c. Ye denied the Holy One c. And well it may for it is the holy day of the holy Son of God yea God the Father and God the Son have put off their own holiness upon it Not essentially for that is incommunicable Nor is it an Inherent holiness which they have Communicated to it 2 Pet. 1.4 as the Saints of God have who are made holy by a supernatural change of their natures But the Sabbath is holy by divine Institution by special dedication and consecration God having hallowed this day above all other days in the week by separating it from common and civil uses and consecrating it to holy and religious ends and purposes viz. to be a Sabbath of holy rest But now The Question Question is How may we thus call the Sabbath holy or When may we be said truly to make it holy 1. When we make Gods hallowing and sanctifying this day our Motive and Argument to sanctifie it by a holy Observation of it Answer when that which God hath called holy by his divine sanction we dare not call it common and profane by prostituting of it to unsuitable actions words or thoughts There is a real calling it unholy as well as vocall He or She that spends the day or any part of it in doing evil or in doing nothing or in doing nothing to the purpose he proclaimeth to the world what he calleth the day although he speak not a word he speaks his heart by interpretation and when all is done our works are more credible Interpreters of our hearts than our words or profession Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Then we believe it holy when we keep it holy 2. Then we call the Sabbath holy when we sanctifie our selves for the Sabbath and for the Ordinances of the Sabbath If we have no care what frame of spirit we bring with us into the day nor with what frame we drive thorough it we are far from calling the Sabbath the holy of the Lord. For their sakes saith our Lord I Sanctifie my self John 17.17 I Sanctifie my self i. e. I separate my self wholly for the work of a Redeemer If the Lord Jesus separated himself for our sakes should not we much more separate our selves for his Then we believe Christ to be our holy Redeemer when we labour to be an holy people Holy as he is holy and then we have high venerable thoughts of the holiness of the Sabbath when we labour to be holy as the day is holy an unsuitable spirit is a profanation of the Sabbath The Day holy but we unholy what a reproach is this Holiness becomes thy house for ever q. d. Psal 93.5 Ceremonies were to continue but for a time but holiness is the standing qualification of thy day and of thy worshippers for ever 3. When we make holiness in the beginning and increase of it our design in our sanctifying of the day and of our attendance upon the Ordinances When we make holiness our business It is the great end for which God hath ordained a Sabbath Exod. 31.13 Ezek. 20.12 Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord that do sanctifie you Not a Ceremonial sign but a Moral sign a Covenant sign a kind of a Sacramental sign a Medium to effect what is promised in the Covenant 1 Cor. 11.23 25. as water in Baptism and bread and wine in the Lords Supper Oh when Gods design and mans design meets when God makes a Sabbath for a Medium to make his people holy and they keep a Sabbath that they may be holy this is excellent this is to call the Sabbath The Holy of the Lord. When we labour to bring as much holiness as we can into a Sabbath and to bring more holiness out of a Sabbath to come out of Gods day more holy than we came into it This is to sanctifie a Sabbath indeed 4. Then we call it holy when the more pure and holy the Sabbath is kept and the more purely and holily the Ordinances are dispensed the more our souls do love them the more beauty and glory we do see in them As David expresseth his affection to the word Thy word is very pure therefore doth thy servant love it It is very sad when the more purely and the more holily the word is dispensed the more people dislike it and pick quarrels with it as that vile people did who cried to their Prophets prophesie not Or if you will be prophesying prophesie smooth things Jer. 30 10 11. Sermons that will go down pleasantly discourses of peace that will not trouble our Consciences nor cross our corruptions but cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us It was the Holy one of Israel c. the title which the prophets used in their Sermons but their ears were so tender they could not bear it if the Prophets would prophesie of the Merciful One of Israel and of the Bountiful One The Omnipotent One c. let them go on but they cared not so much for holiness and strictness as they pressed upon them from day to day this did not please their palate So when it is with a people in reference to other Ordinances Prayer and the Sacraments the more corrupted they be with the mixtures of men and of humane inventions the more acceptance and applause they find this argues that men seek not Jesum propter Jesum Christ for Christ his sake nor Ordinances for their purity nor Sabbaths because they be Holy days of an Holy God When to get holiness and to grow in holiness is our design Sanctifying Sabbaths John 17.17 When we sanctifie Sabbaths that God may sanctifie us by his Sabbaths and by his truth as our Lord prayeth then we do call and account the Sabbath indeed Sanctum Domini The Holy of the Lord. 5. We do truly count the Sabbath the holy of the Lord when we come out of Sabbaths as Moses came down from the Mount With our faces shining When we bring with us the savour of Christ Psal 45.8 his sweet ointments upon our garments When they with whom we converse may take notice that we have been with Jesus Acts 4 13. It is sad when men come out of a Sabbath just such as they came in as vain and loose as proud worldly wanton lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God in a word as fit for sin as they were before They sanctifie the Sabbath indeed who can in truth say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.18 We all with open face beholding as in a Glass or mirrour the glory of the Lord are changed or Metamorphosed into the same image as by the spirit of the Lord. When the Sabbath leaves its Image and Impress upon us in some measure then we do count it and keep it holy Surely the Sabbath
or other make them ashamed and so will the hopes of the Hypocrite too but the hopes of pardoned persons which they have of future blessedness have an excellency in them beyond the hopes of all others and they shall never be ashamed of them The happiness they hope for they shall certainly have none can deprive them of it men cannot deprive them they may take away their earthly Inheritance but they cannot touch their Heavenly Inheritance Devils cannot deprive them they may attempt it but they cannot effect it Death cannot deprive them death will bereave of whatever riches of the world any of them have but it will put them into the possession of their Treasures in Heaven none can deprive them but God and God will not do it as hath been already proved and therefore their hopes are of a certain thing which they shall not fail of and withal they know that the happiness of Heaven will exceed all their expectations even the highest which ever they have had of satisfaction and contentment there that they shall find more sweetness and joy there than ever hath entred into their hearts to conceive and therefore their hopes shall not make them ashamed yea in their very hopes of Heaven especially at some times they find more real satisfaction than ever was found by any in the fullest and sweetest enjoyment which they have had of the good things of this life 3. Pardoned persons have the beginnings of future blessedness here in this life in the Work of Grace and sometimes foretasts and first fruits of it through the witness seal and earnest of the Spirit and this renders them blessed in this life 1. They have the beginnings of Heaven in the work of Grace upon their hearts Grace is the beginning of Glory Grace is Glory in the bud Glory is Grace in the flower and when the work of Grace is carried on the Scripture saith that they proceed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord They are happy here as they have some degrees of that Holiness and likeness unto God in the perfection of which hereafter in Heaven their perfect happiness doth consist 2. They have the beginnings of Heaven in the first fruits and foretasts of it through the witness seal and earnest of the Spirit God sometimes gives them first fruits of the Heavenly Canaan he sends in a few bunches of those sweet Grapes that are there and lets them have some foretasts of those Soul-ravishing Heavenly joys which hereafter will be full and for ever abiding he sometimes takes them up into the Mount and gives them a Pisgah-sight of the Land of promise through the prospective-Glass of his Ordinances he brings some even to the Gate of the New Jerusalem in their Heavenly Contemplations and le ts out such beams of that Glorious Heavenly light and drops into their hearts such taste of future joys through the sudden elapses of the Spirit of Glory upon them that they are rapt up into an extasie and such a sweetness they feel in their Spirits as is ineffable such as words cannot utter nor the minds of any conceive but those that have had the like when God giveth them the witness of his Spirit that they shall assuredly attain eternal life and sealeth them up by his Spirit to the day of Redemption he doth commonly give the earnest also of the Spirit in some Soul-ravishing joys in comparison of which the softest pleasures of the flesh and the sweetest delights that can arise from any objects of sense are most vain thin empty and not worthy to be named with them And thus the Eternal blessedness which pardoned persons shall have doth render them blessed here in this life beyond all others whatever confluence of good things they be surrounded withal The fore-sight first fruits hopes and sweet fore-tastes of this future blessedness do sweeten their life but especially they do sweeten their death they knowing that death will be their friend and prove an out-let to all earthly misery and an in-let to their heavenly glory that death will open the prison doors of this world unto them and usher them into the palace of the great King they know their death will be like a Ship to convey them over Sea as it were from the far strange and Enemies Countrey unto the heavenly Countrey where their glorious Jehovah their heavenly Father where the Lord Jesus Christ their elder Brother and dear Saviour and where the departed Saints their chief kinred are together and where their inheritance doth lye and where they shall take up their Eternal abode Where pardoned persons have a clear fore-sight and strong hope of this death is no more to them than a sleep they can as willingly put off their flesh and go into their graves as they can put off their clothes at night to go into their beds they can as willingly compose themselves to die as they can compose themselves to sleep after a weary day Thus much for the proof of the blessedness of forgiveness or of all those persons whose sins are pardoned Quest 2. The second Question wherein I must be more short is How this blessedness of forgiveness may be attained That this blessedness of forgiveness may be attained there are some things must be known and believed and there are some things must be done and practised 1. Some things must be believed I shall instance in one or two chief Doctrines of the Gospel which all sinners must know and believe if they would attain forgiveness of sin The First is The Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction unto God's Justice for the sins of men The Second is The Doctrine of justification by the righteousness of Christ 1. Sinners must know and believe the Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction unto the Justice of God for the sins of Men. To discourse fully of this great Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction would require a Treatise which might fill a great volume but I must comprize it within a little room who am to speak of it only in the direction of a Sermon Briefly 1. That there is absolute need of satisfaction to God's justice for the sins of men without which forgiveness of sins would be impossible and utterly unattainable is evident both from the nature of God's justice which doth oblige him to punish all sinners Eternally without it and from the truth of God's threatnings wherein he hath revealed that he will thus punish them without it 2. That there is need of the satisfaction of Christ is evident because sinners themselves being finite cannot give that satisfaction unto God which shall bear any proportion to the demands of his infinite justice and if any be in a capacity to give it it must be such a one as is both innocent and so cannot suffer for his own faults and
Counsels go down glibly When persons are fully satisfied that in all our Addresses to them we study only their benefit and profit this opens an effectual door to all the means that we shall use Thus Paul accosts the Romans I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift Rom. 1.10 11. Thus he smooths his way to the Philippians Phil. 1.8 God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ Labour then to get their love their good esteem and the work will thrive beyond expectation Love is like the oiling of the Key which makes it to open the lock more easily love greaseth the nail and makes it enter with more facility 2. To holy hearty serious affectionate frequent admonition add an exemplary Conversation Inferiours are apt to be led rather by example than rule and are more prone to imitate Practices than to learn Principles They are more mindful of what we do than of what we say and they will be very prone to suspect that we are not in good earnest when they see that we command them one thing and do another our selves When we teach them well and do amiss our selves we do but pull down with one hand what we build with the other Like a man that at the same time sings a lovely Song and drowns the melody of it by playing an ugly Tune When the Father is immodest the Child that sees it soon grows impudent and therefore the Ancients thought themselves concern'd to be very reserv'd and cautelous before their children Maxima debetur pueris reverentia Psal 101.2 Nâ—l faedum dictu visâ—que ea limina â—angat intra quae pura est Pâ—il 1.4 Col. 1 3. Rom. 10.1 Walk as David therefore in thy house with a perfect heart Let thy children and servants behold nothing in thy deportment which if follow'd may prove sinful 3. To an exemplary conversation add faithful fervent humble constant supplication Paul without ceasing makes mention of his heart's desire and his prayer to God for Israel was that they might be saved Ministers like spiritual Priests should not fail to offer their daily Sacrifices for their people confess their iniquities bewail their misery and cry mightily to God for his mercy All our instructions without prayer will do no good Go to God to sanctifie all By prayer carry thy children servants to the blessed Jesus in the Arms of Faith and beseech him to bless them by laying on his hands on them as Isaac did The accustomed Ceremony used in Blessing Beza in Mat. 19. Impositio manuum Symbolum fuit apud Judaeos familiare quoties solâ—nnis erat precatio vel benedictâ— Mat. 15.22 Gen. 27.1 and 48.9 14. with Matth. 19.13 and Mark 10.16 How pathetically did Abraham plead with God for Ishmael Oh that Ishmael might live before thee Gen. 17.18 Bathsheba calls for Solomon the Son of her Vows Prov. 31.2 Austin the Child of Monica's prayers and tears O pray then pray earnestly O that this my Son Daughter Servant might not dye for ever Thou Lord art the Prince and Lord of Life O speak powerfully to their poor Souls that these pieces of my bowels that are now dead in trespasses and sins may hear thy voice and live Cry out to God with that poor man in the Gospel Lord have mercy on my Son Matth. 17.15 If a Mother do as the Woman of Canaan did Have mercy on me O Lord my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil If he seem not to hear and to be silent go nearer to him by Faith and cry Lord help me Lord help me If his Answer seem to be a repulse do not thou desist but rather gather Arguments from his denial as she did and conclude that if he once open his mouth he will not shut his hand and if importunity may prevail with an unrighteous man then much more it will obtain with a gracious God Never leave him therefore till by laying hold on his own strength thou hast overcome him At last thou mayst hear that ravishing voice O Woman be it unto thee even as thou wilt and see thy Daughter made whole from that very hour 4. Lastly To fervent supplication add wary inspection Keep a strict hand Dr. Jacomb Dem. Dâ—c 83. and a watchful eye continually over those that are committed to your charge your utmost care and vigilancy in this will be found little enough How soon will those Gardens that now look like a Paradise be overgrown with weeds if the Keepers thereof do not look to them daily How soon is Childhood and Youth tainted with sin if it be not narrowly watcht Be thou diligent therefore to know the state of thy Flock and look well to thy Herds Carefully observe the natural temper of your inferiours you will by this the better know how to apply your selves to them in advice reproof correction Observe the first sprouts and buds of what is either good or evil in them encourage commend reward them in the one curb restrain and prevent the further growth of the other Do they begin to take God's Name in vain Do they nibble at a lye Doth Pride in apparel peep forth Be sure to kill this Serpent in the very egg to crush this Cockatrice in the Shell 2. Thus of Superiours A word to Inferiours and I have done Dear Lambs the Searcher of Hearts knows how greatly I long after you all in the Bowels of Jesus Christ Shall I prevail with you to remember this when I am laid with my Fathers viz. That 't is no less your Duty to make Religion your business in the relation of Children and Servants than 't is ours in the relation of Parents and Masters Oh what a credit what a glory is it to drink in the Dews of Godliness in the morning of your lives What a lovely sight to behold those Trees blossoming with the fruits of the Spirit in the Spring of their Age Better is a poor and a wise Child than an old and a foolish King Eccl. 4.13 What a Garland of Honour doth the Holy Ghost put on the head of an holy Child How profitable is early Piety Some Fruits ripe early in the year are worth treble the price of latter Fruits Godliness at any time brings in much gain but he that comes first to the Market is like to make the best price of his Ware On the other side how dangerous are delays Remember Children late Repentance like untimely fruits seldom comes to any thing Your lives are very uncertain As young as you are you may be old enough for a Grave Oh then seek your God 1 Tim. 6.6 We read of one that truly repented at his last gasp that so none might despair but 't is of but one that none might presume and seek him when and whiles he may be found Isa 55.5 If thou refuse him now he may refuse thee hereafter I have heard of one that deferring Repentance
yet they pretend to do all in his Name Mat. 7.22 23. but are not owned by him I Answer It is one thing to pretend to do a thing in the Name of Christ another thing to do it indeed that is by true Faith in his Name by which they are made one with him 2. There was in that Age a Faith of Miracles which though it were an Extraordinary gift and common both to Believers and Reprobates they might be said to do those great things in Christ's Name that is by a Power derived from him though they were not in Christ neither did own him as their Saviour nor were owned by him Ponum non nisi ex integra causa malum ex quolibet dâ—fâ—ctu 3. What is done properly in his Name in the sence of the Text must take into its compass all the foregoing particulars mentioned else it will not be accepted it must be done in the Name of Christ as Mediator Many things may be done in the Name of Christ even Mountains may be removed 1 Cor. 13.2 and yet not be done by Faith in his Name as has been said The third thing propounded was how we may come to do all in the Name of our Lord Jesus and this may be instead of a Use of Direction to us 1. We must be supposed to be in Christ before we can do any thing in Christ's Name according to that in John 15.4 5. where he tells us that except we abide in him that supposeth that they are in him first we can do nothing v. 5. for he compares our being in him to that of a Branch in the Vine which cannot bear Fruit of it self unless it abide in the Vine Luther enquiring into the reason why so many ordinary things done by the Saints are set down in Scripture with a mark of Honour upon them and yet the moral vertues and famous deeds of the great Philosophers and others are passed by Answers that the reason is because their Persons are not in Christ and therefore their actions are not accepted and saith Si vel Cicero vel Socrates sanguinem sudasset tamen propterea non placeret Deo If Socrates or Cicero had sweat drops of blood their actions had not pleased God Coment in Gen. 29. 2. Supposing we are one with Christ we must Exercise Faith upon him and have constant recourse to him in all that ever we do for the supplyes of his Grace and Spirit 1 Pet. 2.20 By Faith resigning all to him casting all our burdens and cares upon him committing our selves and all our affairs to him and fetching in all our strength from him Christ tells us Whatever we ask the Father in his Name shall be given to us John 15.16 John 16.23 26. For whatever we ask in Prayer believing we shall receive Mat. 21.22 Jam. 5.15 So that if we would be enabled to do all in the Name of Christ we must Exercise Faith in his Name in Prayer to God for all things for he is in Office in Heaven for this purpose Heb. 7.25 for he ever Liveth to make Intercession for us The hand of Faith put forth in Prayer though but in ejaculatory Prayer draws vertue from Heaven as we read when he was on Earth those that did but touch him drew vertue from him Luke 6.19 Luke 8.46 3. Living close and secret Communion with the Lord Jesus in the use of all his Ordinances by and through which he communicates himself in the fulness and freeness of Life Light Love and Grace to our Souls for they be the Golden Pipes spoken of Zach. 4.12 by which the Golden Oyl is convey'd to our Souls for his Name is an oyntment poured forth in dayes of Holy Communion Cant. 1.3 By this means we come to have further acquaintance with him and peace from him to see his Power and Glory and our Souls to be satisfied as with marrow and fatness Psal 63.5 and to be changed into his Image 2 Cor. 3.18 and to be refreshed with fuller tasts of his love which is better than Wine 4. Exercise your thoughts much upon him and be much taken up with him in the course of your lives but in a special manner upon singular occasions The Psalmist Psal 73.23 saith I am continually with thee that was in his heart and thoughts Let your thoughts be taken up much in the consideration how to manage your affairs so as may be according to the mind of Christ by strength derived from him and for his honour that we may be accepted in our works Perhaps you will object that it is impossible we should in every business of our lives have actual thoughts of Christ and his Glory or go actually to him for assistance and guidance in every particular business I answer 1. There may and must be an habitual gracious holy frame of heart in us wrought by the Spirit by which we may be strongly inclined to the Lord Christ and his Word as our Rule and his Glory as our end so that we do in the full purpose of our hearts resolve to trust in him and commit our selves to him and rest upon him for help assistance guidance acceptance and success in all things What David pray'd for for himself and people when they were in a good frame of heart is the desire and endeavour of every believer 1 Chron. 29.18 viz. that the Lord would keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of their hearts and prepare their hearts unto him This is the habitual preparation of the heart for God this frame of heart is the New Creature in us 2. When we have especial and particular work to do for Christ then there ought to be an actual preparation of our hearts for him and stirring up the grace that is in us an actual making out after him and laying hold on him for strength and grace from him in time of need Heb. 4. last This is especially to be done upon more solemn and momentous occasions then we must in an especial manner think upon that word that was spoken to Israel Amos 4.11 Prepare to meet thy God We read Exod. 40.30 31. there was a Laver before the Altar in which they were to wash before they went into the Congregation for service We cannot sanctifie God in an Ordinance except we prepare for him which is all one with sanctifying of God Levit. 10.3 1 Sam. 16.5 Samuel when he came to sacrifice to the Lord said to the Elders of Bethleem Sanctifie your selves and come with me to the Sacrifice 3. The more frequent actual thoughts we have of Christ and his Word and our eye upon the Rule and his Glory as our end it is the better ever therefore we should often call upon our selves as Deborah did Judges 5.12 Awake Deborah awake c. There must be an actual excitation of our selves and exercising of our Graces when we have some special duty to perform It is said of Sampson Judges 16.20 That he went
repent of their sins and accept of God's Son to come into and to keep in God's vvays vvhen they see vvhither those vvays have brought them There they vvill meet vvith all the Holy Martyrs so famous in their generations for their courage and constancy vvith all the Holy Prophets and Apostles the Pen-men of the Scriptures so famous in their time for the large and plentiful effusion of the Spirit of God upon them vvith all the good Kings and Princes and all the righteous persons vvhatever that have lived in all ages and generations of all kinreds Nations and Languages they shall then be gathered all into one body under Christ their head and joyn together in blessing and praising and singing Hallelujah's unto the Lord for ever 2. In Heaven pardoned persons will have the company of all the glorious Angels here the Angels guard them and are ministring Spirits unto them Heb. 1.14 Hereafter they will be their companions and there will be mutual and most sweet converse between them Some delight in the company of Nobles and the great ones which belong to the Courts of great Princes they shall have the company and conversation of the glorious Angels who are the Nobles of Heaven and Courtiers of the King of Kings How the Angels and Saints will converse together and communicate their minds one to another is too high for us to conceive and too difficult for us to determine but surely the converse will be very sweet and full of love and delight 3. In Heaven pardoned persons will have the company and fellowship of the glorious Spirit the Holy Ghost here they have his presence and powerful operations they feel now especially at some times his sweet breathings and powerful operations which do wonderfully enlighten them greatly quicken and inflame their hearts with divine love yea and fill their hearts with spiritual and heavenly joy But in Heaven they shall have a fuller sweeter more powerful and constant presence of the glorious Spirit they shall there be filled with the Holy Ghost as full as they can hold yea beyond their present capacity they shall be under the sweet breathings of the Spirit whereby the flame of divine love will be kept alive in them perpetually in the greatest height and heat of it and this shall abide to Eternity 4. In Heaven pardoned persons shall have the company of the Lord Jesus Christ in his glory Here they have heard of him there they shall see him here they see him with the eye of Faith there they shall see him eye to eye and face to face Austin did wish to have seen three things above all other things that were to be seen in the World Rome in its Glory Paul in the Pulpit and Christ in the flesh The righteous in Heaven will see that which is far beyond Austin's wish they will see Zion in its Glory Paul in his Glory and Christ in his Glory They will see Zion in its glory which will far exceed Rome in its greatest splendour when it was most illustrious for wealth and riches through the spoyls of so many conquered Kingdoms which were brought into it when it was most illustrious for stately houses and sumptuous buildings for wise and learned Men famous and valiant Captains and Souldiers The new Jerusalem Mount Zion which is above will out-shine Rome in glory more than the Sun doth out-shine the smallest Star in Heaven or the faint light of a Candle here upon earth They shall see Paul in his glory they shall hear him praising God with triumphant acclamations of joy which will be far more than to hear him preach in a state of weakness and infirmity but chiefly they shall see Christ in his glory the sight of Christ in his humiliation was nothing in comparison of a sight of him in his state of exaltation They shall see him then as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 Behold now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Christ was never seen on earth as he is his glory was shadowed his Divinity was vailed and his humanity was most evident to the view which had its infirmities but hereafter his humanity will appear to be lifted up into such glory as doth exceed all created glory of Men or Angels and his Divinity will be most illustrious to the view of the Saints at the sight of which they will be astonished with admiration and love and O how will they gaze and wonder at his marvellous beauty and shining excellency when they see him come down from Heaven attended by all the holy Angels and when they shall not only see him but meet with him be owned and welcomed by him and be taken to live with him 1 Thes 4.16 17. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It was a great priviledg which the Apostles had to live with Christ when he was humbled and vilified here on earth what a priviledg then will it be which all the righteous shall have to live with Christ when he is glorified in Heaven and that not for a few years but for ever What a happiness will it be to see the glory which Christ had with the Father before the World was and not only to see it but to share in it 5. In Heaven pardoned persons shall have the company of the Father they have his gracious presence here on earth they shall have his glorious presence in Heaven there they shall have the immediate Beatifical vision of him and the full most blessed fruition of him The sight of God's back-parts the glimpses and glances of his eye at a distance the mediate enjoyment of him in and by Ordinances doth sometimes even transport them and strangely fill them with wonder and delight but O what Soul-ravishing admirations what transports and extasies of joy will they have when in Heaven they shall behold God's face be alwayes under the beams of the light of his countenance and have continual close intimate full enjoyment of him fellowship and communion with him and this to abide for ever and ever In Heaven they shall dwell with God and God will dwell with them Rev. 21.3 I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God This this will be happiness indeed to have God himself to dwell with them and manifest himself not only in his grace but in his glory unto them therefore it followeth v. 4. And
