great dutie Consider why you love any creature why more one than another why you should love the world riches pleasures as God a drop as the fountain It is even here too true Love descends Get your hearts baptized with fire and the holy Ghost buried with Christ into his death and raised in his resurrection that your affections may be set and settled on things not on earth but on things above even on him who is infinitly above all things who is blessed for ever and your eternal blessedness 2. Secondly the outward worship consists either in his speaking to us or our speaking to him He speaks to us either to our ears in his word or to our eyes in his Sacraments we to him either in prayers or vows Hearing is a chief part of Gods service Eccl. 5.1 The special gate whereby the Wisdom of God all knowledg and life enters Prov. 2.2 3. 1.5 Isa. 55.3 An hearing ear is Gods special gift to us Prov. 20.12 and our acceptable gift and sacrifice to him Psal. 40.6 1 Sam. 15.22 An obedient ear is a graceful and precious ornament Prov. 1.8 9. The ear the most happy factour of the soul whereby it seeks and gets Prov. 18.15 that rich merchandise which is better than silver and fine gold Prov. 3.14 But he who hath a disobedient ear or careless refusing to hear is good for nothing Jer. 13.10 and an itching ear hath certainly a rotten heart Isa. 30.9 10 11. The word of God preached is the seed in the hand of the Sower Mar. 4.14 taken out of the Granarie of the scriptures and cast into the furrows of the heart by Gods Spirit an incorruptible seed of a life incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.23 by which we are begotten unto God Jam. 1.18 And as it is the seed whereby we are born so is it the food also whereby we are nourished in that life of God as well mâ—â—k for babes as strong meat for the strong 1 Pet. 2.2 Heb. 5.12 c. It is an heavenly treasure in earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 a rich Mart of all spiritual commodities where our Lord sells and we buy without mony all heavenly riches Be swift therefore to hear Jam. 1.19 value it above thousands of gold and silver Psal. 119.72 Sell all you have to purchase it Matth. 13.44 Buy the truth at any price sell it at none Pro. 23.23 Neither hear only but read it we cannot use too many ways in trading with this rich commoditie Had we as many distractions as Princes they can yield us no exemption from this dutie Deut. 17.18 Iosh. 1.8 Our frequent conversing with it and meditating in it will not take so much from our time as it will add to our opportunities Morning and evening day and night exercise your selves in it so shall ye be like â— fruitful tree planted by the rivers of water so shall ye make your may prosperous so shall ye have good success Psal. 1.1 2 3. Josh. 1.8 Nulla dies sine linea Think the day lost wherein you have mist this market 2. The Sacraments are visibile verbum Christs sermons to our eyes passion-sermons â—ou know that verse More dully stirs the mind what through th' ear passes Than what is view'd to life in the eyes true glasses They are not only teaching signs printing in our eyes and hearts the death of the Lord Iesus but assuring seals presenting and conveying unto us the grace which they represent There are many large and learned volumes printed concerning them and in every Catechise you may meet with pious instructions in this subject I will only therefore advise you concerning the Lords Supper 1. That you neglect no opportunitie so far as may be of comming to the Lords Table For is it not our communion with Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 Look as wholesome meats are the means whereby spirits are renewed strength increased union between body and soul maintained so the Supper of the Lord is his Ordinance whereby our everlasting life is confirmed our dull spirits revived and our union with the Lord Iesus Christ much strengthned Certainly the frequent use of it was the special means whereby the Primitive Churches so far excelled us in Christian fortitude resolution and every spiritual gift Above all other take heed of that carnal or rather divelish plea of hellish persons namely that they are not in charitie whereby they plainly discover how much they prefer their revenge beâ—ore their salvation and that hellish Murtherer before the heavenly Saviour Surely he that will rather nourish his malice by abstinence