they are sins § 73. Direct 6. And indeed do you not know that it is a sin to love the world better than God Direct 6. and fleshly pleasure better than Gods service and Riches better than grace and holiness and to do more for the body than for the soul and for earth than for Heaven Are you uncertain whether these are sins And do you not feel that they are your sins You cannot pretend ignorance for these But what causeth your Ignorance Is it because you would fain know and cannot Do you read and hear and study and enquire and pray for knowledge and yet cannot know Or is it not because you would not know or think it not worth the pains to get it or because you love your sin And will such wilful ignorance as this excuse you No it doth make your sin the greater It sheweth the greater dominion of sin when it can use thee as the Philistines did Sampson put out thy eyes and make a â—rudge of thee and conquer thy Reason and make thee believe that evil is good and good is evil Now it hath mastered the principal fortress of thy soul when thy understanding is mastered by it He is reconciled indeed to his enemy who taketh him to be a friend Do you not know that God should have your heart and Heaven should have your chiefest care and diligence and that you should make the Word of God your Rule and your delight and meditation day and night If you know not these things it is because you would not know them And it is a miserable case to be given up to a blinded mind Take heed lest at last you commit the horridst sins and do not know them to be sins For such there are that mock at Godliness and persecute Christians and Ministers of Christ and know not that they do ill but think they do God service John 16. 2. If a man will make himself drunk and then kill and steal and abuse his neighbours and say I knew not that I did ill it shall not excuse him This is your case You are drunken with the love of fleshly pleasure and worldly things and these carry you so away that you have neither heart nor time to study the Scriptures and hear and think what God saith to you and then say that you did not know § 74. Tempt 7. But saith the Tempter it cannot be a mortal reigning sin because it is not committed Tempt 7. with the whole heart nor without some strugling and resistance Dost thou not feel the Spirit striving against the flesh And so it is with the Regenerate Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 20 21 22 23. The good which thou dost not do thou wouldst do and the evil which thou dost thou wouldst not do so then it is no more thou that dost it but sin that dwelleth in thee In a sensual unregenerate person there is but one party there is nothing but flesh but thou feelest the combat between the Flesh and the Spirit within thee § 75. Direct 7. This is a snare so subtile and dangerous that you have need of eyes in your head Direct 7. to scape it Understand therefore 1. That as to the two Texts of Scripture much abused by the Tempter they speak not at all of mortal reigning sin but of the unwilling infirmities of such as had subdued all such sin and walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit and whose wills were habitually bent to good and fain would have been perfect and not have been guilty of an idle thought or word or of any imperfection in their holiest service but lived up to all that the Law requireth but this they could not do because the flesh did cast many stops before the will in the performance But this is nothing to the case of one that liveth in gross sin and an ungodly life and hath strivings and convictions and uneffectual wishes to be better and to turn but never doth it This is but sinning against Conscience and resisting the Spirit that would convert you and it maketh you worthy of many stripes as being rebellious against the importunities of Grace Sin may be resisted where it is never conquered It may Reign nevertheless for some contradiction Every one that resisteth the King doth not depose him from his Throne It 's a dangerous deceit to think that every good desire that contradicteth sin doth conquer it and is a sign of saving grace It must be a desire after a state of godliness and an effectual desire too There are degrees of Power some may have a less and limited power and yet be Rulers As the evil Spirits that possessed mens bodies were a Legion in one and What Resistance of sin may be in the ungodly but one in others yet both were possessed So is it here Grace is not without resistance in a holy Soul there is some remnants of corruption in the will it self resisting the good and yet it followeth not that Grace doth not Rule So is it in the sin of the unregenerate No man in this life is so good as he will be in Heaven or so bad as he will be in Hell Therefore none is void of all moral good And the least good will resist evil in its degree as Light doth darkness As in these cases § 76. 1. There is in the unregenerate a remnant of natural knowledge and conscience some discoveries of God and his will there are in his works God hath not left himself without witness See Acts 14. 17. 17. 27. Rom. 1. 19 20. 2. 7 8 9. This Light and Law of Nature governed the Heathens And this in its measure resisteth sin and assisteth conscience § 77. 2. When supernatural extrinsick Revelation in the Scripture is added to the Light and Law of Nature and the ungodly have all the same Law as the best it may do more § 78. 3. Moreover an ungodly man may live under a most powerful Preacher that will never let him alone in his sins and may stir up much fear in him and many good purposes and almost perswade him to be a true Christian and not only to have some uneffectual wishings and strivings against sin but to do many things after the Preacher as Herod did after Iohn and to escape the common pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. 20. § 79. 4. Some sharp affliction added to the rest may make him seem to others a true penitent when he is stopt in his course of sin as Balaam was by the Angel with a drawn Sword and feeth that he cannot go on but in danger of his life and that God is still meeting him with some cross and hedging up his way with thorns for such mercy he sheweth to some of the ungodly this may not only breed resistance of sin but some reformation When the Babylonians were planted in Samaria they feared not God and he sent Lyons among them and then they feared him and
whatsoever the will desireth is either as an End or as a Means That which is not desired as a Means to some Higher end is desired as our ultimate end it â—â—â—â— in that act But God only is mans lawful ultimate end He is a good Christian that remoteâ—â— and ultimately referreth all the creatures unto God and eateth and drinketh c. more to fit him for Gods service than to please the flesh But it is much more than this which the Creature was appointed for even for a present communication of the sense of the goodness of God unto the heart As the Musician that touchem but the Keys of his Harpsical or Organs causeth that sweet harmonious sound which we hear from the strings that are touched within so God ordained the order beauty sweetness c. of the Creature to touch the sense with such a pleasure as should suddenly touch the inward sense with an answerable delight in God who is the giver of the life of every Creature But a as where is the Christian that doth thus eat and drink and thus take pleasure in all his Mercies When contrarily our hearts are commonly so diverted from God by the Creature that so much delight as we find in it so much we lose of our delight in God yea of our regard and remembrance of him 2. Because it is against an express command 1 Cor. 10. 31. whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God 3. Because else we shall take Gods creatures in vain and cast them away in waste 4. And we shall lose our own Benefit to which the Creature or Pleasure should be improved 5. And we shall silence Reason when it should direct and we shall suspend the Government of the will and give the government so long to the flesh or bruitish appetite For that faculty ruleth who object is our end These reasons clearly prove it a sin to terminate our desires in any act of flesh-pleasing as our end and look no higher when it is a matter of moral choice and deliberation 11. But the sin here is not simply that the flesh is pleased but that the duty of referring it to a higher end is omitted so that it is a sin of omission unless we proceed to refer hetter things as a means to it 12. The intending of Gods Glory or our spiritual good cannot be distinctly and sensibly re-acted in every particular pleasure we take or bit we eat or thing we use But a sincere Habitual Intention well laid at first in the Heart will serve to the right use of many particular Means As a man purposeth at his first setting out to what place he meaneth to go and afterward goeth on though at every step he think not sensibly of his end so he that devoteth himself to God and in general designeth all to his Glory and the furtherance of his duty and salvation will carry on small particulars to that â—nd by a secret unobserved action of the soul performed at the same time with other actions which only are observed He that intendeth but his health in eating and drinking is not remembring his health at every bit and cup and yet hath such a Habit of care and caution as will unobservedly keep him in his way and help him to fit the means unto the end As the accustomed hand of a Musicion can play a Lesson on his Lute while he thinks of something else so can a resolved Christian faithfully do such accustomed things as eating and drinking and cloathing him and labouring in his calling to the good ends which he first actually and still habitually resolved on without a distinct remembrance and observable intention of that end 13. The body must be kept in that condition as far as we can that is fittest for the service of the soul As you keep your Horse neither so pampered as to be unruly nor yet so low as to disable him for travel But all that health and strength which makes it not unruly maketh it the more serviceable It is not the Life of the Body but the Health and the Cheerfulness which maketh it fit for duty And so much pleasing of the flesh as tendeth but to its Health and Cheerfulness is a duty where it can be done without greater hurt the other way A heavy body is but a dull and heavy servant to the mind yea a great impediment to the soul in duty and a great temptation to many sins as sickly and melancholy persons and many dull and phlegmatick people know by sad experience It is as great a duty to help the Body to its due alacrity and fitness for service as it is to tame Yet it 's true which Petrarch saith li. 2. Dial. 3. Valetudo infirma Comes injucunda est sed fidelis quae te crebro vellicet iter signet conditionis admoneat Optimum in periculis monitor fidus Et i. 1. Dial 3. Multis periculosa pestilens sanitus est qui tutius aegrotassent Nusquam pejus quam in sano corpore aeger animus habitat Et Dial. 4. Quamvis mala quamvis pessima aegritudo videatur optabile malum tamen quod mali remedium sit majoris it and bring it under by fasting and sackcloth when it is proud or lustfull And they that think fasting on certain days in a formal manner is acceptable to God when the state of the body is not helpt but rather hurt and hindered by it as if it were a thing required for it self do mistakingly offer a Sacrifice to God which he requireth not and take him to be an enemy to man that desireth his pain and grief when it tendeth not to his good A Mower that hath a good Sythe will do more in a day than another that hath a bad one can do in two every Workman knoweth the benefit of having his Tools in order And every Traveller knows the difference between a cheerful and a tired Horse And they that have tryed health and sickness know what a help it is in every work of God to have a healthful body and cheerful spirits and an alacrity and promptitude to obey the mind When the sights of prospects and beauteous buildings and fields and countrys or the use of walks or gardens do tend to raise the soul to holy contemplation to admire the Creator and to think of the glory of the life to come as Bernard used his pleasant walks this Delight is lawful if not a duty where it may be had So when Musick doth cheer the mind and fit it for thanks and praise to God And when the Rest of the Body and the use of your best Apparel and moderate feasting on the Lords Day and other days of Thanksgiving do promote the spiritual service of the day they are good and profitable but to those that are more hindered by fulness even abstinence on such days is best So that the use of the body must be judged
in the most adorned manner and do all that Harlots can do to make themselves a snare to fools do put the charitable hard to it whether to believe that it is their tongues or their backs that are the lyer As Hierome saith Thou deservest Hell though none be the worse for thee for thou broughtest the poyson if there had been any to drink it Let thy apparel be suited not only to thy rank but to thy disease If thou be enclined to lust go the more meanly clad thy self and gaze not on the ornaments of others It s folly indeed that will be enamoured on the Taylors work yet this is so common that its frequently more the apparel than the person that â—ntiseth first and homely rags would have prevented the deceit As the Poet saith Auferimur cultu gemmis auroque teguntur Omnia pars minima est ipsa puella sui Ovid. de Remed Am. § 13. Direct 11. Think on thy tempting object as it is within and as it shortly will appear without Direct 11. How ordinary is it for that which you call Beauty to be the portion of a fool and a fair skin to cover a silly childish pievish mind and a soul that is enslaved to the Devil And as Solomon saith Prov 11. 22. As a jewel of Gold in a Swines snout so is a fair woman without discretion And will you lust after an such adorned thing Think also what a dunghill of filth is covered with all those ornaments that it would turn thy stomach if thou sawest what is within them And think what a face that would be if it were but covered with the Pox and what a face it will be when sickness or age hath consumed or wrinkled it And think what thy admired Carkass will be when it hath lain a few days in the grave Then thou wouldst have little mind of it And how quickly will that be O man there is nothing truly amiable in the Creature but the image of God the wisdom and holiness and righteousness of the soul. Love this then if thou wilt Love with wisdom with purity and safety For the Love of Purity is pure and safe § 14. Direct 12. Think on thy own death and how fast thou hastest to another world Is a lustful Direct 12. heart a seemly temper for one that is ready to dye and ready to see God and come into that world where there is nothing but pure and holy doth abide § 15. Direct 13. Consider well the tendency and fruits of lust that it may still appear to your Direct 13. minds as ugly and terrible as it is indeed 1. Think what a shame it is to the soul that can no better rule the body and that is so much defiled by its lusts 2. Think what an unfit companion it is to lodge in the same heart with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit shall a member of Christ be thus polluted shall the Temple of the Holy Ghost be thus turned into a Swine sty Is lust fit to dwell with the Love of God wilt thou entertain thy Lord with such odious company what an unkindness and injury is this to God that when he that dwelleth in the highest Heavens condescendeth to take up a dwelling in thy heart thou shouldst bring these Toads and Snakes into the same room with him Take heed lest he take it unkindly and be gone He hath said he will dwell with the humble and contrite heart but where said he I will dwell in a lustful heart 3. Think how unfit it makes thee for Prayer or any holy address to God What a shame and fear and deadness it casts upon thy spirit 4. And think how it tends to worse Lust tendeth to actual filthiness and that to Hell cherish not the Eggs if thou wouldst have none of the Brood It s an easie step from a Lustful heart to a defiled body and a shorter step thence to everlasting horrour than you imagine As St. Iames saith Every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust and entised then when lust both conceived it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death Jam. 1. 13 14. Gal. 6. 8. If ye sow to the flesh of the flesh ye shall reap corruption Remember that Lust is the spawn of sin and sin is the way to Hell § 16. Direct 14. Be sure to keep up a holy constant Government over thy Thoughts Suffer them not Direct 14. to go after tempting filthy sensual things As soon as ever a thought of Lust comes into thy mind abhor it and cast it out Abundance of the cure and of thy safety lyeth upon thy Thoughts They that let their Thoughts run uncontrolled and seed on filthiness are already fornicators in the heart and are hatching the Cockatrice Eggs and no wonder if from Thoughts they proceed to deeds O what a deal of uncleanness is committed by the Thoughts which people are little ashamed of because they are unseen of men If the Thoughts of many were open to beholders what wantonness and lust would appear in many adorned Sepulchres Even in the time of holy Worship when once such give the unclean spirit possession of their thoughts how hardly is he cast out they can scarce look a comely person in the face without some vicious thought If Hierome confess that in his Wilderness his Thoughts were running among the Ladies at Rome what may we think of them that feed such filthy Phantasies Say not you cannot rule your Thoughts You can do much if you will and more than you do If money and honour can make an ungodly Preacher command his Thoughts to holy things in the studies of Divinity through much of his life you may see that your Thoughts are much in your power but of this before § 17. Direct 15. If other means serve not open thy case to some friend and shame thy self to him as Direct 15. I advised under the former Title Confession and shame and advise will help thee § 18. Direct 16. Above all go to Christ for help and beg his spirit and give up thy Heart to better Direct 16. things O if it were taken up with God and Heaven and the Holy life that 's necessary thereto these things are so Great and Holy and sweet and of such concernment to thee that they would leave little room for Lust within thee and would make thee abhor it as contrary to those things which have thy heart No such cure for any carnal Love as the Love of God nor for fleshly lusts as a spiritual renewed Heavenly mind Thou wouldst then tell Satan that God hath taken up all the room and thy narrow Heart is too little for him alone and that there is no room for lust or the thoughts that serve it A true Conversion which turneth the heart to God doth turn it from this with other sins though some sparks may still be unextinguished It was once noted
