is proper to the divine nature is attributed to the humane and contrarily that which is proper to the humane nature is attributed to the divine so here in the soul's union with Christ Christ is made sin for us and dealt with as if he were a sinner we are made the righteousness of God in him and priviledged as righteous persons Christ's riches are ours and our poverty his yea more the offices of Christ are attributed to Believers (l) 1 Pet. 2.5 they are an holy and a royal priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ and Christ hath made (m) Rev. 1.6 us Kings and Priests unto his father Christ hath a stock of created grace 't was for us (n) Joh. 1.16 2 Tim. 2.1 of his fulness have we all received and grace for grace The Apostle bids us be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus What shall I say is Christ the natural Son of God they are the adopted Is Christ the beloved Son of God Believers in their measure are so too They are dead with Christ buried with Christ risen with Christ sit together in heavenly places with Christ fellow-heirs with Christ In short as there never was such another union in the world as the union of the two natures in Christ So there never was nor ever can be such another union in the world as between Christ and the believer It is beyond what any metaphors from art or nature can fully express That of a Foundation and Building of a Vine and Branches of Head and Members of Soul and Body are but dark shadows of this union But I must not enlarge 2. Communion with God Communion consists in communication (o) Cum res unius sit alterius when there is a kind of community of propriety I might run over the former particulars and enlarge them but the subject is not so barren that I need name one thing twice Christians I beg of you that you would be careful of receiving because I can be but brief in delivering a few hints of the communication of divine love between God and us e. g. (p) 2 Pet. 1.4 God communicates the divine Nature to us through his fulfilling exceeding great and precious promises We make returns as those that are born of God in obeying his commands Because God loves us he communicates unto us his communicable properties of holiness wisdom goodness Seeing we have nothing to return we prostrate our selves at his feet ingenuously acknowledge our unholiness folly and badness God and the Soul holds communication in all gracious actions God communicates strength to the doing of those things which he cannot do (q) Through his perfection not defect but we must to repent believe obey God these are our actions through his strength Again we exercise our graces upon God for those his actions which we cannot do but we may through his covenant engagement with humble thankfulness say he must e. g. for the pardon of sin speaking peace to the Conscience giving out of gracious influences c. for these we admire God we praise him rejoyce in him Once more in those things wherein we can make no return to God but may to others for God's sake our love to God necessitates us to do it e. g. God pities us is merciful and kind to us God is infinitely above all such returns Ay but so are not the Members of Christ who are the best visible Image of God in the world I 'le give them not only my alms but my very bowels c. In short in this communication God and the gracious Soul have the same interest drive on the same design the advancement of Christ and the Gospel have the same friends and the same enemies They communicate secrets to each other none but the loving Soul knows the secrets of divine love and none but God hears all the secrets of the Soul without a reserve Among the dearest friends in the world there 's some reserve Some things we 'll rather speak to a stranger than to our dearest bosome-friend we think them not fit to mention or we are loath to trouble them but there 's none of this between God and the Soul God tells us all that may benefit not overcharge us we tell God all the very worst of our own hearts which we are ashamed to mention to those that most love us God deals with us according to our capacities our bottles would break should God over-fill them but we deal with God according to the utmost of our active graces God is both compassionate to pity and pardon what 's no way acceptable and even incredibly condescending to accept of what none but his infinite grace would accept 3. Familiar love-visits When God makes sad visits to the disquieting of Conscience and the breaking of our peace yet even then the Soul under trouble of Conscience would not change its spiritual trouble for the best of the worlds peace no not for its former peace with which 't was so well pleas'd before conversion the Soul that loves God cannot construe that to be a visit which others count so The Soul never goes to God as we go to visit those we care not for that we are glad at their being from home so the visit be but pay'd we care not Pray compare some passages in that Song of loves one while you have the Spouse enquiring of Christ (r) Cant. 1.7 Tell me O thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flocks to rest at noon for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy Companions q. d. Tell me O Lord my love and life where I may have both instruction and protection in an hour of trouble lest through thy absence I be seduced by those that only pretend to love thee Christ gives a present answer and quickly after returns an invitation O my dove (s) Cant. 2.14 that art in the clefts of the Rock in the secret places of the stairs let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely q. d. O my mourning dove that darest not stir out of thy secret place stir up thy faith hold up thy face with comfort let me hear thy prayers and praises though others censure them I esteem them though others count thee deformed thou art in my eyes beautiful Here 's something of affection but see more (t) Cant. 4.16 Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits q. d. O my Lord what I have from thee I return to thee accept I beseech thee the fruits of obedience and praise Christ presently accepts the invitation (u) Cant. 5.1 I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my Myrrh with my Spices I have eaten my Honey-comb with my honey I have drunk up my Wine with my Milk eat O friends drink
taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Again O let not the Lord be angry and I will speak (z) Psal 89.7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him Methinks that passage of Christ to his Disciples with the circumstance of time when he spake it just upon the most servile action of his life may for ever keep an awe upon our hearts (a) Joh. 13 12 13. Know ye what I have done unto you Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well for so I am When God deals most familiarly with us as with friends let us carry it reverently as becomes servants 3. Obedience to the commands of God and to those commands which would never be obeyed but out of love to God (b) 1 Joh. 5.3 For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous e. g. to obey those commands that are unpleasing and troublesome Those commands that thwart our carnal reason and so part with things present for the hopes of that we never saw 1 Joh. 2.5 nor any man living that told us of them Whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected hereby we know that we are in him Once more hear what Christ saith He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self unto him Joh. 14.21 23 And again if any 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 4. Resignation of our selves to God whereby we devote our selves wholly to God to be wholly his (e) quoad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be every way disposed of as he pleaseth (f) 2 Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead And that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them c. This resignation is like that in the conjugal relation it debars so much as treating with any other it as it were proclaims an irreconcileable hatred to any that would partake of any such love God doth not deal with us as with slaves but takes us into that relation which speaks most delight and happiness and we are never more our own than when we are most absolutely his 5. Adhesion and cleaving unto God in every case and in every condition (g) Psal 63.7 8. in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoyce my soul followeth hard after thee Methinks we may say of the law concerning (h) Deut. 22.6 birds what the Apostle saith of the law concerning oxen doth God take care of birds for our sakes no doubt 't is written to instruct us against cruelty but may we not learn a further lesson the bird was safe while on her nest our onely safety is with God Now to cleave to God in all conditions not onely when we fly to him as our onely refuge in our pressures but in our highest prosperity and outward happiness when we have many things to take to whence the world expects happiness this is a fruit of great and humble love this demonstrates an undervaluing of the world and a voluntary choosing of God this is somewhat like heavenly love 6. Tears and sighes through desires and joys when the spiritual love-sick soul would in some such but an unexpressable manner breath out it's sorrows and joys into the bosom of God Lord why thus loving to me and why is my heart no more overcome with divine love those that never receiv'd so much from thee love thee more O I am weary of my want of love O I am weary of my distance from God! O I am weary of my unspiritual frame we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life i Here when the heart is ready to dye away through excess of love 2 Cor 5.4 't is passionately complaining of defects Dear Lord what shall I say what shall I do what shall I render O for more endearing communications of Divine love O for more answerable returns of love to God! Thus much of effects as to God The onely effect I shall name as to us is a seeking of heaven and things above with contempt of the world and all worldly excellencies One that loves God thinks he can never do enough in heavenly employments A person that abounds in love to God is too apt to neglect secondary duties which are in their places necessary they are apt to justle out one duty with another e.g. those duties wherein they have most sensible communion with God bear down lesser duties before them whereas could we keep within Scripture-bounds and mind every duty according to it's moment then this is an excellent effect of divine love e. g. to be afraid of worldly enjoyments lest they should steal the heart from God yet at the same time not to dare to omit any worldly duty lest I should prove partial in the work of Christianity To make conscience of the least duties because no sin is little but to be proportionably careful of the greatest duties lest I should prove an hypocrite such a carriage is an excellent effect of divine love this is fruit that none who are not planted near the tree of life can bear Mutual effects are these and such like as these 1. Vnion with God Union is the foundation of communion and communion is the exercise of union The Spirit of God is the immediate efficient cause of this union and faith is the internal instrument on our part but love is the internal instrument both on God's part and ours (k) Eph. 3.17 Christ dwells in our hearts by faith we being rooted and grounded in love This union is most immediately with Christ and through him with the Father and Holy Ghost It is an amazing and comfortable truth that our union with Christ does much resemble the personal union of the two natures in Christ I grant 't is unlike it in more considerations because of the transcendency of the mystery but yet there 's some resemblance e. g. the Humane Nature in Christ is destitute of it's subsistence and personality by it's union with and it's assumption to the divine so the gracious soul hath no kind of denomination but what it hath from its union with Christ It 's gracious being is bound up in its union with Christ Other men can live without Christ but so cannot the gracious soul Again in Christ there 's a communication of properties that is thâ—t which
comprehends both the Vegetative and Sensitive part To love God with the soul is to subject all those works that pertain to an Animal life unto the love of God Plainly and in short it is not enough to love God in our Will but we must not admit any thing contrary to the Love of God in our sensual delights Whatsoever sensualists do for the gratifying of their lusts and desires let those things be drained from the dregs of sin and consecrate them all unto God Whatever use wicked men make of their souls in a way of hatred of God we must make the contrary use in a way of loving of God And then Thou must love God with all thy Soul What it is to love God with all the soul we must be ready to lay down our lives for God d Origen if any one should be ask'd what in all the world was most dear unto him he would answer his life for life-sake tender Mothers have cast off the sence of Nature and fed upon their own children It is Life that affords us being sense motion understanding riches dominions If a man had the Empire of the World he could enjoy it no longer than he hath his soul in his body when that is gone he presently becomes a horrid Carkass or rather a loathsom dunghil Now then if a man love his Life so much why should he not love God more by whom he lives and from whom he expects greater things than this Life God is the soul of our soul and the life of our life he is nearer to us than our very souls e Acts 17.28 in him we live and move and have our being He that doth but indifferently weigh these things will acknowledge that it is no rashness to call that man a Monster that loves not God how then can we think of it without grief that the whole world is full of these Monsters almost all men prefer their Money or Pleasures or their Honours or their lusts before God So oft as you willingly break any Law of God to raise your Credit or Estate you prefer the dirt and dust of the world before God Alas what use do's a wicked man make of his soul but to serve his body whereas both soul and body should be wholly taken up with not only the service but the love of God Then may you be said to love God with all your souls when your whole Life is filled with the love of God when your worldly business truckles under the love of God the love of the dearest Relations should be but hatred when compared with your love to God When you eat and drink to the glory of God sleep no more than may make you serviceable unto God when your solitary musings are about the engaging your souls to God when your social Conference is about the things of God when all acts of Worship endear God to you when all your Duties bring you nearer to God when the love of God is the sweetness of your Mercies and your Cordial under Afflictions when you can love God under amazing Providences as well as under refreshing Deliverances then you may be said to love God with all your Souls What it is to love God with the mind 3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Mind though Anselm take this for the Memory that we should remember nothing whereby we are hinder'd in our thinking of God yet generally this is taken for the understanding and so the Evangelist Mark expresly interprets it when he renders this Command in these words f Mark 12 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy understanding to love God with our Minds is to have the understanding moved and commanded by the love of God to assent unto those things that are to be believed and to admit nothing into the understanding which is contrary to the love of God g Cajetan h Origen nihil cogitantes vel proferentes nisi ea que Dei sunt The Mind should let nothing go in or out but what payes tribute of love to God there 's one interprets the word by the Etymology of the word Mind from Measuring i Mens dicitur a metiendo c. Avendan The Mind must be so full of love to God that love must measure all our works k 1 Cor. 10 31. When we eat we should think how hateful it is to God that we should indulge our Palat and thence shun Gluttony when we drink we should think how abominable Drunkenness is in the sight of God and thence drink temperately l Rom. 14.8 so that whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords our Life and our Death must be measur'd by our Love to God We must love God with all our Mind What it is to love God with all our mind we must alwayes converse with God in our Minds and thoughts our thoughts must kindle our affections of love Love to God makes the hardest Commands easie while our thoughts are immers'd in love to God love to Enemies wlll be an easie Command the keeping under of our Bodies by Mortification will be an easie work Persecution for Righteousness will be a welcome Trial love will change Death it self into Life There 's another word added by Mark which indeed is in Deut. 6.5 whence this is taken Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength now because this word doth not express any other species or power of the Soul but only notes the highest and most intense degree of Love that flows from all the Faculties of the Soul I will close this Enquiry with a Word of this We are to love God with all the Powers of our Soul with all the members of our Bodies Our understandings wills inward and outward Senses appetite speech whatever we have whatever we are must be all directed into the Love of God and into Obedience flowing from Love You commonly hear that of Bernard the cause of loving God is God himself and the only measure is to love him without measure We must love God strongly because with all our strength our love to God must get above Interruptions no threatnings calamities or discommodities whatsoever must pull us away from God but that all the Powers of Soul and Body must be taken up into his service that our Eyes beholding the wonderful works of God the Sun Moon and Stars the clear evidences of his Divinity we may be in love with him that our Ears piously hearkning to his Instructions may be in love with him that our Mouth may love to praise him our Hands to act for him that our Feet may be swift to run the way of his Commandments that our Affections may be withdrawn from Earthly things and deliver'd over to the love of God that whatever is within us it may be bound over to
under his burden and wouldest forbear to help him thou shalt surely help with him Doth God take care for Oxen for mans sake doubtless this is written and so it appears plainly in the text Thou shalt surely help with him thou shalt bring it back again to him it was to be done not only in mercy to the beast but in love to the man Besides how can we think that God would require us to bring back a straying Ox and to relieve an Asse oppressed with his burden and lay no duty on us to a Man in such a condition doubtless if we are bound to bring back an Ox that goeth astray we are much more obliged to bring back a Man when we find him going astray from God and if we are to help an Asse that lyeth under his burden much more a Man when we see him oppressed with His. We see then whom we are to account our Neighbour any man whomsoever Friend or Enemy that lives nigh to us or at a greater distance from us 2. We come now to speak of the second thing propounded and that is the lawfulness of a mans loving himself Every man may yea it is a Duty lying on every man to love himself This may seem strange when we see self-love every where branded in the Scripture so that there is hardly any sin described in so black a character as this It is a sin indeed that includes many others in the bowels of it we may say of it James 3.6.8 as the Apostle James doth of the tongue It is a fire a world of iniquity it is an unruly evil full of deadly poison Unbelief and self-love are the immediate parents of all the mischiefs and abominations that are in the world and therefore we have this set in the front of all the evils that make the last times perillous 2 Tim. 3.1.2.3 In the last days perillous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false-accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God c. And if you can find a larger catalogue of abominations than you have here set down to your hand self-love is the mother of them all it is this that makes all the stir that is in the world It is this that disturbs Families Churches Cities Kingdoms in a word this is the grand Idol that is set up to be worshipped all the world over greater by far than Diana of the Ephesians Act. 19.27 whom yet all Asia and the world were said to worship It is that Idol which every man must endeavour to take down for until that be done we shall find little peace within our selves or quietness among men Notwithstanding this we must say that it is lawful and a duty incumbent on every man to love himself There is a two-fold self 1. A natural Self 2. A sinful Self This is to be hated the other loved We cannot hate sinful self too much though it be to the destruction of it this is that which we are bound to kill mortifie and utterly destroy Christ came into the world purposely to help and assist us in the destruction of it 1 John 3.8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil But we may lawfully love natural self soul and body because these are the works of God and therefore good He that came to destroy the works of the Devil came to save the soul and body Luke 19.10 the works of God The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost 1. A man may love his own body and is bound to preserve the life of it no man ever yet hated his own flesh Eph. 5.29 Mark 5.5 1 Kings 18.28 We read indeed of one out of the tombs who was day and night in the Mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones and of the Idolatrous Baalites who sacrificed to the Devil and not to God that they cut themselves after their manner with knives and launcers till the blood gushed out upon them but who in his right wits ever did such a thing or where did God require it at any mans hands The Lord forbids the Israelites to make such barbarous cuttings and manglings of their flesh after the manner of the heathen because they were his servants Lev. 19.28 A man may sin against his own body many ways as by excessive labour neglecting to take necessary food or physick intemperance and the like He that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body 2. A man may and ought chiefly to love his own Soul Every mans care should be that it may be well with his better part both here and hereafter And to this purpose it is every ones great concern 1 To get into Christ who is that ark in which only Souls can be safe They who after all the calls invitations and beseechings of God in the Gospel will persist and go on in impenitency and unbelief are murderers of their own Souls and their blood will be upon their own heads He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul Prov. 8.36 all they that hate me love death 2. John 15.4 Prov. 19.8 He that hath closed with Christ must endeavour to abide in him by putting forth fresh and renewed acts of Faith He must feed daily on the promises which are the food of his Soul and look to it that he keep alive the grace which is wrought in his heart The new nature or spiritual self is the best self we have and should be most of all loved by us They that have the charge of others Soules are a Part of their own charge Take heed to your selves and to all the flock Act. 20.28 They who are under the inspection of others must look to themselves also so John chargeth that Elect Lady and her Children Rom. 14.12 to whom he wrote his second epistle ver 8. look to your selves As Pastors must give an account of their flock so every sheep of the flock must give an account of himself Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God Quest If love to our selves be not only lawful but a duty why is there no direct and express command for it it in the Scripture 1. Answ (f) Nunquid est ullus hominum qui non omnia quae facit vel salutis suae vel certe militatis gratiaÌ„ facâ—at Omnes enim ad affectum a que apperitum utilitatis suae naturae ipsius magisterio atque impulsione ducuntur Sâ—lviâ—nus contra Avar. lib. 2. Prov. 22.3 Heb. 11.7 Mar. 3.6.7 Joh. 8.59 There is no such need of an express command for this Though the Law of Nature since the fall be very much defaced and obscured that much