A SUPPLEMENT TO THE Morning-Exercise At CRIPPLE-GATE OR Several more Cases of Conscience Practically Resolved by sundry Ministers The Second Edition Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our conversation in the World 2 Cor. 1.12 Conscientia est nescio quid divinum nunquam perit officium nostrum nobis semper ad memoriam revocat Doroth. Bibl. Pat. T. 4. p. 769. Quaerimus quomodo animus semper aequalis secundoque cursu eat propitius sibi sit sua laetus adspiciat hoc gaudium non interrumpat sed placido statu maneat nec attollens se unquam nec deprimens Seneca de Tranq anim p. 678. LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill at the Sign of the Atlas in Cornhil near the Royal-Exchange MDCLXXVI To that part of Christ's Flock to which I am more specially related Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour Beloved Christians AS I called in a Contribution of Help for the composing of a Legacy for others before my Civil Death so I now tender you A Supplement to that Exercise for your better liveliness of Spiritual Life I shall say nothing to commend these Sermons to you my Brethren are all herein unanimous to seek the Church's Profit not their own Applause only this I must say to prevent mistake viz. If any curious Reader shall find matter of Exception besides the Errors of Printing which I confess are too many the blame must be Personal because this joynt-work is no otherwise Social than as single Pearls strung together make one Neck-lace I easily grant here 's not yet a stating of all important Cases yet be this known to you whoever shall follow these Directions shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the work of the Lord nor miss of an abundant entrance into his Everlasting Kingdom Live up to what you have attained and you may be confident that what is further wanting God will as you want it supply it Be assur'd of this that you will get more skill and strength for all necessary Graces and Duties by an humble serious constant Course of Godliness than you possibly can do by captious Criticismes and wrangling Contentions about lesser things in which too many spend their Lives I herein appeal to your Consciences should not these Sermons answer expectation but according to your judgment either the Cases are ill chose or not well stated in that the Matter is either defective or redundant the Language too curious or too careless the Directions too common or too singular I appeal from your Passions to your Consciences and down-right charge you in the Name of my Master who must be your Judg that you read with other Spectacles These are not calculated to humour you but to better you These are not Duties to be cavil'd at but to be practised O that you may be effectually perswaded 1. That your Love to God Sermon 1 must be predominant and growing or you degrade your selves below the Beasts 2. That your Love to Man must be universal and spiritual Sermon 2 Sermon 3 or you can't evidence your Love to God 3. That your Love to the World must truckle under both be subservient to both and never be otherwise for if the World master you 't will â—â—in you Oh that your awakened Sermon 4 Consciences may now allarm you 4. To catch at Salvation while it is Sermon 5 offer'd lest you perish for ever Though 't is a vexed Problem 5. What Knowledg is necessary to Salvation yet can you satisfie your Consciences without diligent Endeavours to proportion your Knowledg to the Means you enjoy And to bring forth Fruits every day as those that in some Sermon 6 measure feel 6. What 't is to be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and Sermon 7 8. that the Word 7. Preach'd and 8. Read may be so impress'd upon Heart and Life that it may be an infallible Evidence you are taught of God And when through weakness of the Flesh your Duties may prove Sermon 9 wearisom 9. Learn to refresh your selves with the Songs of Zion But would you have more particular Directions They are before you Sermon 10 Here you may learn true Christianity 10. In the daily Improvement of Sermon 11 your Baptism Here you may learn 11. How to propagate Religion to Posterity by riveting Truth upon your own Hearts and teaching it to Sermon 12 others but while you are giving Milk to Babes 12. Excuse not your selves upon any account whatsoever from frequent and hungry feeding upon stronger Meat Be you as willing to seal to the Conditions of the Covenant as you are desirous God should seal to the Promises of it But who is sufficient for these things Pour out your Hearts therefore and Sermon 13 list up your Souls to God in all manner of Prayer 13. Let extraordinary Sermon 14 Prayer answer that title 14. Your secret Prayer speak secret Communion Sermon 15 with God 15. Let your Family prayer bring down Blessings upon your Family that you be neither Holy nor Happy alone but that when your Family-relations shall cease they may bless God to Eternity that ever there were such Relations between you Now therefore Sermon 16 16. Let Husbands and Wives be the liveliest Emblems in the World of Sermon 17 Christ and his Church 17. Let Parents and Children be the Evidences and Pledges of God's special presence with this and the next Sermon 18 Generation 18. Let Masters and Servants adorn the Gospel by their exemplary Faithfulness to their Heavenly Master Thus doing Sermon 19 19. Your Thoughts will be cured and in them you 'l enjoy God Sermon 20 20. Your Tongues will in some sense be God's glory as well as yours But Sermon 21 then 21. You must cautiously avoid the catching Canker of Detraction Sermon 22 22. So you shaâ—l by your Conversations convince the World there 's an Excellency in Christianity And that all this may be as well acceptable Sermon 23 to God as approved of Men 23. Do all in the Name of Christ and Sermon 24 while you thus embarque with Christ 24. He 'l steer you safe between Presumption and Despair those Rocks upon one of which most perish Hereby also 25. You 'l make your Port with the chearing Joys of an Sermon 25 Heroick Faith 26. And keep above all Vexing Discontents with your Sermon 26 Worldly Condition 27. And what Afflictions God's wise Love shall Sermon 27 inflict you 'l be able to bear them with more than a Roman Courage 28. And though reproachful Reproofs may bear hard upon you you 'l not Sermon 28 fret but welcome them as a precious Balm But when you have done your best yet through the Remainders of Corruption Guilt will be contracted 29. You can't but be restless till it be removed 30. Then you Sermon 29 30. may rather hope for than
some commands may be observed without so much as common grace as duties meerly moral but this must have a great measure of the spirit it speaks much acquaintance with God through experience of his wayes and much conformity to Christ in a well composed conversation in short it includes the highest perfection possibly attainable in this life yet let not this difficulty fright you for through Christ our sincere love though weak is accepted and our imperfect love because growing shall not be despised 8. This is the first and great command in respect of the End 8 Ratione finis All the commands of God are referr'd to this as their end and last scope which was first in the mind of the Law-giver 9. This is the first and great command in respect of the lastingness of it 9 Ratione perperuitatis Thou shalt love the Lord thy God it is not only spoken after the Hebrew (e) Futurum pro imperativo way of commanding but it notes singular perseverance Most of the other commands expire with the world as all or most of the commands of the second table but this remains and flourishes more than ever When Repentance and Mortification which now take up half our life when Faith which is now as it were Mother and Nurse to most of our Graces when Hope which now upholds weak faith in its languors when all these shall as it were dye in travail perfection of grace being then in the birth love to God shall then be more lively than ever That love which as it were passed between God and the Soul in letters and tokens shall then be perfected in a full enjoyment Our love was divided among several objects that cut the banks and weakned the stream henceforth it shall have but one current Our love is now mixt with fear fear of missing or losing what we love but that fear shall be banished There shall never be any distance never any thing to provoke jealousie never any thing to procure cloying never any thing more to be desired than is actually enjoyed Is not this then the first and great Commandment is it not our priviledge and happiness to be swallowed up in it this may suffice to evidence it to be our duty But then What abilities are requisite for the well performance of this duty and how we may obtain those abilities 3. What Abilities are requisite to the performance of this duty and how may we attain those Abilities This we must be experimentally acquainted with or all I can say will at best seem babling and therefore let me at first tell you plainly nothing on this side Regeneration can capacitate you to love God and it is God alone that giveth worketh infuseth impresseth the gracious habit of Divine Love in the Souls of his people Our love to God is nothing else but the eccho of Gods love to us Through the corruption of our Nature we hate God God implanted in our Nature an inclination to love God above all things amiable but by the fall we have an headlong inclination to depart from God and run away from him and there is in every one of us a natural impotency and inability of turning unto God The grace of love is no Flower of Nature's Garden but a Forreign p Non secundum bona naturalia sed secundum dona gratâ—ita Aquin. plant We may possibly do something for the meerly rational inflaming of our hearts with love to God e. g. God may be represented as most amiable we may be convinced of the unsatisfyingness of the Creature we may understand something of the worth of our Souls and what a folly it is to expect that any thing but God can fill them and yet this will be at the utmost but like a solid proof of the truth of the Christian Religion which may Non-plus our cavils but not make us Christians This may make love to God appear a rational duty but it will not of it self beget in us this spiritual Grace It is the immediate work of God to make us love him I do not mean immediate in opposition to the use of means but immediate in regard of the necessary efficacy of his Spirit beyond what all means in the world without his powerful influence can amount unto 'T is the Lord alone that can direct our hearts into the love of God q 2. Thes 3.5 Exoplat a Leo quod non ambigit posse praestari Ambros God is pleased in a wonderful and unexpressible manner to draw up the heart in love to him God makes use of Exhortations and Counsels and Reproofs but though he works by them and with them he works above them and beyond them r Deut. 30.6 19 20. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou may'st live And again I call heaven and earth to record this day against thee that I have set before thee life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live that thou may'st love the Lord thy God and that thou may'st obey his voice and that thou may'st cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy dayes He is thy life i. e. effectively and that by love saith Aquinas it is reported s Sales of the love of God p. 63. that it often happens among Partridges that one steals away anothers eggs but the young one that is hatcht under the wing of a stranger at her true Mothers first call who laid the egg whence she was hatch'd she renders her self to her true Mother and puts her self into her Covey 'T is thus with our hearts though we are born and bred up among terrene and base things under the wing of corrupted Nature yet at and not before God's first quickning call we receive an inclination to love him and upon his drawing t Cant. 1.4 we run after him God works a principle of love in us and we love God by that habit of love he hath implanted hence the Act of love is formally and properly attributed to man as the particular cause u Psal 18.1 116.1 Vâ—â—tius I will love thee O Lord my strength and I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice the Soul works together with God in his powerful working the Will being Acted of God Acteth It is a known saying of w Non ideo bene currit vt rotunda sit sed quia rotunda est Augustine The wheel doth not run that it may be round but because 't is round The Spirit of God enables us to love God but 't is we that love God with a created love 't is we that acquiesce in God in a gracious manner What God doth in the Soul doth not hurt the liberty of the will but strengthens it insweetly and powerfully drawing it into
conformity with the will of God which is the highest liberty where the x 2 Cor. 3.17 spirit of the Lord is there is liberty It is a poor liberty that consists in an indifferency Do not the Saints in heaven love God freely yet they cannot but love him As the only Efficient cause of our loving God is God himself so the only procuring cause of our loving God is Jesus Christ that Son of the Father's love who by his Spirit implants and actuates this grace of love which he hath merited for us Christ hath a Col. 1.20 made peace through the blood of his Cross Christ hath as well merited this grace of love for us as he hath merited the reward of glory for us Plead therefore Dear Christians the merit of Christ for the inflaming your hearts with the love of God that when I shall direct to rules and means how you may come to love God you may as well address your selves to Christ for the grace of love as for the pardon of your want of love hitherto Bespeak Christ in some such but far more pressing language Lord thou hast purchased the grace of love for those that want and crave it my love to God is chill do thou warm it my love is divided Lord do thou unite it I cannot love God as he deserves O that thou would'st help me to love him more than I can desire Lord make me sick of love and then cure me Lord make me in this as comfortable to thy self as 't is possible for an adopted Son to be like the Natural that I may be a Son of God's love both actively and passively and both as near as it is possible infinitely Let 's therefore address our selves to the use of all those means and helps whereby love to God is b Fovetur augetur excitatur exeritur nourished encreased excited and exerted I will begin with removing the impediments we must clear away the rubbish e're we can so much as lay the Foundation Impediment 1. Self-love Impediments of our love to God this the Apostle names as Captain general of the Devil's Army whereby titular Christians manage their enmity against God in the dregs of the last dayes this will make the times dangerous Men shall be lovers of their own c 2 Tim. 3.1 2. selves When men over-esteem themselves their own endowments of either body or mind when they have a secret reserve for self in all they do self-applause or self-profit this is like an errour in the first concoction get your hearts discharg'd of it or you can never be spiritually healthful the best of you are too prone to this I would therefore commend it to you to be jealous of your selves in this particular for as conjugal-jealousie is the bane of conjugal love so self-jealousie will be the bane of self-love Be suspicious of every thing that may steal away or divert your love from God Imped 2. Love of the world this is so great an obstruction that the most loving and best beloved Disciple that Christ had said (d) 1 Joh. 2.15 love not the world nor the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him and the Apostle James makes use of a Metaphor (e) Jam. 4.4 calling them Adulterers and Adulteresses that keep not their conjugal love to God tight from leaking out toward the world he chargeth them as if they knew nothing in Religion if they knew not this that the friendship with the world is enmity with God and 't is an universal truth without so much as one exception that whosoever will be a friend of the world must needs upon that very account be God's enemy the Apostle Paul adds more weight to those that are e'en press'd to Hell already (f) 1 Tim. 6.9 10 11. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves thorow with many sorrows but thou O man of God flee these things c. when men will be some-body in the world they will have Estates and they will have honours and they will have pleasures what variety of vexatious distractions do unavoidably hinder our love to God when our hearts are hurried with hopes and fears about worldly things and the world hath not wherewithall to satisfie us how doth the heart fret under its disappointments and how can it do otherwise we would have happiness here Sirs I 'le offer you fair name me but one man that ever found a compleat happiness in the world and I dare promise you shall be the second but if you will flatter your self with dreams of impossibilities this your way will be your folly though 't is like your posterity will approve your sayings (g) Psal 49.13 and try experiments while they live as you have done but where 's your love to God all this while 't is excluded by what Law by the Law of Sin and Death by the love of the world and destruction for Christ tells us all that hate him love death (h) Prov. 8.36 Imped 3. Spiritual sloath and carelessness of Spirit when men do not trouble themselves about Religion nor any thing that is serious Love is a busie passion a busie grace love among the passions is like Fire among the Elements Love among the Graces is like the Heart among the Members now that which is most contrary to the nature of love must needs most obstruct the highest actings of it the truth is a careless frame of Spirit is fit for nothing a sluggish lazy slothful careless person never attains to any excellency in any kind what is it you would intrust a lazy person about let me say this and pray think on 't twice e're you censure it once Spiritual sloath doth Christians more mischief than scandalous relapses I grant their grosser falls may be worse as to others the grieving of the Godly and the hardning of the wicked and the Reproach to Religion must needs be so great as may make a gracious heart tremble at the thought of falling but yet as to themselves a sloathful temper is far more prejudicial e. g. those gracious persons that fall into any open sin 't is but once or seldom in their whole life and their repentance is ordinarily as notorious as their sin and they walk more humbly and more watchfully ever after whereas Spiritual sloath runs through the whole course of our life to the marring of every duty to the strengthning of every sin and to the weakning of every grace Sloath I may rather call it unspiritual sloath is a soft moth in our spiritual wardrobe a corroding rust in our spiritual Armory an enfeebling consumption in the very vitals of Religion Sloath and
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
it known than pleaseth Holy Church i. e. no more than is for the interest of the Pope's pride and the Priest's panches Knowledg hath already done them no small mischief and how can that choose but be too much light which endangers the ruin of the kingdom of darkness thus those Scribes or Jewish Lawyers Luk. 11.52 Took away the key of knowledg they entred not in themselves into the Kingdom of Heaven and them that were entring they hindered and 1 Thes 2.16 The Jews forbad the Apostles to preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved And how great a sin is it to grudg others the grace of Christ and the Kingdom of God to drive a design for the damnation of Souls It is a wretched thing for Men to build their greatness upon the ruine of others and rather to let thousands of Souls be damned than their stakes should not be saved Doubtless if they considered how little comfort they are like to have in Hell in the society of those they have brought thither they would at least be content to perish alone Vse 2. What a Reproof is here for ignorant Souls They that are ignorant not because they want the means of knowledge but either because they hate it or because they are too busie or too lazy or too proud to learn I would be-speak such but even in their own Language Why should you be wiser than your forefathers and wiser than your teachers They that lived before you or I were born were fond of the truth studied the Scriptures inquired into God's will made his Law their meditation their delight their counsellor So did David Psal 119.24 97. Such a one was Daniel ch 9.2 And such were other Prophets 1 Pet. 1.11 12. And such were the Apostles it was their glory to have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.16 And such were the primitive Christians The Beraeans were commended for searching the Scriptures Act. 17.11 And such the Martyrs They would have made much of any single leaf of the Bible And why then should you be wiser than they Why should you think to be saved without knowledge when they could not Have you found out any newer or nearer or better way to Heaven than they knew of Will God be more favourable to you than to them Will he dispence with your ignorance and would not with theirs And so Why must you needs be wiser than your teachers They are fain to study the Scriptures and labour to know the will of God and spend their time and strength in the search of truth and count it their wisdom so to do both that they may save themselves and them that hear them And what need they go so far about if there were a shorter cut to Heaven What need they seek so much knowledge if less would serve their turn What need they weaken their bodies and wast their Spirits and shorten their days that they may teach you the good knowledge of the Lord and instruct you in the things that concern your peace if you may be saved without knowing them If ignorance were so innocent a thing as many think it Ministers might save their breath and strength for better purposes than the teaching of those that have no need of it Is it not a great shame that there is so much ignorance among those that profess to be enlightned Alas How few be there that can give any tolerable account of the Principles they own How few have any faith but an implicit one any Religion but a Traditional one How many are themselves guilty of what they blame in Papists Papists believe as the Church suppose a Councel or Pope believes and how many Protestants believe as their Parents or as their Ministers believe And so their faith stands not in the power of God but the wisdom or gifts or parts or Authority of Man 1 Cor. 2.5 Use 3. For Exhortation Let every one that desires to be saved labour after such knowledge in Spiritual things as is most conducing to so high an end Labour for the knowledge of the best things and for as much of it as you can get Do not be afraid of too much wisdom of being overcharged with Spiritual knowledg There is no danger that this learning should make you mad To enforce force the duty Consider 1. How useful this knowledg is Prov. 15.2 That the Soul be without knowledg is not good Knowledge in the mind is as necessary and useful as eyes in a guide What a Leader is to his followers The mind is commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Hierocles or a Driver to a Chariot that the mind is to the Man He had need of eyes that is to be an Inspector or leader of others As the eye is the overseer of the body so the understanding is of the whole and therefore knowledge is as useful in the one as light in the other And as the knowledge of natural things is useful to a Man as a Man so is the knowledge of Spiritual things most useful to him as a Christian and that 1. In the exercise of holiness the guidance of his will and affections and ordering of his actions in relation to his highest end The Will is of it self caeca facultas a blind faculty and the affections are no better The will can command but cannot judge It hath authority over the inferior powers but such as must be regulated by the discretion of the understanding And the affections are as it were the legs of the Soul They can go this way and that way but they must have the eye of the mind to superintend their motion like a blind Man carrying a lame one on his shoulder who lends his own legs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anthel Graec. and borrows the other's eyes So that though the understanding's work be only to discern consider judge yet without its performing that work the will and affections can never rightly do theirs You can never love or hate choose or refuse as you should such objects as are presented to you unless you first pass a right judgment upon those objects and the understanding determine of their being good or evil And the understanding cannot judge aright if it be not informed aright It cannot lead you if it be not it self enlightned You can never love God supremely if your understandings do not judge him to be supremely lovely If ever you would duly prosecute your true interest you must be first acquainted with it and have it rightly stated If you would do your duty you must first know it You must of necessity either neglect or mis-perform it if you know not the rule of your doing it Where holiness is your work knowledge must be your director And the more knowledge you have the more fit you will be for the practice of holiness The clearer your light and the better your eyes the more circumspectly you will walk The more you see the nature the beauty the
is the very spring upon which the holy conversation of the whole week is turned and moved And therefore it is observable that the Sabbath stands as it were betwixt the two Tables the last precept of the first Table and the Preface to the Second To shew us that it is the Bond of union between both Tables that without a severe sanctification of the Sabbath the Duties of both Tables will fall to the ground Whence in the Primitive times of Christianity the strict observation of the Sabbath was accounted the principall character of a true Saint And so it is even at this day there are such Christians for exemplary holiness as those which are taken notice of to make most conscience of sanctifying the Sabbath But so much for the second duty I come now to the Third Branch or Duty of Duties wherein sabbath-sanctification consists Sc. Honourable If thou call it or make it or keep it as an Honourable day Heb. Mecubbar which signifieth honourable or glorious The Duty implied is we must keep the Sabbath as the Honourable Glorious Day of Jehovah Truly glorious things are spoken of this Honourable Day The Jews were wont to call it the Queen of Days the week-days they called prophane days but the Sabbath after Gods example here they called Holy My Holy Day saith God it 's Gods peculiar One of ours now translated into his glorious rest honours it thus calling it The Map of heaven the golden spot of the week Vide Mr. Gee Swinnock in his good wish to the Lords day the market-day of the soul the day-break of eternal brightness the Queen of days the blessed amongst days the cream of time the Epitome of eternity Heaven in a glass the first-fruits of an everlasting and blessed Harvest and much more to that purpose The week-days are as it were the back-parts of the week made to carry burdens a meer Servant or Slave made to do the drudgery of the humane life The Sabbath is the face the seat of Majesty which God hath made to look upward and to contemplate the glory of the Heavens and of the maker thereof The week-days are like the Terrestrial Globe wherein are painted to us the Earth with the inferiour and more ignoble creatures The Sabbath is the Celestial Globe Heb. 12.22 23 24. wherein we have the prospect of Mount Sion the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and of an innumerable company of Angels of the general assembly and Church of the first-born and of God the Judge of all and of the spirits of just men made perfect and of Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant c. The beholding of these glorious visions truly beatifical are the work of a Sabbath Moreover to discover to you the glory of a Sabbath consider we another excellent passage in our quoted Author ut sup speaking of the Sabbath All the graces triumph in Thee All the Ordinances conspire to enrich Thee The Father ruleth Thee The Son rose upon Thee The Spirit hath overshadowed Thee Thus it is done to the Day which the Lord delighteth to honour on Thee light was created the Holy Ghost descended Life hath been restored Satan subdued the Grave Death and Hell conquered c. Much more might be added but rather The Question Question is When do we make the Sabbath or how may we make it to us an Honourable Glorious day Answer 1 Then we call the Sabbath Honourable when we make Honourable preparation for it To which purpose it is useful to mind seriously that word which stands as a watch-man at the door of the fourth Commandment Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy Remember It is like the Baptist the voice of one crying prepare ye the way of the Lord or that Eccl. 5.1 keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God c. It calls for solemn preparation for a Sabbath and the ordinances of a Sabbath a duty wofully neglected amongst Christians some little preparation people make for a Sacrament and it is to be feared there is more of superstition in it than Evangelical affection to the day consisting rather in a Ceremonial abstinence from meat and drinks than a serious separation of the heart and affections for communion with God But as to the Sabbath there is rarely any thing to separate between the drudgery of the week and the solemnities of the sabbath but a little sleep and that usually less than any other night is allowed people loading the Saturday-night with so many worldly affairs that the Lords-day-morning is too little to satisfie their sluggish indulgences of the flesh and there is not time either for closet or domestick devotion they cannot force themselves out of their bed time enough to join with the Congregation until half the publick worship be finished The Jews shall rise up against this generation and shall condemn them of whom it is reported they were so severe in their parascueves or preparations for the Sabbath which were precisely to begin at three of the clock in the afternoon Buxtorf that if the servants in the Family were cast behind in dispatching the servile labour of the Family the Master of the house though he were a Nobleman would not refuse to set his hand to the lowest drudgery that they might observe the punctual time of preparation this argued an honourable estimation of the Sabbath 2. Then we call it honourable when we give it honourable entertainment When we awaken our selves in such good time yet so as we may not indispose nature for the service of the day as David did Psal 108.2 awake my Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake right early I say to get up early in the morning Maâ—h 28.1 to meet our blessed Lord and Bridegroom coming from his Sepulchre to visit us That which is but fancied of the natural Sun its dancing upon Easter-day in the morning for joy of the Lords Resurrection I have known reallized by some excellent Christians whose hearts have not only leaped in them but themselves have hasted out of their beds and have leaped and skipped up and down in their chamber when the morning light of the Sabbath hath shined on them in remembrance of the Sun of Righteousness arising from the grave with healing under his wings Such extraordinary impulses and ravishments are not every Christians attainment and must not be imitated to the prejudice of the Body the spirit may be willing but the flesh is weak but certainly every Christian that hath the love of Christ shed abroad in his heart will be careful to abate himself somewhat of his wonted indulgences on that morning which was his redeemers Birth-day that he may have time to get on his wedding Garment by meditation Psal 2.7 reading and prayer that he may go forth to meet him whom his soul loveth in the publick solemnities of the Sabbath and bring him home with him into the chamber of her that conceived him
death and the grave and Hell and the Devil in chains after him as conquerors in war were wont to lead their vanquished enemies whom they had taken prisoners in chains of Captivity after them exposing them to the publick scorn of all spectators Thus we are to ascribe the glory of the work of Redemption to Jesus Christ the Son of God and thereby do honour God in our sanctifying of his holy Sabbath Thirdly We likewise glorifie the Holy Ghost when we ascribe to Him the honour of the work of Sanctification Whether we look upon it in that first miraculous effusion of the spirit which our Lord Jesus as the King and Head of his Church did first purchase by the blood of his cross and afterward ascended into heaven and obtained of his Father when he took possession of his Kingdom and lastly did abundantly pour down upon the Apostles and other officers and members of his Evangelical Church in the day of Pentecost Acts 2.1 Which was as it were the Sanctification of the whole Gospel-Church at once in the first-fruits Or whether we understand that work of sanctification which successively is wrought by the Holy Ghost in every individual elect Child of God happily begun in their first conversion and mightily upheld and carried on in the sâ—ul to the dying day This is a glorious work consisting in these two glorious branches of it mortification of corruption which before the Holy Ghost hath done shall end in the total annihilation of the body of sin that blessed priviledge groan'd for so much by the blessed Apostle Rom. 7.24 and the erecting of a beautiful fabrick of grace holiness in the soul which is the very Image of God Heb. 1 3â— an erection of more transcendent wonder and glory than the six days workmanship which the Holy Ghost doth uphold and will perfect unto the day of Christ And this is the great end and design of the Sabbath and of the Ordinances of the Gospel according to the word which the great maker and appointer of Sabbaths speaketh I give them my sabbath to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them Here then is the third branch of our sanctifying the Sabbath namely the ascribing to God the Holy Ghost the glory of the work of sanctification And this is proper work for Christians in the intervals and void spaces between the publick Ordinances to sit down and first seriously and impartially to examine the work of grace in our souls 1. For the truth of it 2. For the growth of it And then if we can give God and our own Consciences some Scriptural account concerning this matter humbly to fall down and to put the Crown of praise upon the head of Free-grace which hath made a difference where it found none And so much for this Text at this time How we may hear the Word with profit Serm. VII Jam. 1.21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls THese Jews to whom the Apostle writes were guilty of many foul and scandalous sins but their master sin was the love of this world c. 4. ver 4. (a) Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God and from this sin arose many other Evils wherewith they are charged in this Epistle as 1. Their tickling joy in hopes to get gain ch 4.13 (b) Go to now ye that say To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain 2. Their Hoarding up of riches ch 5.3 (c) Your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last daies 3. With-holding the pay of the labouring man chap. 5.4 (d) Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath 4. Their fightings and Contentions one with the other yea their killing one the other to get their Estates ch 4.1 2. (e) From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not even from your lusts that war in your members ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have cannot obtain their desiring to have made them kill one the other as Ahab did Naboth 5. Their Admiring the rich and villifying the poor ch 2.3 (f) If there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel and there come in also a poor man in vile rayment And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing and lastly to name no more Hence arose their unprofitable hearing of the word ch 1.22 (g) But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves They heard they had the best places at meetings but they were hearers only they did nothing for Riches as Christ tells us Choak the word Luke 8.14 (h) And that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choaked with cares and riches And as they were guilty of these moral vices so erroneous in the Doctrine of faith especially in that main Article of Justification Holding an empty and inefficatious faith sufficient to interest a man in Christ ch 2.14 (i) What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith have not works can faith save him can such a faith save him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can that faith save him can such a faith save him that Faith that saves is alwaies fruitful and that faith which is not fruitful is no true Faith the Apostle doth not deny that we are justified by Faith by Faith only but he denies that faith without works is a true faith it s only an empty and aiery notion and such a faith cannot justifie nor save a man Well then this being the case and condition of the people it was impossible they should be quiet and patient hearers of the word but must needs fret and fume against it as that which contradicts their Lusts Errors and Delusions The Apostle therefore to take them off from this bitter and untoward spirit in Hearing the word gives them this wholsome counsel and advice from God Wherefore laying apart all filthiness c. All filthiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I 'le not restrain it to covetousness nor to scurrilous and reproachful speeches but take it in its utmost Latitude as denoting sin in the General 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifies the filth of the flesh 1 Pet. 3.21
