uncertainty every Christian ought exceedingly to fear and with trembling and an assiduous care indeavour to make his election sure living in that Faith which worketh by Love and declaring by his good works that he is one of that little but blessed number to whom God will give his Kingdom 2. Now that that number is but little compared with the greater multitude of the wicked unhappy world nay that the number of the chosen is but small even of them that profess the Gospel and are capable of chusing life or death we have too many reasons to believe And our Blessed Saviour intimates so much when he warns his disciples of the difficulties of coming into that blessed Kingdom of which the entrance is narrow Mat. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be that go in thereat Then he adds as wondring at this narrowness because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Being also asked another time Lord are there but few that shall be saved he gives no other answer but this Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13.23 King David also inquiring Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill the holy Spirit suggests this answer he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness Psal 15. And in the twenty fourth Psalm he questioning again Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord he is likewise answered He that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lift up his Soul unto vanity Now who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Prov. 20.9 Who can say to David I shall for I work righteousness and I am innocent 3. Our Blessed Saviour saith Mat. 10.38 He that taketh not his Cross and follows after me is not worthy of me Now where are they that thus willingly take their Cross and suffer with Christ or rather how sadly doth St. Paul's saying fit our Age All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christs Phil. 2.21 Our Blessed Redeemer who alone hath the keys of Heaven and knows how we must be qualified before we come thither affirms Mat. 18.3 Verily I say unto you except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Which saying if compared with the pride of men it will be found that but a few by meekness and humility seek to become children to be heirs of the Heavenly Kingdome It is declar'd by St. Paul Rom. 8.29 That those whom God foreknew he also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son But who is the man can boast that his life is conform to the Life of Christ and who is he that suffers with Christ that he may be with him glorified It is a saying that belongs to all If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Mat. 19.17 But they are all gone out of the way they are altogether become abominable there is none that doth good no not one Psal 14.3 The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence saith the King of Heaven Mat. 11.12 and the violent take it by force Now this violence being against Nature there are but few that will offer it to themselves by forgoing any present sensual satisfaction on the account of that Kingdom which is out of the reach of sense not now to be enjoyed but expected only by Faith If all our Righteousnesses are as filthy rags as the Prophet saith Isa 64.6 What are then our sins and iniquities If the Righteous scarcely shall be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.18 4. None but eight persons of the old world were saved with Noah in the Ark all the rest of mankind perisht in the floud Lot alone with his wife and two daughters escaped the conflagration of the infamous Cities all the other Inhabitants were consumed by the revenging flames And of six hundred thousand Jews that came out of Egypt two only Caleb and Joshua came into the Land of Promise Now those things were examples representations of things to come denoring that the number of those that come to life is but small in respect of the greater number of such as go to perdition Which is yet further but too evident by confidering how most men live and die how few give any certain marks of true contrition Fear and sorrow extort groans and good words and death forceth men to recant and 't is much to be feared there is seldome any sincerity in a late death-bed repentance For how can he begin to live well that is now dying how can he heartily detest those pleasures of sin which he loved and enjoyed as long as he liv'd how hardly will he now he a true penitent who before abhorred all the mortifications of true penitence how will his resolutions be prov'd effectual if he should esâ—ape for the forsaking those sins which custom hath made habitual and almost a second nature how shall now his sensual mind lift up it self to those spiritual heavenly things which he before seldom or never regarded and how shall he straitned by time and sad circumstances exercise those vertues contrary to the sins he repents of to make it appear by his life that there is a change in his heart 5. 'T is known by experience that very few when the pains and the danger is over stand to those resolves and promises which they made in the day of sorrow Generally men forget and are asham'd afterwards of what they promised and resolv'd and they soon return to their customary vices and beloved vanities Especially because there is still a secret reserve in those resolutions of amendment made in their distress there being still some hope of an escape till they are at the worst and then they are altogether passive and can act no longer or at the best their strength and rational faculties are so weakned there are such anxious fears and trepidations when the Soul is nigh to depart that men are almost distracted and know not what they do We may hope well of them who though they liv'd ill yet gave signs of repentance when they were dying But this is a desperate venture there is much of uncertainty and nothing of safety in their condition We have a sad example of this in King Antiochus read Maccab. 