of that which is our duty is hardly discerned by us yet there is no man whom the light of nature doth not move to love himself we find a Law of self Preservation stampt upon the whole creation of God it is plainly to be seen in all the Creatures whether animate or inanimate and in man in a special manner To this end God hath placed affections in mans Soul that he might use them as feet to carry him forth readily to that which is good and from that which is evil or hurtful to him Hence it is that when any thing is represented as good there is not only an inclination to it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pursuing of it when evil and destructive there is not only an aversation but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flight from it It is said of the prudent man that he foreseeth the evil and hideth himself and of Noah that being moved with fear he prepared an ark And even Christ himself who was altogether void of sin when they sought to destroy him withdrew himself as he did hide himself at another time when they took up stones to cast at him thus he did till the hour was come John 10.18 when he was to lay down his life according to a command that he had received from the Father 2. Although there be no direct and express command saying Thou shalt love thy self yet all the Commands of God do vertually and implicitely enjoyn it No man can comply with that first and great command of loving God with all his heart (g) Diligere Deâ—m est diligere se ergo cum precipitur ut Deum diligâ—mus praecipitur eidem operà ut no metipsos dilâ—â—â—mus Davenantius Psal 19.11 but in so doing he loves himself because in the fruition of God is a mans greatest happiness The like may be said of every other commandment in proportion for as it is good in it self so it will be found to be good for us David had experience of it when he said that in the keeping of them there was great reward And when he prayed that as God was good and did good he would teach him his statutes Yea all the promises and threatnings in the book of God do suppose that man May and Should love himself in the Promises God sheweth us something that is good for us and so draweth us to himself by the cords of a man when he Threatens he shews us something that is evil and bids us fly from present wrath or wrath to come whether he threatens or promiseth it is that we chuse the good and refuse the evil I have set before you life and death Deut. 30.19 blessing and Cursing therefore chuse life It is the will of God that every man should make the (h) Non tam Lex tibi ô homo qâ—à m tu Legi adâ—ersaris â—â—ò 〈◊〉 p o 〈◊〉 est tu conâ—ra illam â—ec contra illam tantùm â—ed eâ—iam cont a re Salv. de Guber Dei lib. 4. Luk 18.19 best choice for himself and every man doth so when he is regulated in it by the will of God the sum which is this that we love him above all and our neighbour as our selves 3. We come now in the third place to lay down four short conclusions about our love to God our Neighbour and our selves 1. Conclu The first is this that as God is to be loved above all things else so he is to be loved for himself There is none good but one that is God None originally independently essentially and immutably good but he and therefore he only is to be loved for himself It was well said by one of the Ancients (i) Bernardus Causa diligendi Deum Deus est modus sine modo diligere The cause of loving God is God himself The measure is to love him without measure 2. Conclu That Creatures may be loved according to that degree of goodness which God hath communicated to them not for themselves but for God Prov. 16.4 who made all things for himself As all waters come from the Sea and go through many places and countries not resting any where till they return to the Sea again So our love if it be right hath its rise in God acts towards several Creatures in due manner and measure but rests in God at last bringing into him all the Glory of that goodness which he hath derived to the Creatures 1 Cor. 10.31 Whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God We may neither love our selves nor our neighbours for our or themselves (k) Amor fruendi quibuscunque crea uris sine amore Câ—eatoris non est à Deo August contra Jul. lib. 4. but for God that God in all things may be glorified I do not say that in every act of love we put forth it is necessary that we actually mind the glory of God but that our hearts be habitually disposed and framed to glorifie God in all 3. Conclu No man can love himself or his neighbour aright while he remains in a state of sin until a man come to himself he cannot love himself or any other man as he ought the reason is manifest from what was said before l Amor Dei quo pervenitur ad Deum non est nisi à Deo Patre per Jesum Christum eum Spiritu Sancto August contr Jul. lib. 4. Gal. 5.22 Eph. 6.23 He doth not he cannot love either in God and for God when the Prodigal came to himself and not till then he said I will return to my Father Love is a fruit of the Spirit and therefore is never found in any who are destitute of the Spirit The grace of Love flows from Faith and therefore the Apostle prayed for the Ephesians that they might have faith and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ 4. Conclu The most gracious souls on earth though they may and do love God themselves and their Neighbours truly and sincerely yet by reason of the relicts of corruption in their hearts there are many m Qualis est fidei habitus talis est charitatis si fideihabitus esset perfectus Charitatis habitus esset etiam perfectus Camero 1 Thess 3.10 defects in their love to God and much inordinacy in their love to themselves and to their Neighbour As there is always something lacking in our Faith so also in our love We come now to the Question How ought we to love our Neighbour as our selves For the resolution of this question we shall first lay down these two general propositions 1. In the same things wherein we shew love to our selves we ought to shew love to our Neighbour 2. After the same manner that we love our selves we ought to love our Neighbour First In and by the things that we do and may shew love to our selves we ought to shew love to others It is not possible to enumerate all the
Metaphor being taken from the plethora or excess of any humor in the body And our Lord adds the reason of this caution for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth The sense seems this all these lower things which man 's covetous heart doth so much lust after are not the matter of our fruition and satisfaction but Vse only therefore our life doth not consist in the abundance of them but in an ordinate love to and moderate use of them to use them in that measure and with that mediocrity as becomes them whence they who make them the chief matter of their fruition and satisfaction are possest with a predominant love unto them This is exemplified in the following parable of the rich man specially v. 18. all my fruit and my goods He calls them his goods as they were the main object of his complacence and delight so v. 19. I will say to my soul i. e. I will then recreate and satiate mine heart with mine acquired goods whence it follows take thine ease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recreate refresh thine heart acquiesce in them Poor man he had felt sufficient anxiety sollicitude and vexation in the acquirement of his Goods but now he hopes the fruition will crown all with sweet repose rest and satisfaction Thence he adds eat drink and be merry The last term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be merry seems to refer to all manner of sensual pleasures in which voluptuous luxurious persons take so much complacence and delight this fruition of and complacence in worldly goods our Lord doth express in plain naked terms in the reddition of the Parable v. 21. so is he that layeth up treasure for himself i. e. in worldly goods which he makes the main object of his satisfaction and is not rich towards God i. e. and doth not make God his treasure and chief matter of fruition Complacence and satisfaction And what is this but rank predominant love to the world 7. Prop. To be afflicted and troubled for the loss of any Creature-comfort more than for the loss of God and things spiritual denotes predominant love to the world As our love is such is our sorrow for the loss of what we love Immoderate Affliction for the loss of any worldly thing argues Inordinate Affection to it when enjoyed and if the heart be more afflicted and troubled for the loss of the creature than for the loss of God it is a sure sign that the enjoyment of it did more affect and please the heart than the enjoyment of God This was Israel's case Isa 17.10 11. Where the prophet compares the state of Israel in her Apostasie to a curious Lady that delighteth in beautiful flowers choice fruits and pleasant plants But he concludeth the harvest should be an heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow Now this desperate sorrow or deadly pain as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth for the loss of her pleasant Idols argues predominant love to them This also was the case of the young man Luk. 18.23 And when he heard this i. e. v. 22 that he must part with all his riches for a treasure in heaven he was very sorrowful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was sorrowful in a superlative degree for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in Composition signifies which is not as some conceive a preposition but Adverb intending the sense And what filled him with this extreme desperate sorrow Why surely thoughts of parting with his goodly treasure which he valued and loved more than treasures in Heaven They that cannot support themselves under the privation of any temporal good God calls for but choose rather to part with Heaven than with their beloved Idol are under predominant love to the world But here to obviate mistakes we must distinguish 1 between a predominant Principle or Habit and a prevalent Act of love to the world as 2 between a Rational and Passionate love or Sorrow 1. One that loves God may under a fit of Temptation be under a prevalent Act though not under a predominant Principle or Habit of love to the world 2. Hence his passionate love to and sorrow for the loss of some temporal good may be greater under some distemper of heart when his rational love to and sorrow for the loss of God and things spiritual is greater at least in the root and habit if not in the Act. 3. Qu. What it is to love God Sect. 4. What it is to love God This Question receives much Evidence and Light from what precedes touching Love to the world For Contraries illustrate each other and love to God moves in the same manner as love to the world moves So that to love God is to transfer the Actions and Passions of our Love from the world to God as our last end and chiefest Good In short the love of God implies a superlative preference of God above all lower Goods Luke 14.26 A Divine Weight or Bent of heart towards God as our Centre Deut. 6.5 It s proper Acts are chiefly two 1 An amorous vehement direct motion towards God 2 a complacential fruition of and Repose in God as its Best Beloved Psal 116.7 As for the Adjuncts of this Divine Love it must be 1. Sincere and Cordial Eph. 6.24 2. Judicious and Rational Psal 16.7 3. Intimate and Passionate 4. Pure and Virgin Cant. 5.3 5. Regular and Uniform 6. Generous and noble 7. Permanent and Abiding 8. Vigorous and Active 9. Infinite and Boundless Divine Love thus qualified brings the soul into 1 An inviolable Adherence unto and amorous union with God Eph. 5 31 32. 2 It works the heart to an amorous Resignation of all concerns unto God 3 It commands the whole Soul into the Obedience of God John 14.21.23 4 It is exceeding submissive unto God's Providential afflictive will Lev. 10 3. 5 It is extreme vigilant chearful and diligent in the service of God Luk. 7.37 47. O how officious is love to God! 6 It useth all things in subordination to God Mat. 6.33.34 7 It winds up the soul to a Divine life It transforms the lover into the Image and imitation of God whom he loves Eph. 5.1 These particulars I intended to have handled more fully but understanding that this case touching the Love of God is the proper task of another I shall refer thee to the Resolution of that Reverend Divine's Case 4. Qu. Wherein the love of the world is inconsistent with the Love of God Sect. 5. Wherein the love of the world is inconsistent with the love of God Having explicated the sundry Parts of our Case we now come to the Connexion of the whole namely to demonstrate the Inconsistence of Love to the world with the Love of God What love it is that is inconsistent with the Love of God we have already fully opened in the second Question touching predominant love to the world Wherefore the only thing at present incumbent
the Image of God the first-born of Faith the soul of other graces the Rule of our actions a summary of the Law an Angelick life a prelibation of Heaven a lively mark of a child of God for we may read God's Love to us in our love to him But O! how opposite and black are the characters of Love to the world nothing deserves the name of Love but that to God 2. Hence also infer that Love to God and Love to the world divide all mankind There is no middle state between these two opposites neither can they ever consist together in their perfect degrees If thou art a lover of the world in John's sense thou art a hater of God and if thou lovest God thou art an hater of the world Hereby then thou mayest make a judgment of thy state whether thou art a Saint or a sinner a Godly or worldly man And remember this that to love any worldly good more than God is in the Scripture's sense to hate God Mat. 6.24 3. This also instructs us that all natural irregenerate mens Love is but concupiscence or Lust Do not all men in their natural state prefer the creature before the Creator are not the pleasures profits and Honours of this world the worldly man's Trinity which he adoreth and sacrificeth unto Have not all men by nature a violent impetuous bent of heart towards some one or other worldly Idol are not their souls bound up in something below God Do not all men naturally esteem love use and enjoy the creature for it self without referring it to God and what is this but Lust 4. We are hence likewise taught that a regular and ordinate love to and use of this world's goods is very difficult and rare Alas how soon doth our love to creatures grow inordinate either as to its Substance Quantity Quality or Mode yea how oft and how soon doth our love to things lawful grow irregular and unlawful what an excess are most men guilty of in their love to and use of things indifferent how few are there who in using this world do not abuse it as 1 Cor. 7.31 where is that person that can say with Paul Phil. 4.12 Every where and in all things I am instructed both to abound and suffer want 5. This also informs us that where predominant Love to the world is notorious visible and manifest we cannot by any rule of judicious Charity count such a Godly man It was a Canon common among the Jews mentioned by Rabbi Salome that (x) Populus terrae non vocatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hasid the people of the earth are not called Godly i. e. the Lovers of the world may not be called Saints And Oh! how many worldly professors are cut off from the number of visible Saints hereby It is to me a dismal contemplation to consider how many follow Christ in profession and yet have the black mark of worldlings on there foreheads O! how much love to the world lies hid under the mask and vizard of professed love to God It is not the having or possessing of the world's goods but the over-loving of them that bespeaks you worldlings It 's true a Saint may fall under many preternatural heats yea fevers of Love to the world yet in time love to God as a sttonger fire expels such violent heats and noxious humors 6. Hence in like manner we may collect That worldly minded professors are composed of a world of Contradictions and Inconsistences Such Love God in profession but hate him in truth and Affection Their tongues are tipt with Heaven but their hearts are drencht in the Earth They pretend to serve God but they intend nothing but to serve their Lusts They make a shew of confidence in God but place their real confidence in the world They make mention of God in Name but exalt the world in Heart They Conform to the Laws of God in outward shew but Conform to yea are transformed into the world in Spirit Finally they hate sin and love God in appearance but they hate God and love sin in reality Ezech. 33.31 7. This also instructs thus That for professors of love to God to be deeply engaged in the love of this world is a sin of deep Aggravation O! what a peculiar Malignity is there in this sin How much Light and Love do such sin against What a reproach and disparagement is cast on God hereby Are not profane worldlings justified in their earthly-mindedness by the worldly love of Professors Yea do they not hereby take occasion to blaspheme the holy Name of God Lo say they these are your professors who are as covetous as over-reaching in their dealings as much buried in the Earth as any other And is not God hereby greatly dishonoured Do not such worldly professors live below their principles profession convictions covenant-Obligations and the practice of former Professors 8. This gives us the genuine Reason and Cause Why the word of God and all the good things contained therein find so little room in the Hearts of many great Professors It is to me a prodigious thing to consider among the croud of notional Professors and Hearers of God's Word how few entertain the same in an honest heart And where lies the main bitter root of this cursed Infidelity but in love to the world So Mark 4.18 19. And these are they which are sown among thorns Such as hear the Word and the cares of this world and the Deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts of other things entring in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful It deserves a particular remark that the Thorny-ground hearers here characterised are ranked in the highest form of notional Hearers as much surpassing the Highway-ground or Stony-ground Hearers For in these thorny-ground Hearers the word takes some root yea with some depth and so springs up into a blade and green ears and so endures a cold winter yea a scorching summer's heat and yet after all it is choaked How so why by the cares of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the amorous distracting anxious cares and the deceitfulness of Riches O! what Deceitful things are Riches how soon do they choke the word and the Lusts of other things Namely Pleasures which deserve not to be named (y) Solenne fuit Hebraeis uti voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alius quoties cunque rem abominandam tacitè innuunt Horting Thesaur Philolog p. 51. For so the Hebrews were wont to express vile abominable things by other things Thence they termed Swine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other things 9. Hence also conclude That such as love the world hate God and their own souls That predominant Love to the world in its proper notion includes the hatred of God is evident from the whole of our discourse That it implies also hatred of our selves is manifest because the hatred of God includes love to death and so by Consequence the hatred of our own souls as Prov.