(k) Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is applied to filthy garments Zach. 3.3 (l) And Joshua was clothed with filthy garments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it may be taken Jam. 2.2 (m) A poor man in vile rayment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence we learn that sin is a filthy thing sin is called filthiness Prov. 30.12 (n) There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness and therefore when God calls us from sin he bids us wash our selves Isai 1.16 (o) Wash ye make you clean 2 Cor. 7.1 (p) Having therefore these promises dearly beloved Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and we read of this as that they are ashamed of their sins and loath themselves for them and abhor themselves because of sin and cast them away as a polluted and menstruous cloth all these expositions denote the filthiness of sin And superfluity of naughtiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often taken in the Scripture for malice 1 Cor. 5.8 (q) Therefore let us keep the truth not with old leaven not with leaven of malice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because it hath here no article and because it often signifies all manner of sin I 'le give it rope without any limitation The Apostle then by superfluity of naughtiness means the redundancy and overflowing of sin amongst those professors There is a Chaos of sin in all of us but it was very spreading and luxuriant in these professors and no marvel for they loved money which is the root of all evil Laying apart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or laying down Acts 7.58 (r) The witnesses laid down their clothes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies the rejection Casting off or Putting away of sin put ye off all these things saith Paul and again put off the old man and so Peter 1 Pet. 2.1 (s) Wherefore laying aside all malice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Receive with meekness receive that is hear it entertain it give it entrance and admission With meekness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the moderation or rebatement of sinful Anger for then when the Apostle saith Receive the word with meekness his meaning is do not shut out the word by a peevish froward stormy and Angry spirit but take it in with calmness mildness and submission The engrafted word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the word used for engrafting Rom. 11. yet since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies graftings and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to graft the translation is warrantable but yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respect the planting or the sowing of the word and may be read the word planted or the word sown that is sown in your hearts by the hand of Christs Ministers see Mark 4.15 (t) But when they have heard Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts Which is able to save your souls that is from hell and damnation there is this power in the word but it is mutuatitious extrinsecal and borrow'd it is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16 (u) I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation the word of it self saves not but God by the word 1 Cor. 1.21 (x) It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe The words thus open'd the Case I am to speak to is this How we may hear the Word so as to profit by it For the resolution of this question I shall first tell you what we mean by the word Secondly what by profiting And thirdly how we shall profit by the hearing of it 1. By the Word I understand the Word of God which Word of God may be considered either as it is written in the Scripture or as it is preach't that is expounded and applied by the Ministers of Christ The question is concerning the word preach't How we may hear it so as to profit by it Ministers are to preach the word 2 Tim. 4.2 (y) Preach the word preach the word what is that that is open and unfold the Scripture with a suitable application of them to the estate and the condition of the hearers Reprove from them Rebuke from them Exhort from them This was Christs preaching Luk. 4.17 (z) He found the place where it was written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me c. and then be expounds it v. 21. This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears Luk. 24.27 this was Peters Preaching Act. 2.2 (a) And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets be expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself in this Sermon he chiefly insists upon two Scriptures and expounds them both and then applies all to their Consciences v. 36. (b) Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ and this was Pauls Preaching Act. 28.23 (c) There came many to his Lodging to whom be expounded and testified the kingdom of God perswading them concerning Jesus both out of the Law of Moses and the Prophets from morning till evening and for the Levites before Christ who taught the People the good knowledge of the Law they Preacht after this manner Nehem. 8.7 8. (d) So they read in the book of the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading and that was the manner in the Synagogues after Christ Act. 13.15 (e) And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the Rulers of the Synagogue sent unto them saying ye men and brethren if you have any word of exhortation for the people say on Moses was not only read but preacht Act. 15.21 (f) Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him and Paul prescribes the way of Preaching to Timothy 1 Tim. 4.13 (g) Give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine I understand it of publique reading the Scriptures in the Church with the application of them by way of Doctrine and Exhortation well then by the word we understand the word Preacht which is the opening and unfolding the Scriptures by the Ministers of Christ 2. What is meant by profiting or what is it to profit by the word I answer we profit by the word when we get that good and spiritual Advantage from it for which it was appointed and designed by God Now God hath appointed his word I. For Learning and Instruction 1 Cor. 14.31 (h) For you may all Prophesie one by one that all may learn â—nd all may be comforted the Colossians
with most Spiritual profit I shall conclude all with two Corollaries 1. Content not your selves with the bare reading of Scripture but labour to find some spiritual increment and profit Get the Word transcribed into your hearts Psal 37.31 The Law of God is in his heart Never leave till you are assimilated into the Word Such as profit by reading of the Book of God are the best Christians alive they answer God's cost they credit Religion they save their Souls 2. You who have profited by reading the Holy Scriptures adore God's distinguishing grace Bless God that he hath not only brought the light to you but opened your eyes to see it that he hath unlocked his hid Treasure and enriched you with saving knowledge Some perish by not having Scripture and others by not improving it That God should pass by Millions in the World and the Lot of his Electing Love should fall upon you that the Scripture like the pillar of Cloud should have a dark-side to others but a light-side to you that to others it should be a dead letter but to you the Savour of Life that Christ should not only be revealed to you but in you Gal. 1.16 How should you be in an holy extasie of wonder and wish that you had hearts of Seraphims burning in love to God and the voices of Angels to make Heaven ring with God's Praises Object But some of the Godly may say they fear they do not profit by the Word they read Resp As in the body when there is a Lipothymy or Fainting of the vital Spirits Cordials are applied so let me apply a few Divine cordials to such as are ready to faint under the fear of non-proficiency 1. You may profit by reading the Word though you come short of others The ground which brought forth but thirty fold was good Ground Mat. 13.8 Say not you are Non-proficients because you do not go in Equipage with other eminent Saints those were counted strong men among David's Worthies though they did not attain to the honour of the first three 2 Sam. 23.19 2. You may profit by reading the Word though you are not of so quick apprehension Some impeach themselves of Non-proficiency because they are but slow of understanding When our blessed Saviour foretold his sufferings the Apostles themselves understood not and it was Hid from them Luke 9.45 The Author to the Hebrews speaks of some who were Segnes auribus dull of hearing Heb. 5.11 Yet they belonged to the Election Such as have weaker judgments may have stronger affections Leah was tender-eyed yet fruitful A Christian's intellectuals may be less quick and penetrating yet that little knowledg he hath of Scripture keeps him from Sin as a man that hath but weak sight yet it keeps him from falling into the water 3. You may profit by reading Scripture though you have not so excellent memories Many complain their memories leak Nec retinent patulae commissa sidelitèr (y) Hâ—â— aures Christian-art thou grieved thou canst remember no more then for thy comfort 1. Thou mayst have a good heart though thou hast not so good a memory 2. Though thou canst not remember all thou readest yet thou remembrest that which is most material and which thou hast most need of At a Feast we do not eat of every dish but we take so much as nourisheth 'T is with a Good Christian's memory as it is with a lamp though the lamp be not full of oyl yet it hath so much oyl as makes the lamp burn though thy memory be not full of Scripture yet thou retainest so much as makes thy love to God burn Then be of good comfort thou dost profit by what thou readest and take notice of that encouraging Scripture John 14.26 The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost he shall bring all things to your remembrance How we may make Melody in our Hearts to God in Singing of Psalms Serm. IX Ephes 5.19 Speaking to our selves in Psalms Hymns and spiritual Songs and making Melody in your Hearts to the Lord. IN the former part of this Chapter especially in the fourth Verse we have the Apostle checking carnal Mirth and accounting that a Sin which the Heathen Philosophers especially Aristotle in his Ethicks made a Vertue viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of jesting which they supposed was an ornament to their speech and a specimen of their ingenuity But in this Verse where the Text is we have the Apostle commending spiritual Mirth which he approves as a Duty which the Heathens especially in the primitive times accounted a Crime In the Verse going before the Text we have the Apostle condemning a Vice universally reputed so both by Christians and Heathens viz. Intemperance which doth usually frollick it in putidos sermones into foolish speeches fond gestures E vini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oritur laetitia quaedam sed impura quae tuming stibus tum inputidis sermoniâ—us se prodit Bod. impure Songs wanton Sonnets as Bodius observes But here in the Text the Apostle teacheth us a more refined way of rejoycing viz. To tune the heart in Psalms to raise the heart in Hymns and to vent the heart in spiritual Songs nay to make the heart a Quire where spiritual Musick may be chanted In the Text we have five parts remarkable viz. 1. The Singers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christians especially those who dwelt in the City of Ephesus Christians understand how to rejoyce in God their hearts can so set the Tune that God shall hear the Musick Zanchy well observes that the Apostle doth here make the Comparison between the Mirth which is made ex ubertate Vini from abundance of Wine and that which is made ex ubertate Spiritus from abundance of the Spirit The Drunkard's Song how toyish but the Saint's singing how triumphal how confused the one how sweet the other how empty the one even to the very Companions of their Cups and Mirth but how melodious the other even to the Lord himself And he gravely takes notice that gaudent pii sed garriunt ebrii Saints rejoyce but Intemperate persons drivel in their chat 2. The Song it self and here the Apostle runs division Cantio sacra est vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bod. Psalmi propriè ad locum Ethicum pertinent In Hymnis Dei beneficia facta miramur Qui vero concordiam consensum mundi contemplatur ille spirituali â—anticum canit Hier. diversifying Songs into three species which according to the descants of Learned men may be thus understoood And here Hierom gives us a dextrous Interpretation 1. Psalms saith he may belong to moral things what we ought to put in use and practise 2. Hymns may belong to sacred things what we ought to meditate on and to contemplate as the Power Wisdom Goodness and Majesty of
God 3. Odes or spiritual Songs may belong to natural things what we ought to debate discuss viz. The Race Order Harmony and Continuance of the World and God's infinite Wisdom manifested in it 2. Some distinguish these according to the Authors of them 1. Psalms they are the Composures of holy David 2. Hymns they are the Songs of some other excellent men recorded in Scripture as Moses Heman Asaph c. 3. Spiritual Songs they are Odes of some other holy and good men not mentioned in Scripture as the Song of Ambrose Nepos and others 3. Some aver that these several speeches mentioned in the Text answer the Hebrew distinction of Psalms Among them there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mizmorim which treated of various and different Subjects 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which only mentioned the Praises of the most High 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were Songs more artificially and musically composed and some Divines observe were sung with the help of a musical Instrument But I may add Are not all these several species mentioned to prefigure the Plenty and the Joy which is reserved for the Saints within the Vail when they shall join in consort with the glorious Angels in singing their perpetual Hallelujahs to their glorious Creator 3 The manner of Singing Our Text saith with Melody with inward joy and tripudlation of Soul If the Tongue make the Pause the Heart must make the Elevation The Apostle saith to the Colossians Colos 3.16 We must sing with grace which is as some expound it 1. Cum gratiarum actione with giving of thanks And indeed thankfulness is the very Selah of this duty that which puts an accent upon the Musick and sweetness of the Voice and then we sing melodiously when we warble out the Praises of the Lord. 2. With gracefulness with a becoming and graceful dexterity And this brings both profit and pleasure to the Hearers as Davenant observes Psalms are not the Comedies of Venus or the jocular Celebrations of a wanton Adonis but they are the Spiritual ebullitions of a composed Soul to the incomprehensible Jehovah with real grace God's Spirit must breathe in this service Et prodessâ— veliat dâ—lectâ—re Dav. Cantemus cum gratia à Spiriâ—u Sâ—ncto donata Chrysost Hoc quod praecinitur sine gratià Dâ—i impleri non potest Oecâ—m Sine corde nulla est modalatio Bod. here we must act our joy our confidence our delight Singing is the triumph of a gracious Soul the Child joying in the praises of his Father In singing of Psalms the gracious heart takes wings and mounts up to God to joyn with the Celestial Quire It is grace which sits the heart for and sweetens the heart in this duty And where this qualification is wanting this service is rather an hurry than a duty it is rather a disturbance than any obedience 4. The Master of the Chore the Preceptor that is the Heart We must look to the Heart in singing that it be purged by the Spirit and that it be replete with spiritual Affection He plays the Hypocrite who brings not the heart to this Duty One observes There is no Tune without the Heart Singing takes its proper rise from the Heart the Voice is only the further progress And indeed God is the Creator of the whole man and therefore he will be praised not only with our Tongues but with our Hearts The Apostle tells us He will sing with the spirit 1 Cor. 14.15 And David informs us his heart was ready to sing and give praise Nâ—n vox sed votum non musica cerdula sed cor Aug. De modo benè vivendi Bern. Psal 57.7 8. 108.1 Augustine admonisheth us It is not a Musical-string but a Working-heart is harmonious The Virgin Mary sings her Magnificat with her heart Luke 14.47 And Bernard tells us in a Tract of his That when we sing Psalms let us take heed that we have the same thing in our Mind that we warble forth in our Tongue and that our Song and our Heart do not run several ways If we in singing only offer the Calves of our Lips it will too much resemble a Carnal and a Jewish service 5. The End of the Duty To the Lord. So saith the Text viz. To Jesus Christ who is here principally meant Our singing must not serve our Gain or our Luxury or our Fancy but our Christ our Lord and dear Redeemer In this Duty it is his Praises we must mainly and chiefly celebrate And most deservedly we magnifie the true God by Psalms and Singing when the Heathens celebrate their false and dung-hill-Gods Jupiter Neptune and Apollo with Songs and Hymns One well observes Singing of Psalms is part of Divine Worship Deus est canendi Vnicus Scopus Bod. and of our Homage and Service due to the great Jehovah Bodius takes notice that God is the true and only scope of all our singing And truly if the Spirit of God be in us he will be steddily aimed at by us Thus Deborah and Barak sang their Triumphal Song to the Lord Judges 5.3 The several parts of the Text being thus opened they may be set together again in this Divine and Excellent Truth Doct. Non franges vocem sed frange voluntatem non serves tantùm Consonantiam Vocum sed concordium Mo um Bern. Aug. In the Ordinance of Singing we must not make Noise but Musick and the Heart must make Melody to the Lord. So the Text. Augustine complained of some in his time That they minded more the Tune than the Truth more the Manner than the Matter more the Governing of the Voice than the Raisedness of the Mind And this was a great offence to him Singing of Psalms must only be the joyous breathing of a raised Soul and here the cleanness of the Heart is more considerable than the clearness of the Voice In this Service we must study more to act the Christian than the Musitian Many in singing of Psalms are like the Organs whose Pipes are filled only with Wind. The Apostle Col. 3.16 tells us we must sing with our Heart We must sing David's Psalms with David's Spirit One tells us God is a Spirit and he will be worshipped in Spirit even in this duty Now to traverse the Truth 1. We will shew the Divine Authority of this Ordinance 2. We will shew the Sweetness of it 3. The Universal Practice of it 4. We shall shew the Honours God hath put upon this Ordinance 5. And then come to the main Case 6. And make Application For the first We shall shew the Divine Authority of this Ordinance 1. By Scripture-Command 2. By Scripture-Argument 3. By Scripture-Pattern 4. By Scripture-Prophesie 1. From Scripture-Precept And here we have divers commands laid upon us both in the Old and New Testament David who among his honourable Titles obtains this to be called the Sweet Singer of Israel 2 Sam. 23.1 he frequently calls upon himself Psal 7.17 I
the sweet allurements which draw us to this duty And if we inquire what it is that puts us upon rejoycing in God by Singing I shall tell you 1. The Good Spirit That Heavenly principle both leads us to this duty and helps us in it this is one of the good motions of the blessed Spirit to put us upon singing the praises of the Lord. Wine tempts us to vain and wanton Songs but the Spirit excites us to Holy and Heavenly Hymns the Spirit first sets the Tune and Christ is the burden of the Song 2. The joyous heart Holy Singing is both the Sign and Vent of joy The little Child is pained and then it cries the Saint is surprized with joy and then it breaks out into singing Smothers will turn into Flames and the heart overcharged with complacency will discharge it self in this Holy Exultation In the Churches triumph recorded by the Prophet Isaiah Isa 35.2 Singing follows joy as its proper and genuine product and birth 3. A sence of Obedience To sing praises to the Lord is a duty which the Saints know not how to wave or respite The Apostle James joyns praying and singing together Jam. 5.13 and the Believer knows not how to neglect the one no more than the other Sometimes God calls us to the Cross and then we must be calm and patient and sometimes he calls us to the Quire and then we must be pleasant and delightful This checks those who scruple this Ordinance surely this must proceed Vse 2 from the Evil one turning himself into an Angel of Light It was a serious moan which sometimes many Ministers in New England made even in this Case The singing of Psalms say they though it breath forth nothing but Heavenly harmony and sweet melody yet such is the subtilty of the Enemy and the Enmity of our Nature against God and the ways of God that our hearts can find matter of discord in this Harmony and Crotchets of division in this holy Melody And hence arise so many questions about singing of Psalms But I shall only touch upon three Objections How can a serious Christian sing in a mixed Congregation The presence Object 1 of the wicked will surely jar the Musick and give a very just Occasion of Offence Many who forbear singing in the Congregation will not forbear it in their Answ 1 families And is there no Cham no Judas no withered branch Are all the Sonâ— of Zion Are all the Friends of the Bride-Chamber This is not an usual Happiness 2. And are there not mixtures when we pray and when we hear and this scruple may be levelled against these as well as against singing There is as much purity and so ought to be in Petitioners and Hearers as in Singers And why then are we not as curious in these duties as in Singing which if we were few would join with us in these solemn approaches Let us not Dear Christians consult fansy but reason and Scripture-proof 3. Singing may be sanctified for Conviction of sinners Moses penned a Song and God commands the people to sing it Deut. 31.30 And this Song was to convince the sinful Israelites of their obstinacy and Apostacy 4. And if we are thus shy and scrupulous with whom at last shall we join Our Saviour himself had but 12 Apostles and there was a Judas among them what Constellation shall we aim at where there is no blazing Comet or falling Star Let us at last avoid that Language stand further off I am holier than thee It was but a Pharisaical boast to say I am not as this Publican Luke 18.11 5. If singing be a duty as most certainly it is thou art bound to perform it in the best manner thou canst and then others presence will not enfeeble thy comfort nor invalidate thy service thou shalt have peace in thy own Soul Heathenish spectators for so are wicked men at an Ordinance did not eclipse the glory of the Martyrs their stakes were hung with Laurel notwithstanding But it is Observed by a Worthy and Learned man That all these Objections arise from the Ignorance of the Nature Use and Ends of this Blessed Duty Object 2 But some are ready to object There are many passages in the Psalms which are not so accommodate to their condition As how can they sing the sixth Psalm when they are in prosperity or the 38th Psalm when they are in health or the 51th Psalm when they know no notorious scandal hath lately fallen on them and they must not lye before the Lord. Answ 1 Every passage in the Psalms is matter for Meditation a gracious Spirit may spring sweet Contemplation from it In the 51th Psalm we may meditate on the grievous nature of Sin and in the 6th Psalm we may meditate on the mournful effects of sin and that it will surely be bitterness in the latter end 2. What is not now may afterwards be thy condition thou mayest fall and then the 51th Psalm is accommodated to thee thou mayest be under distempers and then the 38th Psalm is not incongruous to the thou mayest be penitentially inclined and then the 6th Psalm is well calculated for thy Condition Object 3 But why must we be confined to David's Psalms Answ Why What more comprehensive and sutable to every condition They are the Bible Epitomized How full of sweet counsels Divine raptures humble complaints hearty expressions of Love to God Sometimes we may find David swimming in his tears Psal 6.6 Sometimes ravished with his joys Psal 43.4 Sometimes eclipsed with distrust Psal 77.7 Sometimes raised with confidences Psal 30.7 The Psalms are a Christian 's choycest Oracle to fly to in times of distress And was not the holy Psalmist guided by an infallible Spirit How often are the Psalms quoted by Christ Luke 20.42 ch 24.44 and so by the Apostles Acts 1.20 as Divine Authority to establish Truth Let us therefore not disturb our selves with these groundless Objections but let us pursue and embrace this Holy duty which is the very Suburbs of Heaven and let us observe what a reverend person notes upon this Occasion I observe saith he they never thrive well who neglect or scruple singing of Psalms they commonly begin at this Omission but they do not end there but at last they come to be above all Ordinances and so indeed without them whose sad condition is not sufficiently to be deplored And another Learned and Reverend Divine yet living hath observed fatal and judicial proceedings of God against those who have turned their backs upon this joyous and sweet Ordinance but let the Lord lead us into all understanding the wise Christian will pause and consider Let this check those who suspend and neglect this Heavenly Ordinance and Vse 3 this is an evil much to be deplored in our times We may now walk in the streets on God's Holy day and not hear the least noise of a Psalm or sound of a spiritual Song It was not long since the
wont of the Puritans which were the most pretious Christians to Eccho forth the praises of the great Jehovah in this Duty especially upon the Lord's Day Then was there a holy Quire in their houses their Children were the little birds to sing the praises of the Creator the Servants likewise joining in the harmony to make up a fuller Musick But alas Now the voice of the Bride singing to her Beloved is not heard in the places of our abode there is silence instead of singing and prating instead of praising frivolous discourses instead of joyous praises It might behove us to ponder how much of Heaven do we lose in neglecting this Service In singing Psalms we begin the work of Heaven In Heaven we read of the Song of Moses and of the Lamb Rev. 15.3 And of a new Song Rev. 14.3 And the Angels though they have not Tongues yet they have voices to sing the praises of the Most High and therefore that this Heavenly service is so neglected and unexercised is a lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation Ezek. 19.14 This likewise checks those who formalize in this Duty who Act a Part not a Vse 4 Duty they make a noise and not Musick and more provoke the Eyes than please the Ears of God Hierome pathetically Exclaims against those Formalists We must not saith he Act as Players who stretch their throats to accommodate their Tongues to the matter in hand but we must sing Psalms as Saints praising God not only with our Voice but with our Heart not only with a sweet voice but with a melting heart Bernard makes two conditions of grateful singing 1. We must sing purely minding what we sing nor must we act or think any thing besides there must be no vain or vagrant thoughts no dissonancy between the Mind and the Tongue 2. We must sing strenuously not idly not sleepily or perfunctorily we must sing ex animo most heartily and Energetically Vse 5 Let us get an interest in Christ If we are not in Christ we are certainly out of tune The singing of a sinner is natural like the singing of a Bird. But the singing of a Saint is musical like the singing of a Child Saints in singing perform a grateful duty But sinners offer a vain oblation Isa 1.13 It is Christ must put an acceptation upon this service as well as others Here the Altar must sanctify the gift Christ perfumes the prayers of the Saints Rev. 5.8 And he must articulate the singing of the Saints Indeed he alone can turn our tune into melody and though in our selves we have Esau's garments yet he can give us Iacobs voice We are accepted in Christ in this offer of love Therefore let us get into Christ he can raise our voice in singing to a pleasing Elevation Let us be in him and then our steps shall be metrical our pauses musical and our very Cadencies shall be Seraphical Our singing of Psalms shall be the musick of the Sphears Vse 6 Let us sometimes raise our hearts in holy Contemplation Let us think of the Musick of the Bride-Chamber There shall be no crack't strings displeasing sounds harsh voices nothing to abate or remit our melody there shall be no willows to hang up our harps upon Psal 137.2 In the Bride-Chamber there shall be no sorrow to interfere when we sing the song of the Lamb Rev. 21.3 No grief to jar our harmony These pleasing Meditations should sometimes possess and sweeten our Spirits that while we are walking in the galleries Cant. 7.5 we may be nearer to the Palace of the great King Psal 45.15 How ought We to Improve our Baptism Serm. X. Acts 2.38 Be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of Sins THis Chapter gives us an account of the pouring out of the Spirit according to the promise presently after Christ's Ascension as soon as the Spirit was poured out the Apostles were enabled to speak in various Languages to the astonishment and wonder of the Hearers This was for the Glory of God the Confirmation of the Gospel and to authorize them as Special Messengers sent by Christ At the sight of this Miracle some wonder others mock as if this speaking with divers Tongues had been a confused jabbering that proceeded from the fumes of Wine rather than the gift and operation of the Holy Spirit To satisfie both Peter declares in a Sermon the effect and intent of the Miracle proving Jesus whom they had Crucified to be Lord and Christ When they heard this many of the most obstinate among them were pricked at the heart and relented An happy Sermon it was that Peter preached it brought in thousands of Souls to Christ the first hansel of the power of the Spirit and success of the Gospel 'T is good to observe what course they took for ease and relief after this piercing and brokenness of heart they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do This is the usual Question of men under a sound and thorow Conviction To their serious Question Peter makes a seasonable Answer v. 38. 'T is the part of a good Physician not only to discover the Disease but also to prescribe a Remedy especially should spiritual Physicians be tender of broken-hearted Sinners and willing and ready to give them Counsel In Peter's Direction and Counsel to them observe first What he perswades them to do Secondly By what Motive and Argument what they should do and what they should receive In the Advice he perswades them to Repentance and to be Baptized in the Name of Christ The latter we are upon For Explaining it we may enquire First Why is Baptism mentioned rather than Faith and other things more internal and necessary to Salvation I answer Certainly Faith is implied for Mark 16.16 He that Believeth and is Baptized shall be Saved Baptism is an open and real Profession of Christ Crucified So that Be Baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ is as much as Be Baptized Believing on the Name of the Lord Jesus for the Remission of Sins Secondly Baptism is mentioned because it was the visible Rite of receiving Proselytes to Christ Now it imported them who were convinced as Persecutors to turn Professors if they would have ease for their Consciences and therefore not only to Believe with the Heart but to make open Profession of Faith in Christ Rom. 10.10 Quest 2. Why in the Name of Christ only the Father and the Holy Ghost is not mentioned according to the Prescript-form Mat. 28.19 I answer he speaks not of the Form of Baptism but the use and end thereof Now the great use of Baptism is that we may have benefit by the Mystery of Redemption by Christ therefore elsewhere we are said to be Baptized into Jesus Christ Rom. 5.3 And to put on Christ Gal. 3.27 He is the Head of the Church and by Baptism we are planted into his Mystical Body This being