9. what vows he made while he was under his grievous sickness He thought himself in earnest no doubt but God knew the unsincerity of his heart that his repentance proceeded from the fear of death and would therefore no more have mercy upon him as the text affirms And who can consider all this and not tremble who will dare to presume he hath nothing to do and that his Salvation is sure who in the midst of so many and so great dangers will dwell as in safety and not watch and call upon God therefore because the chosen are few fewer perhaps than we think let us not go with the many nor follow the croud but let us live with the small select number of truly good and religious Christians that we may have comfort and confidence when our life is ended that we may with an humble and well-grounded hope look up to God and expect that gracious reward he hath promised to his faithful servants to all that sincerely love and obey him THE END A CATALOGUE of some Books Printed for and Sold by Henry Brome MR. Comber on the Common-Prayer in Three Volumes Dr. Spark's Primitive Devotions on the Feasts and Fasts of the Church of England Bishop Wilkins Natural Religion The Fathers Legacy or Counsels to his Children being the whole Duty of Man in three parts very useful for Families Christian Education of Children Cardinal Bona's Guide to Eternity Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers The Reformed Monastery or the Love of Jesus A sure and short but a pleasant and easie way to Heaven In two Parts Written Originally in Latin by the same Author A Guide to Heaven from the World or good Counsel how to close savingly with Christ Holy Anthems of the Church The Brief Rule of Life The Crums of Comfort Mr. Farindon-'s Sermons Several Sermons at Court and at other Places A Discourse concerning the Operations of the Holy Spirit Together with a Confutation of some part of Dr. Owen's Book upon that Subject A Discourse concerning God's Judgments Resolving many weighty Questions and Cases relating to them Preached for the substance of it at Old Swinford in Worcester-Shire And now published to accompany the annexed Narrative concerning the Man whose Hands and Legs lately rotted off in the neighbouring Parish of Kings-Swinford in Stafford-Shire Penned by another Author By Simon Ford D. D. and Rector of the said Parish Christianity no Enthusiasm or the Several Kinds of Inspirations and Revelations pretended to by the Quakers Tried and found Destructive to Holy Scripture and True Religion In Answer to Thomas Ellwood's Defence thereof in his Tract Miscalled Truth Prevailing c. A Narrative of the Principal Actions occurring in the Wars betwixt Sueden and Denmark before and after the Roschild Treaty
the cause why so many are not so perfect and holy as their Christian faith requires and would enable them to be that they are not sincere but want truth in the inward parts The false opinions of the World are of greater power with them than the precepts and the examples of Christ and those moral virtues which nature it self recommends are commonly made sin or subservient to it by the depraved judgments and customs of men We therefore that live in a crooked and perverse generation among corrupt and deceived persons ought seriously and often to make this inquiry whether we our selves do know the right way and whether we truly follow it Now that way which is the way of truth is one and altogether unchangeable and they that will keep it without change must not look to the World but up to Heaven must not follow the example of men but must directly follow God who alone is the way the truth and the life CHAP. XXV That a hearty affection is the life of good actions 1. WE must have a special care that the sensitive part of us have not the principal concern in our good works and that we be not led by sense in our actions for sense is the great deceiver the fountain of error therefore 't is said that the mortification of sense is the life of truth And hence it is that we cannot be confident ever to have done any thing perfectly good and without defect because that we bear a part in our best works and as far as they proceed from us they are stain'd with imperfection although they be done upon Gods account and by the impulse and assistance of divine Grace Thus it was said to the Angel or Bishop of Sardis Rev. 3.2 I have not found thy works perfect before God and thus it might be said to any other For our Prayers Fastings and Alms and such like good works though they may appear complete before men who see nothing but the outside yet before God who searcheth the heart they are defective and cannot be acceptable in the least except they be done with a pure and sincere intention to please him 2. Of ten Virgins mentioned in the Gospel five foolish were excluded from the wedding not but that they were Virgins and had lamps that is works but because they wanted the oil of good intentions and holy affections This may well be the case of every one of us our works will be dead before God and unpleasing to him except we breath life into them by our inward sanctified spirit and fervent love to God In outward acts and