benefit of holiness the more holy you may be 2. Knowledge will be most useful for the Avoiding of sin The more knowledg you have of the nature of sin the abundance of it in your selves its offensiveness to God The more knowledg you have of the rule the exactness the purity the Spirituality and extent of the Law and so the better able you are to judge what sin is and what its consequences are the better you may escape it The clearer your knowledg and the stronger your convictions are of the evil of sin the more Arguments you are furnished with to perswade your hearts against it A good treasure of Spiritual knowledg will best help you to maintain your Spiritual warfare When you know not only your Leader and your weapons and your reward but your Enemies too and their stratagems and way of lighting you are like then to be most couragious in your combate 3. Knowledg will be greatly useful to you for your Profiting by ordinances The better you understand the nature and use and ends of them the more good you are like to get by them The more you know of the word the more you will still learn by it If the foundation of Spiritual knowledg be well laid Ordinances will more easily build you up Not only the work of Ministers would be more easie if their hearers were better Catechized there would not be such danger of missing the mark by shooting over peoples heads they would not lose so much labour nor spend so much strength in vain they should not need so much to study plainness and be inculcating principles and lisping out the first rudiments of Religion as to those that are but babes in knowledg But hearers likewise would receive the word with more profit they would more easily be brought down under convictions feel the power of Exhortations be quickned to duties yield to reproofs entertain admonitions and tast the sweetness of God's consolations and so more easily obtain the end of their hearing To conclude if your understandings were more enlightned your affections would either be sooner warmed or their heat be more regular if more truth were known more duty would be done if our doctrine were better understood our application would be more effectual 2. Spiritual knowledg is most delightful Prov. 24.13 14. The knowledg of wisdom is said to be to the soul as the hony and hony-comb to the taste The knowledg of truth which is the proper object of the understanding doth usually carry something of pleasure in it and the more excellency there appears in any truth the more delectable a thing it is to know it But there be no truths so excellent as Spiritual ones such as concern God and Christ and the mysteries of Salvation and therefore the knowledg of none is so delightful What high and refined delights doth the contemplation of God in all his holy attributes and excellencies afford to glorious Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect How do those Heavenly creatures despise the gross and faeculent pleasures of the sensual World And though Saints here upon Earth cannot rise so high in their delights because not so high in their knowledg yet they may find incomparably more pleasure in knowing the things of God even according to their present capacity than the greatest voluptuaries can in the enjoyment of the creature If a Philosopher can take more pleasure in the study of nature or a Mathematician in his demonstrations than a sensualist can in his feasts and treatments if lines and angles can do more for the mind of the one than meats and drinks for the palat of the other How far then do the delights a gracious soul finds in the study and search of Divine truths transcend both And this pleasure is yet more heightned by the Interest Saints have in the truths they know when they are not only excellent in themselves but of the greatest consequence to them To know God and that as their God to know Christ and that he is a Christ for them to know the Saints priviledges and that they belong to them to know the promises and that they have a share in them to know there is a Heaven a state of future glory and blessedness and that themselves are concerned in it this must needs be a delightful knowledg You can take some pleasure in seeing a rich country and pleasant seat and fine houses but much more if you see them as they that are to inherit them If a natural man may take some pleasure in the mere notion of divine truths how much more may he do it that is concerned in them 3. This knowledg doth greatly adorn and beautifie the Soul It is a considerable part of the soul's perfection Col. 3.10 The Image of God is said to consist as in righteousness and true holiness so likewise in knowledg How full of it was Adam in Paridise And how full of it are Angels in Heaven The more men know of God the more like they are to him and the more they resemble him the more beautiful and perfect they are You count a clear eye not only useful to the body but a piece of beauty in it Light in the mind is an ornament to the Soul as well as a help Saints in Heaven that are most perfect are most knowing and the fulness of their knowledg is a great part of their perfection 4. It is a most becoming thing most suitable to you as Christians suitable to your new nature your new state your Spiritual relations and Spiritual priviledges It ill becomes them who are called into Gods marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9 Who are the children of Light Eph. 5.8 and the children of him who is the Father of Lights Jam. 1.17 they that are said to be in the Light 1. Joh. 2.9 nay to be Light Eph. 5.8 yet to he without light An ignorant Saint is as great a Soloecism in Christianity as a Graceless Saint and that is such a Saint as is no Saint 5. Consider the mischief and danger of ignorance 1. It exposeth you to errors and delusions Math. 22.29 Who so apt to be misled as he that hath no eyes He that knows not which is the right way may easily be drawn into a wrong one He that walks in darkness knows not whither he goes Joh. 12.35 Affection is a good follower but a bad leader It is too blind to be a guide It embraces its object and yet knows it not It must be beholden to the eye of the mind light in the understanding or else all its motions will be but wandrings It will be sure to rove where it is not led It is an egregious paralogism of them that argue against the translation of the Scriptures into vulgar languages that that is the way to increase errors and divisions among Christians For that multitude of errors which is among us is not the effect of too much knowledg but too little as Mens losing
Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth for ever And when they began to sing and to praise the Lord set ambushments against the Children of Ammon Moab and Mount Seir which came against Israel and they were smitten Israel's success follows Israel's singing If the people of Israel will look to their Duty God will look to their Enemy and lay that Ambush which shall ensnare and overthrow their power 3. With Evident Miracles This we find upon Record Acts 16.25 26. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God and the prisoners heard them and suddenly there was a great Earth-quake so that the Foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately the doors were opened and every ones hands were loosed Behold here an eminent Miracle Prisons saluting the Prisoner's Liberty Paul and Silas singing set God on working and if their Tongues were loosed in Duty their hands shall be loosed for Liberty Singing like praying can work wonders Lorinus observes Angelicà peculiari â—peâ—d Sâ—lâ—tio Vinculorum accidit Lorin Case that the prisoners Chains were taken off and their bands loosed by the peculiar power and work of Angels And now I come to the main Case How we may make melody in our hearts to God in Singing of Psalms Answ 1. We must sing with understanding We must not be guided by the Tune but the Words of the Psalm we must mind the Matter more than the Musick and consider what we sing as well as how we sing The Tune may affect the fancy but it is the Matter affects the heart and that God principally eyes The Psalmist adviseth us in this particular Psalm 47.7 and so doth the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.15 Otherwise this sweet Duty would be more the work of a Chorister than of a Christian and we should be more delighted in an Anthem of the Musician's making then in a Psalm of the Spirit 's making A Lapide observes that in the Text 1 Cor. 14.15 the word understanding is Maschil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profound judgment We must sing wisely if we will sing gratefully we must relish what we sing In a word we must sing as we must pray now the most rude Petitioner will understand what he prays 1 Cor. 14.15 If we do not understand what we sing it argues carelesness of Spirit or hardness of Heart and this makes the Service impertinent Upon this the worthy Davenant cries out Facessunt Boatus Papistarum qui Psalmos in Templis reboant sed linguà non intellectu Dav. Non clamans sed amans cantat in aure Dei Aug. Adieu to the bellowing of the Papists who sing in an unknown Tongue God will not understand us in this Service which we understand not our selves One of the first Pieces of the Creation was Light and this must break out in every Duty 2. We must sing with affection Love is the fulfilling of this Law It is a notable saying of Augustine It is not Crying but Loving sounds in the Ears of God In Isa 5.1 It is said I will sing to my Beloved The pretty Child sings a mean Song but it delights the Mother because there is love on both sides It is love not skill makes the Musick and the Service most pleasing When we go about this Work we must lay our Book before us a heart full of love The Primitive Christians sang Hymns to Christ whom they entirely loved Love indeed is that ingredient which sweetens and indulcorates every Service 3. We must sing with real Grace This the Apostle admonishes us Col. 3.16 It is Grace not Nature sweetens the Voice to sing We must draw out our Spices our Graces in this Duty The Hundred forty four thousand which were Elected and Glorified Saints sang the New song Rev. 14.3 Singing is the tripudiating of a gracious Soul Gratia est devotionis radix Gorran Gorran well notes That Grace is the Root of true Devotion Wicked men only make a noise they do not sing they are like crackt Strings of a Lute or a Viol they spoil they do not make Musick The Righteous rejoice in the Lord Psal 33.1 The Raven croaks the Nightingale sings the Tune As God will not hear Sinners when they pray so neither when they sing the singing of Wicked men is disturbance not obedience Indeed the Saints singing is a more solemn Ovation Praising Him who causeth them to triumph in Christ 2 Cor. 2.14 The Saints above sing their Hallelujahs in Glory and the Saints below must sing their Psalms with Grace Fashion Puppets as you please they cannot sing it is the alive Bird can chirrup that pleasing noise 4. We must sing with excited Grace Not only with Grace habitual but with excited and actual the Musical Instrument delights not but when it is plaid upon In this Duty we must follow Paul's advice to Timothy 1 Tim. 4.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the Grace that is in us and cry out as David Psalm 57.8 Awake Love awake Delight The Clock must be pluckt up before it can guide our Time the Bird pleaseth not in her Nest but in her Notes the Chimes only make Musick while they are going Let us therefore beg the Spirit to blow upon our Garden that the Spices thereof may flow out when we set upon this Joyous Service Cant. 5.16 God loves active Grace in Duty that the Soul should be ready trim'd when it presents it self to Christ in any Worship 5. We must sing with spiritual joy Indeed singing only makes joy articulate it is only the turning of Bullion into Coyn as the Prophet speaks to this purpose Isa 65.14 Isa 65 14. Singing is only the triumphant gladness of a gracious heart a softer Rapture We must sing as David danced before the Ark 2 Sam. 6.15 with shouting and rejoycing in God We sing to Christ And Dr. Bound observes There is no joy comparable to that we have in him this is joy unspeakable and full of glory Joy must be the Selah of this Duty 6. We must sing with Faith This grace only puts a pleasingness upon every service if we hear the Word must be mixt with Faith Heb. 4.2 if we pray it must be the prayer of Faith Jam. 5.15 We must bring Faith to Christ's Table or else as Austin saith Dormit Christus si dormit Fides Dormit Christus si dormit Fides Aug. if Faith sleeps Christ is likewise asleep and so Faith must carry on this Ordinance of Singing especially there must be a credence in the Hallelujahs above we must believe that the Saints here are only tuning their Instruments and the louder Musick will be above that in glory there will be such pleasing sounds which the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 2.9 No Ear ever heard 7. We must sing in the Spirit As we must pray in the Spirit Jude v. 20. so we must sing in the Spirit the Spirit must breathe as well as Grace act or the Voice sound in this Duty
acceptance with God or in a condition of spiritual life that is the forerunner and earnest of a life of glory 2. But again if you consider the nature of the drink which he hath appointed it is wine and not water By it may be signified thus much that as there is no sort of drink so grateful to the palate so reviving and strengthning to the spirits so that spiritual life that the Soul is raised to by the Death of Christ is a life of the greatest pleasure and joy that is conceivable for as no liquor like Wine doth chear a sad drooping spirit so nothing doth so glad and chear the Soul as Faith in a Crucified Christ according to that of the Apostle Peter in whom though we have not seen 1 Pet. 1.8 yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Thus much for the Duty this do 2. The end of the Duty and that is in remembrance of me Here are two things to be inquired into I. What reason was there for the instituting an Ordinance for his remembrance II. Why of all the acts and expressions of his love to sinners above all he would be remembred in his sufferings for us which is the special signification of this Supper 1 To the first I say you must call to mind that the time of instituting this supper was the night before that day he died Now the consequent of his Death was to be this that he should be taken from Earth to Heaven there to be personally present till the day of judgment Now that his Church on Earth might not forget him in this long absence he therefore appointed this supper for a frequent quickning them to the remembrance of him till he came again 2 To the other Question I Answer That the reasons why Jesus would have this act of his love to be especially remembred above all other may be these 1. Because his dying for his Church was the greatest act of love he ever shewed his Church Greater love saith Christ hath no man than this John 15.13 1 John 3.16 that a man lay down his life for his friends Again saith the Apostle Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us If a man should part with his liberty and suffer bonds or lay down his estate and become poor or leave his Country and become an exile for his friend these were all expressions of great love but none of them are comparable to laying down life and shedding ones blood for a friend This last is that wherein Christ hath eminently demonstrated his love to his Church this he glorieth in and this is that which he would never have his Church forget but frequently remember in this supper 2. Because that though he gave and still doth give very great testimonies of his love to us as in his Resurrection Ascension Intercession preparing Glory and lastly in his coming again to raise us justifie us and to take us to himself to behold and enjoy that Glory that he had with the Father before the World was yet this Ordinance is rather for the remembrance of his bloody Death for us than for the remembrance of any of the other blessings and why Because that all these other depend on this Christ could never have risen to our justification had he not died for the satisfaction of the Law and his Fathers Justice Nor would he have been admitted as an Intercessor nor have been allowed one mansion in Glory for any of us nor would his Father have suffered him to have returned again to take any one of us to himself if he had not by his death made our peace opened the new way into the Holy of Holies and purchased a glorious Resurrection and an Ascension to the Heavenly and eternal glory for us So that since all his other acts of love to his Church depend on this of his dying no wonder if he appointed this Supper for the remembrance of his death rather than any thing else he either did or promised to do for us The Conclusion is that since that the end of this Ordinance is so glorious and that is the remembrance of the greatest love that ever God the Father or Son shewed to us it cannot but cast a Lustre and Glory upon the duty of coming to this Supper and engage us to a chearful participation thereof 3. The Obligation to this duty and that is Christ's Command this is implied in the Text but exprest in the foregoing verse what saith the Apostle Paul I have received of the Lord that which also I declare unto you The Apostle doth but declare the Command is Christ's he is the Author of it It is Christ not Paul that said This do in remembrance of me Christ's Commands are the bonds by which we are tied up to Obedience if we break his bonds we are transgressors Remember who they were that conspired together saying Let us break his bonds asunder and cast away his cords from us they were such that the Lord hath in derision to whom he will one day speak in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure The commands of superiors set out all duty to inferiors and punish for neglect and the higher or greater the superior is the more authority hath the command and the greater punishment will be inflicted on the disobedient If disobedience to the word spoken by Angels received a just recompence of reward of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy that disobey the command of Jesus Christ If a Child's disobedience deserves the rod or a Servants the cudgel or a Subjects the axe or halter what doth disobedience to the Lord Jesus deserve that is greater than Father or Master or any earthly Soveraign whatever Take heed then my brethren of being found guilty of neglect of this duty that is bound upon you by the command of so great an authority as this of the Lord Jesus that hath said This do in remembrance of me 4. In the next place is to be considered the persons obliged and those are the Church of Christ so far as by Scriptural Qualifications they are capacitated to a participation thereof who are 1. Those that can discern the Lord's body in this supper the want of this the Apostle gives as the reason of unworthy receiving it 1 Cor. 10.29 and tells us they eat damnation to themselves Now there are two ways wherein the Lord's body may be said to be discerned in this supper 1. When the Understanding is spiritually enlightned to perceive the true nature and ends of this supper and thereby is enabled to see a greater difference between this and our ordinary meals for he that shall for want of knowledg therein come to this Table with no better preparations or to no other intents than when he goes to his own Table he doth certainly pervert the ends of the institution and prophanes the Ordinance and therefore cannot chuse
Scripture were taken up upon some eminent occasions And besides it may make Religion burdensom and weak converts may be discouraged that are already brought in And those that are without may be prejudiced and hindred We should not make Christ's yoke heavier than he would have it Christ did not impose the rigour of the legal ministration upon his Disciples nor the burthensom traditions of the Pharisees nor did himself practice the austerity used by John the Baptist nor imposed it upon his Disciples Thus I have run through the five particulars I proposed to discourse this subject in And upon the whole shall make some practical use Vse 1. It reproves such who instead of prayer and fasting when required of them give up themselves to all excess of riot who make their belly their God so far they are from denying it for the service of God who practise as it was said of Israel in case of the golden Calf The people sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play And say according to this licentious Proverb quoted by the Apostle out of Isaiah 22.13 Let us eat and drink for to morrow we must dye Though God be visiting the world with his judgments dashing the nations like potters vessels one against another yet they care for none of these things they are loth so far to own God as to fast and pray under his rebukes and their spirits are too high to stoop to the humbling duties of such a day because fasting and praying have been abused it may be by some in hypocrisie they are glad of that excuse to lay it quite aside The Book of Ecclesiastes they value above all Scripture because of two or three verses they find therein that they can interpret to gratifie a sensual life chap. 2.24 There is no better thing than that a man should eat and drink and that he should make his soul enjoy good of his labour and to the same purpose in ch 3.13 and ch 5.18 19. But they should consider that Solomon only speaks of the good of man with respect to this life and the end that God giveth man the good things of this life for vvhich is to use them for the outward comfort of his life vvhich he speaks of in opposition to such to vvhom God hath given vvealth and riches and honour yet hath not given him power to eat thereof Eccl. 6.2 Sure there is a Medium betwixt sordid sparing and luxurious spending betwixt using meats and drinks to the due comfort of nature and the abusing them to the great injury of the soul And though due feasting is lawful yet still with respect to the proper season and not to be killing sheep and slaying oxen and drinking wine in bowles vvhen God calls to fasting and baldness and girding on of sackcloth as the Prophet complains Isa 21.12 13. and who can reckon the manifold evils that arise from this sensual course of life The Schoolmen speaking of the sin of gluttony assign to it five Daughters Inepta Laetitia Scurrilitas immunditia multiloquium and hebetudo mentis circa intelligentiam That is foolish Mirth Scurrility Uncleanness Talkativeness and dulness of mind And Solomon gives an account of the off-spring of sensual and inordinate drinking Prov. 23 29. Who hath wâ— who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath babling who hath wounds without cause who hath redness of eyes they that tarry long at the wine c. And as men are hereby injurious to themselves not only as Christians but as men so they walk contrary to God in the present course of his Providence among us Vse 2. We may hence take notice that God sometimes calls us to extraordinary duties as this of Fasting is and in such cases we are not to satisfie our selves with Ordinary Christians should like those men of Issachar be wise in discerning the times and the proper duties that belong to them Christ would not have his Disciples fast while he vvas vvith them but vvhen he vvas departed the duty would come in season So that if vve meet vvith matter of sorrow and mourning let us not be discouraged or offended it will be so untill the Bridegroom's return Now therefore let us take a view of the present face of the times and consider vvhether this Extraordinary Duty of Fasting be not now in season If we consider the several occasions which call for this duty are they not all found at this day amongst us 1. Is the abounding of sin an occasion Pray consider whether wickedness is not grown up to a greater height and impudence than in former ages in this Nation what shameful and yet shameless whoredom and drunkenness are among us and Oaths that our Fathers knew not Hovv many of these fools have we amongst us vvhich Solomon speaks of that make a mock of sin Prov. 14.9 and mock at Religion as Fanaticisin deny Providence and dispute against a Deity That novv it becomes necessary vvith respect to many instead of leading them to the higher points of Religion to convince their reasons of the Being of God and to awake the innate notices of a Deity in their hearts vvhich are even extinguish't by a course of sin What endeavours are used by many to debauch men into vvickedness and then to glory in vvhat they have done And the more to take off the scandal of sin they seek to propagate it and make it common and if it vvas possible to make piety scandalous and vvickedness noble and honourable Now ought there not to be fasting and mourning when religion is thus despised the great God dishonoured and his Laws made void was not this practised by David who said Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy Law Psal 119.136 What we cannot reform let us mourn over and mourn the rather because those that can and ought to do it so little concern themselves in it And hath not the Temptation of the times overtaken many that have formerly made great profession and drawn them to many unworthy compliances for secular advantages and vvho have thereby laid up matter to themselves for future repentance and sorrow and are become to others objects of sorrow also As the Apostle blames the Corinthians about the incestuous person why have ye not rather mourned 1 Cor. 5.3 and vvas it not to have been wished that all that fear God in the Nation should have been better united by this time both in Principles and practice that vve might no longer defame and persecute one another untill the Net be thrown over us all and it be then too late to relieve our selves though not to repent When many are at vvork to let in Popery as a torrent upon us vve should sure endeavour to stern the Tide both by fasting and praying unto God and unity amongst our selves 2. Is the distress of the Church of God an occasion for it Look abroad and look at home and you may behold such a sad face