from the Lords Table than his fainting soul by that Bread of Heaven deserves and surely dos in his hellish fast to eat and drink his own damnation 2. Come prepared in some good measure and for that end set apart some day in that week for humiliation to afflict your souls by fasting to seek a right way Ezra 8.21 And because one especial end of this ordinance is the remembrance of our Saviour and shewing forth his death Luk. 22.19 1 Cor. 11. vers 25 26. spend much of that time in meditating upon it and principally the causes of it 1. The abhorred filthiness and dreadful naâ—ure of sin which could not be expiated or purged but by the blood of God 2. The fierce wrath of God and terrible severitie of his justice which exacted even of his most beloved Son undertaking for us the uttermost farthing even to make him Sin who knew no sin and a curse who was God blessed for ever 3. The infinite mercy of our gracious Father who gave his beloved Son to reconcile such hateful enemies and 4. The incomprehensible love of the Lord Iesus who vouchsafed to purchase our redemption at such a rate And leave not your soul till you find it abhorring it self in dust and ashes bleeding with Christ on his Cross sick of your sin and of his love and swelling with the fruit of the lips the sacrifice of praise 3. Prayer is the mouth of faith whereby it utters holy desires to God Many think they pray when they do but houl Hos. 7.14 or babble Matth. 6.7 we neither know what nor how to pray till we be instructed neither can any doctour inform us but that Spirit of adoption who teacheth us to cry Abbae Father Rom. 8.14 Gal. 4.6 He will instruct you to go unto God 1. As to a Father and therefore with all reverence and â—ubmission and 2. With all assurance and confidence 2. He is the Spirit of the Son and therefore will carry you to the Father by the Son to God by Christ. He will not suffer you to make your addresses by your selves or any creature but by that only Mediatour and Advocate Sacrifice must be brought to the Temple to the dore of the Tabernacle offered only upon Gods chosen Altar and by none but the Priest Christ is that Temple Ioh. 2.21 He the dore Ioh. 10.9 he the Altar Heb. 13.10 which sanctifies all our gifts and the â—igh Priest
eagerly followed it But when he had a while worn it was soon weary put it off and hid his head in a private dwelling 5. All earthly honour is far inferiour to that heavenly creature which is the principal part of man The spirit of man framed after the likeness of his Creatâ—ur and again restored to that glorious image infinitely transcendeth the vain and highest râ—spects it can receive from man Honour cannot ascend but descends cannot be given by an Inferiour to a Superiour When we are precious in the sight of God then anâ— never but then we are truly honourable â— Isa. 43.4 6. Lastly Honour is not only needlessâ— no way forwarding our happiness and none so happy or truly honourable as who by men are most despised witness our most blessed Saviour Isa. 53.3 but very dangerous if not deadly stopping our way to the only true glory and eternal blessedness Iohn 5.44 12.43 Let me conclude this passage also with that Poetical Philosopher Boetius Libr. 4. Metr 2. Those earthly Gods you trembling view Mounted on starry thrones Array'd with Heaven in spangled blue Guarded with armed drones With raging hearts and lightning browes Storming with thundring mouths Could you unlace their vain attires And peep into their brest With chains with gyves with tortures fires Th ' Oppressors lye opprest Clos'd in that shew and Heav'n-like shell You 'l find the kernel hell Distracting lusts with cruel twitches Rack the diâ—joynted Ghost Hope backs the heart and spurrs and switches Wrath anger â—ear and roâ—â— Hate Envy scourge with snaky wreath Griefs pressing squeese to death When then so many Tyrant Lords Reign in one single brest How can it bound with self-will'd cords Do what it self thinks best He that rules men serves lust 's a thing Much greater slave than King If then our Happiness is neither made nor patcht up by Riches Honours how much less by Pleasure CAP. V. Bodily pleasure earthly joy and mirth have nothing to do with blessedness PLeasure is the Idol and God of Epicures like Childrens Babies trickt without and trimm'd with toyes and gauds but within a rotten stick It hath a double subject either the body where properly it is called pleasure and luxury or the soul where we term it joy and mirth Neither of both if carnal and earthly can possibly stand with the blessed estate of man but are rather unreconcileable adversaries to our blessedness If we look well upon them and throughly eye them and their attendants we shall find that carnal joy and mirth dwell live and dye with grief Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness Prov. 14.13 As we say of swine There is a great cry and little wool much crackling of thorns and little heat Eccles. 