appearance all Christians are almost alike but as the hand of a watch is mov'd by the hidden springs and as the colour of the face depends on the secret constitution of the body so the good are distinguisht from the bad by their inward spirit or the hidden man of the heart for the Kingdom of God is within us CHAP. XXVI Whence the goodness of our works proceeds 1. AS many that eat much yet are feeble and infirm and lean because they overcharge their stomach so that their nourishment is not well concocted and as many that eat very moderately yet because they digest well are strong and healthy and long-liv'd So likewise some Christians there are that do many good things and yet themselves become little better because they go not the right way to work They think that by doing much they must become great proficients though they do it remisly and incuriously whereas to do our duty every day with greater fervency and exactness is the right way to perfection a few things well done profit more than heaps of works done negligently 2. For so there are others that compared to these first do but little and yet increase much in the love of God because they endeavour always to work with greater affection and a more upright intention so that at the end of every good action they may in some manner use that expression of Christ on the Cross Joh. 19.30 It is finished I have in this as far as was possible done what God required of me as perfectly as my infirmity would allow and his free grace enabled me who gives us to will and to do and without whom we can do nothing They so spend each day that at night they can say It is finished and they so spend their whole life that when 't is ended they can say with an holy and humble confidence I have now perfected that work which God had appointed me to do He that lives so lives like a Christian and he shall not fear in the evil day CHAP. XXVII How useful and comfortable is the consideration of God being always present 1. NOthing will more prevail to make perfect our works as much as is possible than to consider that God is present every where and that from him and in him all things have their being power and motion This is the most pressing Argument why we should always act with the greatest circumspection that God sees the things that are in secret and we can never be hid from his eyes that in him we live and move and have our being and that he never forsakes us till we forsake him to turn our affections upon the creatures For this is the unhappy effect of our original corruption that our senses are so affected and pleased with material things present that our mind is drawn from the contemplation of Gods presence and things as yet invisible whereas if the love of this world did not bear too great a sway in our heart we could see God in every place holy affections would always see him who is the Author of all holiness according to the saying of our Blessed Saviour Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 2. For indeed 't is not to be exprest how sweet and comfortable is the goodness of God which he hath laid up for them that fear him but laid up it is none have a sense of it but they that love God they alone taste and see how gracious the Lord is For 't is not enough to have a treasure we must know we have it before we can be rich and we must know the use and the worth of it Now such a treasure we have within us as is of an inestimable infinite value and yet we seem not to know it for we run after motes and shadows and catch at painted drops that cannot quench our thirst as the Psalmist saith O ye sons of men how long will ye love vanities and seek after lies Thus we are cheated and understand not our own happiness for God is present to us every moment and we could always enjoy him we are rich and we know it not 3. We could if we would anticipate the joys of Heaven we could now have a taste of the felicity of beatified Saints but that we indulge Sense to the prejudice of the Soul we
that no man without a special Revelation can have a special assurance of his Salvation but we have that which is as good to secure us against despair and to ground an holy and comfortable hope upon That we are redeemed by the Bloud of Christ and devoted to him in Holy Baptism and that God is our confidence and refuge always ready to help them that call upon him and to forgive them that beg for pardon with tears and contrition and a serious purpose of amendment And many more great and precious assurances we have that God hath given us eternal life and that this life is in his Son so that all his Providences are to fit us for it if we do not wilfully frustrate all his saving methods and purposes Only he would have our Election to be hid and secret that security may not breed in us pride and negligence and that he that thinketh he standeth should take heed lest he fall 2. Now therefore because the chosen are few let every true Christian live a Holy Life with the few that he may make his Calling and Election sure and be counted worthy at last to receive the Crown of Life with the few Streight is the way and narrow is the gate that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it saith our Blessed Saviour Mat. 7.13 Therefore we must walk in that narrow way and that always with care and fear even when we seem to run with most speed because no man in respect of himself is absolutely sure of perseverance Yet our fear must not proceed so far as to make us faint but only to make us wary and make us put our trust and confidence in God and with a chearful submission