a Prison and if he had not fully paid the debt of those whose surety he became it would have held him in prison to this hour If Christ were not risen faith would be vain the guilt and power of sin would refrain But being risen true believers are delivered from sins punishment and power Sin and death and Satan are triumphed over Know that there is a very great power and vertue to be derived from the resurrection of our Lord. A power to raise a drooping Spirit When Christ was riseâ— dâ—e sends this Message to his Disciples that they might be well assurâ—â— his God was theirs his Father their Father
memory Our Salvation in some sort depends upon it For without the Gospel no Salvation without Faith no benefit by the Gospel and without Hearing and Retaining what we hear no saving Faith 2. By way of Exception in the end of the Verse unless ye have believed in vain your Hearing is in vain and your Believing is in vain if ye do not stedfastly cleave to the Gospel and to this material Doctrine of it the RESURRECTION and keep in Memory what I have preached unto you concerning it The Lesson then that we may learn from hence is this viz. Doctrine If mâ—n would be saved by the Gospel they must keep in memory what is preached unto them And under this Proposition I am to handle the Causes and Cure of a bad Memory or the Hindrances and Helps of a good Memory in Spiritual Things And in order hereunto I shall shew 1. What the Memory is 2. The Excellency of this Faculty especially in its primitive State 3. The Corruption of it 4. The Restauration or Sanctification of it 5. The Ordinary Impediments thereof 6. The proper Helps unto it 7. Answer some Cavils of the wilful and some of the Doubts of the weak about it And 8. make Application of all And the good Lord help us all now to remember what is preached to us Memoria est animus dicimus enim vide ut illud in animo habeas cum obliviscimur dicimus non fuit in animo Aug. Confes l. 10. c. 14. Non est in Homine memoria distincta ab intellectu Cajet I. What the Memory is it is that Faculty of the Soul wherein are Reserved the things we know Though it belong to the Sensitive Soul and so is in some Measure common to Brutes with Men yet I shall handle as it is seated in the rational Soul where it is the Storehouse not only of whatsoever is brought in by the Eye and Ear which are the two Senses of Discipline but also of what is imparted by the understanding For the Memory is neerly allyed to the Understanding if it be not the same as many think It s Office however is 1. to Receive such things as are presented to it wherein it is fitly enough compared to soft Wax which is prepared to receive any Impression made upon it 2. To Retain and preserve what is laid up therein wherefore it is oft call'd by the Antients Venter animae the belly of the Soul Aug. to 10. p. 509. There is a little Kingdom in the Soul of Man The King or rather Vice-Roy is the Will the Privy Counsel is the Understanding the Judge is the Conscience and the Great Treasurer is the Memory 3. To Recall or recover what was out of mind Quorum certè recordamur eorum est memoria quicum penitùs obliti sumus eorum oblivio quorum partim meminimus partim obliti sumus eorum est reminis centia Zanch. tom 3. l. 2. c. 5. And this is proper to Mankind and is not in Brutes For it proceeds from the motion of the Images of things in the brain by the activity of Reason which considering the time place persons and such like circumstances of things by degrees recovers what was out of the way for as things themselves so the phantasms of things are connexed together and by one we recover another And this intellectual memory is inseparable from the rational Soul in that the Soul undoubtedly remembers when it is quite separate from the body Luke 16.25 But Abraham said to the Rich man in torments Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things II. The Excellence of this Faculty the Soul of man is a Subject of wonder and nothing more wonderful in it than the Memory Quicquid sit jurarem esse divinum Cic. that such innumerable Images of things should be lodged in a finite Faculty and that what seems to be utterly lost in it should be fully recovered wherefore it is justly deemed by the learned a miraculous Mercy Zanch. Memoria nobis est surdorum auditio visio caecorum Plut. Omnium rerum thesaurus custos est memoria nec enarrari potest tam grandis est ejus perplexitas anima ipsa est Aug. de Epic. anim Plin. Hist l. 7. cap. 24. Casc Rhodig l. 2. cap. 10. Tantum scimus quantum memoria tenemus Erasm It hath power to make things that are in themselves absent and past to be present By the help of Memory we retain what we have read in Books and what we have heard in Sermons or other Discourse the Examples of Gods Mercies and Judgments for our Incouragement and Warning All these and ten thousand things more are laid up in the Memory which is the Souls Treasury so that the Soul would be a poor Soul without the Memory we may see the worth of this Faculty by those that are depriv'd of the use of it that can remember no body nor the last question that they did ask Thus we read of Messala Corvinus an Orator that forgat even his own Name and of Atticus the Son of Herod the Sophist that could never remember the Names of the Letters of the Alphabet till his Father was fain to name four and twenty Boys by the Names of the several Letters that he might retain them All a mans past life would be lost if his Memory were lost so are the comforts of the Soul lost so far as they are forgotten So that the Soul would be poor in Knowledge poor in gifts poor in comfort without the Memory Especially this Faculty was happy in its primitive State for then its Reception was easy the Impressions firm the Recovery if any use of it ready then 't was like a clear Chrystal Glass wherein all that was contained in it was easy seen now it is crackt and muddy then 't was like an iron Chest now like a Bag with Holes It had the Neighbourhood of a clear Understanding and of an holy Will and Adam could not but remember his Creator in those Days of his Youth III. The Corruption or Depravation of this Faculty For by the Fall of Adam each Faculty of the Soul was woefully deprav'd when a curious Watch falls to the ground though it be sorely maimed yet some wheel or pin may have received no hurt but here it is otherwise Our Fall was like that of some rare Glass which thereby is shatter'd all to pieces there remains all the Materials of it so doth Reason and Memory with the Soul but they must be melted and cast a new before they be good for any thing The Corruption of the Memory stands 1. In remembring those things which we should forget As 1. Things unprofitable there are a thousand needless and useless matters that fill the memory and keep out better things Like as if one should croud wast Paper Rags and broken Pitchers into a Cabinet which should be stor'd with things of value There is in all
our principal perfections in Heaven and Earth These he recommends by the most affectionate and obliging the most warming melting Perswasives the superlative Love of God to us and our Communion with the Saints in Nature and Grace In the former Verse the Apostle argues for the reality of the effect as an evidence of the Cause Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ that is the Saviour of the world foretold to the Prophets and expresses the truth of that Faith in a sutable conversation is born of God and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him Grace is not less powerful in producing tender reciprocal affections between the off-spring of the same heavenly Father than the subordinate endearments of Nature The pretence is vain of Love to God without loving his regenerate Children And in the Text he argues from the knowledge of the Cause to the discovering of the sincerity of the Effect By this we know that we love the Children of God with a holy affection if we love God and keep his Commandments There is but one difficulty to be removed that the force of the Apostles reasoning may appear 't is this a Medium to prove a thing must be of clearer evidence than what is concluded by it Now though a demonstration from the Cause be more noble and scientifical yet that which is drawn from the Effect is more near to Sence and more discernable And this is verified in the Instance before us for the Love of God who is absolutely spiritual in his Being and Excellencies doth not with that sensible fervour affect and passionately transport us as Love to his Children with whom we visibly converse and who are receptive of the most sensible testimonies of our Affection Accordingly the Apostle argues He that loves not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen As the Motives to love our Brethren from our conjunction in Nature and familiar Conversation are more capable to allure our Affections and more sensibly strike the Heart than the invisible Deity who is infinitely above us by the same reason we may more easily judge of the truth of our Love to them than of our Love to God To this the Answer is clear the Apostle doth not speak of the Love of God as a still silent contemplative affection confined to to the superior Faculty of the Soul but as a burning shining affection like Fire * Lumine qui semper proditur ipso suo active and declarative of it self in those effects that necessarily flow from it that is voluntary obedience to his Commands and thus it becomes manifest to the renewed Conscience and is a most convincing proof of the sincerity of our Love to the Saints The Text being cleared affords this Doctrine Doctrine The sincerity of our Love to the Children of God is certainly discovered by our Love to God and Obedience to his Commands For the Illustration and Proof of the Point I will briefly shew 1. Who are described by this Title the Children of God 2. What is included in our Love to them 3. What the Love of God is and the obedience that flows from it 4. How from love to God and willing obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our love to his Children To explain the first we must consider that this Title the Children of God is given upon several accounts 1. By Creation the Angels are called the Sons of God and Men his off-spring The reason of the Title is 1. The manner of their production by his immediate Power Thus he is stiled The Father of Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of the Flesh For though the conception and forming of the Body be the work of his secret Providence yet 't is by the hand of Nature the Parents concurring as the second Causes of it but the production of the Soul is to be entirely ascribed to his power without the intervention of any Creature 2. In their spiritual immortal Nature and the intellectual operations flowing from it there is an Image and resemblance of God from whence this Title is common to all reasonable Creatures and peculiar to them for though the Matter may be ordered and fashioned by the hand of God into a figure of admirable beauty yet 't is not capable of his likeness and image so that neither the Lights of Heaven nor the Beasts and plants of the Earth are called his Children II. By external Calling and Covenant some are denominated his Children for by this Evangelical Constitution God is pleased to receive Believers into a filial relation Indeed where there is not a cordial consent and subjection to the Terms of the Covenant visible Profession and the receiving the external Seals of it will be of no advantage but the publick serious owning of the Gâ—â—pel entitles a person to be of the Society of Christians and filius and foederatus are all one III. There is a Sonship that arises from supernatural regeneration that is the communicating a new nature to man whereby there is a holy and blessed change in the directive and commanding Faculties the Understanding and Will and in the Affections and consequently in the whole Life This is wrought by the efficacy of the Word and Spirit and is called by our Saviour Regeneration because it is not our original carnal Birth but a second and celestial 'T is with the new man in Grace as with an Infant in Nature that has the essential parts that compose a man a Soul endowed with all its faculties a Body with all its organs and parts but not in the vigor of mature age Thus renewed Holiness in a Christian is compleat and entire in its parts but not in perfection of degrees there is a universal inclination to all that is holy just and good and a universal aversion from sin though the executive power be not equal And regenerate Christians are truly called the Children of God for as in natural generation there is communicated a Principle of Life and sutable Operations from whence the Title and Relation of a Father arises so in Regeneration there are derived such holy and heavenly qualities to the Soul as constitute a Divine Nature in man whereby he is partaker of the Life and Likeness of God himself from hence he is a Child of God and has an interest and propriety in his Favour Power and Promises and all the good that flows from them and a Title to the eternal inheritance Secondly I will shew what is included in our Love to the Children of God 1 Pet. 1.22 1. The Principle of this Love is Divine The Soul is purified through the Spirit to unfeigned Love of the Brethren Naturally the Judgment is corrupted and the Will depraved that carnal respects either of Profit or Pleasure are the quick and sensible incitements of Love and till the Soul be cured of the sensual contagion the
comprizes all the rest is to die for the Brethren and this we ought to do when the Honour of God and Welfare of the Church require it Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren If Christians thus loved one another the Church on Earth would be a lively Image of the blessed Society above Thirdly The Love of God and Obedience to his Commands the Product of it are to be considered 1. The Love of God has its Rise from the consideration of his amiable Excellencies that render him infinitely worthy of the highest Affection and from the blessed Benefits of Creation Preservation Redemption and Glorification that we expect from his pure Goodness and Mercy This is the most clear and essential Character of a Child of God and most peculiarly distinguishes him from unrenewed men however accomplished by Civil Virtues Now the internal exercise of Love to God in the valuation of his Favour as that which is better than Life in earnest desires of Communion with him in ravishing Joy in the testimonies and assurance of his Love in mourning for what is displeasing to him is in the secret of the Soul but with this there is inseparably joyn'd a true and visible declaration of our Love in obedienc◠〈◊〉 him 1 Joh. 3.16 This is the Love of God the most real and undeceitful Expression of it that we keep his Commandments The Obedience that springs from Love is 1. Uniform and universal for that two principal and necessary Effects of Love are an ardent desire to please God and an equal care not to displease him in any thing Now the Law of God is the signification of his sovereign and holy will and the doing of it is very pleasing to him both upon the account of the subjection of the Creature to his authority and conformity to his purity he declares that Obedience is better than the most costly Sacrifice There is an absolute peremptory repugnance between love to him and despising his Commands And from thence it follows that Love inclines the Soul to obey all Gods Precepts not only those of easie observation but the most difficult and distastful to the carnal Appetites for the Authority of God runs through all and his Holiness shines in all Servile Fear is a partial Principle and causes an unequal respect to the divine Law it restrains from sins of greater guilt from such disorderly and dissolute actions at which Conscience takes fire but others are indulged it excites to good works of some kind but neglects other that are equally necessary But Love regards the whole Law in all its Injunctions and Prohibitions not meerly to please our selves that we may not feel the stings of an accusing Conscience but to please the Lawgiver 2. The Obedience of Love is accurate and this is a natural Consequence of the former The divine Law is a Rule not only for our outward Conversation but of our Thoughts and Affections of all the interior workings of the Soul that are open before God Thus it requires religious Service not only in the external performance but those reverent holy Affections those pure Aims wherein the Life and Beauty the Spirit and true Value of divine Worship consists Thus it commands the Duties of Equity Charity and Sobriety all Civil and Natural Duties for divine Ends to please and glorifie God Heb. 13.16 It forbids all kinds and degrees of Sin not only gross Acts but the inward Lustings that have a tendency to them Now the Love of God is the Principle of spiritual Perfection 'T is called the fulfilling of the Law 1 Cor. 10.31 not only as it is a comprehensive Grace but in that it draws forth all the active Powers of the Soul to obey it in an exact manner This causes a tender sence of our failings and a severe circumspection over our ways that nothing be allowed that is displeasing to the divine Eyes Since the most excellent Saints are Gods chiefest Favourites Love makes the holy Soul to strive to be like him in all possible degrees of Purity Thus St. Paul in whom the Love of Christ was the imperial commanding Affection declares Phil. 3.10 11. it is zealous endeavour to be conformable to the Death of Christ in dying to Sin as Christ died for sin and that he might attain to the Resurrection of the dead that perfection of Holiness that is in the immortal state 1 John 5.3 3. The Obedience of Love is chosen and pleasant This is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous Those that are strangers to this heavenly Affection imagine that a solicitous diligent respect to all Gods Precepts is a melancholy Task but it is delightful to the Saints for Obedience is the continual exercise of Love to God the Paradise of holy Souls The mortification of the carnal Appetites and the restraint from such Objects as powerfully insinuate and engage carnal Hearts is with a freer complacency to a Saint than a sensual fruition of them The sharpest sufferings for Religion are allayed nay sweetned to a Saint from the Love of God that is then most sincerely strongly and purely acted The Apostle more rejoyced in sharp Tribulations for Christ's sake than in divine Revelations 4. The Love of God produces persevering Obedience Servile Compliance is inconstant A Slave hates the Duties he performs and loves the Sins he dares not commit therefore as soon as he is releas'd from his Chain and his Fear his Obedience ceases but a Son is perfectly pleas'd with his Fathers Will and the Tenor of his Life is correspondent to it He that is press'd by fear to serve in an Army will desert his Colours the first opportunity but a Volunteer that for the love of Valour and of his Country lists himself will continue in the Service The motion that is caused by outward poises will cease when the weights are down but that which proceeds from an inward principle of Life is continual and such is the Love of God planted in the breast of a Christian Fourthly We are to prove that from the Love of God and willing Obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our Love to his Children There is an inseparable Union between these two Graces and the one arises out of the other Godliness and brotherly kindness are joyned by the Apostle And it will be evident that where this Affection of Love to the Saints is sincere and gracious there will be an entire and joyful respect to the Law of God by considering the Reasons and Motives of it 1. The Divine Command requires this Love These things I command you saith our Saviour that ye love one another This Precept so often repeated and powerfully re-inforc'd by him made so deep an impression on the first Christians that they had one Heart and one Soul and their Estates
renders them comly in the sight of men yea and in the sight of God too As the Ornament of a meek and quiet spirit so the Ornament of an humble and lowly spirit is in his sight of great price Indeed all along this was the great Requisite in the People of God The main thing that he required of them was to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with and before him so the Prophet informs us Mic. 6.8 To do justly and to love Mercy that is the Sum of all Duty to man to walk humbly that is the Sum of all Duty to God 8. Set before your eyes the Examples of humble and lowly Persons Direct 8 Some are greatly influenc'd by Examples more than they are by Precepts 1. Look upon the most eminent Saints that ever were upon the earth and you will find they were most eminent for humility Jacob thinks himself less than the least of Gods Mercies David speaks of himself as a worm and no man Agur says that he was more brutish than any man The Apostle Paul says of himself 1 Tim. 5.15 Eph. 3.8 that he is the chiefest of sinners and less than the least of all Saints How does that great Saint and Apostle vilifie and nullifie himself Bradford that holy man and Martyr subscribes himself in one of his Epistles a very paintâ—d Hypocrite The Apostle Peter said unto our Saviour Depart from me Luke 5.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for I am a sinful man O Lord a man that is a great sinner Thus the heaviest ears of Corn do always hang downwards and so do those Boughs of Trees that are most laden with fruit 2. Look upon the Angels of God the elect Angels they excel in strength and so they do in humility likewise they readily condescend to minister unto the Children of men that are abundantly inferior to themselves they take charge of them and bear them up as it were in their arms Are they not all ministring Spirits says the Apostle to the Hebrews The Interrogation is an Affirmation The greatest Angels do not disdain to minister to the least Saints When they have appeared to men they have utterly rejected the reverence they would have shewn them and have openly declared themselves our fellow-servants that we and they have but one common Lord. 3. Look upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself he is the great instance of humility though he was in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God yet he was made in the likeness of men and took upon him the form of a Servant and made himself of no reputation or as the word signifies he emptied himself of all his Glory he sought his Fathers glory and not his own yea he humbled himself so as to become obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross The very Incarnation of Christ is condescention enough to pole both men and Angels what then was his Crucifixion When you feel any Self-exaltation then remember and reflect upon Christ's Humiliation and think how unsutable a humble Master and a proud Servant is a humble Christ and a proud Christian This alone through the Spirit 's assistance is sufficient to bring down the swelling of the Spirits Direct 9 9. Use all Gods dealings with you and dispensations towards you as so many Antidotes against this Sin You hear they are design'd by God I pray you let them all be improv'd by you for this very end and purpose Hath God shined into your hearts and given you the knowledge of his Glory in the face of his Son Jesus Christ says Judas not Iscariot How is it Lord that thou dost manifest thy self unto us and not unto the World Hath he quickned and saved you from Sin and Death Say then By Grace we are saved not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he hath saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Is Grace and Life preserved and increased which was at first infused into your Souls give God the Glory Say Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name be the praise Yea let all Gods outward Dispensations have this operation upon you Let Mercies humble you if God gives you worldly wealth and honour and lifts you up above others in Estate or Esteem say as David Who are we Lord and as Jacob We are less than the least of thy Mercies Let Afflictions humble you if God lays his hand upon you then lay your mouths in the dust if he smites you upon your backs do you smite upon your own Thighs We are call'd upon in Scripture to humble our selves under the hand of God 2 Chro. 33.32 You read of Manasseh how when he was in affliction he humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers May your Afflictions have the like effect Direct 10 10. Be much in the Duty of Prayer Give thy self to it If Pride doth not hinder Prayer Prayer will subdue Pride and whilst thou art in this Duty make this one of thy chief Petitions that God would cure thee of this evil disease Some are ready to wonder why Prayer in all cases is one of our chief Directions and Prescriptions they may as well wonder why Bread in all Meals is one chief part of our Food Why Prayer is the principal thing that calls in God to our Assistance without whose help we shall never be able to master the Pride of our hearts This was the course the Apostle took when he was like to be exalted above measure he besought the Lord thrice that is often a definite Number for an indefinite he did not only pray that God would take the Thorn out of his Flesh but that he would also cure the Pride that was in his heart he knew if the Cause were taken away the Effect would cease Oh for this do you beseech the Lord again and again pray and that earnestly that God by his Spirit would help thee to mortifie the Pride of thy Spirit be humbled as Hezekiah was for the Pride of thy heart in times past and pray as Paul prayed that God would prevent and cure the Pride of thy heart for time to come Desire God to use what Preservatives and Medecines he pleaseth so that the Cure be effected Beg of God that he would help thee on with this Ornament and cloath thee with Humility he hath promised to give Grace to the humble do you pray that he would give you the Grace of Humility Quest Wherein is a middle worldly condition most eligible SERMON XVII PROV XXX VIII IX Remove far from me Vanity and Lies give me neither Poverty nor Riches feed me with food convenient for me Lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the Name of my God in vain MY Text presents you with a short yet very pithy Prayer of Agur concerning whom