7.6 whosoever serves them they bestow their livery upon them a fools coat and cap The heart of a fool is in the house of mirth Eccles. 7.4 and will soon prefer them from the Hospital to Bedlam I said of laughter it is mad Eccles. 2.2 And what is pleasure to the body but an itching worm which when it is clawed breaketh out into a scab a vain tickling of sense till it end in an Hickup It is common to a beast and exists only in that part of man which is his beast even flesh And their fruits commonly very pernicious Carnal joy turns us out of Gods house Ier. 11.15 ranks us amongst the most lewd and wicked persons whom Gods â—pirit points out to us marked with the Deâ—ils brand who rejoice to do evil and delight â—n the frowardness of the wicked Prov. 2.14 â—leasure is to our estates here a very pickâ—urse a slie thief that unwarily steals us â—nto poverty and misery God hath blasted â—t with his curse He that loveth pleasure shall â—e a poor man and he that loveth Wine and Oyl shall not be rich Prov. 21.17 It is a palâ—ie to our bodies unsinues them and makes â—hem as an unstringed Lute or Voyal fit â—or nothing As we read of Hannibals souldiers that when they entred Capua they were more then men but dissolved with the pleasures of that rich and voluptuous City they went out less than women To the soul it is a sweet poison choakes it in the seed and birth Luk. 8.14 nourishes it to slaughter Jam. 5.5 To the whole man it is a perâ—umed grave They that live in pleasure are dead while they live 1 Tim. 5.6 dead to God dead to men dead to themselves the very soul dead in its life coffin'd and buried in the body How impossibly then can a voluptuous man live happily who is dead while he lives and lives to an everlasting and ever-living death Lastly it is much more subject to all those defects which before were mentioned that make it altogether unfit and utterly impotent to make up our happiness or to help us iâ— the pursuit of it 1. It is sheer vanity Eccles. 2 1â— nothing else but crackling of thorns under â— pot Eccles. 7.6 2. It satisfies not witness thaâ— Epicure who proclaimed a reward to Inventers of new pleasures 3. It lasts not is but for â— moment Iob 20.5 and dies in the very birthâ— 4. It is not so alluring before as loaths omâ— after enjoying witness Amnon 2 Sam. 13.15 5. It is far beneath us as being common with us to beasts And 6. needless and dangerousâ— Woe to you that laugh now Luk. 6.25 Thiâ— Chapter let me conclude also with the same Philosophical Poet. Boetius Libr. 3. Metr 7. All Pleasures ride with spurs they goar the heart And drive it first to run and then to smart Pleasures are Bees Bees have their bag and sting Those drops of sweet these streams of torment bring The bag flies with the Bee the sting remains How flitting are our joyes how lasting pains He that in honied Hive of Pleasure dwells Soon dies to Heav'n lives to a thousâ—nd hells The happiness of man therefore stands not in outward things They are all heterogenies of another nature and cannot piece or be united with us They are without us and we without them happy But there are other things which close and are within us In our bodies Beauty Strength in our spirits wisdom morality Do not these make us blessed At least do they not concurr as necessary parts of our happiness Certainly even these rather follow an happy person than constitute our happiness CAP. VI. Blessedness is not in any thing corporal or meerly moral OUR Bodies are but the houses of our spirits and houses of clay Job 4.19 As the house of a Snail it is moved and â—arried by the Inhabitant And as those â—nail-shells are some black and dusty some â—littering in divers colours so is it with these â—â—ells of our spirits Some the hand of our â—otter seems to frame of finer earth or at â—ast tinfoyls them with more lovely paintâ—â—gs some formed of more course and dirty â—etal or being not leaded have not that â—â—oss and