cast our selves upon him both for time and eternity If any one objects that he knows not how Gods will is affected towards him I answer that Gods promises are sincere and must be received as they are generally set forth in Holy Scripture to all that will obey Gods revealed will and moreover that his own will is much more uncertain so that it is much more safe to trust Gods for God we are certain is infinitely good He is extremely proud and unhappy withal that relies on himself more than upon God but happy is he that confides in that gracious Lord whose mercies and promises are sure for ever and in whom whosoever trusted was never confounded CHAP. XXXIII That Love is the Spirit of Christian Religion 1. THough it be by vertue of our Baptism and profession of the Christian Faith that we are and are called Christians yet the Life or Soul of our Religion is Charity or the Love of God whereby we are enabled to live godly as becomes Christians For as God by his great love wherewith he loved us sent his dear Son into the world to die for us that we might live through him so are we to love God most affectionately with all our heart and strength and our Neighbour as our selves for his sake In this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Love therefore is the first and great Commandment on which depends the Law and the Prophets Love is the foundation and excellency of our Faith to know the love of God which passeth knowledge that when we were enemies we were reconciled to him by the death of his Son Love is that fire which our Blessed Redeemer came to send in the Earth Luke 12.49 which cost him much to kindle and which burns up mens dross and impurities and cannot be put out but where iniquity doth abound And Love is the spirit of Primitive Christians who had one heart and one mind and is even the Soul of the whole Church whereby it is united and lives 2. Christ left and appointed Love as the mark whereby his followers should be known Joh. 13.35 By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another And so in the love of God consists our union with him and it is the highest perfection of the Christian life Now perfection is the work of Grace therefore we must not relie upon our own strength but we must beg of God daily and devoutly that by his good Spirit he would kindle in our hearts the fire of an holy Charity that by it we may be guided quickned and at last perfected Neither yet must we lose heart if we sometimes fall as if all our hope were in our own strength but we must acknowledge our own infirmity and rise quickly and pray more fervently and afterwards fight more couragiously Still pursuing after perfection not only in words or ineffective wishes but in hearty desires and serious indeavours manifesting our love by daily mortifying our sins and attaining to new and higher degrees of vertue And then shall a Christian be most perfect and happy when his heart shall be empty of himself and free from the love of the world but purified and burning with the love of God CHAP. XXXIV Of the right Placing and Ordering of Love 1. HE is a just and holy man who rightly values things according to their worth and also loves them proportionably for sin is duly by wise men defin'd to be a disorderly Love and vertue to be a regular and well placed Love And though there be other natural affections yet they all proceed from and depend upon love and if this be well placed and governed as it should the rest cannot be unruly It is vertue to love what deserves to be lov'd and wisdome to make choise of it and constancy to pursue it through all dangers and sufferings and to be drawn from it by no inticements is temperance and to prefer nothing to it is justice and the order of Love must follow the order of things and so God is to be lov'd infinitely more than any creature because he is infinitely better more perfect and lovely We become good and pure by loving him who is the fountain of all goodness and purity for our manners follow our affections we become either vertuous or vicious according to the nature of what we most love 2. The true object of Love is God our Neighbour and our selves God in the first place to whom all love is due and from whom it must pass to other creatures according as they are more or less like him By this we must love our Neighbour because he is or that he may be just and we must love our selves in that we are or else that we may be holy taking from God the measure of our Love to all other things that our Love may be regular and we may be happy Let no man therefore love sin for thereby he hates and destroys his Soul and let no man love himself for his own sake but upon Gods account who is the chiefest Good in whom alone we can be intirely happy For God who alone is the Author of our being