Luke 6.12 But such as are fill'd with impertinent multiplications of vain words and have neither holy reasonings nor spiritual and warm affections and yet think to be heard for their much speaking Qu. But can God be moved by our arguments or affected with our troubles He is the unchangeable God and dwells in the inaccessible light James 1.17 There 's no variableness or shadow of turning A metaphor from the fixed stars which admit no parallax Kepler Astron l. 4. p. 495. Fran. 1635 c. Argol Tab. p. 72. and therefore Astronomers cannot demonstrate their magnitude for our eyes or instruments can yet give no intelligence of any increase or diminution of their diameter or light Ans Those holy motions upon the hearts of Saints in prayer are the fruits of the unchangeable decrees of his love to them and the appointed ushers of mercy God graciously determines to give a praying arguing warm affectionate frame as the prodromus and forerunner of a decreed mercy That 's the reason that carnal men can enjoy no such mercies because they pour out no such prayers Jer. 29 10 12. Isa 45.1 2 4.11 19. The spirit of prayer prognosticates mercy ensuing Wherefore vvhen the Lord by Jeremy foretold the end of the Captivity he also pre-signifies the prayers that should open the gates of Babylon Cyrus vvas prophesied of to do his vvork for Jacob his servants sake and Israel his elect but yet they must ask him concerning those things to come and they should not seek him in vain The glory of the latter days in the return of Israel is foretold by Ezekiel Ezek. 36.24 37 Rev. 21.12 17 20. but yet then the Lord will be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them The Coming of Christ is promised by himself but yet the Spirit and bride say come and he that heareth must say come and vvhen Christ saies he vvill come quickly Even so come Lord Jesus Divine grace kindles these ardent affections vvhen the mercies promised are upon the wing Gerson T. 2. K K. 3 6. Prayer is that intelligible chain as Dionysius calls it that draws the souls up to God and the mercy down to us or like the Cable that draws the ship to land though the shoar it self remain unmoveable Prayer has its kindlings from heaven 2 Chron. 7.1 like the ancient sacrifices that vvere inflam'd vvith celestial fire 6. Submission to the allwise and holy Will of God This is the great benefit of a Saint's communion with the spirit that he maketh intercession for them according to the Will of God Rom. 8.27 When promised mercies are revealed in more absolute terms the sanctified Will concenters with the Will of God When vve pray for holiness there 's a concurrence with the Divine Will 1 Thess 4.3 Rom. 12.1 2. For this is the Will of God even your sanctification When we pray that our bodies may be presented a living sacrifice acceptable to God vve then prove vvhat is that good acceptable and perfect Will of God But I speak here as to outward mercies and enjoyments and the gradualities or degrees of graces and spiritual mercies But as to substance of spiritual mercies the pomises in such cases run freely as if in any place there seem to lye any limitations or conditions those very conditions are otherwhere graciously promised to be vvrought in us In the Covenant of grace God does his part and ours too As when God commands us to pray in one place he promises in another place (a) Zec. 20.10 to pour out upon us a Spirit of grace and supplication God commands us to repent and (b) Ezek 14.6 turn unto him In another place (c) Lam. 5.21 Jer. 31.18 Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God and again turn thou us unto thee O Lord and we shall be turned (d) Ezr. 18.31 make you a new heart and a new spirit otherwhere (e) Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you c. and cause you to walk in my statutes that (f) Col. 1.9 10. ye might walk unto all pleasing says Paul for this cause I cease not to pray for you c. that he would (g) Heb. 11.21 work in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight Work out your salvation (h) Phil. 2.12 13. for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure Precepts promises and prayer are connext like so many golden links to excite encourage and assist the soul in spiritual duties But in other cases as to temporal and temporary mercies let all thy desires in prayer be formed with submission guided by his counsel and prostrate at his feet and acted by a faith suitable to the promises of outward blessings and then it shall be unto thee (i) Mat. 15 28. Gerson T. 2. even as thou wilt He said well cardo desideriorum sit voluntas Dei exaudiat pete cardinem Let all thy desires as to temporals turn upon the hinge of the divine good pleasure That man shall have his own Will that resolves to make God's Will his God will certainly bestow that which is for the good of his people Psal 34.18 and 84.11 Math. 7.11 Rom. 8.28 One great point of our mortification lies in this to have our Wills melted into God's and 't is a great token of spiritual growth when not only content but joyful to see our Wills crost that his may be done We pray that his Kingdom may come let it appear by sincere prayer that his Will may be done When our Wills are sacrificed in the flames of holy prayer vve many times receive choicer things then we ask expresly 'T was a good saying non dat quod volumus ut det quod malimus God many times grants not what we will in the present prayers that he may bestow what we had rather have when we have the prayer more graciously answered than we petitioned we know not how to pray as we ought but the spirit helps us out with groans that secretly hint a correction of our wills and spirit in prayer Rom. 8.26 In great anxieties and pinching troubles nature dictates strong groans for relief but sustaining grace Heb. 12.10 and participation of divine holiness mortification from earthly comforts excitation of the soul to long for heaven being gradually weaned from the Wormwood-breasts of these sublunary transient and unsatisfying pleasures and the timeing of our hearts for the seasons wherein God will time his deliverances are sweeter mercies than the present return of a prayer for an outward good into our bosoms What truly holy person would lose that light of God's countenance Psal 4.6 7. which he enjoyed by glimpses in a cloudy day for a little corn and wine Thou hast put more gladness into my heart says David Nay in many cases
consensio intelligi necesse est esse Deos quoniam insitas corum val pollù Innetas cognitiones habemus de quo autem omnium natura consentit id verum esse necesse est esse igitur Deos confitendum est quod quoniam ferè constat inter omnes non Philosophos s lùm sed etiam Indect s. fateamur constare illud etiam hanc nos habere sive anticipationem ut an e dixi sive praenotionem Dâ—eâ—um Cicero de nat deorum lib. 1. By this Light and Law of Nature all men might know that there is a God The knowledg we have of God in this life is either natural or by revelation by the Book of Nature or by the Book of Scripture the Book of Nature is either External the vvorks of God's Creation which declare and shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things that might thereby be known of God Rom. 1.19 20. and this is acquired or objective knowledg of God or else Internal to which is referred those natural common principles the reliques of the Image of God in man lying in his rubbish after the fall and the inward testimony of Conscience which is innate subjective knowledg of God not that there is any actual knowledg born with man but by these we might at years of understanding draw as certain a conclusion that there is a God as that we are or that any thing is that we behold with our eyes For when we see the Earth and Heavens c. Light of Nature tells us that they had some cause by which they were produced because nothing could make it self because it would have been before it was which Reason tells us is impossible therefore things made must be made by something that is and was never made Reason tells us that if any thing be possible there is something that is necessary if any thing may be something must be that which is possible to be must have something to bring it into actual being Reason telleth us that if there had been one instant in which nothing was nothing could have ever been for nothing can make nothing All these four Propositions do but make way for that which is chiefly to our present purpose which is that which follows 5. Proposition The Light and Law of Nature doth dictate that it is man's duty to pray to God and that not only severally but conjunctly and that not only in publique Assemblies but in private Families For the clearing of this I shall lay down several Positions including certain truths and fetch the proof of them from the light of Nature and the testimony of Heathens themselves and then gather up the Argument from the whole Position 1. That the Light of Nature doth dictate that the souls of men are Immortal Maximum verò argumentum est naturam ipsam de Immortalitate animorum tacitam judicare quòd omnibus curae sunt maximae quidem quae post mortem futura sunt Cicero Tusc Quest Nihil animis admixtum nihil concretum nihil copulatum nihil duplex quod cùm ità sit certè nec secerni nâ—c dividi nec discerpi nec distrahi potest nec inâ—erire igitur est enim interitus quasi discessus secretio ac diremptus earum partium quae ante interitum junctione aliqua tenebanâ—ur Cicero Tuscul Quest Sed nescio quo modo inhaeret in mentibus quasi seculorum quoddam augurium fuâ—urorum idèmque in maximis ingenii altissimisque unimis existit maximè apparet facillimè Cicero Tusc Q. lib. 1. and do not dye when the body dieth This the Heathen did gather from the great care that there is naturally in all men at least that do improve their natural light and hearken to the voice of sober reason what shall become of them after death Though all men do not seriously provide for the soul after its separation from the body and the light of nature cannot direct us in this matter yet such cares and fears that there be in men about their state after death even in such as never had a Bible is a certain evidence that they believed the Soul's immortality Reason gathers also the immortality of the Soul from the simplicity and immateriality of its nature that it is not compounded of material parts as the Body is nor hath such contrary qualities combating one with another as the Body hath to cause its dissolution or cessation of being for the destruction of a thing is the tearing asunder those parts which before such destruction were joined together the Soul therefore that is not so compounded hath nothing in its own nature that should cause it to cease to be nor render it liable to be destroyed by any creature though it might be annihilated by Divine Power Position 2. Socrates supremo vitae die de hoc ipso multa disseruit cum penè in manujâ—m mortiferum illud peculum teneret locutus est ità ut non in mortem trudi verùm in caluâ—n videretur ascendere ita enim censebat itaque disseruit duas esse vias duplicésque cursus animorum è corpore excedentium nam qui se humanis vitiis contaminassent se totos libidinibus dedidissent quibus caecati velut domesticis vitiis atque flagitiis se inquinassent iis devium quoddam iter esse seclusum à concilio Deorum qui autem se integâ—os castósque servassent quibúsque fuisset minima cum corporibus contagio seséque ab his semper se vocassent esséntque in corporibus humanis vitam imitati Deorum his ad illos à quibus essent profecti reditum facilem patere In Cicerone Tusc Quaest lib. 1. The Light of Nature tells us that the immortal Souls of men must be happy or miserable after their separation from the Body and that there is a life of Retribution after this Heathens have plainly taught that there are two ways that the Souls of men do go after they are loosed from the Body according as their lives were in this world that such as have wallowed in sin and given themselves to gratifie their lusts that these Souls are shut out from God and shut up in extremity and eternity of torment Hence Heathens mention Tityus who being cast down to Hell had a Vulture that came every day and did gnaw his Liver and in the night it was repaired and made up again that what was torn by the Vulture one while again did grow that his punishment might be perpetual and some that are punished by being put to labour in rolling huge Stones and racked upon Wheels and to be there in this misery for ever Saxum ingens volvunt alii radiisque rotarum Districti pendent sedet eternúmque sedebit Infoelix Thoseus Virgil. Aeneid 6. Some roll huge Stones and stretch'd on Wheels do lye Damn'd Theseus sits there to eternity Thus they make mention of Pluto by whom those that were most vicious were most tormented and of
Charon's Boat whom they imagined was Ferry-man of Hell of Radamunthus the Judg of Tantalus thirsting in the midst of waters of the Stygian and other Infernal Lakes of Cerberus a Dog with three heads Porter in Hell and give descriptions of the place of torments Spelunca alta fuit vastóque immanis hiatu Scrupea tuta Lacu nigro nemorúmque tenebris Quam super haud ullae poteraut impunè volantes Tendere iter pennis talis sese halitus atris Faucibus effundens supera ad convexa ferebat Vnde locum Graij dixerunt nomine Avernum Virg. Aeneid 6 There was a deep Cave with a mighty Gulf With black Lakes moted and a horrid Grove O're which not safely swiftest wings could move Such were the vapours from these foul jaws came This place the Graecians did Avernus name And as they set forth the eternity of their hellish torments so they did acknowledg the variety of them to be more than could be expressed Non mihi si linguae centum sint oráque centum Ferrea vox omnes scelerum comprendere formas Omnia poenarum percurrere nomina possem Virg. Aeneid 6. Had I an hundred mouths as many tongues A voice of Iron to these add brazen Lungs Their crimes and tortures ne're could be displaid Take the Testimony of another that you may see what a common received opinion this was among the Heathen of misery of many in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod Theogon The sense take thus God Mighty ones in chains of darkness bound And cast them down to Hell which under ground So deep and black so far remote doth lye As th' earth is distant from the Starry skie Yet bear with me once more Another of them brings in God threatning the disobedient with Hell torments where he useth the same vvord for Hell as the Apostle doth 2 Pet. 2.4 describing Hell to be a place far remote from Heaven a great gulf or deep pit whose gates are of Iron and whose pavement is of Brass a place of utter darkness in sense so near the former that I shall not need any further to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Iliad 8. All these testimonies of the Heathens and there are many more do plainly manifest that the Light of Nature doth discover a place of punishment where wicked men after this life shall be sorely tormented I might bring as many of them also that by the Light of Nature did determine of a place of happiness for good men in another world but that I would not be too tedious in this point The use of these and how they make to our present business in hand will appear in the following Positions Position 3. Nemo sibi nascitur Non nobis solùm nati sumus sed ortus nostri partem patria paâ—tem parentes vindicant partem amici atque quae in terris gignuntur ad usum hominum omnia creantur homines autem hominum causa generantur ut ipsi inter se alii aliis prodesse possent In hoc naturam debemus ducem sequi communes utiliâ—ates in medium afferre mutatione officiorum dando accipiendo tum artibus tum opera tum facultatibus devincire hominum inter homines societatem Cicero de Offio lib. 1. Quae est melior in hominum genere natura quam eorum qui se natos ad homines juvandos tutandos conservandos arbitrantur Cicero Tuscul Quaest lib. 1. As the Light of Nature tells us all this so also it doth dictate to us that no man is born for himself to mind only his own good and to escape evil and punishment himself but to our utmost power in the places and societies of which we are heads or members to endeavour the good of that Society and every member thereof He that will help no other who should help him or with what reason can he expect it He that is so selfish is unprofitable to any Society and good for nothing Man being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nature hath inclined him to a sociable life not only for his own but also for the good of others which whoso doth neglect sins against that Society Come then you Parents and Masters of Families see now why I alledged before what the Light of Nature doth dictate concerning the Soul's immortality and the state of Souls in another world even that you may do your utmost to save the precious Souls in your houses from this place of torment and to help them to prepare for an everlasting state The Law of Charity firmly binds you to it If your children were fallen into a pit would not nature tell you you are to help them out If any of your house were falling into the fire would not nature tell you you should prevent it if you can or snatch them out with haste and speed Doth nature tell you as hath been shewed that there is a place of torment where sinful Souls must suffer and do you see any in your houses in danger of falling into it and will you sit still and do nothing to endeavour to prevent their everlasting misery If they were sick or had drunk down poyson doth not nature tell you you should use means for their recovery to prevent their death And doth not nature tell you that their Souls are more precious than their Bodies and more to be regarded It doth Certainly it doth Are not their Souls sick and diseased and poisoned with the venom of sin and doth not nature tell you there is charity to be shewn to their Souls as well as to their Bodies and much more Certainly these are the dictates of nature if I suppose you have not one spark of grace the light of reason will tell you all this Position 4. All these things being suggested by the Light of Nature let me add that Reason tells you that for you to pray with them in your Family rendeth to their good and the neglect there if to their detriment and damage Let reason be heard and it will dictate to you that conjunct Prayer with them is a likely means for the good of their souls Will it not tell thee that to pray to God for them and to bring them to pray with thee may be for their benefit to escape the misery of another world and obtain happiness in the life to come Enter into thine own heart and debate this with thy self and judg impartially as thou wouldst do if thou wast a dying man and then tell me if the light that is within thee doth not prompt thee to all this Prayer is a part of natural worship which is due to God from all and would it not tend to the profit of their Souls to give God his due And shouldst not thou that art a Parent or a Master whom nature hath set over them and committed them to
thy trust and requireth thy help to the utmost power for their good assist them herein and see that they do it and use thy gifts and parts and knowledg in praying with them that they also by thy example might be induced to this duty and by hearing thee pray in their company may learn to pray also Light of Nature did dictate to the heathen Mariners Jon. 1. that prayer to God was a means to save them in the storm therefore the Master of the Ship the Head of that Society called Jonah from sleep to Prayers and this they did not only severally but conjunctly v. 14. they cried unto the Lord and said We beseech thee O Lord We beseech thee c. and shall the Heathen Master of the Ship do more in that Society whereof he was chief than a Christian Master of a Family in that Houshold Society whereof he is head Moreover 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lores Penates Dii domestici qui domi coluntur Ego Deos Penates hinc salutatum domum devortar Ter. Phorm Vestae vis ad aras focos pertinet itaque in ea dea quae est rerum Custos intimarum omnis precatio sacrificatio extrema est nec longè absunt ab hac vi dâ—i penates sive à penu ducto nomine sive ab eo quod penitùs insident Cic. de nat Deor. l. 2. that the Light of Nature doth dictate that there should be conjunct worshipping of God in mens houses the practice of the Heathen makes manifest they had their houshold gods so call'd because they thought they had the rule over them and their Housholds and the keeping and preserving of their Families though indeed they could not defend themselves nor them that did in their houses worship them as Juno in her speech to Aeolus Gens inimica mihi Tyrrhenum navigat aequor Ilium in Italiam portans victósque penates Yet these Gods they served in their houses and sacrificed to them in which Sacrifice their custom * Godw. Rom. Ant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Videntur fuisse dii penates qui ad tuendam rem domesticam colerentur De Dieu in Gen. 31.19 was to eat up all that was left at the Offering thinking it an hainous matter to send any of that Sacrifice abroad to their friends or to the poor Of this sort were the Teraphim an Idol or Image made for mens private use in their own houses Laban had such houshold Gods Gen. 31.19 30. Why hast thou stollen away my Gods By this you see that the Light of Nature doth dictate houshold worship to be given to God and the Heathens did it to their false Gods And if you called Christians will not in your houses jointly pray unto the true God let the Heathens stand up as witnesses against you However take this Argument containing the sum of the five foregoing Propositions 2. Arg. If all men are bound to take God for their Ruler governing them by a Law writen in their hearts which doth dictate to them that there is a God and jointly to be prayed unto in mens Families then it is their duty so to do The reason of this is because if they be bound to do it and do it not they sin But all men are bound to take God for their Ruler as in the first Proposition is shewn governing them by a Law as in the second written in their hearts as in the third which doth dictate to them that God is as in the fourth and to be jointly prayed to in their Families as in the fifth Therefore it is their duty so to do For the proof of the last part of the minor Proposition viz. That the Light of Nature doth dictate that Men or Masters of Families ought to pray conjunctly with the Members of their Families consider this Seeing Societies as such are totally dependent upon God and mens gifts are communicative and solemnities are operative nature teacheth us that God ought to be solemnly acknowledg'd worship'd and honour'd both in families and in more solemn appointed assemblies Mr. Baxter Reasons of Christ Rel. part 1. p. 74. If the Light or Law of Nature doth dictate that Masters of Families ought to use all means to prevent the damnation of the immortal Souls in that Domestick Society of which they are Heads and Governours and to further their eternal happiness having opportunities so to do then it doth dictate that they ought to pray conjunctly with them The reason of this is because Prayer is a means made together with them which the Light of Nature doth dictate profitable to prevent their misery and further their happiness as in the fourth Position before laid down and they have opportunities for this means But the Light or Law of Nature doth dictate that Masters of Families ought to use all means to prevent the damnation of the immortal Souls in that Domestick Society whereof they are Heads and Governours and to further their eternal happiness having opportunities so to do For if the Light of Nature doth dictate they ought to take care of their bodies that are mortal it doth tell them they are much more to take care of their Souls which are immortal and must for ever live in happiness or misery as in Position first second and third Therefore the Light or Law of Nature doth dictate that it is their duty to pray conjunctly with their Families and if the Law of Nature doth the Lavv of God doth because the Law of Nature is God's Law Argument 3. The third seat or head of Argument shall be taken from what God is to Families as such in these four Propositions God is the founder of all Families as such therefore Families as such should pray unto him 1. Familia est inter plures pirsonas quae sunt sub unius potestate vel naturâ vel jure subjectae vel societas constituta secundùm naturam quotidiani usus gratia Estque conjugalis patria Herilis Liebent Col. Polit The houshold Society usually is of these three Combinations Husband and Wife Parents and Children Masters or Servants though there may be a Family where all these are not yet take it in its latitude and all these Combinations are from God The Institution of Husband and Wife is from God Gen. 2.21 22 23 24. and of Parents and Children and Masters and Servants and the authority of one over the other and the subjection of the one to the other is instituted by God and founded in the Law of Nature which is God's Law The persons singly considered have not their beings only from God but the very being of this Society as such is also from him and as a single person is therefore bound to devote himself to the service of God and pray unto him so an houshold Society is therefore bound jointly as such to do the same because as such a Society it is from God utriusque est par ratio And hath God