and greedily catches all opportunities of conferring with his beloved and winning her heart And doth not he rise up early to draw and bring home our souls Ier. 25.4 32 33. A Lover breaks his sleeps to wait at the door of his Love and Is not his head filled with the dew and his locks wet with the drops of the night Cant. 5.2 A Lover will not break off for every denyal nor will be discouraged with many reâ—usals and doth not our Lord wait to be gracious unto us Isa. 30.18 even after we have wearied him with our unkindness Isa. 43.24 Some Lovers have ventured He given his life for his beloved Ioh. 15.13 Seeing therefore such a Lover so lovely thus wooes such wretches so loathsome let us thus answer his suit I. Me Lord can'st thou mispend One word misplace one look on me Call'st me thy Love thy Friend Can this poor soul the object be Of these love-glances those life-kindling eyes What I the Centre of thy arms embraces Of all thy labour I the prize Love never mocks Truth never lies Oh how I quake Hope fear â—ear hope displaces I would but cannot hope such wondrous love amazesâ— II. See I am black as night See I am darkness dark as hell Lord thou more fair than light Heav'ns Sun thy Shadow can Sunns dwell With Shades 'twixt light and darkness what commerce True thou art darkness I thy Light my ray Thy mists and hellish foggs shâ—ll pierce Witâ— me black soul with me converse I make the â—oul December flowry May Turn thou thy night to me I 'le turn thy night to day III. See Lord see I am dead Tomb'd in my self my selâ— my grave A drudge so born so bred My self even to my selâ— a slave Thou Freedome Life can Life and Liberty Love bondage death Thy Freedom I I tyed To loose thy bonds be bound to me My Yoke shall â—asâ— my bonds shall â—ree Dead soul thy Spring of life my dying side There dye with me to live to live in thee I dyed If then the hopes of such a match are so fair CAP. XIV What are the means to bring Christ and our Souls together AS it is in the earthly so also in this heavenly Contract The Man is the Suiter the Woman is Wooed In him is required to ask and seek in her only to accept and consent Christ loves first then we 1 Ioh. 4.19 He in love proffers himself to us and we when he hath wonn us embrace his offer with love and willingly receive him His hand whereby he giveâ— himself is his Word the Gospel written his Love-letters Preached his wooing our hand whereby we receive him is only our faith by which the Vnderstanding assents and the Will consents so the only condition â—nd demand of God for consummation of the â—ontract is Faith First therefore That Father of lights by the light of his word discovers to us thâ— person of the Lord Iesus in his nature God and Man 2. In his Offices King Priest and Prophet 3. In his Relation to usâ— Husband Head Saviour 4. In his love and actions of love Incarnation Humiliation Exaltation This light he so effectually brings home to us by the work of his Spirit that whereas heretofore we saw no beauty in him that we should desire him Isa. 53.2 now we see no beauty but in him we behold his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God Joh. 1.14 And so strong an impression doth it work that the Understanding convinced by Gods Spirit receives the testimonies subscribeth and seals to this truth of God Joh. 3.33 and then plainly sees confesses and with joy so judges that all things are dung and loss in comparison of the excellent knowledge of Christ Iesus his Lord Phil. 3.8 And this is the first act of faith wrought in the Understanding whereby the Apprehensive faculty conceiveth this truth and the Iudicial signs it The second is in the Concupiscible faculty â—or the same word by the same work of Gods Spirit which perswaded the Judgement â—o assent draws on the Will to consent and â—s it giveth power to the one to conceive 〈◊〉 to the other to receive Christ aright To â—his end the Word cleerly demonstrateth as â—ell the misery of man without him as the â—appiness with him and both infinite as â—oh 3.36 1 Ioh. 5.12 It sets out him in relation to us as the Vine us in relation to him as the Branches Ioh. 15.1 c. grafted in him we are cleansed fruitful ver 3 4. but without him we can do we can have nothing neither sap nor fruit but are withered and burned Joh. 15.5 6. In him and his house we flourish grow fat