obstruct this work of Regeneration that either of the other Extreams have 2. Another Requisite to our eternal happiness is a progress in this way of Life by maintaining an holy and heavenly conversation God hath said let who will or dare contradict it Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. This Holiness of heart and Life consists in our fiducial dependance upon Gods Promises and in a sincere and hearty respect to all Gods Precepts in the making the Word of God our Rule and the Glory of God with the Salvation of our Souls our main and ultimate end and this in the whole course of our Lives and Conversations This is that Trade of Godliness in which we must be exercising our selves whilst we live if we design to be really happy when we die Now a middle worldly Condition considering our present Case is the most advantageous and hath the fewest hinderances for our driving on with success this Trade 1. A man under the Extream of Poverty destitute of necessary Provisions for the supply of this Life and yet suppose him a godly man Psal 37.25 such a Supposition may be made though David tells us I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread From whence some though I judge upon a mistake would conclude that extream Poverty so as to be reduced to Beggery is a Condition that God never exposes his Children to But thus to say would doubtless be a condemning of the generation of the righteous one thing which God abhors some of whom in all Ages have been brought to such great straights that they have been necessitated to beg or starve And we read of some that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.37 destitute afflicted tormented of whom yet the world was not worthy So that I rather approve of that Sence of the foregoing Text which confines it either to Davids Experience in his time or rather to lay the Emphasis of the Matter upon the Word forsaken When Paul gives us a Catalogue of his Distresses he puts in this as an alleviation of his Troubles 2 Cor. 4.9 Psal 37.24 Persecuted but not forsaken which Sence also sutes best with the Context Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Now supposing a Child of God under the Extream of Poverty though de jure this ought not yet de facto it does prove very prejudicial to this Trade of Godliness and this many times several ways sometimes it does necessitate them to absent themselves from those outward means and those Soul quickning Opportunities which others enjoy whereby their hearts might be kept up warm and lively for God Are there not many at this day whilst you can spare so much time as to come hither in a morning to gather up this heavenly Manna that falls at your doors who are forced poor hearts to be hard at their Labours and that to get Necessaries for themselves and Families Sometimes though that is sad I confess are they overpowered by temptations to use indirect means for the relieving their wants which upon a review make sad work in their Consciences and set them many degrees back in the way of holiness Sometimes they are so dispirited with the weight of their Burdens that they are almost totally uncapable of doing any thing in their general or particular Callings not knowing how to pray nor how to work Oh the Temptations that such poor Souls are under to Distrust to Murmuring and Repining to Unthankfulness and Discontent every of which are very prejudicial to the life of Holiness 2. Consider the other extream riches Suppose a man to be great and in the main good and godly too a rarity but withal a singular blessing to the ages and places in which they live alass how difficult is it for such to thrive in Godliness when they are under the bright rays of worldly prosperity do we not too often sind that riches prove to a godly man what the Ivy doth to the Oak which indeed may seem to adorn it and set it forth more speciously to the eye of the beholder but sucks out that sap and nourishment that should feed and nourish the tree and if not timely look'd to may endanger its life few if any have been the better for their being rich but too many have been the worse What Temptations are such daily encountering with to carnal pleasure and sensuality to sloth and fleshly ease to pride and ambition all which so far as they are indulged prove to the detriment of serious religion how apt are such to be flattered nay even by good men to be cryed up as none such in their age if they speak but now and then a few good words and shew a little countenance to religion when upon a strict view it may be they have very little if any thing at all of the power of godliness which have given occasion to that unhappy saying that a little Religion goes a great way with great men whenas in truth that which might pass for great Religion in persons of an inferior condition should be esteemed but little in those whom God hath fixt in a higher orb and so are under greater Obligations from God and in a greater capacity of bringing more honour unto God 3. Another requisite to our eternal felicity is not only a progress Finis coronat opus Mat. 10.22 Rev. 2.10 Heb. 10.38 but a perseverance in the way of Faith and holiness to the end and that against all Temptations and Oppositions from within or from without he that endureth to the end shall be saved and be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a Crown of Life again if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him From all which you may conclude the necessity of Perseverance to salvation Now though a security from final and total Apostacy is the undoubted priviledg of Gods Elect and truly called ones 1 Pet. 1.5 such shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto salvation yet such may and many times do in an hour of Temptation such an hour as this is in which God hath cast our lot fall fouly to the great dishonour of God and discredit of their profession to the hardening the wicked in their sin and wounding of their own souls and to the interrupting their peace and comfortable Communion with God many Christians may and do fall to the breaking of their bonds and like Eutychus who fâ—ll from the third Loft and was taken up for dead though Paul told them Acts 20.9 10. 1 Sam. 4.18 trouble not your selves for his Life is in him but they shall never fall as Ely did Of whom 't is said he fell backward to the breaking of his neck and the loss of his Life now a middle condition in
2. which of them may be uncovered without shame seeing that some as the hands the face the feet may be naked without sin to our selves or offence to others To which I answer 1. That the use of the parts and their destinated ends are to be well considered in this case The use of the Face is chiefly to distinguish 1. the Sex the Male from the Female 2. the Individuals one person from another the use of the hands is that they may be instruments for work business and all manual operations 2. That to cover or muffle up those parts ordinarily whose ends and use requires to be uncovered is to cross Gods end and design and by consequence sinful 3. That to uncover those parts promiscuously and expose them ordinarily to open view for which there can be no such good ends and uses assigned is sinful For the general Law of God must always take place where the special use of a particular part requires not the contrary 4. And therefore all Apparel or fashions of Apparel which expose those parts to view of which exposing God and Nature have assigned no use is sinful 'T is true I confess our first Parents in that hasty provision which they made against their shame took care only for Aprons but God who had adequate conceptions of their wants and what was necessary to supply them of the Rule of Decency and what would fully answer it provided for them coats that so the whole body except as before excepted might be cover'd and its shame concealed § 2. Another end of Apparel was to defend the body 1. from the ordinary injuries of unseasonable seasons 2. the common inconveniencies of labour and travel 3. the emergent accidents that might befall them in their Pilgrimage For the Fall of Man had introduced excessive heats and colds They were driven out of Paradise to wander and work in a Wilderness now overgrown with briars thorns and thistles the early Fruits of the late Curse and Cloaths were assigned them in this exegency for a kind of defensive Armour Hence we read 1 Sam. 17.38 That Saul armed David with his own armour and he arm'd him with a coat of mail In the Hebrew it is Saul cloath'd David with his cloaths and he cloath'd him with a coat of mail And the word there used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of near cognation with that in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence therefore 1. Whatever modes of Apparel comply not with this gracious end of God in defending our bodies from those inconveniences are sinfully worn and used 2. That it is a horrid cruelty to our frail bodies to expose them to those injuries against which God has provided a remedy to gratifie pride or to humour any Vanity And however our Gallants hope to keep themselves warm and to shelter their sin under the skreen of their own foolish Proverb Pride feels no cold yet God has oftentimes made their sin to become their punishment whilst by an obstinate striving with the inconveniences of an ill-contrived Mode they have hazarded if not lost their Healths if not their Lives by a ridiculous Complement to some new fashion But how they will stand before the righteous Judgment-Seat of God when he shall arraign and try them as Guilty of Self-Murder in the great day of scrutiny they may do well timely to advise upon and consider § 3. To these I may add That when God made Man his first suit of Apparel he took measure of him by that Employment which he had cut out for him Man's assigned work was labour not to eat the bread of idleness but first to earn it in the sweat of his face which tho at first it was a Curse is by Grace converted into a Blessing And accordingly God so adapted and accommodated his cloaths to his body that they might not hinder readiness expedition industry diligence and perseverance in the works of his particular Calling Hence these things will be exceeding plain 1. That God having appointed Man to labour cannot be supposed to have made any provision for or given the least indulgence to idleness Intervals for rest to redintegrate the decay'd Spirits cessation for a season from hard labour God allows and Nature requires but exemption from a particular Calling or any dispensation for sloth in that Calling we find none 2. That God having suited cloathing in all its forms and shapes so to the body that they prejudice him not in the works of his particular Calling whatever fashions of Apparel do incommode him therein and render him unfit or less fit to discharge the duties of it are so far sinfully used 3. That therefore they who by unmerciful lacing girding bracing pinching themselves in uneasie garments can scarce breathe less eat and least of all labour do apparently offend against this end of God and it is but just that they who will not or create an impotency that they cannot work should not eat nor long breathe in the earth whereof they are unprofitable burdens Plato calls the Body the Prison of the Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some have made the cloaths the Prison of the body wherein they are so cloyster'd so immured in the Cage and Little-ease of a pinching fashion that the body is made an unprofitable servant to the soul and both of them to God In the declining times of the Roman Commonwealth this vanity began to obtain and is smartly noted by the Comaedian as the folly of Mothers Quas matres student Demissis humeris esse vincto pectore ut graciles litent Tâ—rent eunuch Si quae est habitior paulò pugilem esse ajunt deducant cibum Jametsibona est Natura reddunt curaturâ Junceas But thus has Pride brought many to their Coffins who after an uneasie life spun out in more pain with doing nothing than they had found in labour after a few tedious days worn out in Asthma's Catarrhs Consumptions and Ptisicks could never get freedom from the confinement of their cloaths till their souls had procured a Gaol-delivery from their bodies However they cannot justly complain of Providence who gave them their option and left them to their own desires Rather to be out of the world than out of the fashion § 4. There is yet another end of Apparel viz. The adorning of the body And in this all our wanton Fashionists take sanctuary Out of which that I may force them or so far as is sober and moderate indulge them I shall first premise a few Observations and then lay down some Conclusions 1 Let these few things be premised 1. That Ornamentals strictly taken as distinct from useful garments do not come under the same appointment of God with necessary cloathing For 1. It is ordinarily sinful to wear no Apparel but not so to wear no such Ornaments 2. The necessity of Nature requires the one but no necessity or end of Nature requires the other Gods
Notwithstanding in the front of the Text doth my thinks Rhetorically usher in a comfortable Answer to a tacit Objection which might arise in the minds of those Women who were without sufficient Reason but too much addicted to a single life or over-fearful of a married state partly from the sorrow upon Conception and in Child-bearing and partly from that kind of subjection in conversation which with more reluctancy the apostacy of the Woman and thereupon the Sentence denounc'd against her did introduce For the Wisdom from above according to the Tenor of the new Covenant thus sweetly and graciously resolves the doubt That if a Womans subjection in conversation be sanctified her sorrow upon conception shall be sweetned if her life be holy tho her throws and pangs be grievous yet she shall have surpassing joy that a child is born and if she dies in child-bearing her soul will be eternally happy So that in the doleful state and hard condition of child-bearing pain whereinto the Apostacy of Eve hath brought her whose Sex the Levitical Law e Levit. 12 5 8 supposeth to be under greater weakness and uncleanness which makes even Christian married Wives more suspicious and fearful upon their conception here is a ground of good hope All shall go well with them who may hence take encouragement as to their Temporal sase deliverance even as to any other Temporal good thing in the due exercise of Christian Graces Yea and here 's matter of great support and strong consolation * Danaeus in loc Jun. Tremel which may alleviate those pinching sorrows considering that their eternally safe deliverance cannot be hindred but rather promoted thereby 'T is plain then we have in these excellent words imply'd and express'd these two things as I. A Womans weakness by the Fall imply'd to be a more uneasie subjection and child-bearing So II. Her support and strength as to the ground of it by Grace express'd both in respect to the end by removing the impediment she shall be preserv'd and sav'd notwithstanding and way or means by continuance in Grace or keeping her Ornament to evidence her Title and that shines with the four Jewels of Faith Charity Holiness and Sobriety I. That the Womans weakness by the Fall is here implied to be a more uneasie subjection and painful child-bearing may be apparent from the precedent verses For it should seem before the Fall when there was an admirable Harmony in the whole frame of Nature Woman should have bred and brought forth with easiness and her subjection to the authority of her Husband should have been more liberal without any remittency or discomfort Whereas now since that saddest accident by reason of the imperfection which ariseth from sin the woman is as it were untun'd and enclin'd to account this inflicted subjection to her Husband grievous to her who had given the worst counsel and doth find the many illnesses which occur in breeding very troublesome as also the pangs of the approaching birth very terrible yea and sometimes from the fearful apprehensions she hath of the Curse next to intollerable * Miserima miseria quod maximo periculo tantum non moribunda enititur foetum Luth. in Gen. 3.16 Yet II. The Apostle expresly mentions the Womans support and strength by grace in that condition both with reference to the end preservation and salvation she shall be sav'd in child-bearing and the way or means to attain it if they continue in Faith and Charity and Holiness with Sobriety Here 1. As to the end Lest any Christian Woman should conceit that those Notes of the Divine Sentence legible in the pains which fruitful Wives underwent in breeding and bearing of Children made the state of Marriage less acceptable to God the Apostle who elsewhere h Heb. 13.4 determines it to be honourable in all and the bed undefiled doth here labour to prevent such a misconceit by shewing that child-bearing was so far from being any Obstacle to the safety and salvation of good Women that instead of sustaining loss they should reap great benefit if they did demean themselves Christian-like with patience in bearing those sorrows and prudence in discharging the duties of their Relation and abiding in their conversation only as it becometh the Gospel i Phil. 1.27 The words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Notwithstanding she shall be saved by child-bearing Wherein for explication somewhat is to be said of the Term salvation the Particle in and the Compound word child-bearing 1. Somewhat is to be said of salvation she shall be saved which is variously expounded of Temporal and Eternal salvation And if I take it in the latitude most comprehensively as including both in due Circumstances yet the former in Subordination to the latter I hope I shall be less obnoxious to an over-hasty censure 1. There is salvation Temporal We find the Original word signifying shall be saved so taken in Scripture as connoting temporal preservation keeping alive in safety and deliverance from sickness trouble and danger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the woman of the bloody issue and Lazarus k Luk. 8.43 50. John 11.12 the Disciples and Peter in a storm l Mat. 8.25 and 14.30 31. and the Passengers in the Ship with Paul were saved m Acts 27.31 2. There is salvation Eternal which is the most famous signification of the word in the New Testament being most frequently so used in the Future Passive as here connoting deliverance from sin and misery and an estating in everlasting felicity n Mat. 10.22 and 24.13 Mar. 13.13 and 16.16 John 10.9 Acts 2.21 Rom. 9.27 and 10.13 1 Cor. 3.15 So the believing Woman shall obtain the same salvation and Heavenly Glory that her believing Husband shall Yet that I may more clearly determine the import of the womans being saved here in the Text will be necessary to find out the meaning of 2. The Particle or Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we do well translate in sith upon searching into Authority I meet with it by some or other rendred Four ways viz. by for from and the most as we do in Tom. 2. de Matrim 1. There be who would construe it by as I find amongst some of the Papists tho Bellarmine thinks fit to render it as we do and that as noting the Cause and Merit of saving married Women * Signif hic causam meritum Scil. laborum quos patitur mulier in partu A Lapide while they strain to have Matrimony accounted a Sacrament conferring Grace ‡ Catech. Rom. p. 368. As if the meaning were She shall be eternally saved by child-bearing reckoning this good work as Causal of salvation But how can child-bearing which is a natural thing either effect or deserve eternal salvation Then every Strumpet by child-bearing tho she remain'd impenitent and unmortified all her days would put in her claim which were most absurd to conceit And as some