appointed this Society only for the mutual comfort of the Members thereof or of the whole and not also for his own glory Patres secundum haec temporalia bona filiorum sortem à servorum conditione distinguerent ad Deum autem colendum omnibus domus suae membris pari dilectione consulerent qued naturalis ordo ita praescripsit ut nomen patrum-familias hinc exortum sit Qui autem veri patres-familias sunt omnibus in f milia sua tanquam filiis ad colendum promerendum Deum consulant Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 9. cap. 16. even from the whole and doth that houshold Society as such live to God's glory that do not as such serve him and pray unto him Hath God given authority to the one to command and rule and the other a a charge to obey only in reference to worldly things and not at all to spiritual only in things pertaining to the world and in nothing to things pertaining to God Can the comfort of the Creature be God's ultimate end no it is his own glory Is one by authority from God and order of Nature Pater-familiâs the Master of the Family so called in reference to his Servants as well as to his Children because of the care he should take of the Souls of Servants and of their worshipping God with him as vvell as of his Children and should he not improve this power that God hath given him over them all for God and the welfare of all their Souls in calling them jointly to vvorship God and pray unto him Let Reason and Religion judg Proposition 2. God is the OWNER of our Families as such therefore as such they should pray unto him God being our absolute OWNER and Proprietor not only ratione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essentiae suae by reason of the supereminency of his Nature sed etiam jure creationis giving us our being and all vve have We our selves and all that is Ours We and Ours being more His than our Own are unquestionably bound to lay out our selves for God vvherein vve might be most useful for our OWNERS interest and glory Besides the title of Creation God is the OWNER of our Families by right of conservation and redemption For hath God a right to and propriety in the persons in a Family or the particular Members of it and not of the vvhole Whose are your Families if not God's OWN Will you disclaim God as your OWNER If you should yet in some sense you are HIS still though not by resignation and wholly devoting of your selves to him Whose vvould you have your Families to be God's OWN or the Devil 's OWN Hath the Devil any title to your Families and shall your Families serve the Devil that hath no title to you neither of Creation Preservation or Redemption and vvill you not serve God that by all this hath a title to you and an absolute full propriety in you If you will say your Families are the Devils then serve him but if you say they are God's then serve him Or will you say we are Gods but we will serve the Devil If you do not say so yet if you do so is it not as bad Why are you not ashamed to do that that you are ashamed to speak out and tell the world what you do Speak then in the fear of God If your Families as such be God's own is it not reasonable that as such you should serve him and pray unto him for do not you expect honour and obedience from your Children because they be your own and work and labour and service from your own Servants because they be your own and whatever you are OWNERS of would you not have it for your Use and will you require these things from yours because they are yours and shall not God require service from His and if he do shall he not have it especially when God's title of Propriety in you is infinitely greater than any title you have to any thing you have or call your own Take heed lest your demands and expectations from yours be not a condemnation of your selves in denying that to God which is his due from you because you are his Proposition 3. God is the Master and Governour of your Families therefore as such they should serve him in praying to him If he be your OWNER he is your Ruler too and doth he not give you Laws to walk by and obey not only as you are particular persons but as you are a combined Society Eph. 5.25 to the end and 6.1 to v. 10. Col. 3.19 to the end and 4.1 Is God then the Master of your Family as such and should not then your Family as such serve him Do not Subjects as such ow obedience to their Governours Mal. 1.6 A Son honoureth his Father and a Servant his Master if I then be a Father where is mine honour and if I be a Master where is my fear Where indeed Not in prayerless ungodly Families 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anton l. 1. Sect. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem Proposition 4. God is the Benefactor of your Families as such therefore as such they should serve God in praying to him and praising of him God doth not do you good and give you mercies only as individual persons but also as a conjunct Society Is not the continuance of the Master of the Family not only a mercy to himself but to the whole Family also if he be not he is not over good Is not the continuance of the Mother Children Servants in life health and being a mercy to the Family that you have an house to dwell together and food to eat together do not you call these Family-mercies and do not these call aloud in your ears and to your consciences to give praises to your bountiful Benefactor together and to pray together for the continuance of these and the grant of more as you shall need them It would be endless to declare how many ways God is a Benefactor to your Families conjunctly and you are shameless if you do not conjunctly praise him for his bounty Such an house is rather a stye for Swine than a dwelling house for rational Creatures May not God call out to such prayerless Families as to them Jer. 2. 31. O generation see ye the word of the Lord Have I been a wilderness to Israel a land of darkness Wherefore say my people we are Lords we will come no more unto thee Hath God been forgetful of you Speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idem ibid. ye ungodly prayerless Families Hath God been forgetful of you No every morsel of bread you eat tells you God doth not forget you every time you see your Table spread and food set on you see God doth not forget you Why then saith God Will not this Family come at ME when you have food to put into your Childrens mouths that they do not cry for bread and you constrained to
keep out Jealousie that bane of marriage comfort will keep the thoughts fixt and the heart chaste for it is not the Having an Husband or Wife but the Loving of them that preserves from Adultery This will prevent or soon quiet those storms within doors as we see the Mother that dearly loves her Child though it cry all night and disturb her quiet yet Love to it makes them very good friends in the morning If Love be eclipsed for a day or an hour between husband and wife they are (c) Mr. Baxter's Direct p. 520. like a bone out of joynt there is no ease nor order nor work well done till it be restored again 3. Mutual Fidelity especially to the Marriage-bed and also in each others secrets And this is directed 1 Cor. 7.2 Let every man have his Own wife and let every woman have her Own husband By which Rule the thoughts desires and actions of each of them are confin'd to their (d) Choose whether Adam thou wilt imitate the Old or the New the one hath but one Wife the other hath but one Church Hierome cited by Gataker own lawful yoke-fellow as the dearest sweetest and best Object in the world and this by vertue of the Covenant of their God The least Aberration herein if it be not speedily and sincerely mortified will strangely get ground and fester in the Soul and never rest till it come to plain Adultery (e) See of this largely and excellently Lud. Viv. de Christ foemin p. 699. And then the Comfort of their lives the quiet of their consciences and the credit of their families lye bleeding and without true Repentance their eternal happiness shipwrack't Yea this virtually dissolves the Bond of marriage and if the (f) Deut. 22.22 Divine Law were executed brings the offender to a severe Death And though some greater Shame and other Inconveniences do follow the unfaithfulness of the Wife yet man and wife being One flesh and equal power granted to them over the bodies of each other the guilt of this sin is equal unless the wisdom and strength of the man do make his fault the greater And therefore all possible care must be used to avoid all occasions and incentives of wandring desires from home and the rather because he or she that is not content with one will not be content with more for sin is boundless and nothing but Grace and the Grave can limit the desires of the Heart The same Faithfulness is necessary in the wise concealment of each others secrets whether Natural Moral or Civil unless in such cases wherein a superior Obligation doth release them For there cannot be a more unnatural treachery than when Husband or Wife the nearest of Friends make one another obnoxious to shame or harm Bad when it is done by Inadvertence worse when in their Passion worst of all when it is through ill will and malice 4. Mutual Helpfulness Hence they are called Yokefollows And of the Woman it was said at her Creation that she should be an (g) Gen 2.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Help meet for him which may be rendred an Help like him for they should be both of them Helps to each other There are Three Yokes which they must joyntly carry 1. The Yoke of Cares This all people must expect to bear in a married condition and for the most part that of Labour also And these lying always on one shoulder will overload but when some help comes in the husband takes care without the wife takes care within the husband travels abroad the wife is busie at home then the burden is easier To this end it behoves the Wife to read often the last Chapter of Proverbs and the husband the rest of that Book for their quickning hereunto 2. The Yoke of Crosses and troubles For such as are married though they expect nothing but pleasure yet (h) 1 Cor. 7.28 must have trouble in the flesh losses in their estates afflictions in their children crosses both from friends and enemies Now every man and woman should chuse such yoke-fellows as may be Friends as well as Relations and may comfort support and advise each other with all faithfulness and sympathy 3. The Yoke of Jesus Christ For they should (i) 1 Pet. 3.7 live as heirs together of the Grace of Life And it is the highest end of their Relation to promote one the others everlasting happiness The Knowledg of the husband must help the wife and the Zeal of the wife must help the husband When (k) Cael. Rhodig l. 28. the Sun shines the Moon absconds when that is set this appears When the husband is at home then it is his work to instruct and pray with his Family and sanctifie the Sabbath but in his absence the wife is his stated Deputy and must look to it And both must study both in Prudence and Conscience to be of One mind incouraging reproving or correcting their Inferiors lest their Authority be weakened their spirits distempered and their indeavours frustrateâ— 5. Mutual Patience c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quomodo probabit homo animam suam si pâ—ssit tolerare uxorem malam Buxt ex Miphcah Happen This Grace we are bound to exercise towards all men how much more to such near and dear Relations Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away with all malice And be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God doth for Christ's sake forgive us Eph. 4.31 32. Innumerable are the l Occasions that may minister Contention in the daily affairs wherein they are concerned and Satan is ever ready to blow the coal and they have corrupt and froward Natures and therefore there is a flat necessity of this blessed Grace Alas a civil War within doors is the most intolerable The soul the body the worship of God the affairs the Family are all disordered by it No good can come of it passion reforms nothing but (m) Magis vâ—remur prudâ—ntes quam i acundos plus cogit qu etum imperium quam vehemens imperiosior concitatione quies Lu. Viv. de Christ Foem p. 729. patience may the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God The married Couple therefore must study and pray for a meek and quiet spirit mortifie pride learn self-denial and sometimes wisely (n) Thus Albuâ— us lived with his Terentiana 25 years and P. Rubrius Celer with his Ennia 44 years without a quarrel So Mr. Smith in his Sermons tels of a cholerick couple that kept the peace by each keeping silence when the other was angry withdraw till the storm be over and hold their peace to keep the peace They must consider as Holy Mr. Bolton saith that two Angels are not met together but too sinful children of Adam from whom little can be expected but weakness and waiwardness They must reckon the greatest worth and honour to be first in Overtures of Peace
pattern herein for he went down with his Mother and her Husband and came to Nazareth and was subject to them (p) Luk. 2.51 Mar 6.3 Mat 13.55 Joâ— 6.42 Quis quibus Deus hominibus c. saith Bernard * Homil 1. Super missus est He to whom Angels are subject whom Principalities and Powers do obey was observant of his Mother Mary and her espoused Husband Joseph yea most likely in the business of Joseph's calling More particularly this filial observance shews it self in 1. Attending to their instructions 2. Executing their commands 3. Depending on their counsels And 4. Following their examples 1. We ought to attend seriously to our Parents instructions and learn what they teach us for good receiving their djctates with humility and laying them up in our hearts those especially of spiritual advantage out of a love to wisdom and our Parents joys (q) Prov. 29.3 〈◊〉 Solomon bids from his own experience My Son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother (r) 1.10 Again Hearken unto thy father which begat thee and despise not thy mother when she is old And then that Daughters might not think themselves exempted Hearken ye Children to the instruction of a father and attend to know understanding and good doctrine (Å¿) 4.1 2 3. which if heedfully observ'd makes a wise child when the contrary bewrays folly (t) 13.1 which is a grief and discouragement to the father as was that of Eli's Sons (u) 1 Sam. 2-25 and Lot's Sons in law (w) Gen. 19.14 who sleighted their fathers documents as the Prodigal also did his before he felt the smart of it and came to his wits again (x) Luk. 15.2.13 17. Yet this is dissonant to the voice of Nature which hath taught the very Chickens to hearken unto the clocking of the Hen hath been ever distastful to the wiser Heathens and would bring a disparagement upon the Christian institution So that Christian Children should be very heedful of their Parents teachings especially in the concerns of their souls Hence 2. Children should execute their Parents commands and dispatch readily what they order them to do without whartling disputes this is the most special duty required in my Text the extent of it will come under consideration anon They should be as those under the Centurions authority go and come and do at his command (y) Mat. 8 9. Samuel came at the supposed call of his pro-Parent once and again (z) 1 Sam. 3.5 c. David when his Father Jesse had sent for him out of the field e're he knew what it was for (a) 16.12 and so went as he commanded him (b) 17.17 20. So Jacob when Isaac sent him (c) Gen. 28.5 and Joseph when Jacob sent him (d) 37.14 yea the other ten Sons also upon their Fathers order (e) 42.2 3. Isaac attended in carrying the wood when the servants were free from the burden at his Father's pleasure (f) 22 6. Joseph and the Rechabites are famous instances of observing faithfully the charge of their Parents even when they were dead and gone (g) 50.20 Jer â—5 8 c. out of conscience in a respectful manner with reference to the divine authority Abraham's Children walked in the way of the Lord as their Father commanded them (h) Gen. 8.9 Solomon did not only command his own Son (i) Prov. 6 1â— though he prov'd disobedient but he observ'd his Father David's charge to walk in the Lord's statutes (k) 1 King 2.3 and â— 3. though drawn aside after with temptations and to build the Temple (l) 1 Câ—ro 2â— 11 2 Chron 5 and 6. God takes it for granted a good Child will serve his Father (m) Mal. 3 17. yea and when put to pain in things not only necessary but of no reputation supposing in things purely indifferent both in their nature and use their Parents to be more judicious to determine what is expedient and decent yet not without the use of their own discerning faculty nor without any examination in a blind irrational obsequâ—ousness (n) Prâ—v 14.15 Ne pâ—câ—uâ— ritis sâ—quâ—mur amecedentiam grâ—â—em pâ—â—â—nâ—â—s nonqua 〈◊〉 eâ—â— seâ— qua â—â—r Senec. like the brutish obedience of the Jesuits Novicâ—s For though I should grant that Parents have in some sort a power over the consciences of their Children whiles they are as in God's stead (o) 1 Sam 2.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swaying their apprehentions in their tenderest years before they come to the use of their ripened reason yet when there is a judgment of discerning betwixt good and evil their obedience ought to be reas â—â—blâ— such as God requires to his own service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as is according to his Word not merely childish though the obedience of Children but acceptable * Rom. 12.1 and well-pleasing unto him as in my Text and in the fear of God vers 22. Again 3. Children ought to depend upon their Parents counsels and take their good and wholsom advice giving them the honour of being in an ordinary course more prudent and sagacious than themselves as having greater experience ability and a call to govern in affairs of importance For to disregard them herein were to slight the paternal authority which God would have kept in reputation He was a Prodigal who would not be advised till he was bitten with the ill effect of that extravagant course which grieved his Father (p) Luk. 15.12 13. but the docible Child who is righteous and wise rejoyceth the heart of both his Parents (q) Pro 23.22 24. 15.20 Here I might enter on particulars to shew that Children have no power being under government to dispose of their Parents goods without their advice or allowance (r) Gal. 4.1 2. with Gen. 31.36 37 with 19. 32.10 Prov 28.24 19 26. for faultiness here is aggravated by the relation nor to choose their company disagreeable to their Parents minds (s) 1.10 15. 1 Cor 5.9 but to take their advice and be content with that sutable dress their Parents do order them to appear in (t) Gen. 27.15 37.3 2 Sam. 13 8. and not in strange apparel * Zeph 1.8 But I shall only suggest two more eminent instances wherein Children are more especially to consult their Parents and observe their advice viz. as to a particular Calling and Marriage 1 'T is fit to he advised by Parents in the choice of a Calling or lasting course of life Jacob and David mov'd and liv'd according to their Parents disposal (†) Gen. 28.2 1 Sam. 16.11 19. 17.17 as was hinted before and so did Jonadab's Children (‖) Jer. 35.6 7. It being unfit they should carve for themselves without leave but follow the parental conduct unless that leads them into an unlawful Calling The pretension of Religion in a Monastick life which the Papists urge
rational to sleeting and giddy fancies No it binds the soul as the principal agent the body only as the instrument For if it were given only for the sensitive part without any respect to the rational it would concern brutes as well as men which are as capable of a rational command and a voluntary obedience as man without the conduct of a rational soul It exacts a conformity of the whole man to God and prohibits a difformity and therefore engageth chiefly the inward part which is most the man It must then extend to all the acts of the man consequently to his thoughts they being more the acts of the man than the motions of the body Holiness is the prime excellency of the Law a title ascribed to it twice in one Verse Rom. 7.12 Wherefore the Law is holy and the Commandment holy just and good Could it be holy if it indulged loosness in the more noble part of the creature Could it be just if it favoured inward unrighteousness Could it be good and useful to man which did not enjoyn a suitable conformity to God wherein the creatures excellency lies Can that deserve the title of a spiritual Law that should only regulate the brutish part and leave the spiritual to an unbounded licentiousness Can perfection be ascribed to that Law which doth countenance the unsavoury breathings of the Spirit and lay no stricter an obligation upon us than the Laws of men Mat. 5 28. Must not God's Laws be as suitable to his soveraignty as mens Laws are to theirs Must they not then be as extensive as God's Dominion and reach even to the privatest closets of the heart 'T is not for the honour of God's holiness righteousness goodness to let the Spirit which bears more flourishing characters of his Image than the body range wildly about without a legal curb 2. They are contrary to the order of nature and the design of our Creation Whatsoever is a swerving from our primitive nature is sin or at least a consequent of it Eccles 7.29 God made man perfect but they have sâ—ught out many inventions But all inclinations to sin are contrary to that righteousness wherewith man was first endued Man was created both with a disposition and ability for holy contemplations of God the first glances of his soul were pure he came every way compleat out of the mint of his infinitely wise and good Creator and when God pronounced all his Creatures good he pronounced man very good amongst the rest But man is not now as God created him he is off from his end his understanding is filled with lightness and vanity This disorder never proceeded from the God of order infinite goodnesâ— could never produce such an evil frame none of these loose inventions were of God's planting but of man's seeking No God never created the intellective no nor the sensitive part to play Domitian's game and sport it self in the catching of Flies Psal 49.20 Man that is in honour and understands not that which he ought to understand and thinks not that which he ought to think is like the Beasts that perish Gen. 3.6 he plays the beast because he acts contrary to the nature of a rational and immortal soul And such brutes we all naturally are since the first woman believed her sense her phancy her affection in their directions for the attainment of wisdom without consulting God's Law or her own reason The phancy was bound by the right of nature to serve the understanding 'T is then a slighting God's wisdom to invert this order in making that our Governour which he made our Subject 'T is injustice to the dignity of our own souls to degrade the nobler part to a sordid slavery in making the brute have dominion over the man as if the Horse were fittest to govern the Rider 'T is a falseness to God and a breach of trust to let our minds be imposed upon by our phancy in giving it only feathers to dandle and chaff to feed on instead of those braver objects it was made to converse withal 3. We are accountable to God and punishable for thoughts Nothing is the meritorious cause of God's wrath but sin The Text tells us that they were once the keys which opened the floud-gates of divine vengeance and broach'd both the upper and neather Cisterns * Acts 8.22 If perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee Prov. 12.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man of thoughts i. e. evil thoughts the word being usually taken in an ill sense to overflow the world If they need a pardon as certainly they do then if mercy doth not pardon them justice will condemn them And 't is absolutely said that a man of wicked devices or thoughts God will condemn 'T is God's prerogative often mentioned in Scripture to search the heart To what purpose if the acts of it did not fall under His censure as well as His cognizance He weighs the Spirits Prov. 16.2 in the ballance of His Sanctuary and by the weights of His Law to sentence them if they be found too light The word doth discover and judge them †Heb. 4.12 13. It divides asunder the soul and spirit the sensitive part the affections and the rational the understanding and will both which it doth dissect and open and judge the acts of them even the thoughts and intents 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever is within the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whatsoever is within the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one referring to the Soul the other to the Spirit These it passeth a Judgment upon as a Critick censures the Errata's even to syllables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Letters in an old Manuscript These we are to render an account of as the Syriack renders those words v. 13. with whom we have to do Of what Of the first bubblings of the heart the notions and intents of it The least Speck and Atome of dust in every chink of this little world is known and censured by God If our thoughts be not judged God would not be a righteous judge He would not judge according to the merit of the cause if outward actions were only scann'd without regarding the intents wherein the principle and end of every action lies which either swell or diminish the malignity of it Actions in kind the same may have different circumstances in the thoughts to heighten the one above the other and if they were only judged the most painted hypocrite might commence a blessed spirit at last as well as the exactest Saint 1 Cor. 4 5. 'T is necessary also for the Glory of God's omniscience 'T is hereby chiefly that the extensiveness of God's knowledg is discovered and that in order to the praise or dispraise of men viz. To their Justification or condemnation Those very thoughts will accuse thee before God's Tribunal which accuse thee here before conscience His Deputy Rom. 2.15 16. Their thoughts the