the poorest people and their children They never teach them to read nor teach them any thing for the saving of their souls and they think that their poverty will be an excuse for all When reason telleth them that none should be more careful to help their children to Heaven than they that can give them nothing upon earth § 21. Direct 9. Be acquainted with the special Duties of the poor and carefully perform them Direct 9. They are these 1. Let your sufferings teach you to contemn the world It will be a happy poverty if it do but help Duty 1. to wean your affections from all things below that you set as little by the world as it deserveth 2. Be eminently Heavenly-minded The less you have or hope for in this life the more fervently Duty 2. seek a better You are at least as capable of the heavenly treasures as the greatest Princes God purposely Phil. 3. 18 20 21. 2 Cor. 5. 7 8. straitneth your condition in the world that he may force up your hearts unto himself and teach you to seek first for that which indeed is worth your seeking Matth. 6. 33 19 20 21. 3. Learn to live upon God alone Study his Goodness and faithfulness and all-sufficiency When Duty 3. you have not a place nor a friend in the world that you can comfortably betake your selves to for relief Gal. 2. 20. Psal. 73. 25. 26 27 28. 2 Cor. 1. 10. retire unto God and trust him and dwell the more with him If your poverty have but this effect it will be better to you than all the Riches in the world 4. Be laborious and diligent in your Callings Both precept and necessity call you unto this And Duty 4. if you cheerfully serve him in the labour of your hands with a heavenly and obedient mind it will Ephes 4. 28. Prov. 21. 25. 1 Sam. 15. 22. 2 Thes. 3. 8 10 be as acceptable to him as if you had spent all that time in more spiritual exercises For he had rather have Obedience than Sacrifice and all things are pure and sanctified to the pure If you cheerfully serve God in the meanest work it is the more acceptable to him by how much the more subjection and submission there is in your obedience 5. Be humble and submissive unto all A poor man proud is doubly hateful And if Poverty Duty 5. cure your Pride and help you to be truly humble it will be no small mercy to you 〈…〉 1â— 23. 〈…〉 uty 6 6. You are specially obliged to mortifie the flesh and keep your senses and appetites in subjection because you have greater helps for it than the Rich You have not so many baits of lust and wantonness and gluttony and voluptuousness as they 7. Your corporal wants must make you more sensibly remember your spiritual wants and teach Duty 7. you to value spiritual blessings Think with your selves If a hungry cold and naked body be so great a calamity how much greater is a guilty graceless soul a dead or a diseased heart If bodily food and necessaries are so desirable O how desirable is Christ and his Spirit and the Love of God and life eternal 8. You must above all men be careful Redeemers of your Time Especially of the Lords Day Duty 8. Your labours take up so much of your time that you must be the more careful to catch every opportunity for your souls Rise earlier to get half an hour for holy duty and meditate on holy things in your labours and spend the Lords Day in special diligence and be glad of such seasons and let scarcity preserve your appetites 9. Be willing to dye Seeing the world giveth you so cold entertainment be the more content to Duty 9. let it go when God shall call you For what is here to detain your hearts 10. Above all men you should be most fearless of sufferings from men and therefore true to God Duty 10. and Conscience For you have no great matter of honour or riches or pleasure to lose As you fear not a Thief when you have nothing for him to rob you of 11. Be specially careful to fit your children also for Heaven Provide them a portion which is better Duty 11. than a Kingdom For you can provide but little for them in the world 12. Be exemplary in Patience and Contentedness with your state For that grace should be the Duty 12. strongest in us which is most exercised And Poverty calleth you to the frequent exercise of this § 22. Direct 10. Be specially furnished with those Reasons which should keep you in a chearful contentedness Direct 10. with your state and may suppress every thought of anxiety and discontent As 1. Consider as aforesaid that that is the best condition for you which helpeth you best to Heaven Phil. 4. 11 12 13. Maâ—â—h â— â— 1 Sam. 2. 7. Matth. â— 2â— c. 〈…〉 8. 2◠〈…〉 14. 11. 〈…〉 16. 9. 〈…〉 3 15. 〈…〉 9 〈…〉 30 31. 〈…〉 3â— 25. 〈…〉 1â— 14. 〈…〉 5. 22. 〈…〉 9. 20. 〈…〉 4. â— 10. Rom. 8. 28. Heb. 13. 5. and God best knoweth what will do you good or hurt 2. That it is rebellion to grudge at the Will of God which must dispose of us and should be our Rest. 3. Look over the life of Christ who chose a life of poverty for your sakes and had not a place to lay his head He was not one of the Rich and voluptuous in the world and are you grieved to be conformed to him Phil. 3. 7 8 9. 4. Look to all his Apostles and most holy Servants and Martyrs Were not they as great sufferers as you 5. Consider that the Rich will shortly be all as poor as you Naked they came into the world and naked they must go out And a little time makes little difference 6. It is no more comfort to dye Rich than poor but usually much less because the pleasanter the world is to them the more it grieveth them to leave it 7. All men cry out that the world is vanity at last How little is it valued by a dying man and how sadly will it cast him off 8. The time is very short and uncertain in which you must enjoy it We have but a few dayes more to walk about and we are gone Alas of how small concernment is it whether a man be rich or poor that is ready to step into another world 9. The Love of this world drawing the heart from God is the common cause of mens damnation And is not the world liker to be over-loved when it entertaineth you with prosperity than when it useth you like an enemy Are you displeased that God thus helpeth to save you from the most damning sin and that he maketh not your way to Heaven more dangerous 10. You little know the troubles of the Rich He that hath much hath much to do with it and
5. 9 10. Rev. 4. 11 8. Rev. 15. 3. Heb. 12. 9. Matth. 6. 13. thâ—u not said Behold I come quickly Even so Come Lord and let the great Marriage day of the Lamb make haste when thy Spouse shall be presented spotless unblamable and glorious and the glory of God in the New Jerusalem shall be Revealed to all his holy ones to delight and glorifie them for ever In the mean time Remember Lord thy promise Because I live therefore shall ye live also And let the dead that dye in thee be blessed And thou that art made a quickning Spirit and art the Lord and Prince of life and hast said that not a hair of our heads shall perish Gather our departing souls unto thy self into the Heavenly Jerusalem and Mount Zion the City of the living God and to the Myriads of holy Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the first born and to the perfected Spirits of the just where thou wilt make us Kings and Priests to God whom we shall See and Love and Praise for ever For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things and for his pleasure they are and were created And O thou the blessed God of Love the Father of Spirits and King of Saints receive this unworthy Member of thy Son into the heavenly Chore which sing thy Praise who rest not saying night and day Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty who Is and Was and Is to Come For Thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen The End of the Second TOME A Christian Directory The Third Part. Christian Ecclesiasticks OR DIRECTIONS TO PASTORS PEOPLE About Sacred Doctrine Worship and Discipline and their mutual Duties With the Solution of a multitude of Church-Controversies and Cases of Conscience By RICHARD BAXTER 1 Cor. 12. 25 27 28. That there should be no Schism in the body but the Members should have the same care one for another Now ye are the Body of Christ and Members in particular And God hath set some in the Church first Apostles c. Eph. 4. 3 4 12 c. Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the SPIRIT in the bond of Peace There is one Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptism Not One Ministerial Head one God * And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of doctrine by the cogging or sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive But keeping the Truth in Love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ From whom the whole body compacted and cemented together by every joynt of supply according to its power in proportion of each part worketh increase of the body to the edifying of it self in Love 1 Tim. 3. 15. That thou maist know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God as A pillar and basis of the truth 1 Thess. 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and be at peace among your selves LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Sign of the Princes-Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. Reader THat this part and the next are Imperfect and so much only is written as I might and not as I would I need not excuse to thee if thou know me and where and when I live But some of that which is wanting if thou desire thou maist find 1. In my Universal Concord 2. In my Christian Concord 3. In our Agreement for Catechising and my Reformed Pastor 4. In the Reformed Lyturgie offered to the Commissioned Bishops at the Savoy Farewel A Christian Directory TOM III. Christian Ecclesiasticks CHAP. I. Of the Worship of God in general § 1. THAT God is to be Worshipped solemnly by man is confessed by Qui totos dies precabantur immolabant ut sui liberi sibi superstites essent Superstitiosi sunt appellati quod nomen paâ—uit postea latius Qui autem omnia quae ad cultum Deorum pertinerent diligenter pertractarent tanquam relegerent sunt dicti Religiosi ex relegendo ut elegantes ex eligendo à diligendo diligentes ex intelligendo intelligentes Superstitiosi Religiosi alterum vitii nomen alterum laudis Cicer. nat Deor. lib. 2. pag. 73 74. all that acknowledge that there is a God But about the Matter and Manner of his Worship there are no small dissensions and contentions in the world I am not now attempting a reconciliation of these contenders The sickness of mens minds and wills doth make that impossible to any but God which else were not only possible but easie the terms of reconciliation being in themselves so plain and obvious as they are But it is Directions to those that are willing to worship God aright which I am now to give § 2. Direct 1. Understand what it is to worship God aright lest you offer him Vanity and sin for Direct 1. Worship The worshipping of God is the direct acknowledging of his Being and Perfections to his honour Indirectly or consequentially he is acknowledged in every obediential act by those that truly obey and serve him And this is indirectly and participatively to worship him And therefore all things are Holy to the Holy because they are Holy in the use of all and Holiness to the Lord is as it were written upon all that they possess or do as they are Holy But this is not the worship which we are here to speak of but that which is Primarily and Directly done to glorifie him by the acknowledgement of his excellencies Thus God is worshipped either inwardly by the soul alone or also outwardly by the body expressing the worship of the soul. For that which is done by the Body alone without the concurrence of the Heart is not true worship but an Hypocritical Image or shew of it equivocally called Worship The inward worship of the Heart alone I have spoken If they that serve their God with meer word and ceremony and mimâ—ca actions were so served themselves they might be â—ilâ—â—ced with Aristâ—ppâ—â— his defence of his gallantry and sumptuâ—uâ— fare Si vituâ—â—randum ait hoc essâ—t in celebritatibus deorum profectò non fieret Laert. iâ— Aristip. So Plato allowed drunkenness only in the Feasts oâ— Baâ—châ—s of in the former Tome The outward or expressive worship
Should we not think that God had utterly forsaken us He suffered himself to be tempted also by men by the abuses and reproaches of his enemies by the desertion of his followers by the carnal counsel of Peter perswading him to put by the death which he was to undergo And he that made all Temptations serve to the triumph of his patience and conquering power will give the victory also to his Grace in the weakest soul. § 12. 9. It would be the greatest attractive to us to draw near to God and make the thoughts of him pleasant to us if we could but believe that he dearly loveth us that he is reconciled to us and taketh us for his children and that he taketh pleasure in us and that he resolveth for ever to glorifie us with his Son and that the dearest friend that we have in the world doth not Love us the thousandth part so much as he And all this in Christ is clearly represented to the eye of faith All this is procured for believers by him And all this is given to believers in him In him God is reconciled to us He is our Father and dwelleth among us and in us and walketh in us and is our God 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Light and Heat are not more abundant in the Sun than Love is in Iesus Christ. To look on Christ and not perceive the Love of God is as to look on the Sun and not to see and acknowledge its light Therefore when ever you find your hearts averse to God and to have no pleasure in him look then to Iesus and observe in him the unmeasurable love of God that you may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge that you may be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3. 18 19. Love and Goodness are that to the will which delicious sweetness is to the sensitive appetite Draw near then and taste the Feast of Love which God hath prepared and proposed by his Son Dost thou not see or feel the Love of God Come near and look upon God incarnate upon a crucified Christ upon the Covenant sealed in his blood upon all the benefits of his Redemption upon all the priviledges of the Saints and upon the glory purchased possessed and promised by him Put thy hand into his wounded side and be not faithless but believing and then thou wilt cry out My Lord and my God § 13. 10. So also when the soul would fain perceive in it self the flames of Love to God it is the beholding of Christ by faith which is the striking of fire and the effectual means of kindling love And this is the true approach to God and the true Communion and converse with him so far as we Love him so far do we draw near him and so far have we true communion with him O what would the soul of a Believer give that it could but burn in Love to God as oft as in prayer or meditation or conference his Name and Attributes are mentioned or remembred For this there is no such powerful means as believingly to look on Christ in whom such glorious Love appeareth as will draw forth the Love of all that by a lively faith discern it Behold the Love that God hath manifested by his Son and thou canst not but Love him who is the spring of this transcendent Love In the Law God sheweth his frowning wrath and therefore it breedeth the Spirit of bondage unto fear But in Christ God appeareth to us not only as Loving us but as Love it self and therefore as most lovely to us giving us the Spirit of Adoption or of filial Love by which we fly and cry to him as our Father § 14. 11. The actual undisposedness and disability of the soul to prayer meditation and all holy converse with the blessed God is the great impediment of our walking with him And against this our relief is all in Christ He is filled with the Spirit to communicate to his members He can quicken us when we are dull He can give us faith when we are unbelieving he can give us boldness when we are discouraged he can pour out upon us the Spirit of supplication which shall help our infirmities when we know not what to pray for as we ought Beg of him then the Spirit of prayer And look to his example who prayed with strong cryes and tears and continued all the night in prayer and spake a Parable to this end that we should alwayes pray and not wax faint Luke 18. 1. Call to him and he that is with the Father will reach the hand of his Spirit to you and will quicken your desires and lift you up § 15. 12. Sometime the soul is hearkning to temptations of unbelief and doubting whether God observe our prayers or whether there is so much to be got by prayers as we are told In such a case faith must look to Christ who hath not only commanded it and encouraged us by his example but also made us such plentiful promises of acceptance with God and the grant of our desires Recourse to these promises will animate us to draw nigh to God § 16. 13. Sometime the present sense of our vileness who are but dust and despicable worms doth discourage us and weaken our expectations from God Against this what a wonderful relief is it to the soul to think of our union with Christ and of the dignity and glory of our Head Can God despise the members of his Son Can he trample upon them that are as his flesh and bone Will he cut off or forsake or cast away the weakest parts of his body § 17. 14. Sometime the guilt of renewed infirmities or decayes doth renew distrust and make us shrink and we are like the Child in the Mothers arms that feareth when he loseth his holt as if his safety were more in his holt of her than in her holt of him Weak duties have weak expectations of success In this case what an excellent remedy hath faith in looking to the perpetual intercession of Christ Is he praying for us in the Heavens and shall we not be bold to pray and expect an answer â—â— remember that he is not weak when we are weak and that it concerneth us that he prayeth for us and that we have now an unchangeable Priest who is able to save them to the uttermost or to perpetuity that come sincerely to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Heb 7. â—4 25 If you heard Christ pray for you would it not encourage you to pray and perswade you that God will not reject you Undoubtedly it would § 18. 15. Sometimes weak Christians that have not gifts of memory or utterance are apt to think that Ministers indeed and able men are accepted of God but that he little valueth such as them It
last place in teaching learning and most serious consideration § 3. Two sorts do most dangerously sin against or abuse the Holy Ghost The first is the Prophane who through custom and education can say I believe in the Holy Ghost and say that He sanctifieth them and all the Elect people of God but hate or resist all sanctifying works and motions Deus est principium eâ—â—ectivum in Creatione refectivum in redemptione perfectivum in sanctificatione Ioh. Con. bis comp Theol. l. 4. c. 1. of the Holy Ghost and hate all those that are sanctified by him and make them the objects of their scorn and deride the very name of sanctification or at least the thing The second sort is the Enthusiasts or true Fanaticks who advance extoll and plead for the Spirit Rejectis propheticis Apostolicis scriptis Manichaei novum Evangelium scripserunt ut antecellere communi hominum multitudini semi-d 〈…〉 rentur simularunt Enthusiaâ—mos seu afflatus subâ—â—o in â—urâ—a se in terram objâ—â—â—â—entes c vâ—lut 〈◊〉 dâ—â— tacentes deinde tanquam redeuntes ex specu Trophonio plorantes multa vaticinati sunt Prorsus ut Anabaptistae recens fâ—ceruâ— in seditione Monasteriensi Etsi autem in quibusdam manifesta simulatio fuit tamen aliquibus reipsa à Diabolis surâ—tes immisses esse certum est Carioâ— Chron. l. 3. p. 54. against the Spirit covering their greatest sins against the Holy Ghost by crying up and pretending to the Holy Ghost They plead the Spirit in themselves against the Spirit in their Brethren yea and in almost all the Church They plead the authority of the Spirit in them against the authority of the Spirit in the holy Scriptures and against particular truths of Scripture and against several great and needful Duties which the Spirit hath required in the Word and against the Spirit in their most judicious godly faithful Teachers But can it be the Spirit that speaks against the Spirit Is the Spirit of God against it self Are we not all baptized by One Spirit and not divers or contrary into one body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. But it is no marvel for Satan to be transformed into an Angel of light or his Ministers into the Ministers of Christ and of Righteousness whose end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. The Spirit himself therefore hath commanded us that we believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world 1 John 4. 1. Yea the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1. Therefore take heed that you neither Mistake nor abuse the Holy Spirit § 4. 1. The Doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost to be believed is briefly this 1. That the Holy Ghost as given since the Ascension of Christ is his Agent on earth or his Advocate with men called by him the Paraclete Instead of his bodily presence which for a little space he vouchsafed to a few being John 16. 7. â— ascended he sendeth the Holy Spirit as better for them to be his Agent continually to the end and John 15 2â— John 16. 13. Gal. 3. 1 2 3 4 Heb. 2. 3 4. unto all and in all that do believe 2. This Holy Spirit so sent infallibly inspired the holy Apostles and Evangelists first to preach and then to write the Doctrine of Christ contained as indited by him in the Holy Scriptures perfectly imprinting therein the Holy Image of God 3. The same Spirit in them sealed this holy Doctrine and the Testimony of these holy men by many Miracles and wonderful Gifts by which they did actually convince the unbelieving world and plant the Churches 4. The same Spirit having first by the Apostles given a Law or Canon to the Universal Church constituting its Offices and the duty of the Officers and the manner of their entrance Eph. 3 2 3 4 8 13. dâ—tâ— Qualifie and â—ispose men for the stated ordinary Ministerial work which is to Explain and Apâ—â—â—â— â—he â—oresaid Scriptures and directeth those that are to Ordain and Choose them they being not wanting on their part and so he appointeth Pastors to the Church 5. The same Spirit assisteth the Ministers thus sent in their faithful use of the means to Teach and Apply the holy Scriptures according to the necessities of the peoplâ— the weight of the matter and the Majesty of the Word of God 6. The same Spirit doth by this Word heard or read renew and sanctifie the souls of the Elect illuminating their minds opening and quickning their hearts prevailing with changing and Actâ— 26. 18. resolving their wills thus writing Gods Word and imprinting his Image by his Word upon their hearts making it powerful to conquer and cast out their strongest sweetest dearest sins and bringing John 14 16 26 them to the saving knowledge love and obedience of God in Jesus Christ. 7. The same holy Spirit assisteth the sanctified in the exercise of this grace to the increase of it by blessing and concurring with the means appointed by him to that end And helpeth them to use those means perform their duties conquer temptations oppositions and difficulties and so confirmeth and preserveth them to the end 8. The same Spirit helpeth believers in the exercise of grace to feel it and discern the sincerity of it in themselves in that measure as they are meet for and in these seasons when it is fittest for them 9. The same Spirit helpeth them hereupon to conclude that they are justified and reconciled to God and have right to all the benefits of his Covenant 10. Also he assisteth them actually to rejoyce in the discerning of this Conclusion For though Reason of it self may do something in these acts yet so averse is man to all that is holy and so many are the difficulties and hinderances in the way that to the effectual performance the help of the Spirit of God is necessary § 5. By this enumeration of the Spirits operations you may see the errors of many detected and many common Questions answered 1. You may see their blindness that pretend the Spirit within them against Scripture Ministry or the use of Gods appointed means when the same Spirit first indited the Scripture and maketh it the Instrument to illuminate and sanctifie our souls Gods Image is 1. Primarily in Jesus Christ his Son 2. Derivatively by his Spirit imprinted perfectly in the holy Scriptures 3. And by the Scripture or the holy Doctrine of it instrumentally impressed on the soul. So that the Image of God in Christ is the Cause of his Image in his holy Word or Doctrine and his Image in his Word is the Cause of his Image on the heart So a King may have his Image 1. Naturally on his Son who is like his Father 2. Expressively in his Laws which express