life that she may present her body a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is her reasonable service and so by universal obedience prove what is that good and acceptable will of God n Rom. 12.1 2. in the prevailing desires of her soul to please God who hath called her into a conjugal Relation and enabled her therein to conceive and so in her proper Office to serve her own generation by the will of God o Acts 13.36 waiting upon him with chearfulness in filling up her Relation to give her in due time an holy seed for his glory and the enlargement of his Church as holy Mrs. Joceline above mentioned earnestly desired of God that she might be a mother to one of his children * Mothers Legacy p. 1. Then 2. To submit to the effecting and disposing will of God who works all things according to the counsel of his own will p Eph. 1.11 in preparing for death not to neglect but make ready for so great salvation as is purchas'd by Christ and offered in the rich and precious promises q Heb. 2.3 If all should hearken to the charge our Saviour gives to his own Disciples r Mat. 24.44 Therefore be ye also ready then it eminently concerns a big-belli'd woman to be in a readiness for her departure that she may not be surpriz'd sith the pangs are perilous that she is to pass through and the more if she be but of a weak and not of an hail constitution * Mrs. Joceline The last mentioned pious Gentlewoman when she felt her self quick with child as then travailing with Death it self she secretly took order for the buying a new Winding-sheet thus preparing and consecrating her self to him who rested in a new Sepulcher wherein was man never yet laid and privately in her Closet looking Death in the Face wrote her excellent Legacy to her unborn child None ever repented of making ready to die And every Christian is ready who can entirely submit to Gods disposal in Life or Death Yea and then a good woman is likest to have her will in a safe temporal deliverance when she is most sincerely willing that God should have his in dealing with her as seemeth best to himself When the Yoke of Christ is easie and his Burden is light then is the good Wife in the fairest way to be most easily delivered of the burden of her belly so that she shall have the truest joys afterwards Thus of Holiness considered more generally and how the child-bearing Wife is concern'd to exercise it 2. Holiness may be considered more specially as it is conjugal and more peculiarly appropriated to the marriage-state This being a more particular exercise of Christian holiness in the Matrimonial band wherein as every one both Husband and Wife in that Relation are concerned so the childing-woman is obliged to be singularly careful to possess her Vessel in sanctification or sanctimony and honour Å¿ 1 Thes 4.4 in a special kind of conjugal cleaness and chastness which is opposite to all turpitude and lust of Concupiscence in the very appearance of it that there may be as much as possible no shew or tincture of uncleanness in the Marriage-bed but that there may be an holy seed and she may keep her self pure from any taint of Lasciviousness 'T will chear up in the hour of her Travail if she can sincerely say in the sight of God as it is said in the Apochryphal story * Tobit 3.14 15. Sara the Daughter of Raguel did Thou knowest Lord I am pure from all sin with man and that I never polluted my name nor the name of my father This is the true Eagle-stone to be constantly worn for the prevention of miscarrying that there may not indeed be labouring in vain or bringing forth for trouble but her seed may be the blessing of the Lord and her off-spring with her t Isa 65 23. with 21. who may solace her self in her Integrity and unspotted Reputation having her chast conversation coupled with fear u 1 Pet. 3.2 that all shall issue well with her and the Fruit of her Womb. But this is so much of the same Nature with the last Grace mentioned here in my Text that the Apostle annexeth that to Holiness with 4. Sobriety So we render it others Temperance others Modesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in our old Translation others Chastity And taking it largely the word seems to speak that gracious habit which may best become a prudent grave temperate moderate or modest Mother of a Family * Beza for that seems to reach the Apostles sense comparing it with what he hath in the 9th Verse of this Chapter and elsewhere w Tit. 2.4 5. Acts 26.25 I might consider this like the former Graces more generally and specially 1. More generally as Christian every one that nameth the name of Christ being under an obligation thereby to depart from iniquity x 2 Tim 2.19 is engag'd to labour after a sound mind y 2 Tim. 1.7 to be modest sober and temperate in all things z Tit. 1.8 and 2.2 4 6. 1 Cor. 9.25 learning to use this world as if we used it not minding that which is comely and attending upon the Lord without distraction a 1 Cor. 1.31 35. Yea we should let our moderation be known unto all men as those that are Christ's who have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts b Phil. 4.5 Gal. 5.24 Certainly then a Christian Wife and that in a child-bearing condition is concern'd to seek that she may be endew'd with Sobriety which purgeth the Mind from Distempers and putteth the affections into an orderly frame acceptable to God and so doth morally give the best ensurance to the promises of temporal and eternal safety But more particularly 2. The special conjugal Grace of Temperance and Modesty is to be exercised by the child-bearing woman in sobriety chastity and gracefulness both with reference to her affections and senses I have warrant from the Apostle as well as the Philosophers * Wallaei Eâ—hic â— Arist l. 4. to take the word so largely as to comprehend both Modesty and Temperance Whereupon I conclude 1. With modesty she is to govern her passions and affections so that there may be only an humble appetition of due respect and an abstinence from those unbecoming An holy care as to avoid pride on one hand so ignominy and contempt on the other as well as to give check to boldness and indecency in her gesture speech and behaviour as to lightness and wantonness in any of these So that she may by a graceful deportment as much as she can in minding things venerable just pure lovely and of good report c Phil. 4.8 not with the outward adornings of plaiting the hair and of wearing gold or of putting on of apparel d 1 Pet. 3.3 shew her self to be a vertuous
women They are heart-reviving words to every drooping woman and should lead her with Sarah to judg him faithful who hath promised g Heb. 11.11 whereupon she may notwithstanding her state of subjection and sorrows be humbly confident in this great work of serving her Generation according to the will of God in child-bearing of preservation and salvation and God will lay no more upon her than he will enable her to bear and find a way for her escape either by a comfortable sanctified deliverance here or a blessed translation to Heaven to reap in joy what was sown in tears and those but temporary when the joys are eternal Further it doth administer comfort 2. To the Husbands of such good Wives i. e. such as continue in the Graces and Duties before and in their pregnancy or growing big hoping in Gods word that Root and Branch shall do well being under the blessings of the New-Covenant When they cannot but sympathize with their Wives in their sorrows they may chear up in humble confidence that the sting being took out of the punishment their Wives joys shall be encreased by the pains they undergo and that God will deliver them and hear their prayers and they shall glorifie him h John 16.21 Psal 50.15 And if after prayers and tears their dearest consorts should decease and depart from them out of their child-bearing pains Tho this be a most cutting and heavy cross in it self yet comfort may be gathered from it in the issue For indeed that 's the comfort of comforts which affords Life in Death that 's the Honey which is taken out of the dead carcase That supposing the worst which can befall us in temporals gives better security in those things which are eternal The Fruition of God in Glory is the highest end and when we and ours attain that after the serving of our Generation here according to the will of God and thereby glorifying his most sacred Majesty there is matter of geatest consolation and truest joy to holy souls In expectation of which let pious Husbands and gracious Childing Wives in their mutual Offices wait upon God with submission for a sanctified support when they stand in most need of divine aids Then such Hand-maids of the Lord may humbly hope they shall receive help in and under their child-bearing travail and in due time even a temporal deliverance supposing that to be best for them from those pains and perils taking comfort from that gracious word of the Lord by the Prophet tho spoken upon another account i Isa 41.10 with which I shall conclude Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismaid for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness SERMON XXV Quest How may we best know the worth of the SOUL MATTHEW 16.26 For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a man give in Exchange for his Soul IN the Twenty first verse of this Chapter our Saviour foretels his sufferings together with many considerable Circumstances as the Place where at Jerusalem The Persons from whom the Elders and chief Priests and Scribes The Degree unto which he must suffer not only that he must suffer many things but that he was to suffer unto death and be killed by which enumeration of so many particulars he spake more plainly and preached to them the unwelcome Doctrine of the Cross A Doctrine so strange unto them as they had shewn themselves of a quite contrary Opinion expecting a worldly Kingdom and hoping for considerable advancement in it Peter in the name of the rest therefore cavils at it and enveighs against it and was probably suffered to be tempted himself and to become a Tempter to our Saviour that he might not be exalted above measure for what our Saviour had said ver 17 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church But our Blessed Saviour who had overcome the Devils temptations when they came immediately from himself Matth. 4. could not be overcome by them now they are suggested to him by another but shews that he continued his Resolution of suffering the utmost for us by his severe check given unto Peter under a smart compellation Satan This is that very same Apostle who but a few verses before had his Name chang'd from Simon to Peter and presently after here from Peter to Satan to shew how much he and all other differ when mightily assisted by Gods Grace and Spirit from themselves when left to themselves and become as other if not worse than other men And how easily do we slide into sin at unawares and how carefully need we to watch over our very zeal for Christ and Goodness when our very best Affections are subject to so gross mistakes and may deserve such severe reproofs Upon this occasion it was that our Saviour in stead of retracting his former resolves declares that he was not to be alone in them but they should all come to be of his mind and be conformed to his Will Nay that if they would be his Disciples in deed ver 24. If any man will come after me i. e. be in deed my Disciple alluding to the manner and custom of the Eastern Countreys when the Master or Rabbi was wont to go with his Scholers attending after him he must not only forego his Ease and resign his Will but leave his life in these things denying of himself as if his present pleasure or advantage were to be considered no longer of when they stood in opposition to Gods Glory or our Souls good And this is not only or barely asserted but convincingly proved least the Disciples shall cry again this is a hard saying as if ever they had cause to say so they had on this occasion Our Blessed Saviour is willing to abide the Tryal upon this Issue and to have it judged and determin'd by themselves Appealing in the words of the Text to their rational and wise faculties For what is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul In which words as to the form of them 1. Our Judgment and Consciences are called upon being we do so often vilifie our Souls and preferr the little things of this world now one thing then another before them to shew cause for our so doing and to bring forth our strong Reasons Of all sorts and ways of arguing this came most home and is closest when we are allowed to be as it were both Judge and Party and yet must condemn our selves This manner of Speech is only used when the case is very plain and obvious And we care not who hear it or determine it Thus God calls upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah to judge betwixt him and his Vineyard Isa
5.3 His Vineyard were themselves in a Figure and God is willing the case should be referred to their own determination if they would give themselves time and leisure to think of it So Amos 2.11 Is it not even thus O ye Children of Israel saith the Lord as if God had said I call your own Consciences to witness and let them but speak they will testifie both my Mercies to you and your sins against me or as elsewhere Ezek. 18.25 Are not my wayes equal and your wayes unequal And oh that men would consider how self-condemned they must needs be for all their sins against God and all their neglects of Salvation and disregards of their Souls their sins usually go thus beforehand unto Judgment and men cannot but condemn themselves who can think but that a humble useful temperate pious Life is far better than a proud useless luxurious and prophane Conversation Would we but shew our selves men in the concerns of our Souls as we do in those of our Bodies or Estates acting with that caution and concern in the one as we do in the other what a vast change should we soon discover for all Gods Commandments are for our good and his ways are pleasantness would we but seriously view and consider them Howsoever this is that which will make the Worm to gnaw and the fire to burn the ungodly in the other World in that they have sinn'd against those notices of good and evil which they had or might have had and in that they have put no difference between their vile bodies and their precious Souls whereas our Saviour here appeals to them concerning the worth of their Souls and the worthlesness of all things comparatively besides 2. From the form or manner of expression here used by way of a positive interrogation or Expostulation What is a man profited or what shall a man give We observe that the Negation is intended to be more vehement It being usual not only in Scripture but in common speech by a positive question vehemently to deny as by a negative question vehemently to affirm any thing as by these Scriptures before quoted Amos 2.11 18. Ezek. 25. amongst many other places may appear so that the sense of these words amounts to this 1. It is most evident and undeniable that if any man could gain the whole World not that such a thing was ever done or is indeed possible but upon that supposition he would be a vast loser by it if he lost his Soul for it Because 2. There is nothing of worth or value sufficient to exchange for a Soul with all Now this Text is as it were a ballance or pair of Scales in which the Commodities therein spoken of are weighed 1. In the one Scale is layd the whole world 1 Jo. 2.16 here you may take in the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the Pride of Life or whatsoever serves for Pleasure Gain or Honour the worldly man's Trinity Abate nothing make good weight more than was ever weighed out to any one but supposed or granted only for Arguments sake Yet here is a Mene Mene writ against it it is weighed and found too light It is touched and found under value 2. In the other Scale only a single Soul is put yours or mine and that doth so far praeponderate and outweigh or outvie the whole World as that there is no comparison betwixt them nothing is of value to be given or taken in Exchange for any of them As to the former of these the World and the Glory of it Our present purpose is to take no further notice of it Sic transit gloria mundi The Moon is not worth the looking after whilst the Sun appears nor all these fading changeable things when the Soul comes under consideration Gal. 6.14 It is now expected that the World should be crucified to us and we to the World and then only we shall be able to hear i. e. to understand what our Saviour here says concerning our Souls which being my intended Subject I shall take occasion from his words to speak to these following Particulars 1. What is meant by the Soul here spoken of 2. What this Soul here spoken of is 3. In what more particularly the worth of this Soul does appear As to the first of these viz. 1. What is meant by the Soul What is meant by a Soul in the Text To mention no other acceptions of the word than such as may be accommodated to this place and our present purpose 1. Soul or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used is put for Life by a Metonymy of the Efficient for the Effect because our Life depends upon the Soul thus Matth. 6.25 take no thought for your Lives when the same word is used which is here translated Soul which well considered will give a great light into the meaning of this place For these words are looked upon as a proverbial Speech taken out of Job 2.4 All that a man hath will he give for his Life As if our Saviour had from thence inferr'd if a man being in an apparent danger of a corporal Death would give any thing or do any thing to prolong or redeem his Life how much more should a man do or part with to prevent an Eternal Death or to procure an Everlasting Life 2. The word Soul is put for the Whole Man Synecdoche Partis frequently in Scripture thus Gen. 46.26 The number of Persons that came with Jacob into Egypt are reckon'd by so many Souls as also Act. 2.41 They that were Converted by St. Peter's Sermon are counted three thousand Souls This if considered furthers our present purpose and must needs add to our esteem of our Souls for the Soul is the Man Our Souls are our selves and what by this Evangelist our Saviour calls losing of the Soul in Luk. 9.25 That Evangelist relating the same thing calls losing of our selves The Body is but the House or Cabinet the Soul is the Jewel in it the Body is but the cloathing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Soul for a while is cloathed with and must put off 3. This word Soul is taken most properly and strictly for the Form constituent and better part of Man that Breath that is breathed into him from God Gen. 2.7 when Man becomes a Living Soul And in this acception we shall take this word here in our following Discourse and are come to enquire what it is 2. What this Soul is But we shall not be throughly able to satisfie our inquiry for being all our knowledge ariseth from our Sences and there is nothing in our Understanding which was not first in one of them Our Souls not incurring into our Senses Our understanding is at a loss to frame any adaequate conceptions of them There are three things reckoned amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as cannot be known and by consequence be defined and they are
1. God 2. Angels 3. Humane Souls and this does very much set forth the Excellency of our Souls that they are only to be known as God himself or the Angels are to be known that is 1. By way of Eminency When we affirm that Being is in a more excellent manner in them than in any visible thing 2. By way of Negation When we deny those Imperfections to be in them which are in matter as Corruptibility 3. By their Effects VVhich are manifest even to our Sences so that it is as certain that we have such Souls as it is not so demonstratively certain what they are Yet we may so far define a Humane Soul as to express the Conception which we have of it I shall only set down St. Austins definition of such a Soul libr. de immortalitate animae Est substantia quaedam rationis particepss regendo Corpori accommodata It is a rational substance fitted for the government of the Body But because as it is said of God it may be said of the Soul None hath seen a Soul at any time and therefore as there are many that say there is no God So there are as many which say there is no Soul both having the same Friends and Enemies the very same affirmers or denyers I shall be more particular in several conclusions concerning this subject our Souls 1. VVe assert that the Soul is a distinct substance from the Body 1. The Soul is a distinct substance from the Body which will appear if we consider that such things as are proper to distinct substances as to dwell in the body whilst a man lives to leave the body when he dyes are attributed to the Soul and this is not the saying or opinion of some one or a few persons who though eminent might be singular and opine according to their fancies or prejudices but it hath been at all times and in all Nations as an universal tradition held undeniably by all considering and thinking men and they speak accordingly 2. That the Soul is a substance and distinct from the Body appears in that it does substare i. e. is the Subject of Accidents such as are Vertue and Vice Arts and Sciences which cannot inhere in bare matter It is not from the Body that a Man is Learned or Ignorant but from his Mind 3. The Soul is thus distinct from the Body in that it was made after the Body Thus Moses speaks of the Creating of the Soul distinctly after the forming of the Body Gen. 2.7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the Earth that is his Body which was dust and shall return to dust and then he adds he breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life His Body or Nostrils were made before the Soul was breathed into him and his Soul was breathed into him by a distinct Act of Divine Power from that which made his Body 4. The Soul of Man is a different substance from his Body because it does exist separately from the Body Though I will not say with the Platonists that the Souls of Man had a being before their Bodies Yet it is certain they continue their being after that they have left their Bodies this the wiser Heathen were not wholly ignorant of whose Testimonies as all things of that Nature upon this occasion I forbear to meddle with are full and plain in this Case It suffices us Christians that our Lord and Master supposes this as most certain in the Parable of the rich Glutton Luk. 16.19 20. in which there are no less than three instances to prove the Souls existence after the Death of the Body Abraham Dives and Lazarus and though this is indeed a Parable and Symbolical Scripture is not Argumentative Yet so far must be granted true as may make a foundation for the scope and intent for which it was spoken But what is beyond any cavil or exception Our Saviour tells the Thief upon the Cross Luk. 23.43 Verily to day thou shalt be with me in Paradise It is certain his Body was not with our Saviours that it might appear our Saviour not any other did arise God so provided that he was laid in a new Tomb in which none ever was laid before Neither could our Saviour mean that he should be with his God-head in Paradise that day for at that very instant in which he spake in that place and in all places Christ as God is present Had this man gone to Hell the words in this sense had been true but not comfortable to this dying Confessor They can only therefore relate to his Souls going to the place of the Blessed when it should that day leave its Body 2. The Soul is a Spiritual substance 2. We may advance a little further towards the knowledge of our Souls in asserting that they are Spiritual or Spirits freed from that composition and those druggs that are in matter which clogs and debase it and it is no small perfection of the Soul that it is freed from them My meaning is The Soul of man is not the Temperament libr. de immortalitate animae or Crasis of the Body St. Austin thinks that every one may easily be convinced of this in himself Quis bene se inspiciens c. Who says he considering himself does not find that he understands any thing he ponders on the better the more he can withdraw his thoughts from sensible Objects Quod si temperatio corporis esset animus non utique id possit accidere If the Soul were the Temper of the Body it would not fall out thus for bodily or sensible things would help them rather than hinder the Understanding But I shall be ingaged to a further proof of it which these following Arguments may evince VVere it only that the Soul is so often called a Spirit by God himself in his word It were a very considerable Argument to prove that it is a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Crat. When Adam gave all the Creatures Names who doubts but that those Names were suitable to their Natures And could that Nomenclature be retrived it might tell us more of Beasts and Fowls than is yet or it may be now ever will be known But when God speaks so often of a Soul under the notion of a Spirit and in many places where a Metaphorical sense will not serve the turn we cannot but know that the Soul is what God calls it as well as the Creatures were what Adam called them To name but a few Texts The wise man speaking of the Soul Gal. 12.7 Calls it the spirit and says it returns to God that gave it in contradistinction to the Body which he calls there dust and if Solomon knew the several Creatures from the Cedar to the Hysope surely he was not so ignorant of the nature of his Soul as to speak so impertinently if it be not a Spirit Nay it is one of Gods Titles Zech.