the Course of this World after the Prince of the power of the Air the Spirit that works now in the children of disobedience among whom also we had our conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind There all our Enemies appear abreast the Devil as the Grand deceiver and principal of all wickedness the World with its Pleasures Honours and Profits as the Bait by which it doth deceive us and steal away our hearts from God and pervert and divert us that we should not look after the one thing necessary the Flesh is that Corrupt Inclination in us which entertains and closeth with these Temptations to the neglect of God and the wrong of our own Souls this is very importtnate to be pleased and is the proper internal cause of all our mischief for James 1.14 Every man is inticed and drawn away by his own lust These must be renounced before we can return to God for till we put away our Idols we cannot incline our hearts to the true God Josuah 24.23 And these are the great Idols by which our hearts are estranged from him When God is laid aside self interposeth as the next Heir and that which we count self is the flesh Many wrong their own Souls but never any man hated his own flesh That which feeds the flesh is the World and the Devil by proposing the Bait irritateth and stirreth up our affections Therefore we must be turned from Satan to God we must be delivered from the present evil World we must abstain from fleshly Lusts for God will have no Co-partners and Competitors in our hearts 2. A devoting and giving up our selves to God Father Son and Holy Ghost as our God 2 Cor. 8.3 and Rom. 6.13 As our owner by Creation Psal 100.3 And by Redemption 1 Cor. 6.19 20. As our Soveraign Lord Jer. 24.8 Isa 26.13 Other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us c. As the fountain of our life and blessedness Psal 31.14 I trusted in the Lord I said thou art my God Lam. 3.24 The Lord is my portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him Psal 119.57 I have said thou art my Potion therefore I will keep thy Precepts II. As to our Progress and Perseverance which is our walking in the narrow way and shews the sincerity and heartiness of our consent in making the Covenant And besides this is not the work of a Day but of our whole Lives we have continual need of coming to God by Christ Here three things are required 1. As to the Enemies of God and our Souls there must be a forsaking as well as a renouncing the Devil must be forsaken we must be no more of his party and confederacy we must resist stand out against all his batteries and assaults 1 Pet. 5.8 9. the World must be overcome 1 John 5.4 5. and the flesh must be subdued and mortified Gal. 5.24 that we be no more governed by the desires thereof and if we be sometimes foiled we must not go back again but renew our Resolutions and the drift of our lives must still be for God and Heaven 2. As to God to whom we have devoted our selves we must love and please and serve him all our days Luke 1.75 we must make it our work to love him and count it our happiness to be beloved by him and carefully apply our selves to seek his favour and cherish a fresh sense of it upon our hearts and continue with patience in well-doing Rom. 2.7 till we come to the complete sight and love of him in Heaven 1 John 3.2 3. You must always live in the hope of the coming of Christ and everlasting glory Tit. 2.3 looking for the blessed hope and Jude v. 21. looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eternal life As we did at first thankfully accept of our recovery by Christ and at first consent to renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh and resolve to follow God's counsel and direction we must still persevere in this mind and use his appointed means in order to our final happiness The sum then of our Christianity is that we should by true Repentance and Faith forsake the World the Flesh and the Devil and give up our selves to God Father Son and Holy Ghost that he may take us for his reconciled Children and for Christ's sake forgive all our sins and by his Spirit give us grace to persevere in those Resolutions till our full and final happiness come in hand Seventhly This Covenant consisting of such Duties and Priviledges God hath confirmed by certain visible Ordinances commonly called Sacraments as Baptism and the Lord's Supper both which but in a different manner respect the whole tenour of the Covenant For as the Covenant bindeth mutually on God's part and ours so these Duties have a mutual Aspect or Respect to what God does and what we must do on God's part they are a Sign and a Seal on our part they are a Badge and a Bond. 1. On God's part they are sealing or confirming Signs as Circumcision is called a sign or seal of the righteousness which is by faith Rom. 4.11 that is of the grace offered to us in Christ so is Baptism which came in the Room of Circumcision Col. 2.11 12. In whom ye are circumcised buried with him in Baptism Surely the Gospel-Ordinances signifie as much grace as the Ordinances of the legal Covenant if Circumcision was a Sign and Seal of the Righteousness which is by Faith a or pledge of God's good will to us in Christ so is Baptism so is the Lord's Supper they are a Sign to signifie and a Seal to confirm to represent the Grace and assure the grant of Pardon and Life As for instance Baptism signifies Pardon and Life so does the Lord's Supper Matth. 26.28 29. That for our growth and nourishment this for our imitation Baptism is under our consideration at present that it hath respect to remission of Sins the Text is clear for it and so are many other Scriptures It was Ananias his Advice to Paul Acts 22.16 Arise and be Baptized and wash away thy sins and call on the Name of the Lord. So Ephes 5.26 That he might sanctifie and cleanse us by the washing of water through the Word The washing represents the washing away the guilt and filth of sin it signifies also our Resurrection to a blessed and eternal Life Baptism saveth by the Resurrection of Christ 1 Pet. 3.21 Well then it is a sealing Sign When God promised longer life to Hezekiah 2 Kings 20.8 he said What shall he the sign that the Lord will heal me So when he promiseth pardon and life to us What shall be the sign that the Lord will do this for us Baptism is this sign a witness between us and God Gen. 31.48 This heap is a witness between thee and me 2. On our part they are a Badge and a Bond to oblige us to the
through the Land and view it and build an Altar and offer Sacrifice there then was he actually invested in the Gift God gave Israel a grant of Canaan but the Clusters of Eschol were as it were the Livery and Seisin of it Though the Gift be sufficiently made over by the Promise yet 't is further ratified and more solemnly conveyed and delivered by the Sacraments 4. This is one Advantage more That the great Mysteries of godliness are laid before our Eyes in some visible Rites and so have greater force to excite the mind to serious Consideration When God will condescend to give us help against our Infirmities it must be by the Senses by which all knowledg comes into the Soul Now Feeling Smelling Tasting seem not so fit for this as being more gross and conducing to the welfare of the Body but Seeing and Hearing convey Objects to the Understanding and therefore are called the Senses of Discipline and Learning Now the Covenant is made by words which strike the Ear but the Seals by visible things set it before our Eyes and as the Apostle saith Christ is Crucified among us and evidently set forth Gal. 3.1 The sight doth in a more lively manner stir up the mind than the bare Hearing Washing from Sin doth fitly represent to us and raise thoughts in us about the Sanctification of the Spirit and so in a lively manner excite us to expect this benefit Vse Let us not be slight in the use and improvement of Baptism for itimplieth a solemn covenanting with God that we may obtain Remission of Sins and eternal Life John the Baptist calleth it Mark 1.4 The Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of Sins Therefore let us reflect upon our selves We are all Baptized but what are we the better have we the more confidence of the pardon of our Sins and a greater sense of our Covenant-Vow to dye unto Sin and live unto God we cannot have the former without the latter both must be regarded by us Volateranus reporteth of Lucian that scoffing Atheist that when he revolted from the Profession of Christianity he scoffed at his Baptism saying Se nihil ex eo consecutum quam quod nomen ipsius esset corruptum ex Lucio Lucianus factum That he got nothing by his Baptism but a syllable to his Name it being changed from Lucius to Lucianus Alas what do most get by their Baptism but a Name It should not be so with you you may have great advantage by it if you improve it to the ends for which it was appointed To quicken you consider 1. Baptism is a perpetual Bond upon us obliging us to Repentance and an holy life Rom. 6.4 therefore the Scripture often reasoneth from it as Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein He argueth not ab impossibili but ab incongruo not from what is impossible but what will misbecome our renewed estate which we profess to enter into by Baptism which is a Vowed Death to Sin and a Bond wherewith we bind our Souls to New Obedience So elsewhere Col. 3.1 Ye are risen with Christ in the import and signification of Baptism therefore seek the things which are above And again Ye are dead therefore mortifie c. verse 3 5. Once more verse 8 9. Put off all these seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds And in many other places the Apostle argueth from the Baptismal Ingagement to the effect intended and signified thereby 2. The Improvement of Baptism is the best Preparation for the Lord's Supper John 13.8 If I wash thee not thou hast no part with me That washing had a spiritual meaning and presently after it the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood was instituted to the participation of which this spiritual washing was necessary In the Supposition If I wash thee not is implied Baptism in the Commination thou hast no part with me is implied the Lord's Supper which Christ was then about to institute In foro Ecclesiae before the Church none but Baptized Persons have a right to the Lord's Table in foro Coeli before God none but those who have the fruit of Baptism have right to the benefits thereof they that are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ have only right to the Benefits purchased by his Blood Our Lord would mind his Disciples of this before he would admit them to his Table 3. If we improve it not our Baptism will be a Witness to sollicite Vengeance against us as the Gospel it self is preached either for a Witness to us Matth. 24.14 or for a Witness against us if we obey it not Mark 14.9 So Baptism instead of being a Witness to us will be a Witness against us if we mind it not and in the Judgment we shall fare no better than the Heathen for all the difference between us is that they are uncircumcised in flesh and we in heart Jer. 9.25 26. they are not washed in Water and we are not cleansed from our sins I remember a passage in Victor Vticensis concerning one Elpidophorus who had revolted from Catholicism to the Vandal Arrians the Deacon who had Baptized him shewed him the Stole or Linnen Clothes in which he was Baptized saying Hae te accusabunt cum Majestas venerit Judicantis c. O Elpidophorus these shall be a Witness against thee to all eternity for thy just perdition when the Judge cometh what wilt thou do Wretch when the people of God shall be admitted to the Joys of Heaven and thy self thrust out c. If we have been Baptized and lived directly contrary to our Baptismal Vow as if we were in Covenant with the Devil the World and the Flesh rather than with Father Son and Holy Ghost what will become of us in the Judgment But how shall we improve it First We must personally and solemnly own the Covenant made with God in Infancy every one of us should chuse the Lord for our Soveraign Lord and Portion and Christ Jesus for our Redeemer and Saviour and the Holy Ghost for our Guide Sanctifier and Comforter Every one must personally thus engage himself to God 't is not enough that Christ engage for us as the common surety of all the Elect Heb. 7.22 Something he did for us and in our Names but every one must take a Bond upon himself before he can have the benefit of it You must yield up your selves to the Lord 2 Chron. 30.8 'T is not enough that the Church ingage for us as a visible Political Body or a Community and Society of men who are in visible Covenant with God and Christ Ezek. 16.8 Thou entredst into Covenant with me and becamest mine meaning it of the Body of the Church but every individual person must also enter into Covenant with God and become his Ezek. 20.37 I will cause you to pass under the Rod and I will bring you into the Bond of the Covenant Where there is an Allusion
night and then with her spirit seeks him early Desires blown by meditation are the sparks that set prayer in a light flame The work of preparation may be cast under five heads when we apply to solemn and set prayer 1. The consideration of some attributes in God that are proper to the intended petitions 2. A digestion of some peculiar and special promises that concern the affair 3. Meditation on suitable arguments 4. Ejaculations for assistance 5. An engagement of the heart to a holy frame of reverence and keeping to the point in hand Cypr. de Orat. p. 106. 6. edit Nec quicquam tunc animus quam solum cogitet quod precatur was serious advice from Cyprian let the soul think upon nothing but what it is to pray for and adds that therefore the ministers of old prepared the minds of the people with sursum corda let your hearts be above For how can we expect to be heard of God when we do not hear our selves when the heart does not watch while the tongue utters The tongue must be like the pen of a ready writer Psal 45.1 to set down the good matter which the heart indites take heed of ramblings to preach or tell pious stories while praying to the great and holy God is a branch of irreverence and a careless frame of spirit Heb. 12.28 2. Humble confession of such sins as concern and refer principally to the work in hand Our filthy garments must be taken away when we appear before the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem Look upon my afflictions Zech. 3.4 Psal 25.18 Psal 39.8.12 Psal 103.3 cries David and forgive all my sins There are certain sins that often relate to afflictions First deliver me from my transgressions then hear my prayer O Lord for this is the heavenly method he first forgiveth all our iniquities and then healeth all our diseases A forgiven soul is a healed soul while a man is sick at heart with the qualms of sin unpardoned it keeps the soul under deliquiums and swooning fits that it cannot cry strongly unto God and therefore in holy groans must discharge himself of particular sins and pour out his soul before God Thus did David in that great penitential Psalm Psal 51.4 Isa 59.2 Ezra 9.6 For sin like a thick cloud hides the face of God that our prayers cannot enter We must blush with Ezra and our faces look red with the flushings of conscience if we expect any smiles of mercy Our crimson sins must dye our confessions and the blood of our sacrifices must sprinkle the horns of the golden altar before we receive an answer of peace from the golden mercy seat When our persons are pardoned our suits are accepted and our petitions crowned with the Olive-branch of peace 3. An arguing and pleading Spirit in prayer This is properly wrestling with God humble yet earnest expostulations about his mind towards us Psal 74.1 Isa 64.9 Why hast thou cast us off for ever why doth thine anger smoke Be not wroth very sore O Lord remember not iniquity for ever see we beseech thee we are thy people If so why is it thus as frighted Rebekah flies out into prayer An arguing frame in prayer cures and appease◠(f) Psal 34.4 Gen. 25.22 Psal 27.4 Psal 22.1 21. Psal 80 4. Jer. 14 8 9. the frights of spirit and then inquires of God The Temple of prayer is call'd the souls inquiring place Why is God so far from the voice of my roaring Thou hast heard me from the horns of the Vnicorns Art thou angry with the prayers of thy people and how long turn us again and cause thy face to shine upon us O hope of Israel why like a wayfaring man like a man astonied O Lord thou art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not I must refer to Abraham Jacob and Moses Joshuah David and Daniel how they urged arguments with God Sometimes from (a) Ps 5 7. 6 4 31 16. the multitudes of God's mercies from (b) Psal 4.1 6.9 22.4 21. 31. 2 3 7. 140.7 the experience of former answers from the Name of God from (c) Psal 9.10 16.1 their trust and reliance upon him (d) Psal 17.1 from the equity of God (e) Psal 31.17 34.1 from the shame and confusion of face that God will put his people to if not answered and that others will be driven away from God and lastly from (f) Psal 20.5 35 18. the promise of peace These and many like pleadings we find in Scripture for patterns in prayer which being suggested by the spirit kindled from the altar and perfumed with Christ's incense rise up like memorial pillars before the oracle Let 's observe one or two particular prayers what instant arguments holy men have used and pressed in their perplexities 2 Chron. 20.10 c. Jehoshaphat what a working prayer did he make taking pleas from God's Covenant dominion and powerful strength from his gift of the Land of Canaan and driving out the old inhabitants ancient mercies from his Sanctuary and his promise to Solomon from the ingratitude and ill requital of the enemies with an appeal to God's equity in the case and a humble confession of their own impotency and yet that in their anxiety their eyes are sixt upon God You know how gloriously it prevailed when he had set ambushments round about the Court of Heaven v. 8. and the Lord turn'd his arguments into ambushments against the children of Edom c. Yea this is set as an instance (g) Joel 3.2 how God will deal against the Enemies of his Church in the latter days Another is that admirable prayer of the Angel of the Covenant to God for the restauration of Jerusalem Zech. 1.12 wherein he pleads from the length of time and the duration of his indignation for threescore and ten years from promised mercies and the expiration of Prophesies and behold an answer of good and comfortable words from the Lord and pray observe that when arguments in prayer are very cogent upon a sanctified heart such being drawn from the divine attributes from precious promises and sweet experiments of God's former love it 's a rare sign of a prevailing prayer 'T was an ingenious passage of Chrysostom concerning the woman of Canaan Chrys in Mat. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the poor distressed creature was turned an acute Philosopher with Christ and disputed the mercy from him O 't is a blessed thing to attain to this heavenly Philosophy of prayer to argue blessings out of the hand of God Here 's a spacious field I have given but a small prospect where the soul like Jacob does in arenam descendere enter the lists with omnipotency and by holy force obtain the blessing 4. Ardent affections in prayer betokening a heart deeply sensible are greatly prevalent Exod. 14 15. A crying prayer pierces the
depths of heaven We read not a word that Moses spake but God was moved by his cry I mean not an obstreperous noise but melting moans of heart Yet sometimes the sore and pinching necessities and distresses of spirit extort even vocal cries not displeasant to the inclined ears of God I cried to the Lord with my voice says David Psal 3.4 Psal 5.2 Psal 39.12 Psal 142.1.5 6 7. and he heard me out of his holy hill and this encourages to a fresh onset hearken to the voice of my cry my King and my God Give ear to my cry hold not thy peace at my tears another time he makes the Cave Eccho with his cries I cried I cried attend to my cry for I am brought very low and what 's the issue Fath gets courage by crying his tears watered his faith that it grew into confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coronabunt and so concludes thou shalt deal bountifully with me and the righteous shall crown me for conquerour Plentiful tears bring bountiful mercies and a crying suitor proves a triumphant praiser Holy Jacob was just such another at the fords of Jabbok he prevailed with the Angel for he wept Hos 12.4 1 Kings 20.5 Jer. 31.18 and made supplications to him Hezekiah may bring up the rear for the Lord told him he had heard his prayer for he had seen his tears Such presidents may well encourage backsliding Ephraim to return and bemoan himself and then the bowels of God are troubled for him Nay we have a holy woman likewise weeping sore before the Lord in Shiloh 1 Sam. 1.10 2.1 and then rejoicing in his salvation The cries of Saints are like vocal musick joined with the instrumental of prayer they make heavenly melody in the ears of God The bridegroom calls to his mourning dove let me hear thy voice for that 's pleasant Cant. 2.14 Gers Tom. 2. Fol. 77. â— What Gerson says of the sores of Lazarus Quot vulnera tot linguas habuit as many wounds so many tongues we may say of sighs cries and groans in prayer so many eloquent orators at the throne of God 5. Importunity and assiduity in prayer is highly prevalent Ambrose de Cain Abel l. 1. c. 9. Mat. 5.7 Epiphan haeres 30. Luke 18.1 1 Thess 5.17 Num. 28.4 6. 2 Sam 9.7 Non ut fastidiosa continuetur oratio sed ut assidua frequenter effundatur not that we should lengthen out prayer with tedious and vain repetitions as the Heathen did of old or as the Euchitae in Constantius his time that did little else but pray but that we should be frequent and continue instant in prayer Whereas our Lord bids us to pray always and the Apostle Paul to pray without ceasing we are to understand it of Constancy at times every day As the morning and evening Sacrifice at the Temple is call'd the Continual burnt-offering As Mephibosheth is said to eat bread Continually at David's table and Solomon's Servants to stand Continually before him i. e. at the set and appointed times So 't is required of us to be constant and assiduous at prayer and to follow our lawful requests with perseverance Thus Hannah is said to multiply prayer 1 Sam. 1.12 and received multiplied answers expresly indeed she prayed but for one Son but she had six children returned in upon prayer When the soul perseveres in prayer 't is a sign of a persevering faith and such may have (b) John 16.23 1 Kings 18.43 what they will at the hand of God when praying according to prescript Nay urgent prayer is the token of a mercy at hand When Elijah prayed seven times one after another for rain Isa 45.11 the clouds presently march up out of the sea at the command of prayer Ask of me things to come saith the Lord and concerning the works of my hands command ye me When we put forth our utmost strength in prayer and will as it were receive no nay from heaven our prayers must be like the Continual blowing of the silver Trumpets over the sacrifices for a memorial before the Lord Num 10.10 Like the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem which never hold their peace day nor night Isaiah 62.6 7 64 7 are commanded not to keep silence nor to give him rest Nay God seems offended at another time that they did not lay hands upon him that they might not be consumed in their iniquities Such prayers are as it were a holy molestation to the throne of grace It 's said of the man that rose at midnight to give out three loaves to his friend he did it not for friendships sake but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 11.8 because he was impudent so importunately to trouble him at such a season as 12 a clock at night Our Lord applies the parable to instant prayers The like we find of the success of the widow with the unjust judg because she did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18 5 vex and molest him with her sollicitations But of all the pattern of the woman of Canaan is most admirable Mat. 15 23 when the Disciples desired her to be dismist because she troubled them by crying after them and yet she persists May I say it reverently Christ delights in such a troublesom person Though as an Ancient observes by comparing both Evangelists that first (a) Mat. 15.22 she cried after Christ in the streets but our Lord taking (b) Mark 7.23 house she follows him thither and falls down at his feet but as yet (c) Mat. 15.23 Augustin de consensu Evangelist l. 2. p 447. Tom. 4 edit Bâ—â— 1569. Jam. 5. Rhet. Divin p. 353. he answered her not a word In eo silentio egressum fuisse Jesum de domo illa then our Lord going out of the house again she follows vvith stronger importunity and argues the mercy into her bosom and Christ ascribes it to the greatness of her faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as another terms it a laudable and praise-worthy immodesty as in the former case to knock so rudely at midnight is deemed no incivility at the gate of heaven This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Parisiensis reads it deprecatio justi assidua An assiduous prayer is the vvay to become an efficacious prayer It 's ill taken if not importunate Cold petitioners must have cool answers If the matter of prayer be right and the promise of God fervently urged thou art like to prevail like princely Israel that held the Angel by the Collar to speak with reverence and vvould not let him go untill he had blest him Gen. 32.26 v. 24. But 't was hot work most of the night even to break of day to shew that in some cases of extremity vve must hold out in prayers For our Lord in the next verse to the Text does not forbid the length of prayer for he himself upon occasion continues a vvhole night in prayer
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
bring us into his prâ—sâ— Tâ—ke heed then of quenching the Spirit of God He that is 〈…〉 knows the sound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 3.8 the voice of the spirit When th◠〈…〉 word or softned by afflictions or feels some holy groans and sighs excited by the spirit that 's a warm time for prayer Rom. 8.27 then we enjoy the sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the intimations of the spirit of God or when prophesies are nigh to expire then there are great workings and searchings of heart in Daniel Zechary Simeon and Anna or when some promise comes with applying power Therefore hath thy Servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee 2 Sam. 7.27 28. Cant. 7.9 for thou hast promised this goodness unto thy Servant When we find promises dropt into the soul like wine it causes the lips of them that were asleep to speak 3. Keep Conscience tender of and clean from secret sins With what face can we go to a friend to whom we have given any secret affronts and will ye be so bold as to come before the God of heaven when he knows ye maintain some secret lust in your heart De Orat. p. 213. Prov. 28.9 Darest thou to bring a Dalilah with thee into this sacred closet True is that of Tertullian Quantum à praeceptis tantum ab auribus Dei longè sumus He that turns his ear from God's precepts must stop his mouth in the dust if God turn his holy ears from his cries When our secret sins are in the light of his countenance we may rather expect to be consumed by his anger and troubled by his wrath Psal 90.7 8. Object But then who may presume and venture into Secret Communion Ans True if God should strictly mark what we do amiss who can stand David was sensible of this objection Psal 130.3 4. but he answers it humbly There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared If we come with holy purposes to leave all sin he hath promised to pardon abundantly His thoughts and waies are not as ours Isa 55.7 guilt makes us fly his presence but proclamation of pardoning grace to a wounded soul that comes for strength from heaven to subdue its iniquities Mic. 7.19 sweetly draws the soul to lye at his foot for mercy Though we cannot as yet be so free as formerly while under the wounding sense of guilt Psal 51.12 Psal 69.5 yet when he restores to us the joy of his salvation he will again uphold us with his free spirit Yet take heed of Scars upon the soul God knows our foolishness and our guiltinesses are not hid from him yet we come for purging and cleansing mercy A godly man may be under the sense of divine displeasure for some iniquity that himself knoweth as the Lord spake of Eli yet the way to be cured 1 Sam. 3.13 Mark 5.23 is not to run from God but like the distressed woman come fearing and trembling and fall at his feet and tell him all the truth But if prayer have cured thee sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee For if we regard iniquity in our heart Psal 66.18 the Lord will not hear us but the guilt may stare conscience in the face with great amazement As 't is storied of one that secretly had stoln a sheep it ran before his eyes in prayer that he could have no rest How strangely will memory ring the bell in the ears of conscience If we have any secret sin in deliciis if we look but a squint with desires and secret thoughts after our peace-offerings to meet our beloved lusts again this is dangerous Prov. 7.14 God may justly give up such to cast off that which is good to cleave to their Idols and let them alone Hos 4 17. 6.3 Gerson T. 2. p. 76.6 But if the face of the heart be not knowingly and willingly spotted with any sin or lust bating infirmities which he mourns under then thy countenance through Christ will be comely in the eye of God and thy voice sweet in his ears and as he said Qui benè vivit semper orat a holy life vvill be a vvalking continual prayer his very life is a constant petition before God 4. Own thy personal interest with God and plead it humbly Consider whom thou goest to in secret pray to thy father who seeth in secret Canst thou prove thy self to be in Covenant vvhat thou canst prove thou mayest plead Psal 50.15 16. and have it successfully issued In prayer vve take God's Covenant into our mouths but without a real interest the Lord expostulates with such what have they to do with it God never graciously hears but 't is upon interest This argument Solomon presses in prayer for they be thy people and thine inheritance 1 Kings 8 51. Thus David pleads (a) Ps 140.6 Thou art my God hear the voice of my supplication (b) 119 94. I am thine Lord save me (c) 116.16 Truly I am thy servant I am thy servant Arias turns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by obsecro quaeso I beseech thee O Lord I am thy servant God will avenge his elect when they cry unto him I was cast upon thee from the womb Luke 18.7 Psal 22.10 thou art my God from my mothers belly Therefore Asa turns the contest heavenward O Lord thou art our God let not mortal man prevail against thee 2 Chron. 14.11 Psal 119.176 Thou takest me for the sheep of thy fold and the servant of thy houshold therefore seek me When Israel shall be refined as silver and tried as gold they shall call on his name and he will hear them I will say it is my people my tried refined golden people and they shall say the Lord is my God Zech. 13.9 When thou canst discern the print of the broad seal of the Covenant upon thy heart and the privy seal of the spirit upon thy prayers and canst look upon the Son of God in a sacerdotal relation to thee thou may'st (a) Heb 5.16 come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need 5. Be very particular in secret prayer both as to sins wants and mercies (b) Psal 32.5.51.9 Hide none of thy transgressions if thou expect a pardon Be not ashamed to open all thy necessities David argues (c) Psal 40.17 70.5.86.1.109.22 because he is poor and needy four several times he presses his wants and exigences before God like an earnest but holy beggar and (d) Psal 142.2 Job 23.4 shewed before him his trouble from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coram presents before him his ragged condition and spreads open his secret wounds as Job said he would order his cause before him from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disponerem instruerem marshal every case as a battel in rank and file There we may speak out our minds fully and name the persons that
afflict affront and troubles us and wo to them that a child of God upon a mature judgment names in prayer I find not that such a prayer in Scripture return'd empty Jacob in a great strait Deliver me from the hand of my brother Gen. 32.11 from the hand of Esau David in the ascent of Mount Olivet O Lord I pray thee turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness 2 Sam 15.31 2 Chron. 20.10 Prayer twisted the rope for him at Giloh Thus Jehoshaphat in his prayer names Ammon Moab and Edom conspiring against him Thus Hezekiah spreads the railing letter before the Lord Isa 37.14 Psal 83.6 c. Act 4 27. Joseph l. 18. c. 9. Euseb Chron. l. 2. p. 159. Eph. 3.14 Luke 17.5 2 Cor. 12.8 and the Psalmist takes them all in a round Catalogue that consulted against Israel Thus the Church in her prayer names Herod-Antipas and Pontius Pilate whereof the first was sent into perpetual banishment and the latter slew himself It 's of great use in prayer to attend to some special case or single request with arguments and affections suitable For this cause says Paul I bow the knee Suppose a grace deficient in its strength Lord increase our faith or a temptation urgent For this I pray'd to the Lord thrice A great reason why we reap so little benefit by prayer because we rest too much in generals and if we have success 't is but dark that often we cannot tell what to make of the issues of prayer Besides to be particular in our petitions would keep the spirit much from wandring when we are intent upon a weighty case and the progress of the soul in grace would manifest its gradual success in prayer 6. Holy and humble appeals before the Lord in secret when the soul can submissively and thankfully expose it self to divine searching about some measures of holiness and grace wrought in the heart Psal 139.23 Tertal de orat p. 213. The soul cannot bide by the presence of God under flashings of defilement neque agnosci poterit à spiritu sancto spiritus inquinatus neither will the holy spirit own a defiled soul But when a person can humbly modestly and reverently say search me and try my reins and if there be any way of wickedness in me lead me in the everlasting way it vvill be the means of the ebullitions and boilings up of joyful affections and meek confidence at the footstool of grace especially in pleas of deliverance from wicked and proud enemies When David can plead in comparison with and in the case stated between his enemies and himself For I am holy Psal 86.2 14 17. It shews him a token for good or when we plead against the assaults of Satan can we be conscious that we have watcht and prayed against entring into temptation When in the main we can wash our hands in Innocency Psal 26 6. Psal 18.20.7.3 we may then comfortably compass God's altar about In case of opposition and injustice He rewarded me says David in the point of Saul according to my righteousness and the cleanness of my hands before him Or about the truth of the love that is in the heart to God Thou that knowest all things John 21.17 Neh. 14.14 22 Isa 38.3 Isa 26.8 says Peter knowest that I love thee As to zeal for the Worship and Ordinances of God so did Nehemiah As to the integrity of a well-spent life so did Hezekiah or if we cannot rise so high yet as the Church did The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee Or lastly when we can unfeignedly plead the usefulness of a mercy intreated in order to the divine glory As when a minister or the Church of Christ for him prays for such gifts and graces Eph. 6.19 Col. 4 3. such knowledg and utterance that he may win souls to Christ and can appeal that it is his principal aim this is glorious 7. Pray for the spirit that ye may pray in and by the spirit Awaken the North and the South to blow upon thy garden that the spices thereof may flow forth Cant 4.16 Then thou mayest invite Christ Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits that the soul may enjoy him and hold sweet communion with him All successful prayer is from the breathing of the spirit of God when he inspires and indites when he directs the heart as to matter and governs the tongue as to utteranee 1 Cor. 2.10 Rom. 8.27 Psal 147.18 Ezek. 47.1 Gerson T. 2. K. K. 4. 49. Zech. 12.10 God graciously hears the sighs of his own Spirit formed in us He sent forth his spirit and the waters flow That I may allude the waters of contrition flow upon the breathing of the spirit and the soul is as it were all afloat before the throne of grace when these living waters issue from under the threshold of the sanctuary Sequitur lachrymosa devotio flante spiritu sancto Devout tears drop down from the spirit's influences Melting supplications follow the infusions of grace by the spirit Then they shall mourn for piercing of Christ says the Prophet and be in bitterness as for a first-born like the mourning at the town of Hadadrimmon where Josiah was slain Then (a) 13.1 2 4 14.8 Isa 66.12 Rich. de Sâ—ult p. 321. in that day what inundations of mercy shall refresh the Church when the Lord will extend her peace like a river and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream great things to the Church and gracious things to the soul Inter orationem suspiria cognoscit holy sighs in prayer give intelligence of great mercies to follow Nay to withstand powerfully all the wiles of Satan one means is Eph. 6.18 to consecrate every part of the spiritual armour by prayer in the Spirit 8. Apply special promises to special cases in prayer For God hath and will magnifie his word of promise above all his name Psal 138.2 John 12.28 when we are under the word of command for a duty we must seek for a word of promise and unite them in prayer When a promise of aid suits to the precept it renders prayer victorious and obedience pleasant when we come with God's own words into his presence when we take his words with us that he would take away all iniquity he 'll receive us graciously Hos 14 2. Gen. 32.9 1 Kings 8.24 Jacob urged that God had bid him return from his Country and kinred Solomon urges the word of promise to David Jehoshaphat urges the a 2 Chron. 20.8 9. word of promise to Solomon Daniel fills his mouth (b) Dan. 9.2 3 with the promise given to Jeremiah he reads and then applies it in prayer First search the Bible and look for a promise and when found open it before the Lord. Paul teaches us to take the (c) Heb. 13.5 6. promise given to