may force some thoughts toward heaven sometimes but they will not be natural till nature be changed Grace only gives stability †Heb. 13.9 It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace and prevents fluctuation by fixing the soul upon God as its chief end and what is our end will not only be first in our intentions but most frequent in our considerations Hence a sanctified heart is called in Scripture a stedfast heart There must be an enmity against Satan put into our hearts according to the first promise before we can have an enmity against his imps or any thing that is like him 2. Study Scripture Original corruption stuffs us with bad thoughts and Scripture-knowledg would stock us with good ones for it proposeth things in such terms as exceedingly suit our imaginative faculty as well as strengthen our understanding Phil. 1.9 1â— Judicious knowledg would make us approve things that are excellent and where such things are approved toyes cannot be welcome Fulness is the cause of stedfastness The cause of an intent and piercing eye is the multitude of animal spirits Without this skill in the word we shall have as foolish conceits of divine things as ignorant men without the rules of art have of the Sun and Stars or things in other countries which they never saw The word is call'd a lamp to our feet i. e. the affections a light to our eyes Psal 119.105 Psal 19.8 enlightens the eyes i. e the understanding It will direct the glances of our minds and the motions of our affections It enlightens the eyes and makes us have a new prospect of things as a Scholar newly entred into Logick and studied the predicaments c. looks upon every thing with a new eye and more rational thoughts and is mightily delighted with every thing he sees because he eyes them as clothed with those notions he hath newly studied The Devil had not his engins so ready to assault Christ as Christ from his knowledg had Scripture-precepts to oppose him As our Saviourby this means stifled thoughts offered so by the same we may be able to smother thoughts arising in us Lectiâ—ne assidua meditatione diuturna pectus suum bibliothecam Christi fecerat Hierom. Ep 3. Converse therefore often with the Scripture transcribe it in your heart and turn it in succum sanguinem whereby a vigor will be derived into every part of your soul as there is by what you eat to every member of your body Thus you will make your mind Christ's library as Hierom speaks of Nepotianus 3. Reflect often upon the frame of your mind at your first conversion None have more settled and more pleasant thoughts of divine things than new converts when they first clasp about Christ partly because of the novelty of their state and partly because God puts a full stock into them and diligent trades-men at their first setting up have their minds intent upon improving their stock Endeavour to put your mind in the same posture it was then Or if you cannot tell the time when you did first close with Christ recollect those seasons wherein you have found your affections most fervent your thoughts most united and your mind most elevated as when you renewed repentance upon any fall or had some notable chearings from God and consider what matter it was which carried your heart upward what employment you were engaged in when good thoughts did fill your soul and try the same experiment again Asaph would oppose God's ancient works to his murmuring thoughts he would remember his song in the night i. e. the matter of his song and read over the records of God's kindness * Psal 77.6 7 8 9 10 11 12. David too would never forget i. e. frequently renew the remembrance of those precepts whereby God had particularly quicken'd him †Psal 119.93 Yea he would reflect upon the places too where he had formerly conversed with God to rescue himself from dejecting thoughts therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill Missar ‖ Psal 42.6 Some elevations surely David had felt in those places the remembrance whereof would sweeten the sharpness of his present grief When our former sins visit our minds pleading to be speculatively reacted let us remember the holy dispositions we had in our repentance for them and the thankful frames Luke 24.32 Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures when God pardoned them The Disciples at Christ's second appearance reflected upon their own warm temper at his first discourse with them in a disguise to confirm their faith and expel their unbelieving conceits Strive to recollect truths precepts promises with the same affection which possest your Souls when they first appeared in their glory and sweetness to you 4. Ballast your heart with a Love to God David thought all the day of God's Law as other men do of their lusts because he unexpressibly loved it * Psal 119.97 113. Oh how I love thy Law It is my meditation all the day v. 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love Aeneas oculis semper vigilantis inhaeret Aeneam animo nóxque diésque refert Ovid. Ep. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian Dialog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost This was the succesful means he used to stifle vain thoughts and excite his hatred of them 'T is the property of love to think no evil 2 Cor. 13.5 It thinks good and delightful thoughts of God friendly and useful thoughts of others It fixeth the Image of our beloved object in our minds that 't is not in the power of other phancies to displace it The beauty of an object will fasten a rolling eye 'T is difficult to divorce our hearts and thoughts from that which appears lovely and glorious in our minds whether it be God or the world Love will by a pleasing violence bind down our thoughts and hunt away other affections If it doth not establish our minds they will be like a Cork which with a light breath and a short curl of water shall be tossed up and down from its station Scholars that love learning will be continually hammering upon some notion or other which may further their progress and as greedily clasp it as the Iron will its beloved Loadstone He that is wing'd with a divine love to Christ will have frequent glances and flights towards him and will start out from his worldly business several times in a day to give him a visit Love in the very working is a settling grace it encreaseth our delight in God partly by the sight of his amiableness which is clear'd to us in the very act of loving and partly by the recompences he gives to the affectionate carriage of his creature both which will stake down the heart from vagaries or giving
taking God's Name in vain Sins all of an high Nature and committed generally in height of Spirit and look as like presumptuous sins for which God hath appointed no Sacrifice as most we can reckon up in regard of the small temptation to them Numb 15.30 31. and the impudence that is common in them 2. Those things also our Tongue is to be restrained from whereby our Brother is wronged as to his outward man whether as to Life Estate or Name unrighteousness is the evil of such Speeches a manifest evil and is aggravated from the degree wherein he suffers and from the directness of our intention in bringing it upon him though whether directly or indirectly of malice and set purpose or out of pure weakness our Brother suffers and we sin that we were no more tender of him in concerns that are so dear to our selves and about which we have been so specially cautioned of God and of this Nature eminently are slander and false Testimony 3. Those things must more especially be forborn whereby our Brother's Soul is like to be defiled and his manners corrupted in that the greatest Charity is here transgressed As for instance all unclean Speeches by which Lust may be drawn forth provoking Speeches whereby passion may be stirred up all enticements to evil and encouragements in evil any thing whereby our Brother's spirit may be lightned or his heart hardned 4. Such things whereby the fundamental Laws of Society are violated and all confidence in one another destroyed I will instance particularly in three 1. Lying that makes words signifie just nothing and cuts off all communion between one anothers Souls that we can never know each others minds we are hereby at a far greater loss than if we could not speak at all How detestable this sin is you may learn by what you read Rev. 21.8 Rev. 22.15 2. Tale-bearing that is a Trade set up directly against all Friendship and the great bane of Love in the World which yet has too much countenance from the generality of the World but God that is always more than our selves solicitous for our good has especially cautioned against it Lev. 19.16 and warned us of the evil effects of it Prov. 18.8 3. Revealing of Secrets which destroys all confidence and breaks the most sacred Bonds of Friendship And as to these we may be doubly faulty 1. In reference to such Secrets as are committed to us sub sigillo these every one is convinced he ought to keep so for his truths sake and to answer the confidence that was put in him though many are never quiet till they have broke this Bond but are rather irritated by their being bound Prov. 11.13 A Tale-bearer revealeth Secrets Especially 2. In reference to such as come to us without such a formal Bond out of weakness or good nature if there may be wrong to the party confiding in us by divulging what he hath so committed to us the very matter of the case obligeth us in justice though not in faithfulness we are bound to be his Secretaries if a far greater good may not come by the discovery And let me here give a special caution in a case wherein you may be lyable to Temptation Take heed what you do tell to a Friend lest he should after prove an Enemy this is prudence Take heed you discover not when an Enemy what was told you as a Friend that is Piety 5. The matter of the Discourse is faulty when the very ends of it are overlooked and you fruitlesly and foolishly squander away both time and Talents not considering that idle words are also evil words and to be reckoned for another day Mat. 12 36 37. Quest How shall we restrain our Tongues from all this evil 1. By purging the Seeds of it out of our hearts Our Saviour looked upon it as an unnatural thing and not to be expected that they that are evil should speak good things in as much as out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Mat. 12.34 That therefore must be first cleansed that the mouth may be kept clean while there are filthy thoughts malicious purposes impetuous passions and idle imaginations allowed there by the Tongue as well as other ways they will have their vent by every Member the heart will be discharging it self of it's abundance whence again he observes that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries thefts false-witness blasphemies Mat. 15.19 Mind therefore how you are still directed to lay the Ax unto the Root and crucifie the evil affections of the heart that you may prevent the Extravagancies of the Tongue Eph. 4.31 Let all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice he despaired Clamour and evil speaking should be restrained except Wrath and Malice were extirpated And to the same purpose Col. 3.8 9. Put off Anger Wrath Malice and then he hath some hopes they might also forbear Blasphemy filthy Communication Lying Let your first care then be of the Heart and it 's first Motions for every Member thence hath it's impressions and all pretence of care without a regard to this Will be but a palliation and we may expect a more violent Eruption 2. By stopping our Ears and shutting our Eyes against every thing that may feed the fore-mentioned evil humours if they be fermented afresh they will flow anew and be aware of remainders of them in the best of you If we would effectually keep a fire from smoaking we must keep it from burning and to secure it from burning keep it from blowing and fresh supplies of fewel We can easily apply this no refining of the Tongue without purging of the Heart no keeping that pure if any thing that defiles is suffered to enter there the ordinary passages into which are by the Eye and Ear avoid therefore in prosecution of this Direction all vain idle angry envious malicious Companions lest they be infusing into thee their Venom Bid adieu to all Profane Ranters and Ribalds to all Tale-bearers and Whisperers they will kindle the fire of Lust or Anger if there be a spark in thee And next to them avoid all Books that are stuffed with profane Jests or that gender to excessive heats these assault us like formed Armies when occasional words are like slight Sallies of a small party And lastly beware of vain and filthy sights and the more artificial the more dangerousâ— as more affecting the fancy sinking deeper into the memory and pressing more importunately into the mouth they tickle us into the talk of them 3. By laying the Laws against all idle and evil speaking before our eyes in their reasonableness and rigor their reasonableness will appear if we consider them as for us would we any body should abuse us with lyes or load us with reproaches no why then it is well God hath provided by his Law that they shall not and is it not alike equal
them and all the loving promises and invitations of the Gospel And must not our Hearts our Ministry and our Lives be answerable to all this Believe it it must be a Preacher whose matter and manner of Preaching and Living doth shew forth a hearty Love to God and Love to Godliness and Love to all his Peoples Souls that is the fit Instrument to glorifie God by convincing and converting sinners God can work by what means he will by a scandalous domineering self-seeking Preacher but it is not his ordinary way Foxes and Wolves are not Nature's Instruments to generate sheep I never knew much good done to Souls by any Pastors but such as Preached and Lived in the Power of Love working by clear convincing Light and both managed by a holy lively seriousness You must bring fire if you would kindle fire Trust not here to the Cartesian Philosophy that meer motion will turn another Element into fire Speak as loud as you will and make as great a stir as you will it will be all in vain to win mens Love to God and Goodness till their hearts be touched with his Love and Amiableness which usually must be done by the Instrumentality of the Preacher's Love Let them hate me so they do but fear me and obey me is the saying of such as set up for themselves and but foolishly for themselves and like Satan would Rule Men to damnation If Love be the sum and fulfilling of the Law Love must be the sum and fulfilling of our Ministry But yet by Love I mean not Flattery Parents do love as necessarily as any and yet must Correct And God himself can love and yet Correct Yea he chasteneth every Son that he receiveth Heb. 12.6 7. And his Love consisteth with paternal justice and with hatred of sin and plain and sharp reproof of sinners And so must ours but all as the various operations of Love as the objects vary And what I say of Ministers I say of every Christian in his place Love is the great and the new Commandment that is the last which Christ would leave at his departure to his Disciples O could we learn of the Lord of Love and Him who calleth himself LOVE it self to love our Enemies to bless them that curse us and to do good to the Evil and pray for them that hurt and persecute us we should not only prove that we are genuine Christians the Children of our Heavenly Father Mat. 5.44 45. but should heap coals of fire on our Enemies heads and melt them into Compassion and some remorse if not into an holy Love I tell you it is the Christian who doth truly love his Neighbour as himself who loveth the Godly as his Co-heirs of Heaven and loveth the ungodly with a desire to make them truly Godly who loveth a Friend as a Friend and an Enemy as a Man that is capable of Holiness and Salvation It is he that Liveth walketh speaketh converseth yea suffereth which is the great difficulty in love and is as it were turned by the love of God shed abroad upon his heart into love it self who doth glorifie God in the World and glorifie his Religion and really rebuke the Blasphemer that derideth the Spirit in Believers as if it were but a Fanatick Dream And it is he that by tyranny cruelty contempt of others and needless proud singularities and separations Magisterially condemning and vilifying all that walk not in his fashion and pray not in his fashion and are not of his opinion where it 's like enough he is himself mistaken that is the Scandalous Christian who doth as much against God and Religion and the Church and mens Souls as he doth against Love And though it be Satan's way as an Angel of Light and his Ministers way as Ministers of Righteousness to destroy Christ's Interest by dividing it and separate things which God will have conjoyned and so to pretend the love of Truth the love of Order or the love of Godliness or Discipline against the love of Souls and to use even the name of love it self against love to justifie all their cruelties or censures and alienations yet God will keep up that Sacred Fire in the hearts of the sound Christians which shall live and conquer these temptations and they will understand and regard the warning of the Holy Ghost Rom. 16.17 I beseech you mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them in their sinful dividing offensive ways for they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus though they may confidently think they do but their own bellies or carnal interests though perhaps they will not see it in themselves and by good words and fair or flattering speeches deceive the hearts of the simple The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hominum minime malorum no bad men or harmless well meaning men who in case it be not to mortal Errours perhaps may be in the main sincere and may be saved when their stubble is burnt But whether sincere or not they are Scandals in the World and great dishonourers of God and serve Satan when they little think so in all that they do contrary to that Vniversal Love by which God must be glorified and sinners overcome VII A publick mind that is set upon doing good as the work of his life and that with sincere and evident self denial doth greatly glorifie God in the World As God maketh his Goodness known to us by doing good so also must his Children do Nothing is more communicative than Goodness and Love nothing will more certainly make it self known when ever there is opportunity That a wordy barren Love which doth not help and succour and do good is no true Christian Love St. James hath told us fully in his detection of a dead and barren faith No man in reason can expect that others should take him for a Good man for something that is known to no one but himself save only that publick converse and communion must be kept up by the charitable belief of Professions till they are disproved The Tree is known by its Fruits and the Fruits best by the taste though the sight may give some lower degree of commendation The Character of Christ's purified peculiar people is that they are zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 The Scandalous Christian may be zealous against others and zealous to hurt them to persecute them to censure them to disparage them and to avoid them but the Genuine Christian is zealous in loving them and doing them all the good he can To do a little good upon the by and from a Full Table to send an Alms to Lazarus at the door yea to give to the Needy as much as the Flesh can spare without any suffering to it self or any abatement of its Grandeur pomp and pleasure in the world will prove you to be men not utterly void of all compassion but it will never prove