God Man is cited to meditate on and to glorify God for his Wisdom and Power which appear in them And indeed were it not for the Soul of man God should have made all the rest of the Creatures for nought Man is only concern'd in them and benefited by them and his Soul only able to bless God for them All Gods works of Creation nay and of Providence too are matter of praise so done as they ought to be had in remembrance Ps 111.4 When we contemplate or meditate upon them they afford our Souls great cause to be enlarged in our praising of several of the Attributes of God All things are Deo plena All things have a voice as well as day and night The Heavens and the Firmament Ps 19.1 2. They speak God to be Almighty and abundant in goodness they tell us as often as we view or consider them that God who made and preserves them is worthy of all our Fear and Love Service and Obedience It is only the Soul of man that is able to read hear or understand these things and therefore man for his Souls sake as the Priests had have many priviledges allotted to him by God Ps 8.6 who hath put the other Creatures generally under his feet It is sadly true that men rob God of his Honour they are entrusted with Ah whose Soul is a faithful Steward of Gods manifold gifts What Sacriledge do not men commit dayly And may we lay it to heart For God will call Heaven and Earth else to witness against us Every Creature and Providence can testifie they contained matter enough to excite our praises and to perswade our Obedience 2. Again the Soul of man is made capable to enjoy God to see God that is to know him and love him in whose presence there is fulness of joy Ps 16.11 The Sun and Planets with the rest of the spangles of Heaven know not their Maker nor what they are nor to what end they serve they how bright soever are not receptive of that light that shines into the hearts and upon the Souls of the Children of Men if compared with which their brightest beam is thick darkness were it only for our viaticum the repast we have on the road towards Heaven The Soul indeed sees here as through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13.12 and knows but in part yet this very taste is better than the full meal that any other Creature can make Yet it must be confessed that anima male habitat the Soul is uneasie in this World not only with grieves and cares but because 't is out of its place as a bone out of joynt It was made to be with God and cannot be satisfyed when it is from God But what an excellent Creature must that be whom the King of Heaven and God of Glory should thus delight to honour which God should may I speak such a word choose for his Companion I am sure we are said to have fellowship with him 1 John 1.3 VVhatsoever the Soul was before by choosing and admitting it into his presence God makes it glorious Hence it is that inferiour Creatures are satisfyed with food suitable to them they have saved their End and have gone to the utmost of their line according to the Law of their Creation to their Creators praise But the Soul of man is upon the Rack and hath a thousand torments till it answers his end Irrequietum est cor meum donec venit ad te until it brings actively some Glory unto God and comes in some measure to the enjoyment of God That Life or Soul which inferiour Creatures have keeps indeed their bodies from putrifying but man hath not animam pro Sale His Soul only as salt to keep his Body from stinking but to act and govern it that it may be an Instrument in the service and to the praise of God and by reason of this his Tongue and every Member may be made his Glory when 't is imployed to the Glory of God It is certainly a debasement of the Soul to busy it about Eating and Drinking Dressing or Undressing further than what is necessary to our preservation and our passage through this world as Pilgrims and Strangers as we think Children to imploy their Souls ill whilst they make Pyes of dirt or run after gay pubbles made up of froth or stime Only here is the difference young ones are scarce capable of knowing or doing better the wings of their Souls seem not fledged but afterwards God justly expects that we should fly higher and we are able to soar above the third Heavens and in our Thoughts Meditations and Affections to go to God to taste and see how good that he is Ps 34.8 ◠The Endeavours that are used for to gain Souls The Pretiousness of the Soul appears in the great Endeavours that are used to get it This is the standard that we value all things by What is given for them VVhat is done to obtain them Insomuch that many think there is a great indifferency in Metals and Stone c. and that opinion sets the rate on them by this Gold and Silver are esteem'd before Lead or Iron c. Now though the Soul hath an essential innate worth as appears by what hath been said Yet this if I may call it extrinsecal consideration does further prove it For 'T is mainly desired by God on the one hand and by Satan on the other and though the Devil be a fallen Angel yet he hath the greatest knowledge of the Nature and worth of things and is from thence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But 1. God endeavours to win Souls 1. Gods Endeavours this he condescends to woo and intreat for My son give me thy heart Prov. 23.26 But to be more particular though we are not able to apprehend all the means God uses for our Souls Yet so many will easily come into our view that if we were not the most ingrateful and insensible Creatures in the VVorld we could not deny our Souls to God he so loves and values them he hath done and does dayly so much for them Above all 1. God's parting with his Son and Christ with his Heart-Blood and Life for them Behold how he loved him could they say when our Saviour shed but a few tears for Lazarus but much more when he shed all the blood in his Body for our Souls VVe may well say behold how he loved them VVhen man by sin had incurr'd the displeasure and deserved the Curse and VVrath of God and that the blood of Bulls and Cattle or a thousand Bulls were too mean to atone for the least Transgression God requiring a greater price for the Redemption of a lost Soul Our Blessed Saviour cryes Lo I come to do thy Will Heb. 10.7 that is to give satisfaction and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness that these pretious Souls may not perish Christ never interposed to save the Bodies so many Thousands or
an abomination Oh bury her out of my sight says Abraham of his beloved Sarah Gen. 23.4 What do men take pains and care about What are they at cost and charge upon rising early and going to bed late but only for such things as may serve and please the Body VVhich very Body must be beholden to the Soul for to keep it from becoming worms meat and rottenness VVe might value our Bodies and their concerns as much as we do or as we list to do would it but cause us so much the more to esteem our Souls as they deserve for keeping our Bodies in a capacity for our care and kindness 6. Our Bodies follow their Condition 6. It is in the last place very considerable as to us to enhance our opinion of the Soul that our Bodies follow the condition of our Souls As our Souls are so shall our Bodies be when raised up to all Eternity and therefore St. Stephen when he was a dying commends only his Soul to our Saviour Acts 7.59 and our Saviour himself in his last breath commends his Spirit or Soul to his Father Luke 23.46 neither making any mention of their Bodies as knowing that their Bodies by consequence would be happy that they would be cared for by God and raised up in Gods time to be blessed with their Souls to all Eternity If our Souls be found unbelieving and impenitent without Gods Image and favour all the rich attire and sumptuous fare will not keep our Bodies no more than they did Dives his Body from being tormented in those flames that shall burn and none can quench them on the other side if our Souls be sanctified and accepted notwithstanding any present poverty disease or misery they shall hereafter sit with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Shall I carry this a little further it may be more home and close unto you The welfare of the Body even in this life depends upon the Soul As the case of thy Soul is so are all those very things that befal thy Body even in this world VVe judge amiss and call good evil and evil good take all things together and stay till the conclusion and you will then see that all the prosperity that befel a man his riches health friends reputation c. were all evil if his Soul be evil that is unpardoned unregenerated oh very evil Isa 3.10 11. Psal 7.11 God is angry with the wicked every day In his healthful prosperous days he hath the wrath of God the least drop whereof will imbitter all his sweets and this is mixt in the Cup and is as death in the Pot But one that hath his Soul pardoned and purged from sin by the Blood and Spirit of the Son of God All his very torments and Miseries if any such befall him are what God in wisdom hath chosen for him Rom. 8.2 8. and in faithfulness hath layd upon him they are the very best providences that God could find out for him thus to the pure all things are pure c. Titus 1.15 And now I hope that the pretiousness of the Soul being manifest although I have all a long enforc'd my Argumenes as practically as I could I may yet have room for the remaining Application which I am now come unto APPLICATION Informaâ—â—â—â— 1. If the Soul be so pretious we have heard enough to make us abhor sin for ever Sin must needs be the most mischievous thing to us It being that only which can ruine our Souls whereby only we can lose our Souls Other Evils can but bereave us of our Estates or at most of our Lives but they have no more mischief which they can do but sin does deservedly cast Body and Soul into Everlasting Fire Isa 59.2 they are only our iniquities which separate betwixt God and us not tribulation and anguish c. no loss or cross these can and do work for good but sin is such a bitter root that it can bring forth nothing but bitter fruits Sin is the Souls sickness nay its death causing a divorce betwixt it and God the fountain of its life Hence it is said to war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 and to pierce the Soul through 1 Tim. 6.10 I appeal to any whether they would not detest and oppose those that should do such things to their Bodies O fools and slow of heart to believe Luk. 24.25 If ye will not believe God who hath said there is no peace nothing truly good no Salvation to be sure to the wicked believe at least your selves who cannot but find that as sin grows stronger your Souls grow weaker and that by it you forsake your own Mercies and get Boiles and Ulcers nay the Plague in your Souls 2. This does recommend and endear our Blessed Saviour to us who is the Saviour of our Souls and the Shepheard of our Souls and therefore only it is that they do not want he washed them in his blood 1 Pet. 2.25 and quickens them by his Spirit and keeps them by his power and crowns them with his glory to them which believe these things he is pretious 1 Pet. 2.7 If ye value your Souls above the World ye will value our Saviour above all the world too for had it not been for his love and care your Souls had been the miserablest things in it 3. This commends Holiness in all its parts to us Holiness is nothing else but the right Temper and Healthful Constitution of the Soul 't is the beauty of the Soul without which 't is most deformed and loathsome in God's sight To be Heavenly and Holy is to be as God is and to have the Spirit of Glory rest upon you Heb. 12.14 nay without Holiness none shall see God For though there was no defect in the price that Christ pay'd he did and suffered till all was fulfill'd yet if we be wanting in our applying of it we may perish and it will be our sore condemnation that light is come into the World and we love darkness Colos 1.27 't is Christ within us that is our hope of Glory I must not take occasion to commend those comprehensive Graces Faith and Repentance unto you but in a word as ye love your Souls value and esteem them they are to you as tabula post naufragium a plank to get safely to shoar withal If you do not make timoâ—s use of it your Souls will be drowned and perish Everlastingly Godliness is the Souls food ye cannot live a day without it or your Souls will be weak and faint nay expire and dye It is indeed the Souls Life as Jacobs Life was bound up in Benjamins life so is the Souls Life bound up in Godliness where Godliness decays there the Soul goes down with sorrow to the Grave nay to Hell Where Godliness thrives the Soul exults and cryes out Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Luk. 2.29 nay in this world What a Feast does Godliness
make for the Soul whilst it may be the Body hath only a dish of Herbs 2. Reprehension I may then in the next place blame and bewail the folly and madness of most men who live as if they had no Souls or as if their Souls were fit only to be placed with the Dogs of the fold Like a woman I have heard of who when her house was on fire was very busie in saving of her stuff carrying out with all her might as much as she could at last she bethought her self of her Child which was left in a Cradle but when she returned to look after that she found that the fire had destroyed it and there she was first aware of her praeposterous care for her Goods before her Child running up and down as one distracted crying my Child my Child as David for his son Absalom So â—las when 't is too late all that neglect their Souls in this life will how I out in the midst of their scorching flames 2 Sam. 18.33 Oh my Soul my Soul I would I had dyed for thee my dear and pretious Soul We would have nothing bad by our good Will we would not have bad Relatives Children or other no not so much as a bad piece of Coin and how comes it to pass that men can be so content with bad Souls Thy Soul is thy self and if thy Soul be bad thou art bad thy self and how hast thou deserved so ill of thy self that thou shouldest neglect thy self and care not what become of thy Soul which is thy self Xerxes when he beheld his numerous Army wept Oh sayd he what a many here are that in a very short space must yield to Death and be devoured by VVorms It is a far sadder consideration that such multitudes of mens Souls are lost and perish Eternally and let the abounding of sin speak whether this be a causeless fear When the Apostles heard that one of them though but one was the Son of Perdition and should lose his Soul Every one of them was jealous over his Condition and cryed out Is it I Is it I Matth. 26.22 I cannot tell who particularly it is yet I cannot but know there are many sins that speak men ripe for judgment and many other sins which though they be not so notorious and visible are yet certainly as truly destructive and damnable A leak in any part of the Ship may sink it And now oh that my words might reach your hearts I speak in the behalf of your pretious Souls These words are not about trifles which you may consider or neglect as you please but as Moses said in the like case These words are your Life and no less than Life or Death Eternal depends upon your receiving of them When your Bodies are distemper'd what sending is there for a Physitian How are the symptoms of the Disease considered Or if an Estate be doubtful what counsel do we not take What cost and charge are we not at to ensure it Yet we let our Souls run all imaginable yea and unimaginable hazards without the least care to be sure without suitable care to their worth or danger and how can we any longer go for Christians or the Disciples of him who taught us here the pretiousness of our Souls and himself valued them accordingly Whatsoever we may flatter our selves with only such as are of the same mind with him shall have Salvation by him It is high time then to be Exhorted 3. Exhortation and prevailed with to suitable affections and dispositions shall I say or rather to suitable Lives and Conversations unto what ye have heard The truths that have been spoken unto are not so much speculative as practical they meet with little or no controversie in the Theory but in the practice of them The Devil knows that let men believe what they will concerning their Souls he is sure enough to obtain them and that with great advantage to a more sore condemnation if they do not practice according to what they are convinc'd of Shew then that thou doest value and esteem thy Soul according to the worth and dignity Children or Fools or Barbarous Africans preferr Beads and Toyes before Gold and real Pearls but it were folly and madness if we should do so and yet I am afraid we do worse every day Whatsoever is the price the tempter offers or perswades to sin with remember that it is for thy Soul if thou consentest and yieldest the bargain is struck thou doest what in thee lies to give thy Soul for the pleasure or advantage of the sin Judas had an ill bargain that lost his Soul and his Saviour for thirty pence though many sell their Saviour and their Souls too cheaper every day a goodly price be it what it will God gave his Son for thy Soul and entrusted thee with it and thou ungrateful and vile wretch doest barter it away for trifles You know Nathan 's Parable of the Ew-Lamb 2 Sam. 12. so tenderly beloved by the right owner of it and yet it was slain to entertain a stranger That Parable respects more than David Thou art the Man Thy Soul is the beloved Lamb and the Devil is the Stranger whom to be sure thou art no way concern'd to entertain when thou sinnest thou slayest this Ewe-Lamb to entertain and gratifie this stranger Oh that the Parallel might be carryed a little further and that some or other upon the reading of this would cry out with David I have sinned And if thou wouldest indeed value thy Soul be perswaded from what thou hast heard that all those things which concern thy Soul are far more excellent than those which concern thy Body as for instance That 1. Thy Souls riches are the best riches call'd by our Saviour true riches Considerations to facilitate this duty Luk. 16.11 Ah that any should be contentedly without them 2. The Souls pleasures are the choicest pleasures True Joy is not a superficial thing that affects the countenance and produces smiles or laughter many poor wretches in Bedlam are thus merrily mad but res severa est verum gaudium The Heart is the seat of all our Affections and so of our Joy and nothing can rejoyce that but the favour of God to the Soul 3. The Souls honour is the truest honour if honour be in honorante what honour is it to have the applause or homage of sorry sinful men But it is God that delights to honour the Soul and will put off his own glory upon it I shall say nothing to vilifie the Body which is the other part we consist of and we overprize and value it is enough to say with Bernard quantumcunque excolatur caro est Trim thy Body pamper it bestow all thy care and pains upon it 't is but flesh still t will be wormes meat and by all thy carking and caring for it thou art but preparing to feast those contemptible Creatures more delicately or if that will
He praies that the Lord would make his word effectual to cleanse and sanctifie them more and more He would have those who are given to him to be sanctified truly separated from Sin the World and carnal Self truly consecrated and appropriated to himself truly offer'd up and imploy'd for him as those who are wholly his and cannot without Sacriledge be converted to other ends and uses than those that are his 3. He prayes for perseverance that those who are given him may hold out and continue to the end in Faith and Holiness and Union with Him and the Father that they may not fall away to unbelief or profaneness nor be ever separated from him with whom they are once united ver 11. Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me c. keep them in all dangers in all assaults in all tryals secure them from Sin from Satan from the World that they may be neither frighted nor enticed from me Through thine own name the name of God is that by which he is known as we are known by our names all those glorious perfections whereby he hath made known himself unto us his Power Wisdom Goodness Faithfulness Sovereignty Allsufficiency c. He would have all the infinite Excellencies and Perfections of God all by which he is called and known engaged for the security of his People that none of them may fall away and be lost Keep them by thy Power by thy Wisdom Goodness Sovereignty Allsufficiency c. Or if we take these words for an argument wherewith he urges this Petition it is of no less force Keep them for thine own names sake for the honour of thine own name so he engages the honour of God for the security of his people that none of them may fall away and that is the greatest the strongest engagement in the World and gives the best security that possibly can be The Lord will do more for his own Names sake than for all the works of his Hands than for all that is in Heaven and Earth besides His Honour is his Interest so that the Interest of God is thereby engaged to secure the Eternal concerns of his People Those men in the World that we are not secure of and can have no confidence in otherwise yet if their Interest do engage them for us we think our selves so far sure of them Interest amongst men is the strongest obligement if they understand it and have but so much respect to themselves as to be true to it Christ by his Prayer engages the Interest of his Father his Name his Honour for the security of his People that they may not fall away and be lost and if we acknowledge him to be God we cannot in the least suspect either that he knows not what his Interest is or that he will not be true to it When it is for his Names sake or his Honour to secure his people it shall certainly be done and this is that which Christ urges in this Petition 4. He prays for Glory ver 22 24. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them It is the Glory of Christ that he is the Son of God his only Son by Eternal Generation and Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 3. Joh. 1.14 Now such a Glory will Christ have for his people something like it though in a way below it he will have them to be Sons and Heirs of God Co-heirs with himself A wonderful Glory indeed and such a degree of it as could never have entred into the Heart of man to expect or believe if the Lord himself had not given assurance of it Rom. 8.17 And if Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joynt-Heirs with Christ All that are given him he will have to be adorn'd with his own title and be accounted and called Sons of God and all that are Sons he will have to be Heirs and joint-Heirs with himself not of some meaner part of his Fathers possession but even of his Kingdom Jam. 2.5 Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in Faith and Heirs of the Kingdom c. being Heirs they have hopes to inherit Tit. 3.7 They have a Title upon this account and so hope but Christ not satisfyed with this prays also that they may have possession ver 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me that they may behold it so as to partake of it this sight will be the highest the happyest enjoyment it will be an enhappying a glorifying sight a sight that will make them who behold it happy perfectly so eternally so The sight of Christs Glory will make them glorious 1 Joh. 3.1 2. Beloved now we are the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is We are Sons that is a great Glory indeed but there is a Glory to come which is far greater so great that no expression can fully represent it to us or make it appear to be so much so great as indeed it is but this is the sum of it we shall be like him in Glory for we shall see how glorious he is The sight of our Glorious Redeemer will make us glorious like him When we are in the sight of that Glory wherewith he now shines at the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty on high to which the greatest brightness of the Sun is less than a spark we shall be adorned with his beams and so made glorious A hint hereof we have in what is recorded of Moses who when he was admitted to a nearer converse with God it is said his face shined Exod. 34.29 35. His face was horned as the word imports it appeared in such a form as the raies of the Sun appear to us his face sent forth beams like the Sun there was such a radiant Lustre such a Glory in his face as the weak eyes of mortals could not bear could not look on When we are where Christ is and see him in the brightness of his Glory which is that he prays for the sight of it will transform our Souls from Glory to Glory as the Apostles expression is in reference to that of Moses 2 Cor. 3.18 a Glory will be derived upon our Souls from his Glory and upon our bodies too that Glorious Vision will be a transforming sight and change vile Bodies so that they shall be fashioned like unto his own glorious Body Phil. 3.21 5. He prays for Vnion That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us This Union is a Mystery a great depth such as I was loath to venture on if it could have been avoided what my shallowness can say of it briefly I shall comprize in