and the more we grow in age the more we grow in fruitâ—ulness Psal. 92.13 14. but out of him as the branches of a Vine altogether useless cast into the fire for fuel the fire devours both the ends of it and the midst of it is burnt Ezek. 15.4 Vine-branches of all other are in the Vine most useful and noble out of the Vine most base and useless It propounds him to us as an Husbandâ— us to him as a Spouse Woman was madâ— for man and without him is unfruitful anâ— useless him to us as an Head us to him aâ— his limbs and body In him we live move anâ— have our being Act. 17.28 without him wâ— are senseless dead nothing And whereas the heart is easily drawâ— with that triple cord of profit pleasureâ— preferment it evidently discovers to uâ— 1. Our gain and great advantage by him iâ— life and death Phil. 1.21 all other thingâ— loss Phil. 3.8 2. The infinite delight anâ— sweetness in his shadow Cant. 2.3 the fuâ—â— carouses out of the Rivers of his pleasures Psal. 36.8 the woe Hos. 9.12 and torments of his absence Rev. 14.10 so that our spirits refuse all comfort and are utterly overwhelmed Psal. 77.3 3. The height of honour and advancement in him Ioh. 12.26 Honos est in Honorante Honour is in the giver not receiver The more excellent the person is who gives honour the more excellent is the honour received from his hands What comparison then between the honour which comes â—rom man and the honour which comes from God only we are never truly honourable but when we are precious in his sight Isa. 43.4 In him we are Kings Rev. 1.6 and this kingdom heavenly 2 Tim. 4.18 and everlasting 2 Pet. 1.11 that cannot be moved Heb. 12.28 out of him we are Children of the Devil Joh. 8.44 and so devils Joh. 6.70 who being thrown out of Heaven and unworthy to be seated in any the very lowest place formerly designed for the Creature have a new and peculiar place prepared for them beneath all other the Deep Luk. 8.31 and bottomless pit Rev. 20.1 where they are bound up in everlasting chains of darkness Jude 6. And yet further the Word shews us the easie conditions which in this Contract God demands of us subjection
take up his Cross and follow him cannot be but very grievous and painful But Love is stronger than death Cant. 8.6 and hath power to sweeten all pain to overcome and triumph over all trouble and grievance The only reason why this way of Crosses is so tedious is because there is none or too little love to sweaten it Why can Saints rejoice in tribulation but because the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts Rom. 5.3 5. For if a little Sugar can sweeten the most bitter things which are decocted in it how much more shall that infinitely sweet love of God with great pleasure relish the most distastful usages of the world when they are digested in it How else did the Apostles rejoyce to suffer shame Act. 5.41 How did Paul take pleasure in reproaches necessities in persecutions distresses for Christs sake 2 Cor. 12.10 And yet what are these things which seem so intolerable to us Certainly had they not more frightfulness in our fancy than in their own nature they could not possibly appear so fearful Take out the worst of them and view them with a quiet and setled judgement and how will we laugh at our vain terrours Scorn derision and contempt of the world how strongly do they work on mens fancies or rather mens fancies on them Who knows not that story of Socrates who when he was contumeliously abused and kicked by a Ruffian and his friends in great anger and disdain asked him why he repayed not the injury soberly demanded what revenge they would prescribe him some counselled to serve a Writ upon him some to return the like and to kick him again He pointing to aâ— Asse not remote from him answered If that Asse had kicked me should I have sued him or vied kicks with him Even moral vertue could lift up this Heathen to such an height of Wisdome that looking down upon the bestiality of such persons he even scorned that the scorn and contempt of a creature so much inferiour should reach so high as to dethrone his reason and cast it down into a bruitish passion How much higher doth Christian wisdom mount up the heavenly spirit and enable it with contempt and pitty to look down upon scorn and scorners despising their insolencies and pittying their seduced and miserable persons as no way able to reach up to that peace which it hath received in Christ and to unsettle the quiet of a soul whose conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is already in Heavenâ— In a word all these injuries are but so many gemms in our crown God weighing out to us for these momentary sufferings an excelling excellent eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 May death and the grave the uttermost extent of worldly spite though it look grimm upon a carnal eye yet a spiritual can behold it as a dore of peace as rest in a bed Isa. 57.2 where we sleep in the bosome of Christ 1 Thes. 4.14 as upon an estate much better than life Philip. 