and well-being hath set these bounds to our affections that we should love him with all our heart and with all our Soul that we should consecrate to the service of that Love our understanding our life and all our powers and that if we love any thing else it be in reference and in subordination to him that deserves all our Love and should be the master and disposer of it The love of God must therefore lead the way to what else we should love it must always prevail and be the rule of all our affections and then we cannot love nor do amiss CHAP. XXXV Of the Necessity and Measures of Loving our Neighbour 1. WE cannot love God as we should without we love our Neighbour neither can we love our Neighbour except we love God If any man saith I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loveth his Brother also 1 Joh. 4.20 The Commandment makes no exception though the man be poor though he be a stranger nay though he be vicious and thine enemy yet he is thy Neighbour and thy Brother and he must be lov'd The expressions of thy love may vary according to his needs and thine opportunities Yet they must be hearty real and effective for The End of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfained 1 Tim. 1.5 And we must not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Joh. 3.18 2. As Christ loved us and gave himself for us not that we deserv'd any love but because he lov'd God and us in God to whom he purchast us so must we love all men not for ours or their sakes but for God's sake having no further regard to what is good in them than only as it relates to God True Christians are so strictly united together by love that what one hath not in himself he with joy finds it in others and what one hath more than the rest he willingly imparts it to all As by our love to God we are united and in some manner become one spirit with him so by the mutual love of men of Christians especially they become one among themselves so that what one hath to himself is for the good of all and what one hath not in himself he hath and enjoys in others Thus love is the fulfilling of the Law and the fulfilling of all Righteousness According as is the mans Charity in the beginning progress or perfection so is his goodness and his righteousness and then most perfect in this life when even life it self is parted with for love 3. The modus or measure of love to our Neighbour is twofold positive and negative First To do to him as we would he should do to us Secondly And not to deal with him any otherwise than as we would he should deal with us Every one therefore in the sight of God to whom all things are known must consider seriously what he would others should do or not do to him and if he desires others should he patient towards him and bear with his faults and infirmities and speak well of him c. Then let him be careful to do so to others 'T is a sure indication of a perverse heart for a man in a private capacity to do that to another which he should be sorry to suffer himself A good Christian doth not inquire into the manners and faults of others but leaves them to his view and correction to whom all judgment is given He examines judgeth and punisheth himself and makes self-reformation his serious and constant business Whatever he sees or hears his mind is undisturb'd and abides in peace for if it be good he praiseth God if evil he turns it to good by turning his mind from it towards God in Prayers and Resignation 4. If his Office and Charity obligeth him to reprove and to correct others he doth it with a zeal sweet and benign and compassionate to his Brothers infirmity for roughness and ungovern'd passion cannot consist with Charity If the ill actions of others are capable of an excuse he excuseth them however he censures not knowing that nothing human is so perfect and holy but may be ill interpreted and at the best may be some way defectuous enough to be liable to reprehension if carping men let loose their censorious humors Whilst men are men they will have some imperfections and to be zealous against them is under pretence of preciseness to give way to peevish impatience or proud censoriousness He that is too busie to tax and judge others will never grow better himself CHAP. XXXVI True Friendship and the true Offices of it 1. FRiendship is the communion of good things and therefore it follows the nature of those things which friends have common Now there being nothing truly good but things supernatural and eternal true friendship must consist in the communication of these mutually Hence it is that carnal friendship is soon dissolved because things of sense cannot last nor always confine the spirit whereas spiritual friendship is never broken for though it may seem to be interrupted by little angers and contentions yet true piety and the love of God sweetens the harshness of them and keeps the knot indissoluble As for that friendship which too much sets our hearts upon any person and may be called Doting it should be stifled and avoided as being mischievous and it is to be known by these tokens when the party belov'd is always in our thoughts and we can never be well without him when we fear his displeasure above all things when in him we rest as in our center and we sacrifice to him all our actions and most important concerns And let none flatter themselves that this is pure innocent friendship without any self-interest for it is altogether sensual it depraves the heart and affections it is an enemy to all wisdom and true Religion and it begins and ends in the flesh and 't is to be observ'd that this kind of friendship is never betwixt persons truly good and vertuous 2. Men of real worth are always well composed grave and of a sweet deportment they are courteous to all but they are familiar to few and they flatter none in their conversation modesty discretion an exact justice and an unaffected severity is to be observed They seek not to make a shew outwardly their life is inward and secret they live to God and to their own conscience They fairly converse with men outwardly when it is fitting but their heart cleaves to God and they will not disturb themselves with the silly impertinencies or petty concerns of the world Their designs and affections differ much from the vulgar multitude and therefore their words and actions are guided with