is with the Body for these united make one person whereas the personality of the Spirit is incommunicable but that the Holy Spirit performs such Offices in a believing Soul as have some resemblance and are some way correspondent to what the Soul does in and for the Body and which the Scripture expresses in like terms and this we find frequently the Spirit is said to quicken and act those in whom he dwells they have new life and motion by his inhabitation Rom. 8.11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you The Apostle having signify'd in the former verses that our Union with God and Christ is by the Spirits dwelling in us he expresses what may be expected from this inhabitation Christ's Spirit dwelling in us will quicken our mortal bodies will be a principle of Life in them quickning them to a new Life a Life of Holiness The same Spirit as he quickens so he acts those in whom he dwells who are therefore said to be led by him ver 14. For as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God they are excited directed enabled to act like the Children of God by his Spirit dwelling in them so Ezek. 36.27 And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them the Spirit which I will put within you shall make you active in my wayes So much for the first Proposal II. What encouragement have we from Christs Prayer that this Vnion II. Observ and the Blessings relating thereto shall be vouchsafed Answ Our encouragement in general is the full assurance given us that his Prayer is prevalent for what he desired the particular grounds of this assurance are more particular encouragements There are several things requisite to a Prayer which when they concurr the Word of God assures us that it will prevail 1. When the things desired are according to the Will of God 1 Joh. 5.14 2. When the Person praying hath a special Interest in God and duly improves it There are some whom the Scripture declares God will not hear Joh. 9.31 Psal 66.18 Prov. 28.9 3. When the persons prayed for are such as the Lord hath some particular favour or respect for There are some for whom the Lord will not hear the best of his Servants interceding on their behalf Jer. 7.16 11.14 14.11 Now in the Prayer of Christ there is a concurrence and that in a transcendent manner of all those things that render a Prayer undoubtedly prevalent 1. The things that he prayed for were consonant to the Will of God in every instance He knew what was the Fathers Will in its full extent and discerned it with the greatest clearness and certainty for as he is God he is one with the Father of one and the same Essence and Will and as he is man he had in him all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge a fulness of the Spirit of Revelation so that he did perfectly apprehend what was the good and perfect and acceptable Will of God He did not only know this in particular instances by general rules of Scripture as we do but had the conduct of an Infallible Spirit and that alwaies not sometimes only and in some things as holy men of God the Prophets and Apostles had it but in every Act and Word And as he perfectly and infallibly understood what was agreeable to the Will of God in all points so he gave himself up intirely to the most exact observance of it without varying without the least shadow of mistake or deviation This was the end why he came into the World Joh. 6.38 This was his constant practice Joh. 5.30 in his Sufferings and Actings and in his Prayers this was his delight Joh. 4.34 Now since he presented nothing in his Petitions but what was his Fathers own Will desired nothing but it was his Fathers Will to grant we may be as certain that his Prayer was granted as we are sure that the Lord will comply with his own Will For the Second It will be apparent by shewing who it was that prayed and how he prayed of which take an account in some particulars 1. This was the Prayer of the Man Christ Jesus who was Holy Harmless and separate from Sinners he was a Lamb without spot or blemish and so was this Offering the pure Eye of God could see no blemish in him or it His requests were not prejudiced by any antecedent guilt nor tainted with any impure mixture either apparent or secret nor chargeable with the least defect in Fervour Faith Affectionateness c. It was a sinless Prayer in all respects and so such a Prayer as was never offered to God on Earth since the Foundation of the World and Sins entring into it It was not liable to the least exception no not at the Tribunal of strict Justice and so could not but be acceptable and prevalent Nay it was not only clear from every the least speck of sin but was the product of admirable Holiness such as is not to be found in the Holyest Soul or Spirit Saint or Angel He had it in larger measures in an higher degree and in a more excellent way Some tell us that if all the Holiness that is in all the Angels and Saints were united in one subject it would fall short of that which is in Christs Humane Nature However it is taken for granted that the capacity of his Soul was wonderfully enlarged by its personal Vnion with the Godhead far beyond the capacity of any other finite-Being and all this capacity was wholly filled with Holiness it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell and God gave not the Spirit by measure unto him Joh. 3.34 Saints and Angels receive it as Vessels of small measure but in Christ it is unmeasurable Now all this Holiness was exerted in this Prayer and diffused through it Grace in him was not acted sometimes intensely sometimes more remisly for remisness seems to import some culpable effect but was put forth on proper occasions and particularly in this Prayer in its full power and vigour Upon this account this Prayer was the Holyest Offering that ever was presented to the most Holy God either on Earth or in Heaven and therefore could not but be most acceptable to him and accordingly prevalent and succesful 2. It is the Prayer of him who is God of him who is God and Man in one person As the Blood of Christ is said to be the blood of God Act. 20. by the same reason the Prayer of Christ may be said to be the Prayer of God And though it be properly the Act of Christ's Humane Nature yet this Nature being personally united with the Godhead it is upon that ground duly ascribed to
whom Christ prayed shall obtain all the rich and glorious things which he desired Finally Here is the greatest encouragement for our Prayers that can be desired for hereby it is manifest that whatever we can beg of God which is needful for our Happiness here or hereafter it hath been already prayed for on our behalf by Christ Himself who was not who could not be denyed When we pray for our Relatives or others who are given to Christ but do not yet believe that they may have Faith When we pray for Union with the Father and the Son for the comfort improvement and continuance of this Union When we pray for pardon of sin and the purging of guilt by the grand Sacrifice of Expiation when we pray for Holiness the increase and exercise of it when we pray to be kept from the evil of the World which is all in the World we need to fear from the evil of Suffering or whatever may be destructive to our Souls in a word when we pray for Eternal Glory it is evident by the premisses that all these and what else is necessary for these purposes were on the behalf of those that do or shall believe the requests of the great Mediator who was God and Man in one Person and could no more be repulsed than God can deny Himself in a Prayer that was not lyable to the least exception from Justice or Holiness it self that was in all points exactly agreeable unto the Will of God and infinitely acceptable to the Divine Majesty therefore praying for any or all these things expressed or included in this Divine Prayer as we are required we may be as fully perswaded that they will not be denyed us as we may be confident that the requests of our great Advocate Jesus Christ the Righteous will be granted SERMON XXVIII Quest How we should Eye ETERNITY that it may have its due Influence upon us in all we do 2 COR. 4.18 While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal ETernal What a sound doth this word Eternal make in my Ears What workings doth it cause within my Heart What casting about of Thoughts what word is next to be added to it Is it Eternal World Where For this is Temporal Oh! that Eternal World is now by us unseen and as to us is yet to come But yet my trembling Heart is still solicitous to what other word this word Eternal might be prefixed as to my self or those that hear me this day when they and I who through the long sufferance of God are yet in this present and temporal shall be in that Eternal World Shall it be Eternal damnation in that Eternal World How after so many knocking 's of Christ Strivings of the Spirit Tenders of Mercy Wooings of Grace Calls of Ministers Warnings of Conscience Admonitions of Friends Waitings of Patience All which put us into a fair probability of escaping Eternal damnation O dreadful words can more terror be contained can more misery be comprehended in any two words than in Eternal damnation But we in time are Praying Hearing Repenting Believing Conflicting with Devils Mortifying Sin Weaning our Hearts from this World that when we shall go out of time we might find Life or Salvation added to Eternal Eternal Salvation these be words as comfortable as the other were terrible as sweet as they were bitter What then This word Eternal is the horror of Devils the amazement of damned Souls which causeth desperation in all that Hellish Crew for it woundeth like a Dart continually sticking in them that they most certainly know that they are damned to all Eternity Eternal it is the Joy of Angels the Delight of Saints that while they are made happy in the beatifical Vision are filled with perfect Love and Joy they sit and sing all this will be Eternal Eternal this word it is a loud alarm to all that be in time a serious caution to make this our grand concern that when we must go out of time our Eternal Souls might not be doomed down to Eternal Damnation but might obtain Salvation that shall be Eternal of which we have hope and expectation while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal The Consideration of these words may be twofold 1. Relative As they are a reason of stedfastness in shaking troubles as a Cordial against fainting under the Cross ver 16. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day v. 17. for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 18. While we look c. Not only the experience of present spiritual good in the inward by the pressing afflictions on the outward man in weakning of sin in purging away our dross in weaning us from the World in humbling us for our miscarriages in reducing us from wandring in emptying us of self-conceit in trying our Faith in exercising our Patiance in confirming our Hope in awakening of Conscience in bringing us to examine our Ways in renewing our Repentance in proving our Love in quickning us to Prayer but also the clear and certain prospect of Glory after Affliction of a Weight of Glory after light Affliction of Eternal Glory after short Affliction of a Weight of Glory far more exceeding all our present Sorrows Burdens Calamities than Tongue can express or Pen describe or the Mind of Man conceive being more than Eye hath seen or Ear hath heard or have entred into the Heart of Man must needs be an alleviation of our Sorrows a lightning of our Burdens comfort in our Grief joy in our Groans strength in our Weakness though we are troubled on every side yet not distressed though perplexed yet not in despair though under Afflictions both felt and seen yet we faint not while we keep our Eye fixed upon the Glorious things in the other World that are unseen and Eternal too 2. Absolute As they set before us the mark and scope we should have in our Eye all the while we are in time viz. unseen Eternal things you stand in time but you should look into Eternity you stand tottering upon the very brink of time and when by Death thrust out of time you must into Eternity and if in any case the old Proverb should prevail it should not fail in this to look before you leap The Analysis of the Text breaks it into these parts 1. The Objects that are before us 1. Things seen 2. Things not seen 2. The Act exerted on these Objects Looking expressed 1. Negatively 2. Affirmatively Not at things which are seen The Men of the World stand gazing at these till their
bodily Eyes yet you do with an Eye of Faith and Love and therefore may rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.8 When you look up unto the Heavens and see and say yonder is the place of my Everlasting abode there I must dwell with God there I must be with Christ and joyfully joyn with Angels and Saints in praising of my Lord and Saviour the foresight of this will make you joyful for the present and pleasant in your looking at it 10. Look fiducially at unseen Eternal things with an Holy Humble Confidence by Jesus Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the Gospel they shall be all your own that by turning from all your Sin by Repentance and Faith in Christ you trust you shall be possessed of them that when you see there are Mansions now unseen there are Eternal Joyes an Immoveable Kingdom an Incorruptible Crown the Eternal God to be enjoyed and for all this you have a promise and you know this promise is made to you by the performance of the Conditions annexed to the promise you trust in time to come unto it or rather when you go out of time into Eternity you shall be blessed in the Immediate Full Eternal Enjoyment of all the Happiness that God hath prepared in Heaven to give you wellcome joyful entertainment in that unseen Eternal World that you so eye that World while you live in this that when by Death you are going out of this World into that you might have this well-grounded confidence to say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.7 8. If you get such a sight as this as now hath been set forth before you upon such Eternal Objects as before were propounded to you you will be able from your own experience to answer the third question contained in the general case but yet I will proceed unto that branch Q. 3. What influence will such an Eying of Eternity have upon us in all we do In all we do Will its Influence be so Universal Will the efficacy of such a sight be so extensive to reach forth its virtue in all we do yes in all we do Whether we Eat or Drink or go to Sleep whether we Trade or Work or Buy or Sell. Whether we Pray or Hear or search our Hearts or Meditate or Receive or Study or Preach or Sin or Suffer or Dy it will have a mighty influence upon us in any thing wherein we are active or passive culpable or praise-worthy in any condition be it Poverty or Riches Health or Sickness in any Relation be it of Husband and Wife of Parents and Children of Masters and Servants In any Office and Imployment Sacred or Civil out of such an heap because I am limited I will take an handful and because I have not room to speak of all I will not cast them into method according to their nature connexion and dependance one upon another but take them as they come in some few particulars only 1. Such an Eyeing of Eternity in all we do would make us careful to avoid Sin in any thing we do or however we might fail in all we do yet that we suffer it not to Reign or have Dominion over us Look at Eternity with a believing Eye and you will look at sin with an angry Eye you will cast a deadly look at Sin when you have a lively look at Eternity of Joy or Misery 1. Sin would deprive me of Eternal Life therefore I will be its Death it would keep me from Eternal Rest therefore I will never rest till I have conquered and subdued it nothing in the World would bring upon my Eternal Soul the Eternal loss of the Eternal God his Glorious Son and Holy Spirit of the Company of his Holy Angels and Saints of Eternal Treasures of a Blessed Kingdom and Incorruptible Crownâ— but cursed Sin Poverty Sickness Men Death Devils cannot nothing but Sin therefore I will be its bane that shall not Reign in me that would not suffer me to live in Everlasting Happiness 2. Sin would plunge me into unseen Eternal Torments into Endless Flames and Everlasting Burnings If you could speak with a Soul departed but a Moneth ago and ask him what do you now think of the delights of Sin of sporting on the Sabbath day of your pleasant Cups and Delightful Games of pleasing of the Flesh and gratifying of its Lusts What a sad reply would he return and what a doleful answer would he make you Sin Oh that was it that was my ruine that was it which hath brought me miserable wretch to Everlasting Torment that was it which shut me out of Heaven that sunk me down to Hell O ye foolish Sons of Men that are yet in time be not mad as I was mad and do not do as I did let not the seen pleasures and profits of the World which I have found were but for a time deceive you and bewitch you the Devil shewed me the seen delights of Sin but concealed from me the Extremity and Eternity of the pain that it hath brought me to the pleasure is past and the pain continues and I am lost for ever and all this Sin hath brought me to Let your eyeing of Eternity whilst you are standing in time be instead of ones speaking to you in time that hath been in Eternity for the Eternal God doth tell you as much as any Damned Soul can tell you and would you believe one from Hell and not the Son of God that came from Heaven Oh look and view Eternity in the Glass of the Scripture and firmly believe it and it will make slaughtering work amongst your Sins and destroy that which would damn you 2. Such Eyeing of Eternity would be a mighty help to quiet your hearts under the dispensations of Providence here to Men on Earth When you look at the seen Afflictions Distresses Disgraces Stripes Imprisonments Persecutions and Poverty of the People and Children of God and the Riches Ease Honours Pleasures and the seen flourishing prosperity of the worst of Men that by the Swearing Drinking Whoring hating of Godliness being patterns of wickedness proclaim themselves the Children of the Devil and you are offended and your Mind disquieted except in this you have a better heart than Job cap. 21.6 to 16. or David a Man after Gods own heart Psal 73.2 to 16. or Jeremiah cap. 12.1 2. or Habakkuk cap. 1.13 14. Now amongst the many helps to allay this Temptation the eyeing of the last yea Everlasting things is not the least Look upon these two sorts of Men which comprehend all in the World as going to Eternity and lodged there and then you will rather pity them because of their future Misery then envy them for their present Prosperity What if they have their Hearts desire for a