Father of lyes and error than for the School of Christ. Except Conversion make men as little children that come not to caâ—p and cavil but to learn they are not meet for the Kingdom of Christ. Matth. 18. 3. John 3. 3 5. Know how blind and ignorant you are and how dull of learning and humbly beg of the Heavenly Teacher that he will accept you and illuminate you and give up your understandings absolutely to be informed by him and your Hearts to be the Tables in which his Spirit shall write his Law Believing his doctrine upon the bare account of his infallible Veracity and resolving to obey it and this is to be the Disciples of Christ indeed and such as shall be taught of God § 11. Direct 10. Come to the School of Christ with honest willing hearts that Love the truth and Direct 10. â—ain would know it that they may obey it and not with false and byassed hearts which secretly hinder the understanding from entertaining the truth because they love it not as being contrary to their carnal inclinations and interest The word that was received into Honest hearts was it that was as the seed that brought forth plentifully Matth. 13. 23. When the Heart saith unfeignedly Speak Lord for thy servant heareth Teach me to know and do thy will God will not leave such a Learner in the dark Most of the damnable ignorance and error of the world is from a wicked heart that perceiveth that the Truth of God is against their fleshly interest and lusts and therefore is unwilling to obey it and unwilling to believe it lest it torment them because they disobey it A will that 's secretly poysoned with the Love of the world or of any sinful lusts and pleasures is the most potent impediment to the believing of the truth § 12. Direct 11. Learn with quietness and peace in the School of Christ and make not divisions and Direct 11. meddle not with others lessons and matters but with your own Silence and quietness and minding your own business is the way to profit The turbulent wranglers that are quarrelling with others and are religions contentiously in envy and strife are liker to be corrected or ejected than to be edified Read Iames 3. § 13. Direct 12. Remember that the School of Christ hath a Rod and therefore learn with fear and Direct 12. reverence Heb. 12. 28 29. Phil. 2. 12. Christ will sharply rebuke his own if they grow negligent and oftend And if he should cast thee out and forsake thee thou art undone for ever See therefore that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they sâ—aped not that refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we if we refuse him that is from Heaven Heb. 12. 25. For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that â—eard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Heb. 2. 3 4. Serve the Lord therefore with fear and rejoyce with trembling Kiss the Son left he be angry and you perish in the kindling of his wrath Psal. 2. 11 12. DIRECT VIII Gr. Dir. 6. To obev Christ as our Physicion in his healing work and his Spirit in its cleansing mortifying work Remember that you are Related to Christ as the Physicion of your souls and to the Holy Ghost as your Sanctifier Make it therefore your serious study to be cured by Christ and cleansed by his Spirit of all the sinful diseases and defilements of your hearts and lives § 1. THough I did before speak of our Believing in the Holy Ghost and using his help for our access to God and converse with him yet I deferred to speak fully of the Cleansing and Mortifying part of his work of Sanctification till now and shall treat of it here as it is the same with the Curing work of Christ related to us as the Physicion of our souls it being part of our Subjection and Obedience to him to be Ruled by him in order to our cure And what I shall here write against sin in general will be of a twofold use The one is to help us against the inward corruptions of our hearts and for the outward obedience of our lives and so to further the work of Sanctification and prevent our sinning The other is to help us to Repentance and Humiliation habitual and actual for the sins which are in us and which we have already at any time committed § 2. The General Directions for this curing and cleansing of the soul from sin are contained for the most part in what is said already and many of the particular Directions also may be fetcht from the sixth Direction before going I shall now add but two General Directions and many more Particular ones Direct 1. I. The two General Directions are these 1. Know what corruptions the soul of man is naturally Direct 1. defiled with And this containeth the knowledge of those faculties that are the seat of thâ—se corruptions and the knowledge of the corruptions that have tainted and perverted the several faculties Direct 2. 2. Know what sin is in its nature or intrinsick evil as well as in the effects Direct 2. How the several faculties of the soul are corrupted and diseased § 3. 1. The Parts or faculties to be cleansed and cured are both the Superiour and Inferiour 1. The Understanding though not the first in the sin must be first in the cure For all that is done upon the Lower faculties must be by the Governing power of the will And all that is done upon the will ac cording to the order of humane nature must be done by the Understanding But the Understanding hath its own diseases which must be known and cured It s malady in general is Ignorance which is not only a privation of actual knowledge but an undisposedness also of the understanding to know the truth A man may be deprived of some actual knowledge that hath no disease in his mind that causeeth In what cases a sound understanding may be ignorant it as in case that either the object be absent and out of reach or that there be no sufficient Revelation of it or that the mind be taken up wholly upon some other thing or in case a man shut out the thoughts of such an object or refuse the evidence which is the act of the will even as a man that is not blind may yet not see a particular object 1. In case it be out of his natural reach 2. Or if it be night and he want extrinsick light 3. Or in case he be wholly taken up with the observation of other things 4. Or in case he wilfully either shut or turn away his eyes It is a very hard question to resolve how far and wherein the
any more than Spirit or any thing else If it were only in respect of their object they should be called the World also because that is their object It is a certain Rule that That faculty is most predominant in man whose Object is made his chiefest End Sensitive delights being made the felicity and end of the unsanctified it followeth that the sensitive faculties are predominant which being called Flesh by a nearer Trope the Mind from it receives the denomination The Scriptures also shew this plainly I remember not any one place in the Old Testament where there is any probability that the word flesh should signifie only the Rational soul as unrenewed Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee that is mortal man hath not revealed it Matth. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak that is your Bodies are weak and resist the willingness of your souls For sinful habits are not here called weak John 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh that is Man by natural Generation can beget but natural man called Flesh from the visible part and not the spiritual life which nature is now destitute of Rom 7. 25. With my flesh I serve the Law of sin that is with my sensitive powers and my mind so far as captivated thereto Rom. 8. 1 5. Flesh and Spirit are oft opposed They that are of the flesh mind the things of the flesh c. that is They in whom the sensitive interest and appetite are predominant For it is called the Body here as well as the flesh v. 10 11 13. The mind is here included but it is as serving the flesh and its interest Gal. 5. 16 17 19. Flesh and Spirit are in the same manner opposed And 2 Pet. 2. 18. the Lusts of the flesh are in this sense mentioned And Ephes. 2. 3. Rom. 7. 18. Rom. 13. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 11. in which there is mention of fleshly lusts which fight against the Spirit and fleshly wisdom making provision for the flesh c. And Col. 2. 18. there is indeed the name of a fleshly mind which is but a mind deceived and subservient to the flesh so that the flesh it self or sensitive interest and appetite are first signified in all or most places and in some the Mind as subservient thereto § 4. It is of the greater consequence that this be rightly understood lest you be tempted to imitate the Libertines who think the flesh or sensitive part is capable of no moral good or evil and therefore all its actions being indifferent we may be indifferent about them and look only to the superiour powers And others that think that the Scripture by flesh meaneth only the Rational soul ☜ as unâ—enewed do thereupon cherish the Flesh it self and pamper it and feed its unruly lusts and never do any thing to tame the body but pray daily that God would destroy the flesh within them that is their sinful habits of Reason and Will while they cherish the cause or neglect a chief part of the cure And on the contrary some Papists that look only at the Body as their enemy are much in fastings and bodily exercises while they neglect the mortifying of their carnal minds § 5. II. How far flesh-pleasing is a sin I shall distinctly open to you in these propositions What Flesh-pleasing is a sin 1. The Pleasing or displeasing of the sensitive appetite in it self considered is neither sin nor duty good or evil but as commanded or forbidden by some Law of God which is not absolutely done 2. To please the flesh by things forbidden is undoubtedly a sin and so it is to displease it too Therefore this is not all that is here meant that the Matter that pleaseth it must not be things forbidden 3. To overvalue the Pleasing of the Flesh is a sin And to prefer it before the Pleasing of God and the holy preparations for Heaven is the state of carnality and ungodliness and the common cause of the Damnation of souls The Delight of the Flesh or Senses is a Natural Good and the natural desire of it in it self as is said is neither vice nor vertue But when this little natural Good is preferred before the Greater Spiritual Moral or Eternal Good this is the sin of Carnal minds which is threatned with death Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 13. 4. To buy the pleasing of the flesh at too dear a rate as the loss of time or with care and trouble above its worth and to be too much set on making provisions to please it doth shew that it is overvalued and is the sin forbidden Rom. 13. 14. 5. When any desire of the Flesh is inordinate immoderate or irregular for matter or manner quantity quality or season it is a sin to please that inordinate desire 6. When Pleasing the flesh doth too much pamper it and cherish filthy lusts or any other sin and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aâ—â—â—â—o sufficiâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â— satâ—s est â—â—â—â—um â—â—â—â—pus namque propter animi servitium seciffe naturam nemo tam corporis servus est qui nesciat Id si proprio munere fungitur quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quid ampâ—ius requiras Petraâ—ch li. 2 Dial. 2 Vires corporis sunt vires carceris ut Petrarch li. 1. Dial. 5. What mean you to make your prison so strong said Plato to one that over-pampered his flesh Mars Ficin iâ— Vita Plat. is not necessary on some other account as doing greater good it is a sin But if Life require it lust must be subdued by other means 7. When pleasing the flesh doth hurt it by impairing health and so making the body less fit for duty it is a sin And so almost all intemperance tendeth to breed diseases And God commandeth Temperance even for the Bodies good 8. When unnecessary Flesh-pleasing hindereth any duty of Piety Justice Charity or self-preservation in thought affection word or deed it is sinful 9. It any Pleasing of the Flesh can be imagined to have no tendency directly or indirectly to any moral Good or Evil it is not the Object of a moral Choosing or Refusing but like the winking of the eye which falls not under deliberation it is not within the compass of morality 10. Every Pleasing of the flesh which is capable of being referred to a higher end and is not so referred and used is a sin And there is scarce any thing which is eligible which a vacant waking man should deliberate on but should be referred to a higher end even to the glory of God and our salvation by cheering us up to Love and Thankfulness and strengthening or fitting us some way for some duty This is apparently a sin 1. Because else Flesh-pleasing is made our ultimate end and the Flesh an Idol if ever we desire it only for it self when it may be referred to a higher end For though the sensitive Appetite of it self hath no intended end yet
you of such a crazed wit If you say Yea Then believe and trust that person and resolve to follow his Direction And I would ask you were you not once of another judgement concerning your self If so then were you not as sound and able to judge and liker to be in the right than you are now § 25. Direct 21. My last advise is to look out for the cure of your disease and commit your Direct 21. self to the care of your Physicion and obey him And do not as most melancholy persons do that will not believe that Physick will do them good but that it is only their soul that is afflicted For it is the spirits imagination and passions that are diseased and so the soul is like an eye that looketh through a coloured glass and thinks all things are of the same colour as the glass is I have seen abundance cured by Physick and till the body be cured the mind will hardly ever be cured but the clearest Reasons will be all in vain Tit. 6. Directions for young Students for the most profitable ordering of their studying Thoughts § 1. Direct 1. LET it be your first and most serious study to make sure that you are Regenerate Direct 1. and sanctified by the Holy Ghost and justified by faith in Christ and Love God above all as your reconciled Father and so have right to the Heavenly inheritance § 2. For 1. You are nearest to your selves and your everlasting happiness is your nearest and your highest interest what will it profit you to know all the world and to lose your own souls To know as much as Devils and be for ever miserable with Devils § 3. 2. It is a most doleful employment to be all day at work in Satans Chains To sit studying God and the Holy Scriptures while you are in the power of the Devil and have hearts that are at enmity to the Holiness of that God and that Scripture which you are studying It is a most preposterous and incongruous course of study if you first study not your own deliverance And if you knew your case and saw your chains your trembling would disturb your studies § 4. 3. Till you are renewed you study in the dark and without that internal sight and sense Act. 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18 19. Col. 1. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Rom. 8. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. by which the life and spirit and kernel of all that you study must be known All that the Scripture saith of the darkness of a state of sin and of the illumination of the spirit and of the marvellous light of regenerate souls and of the natural man 's not receiving the things of the spirit and of the carnal mind that is enmity against God and is not subject to his Law nor can be all these and such other passages are not insignificant but most considerable truths from the spirit of truth You have only that Light that will shew you the shell and the dead letter but not the soul and quickening sense of any practical holy truth As the eye knoweth meat which we never tasted or as a meer Grammarian or Logician readeth a Law book or Physick book who gather nothing out of them that will save a mans estate or life so will you prosecute all your studies § 5. 4. You are like to have but ill success in your studies when the Devil is your Master who hateth both you and the holy things which you are studying He will blind you and pervert you and possess your minds with false conceits and put diverting sensual thoughts into you and will keep your own souls from being ever the better for it all § 6. 5. You will want the true end of all right studies and set up wrong ends and therefore whatever be the matter of your studies you are still out of your way and know nothing rightly because you know it not as a Means to the true end But of this anon § 7. Direct 2. When you have first laid this foundation and have the true Principle and End of Direct 2. all right Studies be sure that you intend this End in all even the Everlasting Sight and Love of God and the promoting his Glory and pleasing his holy will And that you never meddle with any studies seperated from this end but as a means thereto and as animated thereby § 8. If every step in your journey is but loss of time and labour which is not directed to your journeys end and if all that you have to mind or do in the world be only about your End or the Means and all creatures and actions can have no other moral Goodness than to be the means to God your ultimate end then you may easily see that when ever you leave out God as the End of any of your studies your are but sinning or doting for in those Studies there can be no Moral Good though they may tend to your knowledge of Natural Good and Evil. And when you think you grow wise and learned men and can dispute and talk of many things which make to your renown while your wills consent not to the wholsom words of our Lord Iesus Christ and the doctrine which is according 1 Tim. 6 3 4 5 6. to Godliness you are proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railing evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds supposing that gain is Godliness from such turn away As there is no knowledge but from God so it is not knowledge but dotage if it lead not unto God § 9. Direct 3. See therefore that you choose all your studies according to their tendency to God Direct 3. your end and use them still under the notion of means and that you estimate your knowledge by this End and judge your selves to know no more indeed than you know of God and for God And so let practical Divinity be the soul of all your Studies Therefore when Life is too short for the Studies of all things which we desire to know make sure of the chief things and prefer those studies which make most to your End spend not your time on things unprofitable to this end And spend not your first and chiefest time on things unnecessary to it Noâ— aâ—â—em nec subâ—to câ—â—imus philosoâ—hari nec mediocrem a primo tempore aetatis in co studio operam curamque consumpsimus cum minime videbamur tum maxime philosophebamur Cicero 〈…〉 r. pag. 5. For the near connexion to God the end is it that enobleth the matter of your studies All true knowledge leads to God but not all alike the nearest to him is the best § 10. Direct 4. Remember that the chief part of your growth in knowledge is not in knowing Direct 4. many smaller things of no necessity but in a growing downwards in a clearer insight into the foundation of