Joshua and then to say boldly the Lord is our helper c. For the special ground of the answer of prayer lies in the (d) Psal 50.15.65.24 performance of a promise Simeon lived upon a promise and (e) Luke 2.29 expired sweetly in the arms of a promise in the breathings of a prayer Sometimes the soul depends for an answer by vertue of the Covenant in general as of that (f) Gen. 17.7 I will be thy God sometimes by the great (g) Joh. 14.26 remembrancer draws water out of some (h) Isa 12.3 well of salvation but in both God's faithfulness is the soul's surety Hence it is that David in prayer does so often argue upon the veracity and truth of God and the Church in Micah is so confident that the (i) Mic. 7.20 mercy promised to Abraham and confirmed in truth to Jacob should be plentifully performed to his people Israel 9. Sober and serious resolutions before God in prayer the 119 Psalm is full of these (k) Psal 119.6 I will keep thy statutes (l) v. 32. I will run the way of thy commandments (m) v. 46. I will speak of thy testimonies before Kings (o) v. 106. I have sworn and will perform it that I will keep thy righteous judgments and other where (p) Psal 80.18 quicken us and we will call upon thy name and again (q) Psal 101.2 O when wilt thou come unto me I will walk within my house with a perfect heart Visit me with answers of mercy to prayer and then the soul makes holy stipulations and compacts of obedience to God Thus Jacob (r) Gen. 28.22 if God will be with me then shall the Lord be my God and resolves upon a house for God and reserving the tenth of all his estate to his service and worship where the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si if is not to be taken for a single conditional as if God should not bestow what he promised he should not be his God Rivet in loc p. 489. that were a great wickedness but 't is a rational particle or of order and time Because or since God is graciously pleased to promise I will acknowledg him to be the God whom I adore by erecting a Temple and paying tithes to maintain his worship But whatever it is that the soul in distress does offer to God in promise be not slack to perform Gen. 35.3 〈◊〉 â— 4 for many times answers of prayer mâ—y delay till we have performed our promises (a) Psal 96.13 19. David professes to pay what his lips had uttered in trouble for God had heard him If we break our words to God no wonder if we feel what the Lord threatned to Israel that they should know (b) Num. 14.34 his breach of promise 10. A waiting frame of spirit in prayer I waited patiently for the Lord he inclined to me and heard my cry Psal 40.1 Psal 38.15 Psal 123.2.130.6.143.8 Mich. 7.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I expected with expectation he walkt up and down in the gallery of prayer This is set forth by hope till God hear In thee O Lord do I hope thou wilt hear O Lord my God our eyes must wait upon the Lord our God till he have mercy upon us more than those which watch for the morning and persist praying cause us to hear thy loving kindness in the morning for in thee do we trust and say with Micah I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me Hoping expecting trusting living upon the promise and looking for an answer of peace as he said of prayer sagitta movetur post quietem sagittantis navis quiescentibus nautis Gerson When an archer shoots an arrow he looks after it with his glass to see how it hits the mark So says the soul I 'le attend and watch how my prayer flies towards the bosom of God and what messages return from heaven As the seaman when he has set sail goes to the helm and the compass and sits still and observes the Sun or the pole-stars and how the ship works and how the land-marks form themselves aright according to his chart So do you when you have been at prayer mark your ship how it makes the port and what rich goods are laden back again from heaven Most men lose their prayers in the mists and fogs of non-observation and thus we arrive at the second question 2. Quest How to discover and discern answers to secret prayer that the soul may be satisfied that it hath prevailed with God Let us now consider the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendition or reply to prayer in the text he will return it into your bosoms and as to this in general when the mercy sought for is speedily and particularly cast into your arms Psal 104.28.147.9 Like the irrational creatures in their natural cries seek their meat from God and gather what he gives them and are filled with good When God openly returns to his children there is no further dispute for the worst of men will acknowledg the divine bounty Acts 14.17 when he fills their hearts with food and gladness But when cases are a little dubious 1. Observ The frame and temper of thy spirit in prayer how the heart works and steers its course in several particulars 2 Cor. 1.17 1. A holy liberty of spirit is commonly an excellent sign of answers a copious spirit of fluentness to pour out requests as out of a fountain As God shuts up opportunities so he shuts up hearts when he is not inclined to hear The heart 's sometimes lockt up that it cannot pray or if it does and will press on it finds a straitness as if the Lord had spoken as once to Moses Speak no more to me of this matter Deut. 3.26 Ezek. 14.14 7.2 7 11. or as God spake to Ezekiel though Noah Daniel and Job should intreat for a Nation when the time of a land is come there is no salvation but for their own souls When God intends to take away near relations or any of his Saints unto himself many times neither the Church of God nor dear friends have either apt seasons or hearts to enlarge The bow of prayer does not abide in strength God took away gracious Josiah suddenly 2 Chron. 35.25 the Church had time to write a book of Lamentations and to make it an ordinance in Israel but no time for deprecation of the divine displeasure in it but in Hezekiah's case there was both a season and a heart enlarged in prayer and the prophet crying for a sign of the mercy Holy James might be quickly dispatcht by the sword of Herod-Agrippa 2 Kings 20.11 Act. 12.2 12. but the Church had time for supplication in behalf of Peter When the Lord is pleased graciously to grant space of time and enlargement of heart 't is a notable
sign of success Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress saies David Psal 4.1 though it be meant of deliverance yet it may be applied to prayer as the holy Prophet seems to do Psal 18.6 yea though the soul may be under some sense of displeasure and in extremities yet lifts up a cry when conscience stops the mouth of hypocrites that they shun and fly the presence of God 2. A blessed serenity and quiet calmness of spirit in time of prayer especially when the soul comes troubled and clouded at first whiles it pours out its complaints before the Lord but at length nescio quid serenius emicat Jerâ—m c. the Sun shines forth brightly and the heavens look serenely and chearfully upon the soul in prayer 't is said of Hannah she was no more sad Heb. her countenance was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille ulterius any longer in the old hue cast down and sorrowful because of her rival Thus the Lord dealt with David though not yet fully answered yet fill'd with holy (a) 1 Sam. 1.18 fortitude of spirit and revived in the midst of his trouble Prayer dispels (b) Psal 138.3 7. anxious sollicitude and chases away black thoughts from the heart (c) Phil. 4.6 7 it cases conscience and fills the soul with the peace of God 3. A joyful frame of Spirit God sometime makes his people not onely peaceful but (d) Isa 56.7 joyful in his house of prayer Thus sped Hezekiah when his Crane-like chatterings (e) Isa 38.14 20. were turned into Swan-like songs and his mournful elegies into glorious praises Hab. 3.16 19. 2 Chron. 7.1 10. upon ten-stringed instruments in the house of the Lord the lips of Habakkuk quivered and his belly trembled but before he finisht his voice was voluble in holy songs and his fingers nimble upon the harp Thus at Solomon's prayer when the fire came down the people were warm'd at worship and went away glad and merry at heart David's (h) Psal 43.4 5. experience of this sent him often to the house of God for comfort and thus chides his soul when cast down at any time I am going to the altar of God to God my exceeding joy why art thou disquieted within me his old harp that had cured Saul of his malignant dumps being plaid upon with Temple songs now cures his own spiritual sadness When we look upon God with an eye of faith in prayers it enlightens (i) Psal 34.5 our faces with Heavenly joy when Moses came out of the mount from communion with God how illustrious was his face from that Heavenly vision wherefore prayer for divine mercy and comfort sometimes exhibits its self in this language Psal 80.3 make thy face to shine upon us and we shall be saved on this wise the Priests of old were to bless the children of Israel Numb 6.25 The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee these and the like expressions in Scripture import that sometimes the Lord was pleased to give forth a shining glory from the Oracle and thereby made known his presence unto his people Exod. 4â— 34 Lev. 9.23 Num. 16.19 42. 20.6 1 Kings 8.11 and filled them with awful impressions of his majesty and mercy This joyful light of God's countenance is like the Sun rising upon the face of the earth it chaseth away the dark fears and discouragements of the night such heavenly joy shews the strength of faith in prayer and the radiant appearances of God yea to this end all prayer should be directed (b) John 16.24 that d our joy may be full 4. A sweetness of affection to God when the soul has gracious sentiments of God in prayer clouds of Jealousies and suspicions of the divine mercy as if God were a hard master are marvellous unbecoming a soul that should go to God as to a Father and hence from such unsuitable thoughts of infinite mercy to hide the talent of prayer is greatly provoking Whereas the apprehension of God's excellent goodness should work the heart into lovely thoughts of God (c) Parisiens p. 376. Man but especially a Saint is acervus beneficiorum dei an accumulated heap of divine favours and if nothing but the gifts of mercy should attract our hearts yet herein we are every moment laden with his numerous benefits But when the soul comes to perceive that all flows from the fountain of his eternal love it makes prayer to be res amorosa to be filled with holy delights and joys the extasies of love often rise upon the soul in secret and such divine affection as (d) Gers Tom. 2. k. k. 4. Gerson said 't is res extatica it carries the soul beyond it self let the prophane World say what they will when spiritual ardours like so many fragrant spices flow out of the soul I love the Lord says David (e) Psal 116.1 for he hath heard my supplications As answers of prayer flow from (f) John 16.27 the love of the Father so suitable workings of holy affections flow from the hearts of children When the soul is fill'd with gracious intimations like those of the Angelical voice to Daniel O Daniel greatly beloved O man of desires Dan. 9.23 Luke 1.28 to stand before the King of Saints or like that to the holy Virgin Hail thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with thee how greatly does it inflame the heart to God 5. Inward incouragements sometimes spring in upon the heart in prayer from remembrance of former experiments which mightily animate the soul with fervency When Moses calls to mind that God had forgiven and delivered from Egypt untill then Numb 14.19 v. 20 Psal 77.5 6.7.9.10 immediately follows a sweet intimation of mercy I have pardoned according to thy word When the soul considers the days of old the years of antient times and calls to remembrance its former songs in the night he draws an argument out of the quiver of experience will God be favourable no more can he forget to be gracious can he in anger shut up his tender mercies The soul concludes this thought to flow from its own infirmity for when God once hears a prayer as coming from a child of his in Covenant prove our filial interest and we may sweetly rest assured in all things according to his Will to be always heard 6. A ready heart for thankfulness and service the heart is brim full and ready to flow over in grateful memorials of his mercy What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psal 116.12 As of old at Temple-sacrifices there was Musick so it ought to be now while the mercy is praying for the heart must be winding up and tuning for praise Rev. 5 8. Psal 108.1 The vials full of the odours of prayer are joined vvith harps for heavenly melody when the heart is fixt or prepared
then follows song and praise This streams from the sense of divine love and love is the fountain of thankfulness and of all spritely and vigorous services that prayer that does not end in chearful obedience is called by Cyprian â—e Orat. p. â—7 oratio sterilis and preces nudae barren and unfruitful naked and without ornament and so we may glance upon the expression of holy James the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.16 a working prayer within will be working without and demonstrate the labour of love 2. Obs The principal subject-matter of prayer the mark the white that the arrow of prayer is shot at the scope it aims at there 's usually some special sin unconquer'd some untamed corruption some defect some pressing strait that drives the soul to prayer and is the main burden of the spirit take notice how such a sin withers or such a grace flourishes or such a need supplied upon the opening our hearts in prayer Watch unto prayer Eph. 6.18 watch to perform it and then to expound the voice of the divine oracle and to know that ye are successful Cry to thy soul by vvay of holy soliloquy Watchman Isa 21.11 what of the night 3. Obs Ensuing providences Set a vigilant eye upon succeeding passages examine them as they pass before thee set a wakeful centinel at the posts of vvisdom His name is near his wondrous works declare His name of truth Psal 75 1. his glorious title of hearing prayers When prayer is gone up by the help of the spirit mark hovv all things work together for good Rom. 8.28 v. 27. Isa 58.9 11. and note the connexion there the working of things together follows the intercession of the Spirit for all Saints God is pleased often to speak so clearly by his vvorks as if he said here I am I will guide thee continually and thou shalt be like a watered garden whose waters fail not Secret promises animate prayer and open providences expound it Isa 45 4 11 19. Cyrus was promised to come against Babylon for the Churches sake But Israel must ask it of God and they had a vvord for it that they should not seek his face in vain Psal 107.19 20. and then follows Babylon's fall in the succeeding chapters When we cry unto the Lord in trouble he sends his vvord of command and heals us There 's a set time of mercy a time of life when Abraham had prayed for a son the Lord told him Gen. 15.2 18.10.14 Esth 4.16 6.1 Psal 3.4.5 Eliezer Gen. 24.15 at the time appointed I 'le return In a great extremity after the solemn fast of three days by the Jews in Shushan and the Queen in her Palace on the fourth day at night the King could not sleep and must hear the Chronicles of Persia read and then follows Haman's ruine Prayer has a strange vertue to give quiet sleep sometimes to a David and sometimes a waking pillow for the good of the Church When Jacob had done wrestling and the Angel gone at the springing of the morning then the good man saw the Angel of God's presence in the face of Esau Sometimes providence is not so quick Rev 6.11 the Martyr's prayer as to compleat answer is deferred for a season but long white robes are given to every one a triumphant frame of spirit and told they should wait but a little season till divine justice should work out the issue of prayer the thunder upon God's enemies comes out of the temple the judgments roar out of Zion Rev. 11.19 Joel 3.16 the place of divine audience but the means and methods and times of God's working are various such as we little forethink Submit all to his infinite wisdom prescribe not but observe the Embroidery of Providence its difficult to spell its characters sometimes but 't is rare employment (d) Isa 64.5 Psal 111 2â— Eccl. 3.11 2 Sam. 23.4 His vvorks are searcht into by such as delight in his providences for all things are beautiful in his season 4. Mark thy following communion vvith God Inward answers make the soul veget and lively like plants after the shining of the Sun upon rain lift up their heads and shoot forth their flowers A Saint in favour does all with delight Isa 61.3 Answer of prayer is like oil to the spirits and beauty for ashes The sackcloth of mournful fasting is turned to a wedding garment He grows more free and yet humbly familiar vvith heaven This is one I vvould wish you to pick acquaintance vvith that can come and have what (h) Joh. 16 23. Gen. 20.7 he vvill at Court. As the Lord once told a King by night that Abraham was a Prophet and vvould pray for him he vvas acquainted vvith the King of heaven O blessed person I hope there 's many such among you vvhose life is a continued prayer Psal 109.4 As David that gave himself to prayer Heb. But I prayer he 's all over prayer prays at rising prays at lying down prays as he walks he 's always ready for prayer like a prime favourit at Court that has the golden key to the privy stairs and can vvake his Prince by night Christians there are such whatever the besotted profane world dreams vvho are ready for spiritual ascents at all seasons besides the frequency of set communions His wings never vveary his willing spirit is flying continually and makes God the rock of his dwelling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into which he may upon all assaults have holy retirements Psal 71.3 But so much for the main Question with its branches There be many particular queries of some weight that may attend the princ pal subject and such I shall briefly reply to as Qu 1. What 's the proper time for secret prayer Ans Various providences different temperaments and frames of spirit motions from heaven opportunities dictate variously Some find it best at even others in the night when all is silent others at morning when the spirits are freshest I think with respect to others that conscientious prudence must guide in such cases when others are retired and the spirit in the best frame for communion Qu. 2. How often should we pray in secret Ans If we consult Scripture-president we find David at prayer in the morning our blessed Lord early before day in the morning Psal 5.3 Mark 1.35 Chrys in Psal 5. p. 542 Etim Mat. 14 23. Gen. 24.63 Psal 55.17 Dâ—n 6 10. Psal 119.164 Chrysostom advises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. wash thy soul before thy body for as the face and hands are cleansed by water so is the soul by prayer At another time our Lord went to secret prayer in the even and Isaac went to prayer in the eventide David and Daniel pray'd three times a day and once 't is mentioned that David said seven times a day will I praise thee that is very often Such cases may happen that
may require frequent accesses to the throne of grace in a day But I humbly think at the least once a day which seems to be imported by that passage in our Lord's prayer give us this day our daily bread Since after our Lord's appointment of secret prayer in the text he gives us this prayer as a pattern to his Disciples Qu. 3. When persons are under temptations or disturbance by passions is it expedient then to pray 1 Tim. 2.8 Ans Since we are enjoin'd to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting I judg it not so proper to run immediately to prayer but with some foregoing ejaculations for pardon and strength against such exorbitances and when in some measure cooled and composed then speed to prayer and take heed that the Sun go not down upon your wrath without holy purgation by prayer Eph 4.26 though I must confess a Christian should always endeavour to keep his course and heart in such a frame as not to be unfit for prayer upon small warnings The very consideration of our frequent communion with God should be a great bar to immoderate and exuberant passions Qu. 4. Whether may we pray in secret when others must needs take notice of our retirement Ans I must confess in a strait house and when a person can many times find no seasons but such as will fall under observation I think he ought not to neglect secret duty if his heart be right before God for fear of others notice we must prevent it as much as may be and especially watch our hearts against spiritual pride and God may graciously turn it to a testimony and for example to others Qu. 5. Whether we may be vocal in secret prayer if we can't so well raise or keep up affection or preserve the heart from wandering without it Ans No doubt but yet there must be used a great deal of wise caution about extending the voice De Orat. That of Tertullian counselling persons at prayer ne ipsis quidem manibus sublimius elatis c. Ne vultu quidem in audaciam erecto Sonos etiam vocis subjecios esse oportet aut quantis arteriis opus est si pro sono audiamur c. qui clarius adorant proximis obstrepunt imò prodendo orationes suas quid minùs faciunt quam si in publico orent Advises that both hands and countenance and voice should be ordered with great reverence and humility What arteries need we if we think to be heard for noise and what else do we by discovering our prayers than if we pray'd in publick yet surely if we can obtain some very private place or when others are from home and the extension of the voice be found to some persons by long experience to be of use such may lawfully improve it to their private benefit Q. 6. How to keep the heart from wandring thoughts in prayer Ans Although it be exceeding difficult to attain so excellent a frame yet by frequent reflecting upon and remembring the eye of God in secret by endeavouring to fix the heart with all possible watchfulness upon the main scope of prayer in hand by being very sensible of our wants and indigencies by not studying of impertinent length but rather being more frequent and short considering God is in heaven and we upon earth and by exercise of holy communion as we may through the implored assistance of the spirit attain some sweetness and freedom Eccl. 5.22 so likewise some more fixedness of spirit in our addresses before the Lord. Qu. 7. What if present answers seem not to correspond to our Petitions Ans We must not conclude it by and by to be a token of displeasure and say with Job Job 10.2 shew me wherefore thou contendest with me but acknowledg the soveraignty of divine wisdom and love in things that seem contrary to us in petitions for temporal mercies and submit to the counsel of Elihu 33.13 since he giveth no account of any of his matters neither can we find out the unsearchable methods of his holy ways to any perfection 11.7 There be other cases and scruples that might be treated of as about prescript words in secret prayers to which I need say but little since such as are truly converted (d) Gal. 4 6. Rom. 8.26 Zech. 1◠10 Acts 9.11 have the promise of the spirit of God to assist and enable them and they need not drink of another's bucket that have the fountain nor use stilts and crutches that have spiritual strength neither are words and phrases but faith and holy groans the nerves of prayer Yet for some help to young beginners doubtless it 's of use to observe the style of the spirit as well as the heavenly matter of several prayers in the holy Scriptures Psal 23.6 139.17.18 Neither need I to press frequency to a holy heart that is saln in love with spiritual communion for he delights to be continually with him the thoughts of God are so precious to him his soul is even sick of affection and prayes to be stayed with more of the flagous and comforted with the apples in greater abundance Cant. 2.5 To some though I fear how few how far it is lawful and expedient to withdraw for the necessity of the frail body in this vale of tears It may be replyed (g) Jam. 5.11 Hos 6.6 that the Lord is very pitiful and gracious to our frailties that he had rather have mercy than sacrifice in some cases Though I doubt these Phaenixes are but rare that are in danger of expiring in prayer as martyrs of divine love as Gerson expresses Gers T. 2. kk 5. Having now finisht with what brevity I could the foregoing queries I should treat about short sudden occasional prayers commonly call'd ejaculations but indeed that requires a set and just discourse yet because of a promise above recited I shall give a few tasts of it and then conclude with some application Ejaculatory Prayer Is a sudden short breathing of the soul towards Heaven upon instant and surprizing emergencies In holy persons it 's quick and lively rising from a vehement ardour of spirit swifter than the flight of eagles and keeps pace with a flash of lightning It flies upon the wings of a holy thought into the third Heavens in the twinkling of an eye and fetches auxiliary forces in times of straits There are many presidents recorded in sacred page upon great and notable occasions with strange success When good magistrates are busie in the work of reformation Neh. 13.14.22 let them imitate Nehemiah when redressing the profanation of the Sabbath Remember me O my God concerning this c. When Generals and Captains go forth to war Josh 1.17 observe Israel's apprecation to God rather than acclamations to men The Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses In time of battels or pursuit of the enemy valiant Joshuah darts up
is a frequent acceptation of the original words translated house in the Scripture for a proper family consult these places Gen. 7.1 Come thou and all thy house into the Ark Gen. 18.19 and 30.30 and 31.41 Exod. 12.3 A Lamb for an house ver 4. and if the houshold Hebrew house be too little for the Lamb ver 21. take ye a Lamb according to your families and kill the Passeover It was said an house before now families 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to your families both house and family here are taken strictly and properly for the Passeover was to be eaten in every houshold if there were ten persons in it for according to some there were never less then ten in number nor more then twenty * Joseph de bell Jud. l. 7. c. 17. Prout numerosa fuerit familia ita sibi magnam v l parvam familiam ad junget Vatab. in loc Eodem modo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instrumento novo at the eating of one Lamb at the Passeover if the houshold were too little for the Lamb they were to take the next neighbours in according to the number of persons and the blood of the Lamb was to be sticken on the two side-posts and upon the upper door post of the houses where they did eat it which was for a token upon such several houses that they should not be destroyed Deut. 11.6 and swallowed them up and their housholds In the Hebrew their houses 1 Sam. 1.21 and 2.36 2 Kings 10.21 Psal 101.2 7. So in the New Testament Luke 19.9 John 4.53 Acts 10.2 and 11.14 and 16.15 31 34. and 18.8 1 Cor. 1.16 Phil. 4.22 2 Tim. 1.16 and 4.19 Tit. 1.11 Heb. 11.7 1 Tim. 3.4 ruling well his own house i. e. Wife Children and Servants By which it is manifest that frequently by house is understood the persons dwelling together in one house constituting one particular proper family And it must be taken in a limited sense in the Text as distinguished from all the rest of the families of all the people of Israel for to all the rest Joshua doth declare That though they all should forsake the Lord yet he and his houshold would serve the Lord and if any would extend it beyond his own proper family to his kinred yet his own house and family strictly taken cannot with any colour of reason be excluded for can it be imagined that Joshua should be so zealously resolute that his tribe or kinred should worship God and yet take no care of those that were nearest to him in his own house or proper family or would this be suitable to the spirit of a man so holy wise and zealous as Joshua was so to do Proposition 2. 2. Graeci Interpretos indifferenter hoc verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verterunt modò verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modò verbo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Serving of God comprehendeth and includeth under it praying unto God This being put for the whole worship of God prayer that is a most eminent part thereof cannot be excluded That serving God is so comprehensive as to take in the whole worship of God these Scriptures make manifest Exod. 3.12 and 4.23 and 7.16 and 8.1 20. and 9.1 13. and 10.3 7 8 11 24.26 and 12.31 Deut. 6.13 and 10.10.20 and 13.14 and 28.47 1 Sam. 7.3 and 12.10 Psal 2. â— 1. Jer. 30.9 Mat. 4.10 and 6.24 Luke 1.74 and 2.37 and 4.8 Acts 7.7 and 26.7 and 27.23 Rom. 14.18 1 Thess 1.9 2. Tim. 1.3 Precatio omnium fermè bonorùm operum Complexuâ— quidam est compendium namâ— in ea se exerit cordis fides agnitio timor amor fidu cia in deum omnium hominis virium quies cessatio ab omni alia occupaâ—tione Sic Legitima dile ctis nostrae proximi salutis per omnes ferè virtutum classes piis precibus exercetur imò totius doctrinae theologicae in oratione praxis est Croc. Syntag. de precat The Septuagint translate the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I and my house will worship the Lord. So it is translated Phil. 3.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which worship God in the Spirit Calling upon God is such an eminent part of worship and such a principal way of serving the Lord that it is frequently put for the whole worship of God according to these Scriptures Gen. 4.26 and 12.7 8. and 13.4 and 21.33 and 26.25 Psal 79.6 Isa 43.22 Jer. 10.25 Joel 2.32 Math. 21.13 Acts 2.21 and 9.14 21. Rom. 10.12 13 14. 1 Cor. 1.2 â— Tim. 2.22 Can prayer then be excluded can any be said to be devoted to the service of God in general that never call upon God or pray unto him can a particular person be accounted a servant of God that never prayeth to thim or can a family as such be said to serve the Lord that as such doth not call upon him Are God's Servants prayerless Servants or are not such more worthy of the name of Atheists since they are described by not calling upon the name of the Lord Psal 14.4 Proposition 3. 3. Superstitio est quà Deo cultus indebitus exhibetur Ames Med. Cultus ab hominibus extra Dei revelationem pro arbitrio confictus uno nomine appellatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qua non honoratur Deus neque obedientiae habet rationem quae esse non potest ubi mandatum non est Wind. Theolog lib. 2. Joshua being guided by the Spirit of God doth thus resolve and promise That he and his house would serve the Lord. Was this good or evil that he declareth he and his would do was he bound to do it or was he not was this cultus Deo indebitus worship not due to God If it were due upon moral reasons then upon the same reasons it is due from other families as well as it was from his if not it was but Joshua's Superstition to serve God in his house but was he ever blamed for Superstition in this thing Was it obedience to God that Joshua served God in his house If it was it must be founded upon some Law and it must be conformity to some Rule for what is no way commanded by God though done cannot be obedience to him Besides this add that in his preface to his Speech of which the Text is a part he declares that what he said to them he had it from the Lord ver 2. Proposition 4. Joshua in the name of God and by Authority from him 4. Suo familiae suae exemplo ad perseverantiam in vero cultu hortatur Par in loc Interea ut puderem ipsis ineutiat se in Dei cultu cum domo sua perseveraturum testatur Calv. in loc Efficacissimunt argumentum erat exemplum Imperatoris praesertim pâ—udentissimi sanctissimi foelicâ—ssimis exemplum hic proponitur gubernandae familiae nostrae Masius in loc exhorteth all the rest