moment and must be tormented for ever What if they have Pleasures and carnal Delights for a season they must be under the heavy wrath of God for ever You might stand and see all their mirth at an end but their sorrow never will have end all their joy is but for a moment as the crackling of Thorns under a pot but their misery will be endless misery Let them laugh a while they shall weep for ever let them rejoyce for a season their mirth shall be turned into heaviness their Temporal rejoycing into Everlasting howling and the Eternity of Joy will be more than a recompence to the afflicted Saints whatsoever their Sufferings for Christ and Conscience be in this World A supposed case might be an help in this Temptation Suppose then that you were poor and full of pain for so long time or rather for so short that you should fall asleep and after you awake should be poor no more nor afflicted any more but have a Life of manly delights afterwards Suppose again another man were compassed about with all manner of accommodations costly Dishes to please his Palate beautiful Objects to delight his Eyes all manner of Musick grateful to his Ears many Servants to attend him all standing bare before him and bowing the knee in Honour to him and all this and much more he were to enjoy as long as he could abstain from sleeping but assoon as he doth fall asleep he should be taken off his Bed and cast into a Furnace of boyling Lead or scalding Pitch I demand which of these two Mens Condition you would choose I know it would be the condition of the former and not the latter this and infinitely beyond this is the case in hand you are afflicted till you fall asleep and then you shall be afflicted no more but live a life of Joy for ever the Wicked prosper till they fall asleep and they cannot long keep open their Eyes but Death will come and close them then the justice of God will arrest them and then Devils will seize upon them and they shall be cast into a Lake of burning Brimstone where they shall have no rest night nor day but the smoak of their Torment shall ascend for ever and ever Exercise your thoughts in this manner and have an Eye unto Eternity and you will more easily and successfully overcome such Temptations to murmuring and discontent from the different dispensations of the Providence of God here in time to good and bad 3. Such eyeing of Eternity would have great influence for the well improvement of our time Time is to be valued in order to Eternity because we go out of time into Eternity and that which should make every Man in time most concerned out of time into Eternity of Misery or Glory Oh! what a pretious thing is Time it is beyond the worth of Gold or Silver because we might do more in time in reference to Eternity than we can do by all our Gold and Silver Jewels are but Toyes in comparison of pretious Time Many are saving of their Money but are prodigal of Time and have more of Time then they know what to do with when others find so much to do that they know not what to do for time to do it in Oh Fools and blind what were an Hundred years to make preparation for Eternity Oh sluggish careless Sots Do you ask how shall we pass away the time Might ye not with more reason ask how shall we prevent hasty time from passing away with such winged motion Or if that cannot be prevented How shall we improve our time that is so fast a posting from us Blind World Do any Men in thee enquire How shall we spend our time It is easily answered in Praying Repenting begging for Grace the pardon of Sin the favour of God and peace with Him and fitness for Eternal Life Had the Damned in Hell the time that once they had and you now have do you think they would ask what they should do to pass away the time Their cry rather is Oh hasty time whither art thou fled Why didst thou move so fast while we sate still Or why in time did we so swiftly run in ways of Sin as if we could not have sinned enough before time was past and gone When we had a God to serve and Souls to save and an Everlasting State to make preparation for we like Fools did say How shall we spend our time But now our time is spent and past and gone and now the question is which never can be answered How shall we spend Eternity which never can be spent no not in enduring Ten Thousand Thousand Millions of Years in pain and punishment for when they are past it is as fresh and as far from ending as it was the first moment it began then Eye Eternity and you cannot but improve your time 4. Such Eyeing of Eternity would make us careful how we die because Death is our passing out of time into Eternity Death is dreadful to the ungodly because it opens the door into Everlasting Misery gainful to all endued with saving Grace because it lets them in to Everlasting Happiness Did you that are yet Christless Impenitent and Unbelieving see whither you are going and where you must within a little time take up your Everlasting Lodgings what fear and trembling would seize upon all your joynts and when by sickness you perceive Death to be approaching you would cry out Oh Death forbear forbear stay thine hand and do not strike for if thou cut me down in this condition I drop into Eternal Misery there is nothing but this single thred of my frail Life between me and endless wo and if this be cut or snapt asunder I sink in to irrecoverable Misery without all hope of ever coming forth Could you but see a Soul the next hour after its separation from the Body what a taking it is in what wo what despair it is filled with would you then live without Christ go to bed without Christ and rise and trade and still remain without an Interest in Christ What mean ye sirs to make no provision for Death that is so near so very near when you are as near to going into an Everlasting World as you are to going out of this Transitory World and your Souls be dragged sooner by Devils into Hell than your Bodies can be carryed by Men unto your Graves Awake arise repent and turn unto the Lord for if you sleep on in sin till you sleep by Death you will be awaked by the flames of Hell and then though you be under the power of Eternal Death you will sleep no more and rest no more for ever And Death is as gainful and desirable to a Gracious Man as it is terrible to the Ungodly for it lets him into unseen Eternal Glory to the sight of Christ unseen to us on Earth How willing would you be to go a Thousand Miles to see
Christ and converse with him if he were on Earth it is better to see this pretious Christ in Eternal Glory it is worth the while to dy to have a view of your Lord-Redeemer in the highest Heavens Oh the wonderful transporting Joyes the Soul is filled with when it first cometh into the unseen but happy World when it hath the first Glorious view of its dearest Lord. Do you think it would desire to return to live in flesh upon Earth again Do you know what you do when you are so loth to dy Do you understand your selves when you are so backward to be taken out of time It is to be loth to go into Everlasting Happiness to go and take possession of unseen Eternal Glory 5. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make us more patient constant joyful in all our sufferings for Christs sake When we poar upon our seen troubles and do not look at rest after trouble when we see and feel what is inflicted upon us but do not look what is laid up in Heaven for us when we see the rage of men and do not look at the love of God our Hearts and Flesh do fail but if we set unseen Eternal things over against things seen and Temporal it will be strength unto us Against the power of Men which is Temporal set the Power of God which is Eternal and then you will see their power to be weakness Against the Policy of Men which is Temporal set the Wisdom of God which is Eternal and then you will see all their Policy to be Foolishness Against the Hatred of Men which in its effects to you is Temporal set the Love of God which is both in its self and in its effects to you Eternal and you will see their hatred to be no better than raging unreasonable madness Keep your Eye upon the unseen Torments in the other World and you will rather endure Sufferings in this than venture upon Sin and expose your selves to them Keep your Eye upon the unseen Eternal Crown of Glory and it will carry you through Fire and Flames Prisons and Reproaches for the sake of Christ Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward 27. by Faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible 6. This Eyeing of Eternity will be a powerful preservative against the temptations of Men or Devils a Sovereign Antidote against the Poyson of Temptation I see the Invisible God looks at me shall I then yield to the suggestions of the Devil or the sollicitations of men to sin I see there is an Everlasting state of Joy or Torment that I must be shortly in as sure as I am in this place and Satans design is to bring me to that state of Torment and if I follow him I shall be excluded from yonder glorious place from God and Christ and Saints above therefore by the Grace of God I will not yield to this Temptation but strive I will and Watch and Pray I will against the assaults of this deceitful Adversary for why should I be so foolish to lose Eternal Glory for momentary Pleasures and run my Immortal Soul into Eternal pain for short delights I do plainly see what will be the end if I do yield Damnation without end banishment from God without end I do clearly see that Stealing and Murder is not a more ready road to a place of Execution upon Earth than yielding to a tempting Devil is to Everlasting Misery 7. Such Eyeing of Eternity would wean our hearts from the things of time A sight and view of Heavens Glory would darken the Glory of the World as looking at the shining Sun over your Head doth obscure in your Eyes the things under your Feet after a believing view of the invisible God and the Glory of the place above this World would appear as a very Dunghil in your Eyes Phil. 3.7 8. as where we love there we look so the more we look the more we shall love and the more we love the Eternal things that are above the less we shall love the Temporal things that are below 8. Such Eyeing of Eternity would make us more like to God and Jesus Christ it will be a transforming and assimilating look 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Therefore when we shall see Christ who is now out of sight we shall be perfectly like unto him 1 Joh. 3.2 But we know when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 9. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would fill our Souls with Holy admirations of the Goodness Grace and Love of God to us When Paul had a sight of such unseen things he was in an Holy Extasie and Divine Rapture 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. When we consider the Eternal Happiness of Heaven we shall stand as Men amazed that God should prepare such things for such men and bear such Love and shew such Mercy to such as we that are so vile and full of sin and say Lord what am I that might for ever have howled in the lowest Hell that I should hope to praise thee in the highest Heavens Lord what am I that might have been in Everlasting Darkness that there should be prepared for me Everlasting Light and Joy Why me Lord why hast thou designed me and wrought upon my heart and made me in any measure meet to be partaker of such Eternal Glory Oh! the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out Rom. 11.33 How pretious are thy thoughts to me how great is the sum of them Psal 139.17 Oh how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee Psal 31.19 10. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would have this influence sure upon us to set our selves under a painful skilful serious Ministry It doth much concern you for you are going to an endless Life and Preaching is the appointed means to fit you for an endless happy Life then do you choose the most lively searching powerful Preaching it is for the life of your Souls for the Everlasting life of your Everlasting Souls If you were sick and in danger of Death when your Life lies upon it you would have the advice of an able Physitian that is serious and afraid that he no way become guilty of your Death Would you like that Physitian that seems to be unconcerned and cares not whether you live or dy if he might but have his fee Or that should merrily jest with you when you are sick at Heart and near to Death if you be not
cured Would you take Pleasure in his witty sayings and be jested into your Grave Or if you go unto a Lawyer about your whole Estate though it were in Leases that will expire would you choose one that you think did not care whether you win or lose your cause Would you be pleased with some witty sayings impertinent to the pleading of your cause Would you not say Sir I am in danger of losing all I am worth my Estate lyes at stake deal plainly with me and be serious in your undertaking for me and tell me in words that I can understand the plain Law by which my case must be tryed And will you be more careful about the Temporal Life of a Body that must dy and about a Temporal Estate which you must leave when you dy and not about your Soul that must ever live and never dye No! not so much as to set your selves under faithful Preachers that shall in words that you can understand plainly tell you the Laws of Christ by which you must be tryed for your Life and according to them be Eternally damned or saved 11. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make you serious and lively in all your spiritual duties in all your approaches unto God If you have no Grace the serious thoughts of the unseen Eternal World would stir you up to beg and cry and call for it if you have to desire more and to exercise what you have to confess your sins with such contrite broken penitent hearts as though you saw the fire burning which by your sins you have deserved to be cast into To beg for Christ and Sanctifying Grace and pardoning Mercy with that lively Importunity as if you saw the Lake of boiling Brimstone into which you must be cast if you be not sanctifyed and pardoned to hear the Word of God that sets this Eternal World before you with that diligent attention as Men hearkning for their Lives to commemorate the Death of Christ with such life while you are at the Lords Supper while you do as it were see the Torments you are delivered from and the Eternal Happiness by Faith in a crucifyed Christ you have a Title to it will cause a fire and flame of Love in your Hearts to that Lord that dyed for you ardent desires after him complacential delight in him thankfulness hope of Heaven hatred to sin resolution to live to or dye for him that dyed for you If your Hearts are dead and dull and out of frame go and look into the unseen Eternal World take a believing view of Everlasting Joyes and Torments on the other side of time and you shall feel warmth and heat and lively actings to be produced in you Particularly this Eyeing of Eternity would make Ministers sensible of the weightiness of their work that it calls for all possible diligence and care our utmost serious study and endeavours our fervent Cryes and Prayers to God for ability for the better management of our work and for success therein for as much as our imployment is more Immediately about Eternal matters to save under Christ Eternal Souls from Eternal Torments and to bring them to Eternal Joyes When we are to Preach to people that must live for ever in Heaven or Hell with God or Devils and our very Preaching is the means appointed by God to fit men for an Everlasting state when we stand and view some Hundreds of Persons before us and think all these are going to Eternity now we see them and they see us but after a little while they shall see us no more in our Pulpits nor we them in their Pews nor in any other place in this World but we and they must go down unto the Grave and into an Everlasting World when we think it may be some of these are hearing their last Sermon making their last publique Prayers keeping their last Sabbath and before we come to Preach again might be gone into another World if we had but a firm belief of Eternity our selves and a real lively sense of the mortality of their Bodies and our own and the Immortality of the Souls of both of the Eternity of the Joy or Torment we must all be quickly in how pathetically should we plead with them plentifully weep over them fervently pray for them that our words or rather the word of the Eternal God might have Effectual Operation on their Hearts This Eyeing of Eternity should 1. Influence us to be painful and diligent in our studies to prepare a message of such weight as we come about when we are to Preach to men about Everlasting matters to set before them the Eternal Torments of Hell and the Eternal Joyes of Heaven Especially when we consider how hard a thing it is to perswade Men to leave their sins which do endanger their Immortal Souls when if we do not prevail with them to hearken to our message and obey it speedily and sincerely they are lost Eternally when it is so hard to prevail with men to accept of Christ the only and Eternal Saviour on the conditions of the Gospel You might easily see that Idleness either in young Students that are designed for this work or in Ministers actually engaged in it is an intolerable sin and worse in them than in any men under Heaven Idleness in a Shop-keeper is a sin but much more in a Minister in a Trader much more in a Preacher bear with me if I tell you an Idle Cobler that is to mend mens Shooes is not to be approved but an Idle Preacher that is to mend mens Hearts and save their Souls shall be condemned by God and Men for he lives in dayly disobedience of that charge of God 1 Tim. 4.13 Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them 16 continue in them 2. It would provoke us to be faithful in delivering the whole counsel of God and not to daub with untempered mortar not to flatter them in their sin or to be afraid to tell them of their evils least we should displease them or offend them Is it time to sooth men up in their Ignorance in their neglect of duty when we see them at the very door of Eternity on the very borders of an Everlasting World and this the fruit that they shall dye in their sins and their Blood be required at our hands Ezek. 33.1 to 10. but so to Preach and discharge the Ministerial Function that when dying might be able to say as Act. 20.25 And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men 27. For I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God 3. To be plain in our speech that every capacity of the weakest in the Congregation that hath an Eternal Soul that
without any mixture of the contrary Quest Why is God called Light without Darkness And what is this Light I Answer 1. Wisdom is Light and Folly is Darkness 2. Knowledge is Light and Ignorance is Darkness 3. Truth is Light and Error is Darkness 4. Holiness is Light and Sin and Wickedness are Darkness So that when he saith that God is Light he means that God is Wisdom without mixture of Folly Knowledge without Ignorance or Nescience Truth without any Error or any false Conceptions in his Eternal Mind and Holiness without the least mixture of Sin so that the way to have Fellowship with God is to walk in the Light that is to say to walk in Wisdom and not as Fools to walk according to Knowledge and not in Ignorance to walk in the Truth and not in Errour to walk in the way of Holiness and not of Sin and Wickedness Now Light in men it is either Natural or Supernatural 1. Natural which is either the Light of the Body which is the Eye Matth. 6.26 Or 2. The Light of the Soul which is the Light of Reason and Natural Conscience this we are to walk in according to the utmost Sphere and extent thereof But Supernatural Light that shines from Supernatural Revelation in the Scriptures and the inlightning Spirit of God in the Souls of Men is the Light here meant in the Text and which Christians should walk in Now this is the way to have Fellowship and Communion with God as the Text saith If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another Now by one with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some say the Apostle means the Saints to whom he writes we and ye shall have Fellowship together we Apostles and ye Believers And the Vulgar Latine carries it that way and renders it ad invicem But we must rather understand that the Apostle here speaks of the Fellowship that God hath with his People and they with him And so Beza understands it mutuam habemus cum eo communionem An Ancient Greek Manuscript hath in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with him that is God and we shall have Fellowship with one another And the rather we are to understand it in this sense for the Apostle he is not speaking here of the Communion which the Saints have with one another but of our Communion and Fellowship with God as in the sixth verse If we say we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth And then he adds but if we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have Fellowship one with another I shall now proceed to speak to the Subject it self and herein shall discourse of these four Generals I. What this Communion with God is II. Give some Distinctions about it III. Shew how it is to be Attained and Maintained IV. Deduce some Consequences that follow from my whole Discourse concerning it And then conclude with some practical Application General I I. What this Communion with God is The Word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies common and so it imports something that is common and mutual betwixt God and us as Communion among men imports something mutual on each side so that our Communion with God it is either Active or Passive Active in what passeth from us to God and Passive in what is Communicated from him to us 1. Active on our part which consisteth in the Divine Operations of our Souls towards God when the faculties of the Soul are tending towards him and terminated upon him when the Mind is exercised in the contemplation of him the Will in chusing and embracing him when the Affections are fixt upon him and Center in him when by our Desires we pursue after him by our Love we cleave to him and by Delight we acquiesce and solace our selves in him 2. Passive on Gods part and so our Communion with God consists in our participation of him and in his communicating himself to us and this Communication of God to us in our Communion with him is specially in these three things Light Life and Love 1. In Light I mean the Light of Spiritual Knowledge and Understanding whereby we are inabled to discern Spiritual things Spiritually This is called Gods shining into our Hearts by the Apostle 2. Cor. 4.6 and seeing Light in Gods Light by the Psalmist Psal 36. 2. In Life whereby we are made partakers of the Life of God though in a lower degree and are no longer alienated from the Life of God as the Apostle declared the Gentiles to be Eph. 4. And by this Life of God we must understand that which the Scripture calls Sanctification For Holyness is the Life of God in Man For when God Sanctifies a Man he quickens the Soul that was dead in Sin and makes it partake of the Divine Life or the Life of God and which elsewhere is called a partaking of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and a renewing Man into the Image of God Col. 3.10 3. In Love God communicates his Love also in the sense and tast of it to the Soul which the Apostle calls The shedding abroad the Love of God in the Heart Rom. 5. So that in this Communion with God we have not only the Theory of his Love in our minds but some taste and experience of it in our Hearts And under this is comprehended all that Peace Joy and Consolation that springs out of this to the Soul and arising from the Communication of the sence of his Love to us The Apostle James expresseth this Communion with God in both the parts of it James 4.8 when he saith Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you And Christ expresseth them both also in these words John 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him He expresseth the active part of Communion with God by our loving him and keeping his Commandements and the passive part by his own and his Fathers coming to us to make their abode with us The Apostle John expresseth them by our dwelling in God and Gods dwelling in us 1 John 5.16 We dwell in God either by Faith in him whereby we make him the Object of our Trust Confidence and dependance or especially by our Love to him as he there expresseth it He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God And then Gods dwelling in us is Communion with God in the other part of it consisting in a Communication of himself to us But this Communion with God we must think soberly of it It is not a transformation of the Soul of Man into the Divine Essence and Being as if Man was made God swallowed up into him and lost his own Existence and Being in God Neither is it a mixture of Gods Being with the Being