knoweth what he is and what he hath done and what he hath deserved and in what a dangerous case his soul yet standeth must needs have his soul habituated to a humble frame Every penitent soul is vile in its own eyes and doth loath it self for its inward corruptions and actual sins And he that loatheth himself as vile will not be very desirous to have his sinful corruptible body seem fine nor by curious ornaments to attract And no wonder when the light of Nature reduced the serious sort of Philosophers to so plain a Garb no Socrates Zenocrates with almost all the Stâ—icks and Cyâ—â—ks and many of the Academicks and Pythagoreans the eyes of vain spectators How oft have I seen a proud vain Gallant suddenly cast off their bravery and gawdy gay attire and clothe themselves in plainness and sobriety as soon as God hath but opened their eyes and humbled their souls for sin and made them better know themselves and brought them home by true Repentance So that the next week they have not seemed the same persons And this was done by meer Humiliation without any arguments against their fashions or proud â—ttire As old Mr. Dod said when one desired him to preach against long hair Preach them once to Christ and true Repentance and they will cut their hair without our preaching against it As Pride would be seen in Proud apparel so humility will appear in a dress like it self though it desire not to be seen Maâ—k 1 Pet. 3. 3 4 5. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair or of wearing of Gold or of putting on of apparel that is curious dressing for adorning the body beyond plain simplicity of attire But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet Spirit which in the sight of God is of great price For after this manner that is with inward Holiness and outward plainness in the old time the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husbands O that God would print those words upon your hearts 1 Pet. 5. 5. Yea all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble Plainness among Christians is a greater honour than fine clothing Jam. 2. 2 3 4 5. 1 Tim. 2. 9 10. In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefasteness and sobriety not with broidered hair or Gold or Pearl or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness with good works I intreat those that are addicted to bravery or curiosity to read Isa. 3. from ver 16. to the end § 21. Direct 12. Make not too great a matter of your clothing but use it with such indifferency as a Direct 12. thing so indifferent should be used Set not your hearts upon it For that is a worse sign that the excess in it self Take no thought wherewith ye shall be cloathed but remember how God clotheth the Lillies of the field Matth 6. 28. If you have food and rayment be therewith content though it be never so plain 1 Tim. 6. 8. § 22. Direct 13. Be not too censorious of others for different fashions of apparel Be as plain and Direct 13. modest your selves as you can But lay no greater stress on the fashions of others than there is cause If they be grosly impudent disown such fashions and seek to reform them But to carp at every one that goeth â—â—â—â—â— than your selves or to censure them as proud because their fashions are not like yours may be of worse signification than the fashions you find fault with I have oft observed more pride in such censures than I could observe in the fashions which they censured When you have your eye upon every fashion that is not according to your breeding or the custom of your rank or place and are presently branding such as proud or vain it sheweth an arrogant mind that steppeth up in the judgement seat and sentenceth those that you have nothing to do with before they are heard or you know their reasons Perhaps their fashion was as common among the modest sort where they have lived as your fashion is among those that you have converst with Custom and common opinion do put much of the signification upon fashions of apparel I Should next have given you special Directions about the Using of your Estates about your Of the proportion of our Estates to be given see my Letter to Mr. Goâ—ge Dwellings about your Meat and Drink and about your Honour or good Name But being loth the Book should prove too tedious I shall refer you to what is said before against Covetousness Pride and Gluttony c. and what is said before and after of Works of Charity and Family-Government AS to Sacred Habits and the different Garbs Laws Orders of Life Dyet c. of those called Religious Orders among the Papists Regular and Secular whether and how far such are lawful or sinful they are handled so largely in the Controversies of Protestants and Papists that I shall pass them by Only remembring the words of the Clergy of Ravenna to Carolus Iunior King of France inter Epist. Hincmari Rhemensis Discernendi à plebe vel caeteris sumus doctrina non veste conversatione non habitu mentis puritate non cultu Docendi enim potius sunt populi quam ludendi nec imponendum est eorum oculis sed mentibus praecepta sunt infundenda The End of the first Tome A Christian Directory Or A SUMM of PRACTICAL DIVINITY THE SECOND PART VIZ. Christian Oeconomicks OR THE FAMILY DIRECTORY Containing Directions for the true Practice of all Duties belonging to Family Relations with the Appurtenances By RICHARD BAXTER Josh. 24. 15. And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom you will serve But as for Me and my House we will serve the Lord. Deut. 6. 6 7 8. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart And thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up c. Dan. 6. 10. When Daniel knew that the Writing was signed he went into his House and his Window being open in his Chamber towards Jerusalem he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and Prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime Acts 10. 1. 2. Cornelius a devout man and One that feared God with all his House which gave much Alms to the people and Prayed to God alwayes Ephes. 6. 4. Ye Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath but bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Psal. 101. 6 7. He that walketh in a perfect way
Rich men may want great sums or larger provisions which the poor can easily be without And their condition lifting them up to greater pride doth torment them with greater discontents How few in all the world that have families are content with their estates § 24. 4. Hereupon a married life containeth far more temptations to worldliness or covetousness than a single state doth For when you think you need more you will desire more And when you find all too little to satisfie those that you provide for you will measure your estate by their desires and be apt to think that you have never enough Birds and Beasts that have young ones to provide for are most hungry and rapacious You have so many now to scrape for that you will think you are still in want It is not only till Death that you must now lay up but you must provide for children that survive you And while you take them to be as your selves you have two Generations now to make provisions for And most men are as Covetous for their posterity as if it were for themselves § 25. 5. And hereupon you are hindred from works of Charity to others Wife and Children are the devouring gulf that swalloweth all If you had but your selves to provide for a little would serve And you could deny your own desires of unnecessary things and so might have plentiful provision for good works But by that time Wife and Children are provided for and all their importunate desires satisfied there is nothing considerable left for pious or charitable uses Lamentable experience proclaimeth this § 26. 6. And hereby it appeareth how much a married state doth ordinarily hinder men from honouring their profession It is their vows of single life that hath occasioned the Papists to do so many works of publick charity as is boasted of for the honour of their Sect For when they have no Children to bequeath it to and cannot keep it themselves it is easie for them to leave it to such uses as will pacifie their Consciences most and advance their names And if it should prove as good a work and as acceptable to God to educate your own Children piously for his service as to relieve the children of the poor yet is it not so much regarded in the world nor bringeth so much honour to Religion One hundred pound given to the poor shall more advance the repution of your liberality and virtue than a thousand pound given to your own children though it be with as pious an end to train them up for the service of the Church And though this is inconsiderable as your own honour is concerned in it yet it is considerable as the honour of Religion and the good of souls is concerned in it § 27. 7. And it is no small patience which the natural imbecility of the female sex requireth you to prepare Except it be very few that are patient and manlike women are commonly of potenâ— fantasies and tender passionate impatient spirits easily cast into anger or jealousie or discontent and of weak understandings and therefore unable to reform themselves They are betwixt a man and a child Some few have more of the man and many have more of the child but most are but in a middle state Weakness naturally inclineth persons to be froward and hard to please as we see in children old people and sick persons They are like a sore distempered body You can scarce touch them but you hurt them With too many you can scarce tell how to speak or look but you displease them If you should be very well verst in the art of pleasing and set your selves to it with all your care as if you made it your very business and had little else to do yet it would put you hard to it to please some weak impatient persons if not quite surpass your ability and skill And the more you love them the more grievous it will be to see them still in discontents aweary of their condition and to hear the clamorous expressions of their disquiet minds Nay the very multitude of words that very many are addicted to doth make some mens lives a continual burden to them Mark what the Scripture saith Prov. 21. 9. It is better to dwell in a corner of the house top than with a brawling woman in a wide house Vers. 19. It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman So 25. vers 24. And Prov. 27. 15. A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike Eccles. 7. 28. One man among a thousand have I found but a woman among all those have I not found § 28. 8. And there is such a meeting of faults and imperfections on both sides that maketh it much the harder to bear the infirmities of others aright If one party only were froward and impatient the stedfastness of the other might make it the more tolerable But we are all sick in some measure of the same disease And when weakness meeteth with weakness and pride with pride and passion with passion it exasperateth the disease and doubleth the suffering And our corruption is such that though our intent be to help one another in our duties yet we are apter far to stir up one anothers distempers § 79. 9. The business care and trouble of a married life is a great temptation to call down our thoughts from God and to divert them from the one thing necessary Luk. 10. 42. and to distract the mind and make it indisposed to holy duty and to serve God with a divided heart as if we served him not How hard is it to pray or meditate with any serious fervency when you come out of a crowd of cares and businesses Hear what St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 7. 7 8. For I would that all men were as I my self I say to the unmarried and the widows It is good for them if they abide even as I. 26 27 28. I suppose therefore that this is good for the present distress that it is good fâ—r a man so to be such shall have trouble in the flesh 32 33. But I would have you be without carefulness He that is unmarried careth for the things of the Lord how he may please the Lord But he that is married careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife 34 35. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and in Spirit but she that is married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband And this I speak for your own profit not that I may cast a snare upon you but for that which is comely and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction 37 38. He that standeth stedfast in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his
still reason enough to review and Repent of all that is past and still pray for the pardon of all the sins that ever you committed which were forgiven you before So many years sinning should have a very serious Repentance and lay you low before the Lord. § 3. Direct 3. Cleave closer now to Christ than ever Remembering that you have a life of sin for Direct 3. him to answer for and save you from And that the time is near when you shall have more sensible need of him than ever you have had You must shortly be cast upon him as your Saviour Advocate and Judge to determine the question what shall become of you unto all eternity and to perfect all that ever he hath done for you and accomplish all that you have sought and hoped for And now your natural life decayeth it is time to retire to him that is your Root and to look to the life that is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 4. and to him that is preparing you a mansion with himself and whose office it is to receive the departing souls of true believers Live therefore in the daily thoughts of Christ and comfort your souls in the belief of that full supply and safety which you have in him § 4. Direct 4. Let the ancient mercies and experiences of Gods Love through all your lives be still Direct 4. before you and fresh upon your minds that they may kindle your Love and Thankfulness to God and may feed your own delight and comfort and help you the easier to submit to future weaknesses and death Eaten bread must not be forgotten A thankful remembrance preserveth all your former mercies still fresh and green The sweetness and benefit may remain though the thing it self be past and gone This is the great priviledge of an aged Christian that he hath many years mercy more to think on than others have Every one of those mercies was sweet to you by it self at the time of your receiving it except afflictions and misunderstood and unobserved mercies And then how sweet should all together be If unthankfulness have buried any of them let thankfulness give them now a Resurrection What delightful work is it for your thoughts to look back to your Childhood and remember how mercy brought you up and conducted you to every place that you have lived in and provided for you and preserved you and heard your prayers and disposed of all things for your good How it brought you under the means of grace and blest them to you and how the spirit of God began and carryed on the work of grace upon your hearts I hope you have recorded the wonders of mercy ever upon your hearts with which God hath filled up all your lives And is it not a pleasant work in old age to ruminate upon them If a Traveller delight to talk of his travels and a Souldier or Seaman upon his adventures how sweet should it be to a Christian to peruse all the conduct of mercy through his life and all the operations of the spirit upon his heart Thankfulness taught men heretofore to make their mercies as it were attributes of their God As the God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt was the name of the God of Israel And Gen. 48. 15. Iacob delighteth himself in his old age in such reviews of mercy The God which fed me all my life long unto this day The Angel which Redeemed me from all evil bless the lads Yea such thankful reviews of ancient mercies will force an ingenuous soul to a quieter submission to infirmities sufferings and death and make us say as Iob Shall we receive good at the hands of God and not evil and as old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace It is a powerful rebuke of all discontents and maketh death it self more welcome to think how large a share of mercy we have had already in the world § 5. Direct 5. Draw forth the treasure of wisdom and experience which you have been so long in laying Direct 5. up to instruct the ignorant and warn the unexperienced and ungodly that are about you Job 32. 7. Dayes should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom The aged women must teach the young women to be sober to love their husbands and children to be discreet chaste keepers at home good obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blaspheamed Tit. 2. 3 4 5. It is supposed that Time and experience hath taught you more than is known to raw and ignorant youth Tell them what you have suffered by the deceits of sin Tell them the method and danger of temptations Tell them what you lost by delaying your Repentance and how God recovered you and how the spirit wrought upon your souls Tell them what comforts you have found in God what safety and sweetness in a holy life how sweet the holy Scriptures have been to you how prayers have prevailed how the promises of God have been fulfilled and what mercies and great deliverances you have had Tell them how Good you have found God and how bad you have found si◠and how vain you have found the world Warn them to resist their fleshly lusts and to take heed of the ensnaring Joel 1. 3. Deut. 11. 19 20. Deut. 29. 22. flatteries of sin Acquaint them truly with the History of publick sins and judgements and mercies in the times which you have lived in God hath made this the duty of the aged that the Fathers should tell the wonders of his works and mercies to their children that the ages to come may praise the Lord Deut. 4. 10. Psal. 78. 4 5 6. § 6. Direct 6. The Aged must be examples of wisdom gravity and holiness unto the younger Where Direct 6. should they find any virtues in eminence if not in you that have so much time and helps and experiences It may well be expected that nothing but savoury wise and holy come from your mouths and nothing unbeseeming wisdom and godliness be seen in your lives Such as you would have your Children after you to be such shew your selves to them in all your Conversation § 7. Direct 7. Especially it belongeth to you to repress the heats and dividing contentious and Direct 7. censorious disposition of the younger sort of professours of Godliness They are in the heat of their blood and want the knowledge and experience of the aged to guide their zeal They have not their senses yet exercised in discerning good and evil Heb. 5. 12. They are able to try the spirits They are yet but as children apt to be tossed to and fro and carryed up and down with every wind of doctrine after the craft and subtilty of deceivers Eph. 4. 14. The Novices are apt to be puffed up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. They never saw the issue of errours and
we are here on earth They were compassed with temptations and clog'd with flesh and burdened with sin and persecuted by the world and they went out of the world by sickness and death as we must do and yet now their tears are wiped away their pains and groans and sears are turned into unexpressible blessedness and joy And would we not be with them Is not their company desirable and their felicity more desirable The glory of the new Ierusalem is not described to us in vain Rev. 21. 22. God will be all in all there to us as the only sun and Glory of that world and yet we shall have pleasure not only to see our Glorified Redeemer but also to converse with the Heavenly society and to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of God and to Love and Praise him in consort and harmony with all those holy blessed spirits And shall we be afraid to follow where the Saints of all Generations have gone before us And shall the company of our best and most and happiest friends be no inducement to us Though it must be our highest joy to think that we shall dwell with God and next that we shall see the Glory of Christ yet is it no small part of my comfort to consider that I shall follow all those holy persons whom I once conversed with that are gone before me and that I shall dwell with such as Henoch and Elias and Abraham and Moses and Iob and David and Peter and Iohn â—nd Paul and Timothy and Ignatius and Polycarpe and Cyprian and Reader bear with this mixture For God will own his image when piâ—vish contenders do deny it or blaspheam it and will receive those whom faction and proud domination would cast ouâ— and vilifie with scorn and slanders Naziaâ—zene and Augustine and Chrysostome and Bernard and Gerson and Savonarola and Miraâ—dula and Taulerus and Kempisius and Melancthon and Alasco and Calvin and Bucholâ—zer and Bullinger and Musculus and Zanchy and Bâ—cer and Paraeus and Grynaeus and Chemnitius and Gerhard and Chamier and Capellus and Blondel and Rivet and Rogers and Bradford and Hooper and Latimer and Hildersham and Amâ—sius and Langley and Nicolls and Whitaker and Cartwright and Hooker and Bayne and Preston and Sibbes and Perkins and Dod and Parker and Ball and Usher and Hall and Gataker and Bradshaw and Vines and Ash and millions more of the family of God I name these for my own delight and comfort it being pleasant to me to remember what companions I shall have in the heavenly joyes and praises of my Lord. How few are all the Saints on earth in comparison of those that are now with Christ And alas how weak and ignorant and corrupt how selfish and contentious and froward are Gods poor infants here in flesh when above there is nothing but Holiness and Perfection If Knowledge or Goodness or any excellency do make the creatures truly amiable all this is there in the highest degree but here alas how little have we If the Love of God or the Love of us do make others Lovely to us it is there and not here that these and all perfections flourish O how much now do I find the company of the wise and learned the godly and sincere to differ from the company of the ignorant bruitish the proud and malitious the false-hearted and ungodly rabble How sweet is the converse of a holy wise experienced Christian O then what a place is the new Ierusalem and how pleasant will it be with Saints and Angels to See and Love and Praise the Lord. § 8. Direct 8. That sickness and death may be comfortable to you as your passage to Eternity Direct 8. take notice of the seal and earnest of God even the spirit of grace which he hath put into your hearts That which emboldened Paul and such others to groan after immortality and to be most willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord was because God himself had wrought or made them for it and given them the earnest or pledge of his spirit 2 Cor. 5. 4 5 8. For this is Gods mark upon his chosen and justified ones by which they are sealed up to the day of their redemption Ephes. 4. 30. Ephes. 1. 13. In whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise 2 Cor. 1. 21 22. God hath annointed us and sealed us and given us the pledge or earnest of his spirit into our hearts This is the pledge or earnest of our inheritance Ephes. 1. 14. And what a comfort should it be to us when we look towards Heaven to find such a pledge of God within us If you say I fear I have not this earnest of the spirit Whence then did your desires of holiness arise what weaned you from the world and made you place your hopes and happiness above whence came your enmity to sin and opposition to it and your earnest desires after the Glory of God the prosperity of the Gospel and the good of souls The very Love of Holiness and holy persons and your desires to know God and perfectly Love him do shew that heavenly nature or spirit within you which is your surest evidence for eternal life For that spirit was sent from heaven to draw up your hearts and fit you for it And God doth not give you such natures and desires and preparations in vain This also is called The witness of the spirit with or to our spirit that we are the children of God and if Children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 15 16 17. It witnesseth our adoption by evidencing it as a seal or pledge doth witness our title to that which is so confirmed to us The nature of every thing is suited to its use and end God would not have given us a heavenly nature or desire if he had not intended us for Heaven § 9. Direct 9. Look also to the testimony of a holy life since grace hath imployed you in seeking after Direct 9. the heavenly inheritance It is unlawful and perillous to look after any works or righteousness of So Hezektah your own so as to set it in whole or in part instead of Christ or to ascribe to it any honour that is proper to him As to imagine that you are innocent or have fulfilled the Law or have made God a compensation by your merits or sufferings for the sin you have committed But yet you must judge your selves on your sick beds as near as you can as God will judge you And he will judge every man according to his work and will recompense and reward men according to their works Matth. 25 39 40 c. Well done good and faithful servant Thou hast been faithful over a little I will make thee ruler over much Come ye blessed of my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry
to corruption as it doth the bruits but to live in joy with Christ and his Church-triumphant § 14. Direct 14. Remember both how vile your body is and how great an enemy it hath proved to Direct 14. your soul And then you will the more patiently bear its dissolution It is not your dwelling house but your tent or Prison that God is pulling down And yet even this vile body when it is corrupted shall at last be changed into the likeness of Christs glorious body by the working of his unresistible power Phil. 3. 20 21. And it is a flesh that hath so rebelled against the spirit and made your way to Heaven so difficult and put the soul to so many conflicts that we should the easilier submit it to the will of justice and let it perish for a time when we are assured that mercy will at last recover it § 15. Direct 15. Remember what a world it is that you are to leave and compare it with that Direct 15. which you are going to and compare the life which is near an end with that which you are next to enter upon Was it not Henochs reward when he had walkt with God to be taken to him from a polluted world 1. While you are here you are your selves defiled sin is in your natures and your graces are all imperfect sin is in your lives and your duties are all imperfect You cannot be free from it one day or hour And is it not a mercy to be delivered from it Is it not desirable to you to sin no more and to be perfect in holiness to know God and Love him as much and more than you can now desire You are here every day lamenting your darkness and unbelief and estrangedness from God and want of Love to him How oft have you prayed for a cure of all this And now would you not have it when God would give it you why hath God put that spark of Heavenly life into you but to fight against sin and make you weary of it And yet had you rather continue sinning than have the victory and be with Christ 2. It is a life of Grief as well as sin And a life of cares and doubts and fears When you are at the worst you are fearing worse If it were nothing but the fears of death it self it should make you the willinger to submit to it that you might be past those fears 3. You are daily afflicted with the infirmities of that flesh which you are so loth should be dissolved To satisfie its hunger and thirst to cover its nakedness to provide it a habitation and supply all its wants what care and labour doth it cost you Its infirmities sicknesses and pains do make you oft aweary of your selves so that you groan being burdened as Paul speaketh 2 Cor. 5. 3 4 6. And yet is it not desirable to be with Christ 4. You are compassed with temptations and are in continual danger through your weakness And yet would you not be past the danger Would you have more of those horrid and odious temptations 5. You are purposely turned here into a Wilderness among wild beasts you are as Lambs among Wolves and through many tribulations you must enter into Heaven You must deny your selves and take up your Cross and forsake all that you have and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution in the world you must have trouble the seed of the Serpent must bruise your heel before God bruise Satan under your feet And is such a life as this more desirable than to be with Christ Are we afraid to land after such storms and tempests Is a wicked world a malitious world a cruel world an implacable world more pleasing to us than the joy of Angels and the sight of Christ and God himself in the Majesty of his Glory Hath God on purpose made the world so bitter to us and permitted it to use us unjustly and cruelly and all to make us love it less and to drive home our hearts unto himself and yet are we so unwilling to be gone § 16. Direct 16. Settle your estates betime that worldly matters may not distract or discompose you Direct 16. And if God have endowed you with Riches dispose of a due proportion to such pious or charitable uses in which they may be most serviceable to him that gave them you Though we should give what we can in the time of life and health yet many that have but so much as will serve to their necessary maintenance may well part with that to good uses at their death which they could not spare in the time of their health especially they that have no Children or such wicked Children as are like to do hurt with all that is given them above their daily bread § 17. Direct 17. If it may be get some able faithful guide and comforter to be with you in your Direct 17. sickness to counsel you and resolve your doubts and pray with you and discourse of heavenly things when you are disabled by weakness for such exercises your selves Let not carnal persons disturb you with their vain bablings Though the difference between good company and bad be very great in the time of health yet now in sicknes it will be more discernable And though a faithful friend and spiritual Pastor be alwayes a great mercy yet now especially in your last necessity Therefore make use of them as far as your pain and weakness will permit § 18. Direct 18. Be fortified against all the Temptations of Satan by which he useth to assault men Direct 18. in their extremity Stand it out in the last conflict and the Crown is yours I shall instance in particulars Directions for resisting the Temptations of Satan in the time of sickness § 19. Tempt 1. The most ordinary Temptation against the Comfort of Believers for I have already Tempt 1. spoken of those that are against their safety is to doubt of their own sincerity and consequently of their part in Christ Saith the Tempter All that thou hast done hath been but in hypocrisie Thou wast never a true Believer nor never didst truly Repent of sin nor truly love God and therefore thou art unjustified and shalt speedily be condemned § 20. Against this Temptation a Believer hath two Remedies The first is to confute the Tempter by those Evidences which will prove that he hath been sincere such as I have often mentioned before And by refelling those reasonings by which the Tempter would prove him to have been an Hypocrite As when it is objected Thou hast repented and been humbled but slightly and by the halves Answ. Yet was it sincerely and weak grace is not no grace Obj. Thou hast been a lover of the world and a neglecter of thy soul and cold in all that thou didst for thy salvation Answ. Yet did I set more by Heaven than earth and I first sought the
John 6. 39. that had never been on earth would have seemed a stranger to us and one that never was acquainted with our miseries nor had testified his Love at so dear a rate as might have convinced and encouraged and won our hearts And a Christ on earth that had not passed for us into Heaven would have seemed to us but an insufficient conquered friend and were unfit to provide us a Mansion with the Father and to receive our souls when they are separated from the flesh But now we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens and was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin and therefore can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities And therefore we may come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Heb. 4. 14 15 16. This is your time of need And here is a supply for all your needs As we may come boldly through our High Priest to the Throne of Grace so may we boldly pass by his conduct into the presence of God in glory For he is purposely gone before to prepare a place for us that where he is there we may be also John 14. 1 2 3. O what a joy is it to our departing souls that we have our Head and Saviour already in possession of the Kingdom which we are passing to What a support and joy is it to receive this message from our Ascending Head Say to my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God John 20. 17. What a joy is it to read his Promise John 12. 26. If any man serve me and let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be You have served him and are following him and now are going to be with him where he is There you shall be delivered from the darkness of this world How dimly did we see through the Lanthorn of the flesh How little did we know and how much were we ignorant of And what pains did our little knowledge cost us But there one sight of the face of God will put an end to this longsome night and will shew you that which all the reading and study of a thousand years could never satisfactorily have shewn you There you shall understand the works of God the frame of the Creation the the place and office and reason of all things which here you knew not The mysteries of the Gospel which Angels pry into will be there much more unfolded to you than the clearest Divines were able to explain them All Sciences there shall be one Pansophie and all things knowable Hâ— 8. 12. 22. Heb. 1. 14. Psal. 34. 7. Luke 15. 10. Luke 16 2â— Luke 20. 36. Phil. 3. 19 20 21. shall appear to you in their wondrous perfect harmony What welcome will those blessed Angels give you that here disdained not to minister for you and bear you up in all your wayes and interessed themselves in your concernments rejoycing before God at your Conversion How glad then will they be of your safe arrival at the promised harbour of felicity with themselves What Joy will it be to you to be presently entertained and welcomed into the acquaintance of those Blessed Spirits and of all the holy souls that are delivered from this flesh and world and to see their order and be numbred with their society and to be employed in their joyful work O how much better company is that than the best below There is no ignorance and therefore no error no want of love and no contention nor narrow private interests to contend for but all made happy in perfect love in him that is their universal end and happiness There is no dissention nor perverse disputes no ignorant zeal nor blinding passions no proud or covetous designs and therefore no hurtful means to prosecute them no seeming necessity to hurt our brethren to advance or enrich or save our selves No slanderers there condemn the souls whom Christ doth justifie nor take away the righteousness of Heb. 11. 35 36 37 38. Matth. 24. 6. Psal. 46. 9. James 4. 1 2. the righteous from him No cruel mockings imprisonments or banishments no wandring destitute afflicted or tormented no more suffering for the sake of righteousness but having suffered with Christ they are now reigning with him and those of whom the world was not worthy are taken to God from an unworthy world There are no troublesome mutations or confusions no wars nor rumors of wars because no lusts to war in their members But united souls in the harmony of love do without any discord praise the Lord. The Church is not there divided into Sects and Factions either through the pride or pievishness of its members None scrupleth communion with the rest None silence others from speaking the praises of their Redeemer nor drive away others from their brotherhood and communion There is neither unrighteous Law nor disobedient subject nor unpeaceable neighbour nor unfaithful friend nor hurtful or malitious enemy There is no afflicted friend to mourn for nor no disconsolate soul to grieve with No ignorant person to instruct nor obstinate heart to perswade or pray for No fearful doubting Christian to be comforted nor weak and wavering soul to be confirmed No imprudent scandalous actions of the godly to be lamented No remnants of Pride self-conceitedness or any delusion to keep out the light No blemishes in them for the enemies to reproach nor no malignant enemies to reproach them No misrepresentations of things or persons no raising or receiving false reports no sin of our own to grieve for or to strive against and no sin of others to trouble the society or be lamented There we shall have no suffering friend to suffer with None labouring of want while you have plenty nor any groaning in pain and sickness while you are well As no want or pain of your own will afflict you so no suffering Zeph. 3. 17 18. Ezek. 9. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. of your friends will interrupt your joy Your comforts shall not be turned into lamentations for the madness and obstinate wickedness of a Sodomitical generation about you nor your righteous soul be vexed with their filthy and sottish conversation You shall not dwell in a world where the most part is drowned in Heathenism and Infidelity nor in a Church defiled with Papal tyranny cruelty covetousness or prophaneness The whole Society will shine in Light and flame in Love and none through any weakness or corruption will be a clog or hinderance to another You shall above all this behold the person of your Glorified Redeemer You shall see that Body in its Glorious Change which once was humbled to the Virgins Womb and to a life of poverty and to the scorns of sinners to be spit upon and buffeted and crowned with thorns and first made a laughing stock and then hang'd up to dye
and dead formality and offer God a Carrion for a Sacrifice and yet their Consciences are so far from checking them for this heynous sin that they are much pleased and quieted by it as if they had deserved well of God and proved themselves very godly people and by this sin had made him amends for the common sins of their lives Is it God himself and his sanctifying grace that those men seek after in his Worship who hate his grace and scorn sanctification and can leave God to be enjoyed by others if they may but enjoy their fleshly pleasures and riches and honours in the world Even the Haters of God and Holiness are so blinded as to perswade themselves that in his Worship they are truly seeking that God and Holiness which they hate And O what a deal of pains is many a formal Hypocrite at to little purpose in spending many 2 Tim. 3. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 7. hours in outside heartless lifeless worship while they never thirsted after God nor after a holy conformity to him communion with him or fruition of him in all their lives O what a deal of labour do these Pharisees lose in bodily exercise which profiteth nothing for want of a right end in all that they do because it is not God that they seek when Goliness is profitable to all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. And what is Godliness but the souls devotedness to God and seeking after him We have much adoe to bring some men from their diversions to Gods outward worship But O how much harder is it to bring the soul to seek God unfeignedly in that Worship where the Body is present When David in the Wilderness was driven from the Sanctuary he cryeth out in the bitterness of his soul As the Hart panteth after the water Brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually sâ—y unto me where is thy God You see here that it was God himself that David thirsted after in his Worship Alas what is all the outward pomp of Worship if God be not the end and life of all Without him how vain a thing would the words of prayer and preaching and the administration of the Sacraments be It is not the dead letter but the quickening spirit that maketh the dead in sin to live that convinceth or comforteth the soul or maketh the worshipper holy or happy Nay it is some aggravation of your misery to be destitute of true Communion with God Isa. 29. 13. Matth. 15. 8. Matth. 11. â—3 Matth. 10. 15. Matth. 11. 23 24. 2 Sam. 15. 25 28 29. while you seem to worship him and to be far from him in the Heart while you draw so near him with the lips To boast of the Temple of the Lord and be forsaken by the Lord of the Temple That Capernaum shall be cast down to Hell that is but thus lift up to Heaven And it will be easier for Sodom in the day of judgement than for such as had the publick ordinances without God David left the Ark with Absalom at Hierusalem but God was not with Absalom but with David No marvel if such Hypocrites grudge at all that is costly in Gods service even the necessary maintenance of the Ministers For if they have only the shell of Ordinances without God it will scarce requite them for their cost No marvel if they think all their pains too much when they take up with the chaff which is scarcely worth their pains No wonder if they find small pleasure in Gods Service For what pleasure is there in the husks or chaff or in a deaf nut No wonder if they grow no better no holier or stronger by it For what strength will chaff and shadows breed No marvel if they are quickly weary and if a little of such Religion seem enough when the life and spirits and strength and sweetness is neglected O sinners remember that God desireth not yours but you and all your wealth and service is as nothing to him if he have not your selves when yet you are so little worth the having Nay how earnestly doth he sue to have you How dearly hath he bought you he may challenge you as his own Answer this kindness of God aright Let no ordinance nor no common mercy satisfie you if you have not God himself And to encourage you let me further tell you § 24. 10. If it be God himself that thou seekest in his worship sincerely thou shalt find him Because thou hast chosen the better part it shall not be taken from thee Because thou hungrest and Luk. 10. 42. thirsteth after him thou shalt be satisfied What joyful news is this to the thirsty soul 2. Thou art most welcome to God with these high desires This holy ambition and aspiring of Love is only acceptable to him If all ordinances be nothing to thee without God he will see that thou understandest the true use of ordinances and put down thy name among his Lovers whom he cannot despise He loveth not to see men debase their souls to feed on husks and chaff with hypocrites no more than to feed on filth and dirt with sensualists and worldlings As he accepted Solomons prayer â— Chron. 1. 11 12 13. because he asked not for little things but for great so he is very much pleased with the soul that is unsatisfied with all the world and can be content with nothing lower or worse than God himself 3. Nay because thou seekest God himself thou shalt have all things with him that are worth the having Matth. 6. 33. Rom. 8. 28. When hypocrites have but the carkass and shadow it 's thou that shâ—lt have the substantial food and joy As they that were with Paul when he was Converted did hear the voice but saw no man Act. 9. 7. so others shall hear the sound of the word and the name of God but it is thou that shall see him by faith that is invisible and feel the power and efficacy of all Thou shalt hear God speak to thee when he that sitteth in the same seat with thee shall hear no more than the voice of man It is he that seeketh after God in his Ordinances that is Religious in good sadness and is employed in a work that is worthy of an immortal rational soul. The delights of Ordinances as they are performed by man will savour of his imperfections and taste of the instrument and have a bitterness often mixed with the sweet when the delight that cometh from God himself will be more pure Ordinances are uncertain You may have them to day and lose them to morrow when God is everlasting and everlastingly to be enjoyed O therefore take not up short of God in any of his worship but before you set upon it call up your souls to mind the end and tell them