of the Families of Israel to the same duties which he promised and resolved upon before them all that is that they in their houses should serve the Lord. That his Exhortation was in the name of God and by Authority from him is evident for he protesteth that he was to say the Lords words to them ver 2. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel That he exhorted them in the name of the Lord to serve God with their families is also manifest Doth he engage that he will serve the Lord So he exhorteth them to do also ver 14. Now therefore fear ye the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth And again Serve ye the Lord the matter of the duty then is the same expressed in the same words That this exhortation of serving the Lord reached to their families also is apparent from the Argument that he useth to enforce it namely his own example in his house else the strength and reason of it would be lost Would you have it run thus When I do so earnestly perswade counsel and command you to serve the Lord I would not have you to understand me as if this reached to your houses and proper families that ye should there set up conjunct religious duties but I and my house will serve the Lord would not this destroy the very sense and strength of his reasoning But if you take it on the contrary When I perswade you and command you in the name of God to serve him I would have you understand that my meaning is that both you and your houses should be engaged conjunctly to serve God and I exhort you to no more then what I do declare before you all that I will do in my house And so the sense is goo◠〈◊〉 argument strong to move them to it when he dot◠〈…〉 to the * A Lare incipe i. e. à domesticis ac familiaribus initium sumito rectè dicitur in magistratus alienae viâ—ae censores quorum oâ—â—icium est ut in primis suos suorúmque vitam corrigant Erasm Adag Proverb Begin at home and by his own â—â—â—mple influence them into the same practice it being an effectual way to back an exhortation by ones own example doing what we perswade others to do Sic agitur censura sic exempla parantur Cum judex alios quod monet ipse facit Ovid. Fast lib. 6. In his resolution he doth not only shew his zeal in glorifying God by doing him faithful service though all others should forsake him But also and chiefly like a prudent Governour draweth them on to imitate him Beneficioruâ—â— praedictorum commemorationis scopus est ut osten lat extrenae ingratitudinis esse pro tot tantÃsque heneficiis non vicissim Deum colere s qui. Par. in loc of whom they had justly so great an opinion for his vvisdom and piety Eng. Annot. The sum of all this affordeth this Argument for Family Prayer Arg. 1. If Joshua guided by the Spirit of God and upon moral grounds and reasons did promise and resolve that he and his house vvould jointly serve the Lord vvhich includeth prayer also and doth upon the same moral grounds and reasons and in the name of God exhort and command all the Heads and the Governours in Israel and all the people to do the same in their Houses then the same moral grounds and reasons still continuing it is the Duty of all Families jointly to serve the Lord including prayer also But all the parts of the Antecedent are true Therefore it is the Duty of all Families jointly to serve the Lord including prayer also Argument 2. Quod si homines ab injuria poena non natura arcere debet quaenam solicitude vexaret impios sublato suppliciâ—rum metu Quod si poena si metus supplicii non ipsa turpitudo deterres ab injuriosa facinero aque vita nemo est injustus ac incâ—uâ—i potiùs hubendi sunt improbi tum autem qui non ipso honesto movesimus â—eâ—oni viri aliquâ atque fructu callidi sumus non boni Nam quid faciet is homo in tenebris qui nihil timet nisi testem judicem quid in deserto loco nactus quem multo auro spoliare possit imbecillum atque solum Si negabit se illi vitam erepturum aurum ablaturum nunquam ob eam causam negabit quòd id natura turpe judicet sed quod meinat ne emanet id est ne malum habeat O rem dignam in qua non modò docti vetùm etiam agrestes crubescant Cicero de Leg. lib. 1. The Second Topick or Head from whence Family Prayer might be proved to be our duty shall be taken from the Law of Nature In this I shall proceed also by laying down several Propositions by which as by so many steps we might come up to the Argument that will determine it 1. Proposition Man being made by God a rational creature and a voluntary Agent is obliged to take God for his Governour and Ruler the actual existence of a Creature doth necessarily and immediately infer his relation to a Creator as the being of a Son doth the relation of a Father actual creation is the fundamentum or ground of this relation and as it is an absurdity in nature that a Son should be a Son having his being by his Parents under God and should not be obliged to be thankful to them to 〈…〉 them love them and obey them so it is much more absurd that man 〈…〉 a rational being from God and not be obliged to take him for his Goveâ—â—â—â—â— by how much God is greater then our Parents and the first cause of our being And this man is obliged unto antecedently to his own consent yea though he should never consent unto it as a Son is bound to obey his Parents though he should never consent thereto Though to take God for our Ruler in order to salvation our own consent is necessary for God saveth no man against his will nor without his own consent but by his powerful Spirit maketh them willingly consent but as our consent was not necessary nor possible to our own creation so it is not necessary to our obligation and subjection unto God yet if man doth not consent to take God for his Governour he is a Rebel against his Maker and though he do it not he stands bound to do it else obedience to God were not man's duty nor disobedience his sin and then man might act as he list and do what he please and never have any accusation from his own Conscience nor reason to be ashamed of nor afraid of any thing he doth if he can by policy or power escape punishment from men and if they should come to any harm by what they do it would be rather for their silliness and unwariness then for their wickedness or if they do good moved thereunto by their own profit and not by obligation of
Manner of her subjection speaks her Reverence and that is free willing chearful Thus the Church yields up her self to the will of her husband insomuch as it is made a kind of proverbial pattern Eph. 6.7 with good will doing service as to the Lord implying that the subjection and service that we perform to the Lord is with a good will And such ought to be the subjection of the wife most free and willing so as if there were but (a) Nam quae ita vivit ut se ac maritum rem prorsus unam esse arbitretur haec absolvit numeros omnes sanctae uxoris Lu. Vives de Chr. foem pag. 678. one will in two breasts Thus Leah and Rachel Gen. 31.16 followed Jacob like his shadow when he makes a motion they consent if he 'l go they will follow him And was not Sarah's Reverence (b) This submission must not be for worldly respects or for fear of wrath but religious and for conscience sake Gatak Serm. p. 198. cordial when within her self in her heart she called her husband Lord Gen. 18.12 And therefore a contradicting or grudging spirit is very unsuitable to the religious wife and ever leaves a sting in his heart and guilt in hers For usually it is a sign of unmortified pride and self-conceit and entails the curse of unquietness upon the Family and writes a dangerous example to inferiors If the husband's government be too heavy yet it is better for you to leave him to answer for his severity than for you to answer for your (c) She ows her Duty not only or principally to her husband but to the Lord so that his neglect will not excuse hers Id. p. 199. contempt 2. The wife ought to Reverence her husband as the Members do the Head So vers 23. For the husband is the head of the wife He is an Head for influence and sympathy that 's her priviledg he is an Head for eminence and rule that is his And how should she expect benefit from her head if she do not honour her head To (d) 1 Cor. 11.4 dishonour a man's head is always rank'd among unnatural sins All the members are sensible of what use the Head is for their good There are continual cares and projects for the sustenance and comfort of the body and therefore they are willing to give the head its due honour The hand will submit to a wound to save the head If the head resolve to rise up to work or pray the whole body is up presently if the head design a journey never so long never so dangerous the body says not nay but obeys as long as possibly it can Why so should the wife shew honour to her head she ought to honour him next unto her Maker she must be afraid by her frowardness or sullenness to break her own head she must not cross the purposes of her head it is preposterous for the (e) Non secus ac miles suo imperato ri imperare si postulet aut luna soli praeesse aut brachium capiti L. Vives ubi supra head to go one way and the rib another She must readily follow the directions and counsels of her head for the members must not teach the head which way to go they support it but they do not direct it Indeed it is said that the vertuous woman is the crown of her husband but yet there is more (f) Vxor coruscat radiis mariti Justinian worth in the head than in the crown So that still except always cases wherein the head is (g) The man hath government in the house except he be verbum anomalum i. e. a fool Luther craz d or notoriously distempered it will be the wisdom and duty of the wife to be subject to the husband as unto her Head And this hath brought us to the Third thing by which the Reverence of the Wife is described and that is by the Effects thereof And they also are either 1. In word or 2. In deed 1. In word For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if there be that inward fear and respect in the heart which God requires it will be legible in the words of their mouths The same Law that binds the heart in this case doth also govern the tongue In her tongue is the law of kindness Prov. 31.26 And here certainly a wholsom tongue is a tree of life whereas perversness therein is a breach in the spirit Prov. 15.4 Now this Reverence in the Wife is shewed 1. In her words of her husband Which should always be compos'd of respect and honour Thus Sarah is brought in by the Apostle 1 Pet. 3.6 Even as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well And this was the language of her heart as you heard before out of Gen. 18.12 And no wife is too great or good to imitate her example in the main by giving respectful titles and expressions of her husband whereas on the contrary it is observed of the naughty woman Prov. 7.19 she only affords her husband in his absence the man for so it is in the Hebrew is not at home And it were well if this were the worst title and character which many wives do give their husbands behind their backs Whereas all the reproach and ignominy that they pour out on their husband doth infallibly redound to their own shame their (h) Nam vir uxoris majestatem amere benevolentia tuetur wulier viri cultu obedientia Nihil genus nihil opes nihil fortuna proderunt honore carebis si caruerit vir Lu. Vives ubi supâ—a honour and respect standing and falling together 2. The words of the wife to her husband ought to be full of Reverence And therefore she should beware 1. Of an Excess in the quantity not preposterously interrupting her husband while he is speaking nor answering ten words for one For (i) Vxorium est ornamâ—ntum aut cum mari o aut per maritum loqui Id. ibid. silence doth more commend the wisdom of a woman than speech and she that is wise spareth her words and though she seem to be religious yet if she do not bridle her tongue her religion is vain And 2. She must beware of a Defect in the quality of them viz. of meekness and respect For the great study of the wife should be to get a meek and quiet spirit which in the sight of God yea and of man too is of great price 1 Pet. 3.4 When the heart is once meekened by the grace of God then her words will savour of it and not till then And though they may think that this will invite and further the insolency of an unkind husband yet they may rest assured that that which is most pleasing to God shall not tend to their prejudice any way For hath not God said that a soft tongue breaketh the
years are apt many times to despise them as more subject to infirmities and as looking for less of respect from their hands So that really to give them honour is a fuller evidence of cordial performance The Lord is pleas'd to begin there where the duty is most tried Reverence thy Mother and thy Father de leg l. 4. Ethic. l. 9. l. 2. Spizel de re literar Sineas p. 243. Both are to be had in a just veneration Plato and Aristotle could by Nature's light teach thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This as the prime law of Nature the Spartans and generally all Nations of old did and Chinoises at this day do maintain with admirable care Now doing reverence to the Fathers of our flesh (h) Heb. 9.12 in Scripture may comprehend what Children owe to their Parents both with reference to their speech and behaviour 1 With respect to their speech that it be seasonable and agreeable to the relation grac'd with humility (i) 1 Pet. 5.5 and modesty in all converse with them in presence and discourse of them in absence They should give them honourable titles as that of Father and Mother do connote dignity (k) Jer. 31.9 Gal. 4.6 and so Sir or Lord (l) Mat. 21.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus we have good Children in the Book of God saluting their Parents as Isaac his Father Abraham (m) Gen. 22.11 Jacob Isaac (n) 17.18 David Saul his Father in law (o) 1 Sam. 24.28 Solomon Bathsheba my Mother (p) 1 King 2.20 21. Rachel Laban making her Apology My Lord (q) Gen. 31.35 David again Saul (r) 1 Sam. 26.18 and that with all meekness at a sit season in a few words with freedom and readiness (s) Gen. 22 7. 27.12 giving pleasing answers when spoken to in a becoming civility (t) 1 Sam. 12.4 6.18 waiting with contentment to hear them speak first (u) Prov 4.1 laying their hands on their mouths and refraining to talk in their presence without just occasion (w) Job 29.9 10 21. 32.5 6. And in their absence by speaking so of them amongst those they do converse that by the commendable reports they make of them or prudent apologies for them it may be understood what venerable respects they have for their Parents Thus 't is said of the Children of the prudent Mother they rise up as those who speak pathetically and call her blessed (x) Prov. 31.28 in that laudable discourse they have of her Hereby Children will prove themselves to be of a vertuous temper and not like that elder brother of the penitent Prodigal who spake undecently in a surly manner to his Father (y) Luk. 15 29 30. and sometime some of Jacob's sons to theirs (z) Gen. 34.31 and such like who by their rude and malapert prating disparage and aggrieve their parents (a) 26.35 27.46 Yet of a more untoward generation are they whom the Wiseman took notice of that curse their Father and do not bless their Mother but saith he their lamp shall go out in obscurity (b) Prov. 20.20 Neither can there be a better end of those who are under the Almighty's curse devoted to death (c) Lev. 20.9 Exod. 21.17 neither can they who do any way set light by their Father or Mother avoid a much easier censure (d) Deut. 27 16 Lib. 44. de Rep. sith by interpretation it is a dishonour to God himself Plato in his Commonwealth orders that Children should in their words through their whole life revere their Parents there being a great punishment imminent for light and idle discourse Further 2 The hehaviour and carriage of Children should ever be significative and expressive of reverence to their Parents in all their addresses the countenance so composed in their presence as may argue awfulness and respect the deportment lowly rising up before those they honour for relation as well as those venerable for age (e) Lev. 19.32 and at meeting thus Solomon though a King did to his Mother Bathsheba (f) 1 Kings 2.19 hasting to attend them in a lowly posture thus Joseph who liv'd as a Prince made ready to meet and presented himself to his Father whom he had maintained (g) Gen. 46.29 so Achsah Caleb's daughter who was married to her Cousin German when she addressed her self to her Father she alighted from her beast before she spoke to him (h) Judg. 1 14.5◠and again Joseph thought it no disparagement to prostrate himself to his aged father Jacob whose eyes were then dim that he could not see his behaviour when he also gave his own Children an example in praying for his Father's blessing (i) Gen. 43.12 which Esau though he came tardè did passionately beg for (k) 27.19 34. And though Parents now have not a Prophetick spirit as the Patriarch's had yet it seems still very equitable that Christian Children considering their Parents Superiority in the Lord should frequently upon occasion in an (l) Heb. 7 7. Mar. 10.17 humble manner crave their Parents prayers for God's blessing The rude and haughty looks which are in many Children before their Parents cannot comport with this duty which discards a dogged and supercilious countenance that betokens scorn and derision opposite to this filial reverence The Wise man makes a smart remark upon such odious insolent behaviour which might deter any of understanding from it when he saith (m) Prov. 30.17 The eye that mocketh his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it Here is a signal retaliation to those who in speech or behaviour deride the persons or despise the counsels of their Parents whether yet alive or deceased 'T were to be wish'd it had been better studied by some Children in this Generation I mean some late and present Preachers of our Age who do not parentare manibus but indeed upbraid the Ghosts of their reverend and pious Parents who warmly argued the necessity of regeneration either by reckoning them amongst the herd of Divines or with an harangue of lame sequels perch up to vent their callow notions and bespatter their own nest in complacence with the lax humour of the times when many for the bags cry Hail Master but betray the Son of Man with a kiss (n) Mat. 26.49 wic Luk. 22.48 yet I would hope there are but a few of this feather I proceed to mind Children of another duty and that is 2. Observance whereby their Parents pleasure with fit subjection is perform'd out of a real desire to promote their honour vvhich is more than in countenance and ceremonies to express obedience (o) Mat. 21.30 It is very requisite Christian Children should with an heedful circumspection observe the holy and wise prescripts and practices of their Parents by acknowledging subjection to their government Our blessed Lord himself set a
of hating him in his heart (y) Lev. 19.17 then certainly not upon his child whom he is oblig'd not only to admonish verbally but chastise really but first he should do as God did with our first Parents convict him of his nakedness (z) Gen. 3.11 c. i. e. shew him the evil of his lying railing idleness or c. faults he is chargeable with as opposite to the Word of God (a) Prov. 12.22 and prejudicial to his own Soul (b) 8.36 and that he is made to smart for the cure of this evil Which 3. Parents may let their children know they dare not suffer to remain longer uncorrected sith delays may prove dangerous to the Patient if the rod be withheld (c) 23.13 The festering wound may rankle and come to a gangrene if not lanced in due time Parents love is seen in chastening betimes (d) 13.24 both in respect of the age of the child and of its fault If it be not too soon for children to sin it should not be thought too soon for Parents to correct and that seasonably before the sin grow strong get head and sprout forth The child should be taken while there is hope (e) 19.18 The twigg may be bent whiles it is young and the sin mortified if nipt in the bud God we find hath been very severe in remarking the first violations of his Statutes as for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day (f) Numb 15.25 and Aaron's sons offering strange fire (g) Levit. 10.2 so Parents should timely curb the first exorbitances of their children Hence 4. They should let them see they are resolv'd after serious deliberation not to be diverted by the pullings and passions of their unhumbled children from inflicting due punishment fith the Wise man chargeth Let not thy Soul spare for his crying (h) Prov. 19.18 so that they may not remain fearless yet it must then be in compassion that they may conceive as the Father of Heaven is afflicted in the affliction of his (i) Isa 63.9 so are they in the affliction of their children and as the Lord doth it in measure though he will not suffer them to go unpunished (k) Jer. 30.11 so do they My Text bounds the correction that it may not exceed a just proportion to the discouraging of children whose different tempers as well as different faults are to be consider'd so as no more be laid upon them than they are able to bear (l) 1 Cor. 10.13 There should therefore be a special care took that the chastisement be no other than what is meet Physicians endeavour to apportion the Dose they give to the strength of the Patient and the peccant humour they would correct There must be a rational consideration of the age sex and disposition of the child the nature and circumstances of the fault and what satiâ—faction is offer'd by the delinquent upon ingenuous confession or possibly some interposition of another so that the offended Parent may keep up his authority be victorious in his chastisements and come off with honour and good hopes of the child's amendment For a Parent should be ever ready to forgive and to connive often at smaller failings wherein there is no manifest sin against God in confidence of gaining the child's affections by tenderness and kind forbearance towards the things that are most desirable This pleasing policie is they say much in request at this day in Japan ‖ Varen Descript Regn. Japoriae c. xv where Parents do educate their children with a great deal of softness very rarely punishing them with stripes though they follow their diligent informations with frequent admonttions And they tell us among the Grecians the best means the Mother used if a Boy was stubborn in committing a fault to perswade him to leave it was to shew him her breasts as the most powerful motive she had †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. in Scrip. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Fathers it seems amongst them were more sharp and therefore Prometheus in Menander is said to be tyed like a Boy to the racks where he prettily pleads his cause as if his punishment had not been proportioned to his fault but he had been too hardly dealt with Be sure our Apostle both in my Text and to the Ephesians is altogether against any discouraging chastisement and requires moderation Thus for nurture the first branch of Education The 2. is in the admonition of the Lord without vvhich the former will not be effectually prosperous This according to the notation of the original word (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph 6.4 with 1 Cor. 10.11 Tit. 3.10 is a putting of things into their Childrens minds an informing of the judgment in and pressing upon the will and affections the principles of the Christian institution vvarning them to take heed of deviating from these principles vvhich they are oblig'd to live up to and is the principal thing in the educating of Christian Children So that Parents are mostly concern'd to get the fear of God planted in their Childrens tender souls that they may know and love trust in and obey their Maker Redeemer and Sanctifier and have timely preservatives against the corruptions of an untoward generation Under this we may speak of Parental Instruction and Watchfulness 1. Instruction which is a timely instilling of conscientious principles and seeds of Religon into Children taking them a part and engaging them to receive the most necessary points as it vvere drop by drop here a little and there a little (n) Isa 28.10 according to their narrow capacities in a free and familiar Conference by putting Questions to them and teaching them how to give Answers and by putting them upon asking Questions and returning short and clear Answers thereunto not only concerning the Word but Works of God whose Spirit alone makes all efficacious The Lord hath most strictly enjoyned this by Moses (o) Deut. 4.9 charging Parents to keep their souls diligently and not to let the things God hath done to slip out of their hearts all their days but teach their Sons and their Sons who in after time did thankfully acknowledg the benefit of this instruction (p) Psal 44.1 2. We have heard with our ears O God our Fathers have told us the works that thou didst in their days in the times of old And for the Words and Ordinances of God they are commanded not only to have them in their own hearts (q) Deut. 6.6 7. 11.19 but to teach them diligently unto their children as one who whets and sharpens a thing that is blunt (r) Eccles 10 10. by talking of them when they sit down in their house when they walk by the way when they lye down and when they rise up and elsewhere (s) Psal 78.5 6 7. Prov. 22.6 20 21. nor only so but by Rites (t) Exod. 12.26 13.14 and setting up visible and extraordinary
by the Prophet in the name of the Lord (m) Jer. 29.6 1 Cor. 7.36 to take wives to their sons and give daughters to their husbands should with a good and serious conscience without carnal glosses study this prime Canon as they really design the promotion and spiritual advancement of their offspring Thus Abraham so famous in his parental government (n) Gen. 18.19 was very careful with respect to the Lord in covenant for the matching of his son Isaac that in a matter of so great importance lest he should be tempted to a failure in his trust he took a most solemn oath by the Lord God of Heaven and Earth from his faithful Steward Eleazer (o) 24.2 4 6 8. upon serious seeking of God by Prayer that he should take a wife for him out of a religious Family and by no means yield that Isaac should be brought into a relation communion and residence with any of those who might be an occasion to alienate his affections from the service of the true God in a true manner which had an excellent effect sith Isaac and Rebekah were the most chast pair of all those Patriarchal Worthies their affections being entirely united And Isaac at his wife Rebekah's motion when almost dead for fear of an ungodly wife (p) 27. ver followed his Father's example in the disposal of his son Jacob (q) 28.2 c. We indeed live in an age wherein there is much complaint by many wealthy Parents that though they like well of this grand rule yet they know not where to have suitable matches for their children especially of the female sex I confess there is too much ground for this lamentation The Lord remove it Yet I may with submission not being sollicitous to please man but my Lord and Master (r) Gal. 1.10 Eph. 6.6 Mr. White put these complainants in mind of what hath been observ'd by another before me That Persons of quality and estate likely have in one respect a greater advantage than others in that they have a greater latitude of choice amongst those who are in estate below them So that of religious prudent and suitable persons they may choose almost whom they please But the truth is many Parents who sit at the upper end of the world though they profess Religion they are too often so biassed with the love of this world that marrying to the very height of their estate hath the casting vote and so they bestow their pious hopeful children upon persons in whom they have no probable positive evidence of real godliness and sobriety or on such who are not comparably so vertuous as others they might have more religious prudent and desirable who upon conjuncture of Estates would be abundantly well accommodated for a comfortable and chearful livelyhood When alas some of them are so sway'd by carnal motives that as one saith †Mr. Baxter pol. p. 484. they marry their children to a swine for a golden trough they prefer temporals to spirituals and eternals riches and honour or comliness to vertue and godliness and take one that is at enmity with God (s) Rom. 8.7 8. into the nearest and strictest league of amity with those they are oblig'd to love best And thence it comes to pass that in succeeding generations by unequal mixture of the holy seed with the profane (t) Ezra 9 2 4. there is such a decay of piety as at this day amongst those sprung on one side from worthy Progenitors being much like those of the old world who defiled the face of the earth with an unblest generation which so grieved the Almighty that after he had given the inhabitants fair warning by the preacher of righteousness (u) Gen. 6.2 4. See more Gen. 26.34 35. 34 14. 38.2 7 8.9 10. he swept them all away but eight persons with an universal deluge I know upon the hearing of this some professing Parents of our Age will be touch'd to the quick though they do thereby a little shake their own title to the best inheritance but it concerns a watchman when call'd to give them warning from the Lord (w) Ezek. 3.17 to deal faithfully Upon the remembrance of which and an affecting apprhension of this growing epidemical distemper I do in the name of the Lord put all Christian Parents in mind not too vehemently to seek after great things to themselves (x) Jer. 45.5 in bestowing of their children richly but labour to link them with gracious and suitable persons where there may be mutual kindness and hearty liking of each other and with vvhom they may live religiously and contentedly For the truth is without this mutual complacency and loving contentment each in other vvhich the Scripture calls for (y) Prov. 5.19 with Gen. 20.16 Ezek. 24.16 18. upon a good foundation there cannot be an happy match Wherefore in this great office of Parents vvhich is a comfortable one for their Children if well done but most uncomfortable if otherwise they are mostly concern'd to look after the fear of the Lord. For the Wise man by the spirit of God hath so determin'd upon weighing of things saying (z) Prov. 31.30 with 19.23 Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised and so shall the man also If things be tryed at God's ballance Religion will weigh most Houses and riches are the inheritance of Fathers but a prudent wife is from the Lord (a) 19.14 and so is a prudent husband too Either is to be valued as a more blessed gift than any temporal portion left by Parents who may and ought to be provident but there is a more special finger of God who gives wisdom and unites hearts in every happy match Wherein good-nature or as we now speak good-humour doth much sweeten society in a humane way but I pray you what doth it in a Christian way wherein the married couple should live as being heirs together of the grace of life that their prayers he not hindred (b) 1 Pet. 3.7 Alas my Friends as to this a good nature as one saith * Mr. Thomas Couns l to married Couples is but like the white of an egg which as it offends not so it relisheth not There may be a tolerable conversation as to temporals on the week day but what is pleasant in it as to spirituals especially on the Lord's day and at other seasons when the Soul hath need of quickening direction and comfort or a companion in Heavenly joys Then real grace with all its faults will be better than refined nature (c) Eccles 2.13 as light than darkness Discretion will set a lustre on Religion and is to be look'd after else how troublesom will it be for wisdom to be subject to folly No one can live lovingly and comfortably with a Fool. Next an ungodly an unworthy yoke-fellow especially if in Husbands is to be feared And next to