God 1. By Sanctifying our Hearts and assimilating our Natures to the Nature of God for there can be no Communion where there is no likeness of Nature What Communion hath Light with Darkness or Fire with Water because there is no similitude in their Natures As the Elements that have symbolical qualities and some likeness in their Nature do easily pass one into the other by a Natural transmutation In this Communion with God there must be some suitableness and likeness between God and the Soul and that enmity and contrariety which is in our Natures to him must be removed by the sanctifying operation of the Holy Spirit in us 2. By elevating and raising the Soul above its Natural power and reach The Apostle distinguisheth between the Soul and Spirit in Man the Spirit is the superior part of the Soul and it is in the Spirit that we have our Communion with God who is a Spirit As the Union and Communion between the Soul and the Body in Nature is by the Superiour and most refined part of the Body which are the Vital Natural and Animal Spirits so our Union and Communion with God is by the Spirit the supreme part of the Soul and that elevated and raised by the Spirit of God above its own Natural capacity or power These are the principal wayes for Communion with God but then there are subordinate wayes which are the Ordinances and Institutions of God for that end For God hath in all ages been training up his people to this to have Communion with himself and therefore he did appoint Ordinances for that end under the Law there were Sacrifices and Altars and Solemn Feasts appointed of God especially the Sabbath-Day and a Sanctuary erected c. and all for this end that his People might therein draw nigh to him and have Communion with him And so in the New Testament God hath his Ordinances also appointed for this end as Prayer Hearing the Word Singing of Psalms Baptism and especially the Lords Supper which is therefore called the Communion as that Ordinance wherein we have a more special Communion with Christ and with God in him Quest But what is to be done more particularly on our part to obtain it and maintain it also Answ 1. In general we are to desire it and pant after it as the most beneficial and necessary thing in the World Many have it not because they desire it not They satisfie themselves in their converse with things below and the Communion they have with things sensible and natural and desire not this Communion with God Answ 2. You are to make it your scope and end in all the Ordinances you approach to to have therein Communion with God Many come to them out of custome some out of curiosity and others in hypocrisie and so find not that Communion with God which else they might obtain if they did make it their great scope and end David testifies his great longing that he had after the Sanctuary of God but it was for this end that he might there meet with God and have Communion with him as he expresseth it in the Psal 27.4 One thing have I desired of the Lord to dwell in the House of the Lord that I may see the Beauty of the Lord and enquire in his Temple And again Psal 63. O God my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth for thee that I may see thy Power and thy Glory as I have seen thee in thy Sanctuary which is in effect that he might there have Communion with God But to speak to this more particularly 1. If we would have Communion with God we must keep up the exercise of Faith in Christ for it is as I said by him that we have all our Communion with God therefore Christ had his Name Immanuel given to him which signifies God with us Let Faith look upon God as in Christ and so we may behold him reconciled we may behold him coming down to us in our own Nature we may behold him upon a Throne of Grace and as entred into a Covenant of Grace whereby we may with a greater freedome and boldness have access unto him which is the active part of this Communion with God and through Faith in Christ God also communicates himself by his Spirit to his People in Light Life and Love which is this Communion in the passive part of it The Apostle 1 John 4.15 saith to this purpose Whosoever confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God This Confession is an act of Faith and if it be not only from the Mouth but from the Heart it leadeth the Soul into this Communion with God expressed in our part by our dwelling in God and on Gods part by his dwelling in us 2. Keep up a dayly exercise of Repentance that so no new Sin nor the Guilt of it in the Conscience may hinder and interrupt our Communion with God For who can say his Heart is clean He is pure from sin and therefore there is need of dayly Repentance that sin may not interrupt our Communion with God which it will do if we abide impenitently under it The Apostle speaks in this Chapter of Fellow-ship with God and here in the Text and afterwards adds If any man say he hath no sin he deceiveth himself So that this Communion with God may consist with the Being of sin but not with impenitence under it and therefore adds If we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive it and we know that Confession of Sin is one great part of Repentance and when Sin is thus confessed and forgiven it need not hinder our Fellowship with God The Apostle also mentioneth in my Text Fellowship with God and the cleansing of us from sin by the Blood of Christ both these are put together so that to maintain this Fellowship with God we must be cleansed from sin which is done meritoriously by the Blood of Christ but on our part upon the Conditions of Faith and Repentance 3. Keep up a constant course of Prayer and praising God 1. Prayer Prayer is a special Ordinance for Communion with God and therefore so much commanded in Scripture Pray without ceasing saith the Apostle in one place Pray all manner of Prayer in the Spirit as he speaks in another place For if it be not a Prayer in the Spirit accompanied with Faith and fervour of Soul we may pray and yet have no Communion with God Prayer is compared to incense but it doth not ascend to Heaven but in the Fire of Holy Affection kindled by the Spirit And Christ therefore propounded several Parables to put men upon Fervency Faith and Perseverance in Prayer which are so well known that I need not mention them If the Soul draws nigh to God in any Duty it will be this And so Gods drawing nigh to the Soul is experienced to be much in this Duty of Prayer Christ himself
had his Transfiguration from Heaven and the Glory of God shining forth upon him while he was praying as you read Luk. 9.29 And the experience of the Saints can much witness to this what visits of Light and Love they have had and transfiguring views of Heavenly Glory in this Duty of Prayer And then 2. Keep up a constant course of Praising God Praise it is the great Ordinance of Heaven for Communion with God in a State of Perfection and as we are able to reach it in our present State it will raise the Soul into Communion with God The Soul is in its highest Operations when it is praising God and the higher the Acts of the Soul are the nearer it doth approach to him who is the most High God 4. Keep your selves pure Though by Purity I mean not an absolute Purity but watchfulness against all Sins and Temptations Resisting every Sin Living in no sin and a continued endeavour to mortifie all Sin in our selves The Purer the Soul is the fitter it is for Communion with God The promise of seeing God is by our Saviour made to the pure in Heart Matth. 5.8 and with the pure God will shew himself pure saith the Psalmist Psal 18.26 And the Apostle James speaking concerning this Communion with God James 4.8 which he expresseth by our drawing nigh to God and his drawing nigh to us adds this Exhortation Cleanse your hands ye Sinners and purifie your Hearts ye double minded And the Apostle Paul speaks to the Corinthians of the same thing 2 Cor. 6.16 17. and thereupon adviseth them to keep themselves pure What Communion hath Light with Darkness Righteousness with Vnrighteousness c. and therefore be you separate and touch no unclean things saith the Lord and I will dwell and walk in the midst of you Under the Law God appointed Porters to keep their Watch at the Doors of the Temple that nothing might enter in to defile that Temple which was his dwelling place The Soul is to be Gods Temple for him to dwell in and therefore we should watch against whatsoever may enter in to defile our Souls whereby we may be fitter dwellings for him and for Communion with him And the Priests under the Law were commanded to purifie themselves before they drew nigh to God in his Temple Yea and the People also before they came to the Passeover and those folemn Feasts wherein they did draw nigh to God they were to purifie and cleanse themselves And the very Heathen before they entred their Solemn Sacrifices would have their Cryer to proclaim to the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy things are for Holy Persons And they would write this Inscription over the Doors of their Temple Nemo immundus huc ingreditor Let no unclean Person enter in here And all their Lustrations and washings they used to the Living and their purging Fires which they dream'd of for Souls after Death and which are still kept up in the Holy Water and Purgatory of the Romish Church do confirm the truth of this Notion as that which is ingrafted in the minds of all Men that purity is required as necessary in all our approaches to God and Communion with him 5. Let God be much in your Thoughts and in the view of your Mind not only when you approach some solemn Ordinance but in the whole course of your actions when you go forth and come in when ye lie down and rise up Let the Creatures you converse with the several dispensations of Divine Providence towards you present God to your Thoughts and the view of your Minds For how can Men that have seldom any Thoughts of God maintain any Communion with him Our Communion with God is not as it is with Creatures in a sensible way but it is by the inward Thoughts and Exercise of the Mind which therefore we ought to be frequent in We should with David Psal 16.8 Set the Lord alwaies before our face and not as he that he speaks of Psal 10.4 of whom it s said God is not in all his thoughts This is rather to live without God in the World than to live in Communion with him And these Thoughts of God should not be slight and transient but fixed and serious especially at some times which we should more peculiarly denote to solemn Meditation Meditation brings the Object nearer to the Soul and the Soul near to it though locally distant unites the Soul to it mixeth it self with it whereby it doth possess it or is possessed of it 6. Practise Self-denyal for he that abideth in himself and liveth in and to himself liveth at a distance from God God and Self are as two Opposite Terms we must forsake the one if we would approach to the other When Man first fell from God he fell in with himself and therefore must forsake himself if he would return to God and have Communion with him There is a twofold Self-denyal One is Internal when we can deny our selves in all high Thoughts of our selves Confidence in our selves all self-ends self applause self-sufficiency and do even annihilate our selves this is highly requisite to our Communion with God Self is that Dagon that must fall before Gods Ark that Idol that must be cast out of the Temple of Mans Soul that God may enter in and dwell there Then there is a Self-denyal that is external which God sometimes calls his people to in Order to Communion with himself As to forsake Father Mother House Land Liberty c. and all this in order to the receiving the hundred fold in this Life as our Saviour hath promised which they shall receive in this Communion with God An eminent instance of this we have in Galeacius Caracciolus who left his Countrey Kindred Estate Honour that he possest at home to enjoy Communion with God in the purer Ordinances of the Reformed Church at Geneva and being tempted by Gold and Silver to return answered His Money perish with him that thinks all the Gold and Silver in the World worth one days Communion with Jesus Christ He found all that he had left an hundred fold in this Communion he had with God and Jesus Christ 6. Walk in Love This I add because our Apostle doth so much insist upon it in this Epistle Love is an Affection requisite to all Communion To Communion with Saints among themselves and to Communion with God For God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4.16 And this mutual indwelling is this Communion I am treating of The Philosopher saith of Love it doth transferr amantem in amatum it carries the Soul from home to live and dwell in the person or thing beloved It is vinculum Vnionis the band of Union and all Communion is founded in Union And therefore where there is no Love how can there be Communion and where Men do not walk in Love how can they walk in Communion with God If Christians
what it is to be led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 XXVII for Serm. XXV What advantage may we expect from Christs Prayer for Vnion with himself and the Blessings relating to it John 17.20 21. XXVIII for Serm. XXVI How should we eye Eternity that it may have its due influence upon us in all we doe 2 Cor. 4.18 XXIX for Serm. XXVII How may we most certainly get and maintain the most uninterrupted Communion with God Joh. 1.7 Serm. XXVIII What is the best way to prepare to meet God in the way of his Judgments or Mercies 1 John 12.28 Serm. XXIX How may a gracious person from whom God hides his face trust in the Lord as his God Psal 42.11 Serm. XXX How are the Religious of a Nation the Strength of it Isa 6.13 Serm. XXXI Whether it be expedient and how the Congregation may say Amen in publick Worship Neh. 8.6 ERRATA PAge 108. lines 43 44. beginning at these words It should c. must be made the 3d and 4th lines of page 109. Page 116. l. 30. for offences r. offenders p. 152. l. 12. dele while ibid. after displeasure you insert do not p. 177. l. 3. for only r. duly ibid. l. 35. r. Tell me First ibid. l. 42. r. Secondly Do you p. 180. l. 27. r. Father p. 192. l. 44. insert not p. 421. l. 14. for early r. easily ibid. l. 30. for forced r. found p. 422. l. 21. for injuries r. iniquities ibid. l. 32. for scene r. scope ibid. l. 36. for wet r. rub p. 424. l. 2. for lakes r. leakes ibid. l. 24. for conceived r. conveighed ibid. l. 32. for them r. thence ibid. l. 42. for why r. who p. 425. l. 35. for Family r. Faculty so also p. 433. l. 36 p. 427. l. 38. for inducers r. induces p. 432. l. 30. r. old boots p. 434. l. 35. r. Thurvey p. 495. l. 38. dele All ibid. l. 41. for External r. Eternal ibid. l. 42. for Externity r. Eternity p. 496. l. 31. for Owenesse r. Onenesse p. 506. l. 27 for Yet r. Yea p. 506. l. 28. for Chetir r. Chetiu p. 510. l. 27. for Interception r. Introrecâ—ption p. 511. l. 33. for be r. are p. 512. l. 8. for 't is God that r. ' t is That God ibid. l. 12. for whence 't is r. And ibid l. 23 after of r. Reason p. 513. dele said p. 514. l. 5. after Rules r. of natural Reason p. 519. l. 1. for Correspondeâ—â—y r. Transcendency ibid. l. 4. for without it r. about it p. 521. l. 28 29 for by Impression r. Iâ—â—ell and p. 1019. l. 16. add them after distinguish p. 1025. l. 12. dele 1. p. 1035. l. 28. after Christ add so Quest How is the adherent Vanity of every Condition most effectually abated by Serious Godliness SERMON I. ECCLES VI. 11 12. 11. Seeing there be many things that encrease Vanity what is man the better 12. For who knoweth what is good for man in this Life I Began my Morning-Exercises with this comprehensive Case How to be in all things at all times exactly Conscientious and the Supplement with this How to attain and improve such Love to God as may influence all the Graces Actions and Passages of our Lives and now I would fain direct you How to prevent or cure the Vanity that is incident to every Condition Solomon upon the review of his Life the Honours Pleasures Wealth and Wisdom he had so abundantly enjoyed the many observations he had made of things natural moral domestical civil sensual and divine the curious critical enquiries he had made after true Happiness and what contribution all things under the Sun afford towards it at last demonstrates the utter insufficiency of all things meerly worldly to make us happy In the first six Chapters of this Book he shews wherein Happiness doth not consist confuting the vain Opinions of all sorts of irreligious Persons and in the six last Chapters he shews wherein it doth consist rectifying the Judgment of all those that seek after it In this Chapter is continued a further description of the vanity of Riches and Honours and Children and long Life c. And in these two last verses he takes up a general Conclusion of all the precedent Vanities Since there are so many things that increase vanity what is man the better for all of them Considering our ignorance we do not know what is best for our selves many and great things do but distract us and if we did know and could obtain what is good for us we can enjoy these things but a little while and what will come to pass hereafter we know not To make every Condition as easie as 't is possible I shall endeavour to discuss this Question How is the adherent vanity of every Condition most effectually abated by serious Godliness You will all grant that Solomon was the fittest man that ever lived to find out the very quintessence of Creature-excellencies and to extract what was possible to be extracted out of worldly Vanities he doth upon both his own impartial Scrutiny and the infallible guidance of the Holy Ghost give you the total Summe at the head of the account Eccles 1.2 Vanity of vanities Vanity of vanities i. e. extream vanity This he demonstrates by an induction of particulars but to dispell as much as 't is possible that vexation of Spirit that steams from such multiplication of Vanity he doth upon his own experience and the Holy Ghosts direction commend this Prescription at the foot of the account viz. Serious Godliness Eccles 12.13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments c. And do it now as you will wish you had done it when you come to Judgment For the discussing my Question I shall lay down these Propositions Prop. I Every Condition is clogg'd with Vanity All things that men generally set their Hearts upon are Vanity Vanity is that which seemeth to be something and is nothing 't is a shadow empty without substance unprofitable without fruit if you put any confidence in it 't will not only deceive you but hurt you we are loth to think so more loth to believe it every one hath a kind of unaccountable confidence about the things of this world that if they might but be their own Carvers they doubt not of an earthly happiness whereas they cannot but be mistaken For 1. God never made the World nor any condition in it to be a place of rest and satisfaction and since Sin hath so far marr'd the Beauty of the Universe there 's a judicial Vanity upon the whole Creation Rom. 8.20 Now men must needs fail of their expectation when they look for that in the Creature that God never plac'd there as if we could mend the works of Creation and Providence I confess 't is ordinary for persons to attempt it and to glory in their Atchievments e. g. God made man only to have