in a state of salvation that are not inherently sanctified And whether any fall from this Infant state of salvation Answ. OF all these great difficulties I have said what I know in my Appendix to Infant Baptism to Mr. Bedford and Dr. Ward and of Bishop Davenants judgement And I confess that my judgement agreeth more in this with Davenants than any others saving that he doth not so much appropriate the benefits of baptism to the children of sincere believers as I do And though by a Letter in pleading Davenants cause I was the occasion of good Mr. Gatakers printing of his answer to him yet I am still most inclined to his judgement Not that all the baptized but that all the baptized seed of true Christians are pardoned justified adopted and have a title to the Spirit and salvation But the difficulties in this case are so great as driveth away most who do not equally perceive the greater inconveniencies which we must choose if this opinion be forsaken that is that all Infants must be taken to be out of the Covenant of God and to have no promise of salvation Whereas surely the Law of Grace as well as the Covenant of Works included all the seed in their capacity 1. To the first of these Questions I answer 1. As all true believers so all their Infants do receive initially by the promise and by way of obsignation and Sacramental Investiture in Baptism a Ius Relationis a right of peculiar Relation to all the three persons in the blessed Trinity As to God as Matth. 28. 19 20. their reconciled Adopting Father and to Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and actual Head and Justifier so also to the Holy Ghost as their Regenerater and Sanctifier This Right and Relation 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. adhereth to them and is given them in order to future actual operation and communion As a Marriage Covenant giveth the Relation and Right to one another in order to the subsequent Communion Eph. 4. 4 5. and duties of a married life And as he that sweareth allegiance to a King or is listed into an Army or is entred into a School receiveth the Right and Relation and is so correlated as obligeth to the mutual subsequent Offices of each and giveth right to many particular benefits By this Right and Relation God is his own God and Father Christ is his own Head and Saviour and the Holy Spirit is his own Sanctifier without asserting what operations are already wrought on his soul but only to what future ends and uses these Relations are Now as these Rights and Relations are given immediately so those Benefits which are Relative and the Infant immediately capable of them are presently given by way of communion He hath presently the pardon of Original sin by virtue of the Sacrifice Merit and Intercession of Christ. He hath a state of Adoption and Right to Divine Protection Provision and Church-communion according to his natural Capacity and Right to everlasting life 2. It must be carefully noted that the Relative Union between Christ the Mediator and the baptized persons is that which in Baptism is first given in order of nature and that the rest do flow from this The Covenant and Baptism deliver the Covenanter 1. From Divine Displicency by Reconciliation with the Father 2. From Legal Penalties by Justification by the Son 3. From sin it self by the operations of the Holy Ghost But it is Christ as our Mediator-Head that is first given us in Relative Union And then 1. The Father Loveth us with Complacency as in the Son and for the sake of his first beloved 2. And the Spirit which is given us in Relation is first the Spirit of Christ our The Spirit is not given radically or immediately to any Christian but to Christ our Head alone and from Him to us Head and not first inherent in us So that by Union with our Head that Spirit is next united to us both Relatively and as Radically Inherent in the Humane Nature of our Lord to whom we are united As the Nerves and Animal Spirits which are to operate in all the body are Radically only in the Head from whence they flow into and operate on the members as there is need though there may be obstructions So the Spirit dwelleth in the Humane Nature of our Head and there it can never be lost And it is not necessary that it dwell in us by way of Radication but by way of Influence and Operation These things are distinctly and clearly understood but by very few and we are all much in the dark about them But I think however doctrinally we may speak better that most Christians are habituated to this perilous misapprehension which is partly against Christianity it self that the Spirit floweth immediatly from the Divine Nature of the Father and the Son as to the Authoritative or Potestative conveyance unto our souls And we forget that it is first given to Christ in his Glorified Humanity as our Head and radicated in Him and that it is the Office of this Glorified Head to send or communicate to all his members from Himself that Spirit which must operate in them as they have need This is plain in many Texts of Scripture Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall be not also with him freely give us all things when he giveth him particularly to us 1 John 5. 11 12. And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath the life and he that hath not the Son hath not the life Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Eph. 1. 22 23. And gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all John 15. 26. The Advocate or Comforter whom I will send unto you from the Father c. John 16. 7. If I depart I will send him unto you John 14. 26. The Comforter whom the Father will send in my Name Gal. 4. 6. And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I know that is true of his Living in us Objectively and Finally but that seemeth not to be all Col. 3. 3 4. For ye are dead and your life is bid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory I know that in verse 3. by Life is meant Felicity or Glory But not only as appeareth by verse 4. where Christ is called Our Life Matth. 28. 19. All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth ver 20. I am with you allwayes Joh. 13. 3. The Father hath given all things into his hands Joh. 17. 2
of Iesus of Nazareth which thing I also did c. And 1 Tim. 1. 13. that it was ignorantly in unbelief that he was a blaspheamer a persecutor and injurious And on the other side some Persâ—cute Truth and Goodness while they know it to be so Not because it is Truth or Goodness but because it is against their carnal worldly interest and inclination As the Conscience of a worldling a drunkard a whoremonger beareth witness against his sin while he goeth on in it so oft-times doth the Conscience of the Persâ—cutor and he hath secret convictions that those whom he persecuteth are better and happier than himself § 5. 3. As to the cause sometime persecution is for Christianity and Godliness in the gross or for some great essential point And sometimes it is only for some particular Truth or duty and that perhaps of a lower nature so small or so dark that it is become a great Controversie whether it be Truth or errour duty or sin In some respects it is more comfortable to the persecuted and more heynous in the persecutor that the suffering be for the Greatest things For this leaveth no doubt in the mind whether our cause be good or not and this sheweth that the persecutors mind is most aliene from God and truth But in some other respect it is an aggravation of the sin of the persecutor and of the comfort of the persecuted when it is for smaller truths and duties For it is a sign of great uncharitableness and cruelty when men can find in their hearts to persecute others for little things And it is a sign of a heart that is true to God and very sincere when we will rather suffer any thing from Man than renounce the smallest truth of God or commit the smallest sin against him or omit the smallest duty when it is a duty 4. Sometime persecution is directly for Religion that is for matters of professed Faith or Worship And sometimes it is for a civil or a common cause Yet still it is for our Obedience to God or else it is not the persecution which we speak of though the Matter of it be some common or civil thing As if I were persecuted meerly for giving to the poor or helping the sick or for being Loyal to my Prince and to the Laws or for doing my duty to my Parents or because I will not bear false-witness or tell a lye or subscribe a falshood or any such like This is truly persecution whatever the matter of it be as long as it is truly for Obeying God that we undergo the suffering § 6. I omit many other less considerable distributions And also those afflictions which are but improperly called persecutions as when a man is punished for a fault in a far greater measure than it deserveth this is Injustice but not persecution unless it be his Religion and Obedience to God which is the secret cause of it § 7. Direct 2. Understand well the greatness of the sin of Persecution that you may be kept in a Direct 2. due fear of being tempted to it Here therefore I shall shew you how Great a sin it is § 8. 1. Persecution is a fighting against God So it is called Act. 5. 39. And to fight against God is odious Malignity and desperate folly 1. It is Venemous malignity for a Creature to fight against his Creator and a sinner against his Redeemer who would save him and for so blind a worm to rise up against the wisdom of the All-knowing God! and for so vile a sinner to oppose the fountain of Love and Goodness 2. And what Folly can be greater than for a Mole to reproach the Sun for darkness or a lump of Earth to take up Arms against the Almighty terrible God Art thou able to make good thy cause against him or to stand before him when he is offended and chargeth thee with sin Hear a Pharisee Act. 6. 38 39. And now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God Or hear Christ himself Act. 9. 4 5. I am Iesus whom thou persecutest It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks with bare feet or hands to beat the thorns How unmeet a match is man for God! He needeth not so much as a word to take away thy soul and crush thee to the lowest Hell His will alone can lay thee under thy deserved pains Canst thou Conquer the Almighty God Wilt thou assault the Power which was never overcome or storm Jehovahs Throne or Kingdom First try to take down the Sun and Moon and Stars from the Firmament and to stop the course of the Rivers or of the Sea and to rebuke the Winds and turn night into day and Winter into Summer and decrepit Age into vigorous Youth Attempt not greater matters till thou hast performed these It is a greater matter than any of these to conquer God whose cause thou fightest against Hear him again Isa. 45. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker Let the potsherd strive with the Potsherds of the Earth Shall the Clay say to him that fashioneth it What makest thou Or thy work He hath no hands And Isa. 45. 9. who would set the bryars and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Wo to the man that is not content to fight with men but chooseth the most dreadful God to be his enemy It had been better for thee that all the World had been against thee § 9. 2. Persecution opposeth the gracious design of our Redeemer and hindereth his Gospel and work of mercy to the world and endeavoureth the ruine of his Kingdom upon earth Christ came to save men and persecutors raise up their power against him as if they envyed salvation to the World And if God have made the work of mans Redemption the most wonderful of all his works which ever he revealed to the sons of men you may easily conceive what thanks he will give them that resist him in so high and glorious a design If you could pull the Stars out of the Firmament or hinder the motions of the Heavens or deny the rain to the thirsty Earth you might look for as good a reward for this as for opposing the merciful Redeemer of the World in the blessed work of mans salvation § 10. 3. Persecution is a resisting or fighting against the Holy Ghost Act. 7. 51. saith Stephen to the Jews Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye If you silence the Ministers who are the means by which the spirit worketh in the illuminating and sanctifying of souls Act. 26. 17 18. or if you afflict men for those Holy duties which the
visit or relieve them Tit. 2. Directions for Loving the Children of God Direct 1. ONce get the Love of God and you cannot choose but love his Children Therefore first set Direct 1. your hearts to that and study the Directions for it Tom. 1. God must be first loved as God before the Godly can be loved as such Though perhaps this effect may sometime be more manifest than the cause Fortifie the cause and the effect will follow Direct 2. Get Christ to dwell in your hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. and then you will love his members Direct 2. for his sake The study of the love of God in Christ and the belief of all the benefits of his love and sufferings will be the bellows continually to kindle your love to your Redeemer and to all those that are like him and beloved by him Direct 3. Cherish the motions of Gods spirit in your selves For he is a spirit of Love And it is Direct 3. the same spirit which is in all the Saints Therefore the more you have of the spirit the more Unity and the more Love you will have to all that are truly spiritual The decays of your own holiness containeth a decay of your love to the holy Direct 4. Observe their Graces more than their infirmities You cannot love them unless you take Direct 4. notice of that goodness which is their loveliness Overlooking and extenuating the good that is in others doth shew your want of love to goodness and then no wonder if you want love to those that are good Direct 5. Be not tempters and provokers of them to any sin For that is but to stir up the worser Direct 5. part which is in them and to make it more apparent and so to hide their amiableness and hinder your own love They that will be abusing them and stirring up their passions or oppressing wise men to try if they can make them mad or increasing their burdens and persecutions to see whether there be any impatiency left in them are but like the Horseman who was still spurring his Horse and then sold him because he was skittish and unquiet or like the Gentleman that must needs come as a Suitor to a beautiful Lady just when she had taken a Vomit and Purge and then disdained her as being unsavoury and lothsome Direct 6. Stir up their Graces and converse much with them in the exercises of grace If Aristotle Direct 6. or Socrates Demosthenes or Cicero stood silent by you among other persons you will perceive no difference between them and a fool or a vulgar wit But when once they open their lips and pour out the streams of wisdom and eloquence you will quickly perceive how far they excell the common world and will admire love and honour them So when you converse with Godly men about matters of trading or common employments only you will see no more but their blamelesness and justice But if you will joyn with them in holy Conference or Prayer or observe them in good works you will see that the spirit of Christ is in them When you hear the longings of their souls after God and their Heavenly desires and hopes and joys and their love to piety charity and justice express themselves in their holy discourse and prayers and see the fruits of them in their lives you will see that they are more than common men Direct 7. Foresee the perfection of their Graces in their beginnings No man will Love a seed or Direct 7. stock of those plants or trees which bear the sweetest and most beautiful flowers and fruits unless in the seed he foresee the fruit or flower which it tendeth to No man loveth the egg aright who doth not foreknow what a â—iâ—d it will bring forth Aristotle or Cicero were no more amiable in their infancy than others except to him that could foretell what men they were like to prove Think oft of Heaven and what a thing a Saint will be in Glory when he shall shine as the Stars and be equal to the Angels and then you will quickly see cause to love them Direct 8. Frequently think of the Everlasting union and sweet agreement which you must have with Direct 8. them in Heaven for ever How perfectly you will love each other in the Love of God How joyfully you will consent in the Love and Praises of your Creator and Redeemer The more believingly you foresee that state and the more you contemplate thereon and the more your Conversation is in Heaven the more will you love your fellow Souldiers and Travellers with whom you must live in blessedness for ever Tit. 3. Motives or Meditative helps to love the Godly Mot. 1. COnsider what Relation all the Regenerate have to God They are not only his Creatures Motive 1. but his Adopted Children And are they not honourable and amiable who Gal. 4. 6. are so near to God Mot. 2. Think of their near Relation to Jesus Christ They are his Members and his Brethren Motive 2. and the purchase of his sufferings and coheirs of everlasting life Rom. 8. 16 17. Ephes. 5. 26 27. Mot. 3. Think of the excellency of that spirit and holy Nature which is in them Regeneration Motive 3. hath made them partakers of the Divine nature and hath indued them with the spirit of Christ and hath by the incorruptible seed made them new Creatures of a Holy and Heavenly mind and life and hath renewed them after the Image of God And what besides God himself can be so amiable as his Image Mot. 4. Think of the precious price which was paid for their Redemption If you will estimate Motive 4. things by their price if the purchaser be wise how highly must you value them Mot. 5. Remember how dearly they are beloved of God their Creator and Redeemer Read and Motive 5. observe Gods tender language towards them and his tender dealings with them He calleth them his Children his beloved yea dearly-beloved his jewels the apple of his eye Deut. 33. 12. Psal. 60. 5. 127. 2. Col. 3. 12. Ier. 12. 7. Mal. 3. 17. Zech. 2. 8. Deut. 32. 10. Christ calleth the least of them his Brethren Matth. 25. Judge of his love to them by his incarnation life and sufferings Judge of it by that one heart melting message after his resurrection Joh. 20. 17. Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God And should we not love them dearly who are so dearly beloved of God Mot. 6. They are our Brethren begotten by the same father and Spirit of the same holy seed the word Motive 6. of God and have the same nature and disposition And this Unity of nature and neerness of relation is such a suitableness as must needs cause love Mot. 7. They are our companions in labour and tribulation in our duty and sufferings They