or froward (w) Luke 2.51 1 Pet. 2 18. in all that is well-pleasing to God whose honour is the end ingenuous Children should aim at by just and honest means in the exercise of their duties keeping themselves from their iniquities (x) 1 Tim 5.22 i. e. those which their own turbulent passions are apt to hurry them into If we did more reverence our selves we should carry better towards our Superiours Pythagoras his advice is very wholsom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Carmin Let a man be the greatest shame to himself keep his own heart in awe by a secret blush upon his own extravagancies in their first risings and so he will have his Keeper every where with him then as he saith further Let him follow that which is just not only in words but in deeds He that is duly affected with shame of himself will be careful to pay just respects in all due circumstances unto those he is mostly oblig'd to honour 4. Set about all your duties to your Parents willingly and readily not with grudging or disdain but with an holy warmth of heart lifting up your selves to and following hard after whatever God requires (y) Judges 5.39 in all affectionate expressions of a free and chearful spirit sith all is to be in the Lord who loves readiness (z) 2 Cor. 9.7 This manner of performance will be the more easie if Children timely learn the great lesson of self-denial and do really exercise that and love they will then without bogling go through the most unpleasant uneasie and mean imployments they are call'd unto and concern'd to manage for their Parents as Jacob's Sons did for their Father after as well as before their marriage (a) Gen. 30.35 37.13 14. 42.1 2 3. 43.15 47.1 2 3. and in his straits Judah express'd great readiness to comfort his Father (b) 44.33 34 with 30. Ruth as was noted before was very exemplary in this manner of obedience (c) Ruth 1.15 16. but Isaac's readiness was the most singular (d) Gen. 22.9 10. till Christ himself whom he typified came then saith he to his Father (e) Psal 40.8 Ad semper velle non ad semper agere I delight to do thy will O my God thy Law is within my heart Believe it Willingness puts a great acceptableness upon duties Children are bound always to will though not always to act they should readily embrace all opportunities 'T is said Amasiah the Son of Zichri willingly offer'd himself unto the Lord (f) 2 Chron. 17.16 and so should ingenuous Children be ever ready as Paul was in Christ (g) Acts 21.13 for their Parents service Somewhat of this was hinted before and I shall only add what Hierocles saith in this case * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in Pythag. Carm. p. 54 57 mihi It is fit we should not withdraw our selves from performing with our own hands what our Parents require as occasion serves but by how much the more mean and servile the offices by so much should Children think them the more honest and laudable and not to he avoided because expensive but to be done with a ready and chearful mind for their use and with joy we are put to those pains and expences for their sakes 5. Persevere in all and be constant with diligence unto the end whatever temptations you meet with Let not the instructions you have received according to godliness depart from your heart all the days of your life (h) Deut. 4.9 Be not fickle or inconstant but hold out in all circumstances though your Parents be aged and decay'd (i) Prov. 23.22 Ru h 1.15 16. 4.15 so long as they and you coexist in this world and the Relation remains Be like constant Ruth and holy Joseph when advanc'd he continued his obedience to the very last moment of his dear Father's life and after (k) Gen. 46.29 47.31 48.12 a vertue wherein it seems Samuel's sons were defective (l) 1 Sam 8.5 but Jonadab's were praise-worthy (m) Jer. 35.56 as well as others after their Parents decease when tempted to the contrary yea though it was in a business unpleasing to flesh and blood They did as Physicians prescribe to their Patients receive their Father's documents cum debitâ custodiâ so as not to indulge their appetites in that he forbad them but persevere in observing his injunction This is praise-worthy Nay though our Parents should not submit to the yoke of Christ we should not withdraw our neck from their yoke nor desist from obedience to them so far as it hinders not our obedience to Christ but should hold out that none take our Crown As Antonius said †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 8. Sect. 5. Remember well you ought to be a good man and that which the nature of man requires of you this do constantly So that which the Nature of your Relation calls for do it with all your might and never suffer your self to be diverted or recalled from it Having found the true way of obedience go on in it and be not turned back again remembring vvhat our blessed Lord and Master saith He that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved (n) Mat. 24 13. After these Particulars to Children I must crave leave before I shut up 2. To say somewhat in particular unto Parents to direct and help them likewise to manage their office in an evangelical manner 1. Be sure that you your selves do keep up the life and power of godliness in your own domestick practise that hereby your children may be kept from corruption in a bad air and encourag'd in an holy conversation I have already hinted something of this concerning the exemplariness of Parents and in the premis'd general duty of their good behaviour and therefore shall not need to enlarge much upon it here Only suggest this that you are to walk in your integrity as for your own so for your posteritie's comfort in the family exercise of Religion by behaving your self wisely in an upright way and walking within your house with an upright heart (o) Psal 101 2. 112.2 Prov. 20.7 shewing your selves in all things patterns of good works (p) Tit. 2.7 And putting persons and things into their proper places to prevent confusion which else will arise and much obstruct you in your most important offices This will gain a reputation to your Government and facilitate the management of particular duties When your children see what a gloss you put upon holiness by your sincere chearful and grave Christian deportment they begin to discern the pleasantness of the ways of wisdom the excellency of the life of faith and the odiousness of flesh-pleasing courses and so come to esteem your instructions which are very legible and easie to be understood by such a practical commentary The holy life of John the Baptist had some influence upon Herod's affections for
all his â—houghts How little is God in any of our thoughts according to His excellency No our shops our rents our backs and bellies usurp God's room If any thoughts of God do start up in us how many covetous ambitious wanton revengeful thoughts are jumbled together with them Is it not a monstrous absurdity to place our friend with a crue of vipers to lodge a King in a sty and entertain him with the fumes of a jakes and dunghil A wicked man's heart is little worth Prov. 10.20 The tongue of the just is as choice silver c. Apud nos cogitare peccare est Minucius Foelix all the pedling wares and works in his inward shop are not valuable with one silver drop from a gracious man's lips It was an invincible argument of the primitive Christians for the purity of the Christian Religion above all others in the world that it did prohibit evil thoughts And is it not as unanswerable an argument that we are no Christians if we give liberty to them What is our moral conversation outwardly but only a bare abstinence from sin not a disaffection Were we really and altogether Christians would not that which is the chiefest purity of Christianity be our pleasure And would we any more wrong God in our secret hearts than in the open streets Is not thought a beam of the mind and shall it be enamour'd only on a dunghil Is not the understanding the eye of the soul and shall it behold only guilded nothings 'T is the flower of the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Shall we let every Caterpillar suck it 'T is the Queen in us Shall every ruffian deflore it 'T is as the Sun in our heaven and shall we besmear it with misty phancies It vvas created surely for better purposes Lampridius than to catch a thousand weight of spiders as Heliogabalus employ'd his Servants It was not intended to be made the common fewer of filthiness or ranked among those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Histor animal lib. 8. which eat not only fruit and flesh but flies worms dung and all sorts of lothsome materials Let not therefore our minds wallow in a sink of phantastical follies whereby to rob God of his due and our souls of their happiness 2. Exhortation We must take care for the suppression of them All vice doth arise from imagination Upon what stock doth ambition and revenge grow Mirandul de Imaginat c 7. Isay 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way the unrighteous man his thoughts c. but upon a false conceit of the nature of honour What engenders covetousness but a mistaken fancy of the excellency of wealth Thoughts must be forsaken as well as our way we cannot else have an evidence of a true conversion and if we do not discard them we are not like to have an abundant pardon and what will the issue of that be but an abundant punishment Mortification must extend to these Affections must be crucified Gal. 5.24 and all the little brats of thoughts which beget them or are begotten by them Shall we nourish that which brought down the wrath of God upon the old world as though there had not been already sufficient experiments of the mischief they have done Is it not our highest excellency to be conform'd to God in holiness in as full a measure as our finite natures are capable And is not God holy in his counsels and inward operations as well as in his works Hath God any thoughts but what are righteous and just Therefore the more foolish and vain our imaginations are Eph. 4 17 18. the more are we alienated from the life of God The Gentiles were so because they walked in the vanity of their mind and we shall be so if vanity walk and dwell in ours As the tenth Commandment forbids all unlawful thoughts and desires so it obligeth us to all thoughts and desires that may make us agreeable to the divine Will and like to God himself We shall find great advantage by suppressing them We can more easily resist temptations without if we conquer motions within Thoughts are the mutineers in the soul which set open the gates for Satan He hath held a secret intelligence with them so far as he knows them ever since the fall and they are his spies to assist him in the execution of his devices They prepare the tinder and the next fiery dart sets all on a flame Can we cherish these if we consider that Christ dyed for them He shed his blood for that which put the world out of order which was accomplished by the sinful imagination of the first man and continued by those imaginations mention'd in the Text. He dyed to restore God to his right and man to his happiness neither of which can be perfectly attained till those be thrown out of the possession of the heart That we may do this Let us consider these following directions which may be branched into these heads 1. For the raising good thoughts 2. Preventing bad 3. Ordering bad when they do intrude 4. Ordering good when they appear in us 1. For raising good thoughts 1. Get renewed hearts The fountain must be cleansed which breeds the vermine 2 Cor. 5 17. Jer. 4.14 Wash thy heart from wickedness c. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Pure vapors can never ascend from a filthy quagmire What issue can there be of a vain heart but vain imaginations Thoughts will not become new till a man is in Christ We must be holy before we can think holily Sanctification is necessary for the dislodging of vain thoughts and the introducing of good A sanctified reason would both discover and shame our natural follies As all animal operations so all the spiritual motions of our heads depend upon the life of our hearts * Prov. 4.23 as the principium originis As there is a law in our members to bring us into Captivity to the law of sin Rom. 7.23 so there must be a law in our minds to bring our thoughts to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds Ephes 4.23 in our reasonings and thoughts which are the spirits whereby the understanding acts as the animal spirits are the instruments of corporeal motion Till the understanding be born of the spirit †John 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit it will delight in and think of nothing but things suitable to its fleshly original but when 't is spiritual it receives new impressions new reasonings and motions suitable to the Holy Ghost of whom it is born A stone if thrown upwards a thousand times will fall backward because 't is a forced motion but if the nature of this stone were changed into that of fire it would mount as naturally upward as before it sunk downward You
was to exhort younger as well as elder women and the Apostle wisheth him to do it with all purity or chastity that a temptation lying in ambush for him might not take his thoughts and affections unguarded Engage thy diligence more at solitary times and in the night wherein freedom from business gives an opportunity to an unsanctified imagination to conjure up a thousand evil spirits whence perhaps it is that the Psalmist tells us Psal 17.3 Gen 19.30 Cellulam mearum cogitationum pertimescebam Hieron God had tryed him in the night and found him holy The solitary Cave tainted Lot with incest who had preserved himself fresh in the midst of the salt lusts of Sodom In ill company wherein we may be occasionally cast there is need of an exacter observation of our hearts lest corrupt steams which rise from them as vapours from lakes and minerals being breath'd in by us may tincture our spirits or as those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Physitians tell us exhaling from consumptive persons do by inspiration steal into our blood and convey a contagion to us And though above all keepings and watchings we are to keep and watch our hearts Prov. 4.23 because out of them are the issues of life yet we must walk the rounds about our senses and members of the body as the wise man there adviseth v. 24. the mouth which utters wickedness the eyes v. 25. which are brokers to make bargains for the heart and v. 26. the feet which are agents to run on the errands of sin And the rather must we watch over our senses because we are naturally more ready to follow the motions of them as having had a longer acquaintance and familiarity with them before we grew up to the use of reason Besides Plotinus describes thought thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ennead 1. lib. Cor oculi sunt proxenctae peccati most of our thoughts creep in first at the windows of sense The eye and the ear robb'd Eve of original righteousness and the eye rifled David both of his justice and chastity If the eyes behold strange women the heart will utter perverse things Prov. 23.33 Perverse thoughts will sparkle from a rolling eye Revel-rout is usual where there is a negligent government He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls †Prov. 25.28 where any thieves may go in and out at pleasure 3. The third sort of directions are for the ordering of evil thoughts when they do intrude and 1. Examine them Look often into your heart to see what it is doing and what thoughts you find dabling in it call to an account enquire what business they have what their errand and design is whence they come and whither they tend David askt his soul the reason of its troubled thoughts Psal 42.11 Why art thou disquieted O my soul so ask thy heart the reason why it entertains such ill company and by what authority they come there and leave not chiding till thou hast put it to the blush Bring every thought to the test of the Word Asaph had envious thoughts at the prosperity of the wicked Psal 73.2 3. which had almost tript him up and laid him on his back And these had blown up Atheistical thoughts that God did not much regard whether his commands were kept or no as though God had untied the link between duty and reward and the breach of his laws were the readiest means to a favourable recompence v. 13. I have cleansed my hands in vain But when he weighed things in the ballance of the sanctuary by the holy rules of God's patience and justice v. 17. He sees the brutishness of his former conceits v. 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee and v. 25. he makes an improvement of them to excite his desire for God and delight in Him Let us compare our thoughts with Scripture-rules Comparing spiritual things with spiritual is the way to understand them comparing spiritual sins with spiritual commands is the way to know them and comparing spiritual vices with spiritual graces is the way to loath them Take not then any thing upon trust from a crazy fancy nor without a scrutiny believe that faculty whereby dogs dream and animals perform their natural exploits 2. Check them at the first appearance If they bear upon them a palpable mark of sin bestow not upon them the honour of an examination If the leprosie appear in their foreheads thrust them as the Priests did Vzziah out of the Temple or as David answered his wicked sollicitors Psal 119.115 Depart from me ye evil doers for I will keep the commandments of my God Though we cannot hinder them from haunting us yet we may from lodging in us The very sparkling of an abominable motion in our hearts is as little to be look'd upon as the colour of wine in a glass by a man inclined to drunkenness Quench them instantly as you would do a spark of fire in a heap of straw We must not treat with them Paul's resolve is a good pattern not to confer with flesh and blood †Gal. 1.16 Hic Annibal virtute non mora frangitur We do not debate whether we should shake a viper off our hands If it be plainly a sinful motion a treaty with it is a degree of disobedience for a putting it to the question whether we should suckle it is to question whether God should be obeyed or no. If it savour not of the things of God hear not its reasons and complement it with no less indignation than our Saviour did his officious Disciple upon his carnal advice Get thee behind me Satan Mat. 16.22 23. Excuse it not because 't is little Small vapours may compact themselves into great clouds and obstruct our sight of heaven a little poison may spread its venom through a great quantity of meat Ex hinc nota est infirmitas mea quia multo faciliùs irruunt abominandae phantasiae quà m discedunt Kemp. de Imit Chr. lib. 3. cap. 20. We know not how big a small motion like a Crocodile's egge may grow and how ravenous the breed may prove it may if entertain'd force our Judgment drag our Will and make all our affections Bedlams Besides since the Fancy is that power in us upon which the Devil can immediately imprint his suggestions and that we know not what army he hath to back any sinful motion if once the gate be set open let us crush the brat betimes and fling the head over the wall to discourage the party Well then let us be ashamed to cherish that in our thoughts which we should be ashamed should break out in our words or actions therefore as soon as you perceive it base spit it out with detestation as you do a thing you unexpectedly find ungrateful to your palate 3. Improve them Poisons may be made
2. Temptations also have their season and must just then be resisted lest many a year repair not an hours loss And they are very many And narrow-sighted careless persons who avoid two and fall into the third or avoid nineteen and are conquered by the twentieth are always scandalous 3. And rash adventures on any Opinions or actions but especially of publick consequence are usually most scandalous and pernicious to the Church As in Military Affairs and in Physick ubi non licet bis errare mens lives must pay for our temerity and errour and all the World cannot remedy the effects of one mistake So in matters of Religion if we mistake by our rash conceitedness and take not time for necessary tryal and proceed not as a man on the Ice or among Quick-sands with great care and deliberation the shaking of Kingdoms the ruine of Churches the silencing of Ministers the corruption of Doctrine Worship and Discipline and the sin and damnation of many Souls may be the effect of our proud presumption and temerity But the humble self-suspecting man that suspendeth his judgment and practice till he hath throughly proved all doth preserve the honour of Religion and avoid such late and dear repentance XVIII The man whose works shall glorifie God must be devoted to the Vnity and Concord of Believers and be greatly averse to dividing and love-killing Opinions words and practices and as much as in him lies he must live peaceably with all men 1 Cor. 1.10 Phil. 2.1 2 3. Eph. 4.3 4 14 15 16. Rom. 16.17 and 12.18 1 Thes 5.17 Joh. 17.24 When Paul saith that Dividers serve not the Lord Jesus but their own bellies he intimateth to us that though Truth and Purity be in their mouths and really intended by them as they take it yet there is usually a secret self-interest that is carried on that byasseth the judgment And when he telleth them Act. 20.30 that of their own selves should men arise speaking perverse things which they called and it 's like believed to be the Truth yet self-interest lay at the bottom to be some-body in drawing Disciples after them For it is so notorious a truth that Unity and Concord are indispensably necessary to the Church as it is to our Body to Families to Kingdoms that men could not do so destructive a thing as dividing is if some sin had not first caused the errour of their minds It greatly honoureth Christ and Religion in the world when Believers live in love and unity And their discords and divisions have in all Ages been the scandal of the World and the great reproach and dishonour of the Church When Christ's Disciples are one in him it is the way to the Infidel-world's Conversion that they may believe that the Father sent him Joh. 17.24 And here the Devil hath two sorts of servants 1. The true Schismatick or Heretick who fearlesly and blindly divideth the Churches 2. The over-doing Papist and Church-Tyrant who will have a greater unity than Christ will here give us that so we may have none And when Christ prays that we may be one in him the Pope saith that we shall also be one in him or we shall be accounted Schismaticks and destroyed as such And when the Ancient Church according to Christ's Institution united all in the Baptismal Covenant explained in the Creed and Paul numbreth the necessary terms of unity Eph. 4.4 5 6. 1. One Body or Church of Christ into which we are baptized 2. One Spirit of Holiness in all 3. One Hope of the Glorious Reward 4. One Lord by whom we do attain it 5. One Faith even the Christian Verity 6. One Baptism or Covenant of Christianity 7. And One God and Father of all and in these God would have all his Servants to be One then come in these Over-doers and they must have us to be all One in all their Papal policy and all the Decrees of their Popes and Councels de Fide and in their multitude of corruptions and ceremonious impositions which is as much as to say You shall have no Vnity For he that saith to all the City or Kingdom You shall be destroyed for discord or reproached as dividers if you are not all of one Complexion or have not all the same Appetite Age or Bodily Stature doth pronounce reproach or destruction on them absolutely So is it with all others that put their self-devised terms on their Brethren as necessary to Unity and Peace on how pious or fair pretences soever Impossible conditions make the thing impossible These are the Church-tearing scandals These are the snares by which Satan hath made the Church a scorn and our Religion a Stumbling block to Turks and Heathens But had the Peace-makers been heard who learned of the Holy Ghost Act. 15. to impose nothing on the Brethren but necessary things and who have laboured to revive love and shame emulations and divisions God had been more glorified by men and the reproach of the Churches and solemn Assemblies taken away When all Sects and Parties have busled and raised a dust in the World to foul the Church and blind each other if ever the Churche's Glory be restored and our shame taken away it will be by men of Love and Peace by healing uniting reconciling principles and means XIX He that will glorifie God must live in and to the Will of God and seek to reduce his own will wholly into God's and to destroy in himself all will that striveth against God's Will 1. The disposing Will of God our Owner must be absolutely submitted to and the bounteous Will of God our Benefactor thankfully and joyfully acknowledged 2. The ruling Will of God our Law-giver must be with daily study and care obeyed and his punishing and rewarding Justice glorified 3. The final felicitating Will and Love of God our ultimate end and object that we may please him and be everlastingly pleased in him love him and be loved by him must be totally desired and sought as the only and perfect Rest of Souls O! that is the holy the joyful the honourable Christian who daily laboureth and in some good measure doth prevail to have no Will but the Will of God and that which wholly is resolved into it who looketh no further to know what he should do but to know by his Word what is the Law or Will of God who believeth that all that God willeth is good and had rather have his life and health and wealth and friends at God's will and disposal than his own who knoweth that God's Will is love it self and that to please him is the End of all the World and the only felicity of men and Angels and resteth wholly in the pleasing of that will What can be more wise and just than to have the same will objectively with him who is infinitely wise and just What can be more honourable than to have the same Will as God himself and so far as his Children to be like
with the horror and darkness of thy miserable estate dwell not too long at the gates of hell lest the devil pull thee in but wind thy self up again by renewed acts of faith and fly for refuge unto the hope that is set before thee Heb. 6.18 And all the way thou goest admire the infinite grace and love of God to thee in delivering thee from so great a death My brethren there 's no entring into the maze and labyrinth of sin without this clew in your hands Solitary considerations of sin if we dwell too long upon them will work too violently therefore we should make frequent transitions from sin to free grace from the Law to the Gospel from our miserable and wretched selves to our merciful and mighty Redeemer But you 'l say how can this be to pass from one contrary passion to another who can make such transitions The Schools tell us it must be per magnum conatum by some great endeavour that is a strain beyond ordinary and such endeavours we must put forth counting it as much our duty to rejoyce in mercy as to mourn for sin and we cannot do both at once though there be a connexion of divine Graces as well as moral vertues yet this implies rather a successive continuation than any simultaneousness at least as to the intense actings of different graces 't is true where there is one grace there is every grace that is in semine in the seed or root of it and it may be also as to some weaker latent actual influences yet those particular graces which upon different distinct considerations do work contrary passions in us they cannot be both intensely acted at the same time sed per vices intervalla there is a time to mourn and a time to rejoyce a time to fear and a time to hope particular graces do take their turns in the soul and act sutably unto the present occasion 2. Direction against despair for unbelievers convinced of sin but unacquainted with Christ and free Grace The distraction fear and amazement of spirit that seizes upon such is unexpressible till God break in upon them and begin with them speaking peace to them man can do little yet means must be used I shall name a few things 1. Look upon this conviction of sin thou lyest under rather as a mercy than a judgement as a token for good in as much as God hath given thee timely notice of thy danger and fair warning to flee from the wrath to come 2. Look upon thy self now in a far greater capacity for grace and pardon than ever heretofore 3. Set thy self with all seriousness to study the doctrine of free grace in Christ never more need than now meditate much upon the great goodness of God and his excellent loving kindness Psal 31.19 Psal 36.6 Intense thoughts of sin and slight perfunctory thoughts of mercy drive us to despair 4. Be perswaded to come to Christ under all thy fears Hast thou been as a Dove of the valley mourning on the mountains for thy iniquity Ezek. 7.16 come down from those mountains those solitary places and go weeping to the Lord Jer. 50.4 Bemoan thy self at the feet of Christ he will hear thee Jer. 31.18 19. tell God all thou hast to say of thy miserable condition complaining to thy self and to men signifies little it heightens thy fear but God sympathizes with thee Jer. 31.20 put thy self into his hands he will lead thee ver 9. refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord Acts 3.19 there will be a lifting up Job 22.29 what ever the issue be thou canst be no worse than thou art in thy own judgement to sin is mors animae but to despair is descendere in infernum sin is death and despair is hell cry out of the belly of that hell to Christ and see if he do not bring thee forth But alas those who are under a spirit of bondage and fear have a thousand objections against this I have been pressing them to I shall go over some of these and answer them as I go they come to Christ they 'l tell us They cannot come Tell the Lord then thou art willing to come but canst not be perswaded to come as thou canst canst thou not go into thy chamber into thy closet and shut thy door and throw thy self down in the dust before the Lord this is coming and this thou canst do I am sure do it then and call upon the name of the Lord. But Object 2 I cannot pray Answ It may be not now at this time but how canst thou tell what thou maist do at such a time when in obedience to an Ordinance of God thou hast put thy self into a praying posture in that very hour it may be given and hath been I am perswaded to thousands of God's children he will prepare thy heart Psal 10.17 if thou canst not utter thy mind as thou wouldest pray as thou canst and if thou hast nothing to say if no one savoury expression drops from thee it may be it is because the inward sense thou hast of sin is too big for utterance it may be so sometimes and 't is best when it is so and then out of the abundance of thy heart weep and mourn out thy inward meaning Lacrymae pondera vocis hahent groan and sigh and look wishfully towards heaven and believe that God sees thee when thou hast no sight of him this is prayer But Object 3 I have lived hitherto as without God in the world neglecting prayer altogether I am a mere stranger unto Christ and will he hear such a one as I who come upon this pinch just when necessity drives me certainly no he will tell me to my face as well he may he knows me not and bid me go to those empty creatures I formerly trusted in Answ Don't you take upon you to personate Christ in his dealings with sinners his thoughts are not as your thoughts what if you would do thus and thus if you were in Christs stead does it therefore follow that he must do so too O no as the heavens are higher than the earth so are his thoughts above thy thoughts Isa 55.8 9. do you think and say what you will Christ will act like himself and do that for thee that never entred into thy heart to conceive of his wayes are unsearchable and past our finding out his love passeth knowledge thou dost not know thou canst not tell before-hand what infinite rich grace is able to do for thee O come then and make a tryal and know for thy further encouragement that poor humble sinners are alwayes welcome to Christ but never more welcome than at their first coming Luke 15.22 c. There are two jubilees kept in heaven one at the conversion of a sinner here on earth Luke 15.7 the other at his glorification in heaven Jude 24. Christ does then present us to glory with exceeding joy how glad is Christ
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
Divine meditation Faith is enlarged and grows up by converse with divine objects meditate upon these things 1. Christ's Deity Be well stored with Scriptural knowledg of this great truth set thy heart to it and let it be fixed in the midst of thy heart assure your selves that the eternal Godhead of Jesus is the most practical point in Heaven and will be so while Heaven is Heaven 2. Be intimately acquainted with Christ's righteousness that it is the only righteousness that can present us holy unreprovable unblameable in God's sight that it was his business in the world to bring in this everlasting righteousness that it is done and finished that he hath nothing to do with this righteousness now in Heaven but to cloath us with to present us in before God 3. Meditate on God's righteousness that it is not only his will but his nature to punish sin sin must damn thee without Christ there is not only a possibility or probability that sin may ruine but without an interest in Christ it must do so whet much upon thy heart that must God cannot but hate sin because he is holy and he cannot but punish sin because he is righteous God must not forego his own nature to gratifie our humors 8. Direct Be well skilled and settled as it becomes a Christian in the great article of justification before God thy Faith and duties and comforts depend might and main upon this Know that no servant of God be he Abraham Moses or Paul if God enter into judgment with him can stand justified in his sight God will not justifie us without a righteousness and that righteousness must be unblamable and therefore in all numbers perfect God will not call that perfect which is not so for his judgment is according to truth Rom. 2.2 where shall we find this perfect righteousness but in Christ who is Jehovah our righteousness Jer. 23.6 and made of God to us righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 how shall this become ours but by imputation Rom. 4.6 how shall we receive this gift of righteousness but by Faith Rom. 5.17 be well skilled in the good old way go in the foot steps of the flock and feed besides the shepherds tents Believe it Sirs there is no way but Christ unto the Father his blood is that new and living way Heb. 10.19 there is no standing in God's presence but in him no acceptance but by him no comfort but from him Be wise and wary there are many adversaries Only give me leave to say this I think that the Socinians had never set up man's obedience for his righteousness if they had not with wicked hands quantum in illis first pulled down Chist's Deity and as they are abhorred for this blasphemy of blasphemies so I cannot abide them for dawbing over man's obedience in this affair so deceitfully and deceivingly viz. in saying it is not only causa sine quâ non in our justification as if the material cause or the matter which God imputes for righteousness were only a poor causa sine quâ non but no more now of this jugling 9. Direct If you would preserve a right understanding of the nature of Faith take heed of advancing it into Christ's place as if God should impute the act of Faith for righteousness or that God should impute Faith and obedience as the condition or matter of our righteousness and not Christ's obedience for both cannot be imputed if God imputed Christ's obedience then not ours if ours then not Christ's The nature of Faith consists in coming to Christ for righteousness and pardon only the man hurt with the fiery sting looks to the brazen Serpent for cure Fides que that Faith which is justifying takes in Christ as Lord with all the heart but qua justificat in the business of justifitation qua sic it looks only to Christ as crucified This plain old distinction will stand If the nature of Faith did consist in Christianity I say if this were true I believe all believers could be contented to have it so for any harm they should have by it for they willingly devote themselves to the obedience of God only they cannot make this Faith or Christianity to be the condition or matter of justification for this were to fall from grace to make of none effect the death of Christ and to drive Christianity and comfort out of the world 10. Direct Get and keep this Faith specially by a constant and conscionable living in duty and living above it Say to the commandements you are my rule and love and joy to Christ thou art my life Col. 3.4 'T is the height of Christianity to live in duties and to live above them 'T is quickly said 't is an easie matter to distinguish in the Schools or pulpit but to distinguish in the conscience practically to distinguish is not so easie qui novit distinguere inter legem evangelium sciat se esse edoctum à Deo Had I all the holiness of the Saints from the beginning to this day I would bless God for the least and prize it above all treasures yet I would lay all aside and be found in Christ In the midst of thy duties ask thy soul the question soul what is thy title thy plea If I were to dye this day what have I to plead in what shall I stand before God what have I to plead why I should not perish in hell ask thy self what is thy righteousness ask it solemnly frequently is it not Christ and he only this would much conduce to confirm thy Faith such a Faith that would bring in comfort The thoughts of this so affected Dr. Mollius that he seldom names Jesus with dry eyes 11. Direct Be much in secret prayer ejaculations this will breed acquaintance and that comfort the non exercise of this breeds a strangeness between God and the soul and that 's uncomfortable This and meditation who can hinder The soul is active breathings and thoughts are quick it is soon done it will never hinder your business and in this way the blessed spirit causeth us to know and believe the love that God hath to us 1 Joh. 4.16 and refresheth the soul with joy and comfort in believing Do not only pray for the comforts and supplies of the holy spirit but pray to him to this purpose Blessed spirit convince me of my sins more and convince me more and more of Jesus Christ Holy Spirit take of Christ's and shew it unto me and the like To pass by the prophane scoffs of many and the gross ignorance of more I take it to be a very great neglect in believers that they do not glorifie the Holy Spirit as the Lord and giver of Faith and comfort Remember this qui unum honorat omnes he that honoureth one person aright honoureth every one and he that doth not honour every person honoureth none qui non omnes nec unam 12. Direct If you would get and keep this