is as earnest for grace as for glory Thou hast delivered my soul from death wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling c. Psal 56.13 and refrain them from every evil way Psal 119.101 Lord I have hoped for thy Salvation and done thy commandements Psal 119.166 But Presumption makes men more remiss and careless in their whole course it does not quicken our endeavours and make us more active for God as hope does by which we purifie our selves 1 John 3.3 it puts us upon preparing our selves for the actual possession of what we hope for that we may be meet for the Kingdom of God and ready to enter in with the Bridegroom it uses all means to attain its end If thy hope be not a heart-purifying hope a life-reforming hope 't is no better than presumption 1 Pet. 1.13 and Psal 37.3 5. Those things that presumption counts upon in a careless way it doth not bring them so close to the Soul it doth not give us that lively taste and sense of them as true hope does they do not work so kindly upon the heart Presumption apprehends something in gross in a confused manner pleasing it self with the names and empty notions of things rather than with the things themselves is contented with a negative happiness and understands no more by going to heaven and being saved than that he shall not be damned and be tormented in hell A presumptuous person knows not what heaven is what the blessedness of the Saints is he studies not those things but at all adventures he would exchange hell for heaven and pleaseth himself with an imaginary happiness Presumption never makes men heavenly minded for all their high words and confident boasting yet they are not in earnest for heaven they don't savour these things something they must say something they must pretend to to silence their consciences and to keep down those fears that otherwise would distract them There may be an affectation of heaven where there is no true affection for it Heaven glory and eternal life are gay things and signifie some great good but what they know not But hope brings things home to the heart we see the substance of what we hope for Heb. 11.1 Faith comments upon our hope discourses of the excellent nature of those things we wait for tells us many pleasing stories of heaven and Christ and the glory that is above this mightily heightens hope ravishes the soul makes it even leap for joy that its reward shall be so great in heaven faith lifts us up within the vail gives us a strong taste of the powers of the world to come and so feeds and nourishes hope encourages it to a patient waiting for that which will quit cost at last and fully answer our expectations 6. Presumption as it neglects the use of all means for the attaining its end as I said before so it is signally guilty of the neglect of Prayer Psal 10.4 'T is the presumptuous sinner blessing himself in his wickedness David there speaks of verse 3. But true Hope is full of holy breathings and longings after that which it hopes for Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 5.2 That hope may well be suspected that puts us not upon frequent and earnest prayer they have little ground for their hope of Salvation Omne desiderium post spem impatientius who call not upon the Lord Rom. 10.13 If thy hope be not a praying hope 't is a presuming hope 7. Presumption though it talk much of Christ as one who must do all for us and will save us yet such an one studies not the mystery of Christ doth not make it his business to search the Scripture to enquire after him to satisfie himself about him that he is able to save Herein appears the unreasonableness of this sin we trust we know not whom for a man to commit his greatest concern to an unknown hand and to rest secure is very unreasonable but true Hope is well acquainted with Christ much in the studies of the Mystery of Christ having repos'd so great a trust in him is very desirous to know him throughly and can never act with confidence till then I know saith Paul in whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him 2 Tim. 1.12 I dare trust him he wo'nt fail me The reason of our hope must be fetch 't from somewhat in Christ rendring him sufficient for the work he hath undertaken else 't is unreasonable nay it must needs sink and die without Christ without hope Eph. 2.12 When God sent Christ into the world to save us what a high Character doth he give of him purposely to encourage us to trust in him I have laid help upon one that is mighty Psal 89.19 able to save to the uttermost mighty to save Isa 63.1 Isa 49.26 Take all the promises of the Gospel nay all the contents of the Bible and consider them apart by themselves not in conjunction with God nor in relation to him who is the author and owner of them and the great undertaker of all things mentioned therein we shall have little ground to believe them but in God I will praise his word Psal 56.4 In God I have put my trust ibid. Christ in us is our hope of glory Col. 1.27 How glad is a believer to hear any thing of the fulness power and excellency of Christ O his heart leaps within this is my God my Saviour my Redeemer what a happy man am I Psal 144.15 This is my beloved and this is my friend O daughter of Jerusalem Cantic 5.16 A believer is very proud of Christ if I may so speak this enlivens hope and raises it to a very high pitch if our thoughts of Christ and love to him be not raised and heightened by our hope in him 't is not right There is nothing more common in the mouths of the ignorant profane sort than to say I hope to be saved by Jesus Christ but who ever thou art that sayst so of course not minding what thou sayst take up those words again and make common sense of them if thou canst to thy own understanding what hope to be saved by Christ whom thou knowest not hast no acquaintance with art a meer stranger to O lay aside those vain hopes till thou hast learned Christ let me enjoyn thee never to utter those words more till thou knowest Christ better how possible thy Salvation may be I will not now dispute but I am sure thy present hopes of it are very unreasonable and groundless Thus having shew'd the difference between Presumption and Hope I shall in the next place speak something but more briefly of the difference between Despair and Hope As I did before distinguish of a double Presumption so I must in the same terms distinguish of a double Despair Despair is either 1. Of our Selves which is an humble holy despair very consistent with hope and a necessary
preparation and introduction to it a valley never to be fill'd up the Gospel doth by no means allow of Self-Exaltation no flesh must glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1.29 we must still seem vile in our own eyes 2. Of God and of his mercy which is two-fold 1. Privative which is a total privation of the habit root or principle of true saving hope as in all unbelievers 2. Negative a cessation of the acts of hope which is twofold A total cessation at least as to our sense and discerning of the actings of Hope for a time this is temporary Despair Gradual arising from a weakness in the actings of Hope which is Despair in opinion counted so by weak doubting Christians both these last mentioned are incident to true Believers and occasion much sorrow and sadness to them But this Privation or negation of hope doth not fully set forth the nature of despair in which there seems to be somewhat positive recessus a re desiderata as the Schools speak an actual with-drawing from Christ the heart falls off from the Promises doth act against them puts them from us despair argues and reasons the soul out of its hope puts in a caveat against it self cannot think that a person under such circumstances can be within the meaning of the promise and so sinks and faints away Job 17.15 This is more than meer privation or negation there is an evil disposition wrought in the heart by unbelief which fills the soul with many prejudices against the truth makes it pertinaciously to adhere unto its own erroneous judgment so that it can do nothing now but quarrel dispute and except against all that may be said on t'other side These things premis'd I now come to shew the difference between Despair and Hope 1. Despair is the result of strong legal convictions urging the sentence of the Law against us without any consideration of Gospel-Grace for our relief and succour This works great consternation fills the soul with amazing fears shuts it up in a dark dungeon claps it in irons binds it hand and foot and so leaves it under a fearful expectation of fiery indignation to devour it But Hope deals in the promises is begotten by them and bears up the soul under the condemnation of the Law 2. Despair indisposes the soul from hearkning to the free grace of the Gospel when 't is offered because it still retains those strong impressions and dreadful apprehensions which the Law hath wrought and will not be comforted But Hope allayes these fears makes the soul willing to debate the matter to hear what the Gospel sayes to see what may be done in so dangerous a cause 3. Despair sees more in sin than in Christ and supposes the wound incurable my sin is greater than can be forgiven But Hope sees Grace superabounding large enough to cover all our sins 4. Despair is very peremptory and positive in concluding against it self 't is resolv'd upon nothing but death greater than can be forgiven a lost undone creature to all eternity it cannot be otherwise As in the highest decree of faith and hope there is assurance of salvation so here there is a dismal uncomfortable assurance of damnation But Hope though it may be accompanied with many fears and doubts yet there is some expectation of good a patient looking for and sollicitous waiting though sometimes with trembling for salvation the soul doth not give over its pursuit after life and pardon but when 't is at the lowest ebb doth apprehend some possibility of escape through Christ it may be for all this we shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger Zeph. 2.3 it may be we shall be delivered from the wrath to come Thus Hope draws on the soul to Christ encouraging it to come forward Directions how to avoid both extreams 1. Against Presumption whether of our selves or of God 1. Against that Presumption that is of our selves take these following Directions 1. Take up so much of a sense of sin into the mount of Hope as may keep thy hope from swelling into presumption or from feeding upon any thing in thy self 2. Be much in proving thy hope in giving thy self and others a reason of it 1 Pet. 3.15 this is the way to keep it right consider what that reason is whether it be a true Gospel-ground of hope as natural affections in a man must be guided by reason so spiritual affections in a Christian must be regulated and influenced by Faith I believed and therefore have I spoken 2 Cor. 4.13 so it holds here I believe and therefore do I hope 3. Suspect those acts of Hope that have their rise from any thing else but Christ and the promises the heart of man is deep and very deceitful 't is no easie matter to understand our hope at all times and to manage it aright we are apt to forget our selves flesh will be putting in and contributing something from its self towards the support of our hope it will be casting in something into the scale with Christ to make better weight This we must carefully watch against keeping our eye only upon Christ as David Psal 62.5 6. When we find our hearts pleasing themselves with any self-reflections upon our own personal worth in any kind we should fear lest those thoughts should gather too fast and puff us up in a vain conceit of our selves we should see nothing but meanness vileness and unworthyness in our selves under the highest actings of our hope in Christ Though I were perfect yet would I not know my soul Job 8.21 4. Begin thy Hope with an act of humble holy despair of thy self that thy hope may be discharged on that hand forc't to quit all expectations from thence and not be tempted to any sinister aspect that way upon so poor empty insufficient a thing as thou knowest thy self to be We know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee 2 Chron. 20.12 Our hope though it look never so directly upon Christ yet it is too too apt to take in some collateral encouragements from self which do cause a further dilation in the heart and make some secret and if we observe our own spirit some sensible additions to the joy and complacency we have in our hope we bless our selves the more and though we are pleased with Christ yet we are pleased with something besides Christ and this spoils all it poysons our hope is like a Canker eats like a Gangrene and is a great blemish to our hope 5. If all this will not do but still thy proud heart is big with expectation of something from God upon its own account and thou canst not separate self from Christ in the out-goings of thy hope then my advice is Answer thy foolish heart for once in its folly and take its supposed worth into thy serious consideration weigh it well prove it examine all its pretences that the truth may appear and that you may do this
him and delight in him whose properties are these 1. 'T is a soveraign love he it is whom the soul loveth as before out of the Canticles chap. 1.7 a transcendent love arising out of some due apprehension of his own excellency and those most inestimable benefits procured by him he is the standard-bearer amongst ten thousand Cant. 4.10 as the apple-tree for shade and fruit to the weary travellers above all the trees of the forrest Cant. 2.3 Saints and Angels are but shrubs and fruitless things to him they have fruit for themselves from him but none for us 2. It is unsatisfiable with any thing besides him love is a restless affection therefore compared to the grave and death Cant. 8.6 7. amor semper quaerit nova it cannot say I have enough till it be terminated on Jesus Christ and God by him 3. 'T is ardent and therefore it is compared to coals of fire in the Text Cant. 8. it is not a flat and faint thing but it warms and enlarges the heart 4. 'T is very chast 't is not to be frighted away by the troubles and affrightments of the world neither is it to be bribed off by the blandishments and allurements of it many waters cannot quench it and if any would offer all the substance of his house to corrupt it to withdraw it it would be utterly contemned ibid. 5. And chiefly it is obediential what would not a man do or suffer for such a Saviour for such a Salvation as from sin and hell and such a Salvation as into grace and eternal glory it is the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13.10 A man that loves the Lord Jesus would fulfil every one of his commands the law of his God is in his heart Psal 37.31 and his heart is to the law there is a kind of perfection secundum intentionem and he goes on gradually quoad perfectionem Love makes the yoke easie his commands are not grievous i. e. They are precious Oh how I love thy Law says David Psal 119.97 I delight in the Law of God in my inner man saith Paul Rom. 7.22 Try your selves by this compare your selves with that of Christ in his farewel Sermon Joh. 14.15 21 23. withal remember and dread that Text 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus i. e. malign him oppose him let him be accursed till the Lord comes 2. The object of this love we have it in the Text viz. the Lord Jesus and all of him he is altogether lovely A believer loves him as King loves his Laws and institutions and none but his loves him as Priest in the holiness of his nature and life in the suffering of his soul and death how precious is Jesus 1 Pet. 2.7 loves him as a Prophet revealing the mystery of Salvation the glorious mystery of the Gospel hidden from generations hidden from the wise and prudent Believers love him most intimately as a King for holiness as a Priest for righteousness and as a Prophet for wisdom Lust like the harlot divides him but love like the true mother will have him whole as well holiness to save from sin as righteousness to save from hell 3. The cause of it is the blessed Spirit the fruit of the Spirit is love Gal. 5.22 The Lord thy God shall circumcise thy heart and cause thee to love the Lord thy God Deut. 30.6 Alas 't is not in corrupt nature the wisdom of the flesh the best in that hedge is enmity not a bare enemy but enmity against God 't is not subject i. e. ordinarily regularly subject to his Law neither can be there is a remotio actus and posse too 't is a divine work The other holy affection is joy in the Text we have the properties of it First 'T is unspeakable the joy of harvest rich spoils great treasures when they are right i. e. when they are derived from God by Jesus Christ they have their weight but what are these to the joy of a pardon to a trembling and condemned man and what is this to the joy in Christ to a man that understands and is sensible what damnation is what hell is what eternity is the highness the sweetness the revivement is indeed ineffable no man that feels it can find words fully to express it 2. 'T is full of glory i. e. say some a stander by cannot judge of it That is true but is too short 't is initium vitae aeternae 't is glorificatum gaudium 't is a part of heaven Austin seems to think that is too much our present comfort saith he is rather Solatium praesentis miseriae than gaudium futurae beatitudinis rather a collation or refreshment upon our journey than a set meal at our journeys end What if we should take the word here glorious for strong full of glory full of divine power a holy joy an heart-enlargeing joy strong to do and strong to die certainly sin is never more odious the heart is never more soft the commandements never more precious the World never more regardless Jesus never more glorious than when we humbly rejoyce in the sense of God's love by Jesus Christ through the witness of the blessed Spirit If our comforts be not heart-enlarging to love and duty they may be suspected for unsound I will add one property viz. The joy of Believers is soul-satisfying joy it fills the heart and every chink of it it is abundantly nay victoriously satisfying the Soul of it self without praying in the help of the Creatures Light all the candles in the world and they will not cannot make it day let the Sun arise and that will do it without their help Read Hab. 3. the latter end in our phrase our manner of speech it is this if no bread in the cupboard nor money in the purse nor Friend to help yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and glory in the God of my salvation The Object of this Joy is present interest in Jesus and a lively hope of Glory or Glory hoped for the cause efficient is the blessed Spirit joy in the Holy Ghost i. e. by him the inward instrument is Faith Faith special or Assurance Christ loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 The outward instrument is the Gospel the Angel called it Tydings of great joy I pray you try again where is your joy whence doth it arise upon what is it fixed of what kind is it what is the power of it joy is natural and pleasing every man seeks it many there be that say who will shew us any good they are for sensible palpable good Corn Wine or Oyl Riches Honours here they think to find joy and comfort Alas they seek the living among the dead they suck an empty breast David had all this but he sought far higher he was of a more noble and heavenly temper lift up the light of thy countenance cause thy face to shine upon thy Servant that will put gladness into my
not ingenit or connate with me I had it not from nature or natural light No it was purely adventitious being in part infused by God and in part acquired by my self I was not made with it but I was taught it Where and how did he learn it not at the feet of Gamaliel not in the Schools of the great Philosophers but in the school of Christ and by the teachings of the Spirit He might say of this what he saith of his Office Gal. 1.1 it was not of man nor by man but of God 1. He attained unto it not by the teachings of man's wisdom but by the teachings of the holy Ghost to allude to that 1 Cor. 2.13 This blessed Spirit set up a supernatural light in him wrought a supernatural work in him gave in divine and supernatural discoveries to him and so he arrived at his Contentment And further he learnt it in a subordinate sense by his own prudent observation Christian experience dayly and constant †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Homil. 15. in C. 4. ad Philip. 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Phot. Dicens didici significat hanc rem esse disciplinae exercitationis atque hujus rei habitum longo usu se assecutum Estius exercise all of which when Sanctified and blessed by God do contribute much to the making of the heart quiet in every condition The word notes also the mysteriousness of heavenly Contentation I have learnt it saith the Apostle as a great Secret as a thing that lies out of the Common road and is not so easie to be understood This notion is not so fully reached by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used as it is by another word used in the next verse Every where and in all things I am instructed c. 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render by instructed others by initiated It implies * Initiatus sum Beza Utitur verbo quod rebus Sacris convenit ut significet pio esse ad haec omnia à spiritu sancto sanctificatos consecratos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim est sacris initiari Est igitur Sacra institutio Zanch. I am consecrated to this knowledg of Contentment in all estates Dr. Sibbs Saints-Cordial p. 4. Est propriè initiari mysteriis Erosm Dicit institutus sum ut in sinuet hanc ratio nem vitae velut sacrum mysterium se divinitus edoctum esse Est enim in Graeco verbum à quo mysteria dicuntur Estius Initiatus sum i. e. institutus Non formidavit Apostolus vocem Graecae superstionis ad meliores usus transferre Nam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vox hinc venit In Glossario 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 initio imbuo Diod. Siculus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grot. Usurpavit hoc verbum omnium pertinentissimé Nam omnino sacra est haec disciplinae Christianae Scientia c. Et institutio illius non est simpliciter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed sacra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Muscul Innuens Apostolus hanc vitae rationem velut grande sacrumque mysterium à Deo divinitus accepisse Velasquez both initiation and also instruction in things sacred and mysterious as is commonly observed Now saith Paul I am instructed both to be full and to suffer hunger as if he had said This indeed is a very mysterious thing yet God hath brought me to the knowledg and practice of it So that Contentment is not a facile or common matter such as is open and obvious to every person but 't is an abstruse hidden secret thing there are mysteries in it which only some few do discern it carries an holy art and skill in it which he that hath learned is one of the greatest Artists in the world Paul had arrived at this Art for he had learned in every c. The observations from the words are four Observations raised Obs 1. Such who are true Disciples of Christ partakers of the true spirit of Christianity they have learned to be Content Obs 2. True Contentment is a divine and supernatural thing 'T is a flower which doth not grow in nature's garden but God plants it in the Soul He only knows and lives it who is taught of God and who learns it by the teaching of the Spirit Some of the †Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seneca de tranquil animi As Austin speake of Seneca upon another account Libertas quae Scribenti affuir viventi defuit See this opened in M. Burroughs of Contentment P. 17. c. Heathen Moralists have spoke much and wrote very well of it but yet they 't is to be feared were great strangers to the practice of it 'T is the sincere Christian only who doth indeed live it There must be a Divine light beamed into the Soul the communication of special grace from Christ the supernatural workings of God's Spirit in the heart or else there can be no true Contentment Obs 3. Christian Contentment hath great mysteries wrapped up in it A contented life is a mysterious life The Apostle speaking of the Doctrine of Godliness saith 't is a great mystery 1 Tim. 3.16 Wee may say the same of the practical part of godliness as it lies in Contentment 't is a great mystery Here is a man that hath very much and yet he is not contented here is another that hath little or nothing and yet he is contented surely there is a mystery in the case Obs 4. Then a man doth truly know and live Contentment when he hath learned in every state and condition therewith to be content Paul's contentment was universal extending to all occurrences of Providence I have learned in every state c. every where and in all things I am instructed c. 'T is not enough in this or that want and cross to be contented but in every thing that befalls us we must be so and then we have indeed learnt this heavenly lesson These are the Doctrinal Truths which the Text presents us with I have named them but shall not fall upon the prosecution of all or any one of them 'T is the Duty it self which I am only to speak unto And concerning that too I am not to lanch out into the General handling of it so as to treat upon the several Heads which are proper to it which work is already done fully and profitably by many of our own Writers I am confined to one Particular about it which will be mainly directive to shew How and by what means this blessed Contentation may be attained The main Question propounded and answered A threefold notion of Contentment 'T is a very important Question which I am to answer this Morning viz. What are all Christians to do that they with Paul may learn in every state to be content For the more distinct answering of which I will consider Contentment in a threefold notion as it