When ever the Spirit of God knocks at thy door thou art so taken up with other company or other business that thou canst not hear or wilt not open to him Many a time he hath been ready to teach thee but thou wast not at leisure to hear and learn Many a time he secretly jog'd thy conscience and checkt thee in thy sin and called thee aside to consider soberly about thy spiritual and everlasting state when the noise of foolish mirth and pleasures or the busles of encumbring cares and business have caused thee to stop thy ears and put him off and refuse the motion And if the abused Spirit of God depart and leave thee to thy beloved mirth and business and to thy self it is but just And then thou wilt never have a serious effectual thought of Heaven perhaps till thou have lost it nor a sober thought of Hell till thou art in it unless it be some despairing or some dull uneffectual thought § 2. O therefore as thou lovest thy soul do not love thy pleasure or business so well as to refuse to treat with the Spirit of God who comes to offer thee greater pleasures and to engage thee in a more important business O lay by all to hear a while what God and conscience have to say to thee They have greater business with thee than any others that thou conversest with They have better offers and motions to make to thee than thou shalt hear from any of thy old companions If the Devil can but take thee up a while with one pleasure one day and another business another day and keep thee from the work that thou camest into the world for till time be gone and thou art slipt unawares into damnation then he hath his desire and hath the end he aimed at and hath won the day and thou art lost for ever § 3. It 's like thou settest some limits to thy folly and purposest to do thus but a little while But when one Pleasure withereth the Devil will provide a fresh one for thee and when one business is over which caused thee to pretend Necessity another and another and another will succeed and thou wilt think thou hast such Necessity still till time is gone and thou see too late how grosly thou wast deceived Resolve therefore that whatever company or pleasure or business would divert thee that thou wilt not be befooled out of thy salvation nor taken off from minding the One thing Necessary If Company plead an interest in thee know of them whether they are better company than the Spirit of God and thy Conscience If Pleasure would detain thee enquire whether it be more pâ—re and durable pleasures than thou maist have in Heaven by hearkening unto grace If business still pretend Necessity enquire whether it be a greater business than to prepare thy soul and thy accounts for judgement and of greater Necessity than thy salvation If not let it not have the precedency If thou be wise do that first that must needs be done and let that stand by that may best be spared What will it profit thee to win all the world and lose thy soul. At least if thou durst say that thy Pleasure and business is better than Heaven yet might they sometime be forborn while thou seriously thinkest of thy salvation Direction 7. IF thou wouldst be converted and saved be not a malicious or pievish enemy to those Direct 7. that would convert and save thee Be not angry with them that tell thee of thy sin or duty as if they did thee wrong or hurt § 1. God worketh by instruments When he will convert a Cornelius a Peter must be sent for and willingly heard When he will recall and save a sinner he hath usually some publick Minister or private friend that shall be a messenger of that searching and convincing truth which is fit to awaken them enlighten them and recover them If God furnish these his instruments with compassion to your souls and willingness to instruct you and you will take them for your enemies and pievishly quarrel with them and contradict them and perhaps reproach them and do them a mischief for their good will what an inhumane barbarous course of ingratitude is this Will you be angry with men for endeavouring to save you from the fire of Hell Do they endeavour to make any gain or advantage by you or only to help your souls to Heaven Indeed if their endeavours did serve any ambitious 1 Pet. 5. 2 3 4. 2 Cor. 10. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. 2 Cor. 1. 24. 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2 Cor. 3 6. 11. 23. Joel 1. 9 13. 2 Cor 4. 5. Mark 10 44. Matth. 10. 27. â—uke 22. 24 25 26. design of their own to bring the world as the Pope and his Clergy would do under their own jurisdiction you had reason then to suspect their fraud But the truth is Christ hath purposely appointed his greatest Church-Officers to be but Ministers even the servants of all to rule and save men as Volunteers without any coercive Power by the Management of his powerful Word upon their consciences and to beseech and intreat the poorest of the flock as those that are not Lords over Gods heritage nor masters of their faith but their servants in Christ and helpers of their joy that so when ever we deliver our message to them they may see that we exercise not dominion over them and aim at no worldly honours or gain or advantage to our selves but at the meer conversion and saving of their souls whereas if he had allowed us to exercise authority as the Kings of the Gentiles and to be called Gracious Lords and to incumber our selves with the affairs of this life our doctrine would have been rejected by the generality of the world and we should alwayes have come to them on this great disadvantage that they would have thought that we sought not them but theirs and that we preached not for them but for our selves to make a prize of them As the Jesuites when they attempt the conversion of the Indians do still find this their great impediment the Princes and people suppose them to pretend the Gospel but as a means to subjugate them and their Dominions to the Pope because they tell them that they must be all subject to the Pope if they will be saved Now when Christ hath appointed a poor self-denying intreating Ministry against whom you can have none of these pretences to sloop to your feet with the most submissive intreaties that you would but turn to God and live you have no excuse for your own barbarous ingratitude if you will fly in their faces and use them as your enemies and be offended with them for endeavouring to save you You know they can hold their Tythes and Livings by smoothing and cold and general preaching as well as by more faithful dealing if not better You know they can get no worldly advantage by
Murder Adultery c. It is in your hearts to do it when you have but temptation and opportunity and will be till you are renewed by sanctifying Grace § 9. 9. Till you are sanctified you are heirs of death and Hell even under the curse and condemned Unus gehennae ignis est in Inferno sed non uno modo omnes excruciat peccatores Uniuscujusque enim quantum exigit culpa tantum illic sentitur poena Nam sicut hic unus sol non omnia corpora aequaliâ—er caâ—eâ—acit ita illic unus ignis animas pro qualitate crimiâ—um dissimiliter exurit H go Etherianus de Aâ—im regres cap. 12. already in point of Law though judgement have not past the final sentence See Iohn 3. 18 19 36. And nothing is more certain than that you had been damned and undone for ever if you had dyed before you had been renewed by the Holy Ghost and that yet this will be your miserable portion if you should dye unsanctified Think then what a life you have lived until now And think what it is to live any longer in such a case in which if you dye you are certain to be damned Conversion may save you but unbelief and self-flattery will not save you from this endless misery Heb. 12. 14. Heb. 2. 3. Matth. 25. ult § 10. 10. As long as you are unsanctified you are hasting to this misery Sin is like to get more Idem undique in infernum descensus est saith Anaxagoras in Laert. to one that only lamented that he must die in a strange Countrey rooting and your hearts to be more hardened and at enmity with grace and God more provoked and the Spirit more grieved and you are every day nearer to your final doom when all these things will be more sensibly considered and better understood 2 Tim. 3. 13. 2 Pet. 2. 3. Thus I have given you a brief account of the case of unrenewed souls and but a brief one because I have done it before more largely Treat of Convers. Direction 10. WHen you have found out how sad a condition you are in consider what there is in Direct 10. sin to make you amends or repair your loss that should be any hinderance to your Conversion § 1. Certainly you will not continue for nothing if you know it to be nothing in so dangerous and doleful a case as this And yet you do it for that which is much worse than nothing not considering what you do Sit down sometimes and well bethink you what recompence the world or sin will make you for your God your souls your hopes and all when they are lost and past recovery Think what it will then avail or comfort you that once you were honoured and had a great estate that once you fared of the best and had your delicious cups and merry hours and sumptuous attire and all such pleasures Think whether this will abate the horrors of death or put by the wrath of God or the sentence of your condemnation or whether it will ease a tormented soul in Hell If not think how small and short and silly a commodity and pleasure it is that you buy so dear And what a wise man can see in it that should make it seem worth the Joyes of Heaven and worth your enduring everlasting torments What is it that is supposed worth all this Is it the snare of preferment Is it vexing riches Is it befooling honours Is it distracting cares Is it swinish luxury or lust Is it beastly pleasures Or what is it else that you will buy at so wonderful dear a rate O lamentable folly of ungodly men O foolish sinners Unworthy to see God! and worthy to be miserable O strangely corrupted heart of man that can fell his Maker his Redeemer and his salvation at so base a price Direction 11. ANd when you are casting up your account as you put all that sin and the world Direct 11. will do for you in the one end of the scales so put into the other the Comforts both of this life and of that to come which you must part with for your sins § 1. Search the Scriptures and consider how happy the Saints of God are there described Think what it is to have a purified cleansed soul to be free from the slavery of the flesh and it's concupiscence to have the sensitive appetite in subjection unto Reason and Reason illuminated and rectified by faith to be alive to God and disposed and enabled to love and serve him to have access to him in prayer with boldness and assurance to be heard to have a fealed pardon of all our sins and an interest in Christ who will answer for them all and justifie us to be the children of God and the heirs of Heaven to have peace of Conscience and the joyful hopes of endless joyes to have communion with the Father through the Son by the Spirit and to have that Spirit dwelling in us and working to our further holiness and joy to have communion with the Saints and the help and comfort of all Gods Ordinances and to be under his many precious promises and under his protection and provision in his family and to cast all our care upon him to delight our selves daily in the remembrance and renewed experiences of his love and in our too little knowledge of him and love to him and in the knowledge of his Son and of the Mysteries of the Gospel to have all things work together for our good and to be able with joy to welcome Death and to live as in Heaven in the foresight of our everlasting happiness I would have orderly here given you a particular account of the priviledges of renewed souls but that I have done so much in that already in my Treatise of Conversion and Saints Rest. This taste may help you to see what you lose while you abide in an unconverted state Direction 12. WHen you have thus considered of the condition you are in consider also whether Direct 12. it be a condition to be rested in one day § 1. If you die unconverted you are past all hope for out of Hell there is no redemption And Alienus est à â—ee qui ad â—â—â—â—ndam pâ—â—â—â—enâ—am tempuâ— expecâ—aâ—â—enecturis I◠〈◊〉 Pa â— in Aâ—â—ot 〈◊〉 12. Multos vitam differenteâ— morâ— incerta praeâ—â—nit Id. ib. ex Sâ—â—â—â— certain you are to dye ere long and uncertain whether it will be this night Luke 12. 20. You never lay down with assurance that you should rise again You never went out of doors with assurance to return You never heard a Sermon with assurance that you should hear another You never drew one breath with assurance that you should draw another A thousand accidents and diseases are ready to stop your breath and end your time when God will have it so And if you dye this night in an unregenerate state there is no more time or help or
clean and delectable and paved with mercies and fortified and secured by Divine protection and where Christ is your Conductor and so many have sped so well before you and the wisest and best in the world are your companions Live then as men that have changed their Master their end their hopes their way and work Religion layeth not men to sleep though it be the only way to Rest. It awakeneth the sleepy soul to higher thoughts and hopes and labours than ever it was well acquainted with before He that is in Christ is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. You never sought that which would pay for all your cost and diligence till now You never were in a way that you might make haste in without repenting of your haste till now How glad should you be that Mercy hath brought you into the right way after the wanderings of such a sinful life And your gladness and thankfulness should now be shewed by your cheerful diligence and zeal As Christ did not raise up Lazarus from the dead to do nothing or live to little purpose though the Scripture giveth us not the history of his life So did he not raise you from the death of sin to live idely or to be unprofitable in the world He that giveth you his Spirit to be a principle of heavenly life within you expecteth that you stir up the gift that he hath given you and live according to that heavenly principle Direction 16. ENgage thy self in the chearful constant use of the means and helps appointed by God Direct 16. for thy confirmation and salvation § 1. He can never expect to attain the end that will not be perswaded to use the means Of your selves you can do nothing God giveth his help by the means which he hath appointed and fitted to your help Of the use of these I shall treat more fully afterwards I am now only to name them to thee that thou maist know what it is that thou hast to do 1. That you must hear or read the Word of God and other good Books which expound it and How Paenitents of old did rise even from a particular sin judge by these words of Pacianus Paâ—â—â—â—â—â— ad Poeâ—â—t Bibl. Pat. To. 3. p. 74. You must not only do that which may be seen of the Priest and praised by the Bishop to weep before the Church to lament a lost or sinful life in a â—ordid garment to fast pray to role on the earth if any invite you to the Bath or such pleasures to refuse to go If any bid you to a Feast to say These things are for the happy I have sinned against God and am in danger to perish for ever What should I do at Banquets who have wronged the Lord Besides these you must take the poor by the hand you must beseech the Widdow lye at the feet of the Presbyters beg of the Church to forgive you and pray for you you must try all means rather than perish apply it I shewed you before The new born Christian doth encline to this as the new born child doth to the breast 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new born babes that desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby Psal. 1. 2 3. The blessed mans delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night § 2. 2. Another means is the publick worshipping of God in communion with his Church and people Besides the benefit of the word there preached the prayers of the Church are effectual for the members and it raiseth the soul to holy joyes to joyn with well ordered Assemblies of the Saints in the Praises of the Almighty The Assemblies of holy worshippers of God are the places of his delight and must be the places of our delight They are most like to the Celestial Society that sound forth the praises of the glorious Iebovah with purest minds and cheerful voice In his Temple doth every one speak of his glory Psal. 29. 9. In such a Chore what soul will not be rapt up with delight and desire to joyn in the consort and harmony In such a flame of united desires and praises what soul so cold and dull that will not be enflamed and with more than ordinary facility and alacrity fly up to God § 3. 3. Another means is private prayer unto God When God would tell Ananias that Paul was converted he saith of him Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11. Prayer is the breath of the new creature The Spirit of Adoption given to every child of God is a Spirit of prayer and teacheth them to cry Abba Father and helpeth their infirmities when they know not what to pray as they ought and when words are wanting it as it were intercedeth for them with groans which they cannot express in words Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 15 26 27. And God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit in those groans The first workings of grace are in Desires after grace provoking the soul to servent prayer by which more grace is speedily obtained Ask then and ye shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Luke 11. 9. § 4. 4. Another means to be used is Confession of sin not only to God for so every wicked man may do because he knoweth that God is already acquainted with it all and this is no addition to his shame He so little regardeth the eye of God that he is more ashamed when it is known to men But in three Cases Confession must be made also to Man 1. In case you have wronged man and are thus bound to make him satisfaction As if you have robbed him defrauded him slandered him or born false witness against him 2. In case you are Children or Servants that are under the government of Parents or Masters and are called by them to give an acount of your actions You are bound then to give a true account 3. In case you have need of the Counsel or Prayers of others for the setling of your consciences in peace In this case you must so far open your case to them as is necessary to their effectual help for your recovery For if they know not the disease they will be unfit to apply the remedy In these cases it is true that He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Prov. 28. 13. § 5. 5. Another Means to be used is the familiar company and holy converse with humble sincere experienced Christians The Spirit that is in them and breatheth and acteth by them will kindle the like holy flames in you Away with the company of idle prating sensual men that can talk of nothing but their worldly wealth or business or their reputations or their appetites and lusts
John 3. 18. 3. 5. Thou sleepest in Irons in the captivity of the Devil among the walking judgements of God in a life that is still expecting an end in a Boat that is swiftly carried to eternity just at the entrance of another world and that world will be Hell if Grace awake thee not Thou art going to see the face of God to see the world of Angels or Devils and to be a companion with one of them for ever And is this a place or case to sleep in Is thy Bed so soft thy dwelling so safe God standeth over thee man and dost thou sleep Christ is coming and death is coming and judgement coming and dost thou sleep Didst thou never read of the foolish Virgins that slept out their time and knockt and cryed in vain when it was too late Matth. 25. 5. Thou mightest wiselyer sleep on the Pinnacle of a Steeple in a Storm than have a soul asleep in so dangerous a case as thou art in The Devil is awake and is rocking thy Cradle How busie is he to keep off Ministers or Conscience or any that would awake thee None of thy enemies are asleep and yet wilt thou sleep in the thickest of thy foes Is the battle a sleeping time or thy race a sleeping time when Heaven or Hell must be the End While he can keep thee asleep the Devil can do almost what he liâ—t with thee He knows that thou hast now no use of thy eyes or understanding or power to resist him The Learnedst Doctor in his sleep is as unlearned actually as an Ideot and will dispute no better than an unlearned man This makes many learned men to be ungodly they are asleep in sin The Devil could never have made such a drudge of thee to do his work against Christ and thy soul if thou hadst been awake Thou wouldst never have followed his whistle to the Ale-house the Play-house the Gaming-house and to other sins if thou hadst been in thy wits and well awake Read Prov. 7. 23. 24. I cannot believe that thou longest to be damned or so hatest thy self as to have done as thou hast done to have a lived Godless a Graceless a Prayerless and yet a merry careless life if thy eyes had been opened and thou hadst known and feelingly known that this was the way to Hell Nature it self will hardly go to Hell awake But it 's easie to abuse a man that is asleep Thou hast Reason but didst thou ever awake it to one hours serious Consideration of thy endless state and present case O dreadful judgement to be given over to the Spirit of slumber Rom. 11. 8. Is it not high time now to awake out of sleep Rom. 13. 11. When the light is arisen and shines about thee When others that care for their souls are busily at work When thou hast slept out so much precious time already Many a mercy and perhaps some Ministers have been as Candles burnt out to light thee while thou hast slept How oâ—t hast thou been called already How long wilt thou sleep O sluggard Prov. 6. 9. 10. Yet thou hast thundering calls and allarums to awake thee God calls and Ministers call Mercies call and judgements call and yet wilt thou not awake The voice of the Lord is powerful full of Majesty breaketh the Cedars shaketh the Wilderness and yet cannot it awake thee Thou wilt not sleep about far smaller matters at meat or drink or in common talk or Market But O how much greater business hast thou to keep thee awake Thou hast yet an unholy soul to be renewed an ungodly life to be reformed an offended God to be reconciled to and many thousand sins to be forgiven Thou hast death and judgement to prepare for thou hast Heaven to win and Hell to scape Thou hast many a needful Truth to learn and many a holy duty to perform and yet dost thou think it time to sleep Paul that had less need than thou did watch and pray and labour day and night Acts 20. 31. 1 Thess. 3. 10. O that thou knewest how much better it is to be awake While thou sleepest thou losest the benefit of the Light and all the mercies that attend thee The Sun is but as a clod to a man asleep The world is as no world to him The beauty of Heaven and Earth are nothing to him Princes friends and all things are forgotten by him So doth thy sleep in sin make nothing of health and patience time and help Ministers Books and daily warnings O what a day hast thou for everlasting if thou hadst but a heart to use it What a price hast thou in thine hand Prov. 10. 5. Sleep not out thy day thy harvest time thy tide time They that sleep sleep in the night 1 Thess. 5. 7. Awake and Christ will give thee light Rom. 13. 12. Ephes. 5. 14. Awake to righteousness and sin not 1 Cor. 15. 34. O when thou seest the Light of Christ what a wonder will it possess thee with at the things which thou now forgettest What joy will it fill thee with and with what pity to the sleepy world But if thou wilt needs sleep on be it known to thee sinner it shall not be long If thou wilt wake no sooner death and vengeance will awake thee Thou wilt wake when thou seest the other world and seest the things which thou wouldst not believe and comest before thy dreadful Judge Thy damnation slumbereth not 2 Pet. 2. 3. There are no sleepy souls in Heaven or Hell all are awake there and the day that hath awakened so many shall waken thee Watch then if thou love thy soul lest thy Lord come suddenly and find thee sleeping Mark 13. 34 35 36 37. What I say to one I say to all Watch. § 4. Tempt 2. If Satan cannot keep the soul in a sleepy careless inconsiderate forgetfulness he would Tempt 2. make the unregenerate soul believe that there is no such thing as Regenerating Grace but that it is a fancied thing which no man hath experience of and he saith as Nicodemus How can these things be John 3. 4. He thinks that natural conscience is enough § 5. Direct 2. But this may be easily refuted by observing that Holiness is but the very Health and Direct 2. rectitude of the soul and is no otherwise supernatural than as Health to him that is born a Leper See 2 Cor. 5. 17. Gal. 6. 15. Gal. 4. 19. Joh. 3. 3. 5. 6. Matth. 18. 3. 1 Pet. 1. 23. It is the rectitude of Nature or its disposition to the use and end that it was made for Though Grace be called supernatural 1. Because it is not born with us and 2. Corrupted Nature is against it 3. And the End of it is the God of Nature who is above Nature 4. And the Revelation and other means are supernatural as Christs incarnation resurrection c. Yet both Nature and Scripture and experience tell you