to do the Church and World and the Concerns of Gods own Name more Service than we can yet discern 3. In their Course for Remedy and Redress David here after his Self-Enquiry and Arraignment applies himself to hope in God to which he argues and confines himself by the revival of a due sence of God upon his own Spirit and a clear representation of God to himself as his Salvation Praise and God this for the Text. Let us now compare the Case therewith and here the Gracious Soul is supposed to be upon the Enquiry and Search what to do when God hath hid his Face therefrom that he may trust in the Lord as his God Now Hope and Trust are oft Synonimous and taken in Holy Scripture as expressive of the same thing and sure I am that though they may be distinguished yet they cannot be divided each from other No Man can Trust but he must Hope nor Hope but he must Trust in God Lay then the Case and Text together and these things will be Evident 1. That the Gracious Person is concerned in both 2. That God some way or other hides his Face from both 3. That God is yet the God of both and therefore to be eyed and owned as such by both 4. That Hope or Trust in God gives the best relief to both when thus Afflicted if fixed in God as their God 5. That this may be done and must 6. The great Enquiry and Concern of both is How they may be done Let me here Premise these things First A Gracious Person is one that is changed and actuated by the Grace of God and so prevailingly bent and set for him Psal 14.3 One formed and framed after that gracious Pattern from the Gospel-Mount Tit. 2.11 15. Ephes 4.23 24 A Man of Holy Gracious Principles Dispositions Conversation and Designs A Man radically after Gods own Heart and formed to fulfil all Gods Wills relating to him in his Sphere and Province He is as David in the Text One that 1. Well Observes and much Converses with his own Soul In all Varieties and Stages of Conditions here he makes his own Soul his continual care and study and strictly minds how all things go at home you see here David is a strict Enquirer into the Temper Case and Cure of his own Soul He is One that 2. Still looks higher then himself in all that happens to or lies upon him He knows his hopes and business are not confined within himself For he takes himself to be concerned with God as well as with his own Soul 3. He is One that is restless and sensibly uneasie to himself till he look up in God and till his Spirit turn towards him he runs not to Debauching Recreations and Diversions to turn away his Troubles nor to the Blandishments and Protections or supports of the World or Flesh For these he knows will rather cheat and stupifie than refresh compose or heal his wounded Spirit But he repairs to God as to the most delightful and sure Sabbatisme and satisfaction of his Inner-Man 4. He is One who therefore hath the highest thoughts of God and thinks it best and safest for him to place his Confidence in God as in the Rock of Ages His Case he thinks cannot be desperate though never so intricate and frightful whilst God may be engaged by him to be his Friend and God 5. He is One that in his Hopes and Exercises still keeps his Eye upon the Praise and Service of his God for all the Reliefs and Mercies which he Desires Requests and Hopes for have both their meet and chearful references to Gods Praise and when he hath cause and opportunity he hath an Heart to Praise his God and 't is his greatest Aim and Pleasure and Ambition 6. He is One that deals impartially with himself about his Troubles but dares not challenge God about them nor Arraign him about even the severest of his Providential Dispensations Secondly God may be called the God of such a Gracious Person as he is 1. That God to whom he is Devoted Psal 50.3 23. and resolved to serve and please Thou hast avouched the Lord this Day to be thy God to walk in his Ways to keep his Statutes Commandments and Judgments and to hearken to his Voice Deut. 26.17 And as he is 2. That God in whom he places all his felicity and satisfaction Psal 73.25 26. and the health of my Countenance my Portion Lam. 3.24 the gladness of my Joy Psal 43.4 And as he is 3. That God who hath by Covenant Engaged himself to be his God 2 Sam. 7.24 For he hath given his heart and hand so to be the God of such a One as never utterly to neglect them here 1 Pet. 3.12 Rom. 8.28 31 39. Nor to reject their Souls hereafter Heb. 11.16 See Isa 41.10 Heb. 6.17 20. Rom. 2.10 2 Cor. 5.1 9. Thirdly Gods hiding of his Face from a Gracious Person must be considered as to 1. The Phrase 2. The Thing 1. As to the Phrase 1. It is Scriptural Job 34.29 Isa 54.8 59.2 and it frequently occurs in Sacred Scriptures 2. It is Metaphorical and allusive unto Men who are said to hide or turn away their Faces when they will not be seen or spoken to or conversed with in any amicable or serviceable ways whether in design and policy or through distast strictly God hath no Face and so cannot be said to hide it and if you take Gods Face for his presence or his appearance manifested by several Instances and Symbals and Tokens thereof then in some respects Gods Face is never hid for both his Works and Providences declare the Universality and Nearness of it and in some respects again it may be hath been and is hidden continually from some or other 2. As to the thing therefore we are to understand by the hiding of Gods Face his removing or with-holding of all or any of those Notices and Tokens whereby his merciful and delightful Presence with us his gracious acceptance of us to his Favour and his Providential regards to us are usually testified even sensibly to us Isa 64.7 Jer. 18.17 I will hide my Face from them and they shall be devoured and many Evils and Troubles shall befal them so that they will say in that Day are not these Evils come upon us because our God is not amongst us And I will surely hide my Face in that Day Deut. 31.17 And now this is done in several ways and sences As 1. By Banishing gracious Persons from his Sanctuary-presence Psal 63.2 Dan. 9.17 And this was Davids Case and a sore Affliction to his Spirit and may be something of but not the main thing as to the Case in hand 2. By the intermission or suspension of Gods Providence Care and Mercies as to those Instances and Effects which would make our Lives and Courses here more sweet and easie to us Psal 44.22 26. Why hidest thou thy self in times of Trouble Psal 10.1
How long wilt thou forget me Lord for ever How long wilt thou hide thy Face from me How long shall I take counsel in my Soul having Sorrow in my Heart Daily How long shall mine Enemy be Exalted over me Psal 13.1 2. Thus is God said to hide his Face from the House of Jacob Isa 8.17 And thus when Providence treats and uses us in this World and most or all our outwards Comforts and Concerns are so perplext embittered and removed as if our God would hereby tell us That he regards and minds us not and will not be concerned for our outward peace and welfare Then is it that God may be said to hide his Face yet neither is this the thing that is principally intended in my Case 3. By Gods denying and with-holding all probabilities and presages of relief from either Men or Things and all sensible intimations of his own purpose to befriend us Psal 74.9 11. I will shew them the Back and not the Face in the Day of their Calamity Jer. 18.17 And I hid my Face from them and gave them into the hand of their Enemies so fell they all by the Sword Ezek. 39.23 Thus when God withers every helpful Arm defeats all Enterprises towards deliverance and supports and shuts up every Door of Hope and by the whole visible Frame and Posture of second Causes looks towards us and upon us as an angry frowning God Then is he said to hide his Face but this is not what the Case principally respects And therefore 4. God mainly hides his Face when he with-holds those inward sensible tokens of Respects which his Spirit usually affords to Holy Souls Psal 88.14 when he deals with us as if our Souls were utterly or very much despised and neglected by him Thus God tells us that he will no more hide his Face from his People because he had poured out his Spirit upon the House of Israel Ezek. 39.29 This is the Face of God indeed when his Spirit fills our Souls with all its Joys and Graces and his Face is hid indeed when we have no sensible Refreshments and Recruits from that Comforter the Holy Ghost by whom all Correspondencies must be maintained betwixt our God and us and thus our Case mainly intends We find a Man recorded for his Patience crying out wherefore hidest thou thy Face and holdest me for thy Enemy Job 13.24 and when looks God more like an Enemy then when he denies all sensible illapses and recruits of inward Light and Life and Joys Is it not dreadful to have our Sanctuary clusters to relish of no Blessing in them The Dews of Heaven are oft in Holy Services and Doctrines distilled upon us and our Addresses thither have been oft repeated and renewed but where is the Blessing and Success we look for Our Souls we find in our own Apprehensions to be contracted degraded and benummed Corruptions rage and make their rude resistances to all our Sentiments and Convictions Conscience oft quarrels with us and when Gods Rods are on us we sensibly discern great discomposures in our thoughts strange Mutinies and Tumults in our Passions uneasiness in our Spirits and damp upon our Hopes sadness on our Hearts and a strange readiness to resist all that God speaks and doth and how can we imagine that Gods Heart and Face stand toward us Fourthly Trusting in the Lord as his God in such a Case as this takes in abundance and amounts to much and these things it offers to the first observant and considerate glance 1. That the Object be trusty and no otherwise can he be who is God the Lord. 2. That the Act be answerable to the Object for trust is to run paralel with trustiness and 3. That this trusty Object gives us allowance to put trust in him for every one that is able and that would be faithful upon his Promise and Engagement will not Engage to be Responsible for what might otherwise be committed to him and hence this passage is inserted here the Lord his God 4. That he be a Person qualified and acceptable who here attempts to place his trust in the Lord as his God and therefore here he is styled in the Case a Gracious Person Trust then seems to be a compound of Faith and Hope and it is that Repose and Rest which both afford until desire and expectation be accomplished by that God on whom this trust is terminated so that in trust there are 1. A belief and sence of Gods existance and of his gracious Nature Heb. 11.6 Jer. 9.24 Mich. 7.18 for I must believe that there is a God and that he is kind and gracious e're I can trust in him 2. Credit given unto his Word and Promises as things clear sure and great Heb. 4.2 6 17 18. for these are both the ground and test of steady and succesful trust in God 2 Sam. 23.5 Remember thy Word unto thy Servant whereon thou hast caused me to Hope Psal 119.49 what is Gods Ability and Faithfulness to me unless he countenance my trusting in him and encourage me thereto 3. A consequent expectation of those things from him which he engages to perform and give things suitable to exigences and concernment as far as they agree with Gods Promises and Designs Psal 119.76 Ro. 4.18 21. 1 John 5.14 15. For all that God promises and would have us to expect is still with Reference to our wellfare in its subordination to His Glory and the Publick Good and all other Hopes are but extravagant and presumptuous if not reduced and conformed to this Test and Standard 4. An Acquiescence and Repose of Spirit in the thus fixing of this expectation Isa 26.3 4. for confident trust breeds satisfaction and makes Souls Patient and Serene till the thing hoped for and desired be brought to pass Ro. 8.24 25. for all these inward tumults which arise within from pressing Jealousies Griefs Cares and Fears are hereby stilled and all vain Shifts and Props rejected and all committed to and left with God Phil. 1.20 1 Pet. 4.19 2 Tim. 11.12 for here no reservations must be made nor any jealousies bad surmises or suspitions be any way Cherished or Indulged The Case explained and summed up is plainly this How may a Gracious Person one Sanctifyed and Inprincipled by Grace from whom God hides his Face gives him but little or no inward sence nor outward sensible notices of his wonted acceptance and regards trust in the Lord quiet and satisfie himself with expectations of Gods Gracious acceptance of him complacence in him and regards towards him as his God that God to whom he hath committed all and is devoted to and who will certainly regard and bless him as his true Favourite and as one by Grace in Covenant with him And how may he do it so as to abandon all disturbing Shifts and Cares elsewhere Direct I. Let him retire into himself and there Compose his Thoughts for close and serious Work Psal 4.4 77 6.
thee unto the prejudice of thy best affairs and that he never be defective in ministring those supplies to thee which his own Glory the credit of Religion the publick Good and the great Duties of thy Place and Station do require And that he never call the out to any thing beyond thy Strength and Furniture but that he suit thy Strength and Spirit unto the Work and Burthens of thy Place and Day 1 Cor. 10.13 God will not be offended at thee for such trust as this supposing thy devotedness and thy due diligence and prudence in the choice and using of all meet Subordinate means and helps and thy fervent cryes to him 3 Think upon those Encouragements which God hath given to this trust Isa 26.3 4. Psal 112.7 thou hast Gods Promises and Engagements Heb. 6.17 18. 2 Pet. 1.3 4. Heb. 10.23 24. Psal 119.75 76. and these are certain suitable large and precious and the genuine product of infinite generous and resolved Love Thou hast those near and dear Relations which God hath assumed and owns to thee an Husband Father King c. Isa 54.5 10. 2 Cor. 6.18 Rev. 21.7 Thou hast the exhibition of his own Son Jesus Christ Heb. 10.19 23.4 14 16. 2.17 18. John 6.39 40. 1 Pet. 1.3 21. Rom. 8.32 35. Thou hast the earnest of the indwelling Spirit Eph. 1.13 14. 2 Cor. 5.5 and of that new Nature which he hath formed and cherished in thee as in 2 Tim. 1.7 Rom. 8.15 23 28. thou hast a sealed Covenant with Sacramental confirmations and experiences of prosperous trust both in others and thy self Psal 9.10 Rom. 15.4 Dan. 3.28 Heb. 11. Do then as David did Infer from known experience all that may strengthen regular Confidence for thus did he Psal 32.7 10. and thus did Paul 2 Cor. 1.8 10. The Lord is my Shield and Strength my Heart trusted in him and I am Helped Psal 28 7. And thou hast the Glory of thy God concerned in the prosperousness of thy Trust Ephes 1.12 Rom. 4.20 And now to close up all Why such manifold Encouragements to Trust in God if they were either Vain or Needless And how can any keep up their Trust in God without their deep and sober Thoughts about and their intent and most deliberate Pauses on these weighty things upon Record which God hath left to Justifie and Encourage your Trusting in him It is both Strange and Sad to see many Christians come to their Ministers with Complaints or put up Bills for Prayers in Congregations and to desire Solemn Days to be set apart for them whilst they rest only here as if they looked to be comforted and supported by some Charm or Miracle they look to be healed by a Word and they neglect their own Work they do not search into themselves that they may know whether or no the Grace of God hath made them capable of Trusting in the Lord as their God They bring not their Calamities and Dejections to the Test that they may clearly know under what hand of God they are cast and how far God hath hid his Face from them and how far not God enters not into their close and serious Thoughts that they may plainly see and know what there is in him to draw their Spirits forth to Trust in him Nor will they studiously revive that Sence of God upon themselves whereby their Trust in him may be Engaged Establish'd and Emboldned and yet they cry What shall we do to Trust in the Lord as our God Why Sirs I will tell you what to do 1. See that your Interest in God be cleared up this you may know by the prevalency of your Desires Pursuits and Satisfactions and by the Practical Resignments of your selves to him 2. See what this Interest in God refers viz. Nothing is desperately lost at present and all will be well at last and that all lies safe that can concern you see Psal 23.1 4. The truth is all that can be grateful great and sure may be inferred from hence 3. Accommodate and apply what you infer as skilfully and faithfully as you can to your distressing and discouraging Case and Circumstances there are Histories to tell us what God hath done and there are Doctrines to tell us what God is and can do and there are Precepts and Instructions to direct us what we are to do in what Cases upon what Grounds and Reasons and to what Ends and Purposes we may Trust in God and God hath given us marks to know what Interest we have in him and a Directory and Helps to get it if we have it not and he hath shewed us fully and plainly what it is and what at last it will amount to to want or have this Interest in himself and when as we have gotten it he hath taught us how to apply it fitly and how to bear our Spirits up in Hope and Trust thereby and after all this and much more shall we be negligent and lazy and cry out like Fools and Drones We know not how to Trust in God nor whether he be Ours or not let us not thus abuse our selves 4. Think on these Means and Helps whereby we may attain to an Ability and Faculty of Trusting in God and let them be most Faithfully improved such as the Word Sacraments Sabbaths Conferences Meditation upon the Word and Works of God but these need no Enlargements on them and my Limits are transgrest already READER Expect not Accuracy here I am very sensible of many Imperfections in this Sermon I am separated from my helps having my Bible only and my God to help me in my wandring Solitudes and Retirements these things are what I have discoursed with my own heart and if some Censure them others I hope will Pity and Pray for me and the God of Heaven accept and prosper these though weak Endeavours I had some Inferences prepared but because I would not be too tedious I forbear to add them so as to Enlarge upon them I will but mention these 1st Infer Hence it follows That Humane Souls are Excellent and Capacious Principles and Beings 2d Infer Graceless Sinners are under dark and dreadful Circumstances when God Afflicts and hides his Face from them they need not say Why cast down so much but rather why not more 3d Infer Excellent is the Temper and Condition that Grace puts Mens Souls into in that they are enabled prompted and directed to such ways to know and help themselves 4th Infer Right and due Thoughts of God do mighty Service to the Gracious Soul in all the Eclipses and Distresses that do or can befall it Psal 42.11 Infer I. Mans Soul is a Noble and Capacious Being Mark 8.36 37. It is called by Solomon the Lamp or Candle of the Lord searching all the Inward parts of the Belly Prov. 20.27 It is the great Treasure that ought to be kept and used well for out of it are the Issues of Life Prov. 4.23 Its Joys
and Bitternesses lie deep within it self and they are not be intermedled with by Strangers Prov. 14.10 The Countenance of a Man is but the Index of his Spirit 't is in the Soul that Joys and Sorrows Center and Seat themselves Prov. 15.13 Many Infirmities or Distresses may easily be undergone by a sound Heart but if the Spirit it self be wounded how dreadful are its Wounds Prov. 18.14 The Spirit of Man is Gods Vicegerent and a great Mirrour of himself and as it Accuses and Condemns when it well understands and minds it self so it is the Vail and Representative of its God unto it self in Rom. 2.15 1 John 3.19 21. It can you see both Summon in and Search it self It can both Challenge and Discourse it self It can Command Reprove Exhort Encourage Enlarge Restrain it self It can Arraign its Temper Principles Purposes Actions Sufferings and Designs and make it self Inquisitor Judg Jury Witness and Executioner to it self It can look every way and make both Heaven and Earth good things and bad some way or other Serviceable to its own Concern and turn all the Memorials and Notices of its God to Self-improvements and Relief It is capable of Moral Government and of full Joys and Sorrows Congenial with its Contracted Principles Temper and Behaviour here It is capable of Converse and Communion with its God of Grace and Comfort Heaven or Hell It can perceive its own Distresses and Concerns Enjoy the best things and Improve the worst and so Consider all things as to Accept Refuse Approve Condemn and so resolve upon or wave a matter as it sees to be most fit nor needs it to truckle under any thing but Guilt and Wrath when plunged thereinto by its own Folly and Neglect The Text here shews you what the Soul of Man can do and if it be replyed That David's Soul it was Gracious and that Grace only brought it thus to be Disciplined and Tutoured by it self 'T is Answered That Grace can have no such effects on Stones and Bruits which Grace and diligent Care might make good use of And all Souls might do thus with and by themselves did they not by Sin degrade themselves For all Souls have Imperative Directive and Active Powers Infer II. Graceless Sinners are under dreadful Circumstances when Troubles comes upon them Rom. 2.8 9. Isa 50.11 57.20 21. 10.3 33.14 For when their Miseries surprise and overflow them should they then say Why so disquieted and cast down They have that within them which will rather say Oh why disquieted no more seeing there is so little ground of Hope from God 1 Thes 5.3 All is so Vile and Foul within them and all so Frightful and Amazing to them whether they look within about them or above them as that the greatest wonder is How they escape Distractions Souls so neglected and degraded and every way Devoted to the Will and Service of the Devil Such manifold and mighty Sins abounding in and from them and such great Wrath to be Inflicted on them such clear and numerous Presages of fearful Storms approaching towards them such an Inhabitant and Tyrant as Satan to make them do be lose and slight even any thing but what they should A God so much Incenst against them and every way so Resolved and Engaged to Ensnare and Ruin them And their own Spirits amidst all this so much estranged from uneasie in so frightful to and so much at variance with themselves so as that they never can be Reconciled to themselves again Why should not these Souls be disquieted and cast down when Troubles come upon them like Messengers with these heavy Tidings from the God of Heaven That they shall see his Face no more What Succour Hope or Refuge hath the Dejected Soul but God What Sanctuary is there for it in its Storms and Chases but the All-sufficient Jehovah And how can Mercy and Redresses be expected from him whom they can no way comfortably call their God whilst as yet unconverted Persons They have neither Encouragement nor an Heart to seek him acceptably and successfully Prov. 1.24 31. Their present Troubles are but the Harbingers and Foretasts of Eternal and Unmixed Wrath to come Providence serves the Writ and gives the Summons Conscience confounds and holds the Prisoner fast under the seizures of Gods Providence Justice draws up the Bill against them and Vengeance fixes them to their Wracks and they have nothing left them but their Fearful Expectations and Reproaches Heb. 10.26 31. Deut. 32.37 Let these Men Read Job 18.7 21. 27.8 9. Infer III. Excellent is the Case and Temper of Gracious Souls in 2 Cor. 1.12 Phil. 1.20 Isa 41.10 17. A good Heart within them A clear Way before them A good God for them A good Understanding of their Case and State And such Encouraging Refreshments and Supports so ready for them at their Call when truly needful to them What greater requisites than these can we mention and propose unto our selves to render our Condition easie safe and happy here What need we more to calm and cheer up our disturbed Spirits with Rom. 8.31 39. 2 Cor. 12.7 9. The God! my God! the health of my Countenance and One that yet is to be praised by me And therefore One that I must fully and may safely Hope in Why may not these things bear a Gracious Spirit up and quicken and embolden it to bid defiance to all Attempts which Earth or Hell can make to ruin and unhinge it The Gracious Soul as such is fit for any thing and it is Entitled to the greatest Blessings from its God and in due Season shall possess them what God by Grace hath made and brought it to renders it fit for Gods great Blessings and Supports And what God promises it may safely trust to and confidently relie upon The Text here shews you what the Gracious Soul can do it can restrain it self from its immoderate Sorrows by its faithful dealing with it self and by making a right Judgment upon whatever doth at any time befal it and as there is something in it apt to raise Storms and vexatious Resentments of its Pressures and Afflictions So are there certain Principles and a Seed of God within them and that in God above them and before them which will not always suffer their Sorrows and Dejections to transgress their stated Bounds and Rules because the composed and still Soul is fittest for Communion with God Hope in him Service to him and Consolation from him See here how narrowly David observed himself How skilfully he discoursed himself how powerfully he restrained himself and how readily he could and did Enlarge Encourage and Exalt himself you may discern in him that Grace will not admit of nor Countenance any unfit Reflections upon God it will not fall heavily with its Censorious Carpings upon his Providence nor in an Angry Pet of Frowardness and Impatience fall out with him It threatens no Revenge to Evil Men it