1.23 Death to a Chriâ—tian is his his servant 1 Cor. 3.22 as Haman to Mordecai It may set up a gallowes â—egg us to execution but by the power and â—avour of the King of Kings is suffered nay â—ommanded to take us indeed but to divest â—s of our sackcloth our morning flesh Iob â—4 22 to cloath us with the Kings robe his â—â—ining righteousnes to mount us on his carâ—iages who rides on the Cherubims to crown â—s with the royal diadem and so to bring us â—â—to the eternal presence of the King of glory â—he truth is all that Christ asketh of us this â—ay is self denyal that emptying our selves â—f our selves and of all creatures that we â—ay be filled with him even with the fulness 〈◊〉 God oh what in this is to be feared if â—e fear not the height of our blessedness 3. The third dutie with he requires is â—â—at we should be intirely his and keep us â—â—ly unto him And this is nothing else but not to dishonour our selves by debasing our souls which he hath so ennobled to prostitute them to vile lusts and ignoble creatures to use all other things as servants and to enjoy him as our Lord. If a great Prince should set his heart upon some poor Country mayden crown her his Queen give her his subjects some to serve her in her chamber some in the kitchin and skullerie some in higher some in meaner offices what an abject baseness were it in her to take off her heart from such a Spouse and to set it upon some groom of her stable or one of the black-guard Certainly the heart which once hath tasted the kisses of the Lord Iesus is not only ravished with them but looks upon all creatures which are but our servants as dung see Cant. 1.2 Philip. 3.8 and knows well how infinitely it should be debauched by changing his least favour foâ— the highest love of the highest creatures 4. The last is obedience and service This also seems an hard condition to those who never knew what it was Libertie is very sweet How then should this be bitter whicâ— is the only libertie Gal. 5.1 the glorious libertie of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 For 1. It is an easy nay an easing Yoke it takeâ— off all hateful Yokes and heavy burthens Isaâ— 9.4 10.27 It gives rest Matth. 11.29 Nothing commanded in this service but what the heart chuses loves freely does and delights in doing Psal. 119.45 97. 40.8 nothing but what we prefer before meat and drink Iob 23.12 But service is a great abasement Some service is more honourable than some command This obedience and service renders us Kings Exo. 19.5 6. All this service may be comprized in one word Reign Reign over thy lusts which fight against thy soul by subduing them reign over thy affections and actions by governing them in that royal law Iam. 2.8 In a word all his service is but â—oliness and holiness his likeness and our blessedness nothing but a double Heaven an Heaven within by Heavenly mindednes and â—n Heaven without by an Heavenly converâ—ation an Heaven on Earth by grace walkâ—ng with God and the Heaven of Heavens â—ereafter in glory reigning with God for â—ver Such our match such our conditions our â—oke is holiness and that the glory of God â—e is glorious in holiness Exo. 15.11 our â—oke fellow the most holy God the Prince of glory â—hus then plead with your own spirits and â—onfute the lying sophistry of deceitful flesh I. A grievous heavy Yoke bonds burthens cords Ungrateful Israel his happy reign Heaps plentie peacâ— mirth saâ—ety honour hords Lades you with gold is this your load your Lords Turns to your slaves are these the bonds yea playn Tunes groanes to songs is this your Yoke and chain Was wisest Solomon a Tyrant peace Uâ—grateful Israel thy â—alse grumbling cease Thy wealth his grievous bond his heavy Yoke thy peace II. Lord Solomon was but thy shadow he A peaceful Prince