righteousness wisdom goodness c. It speaks the creature to have a due sense of what he is in himself a poor vile worthless nothing less than the least of all the mercies of God It speaks the due subjection of the creature's Will to the Will of his Creator and that he lives in an entire surrender and resignation of himself to the dispose of his Maker Is not this holy and gracious wherein doth grace more shew it self than in such things as these Contentment evidenceth much grace Discontentment much sin The former is a compound of several graces the latter a compound of several sins In a contented frame there 's Humility Faith Hope Patience Heavenly-mindedness Crucifixion to the world c. in a discontented frame there 's Pride Vnbelief Impatience Carnality nay practical Atheism it self The truth is contentment is better than any comfort which we want Discontent is worse than any evil which we feel no outward enjoyment is comparable to the good of the one no outward affliction is comparable to the evil of the other Highly pleasing to God 2. It 's a frame highly pleasing to God When a man is once brought to this to lay himself and all his Concerns at God's feet to say It is the Lord let him do with me and mine what seems him good I 'le like well of whatsoever he doth O this pleaseth God greatly We are well pleasing to him when his Providences are well pleasing to us The discontented Person is angry with God for which to be sure God is angry with him Nothing provokes God more than a murmuring and fretful spirit nothing pleases him more than a quiet Spirit Great advantages so our selves 3. The advantages of it to our selves are very great it fills with comfort He never wants comfort that lives Contentment A contented spirit is ever a chearful spirit 'T is an heaven upon earth as the opposite to it is an Hell upon earth 'T is the mind at rest in every condition A contented man hath not only the comfort of what he hath but also of what he hath not What he wants in outward possession is made up to him in inward submission It fits for Duty Lord When the heart is repining and mutinying against God how unfit is a man for Duty but when the spirit is still and quiet all is done well Passion unfits us for converse with men much more for converse with God in holy Duties 'T is sad praying when discontent prevails Animus aequus optimum est aerumnae condimentum Plaut It alwayes procures that very mercy which we desire or some other that is better for us Discontent makes us to lose what we have Contentment gets us what we want Fretting never removed a Cross nor procured a comfort quiet submission doth both The Father continues to correct the froward Child but when once it yields and is quiet he gives it any thing It sweetens every bitter Cup. This ingredient takes off the bitterness of every State as the wood cast by Moses did the bitterness of the Waters Nothing can come amiss to him that hath learned to be content Many such advantages do accrue from Contentment but as to the contrary vice 't is a thing greatly mischievous 'T is a sad inlet to Sin what will not a man do when he is under the power of discontent he 'l shift for himself use unlawful means do any thing to better his condition if nothing will do this for him he can even lay violent hands upon himself Oh that we had not too many sad examples of this 'T is a sad preparation to all temptations the Devil will be sure to be fishing where the waters are troubled as Flies settle upon the galled back so the Tempter betakes himself to the man that is in pain with his condition It deprives of Happiness for the discontented person alwayes thinks himself miserable and so he can never be happy Nemo felix est qui suo judicio miser est Salvian de Provid It exposes to dreadful judgments What severe punishments did the Israelites murmuring bring upon them Read Numb 14. per. tot Psal 106.24 25. 1 Cor 10.10 Now if these things were but laid to heart and seriously considered by Christians would not the consideration thereof much conduce to their attaining and living of Contentment Certainly the due fixing and working of the thoughts upon the excellency of this frame of the Sin and evil of the contrary frame vvould be of great use and very effectual towards the composing and quieting of their spirits in every condition Suppose it pleaseth the Lord so or so to afflict me to exercise me with such or such things which are very cross to my desires and hereupon I find my heart to begin to be moved vvhat 's now to be done to prevent the further growth of Passion why I 'le retire and vveigh with my self what a gracious temper of Soul contentment is vvhat a sinful and cursed temper of Soul discontent is how much I shall please God and profit my self by the one how much I shall offend God and prejudice my self by the other this my thoughts shall stay upon and I 'le reason with my self Why art thou O my Soul thus disquieted within me Psal 42.11 This is the Course which I resolve to take in my afflicted condition to keep my heart still and composed hoping that God will bless it to the end Ay and so do for 't is a good one and many by experience have found the benefit of it But to close this Head We are undone for want of Consideration the world groans under the mischievous effects of inconsideracy which might be made out in several particulars I shall go no furtherâ— than that one thing vvhich I am upon Whence is it that there is amongst Men amongst Professors so little of Contentment that so few have learnt in every state to be content that impatience repining quarelling with God discontent are so epidemical that the most live in the dislike of their condition I say whence is this I answer 't is in a great measure from the general neglect of Consideration Could vve but bring men to this Contentation vvould not be so rare a thing as now it is I do not assert this one Means to be sufficient but believe me it would go very far Well as any of you desire for the time to come to be as here Paul was vvhenever any thing troubles you see that you fall upon consideration and draw it to these three Heads Who orders your state How your state is circumstantiated What the frame it self is So much for the first thing in the Direction the special Matter upon which Consideration is to be acted in order to Contentment I go on to the second Particular cases wherein Consideration is to be acted in order to Contentment viz. to instance in some of those special Cases unto which contentment doth mainly refer
fed with these comforts have no losses or crosses in the world we are apt to grow proud secure wanton to forget God to cast off Duty to dream of an earthly paradise to say it's good being here to neglect spiritual and divine things 't is high time therefore for God by these waies to cut us short thereby to reduce us to a little better temper of soul If the sap run out too much into the branches there 's no way to preserve the root but by the cutting off the luxuriant branches God will have a thousand Estates to be lost rather than that one soul should be lost the burning of Cities is nothing if that be necessary to the saving of souls 4. Suppose all be lost in that All we lost but little for the All of this world is but one remove from a mere Nothing Perdidit infoelix totum nil is applicable to the losses of the rich as well as of the poor Is there any thing in this but what might be expected from the nature of the thing therefore there should be no disturbance about it Who will be concern'd at the melting of snow what wise man will be moved for the breaking of a glass 'T is strange that a Jonah should be in such a pet for the withering of a gourd Prov. 27.24 Riches are not for ever and doth the Crown endure to every generation 1 Cor. 7.31 The fashion of this world passeth away All the estate here is made up of Moveables that usual distinction which is good in Law is not so in Divinity 5. Again thou sayest all is lost perdiderat omnia quae dederat Deus sed hahuit ipsem qui omnia dederat Deum August but if thou beest a child of God the best is yet secure God and Christ and Grace and Heaven are yet thine and no loss is very considerable so long as these are safe O believer in all thy losses be quiet and chearful God who is thy portion is the same for ever Job lost all he had from God but God himself he did not lose and in him he had all that he had lost Never complain till God be lost Fas tibi non est de fortunâ conqueri salvo Caesare said Seneca to Polybius Let the stars disappear if we may have the Sun who will be troubled let earthly things vanish so long as God abides 't is enough Had we the whole world to lose one God would abundantly recompense the loss of all of it Many are inward gainers by their outward losses by having the less of the Creature they have the more of God O happy exchange the worse their condition is without the better it is within in respect of grace and comfort 6. 'T is an excellent frame of spirit under losses to be patient and contented All the possessions of Job when he was in the height of them did not reflect so much glory upon him as his blessed submission when he was deprived of them then God blessed him now in another sense he blessed God All are convinced they should do this when God gives but 't is very rare for any to do it when God takes away Micah's mother had some shekels of silver taken from her and she falls a cursing Judg. 17.2 this precious Saint had all taken from him yet no cursing as Satan had belied him no nothing but blessing God 'T is an excellent temper comfortably to enjoy outward blessings whilst God shall continue them contentedly to part with them when God shall remove them Suave est si quid dás parvus dolor hoc ubi tollis When I see any carrying it thus I conclude that earthly things are not too fast rivetted in their hearts as 't is a sign the tooth is loose which is drawn out without much pain and that they are duly affected towards God heaven and heavenly things These are some of the things the due consideration whereof would much help on Contentment under Losses And so much for the using of this Means towards the furtherance of tranquillity of mind with respect to what may disturb it in and about the Estate How Consideration ought to be acted in order to Contentment under cr ssâ—s in Relations 2. Secondly I 'le instance in Relations In and about whom there is as much of mercy or affliction of comfort or discomfort and consequently of content or discontent as in any one thing whatsoever The Discontent usually is occasioned and vented in these three Cases The want of Relations much desired The death of Relations much beloved The uncomfortableness of Relations who are spared Now Consideration wisely and faithfully managed would be of great use to allay all storms and to keep the heart even and calm in all these Cases and therefore my next work is to shew what we are under each of them to consider in order to the promoting of this frame But I must of necessity be briefer under this Head than I was under the former that I may not draw out this Discourse to too great a length Wherefore I will but shortly set the Particulars before you that you are to consider of and leave the enlargement of them to your selves in your consideration 1. When Relations are much desired but denied and withheld there is too often discontent How as to the want of Relations desired As to instance only in Children what daily inquietudes of spirit are there in some because of the want of these they have many other Comforts but the not having of this imbitters all Abraham himself was much troubled about it Gen. 15.2 3. Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless Behold to me thou hast given no seed and lo one born in my house is mine heir But Rachel's passion rose very high Give me Children saith she to her husband or else I die Gen. 30.2 Children are very great blessings they are promised as such Psal 128.3 4. and in other places and indeed they are one of the sweetest flowers that grow in the garden of earthly comforts hence 't is hard for persons contentedly to bear the want of them But whoever you are upon whom this affliction lies pray labour after a contented mind under it and in order thereunto Consider 1. It is the Lord who withholds this mercy for he gives it or withholds it as seems good to him Providence is not more seen in any of the affairs and Concerns of men than in this of Children that there shall be many or few some or none Gen. 32. all falls under the good pleasure and dispose of God When Rachel was so passionate under the want of these Jacob rebuked her sharply am I in God's stead who hath withheld from thee the fruit of thy womb Psal 127.9 Lo children are an inheritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward Psal 113.9 He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of
aliqua ex Parte cum statús sui qualitate rixetur Idem ibid. Oh this is much to be lamented Let us bring it down to our selves Paul had learnt in every state to be content we have scarce learnt in any state to be content We are not well either full or fasting When it's Summer then 't is too hot when 't is winter then 't is too cold Every condition is more or less uneasie to us If it be Mercy we complain it is not enough if affliction we complain 't is too much and so we are alwayes in statu querulo moroso as he in Seneca expresseth it The great God is willing to be pleased with what we do but how hard are we to be pleased with what he doth He finds no fault with our duties though attended with many defects if done in sincerity we will be finding fault with his Providences though there be nothing in them but what speaks infinite Wisdom and Goodness The generality of men carry it as if the fretting leprosie was upon them yea many even of those who belong to God are too much sick of this disease Surely if he was not a long-suffering and compassionate Father he would not bear as he doth with such froward Children The most like their inward state too well and their outward state too ill Such who have the world are contented without God Such who have God are not contented without the world It being thus is it not highly necessary that we should for the time to come set our selves with our utmost diligence to get a Contented spirit May be we dare not let the fire of our passion break forth but it lies smothering and hid in the heart when shall it be quite extinguished oh that that might be wholly cast out and that instead thereof sedateness of mind submission to God contentation in every condition might come in into the soul My Brethren will you fall upon the studying of this excellent lesson of Contentment You have learnt nothing in Christianity till you have learnt this you are no better than Abcedarians in Religion if you have not mastered this great piece of practical knowledg You have heard much read much of contentment but have you learnt it so as to live in the daily practice of it pray take up with nothing short of that The design of this Sermon hath been to help you herein to direct you what you are to do in order to Contentment Now will you make use of the Directions that have been given viz. to be considerative godly praying persons These are the best remedies that I could think of against that Spiritual Choler that doth so much trouble you Use them and I hope you will find the vertue and efficacy of them to this end Look to your state and course that you be godly when any thing troubles you retire for Consideration and Prayer hold on in this way and in tim you also will be able to speak these great words as to your selves that you have learnt in every state to be content How to bear Afflictions Serm. XXVII HEB. 12.5 My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him Prov. 3.12 THe words are an excellent passage from the Book of the Proverbs wherein the Supreme eternal Wisdom is represented giving instruction to the afflicted how to behave themselves under troubles so as they may prove beneficial to them the counsel is that they should preserve a temperament of Spirit between the excess and defect of patience and courage and neither despising the Chastenings of the Lord by a sinful neglect of them as a small unconcerning matter nor fainting under them as a burden so great and oppressing that no deliverance was to be expected To enforce the exhortation Wisdom useth the amiable and endearing title My Son to signifie that God in the quality of a Father afflicts his people the consideration whereof is very proper to conciliate reverence to his hand and to encourage their hopes of a blessed issue The Proposition that ariseth from the words is this 'T is the duty and best Wisdom of Afflicted Christians to preserve themselves from the vicious extreams of despising the chastenings of the Lord or fainting under them To illustrate this by a clear method I shall endeavour to shew 1. What it is to despise the chastenings of the Lord and the causes of it 2. What fainting under his rebukes signifies and what makes us incident to it 3. Prove that 't is the duty and best wisdom of the afflicted to avoid these extreams 4. Apply it 1. To despise the chastening of the Lord imports the making no account of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as unworthy of serious regard and includes inconsiderateness of mind and an insensibleness of heart 1. Inconsiderateness of mind with respect to the Author or end of Chastenings Job 5.6 1. With respect to the Author when the afflicted looks only downwards as if the rod of affliction sprang out of the dust and there were no superior cause that sent it Thus many apprehend the evils that befall them either merely as the productions of natural causes or as casual events or the effects of the displeasure and injustice of men but never look on the other side of the veil of the second causes to that invisible providence that orders all If a disease strikes their bodies they attribute it to the extremity of heat or cold that distempers their humours if a loss comes in their estates 't is ascribed to chance to the carelessness and falseness of some upon whom they depended but God is concealed from their sight by the nearness of the immediate agent whereas the principal cause of all temporal evils is the over-ruling Providence of God Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 They come not only with his knowledg and will but by his efficiency Exod. 10.13 19. The Locusts that infected Egypt were as real an effect of God's wrath as the most miraculous Plague although an East-wind brought them and a West-wind carried them away The arrow that was shot at a venture and pierc't between the joynts of Ahab's armour was directed by the hand of God for his destruction 1 King 22.34 Shimei's cursing of David though it was the overflowing of his Gall the effect of his malignity yet that holy King lookt higher 1 Sam. 16.11 and acknowledged the Lord hath bidden him As the Lord is a God of power and can inflict what judgments he pleaseth immediately so he is a God of Order and usually punisheth in this world by subordinate means Now where ever he strikes though his hand is wrapt up in a cloud yet if it be not observed especially if by habitual incogitancy men consider not with whom they have to do in their various troubles this profane neglect is no less than a despising the
chastenings of the Lord. 2. Inconsiderateness of the end of the Divine discipline is a great degree of contempt The evils that God inflicts are as real a part of his providence as the blessings he bestows as in the course of nature the darkness of the night is by his order as well as the light of the day therefore they are alwayes sent for some wise and holy design Sometime though more rarely they are only for tryal to exercise the Faith humility patience of eminent Saints for otherwise God would lose in a great measure the honour and renown and his favourites the reward of those graces afflictions being the sphere of their activity But for the most part they are castigatory to bring us to a sight and sense of our state to render sin more evident and odious to us They are fully exprest by pouring from vessel to vessel that dâ—scovers the dregs and sediment and makes it offensive that before was concealed The least affliction even to the godly is usually an application of the physician of spirits for some growing distemper every corrosive is for some proud flesh that must be taken away In short they are deliberate dispensations to cause men to reflect upon their works and wayes and break off their sins by sincere obedience Therefore we are commanded to bear the voice of the rod and who hath appointed it 'T is a preacher of repentance Micah 6.9 to lead us to the knowledg and consideration of our selves The distress of Joseph's brethren was to revive their memory of his sorrows caused by their cruelty now when men disregard the embassy of the rod are unconvincible notwithstanding its lively lessons when they neither look up to him that strikes nor within to the cause that provokes his displeasure when they are careless to reform their wayes and to comply with his only will as if afflictions were only common accidents of this mutable state the effects of rash fortune or blind fate without design and judgment and not sent for their amendment this is a prodigious despiseing of God's hand For this reason the Scripture compares men to the most inobservant creatures to the wild asse's colt Job 11.12 Psal 58.4 Hos 7.11 the deaf adder to the silly dove without heart and the advantage is on the beasts side for their inconsideration proceeds merely from the incapacity of matter of which they are wholly compos'd to perform reflex acts but man's incogitancy is in sole fault of his spirit that wilfully neglects his duty The Prophet charges this guilt upon the Jews Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see Isa 26.11 2. Insensibility of heart is an eminent degree of despising the Lord's chastenings A pensive feeling of judgments is very congruous whether we consider them in genere Physico or Morali either materially as afflictive to nature or as the signs of divine displeasure for the affections were planted in the humane nature by the hand of God himself and are duly exercised in proportion to the quality of their objects And when grace comes it softens the breast and gives a quick and tender sense of God's frown An eminent instance we have in David though of heroical courage yet in his sad ascent to mount Olivet 2 Sam. 15.30 he went up weeping with his head covered and his feet bare to testifie his humble and submissive sense of God's anger against him Now when men are insensible of judgments either considered as natural or penal evils if when they suffer the loss of relations or other troubles they presently fly to the comforts of the Heathens that we are all mortal and what can't be help't must be endured without the sense humanity requires that calm is like that of the dead sea a real curse or suppose natural affection works a little yet there is no apprehension and concernment for God's displeasure which should be infinitely more affecting than any outward trouble how sharp soever no serious deep humiliation under his hand no yielding up our selves to his management this most justly provokes him Of this temper were those described by Jeremiah Jer. 5 3â— Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they refused to receive correction 2. The causes of this despiseing of God's chastenings are 1. A contracted stupidity of soul proceeding from a course in sin There is a natural stubborness and contumacy in the heart against God a vicious quality derived from rebellious Adam we are all hewn out of the rock and dig'd out of the quary and this is one of the worst effects of sin and a great part of its deceitfulness that by stealth it encreaseth the natural hardness Heb. 3.13 Zech. 7.12 by degrees it creeps on like a gangrene and causes an indolency The practice of sin makes the heart like an adamant the hardest of stones that exceeds that of rocks For hence proceeds such unteachableness of the mind that when God speaks and strikes yet sinners will not be convinc't that briars and thorns are only effectual to teach them and such untractableness in the will that when the sinner is stormed by affliction and some light breaks into the understanding yet it refuseth to obey God's call 2. Carnal diversions are another cause of slighting God's hand Luke 21.34 The pleasures and cares of the world as they render men inapprehensive of judgments to come so regardless of those that are present Some whenever they feel the smart of a cross use all the arts of oblivion to lose the sense of it The affliction instead of a leading them to repentance leads them to vain conversations to Comedies and other sinful delights to drive away sorrow Others although they do not venture upon forbidden things to relieve their melancholy yet when God by short and sensible admonitions calls upon them they have presently recourse to temporal comforts which although lawful and innocent in themselves yet are as unproper at that time as the taking of a cordial when a vomit begins to work for whereas chastisements are sent to awaken and affect us by considering our sins in their bitter fruits this unseasonable application of sensual comforts wholly defeats God's design For nothing so much hinders serious consideration as a voluptuous indulging the senses in things pleasing like opiate medicines they stupifie the conscience and benum the heart 'T is Solomon's expression I said of laughter it is mad for as distraction breaks the connexion of the thoughts so mirth shuffles our most serious thoughts into disorder and causes men to pass over their troubles without reflexion and remorse And as the pleasures so the business of the world causes a sâ—pine Security under judgments We have an amazing instance of it in Hiel the Bethelite 1 Kings 16. who laid the foundation of his city in the death of his first-born and set up the gates of it in his youngest son yet he was so
judgment of things we have not the least cause to suspect the love of God when he chastises us to take away sin the only abominable object of his hatred and deep detestation and to render us partakers of the divine nature And the present peaceable fruit of righteousness is the product in those who are duly exercised by their troubles It is an allusion to the reward of the conquerers in the Olympick games who had a crown of Olives the embleme and shadow of peace But true peace a divine calm in the conscience shall be the recompence of all that exercise the graces suitable to an afflicted state In short the Apostle assures Believers 1 Cor. 11.32 that they are chastened of the Lord to prevent their condemnation with the world 'T is this rod truely delivers them from hell 't is this consideration that changes thorns into roses and extracts honey out of worm-wood If the way be stony or flowry that leads to blessedness a Christian should willingly walk in it To conclude from the consideration of what the Scripture declares concerning temporal evils Let us lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for our feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way but let it rather be healed i. e. in our affliction let us take courage and resolution from the promises and live in a holy conformity to God's will that the weak or faint may be restored The first and last â—â—sson of Pagan Philosophy was to support men under the storms to which 〈◊〉 are liable in this open state to render the soul velut pelagi rupes imâ—â—â—â— â—s a rock unshaken by the waves But all their directions were unsuccessful and so could not secure them from impatience or despair but the Gospel that assures us of the love of God in sending afflictions for our spiritual and eternal good is alone able to compose the mind And when ever we faint in troubles 't is either from infidelity or inconsideration 'T is impossible a person should be a Christian and be incapable of comfort in the most afflicted state for we are really so by the holy Spirit who is the Comforter When we speak sometimes to those we judge infirm we speak to Infidels who only receive remedy from time which they ought to receive from Faith they have the Name of God only in their mouths but the world is in their hearts their passions are strong and obstinate not subject to sanctified reason the difficulty they have of being comforted discovers the necessity of their being afflicted they need conversion more than consolation Others who are sincere in the Faith yet are apt to faint under troubles from an errour like that of the Apostles when their Lord came upon the waters in a stormy tempestuous night to their assistance they though he was a spirit so they look on God as an enemy when he comes to sanctifie and save them The soveraign remedy of our sorrows is to correct the judgment of sense by a serious belief of God's promise thus we shall reconcile the roughness of his hand with the sweetness of his voice He calls to us from heaven in the darkest night 't is I be not afraid he corrects us with the heart and hand of a Father A due consideration of these things will produce a glorified joy in the midst of our sufferings Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope How we may bring our Hearts to bear Reproofs Serm. XXVIII Psal 141.5 Let the Righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him Reprove me it shall be an excellent Oyl which shall not break my Head for yet my Prayer also shall be in their Calamities IT is generally agreed by Expositors that this Psalm as that foregoing with two of those that follow were composed by David in the Time of his Banishment or slight from the Court of Saul The state wherein he describeth himself to have been the matter of his Pleas and Prayers contained in them with sundry express circumstances regarding that season and his condition therein do manifest that to have been the time of their composure That the Psalmist was now in some distress whereof he was deeply sensible is evident from that vehemency of his spirit which he expresseth in the reiteration of his request or Supplication v. 1. And by his desire that his Prayer might come before the Lord as Incense and the lifting up of his hands as the evening Sacrifice v. 2. The Jewish Expositors guess not improbably that in that Allusion he had regard unto his present exclusion from the Holy services of the Tabernacle which in other places he deeply complains of For the matter of his Prayer in this beginning of the Psalm for I shall not look beyond the Text it respecteth himself and his deportment under his present condition which he desireth may be harmless and holy becoming himself and useful unto others And whereas he was two wayes liable to miscarry First by too high an exasperation of spirit against his Oppressors and Persecutors and Secondly by a fraudulent and pufillanimous compliance with them in their wicked courses which are the two extremes that men are apt sinfully to run into in such conditions he prays earnestly to be delivered from them both The first he hath respect unto v. 3. Set a watch O Lord before my Mouth keep the door of my Lips namely that he might not under those great provocations which were given him break forth into an unseemly intemperance of speech against his unjust Oppressors which sometimes fierce and unreasonable Cruelties will wrest from very sedate and moderate spirits But it was the desire of this Holy Psalmist as in like cases it should be ours that his heart might be alwayes preserved in such a frame under the conduct of the Spirit of God as not to be surprized into an expression of Distempered passion in any of his words or sayings The other he regards in his earnest Supplication to be delivered from it v. 4. Incline not my Heart unto any evil thing to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity and let me not eat of their Dainties There are two parts of his request unto the purpose intended 1st That by the Power of God's grace influencing his mind and Soul his heart might not be inclined unto any Communion or Society with his wicked Adversaries in their wickedness 2ly That he might be preserved from a liking of or a longing after those things which are the baits and allurements whereby men are apt to be drawn into Societies and Conspiracies with the workers of iniquity And let me not eat of their Dainties See Prov. 1.10 11 12 13 14. For he here describeth the condition of men prospering for a season in a course of wickedness They first joyntly give up themselves