What useful Instruments have holy Kings and Princes been for God upon their Thrones Plenty and fulness are desirable 'T is better to give than to receive Acts 20.35 Innocence and Independence steel the Countenance 'T is comfortable to be the poor man's staff and the rich man's pattern The like I may say of Liberty Gifts Parts c. And when God throws these things upon us to make us useful it would be our misery shame and sin to cast them from us with contempt and as both Life and Comforts stand in relation to Vsefulness and Glory Grace rather heightens than abates esteem and value of them and rather quickens and engages thankfulness and affections for and to them than sets the heart against them thus considered 3. It is the Apostasie of our state and hearts from God that sets our lives and comforts in their capacity of being snares to us Had it not been for sin God and our Lives and Comforts had not been reduced to such an inconsistency as now they are nor had our natural Lives and Comforts been our snares had not their end and ours been changed they had never been so insignificant as to our safety and delight had we not torn them from that their Figure God himself to whom their true subordinate relation gave them their whole worth and value Our snares and surfeits come from our own irregular appetites 1 Tim. 6.9 10. Luke 21.34 Life and its Consolations are God's and good Jam. 1.17 The Lust is ours 1 John 2.16 4. Life and all things must be disregarded as they are separate from God and set against him as they are separated from God so they must be neglected and as they are set against God so they must be opposed Our lives must never be a course of lusts Rom. 13.13 Nor must their Comforts and Continuance be entertained or indulged as God's Opponents or Corrivals nor be preserved possest or prosecuted to the prejudice of better things even holy works and joy while they and better things may keep together the elder must serve the younger Our present Life and Comforts must minister to the great Concernments of another better state and when Religion or our Lives must go we must disclaim the latter to secure the former Nothing must bound or circumvent Religion nor must it be subjected to the trifling ends and dotages of a transient Life Our Lives and Comforts are dispensed to us for usefulness not satisfaction We must secure obedience and submission to God's preceptive and disposing Will and a true constant practical relation and subserviency unto God's Glory and our own eternal Welfare and the full credit of Religion and its advancement in our selves and others And wherein soever the love of Life threatens or makes towards an equality with God and Life-to-come-concernments or makes us change our Lord to serve our Lusts or grow reluctant to that great Seal and Testimony which we owe to the full Interest and Claims of Christianity or makes us more remiss sluggish and fearful in our Christian Course of holy painful and resolved exercises than our Hopes and Circumstances can admit of therein must Life be wholly disregarded Query 3. Whence is it evident that this Design and Prospect will have such powerful influences upon concerned serious Christian as to make this regardlesness of Life and every thing to be a possible attainment 1. From personal Instances All that are gone to Heaven have reach'd this Frame Oh what a Cloud of Witnesses is afforded us Heb. 11.2 39. 10.32 The Apostle here himself stands like a Monument with this Superscription 'T is possible to be a Conqueror of Life and Death 2 Tim. 4.6.8 Acts 21.13 Phil. 1.20 23. Nor doth he want his Seconds as Barnabas Acts 15.26 Epaphroditus Phil. 2.30 Daniel also and the Three Children long before Dan. 3.16 18. 6.13 22. and those in Rev. 12.11 and many others 2. From Scriptural Injunctions and Comminations Luke 14.26 1 Pet. 4.12 16. It is no ways probable that such weighty Accents of Command Concernedness and Importunity and Caution should be laid upon Impossibilities or that God should urge and threaten man and press upon him both with promises and menaces and be at such expence of cost and patience grace and bounty and digest his Name and Treasures into such cogent arguments and make both Heaven and Earth yea Hell and Conscience minister to this Design of ripening and advancing him to such a p tâ—h of exâ—ltation above all prejudicial love of Life and fear of Death if this were foreign to his own capacity and therefore unattainable for this would be the way even to distract the Hâ—rmony of God's whole Name with such unaccountable and impossible Discords as that account which God hath given us thereof would not admit of nor is it consonant to that Analogy which his Image on the New Creature expresly beareth unto himself 3. From the Advantages which the Design and Prospect of the Text afford us We have something nobler to attempt than to preserve and cherish that Life and Interest which is separate from God and set against him and something better to expect and promise to our selves than such contracted transient Comforts as Death can strip us of namely the finishing of an honourable Course that is set before us and reaching of those matchless Consolations which are tendred to us and affixed to the end and termination of that costly painful Race which we have to run And such things have an exact sufficiency in their kind as Arguments and Motives to our Hopes and Diligence and Resolution to make us more than Conquerors both of and in Life and Death Rev. 2.10 Rom. 8.18 2 Tim. 1.8 12. 2.12 Acts 24.14 16. Rom. 8.32 39. 4. From the Assistance which God is ready to afford us 1 Cor. 10.13 2 Cor. 1.3 5. 12.7 10. John 14.18 Mat. 28.20 Jer. 1.8 Our Winter-work hath sutable furniture and provisions Jam. 1.2 6. We shall have Counsels Comforts Quicknings and sutable Relishes Views and Strength to all our Work and Exercises Query 4 and the Case in hand What must we therefore do to and how must we overcome the inordinate Love of Life and Fear of Death For no man can love or dare to dye that loves this Life inordinately and values it too dear to let it go or that prevailingly doubts or fears or undervalues a better Life hereafter Now in this instance in my Text Bonds and Afflictions seemed to minister to Death and Death is very terrible to Nature as its Dissolution and terrible to interested Souls in the Concernments of this Life as ending all the Pleasures Profits Honors that Sense Fancy can be courted with 't is terrible to those that are not satisfied of another state because it ends what they were sure of the existence of and had the greatest desires of and pleasures in and because it ushers them thither where their doubt will be resolved and that for ought
the Delices of Heaven seem bitter to a Sensual Worldling What makes the heart poorer as to things Divine than the love of worldly Riches How is the Honour of Christ and Religion degraded in that heart which affects worldly Honours what more powerfully stains the Glory of a Christian Profession than an ambitious affectation of Mundane Glory Where is that professor who has his heart engaged in the world without being defiled by it if not drowned in it The world is filled with such a contagious air as that our love is soon poysoned and infected by it Love to the world is the Devil's Throne where he lords it the Helm of the Ship where he sits and steers the Soul Helwards This was the bitter root of Lot's wife her Apostasie from God So Gen. 19.26 But his wife looked back from behind him She had left her heart in Sodom and thence she looks back after it contrary to God's Command v. 17. And what was the Issue of her Apostasie She became a pillar of Salt i. e. She partaked of Sodom's Plague which was brimstone and and salt Deut. 29.23 the storm which fell on Sodom overtook her and turned her into a Pillar of Salt as a standing Monument of God's Justice on Apostates who love the world more than God Whence saith our Lord Luk. 17.32 Remember Lot's wife What made Judas and Demas Apostatize but love to the world As man at first fell from God by loving the world more than God so he is more and more engaged in this Apostasie by love to the world 10 Love to the world transforms a man into the spirit and humour of the world which is inconsistent with the love of God Love makes us like to and so one with what we love For all love aims at Vnity and if it Comes short thereof yet it leaves Similitude which is imperfect Vnity Whence by love to the World men become like to and one with it (w) si terram amas terra es Aug. He that loves the earth is earthly A worldly Man is called Rom. 8.8 9 a fleshly man because his very soul becomes fleshly His heart is drowned in and incorporated with the world his Spirit becomes incarnate with the flesh 11 Yea Love to the world transforms a Man into a Beast and so makes him altogether incapable of Love to God So Psal 49.20 Man that is in honour and vnderstandeth not is like the Beasts that perish This verse is an Epiphonema to the Psalm with which he concludes that a man though never so great in the world yet if his heart cleave unto it he is no better than a Beast albeit he be a man by Nature yet he is a Beast by Affection and Operation Yea what shall I say Love to the world transforms a man into worse than a Beast For it is better to be a Beast than like to a Beast As love to God the Best Good makes us better than the best on other men so Love to the world which is the worst evil makes men worse than the worst of Beasts Love to the world is extatick as well as love to God and the more the heart cleaves to the the world the less power has it to return to God or it self The Application Sect. 6. The Application of the Subject Having Stated and explicated the Case before us we now descend to the several Improvements that may be made thereof both by Doctrinal Corollaries and practick Vses I. As for the Doctrinal Corollaries 1. Doctrinal Corollaries or Inferences that may be deduced from the precedent Discourse they are various and weighty I shall only mention such as more immediately and naturally flow there from 1. By Comparing the Love of God with the Love of the World in their Universal Ideas and Characters we learn How much the love of God doth Excel and transcend the Love of the world Our love is by so much the more perfect by how much the more noble and spiritual its Object is and by how much the more eminent degree it obtains in the subject The greatness of the Object intendeth the Affection And oh how much doth this raise the value of Love to God above worldly Love Is not God the most absolutely necessary Simple Being very Being yea Being it self and therefore most perfect whence is he not also our Last End our Choicest Good every way desireable for himself Then O! what an excellent thing is love to God who is so amiable But as for this world what a dirty whore what an heart-ensnaring thing is it and thence how much is our Love abased by terminating thereon The Love of God is pure and unspotted But O! how filthy and polluted is love to the World What more cordial and sincere than love to God But alas how artificial painted and hypocritick is love to this deceitful world O! how judicious wise and discreet is love to God what abundance of solid deep and spiritual reason has it in its bowels But oh what a brutish sottish passion is love to the world How foolish are all its lusts 1 Tim. 6.9 What a generous and noble Affection is love to God But what more sordid and base than love to this vile world Love to God is Regular and Uniform But O! what Irregularities and Confusions attend love to the World How Masculine puissant and potent is love to God But alas how Effeminate impotent and feeble is love to the World What more solid and Substantial than love to God and what more vain and empty than love to the World It deserves not the name of Love but Lust Worldly-minded men have a world of Lusts but what have they to fill them save a bag of empty wind and vexatious vanities Love to God is most temperate natural and so beautiful But ah what preternatural excessive and prodigious heats are there in Love to the World How is the Mind clarified and brightned by Love to God But oh how is it bemisted and darkened by Love to the World Divine love is the Best Philosopher and master of Wisdome The love of God amplifies and widens the Heart But the Love of the world doth confine and narrow it By Love to God we become Lords over all things beneath our selves But love to the world brings us into subjection to the most base of persons and things Worldly minded men can neither obey nor command their Lusts they cannot obey them because they are infinite and oft contrary they cannot command them by reason of their own feebleness Love to God is tranquil and serene but love to the world tempestuous and turbulent Love to God gives repose and quiet to the soul but love to the world fills it with perpetual agitations inquietude and restless motions without end Worldly love is a laesive passion but Divine love perfective of him that loves In sum love to God is of the same nature with God and therefore the most express Character of
the fruit of it which was great joy v. 3. And then 6. here is their perseverance and how that is effected they were kept by the power of God to Salvation v. 5. No doubt but holiness is loseable the Angels lost theirs and we lost ours and the Saints at this day would quickly lose theirs totally and finally if they were left to a stock of grace received to trade for another world to grace received there must be grace supplyed the grounds of perseverance are without us viz. the promise of the Father the purchase and intercession of the Lord Jesus the power and supply of the blessed Spirit a Doctrine full of comfort but for certain as full of grace and humility too indeed if the comfort were not sanctifying it were not found So that here we may see the Doctrine of the glorious Trinity and every person in his work according to the most wise and divine Oeconomy and propriety in working towards fallen men quite dead in sin and dead in law and that irrecoverably as to themselves or any created power in heaven on their behalf here is I say the Father electing to life and glory here is Jesus Christ dying and rising here is the blessed Spirit sanctifying here the three Graces Faith Hope and Love inseparably accompanyed with obedience cherished with joy and comforts and crowned with perseverance by the power of God all arising from the Soveraignty of God's will and his rich abundant mercy to the praise of the riches of his glorious grace that they that glory should glory in the Lord. Pelagius was the first that set up nature for which the Church of God abhorred him saith Austin and the Fathers call it virus illud Pelagianum the most learned Vsher called it detestandam illam haeresin that pestered the Church of Christ olim bodie saith that holy man in his Hist Pel. But to proceed these strangers notwithstanding their holiness were undeâ— manifold temptations v. 6 7. persecutions in a tumultuary way were raised against them by the unbelieving Jews who were egged thereto by the Priests Priests who did stir up the people against them there was no Imperial Edict at this time against the Christians Nero was the first he was dedicator damnationis nostrae I need not quote Tertullian every Lad of the upper form may know this out of Suetonius and Tacitus God kept the Gospel in the first publishing of it free from any disturbance by the civil powers about 34 years that Claudius banished John into Patmos and that then he had the revelation is a mere figment of the learned Grotius and his Annotations built upon it have neither sap nor sense Under these persecutions their Faith did not only continue but shine and their love was evident and their comforts were so far from abating that they did rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious But you will say what is this to the question I answer here are two directions how a Christian may get that Faith whereby he may live comfortably as well as die safely 1. Be clothed with humility 1 Pet. 5.5 ascribe all thy gifts and graces thy profiting under afflictions ordinances thy peace and comfort wholly to the grace of God by Jesus Christ through the Spirit of holiness If there be any way in the world to get special Faith and to live comfortably it is this to live humbly the evangelically humble soul is the serene chearful soul heart-pride doth not only deprive believers of comfort but brings vexations disappointments and disgusts which are a torment to pride where ever it is 't is a sin that is very incident very pleasing to us very displeasing to God and very disquieting 't is an easie thing to preach and hear and discourse humility but believe it it is not so easie to live it a man's soul is never so fit to receive the shines of Gods love as when he is nothing in himself be sure to crush the sprawlings and motions of this cursed pride see God in all bless him for all see the Lord Jesus the purchaser of all and the blessed Spirit the Sanctifier of all study this well and live that Text in Rom. 11. last God is Principium efficiens finis of him through him and for him are all things give him the glory reduce this to practice this is every day practicable and were it practised would make every day comfortable envyings and provokings arise from vain-glory Gal. 5. last Inde nata sunt schismata quippe Hierome cum dicunt homines nos justificamus impius nos sanctificamus immundos we would be some-bodies away with these thoughts let God have the glory and thou wilt have the comfort in this way God will give Faith special and that is the Faith that brings comfort 2. The way to comfort is to do as these believers in my Text did they did choose rather to forego their earthly comforts than their consciences made choice of affliction rather than iniquity esteemed the reproaches of Christ rather than their safety prisons are not so terrible as they are imagined the best men have rejoyced in the honour of suffering they suffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness Col. 1.11 Scripture-History primitive and modern abound with instances of all Sexes Ages Conditions in this particular The noble Galeacius had that joy in Christ at Geneva beyond all the Marquisates in Italy or the whole world In suffering comes assurance and that is comfort You will say we are not called to suffering and I say the God of peace give us truth and peace always but then if you would live comfortably live in religious honesty chuse poverty before knavery an honest meanness before secretly sinning gains Conscience is the best friend next to Jesus Christ Our rejoycing is this not that we are Preachers so was Demas nor an Apostle so was Judas but the testimony of our conscience that not in fleshly wisdom but in godly sincerity through the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 Light i. e. comfort is sown for the righteous and joyful gladness for the upright Psal 97.11 Now I come to my Text. The words contain the essence of Christianity or godliness The constituent parts of it are Faith and Love the necessary consequences are obedience evangelical and joy unspeakable Faith in Jesus is the great command of the Gospel Joh. 1.5 last 'T is the work of God Joh. 6.29 this is that work Love is the great command of the Law Matth. 22.36 Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy soul Faith acts upon Jesus and sets Love on work Love desires after him and delights in him and sets obedience on work divine comfort flows in proportionably In this is the formal nature of Christianity and what ever is not this in truth is but nature The revelation left in nature tells us that there is a God that he is
to be worshipped that the soul is immortal that there is a state of bliss in another world that righteousness is the way to that bliss Now as there are but two righteousnesses the righteousness of Christ of which the whole Creation is silent and nature altogether ignorant and Angels knew it not until it was revealed to them and a mans own righteousness So there are but two Religions in the world sc Christianity and nature Call Religions by what names you list Judaism Turcism Paganism Popery common Protestantism 't is still but nature The Sea hath many names from the Countries and shores but still it is the same Sea These two righteousnesses cannot be mixt in the business of justification in the sight of God If it be of Christ as the Scripture faith it is no more of works if it be of works as nature saith it is no more of Christ we cannot be justified in his sight partly by the righteousness of Christ's obedience and partly by our own The Law is not of Faith Gal. 3.13 as many as are of the works are under the curse v. 10. the just shall live by faith ergo not by law This is Paul's Logick v. 11. A man cannot be Son of two mothers Gal. 4. lat end Cast out the bond-woman and her Son for the Son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the Son of the free-woman And a woman cannot be wife to two husbands together Rom. 7.4 There is but one strait gate Matth. 7.13 one door Joh. 10.9 one way Joh. 14.5 one name Acts 4.12 Paul is the most lively instance in this great case while he was alive to the Law he was dead to Christ and when he was alive to Christ he was dead to the Law Gal. 2.19 dead to the Law as a rule of righteousness and alive to the Law as a rule of obedience dead to the Law in point of dependance and alive to the Law in point of love and practice his Christianity did ennoble and heighten his morality he was just and sober and temperate blameless while he was a Pharisee but when he was a believer he did the same things from a noble principle in a spiritual manner for the right ends before he did act from himself for himself now from Christ and for Christ The deduction from hence is this If we would live in true comfort we must be true Christians A man may be a Protestant yet not a Christian indeed a man may be blameless and Christless and by consequence Godless Remember the parable of the foolish Virgins they were not harlots profane but Virgins they were not persecutors or blasphemers or malicious but foolish i. e. supine careless negligent they had lamps in their hands but no oyl in their hearts the parable of the builders the sandy believers of the Kings supper the man that had not on a wedding garment Indeed most of the preaching of the Lord Jesus tends this way and these parables live to this day and as much at this day Let us look to our selves the oyl of Faith and comfort go together the oyl of holiness and the oyl of gladness true Christians are anointed with both Consider the man that wanted the wedding robe was not discerned by any at the table the Lord espied him quickly who would have thought such a professor should go to hell bind him hand and foot he did pretend to Christ and it was but a pretence I may dispute for preach up Christ's righteousness active and passive and the imputation thereof according to the Scripture and the judgement of the best learned that ever the Churches have had and yet I may go about to establish mine own I may lift up Christ to you and pull him down in mine own heart The sum is this Nullum bonum sine summo bono Austin I will expound it thus No good work without God no God without Christ no Christ without heart-Faith no Faith without love no love without obedience no such obedience without comfort Doct. more or less This brings me to the Doctrine It is the property and practice of believers to love the Lord Jesus and to rejoyce in him and in the hope of eternal life by him 1. First It is their property they and all they and always and none but they there is no man in the world that loves God and the Redeemer Jesus but a believer the Philosophers were haters of God Rom. 1.30 the Gentiles and their wise men for it is plain that the Apostle speaks of them not of the Gnosticks that is an idle conceit and I am bound to believe Paul's Characters of the Gentiles and their Philosophers before Diogenes Laertius Plutarch or any man else the Jews hated Jesus Christ John 15.24 the world hated him John 7.7 Luke 19.14 All Gospel-Atheism said that incomparable Dr. Twisse is against Jesus Christ So for joy there 's never a joyful man alive but a believer Will you say that men take pleasure in their sins why that is the Devil's joy or that they rejoyce in full barns and bags that is the Fool 's joy or that they rejoyce in wine i. e. all dainties that gratifie the palate that is a Bedlam joy I have said of mirth thou art mad Read and believe Eccles 2.3 indeed from the first v. to the 11. The whole book but especially that Chapter is the divinest Philosophy that ever was or will be 2. 'T is their practice they love the Lord Jesus in incorruption or sincerity Eph. 6. last The Church i. e. Believers joyntly and singly say of Jesus that he it is whom their soul loves Cant. 1.7 in the 3. chap. the 4 first ver we have it four times and none but that I sought him whom my soul loveth v. 1. I will arise and seek him whom my soul loveth v. 2. I said to the watchmen saw ye him whom my soul loveth v. 3. after a little while I found him whom my soul loveth v. 4. here is no supernumerary repetition every believer's soul bears a part in this divine song so for joy that is their practice too we have no confidence in the flesh but rejoyce in Christ Jesus which joy in him did plainly flow out of their confidence of an interest in him Phil. 3.3 as sorrowful yet always rejoycing 2 Cor. 6.9 we rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 and we rejoyce in God by Jesus Christ v. 11. with many more Texts to the same purpose there need no more only observe 't is we rejoyce 't is not only Paul or the Apostles but the Philippians Romans and so all believers we rejoyce I shall speak something 1. For the explication of the Doctrine 2. For the vindication of the truth 3. For the resolution of the case 1. For explication these two affections Love and Joy will be best described by their properties objects causes Love is the return of an holy affection to Jesus Christ with desires after