that man is made for another life and for such works which he is utterly unfit for till Grace have changed and renewed him as it doth by many before your eyes § 6. Tempt 3. But saith the Tempter if supernatural grace be necessary yet it may be born in you Tempt 3. Infants have no sin Christ saith Of such is the Kingdom of God Abraham is your Father yea God John 8. 39. 41. You are born of Christian Parents § 7. Direct 3. See the full proof of Original Sin in all Infants in my Treatise of the Divine Life Direct 3. Part. 1. Chap. 11. 12. Grace may indeed be put betimes into Nature but comes not by nature Except you be born again you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3. 5. If any man be in Christ Rom. 8. 9. 16. Rom. 9. 8. Eph. 2. 3. he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. But how vain is it for him to boast that he was born holy who finds himself at the present unholy Shew that you have a holy heavenly heart and life and then you are happy when ever it was wrought § 8. Tempt 4. But saith the Tempter Baptism is the laver of Regeneration You are Baptized and Tempt 4. therefore you are Regenerated The Ancients taught that all sins were washt away in Baptism and Grace conferred § 9. Direct 4. Answ. The Ancients by Baptism meant the Internal and External acts conjunct the Direct 4. souls delivering up it self to God in the Covenant and sealing it by Baptism And so it includeth Conversion and true Repentance and faith And all that are thus baptized are pardoned justified and holy But they that have only Sacramental Regeneration or the external Ordinance are not for Mat. 28. 19 20. that in a state of life For Christ expresly saith that except you are born of the Spirit as well as Water you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven John 3. 5 6. And Peter told Simon Magus after he was baptized that he was yet in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Acts 8. 13. It is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience 1 Pet. 3. 21. Christ cleanseth his Church by the washing of water by the word Eph. 5. 26. But if you had been cleansed in Baptism if at present you are unclean and unholy can you be saved so § 10. Temp. 5. When this faileth the Tempter would perswade them that Godliness is nothing but Tempt 5. a matter of meer Opinion or belief to believe all the Articles of the faith and to be no Papist nor Heretick but of the true Religion and to be confident of Gods mercy through Christ For he that believeth shall be saved Mar. 16. 16. § 11. Direct 5. To this you must answer that it will not save a man that his Religion is true Direct 5. unless â—â— be true to it Read Iames 2. against such a dead faith Saving faith is the hearty entertainment of Christ as our Lord and Saviour and the delivering up the soul to him to be sanctified and ruled as well as pardoned Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth He that knoweth his Masters will and dâ—th it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 12. 47. It 's sad that men should think to be saved â—y that which will condemn them by being of a right opinion and a wrong conversation by believing their duty instead of dâ—ing it and then presuming that Christ forgiveth them and that their state iâ— good Opinion and presumption are not faith § 12. Tempt 6. But saith the Tempter Holiness is the excellency of holy persons but vulgar unlearned Tempt 6. people may be saved without such high matters which are above them § 13. Direct 6. But God telleth you that without Holiness none shall see him Heb. 12. 14. The unlearned 〈◊〉 6. may be saved but the ungodly cannot Psal. 1. 6. Holiness is to the soul as life to the body He that hath it not is dead though all have not the same degree of health Sin is sin and hated of God in learned and unlearned All men have souls that need regenerating at first And as all bodies that live must live on the earth by the Air and Food c. â—o all souls that live do live upon the s 〈…〉 God and Christ and Heaven by the same Word and Spirit and all this may be had by the unlearned § 14. Tempt 7. But saith the Tempter God is not so unmerciful as to damn all that are not holy Tempt 7. This is but talk to keep men in aw and not to be believed § 15. Direct 7. But if Gods threatnings be necessary to keep men in awe then are they necessary Direct 7. to be executed For God needs not awe men by a lye He best knows to whom he will be merciful and how far Did you never read Isa. 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that was made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour And Psal. 59. 5. Be not merciful to any wicked transgressor Is he not just as well as merciful Exod. 34. 6 7. Do you not see that men are sick and pained and dye for all that God is merciful And do not Merciful Iudges condemn Malefactors Are not Angels made Devils by sin for all that God is merciful The Devil knoweth this to his sorrow And if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell 2 Pet. 2. 4. will he be unjust for you § 16. Tempt 8. But Christ dyed for all and God will not punish him and you both for the same Tempt 8. fault § 17. Direct 8. Christ dyed so far for all that have the Gospel as to procure and seal them a free Direct 8. and general pardon of all their sins if they will repent and take him for their Saviour and so to bring salvation to their choice But will this save the ungodly obstinate refusers Christ dyed to sanctifie as well as to forgive Eph. 5. 27. and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. and to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 8. and to bring all men under his Dominion and Government Rom. 14. 9. Luke 19. 27. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8 9. § 18. Tempt 9. No man can be certain of his salvation but all must hope well and to raise Tempt 9. dâ—ubts in mens hearts whether they shall be saved or no will not help them but puzzle them and cast them into despair § 19. Direct 9. But is there so little difference between a child of God and of the Devil and between Direct 9. the way to Heaven and the way
opportunity But let him that can be free and possess so great a mercy accept it thankfully though to his cost As Christ said in another case Every man cannot receive the saying but he that can receive it let him § 2. There is abundance of difference between a weak unskilful unexperienced dead-hearted formal Teacher and such a one as is described in the Direction Some that are sensless or indifferent in such matters as these themselves would perswade you to be so too and look first in your settlement to your bodily conveniencies and be content with such a Teacher as accidentally you are cast upon And they 'l tell you that the work of grace dependeth not on the Preachers gifts but on the gift and blessing of the Spirit of God The Formalists and the Enthusiasts concurr in this though from different principles But though God can frustrate the fittest means and can work without means or by that which is least fitted to the end yet it is his ordinary way to work by means and that for the soul as well as for the body and to work most by the aptest means And I am sure it is the duty of every Teacher to preach in the fittest manner that he can for the peoples edification and not to do Gods work deceitfully and ineptly because God can bless the unfittest means And it is the peoples duty to attend upon the best they can enjoy though God can equally work by the weakest or by none As that pretence will not excuse the contemners of Gods Ordinances that upon every little business stay at home and attend upon no Ministry at all no more will it excuse them that refuse that help that is most suited to their edification and take up with a worse when they might have better We are not to neglect duty upon a presumptuous expectation of miraculous or extraordinary works When we can have no better we may hope for the greater benefit from the weakest but not when it is the choice of our own presumptuous irreligious hearts God can make Daniel and his companions to thrive better by eating Pulse than others that fed at the Table of the King And rather than sin against God we must cast our selves on him for unusual supplyes or leave all to his will But few would therefore be perswaded causlesly to live on Pulse when they may have better And one would think this Truth should have no contradiction especially from those men that are apt to obscure and extenuate the Spirits operations on the soul and to confess no Grace but what consisteth in a congruous ordination of Means and Circumstances When their doctrine layeth all a mans hopes of salvation upon this Congruity of Means and Circumstances should they afterwards teach men to undervalue or neglect the fittest and wilfully cast their souls upon the most unfit and unlikely means But Ungodliness first resolveth what to speak against before it resolveth what to say and will contradict Gods Word though it contradict its own and will oppose holiness though by a self-opposing § 3. But the spiritual rellish and experience of the Godly is a very great preservative to them against such deluding reasonings as these It 's harder for a Sophister of greatest subtilty or authority to perswade him that hath tasted them that Sugar is bitter or Wormwood sweet than to perswade him to believe it that never tasted them And it 's hard to make a healthful man believe that it is best for him to eat but once a Week or best to live on Grass or Straw I doubt not but those that now I speak to have such experience and perception of the benefit of a judicious and lively Ministry in comparison of the ignorant cold and lifeless that no words will make them indifferent herein Have you not found the Ministry of one sort enlighten and warm and quicken and comfort and strengthen you much more than of the other I am sure I have the common sense and experience of the faithful on my side in this which were enough of it self against more than can be said against it Even new-born babes in Christ have in their new natures a desire not to sensless or malicious pratings but to the Rational sincere milk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may grow by it and to perform to God a Rational service Rom. 12. 1. § 4. And it must needs be a very proud or stupid heart that can be so insensible of its own infirmity sinfulness and necessity as to think the weakest dullest Minister may serve their turns and that they are able to keep up their life and vigour and watchfuless and fruitfulness with any little ordinary help I cannot but fear such men know not what the power and efficacy of the Word upon the heart and conscience meaneth nor what it is to live a life of faith and holiness and to watch the heart and walk with God If they did they could not but find so much difficulty herein and so much backwardness and unskilfulness in themselves hereto as would make them feel the necessity of the greatest helps And it could not be but they must feel the difference between a clear and quickning Sermon and an ignorant heartless dead discourse that is spoken as iâ— a man were talking in his sleep or of a matter that he never understood nor had experience of § 5. Alas how apt are the best to cool if they be not kept warm by a powerful Ministry How apt to lose the hatred of sin the tenderness of conscience the fervency in prayer the zeal and fulness in edifying discourse and the delights and power of heavenly Meditations which before we had How apt is faith to stagger if it be not powerfully underpropt by the helpers of our faith How hardly do we keep up the heat of Love the confidence of Hope the resolution and fulness of obedience without the help of a powerful Ministry Nay how hardly do we do our part in these in any tolerable sort even while we have the clearest liveliest helps that are ordinarily to be had And can any that are not blind and proud imagine that they are so holy and good that they are above the necessity of such assistance and that the weakest breath is enough to kindle the fire of holy Love and â—eal and keep them in the fear and obedience of God Alas we are under languishing weakness and must be dyeâ—â—ed with the best or we shall soon decay we are Cripples and cannot go or stand without our Crutches And there must be some savour of the Spirit in him that will be fit to make us spiritual and some savour of faith and love in him that would kindle faith and love in us and he must speak clearly and convincingly that will be understood and will prevail with such as we And he must speak feelingly that would make us feel and speak seriously that would be much regarded by us and
mind If you cast them not out with abhorrence but dispute with the Devil he hopes to prove too hard at least for such children and unprovided Souldiers as you And if you do reject them and refuse to dispute it with him he will sometime tell you that your cause is naught or else you need not be afraid to think of all that can be said against it and this way he gets advantage of you to draw you to unbelief And if you scape better than so at least he will molest and terrifie you with the hideousness of his temptations and make you to think that you are forsaken of God because such blasphemous thoughts have been so often in your minds And thus he will one while tempt you to blasphemy and another while affright and torment you with the thoughts of such temptations § 4. So also in the study of other good Books he will tempt you to fix upon all that seems difficult to you and there to confound and perplex your selves And in your Meditations he will seek to make all to tend but to confound and overwhelm you keeping still either hard or fearful things before your eyes or breaking and scattering your thoughts in pieces that you cannot reduce them to any order nor set them together nor make any thing of them nor drive them to any desirable end So in your prayers he would fain confound you either with fears or with doubtful and distracting thoughts about God or your sins or the matter or manner of your duty or questioning whether your prayers will be heard And so in your self-examination he will still seek to puzzle you and leave you more in darkness than you began and make you afraid of looking homeward or conversing with your selves like a man that is afraid to lye in his own house when he thinks it haunted with some apparitions And thus the Devil would make all your Religion to be but like the unwinding of a bottom of Yarn or a Skein of Silk that is ravelled that you may cast it away in weaâ—iness or despair § 5. Your Remedy against this dangerous temptation is to remember that you are yet young in knowledge and that Ignorance is like darkness that will cause doubts and difficulties and fears and that all these will vanish as your Light increaseth and therefore you must wait in patience till your â—â—pâ—r knowledge â—it you for satisfaction And in the mean time be sure that you take up your hearts most with the great fundamental necessary plain and certain points which your salvation is laid upon and which are more suited to your state and strength If you will be gnawing bones when you should be sucking milk and have not patience to stay till you are past your childhood no maâ—vâ—l if you find them hard and if they stick in your throats or break your teeth See that you live upon God in Christ and love and practise what you know and think of the excellency of so much as is already revealed to you You know already what is the end that you must seek and where your Happiness consisteth and what Christ hath done to prepare it for you and how you must be justified and sanctified and walk with God Have you God and Christ and Heaven to think on and all the mercies of the Gospel to delight in and will you lay by these as common matters or overlook them and pâ—rplâ—x your selves about every difficulty in your way Make clean work before you as you go and live in the joyful acknowledgement of the Mercies which you have received and â—f the practice of the things you know and then your difficulties will vanish as you go on § 6. 2. Another of Satans wiles is to confound you with the noise of Sectaâ—ies and divers opinions 2 By various Sâ—cts in Religion while the Popish Sect tell you that if you will be saved you must be of their Church and others say you must be of theirs And when you find that the Sects are many and their reasonings such as you cannot answer you will be in danger either to take up some of their Sed peâ—â—â—â—â—â—a nos opinionum varâ—eâ—as hominuâ— que dissâ—nsioâ— Et quia non idem contingit in 〈◊〉 â—os natura certos putamus Illa sic aliis secus nec iisdem sâ—mper uno modo videntur ficta esse câ—â—â—â—aâ—s Qâ—od est lâ—â—ge alâ—â—er Animis omnes tenduntur inâ—â—dâ—ae c. Ciâ—â—â—â—o 〈…〉 b. li. 1. pag. 291. 〈◊〉 cat deceits or to be confoundâ—d among them all not knowing which Church and Religion to choose § 7. But here consider that there is but One Universal Church of Christians in the world of which Christ is the Only King and Head and every Christian is a member You were Sacramentally admitted into this Catholick Church by Baptism and Spiritually by your being born of the Spirit You have all the promises of the Gospel that if you Believe in Christ you shall be saved and that all the living members of this Church are loved by Christ as members of his body and shall be presented unspotted to the Father by him who is the Saviour of his body Eph. 5. 23 24 25 26 27 29. And that by One Spirit we are all baptized or entered into this one body 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. If then thou hast faith and love and the Spirit thou art certainly a Christian and a member of Christ and of this Universal Church of Christians And if there were any other Church but what are the Parts of this one then this were not Universal and Christ must have two bodies Thou art not saved for being a member of the Church of Rome or Corinth or Ephesus or Philippi or Thâ—ssalonica or of any other such but for being a member of the Universal Church or body of Christ that is a Christian. And as thou art a subject of the King and a member of this Kingdom whatever Corporation thou be a member of perhaps sometime of one and sometime of another so thou art a subject of Christ what ever particular Church thou be of For it is no Church iâ— they be not Christians or subjects of Christ. For one Sect then to say Ours is the true Church and another to say Nay but ours is the true Church is as mad as to dispute whether your Hall or Kitchin or Parlor or Cole-house is your House and for one to say This is the House and another Nay but it is that when a child can tell them that the best is but a part and the house containeth them all And for the Papists that take on them to be the whole and deny all others to be Christians and saved except the subjects of the Pope of Rome it is so irrational Antichristian a fiction and usurpation and odious cruell and groundless a damnation of the far greatest part of the body of Christ that its fitter for detestation than dispute And if such a crack
Essential Truths by errors of their own nor the doctrine of Godliness by wicked malicious applications 4. Such as drive not on any ambitious tyrannical designs of their own but deny themselves and aim at your salvation 5. Such as are not too hot in proselyting you to any singular opinion of their own it being the prediction of Paul to the Ephesians Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them 6. Such as are judicious with holy zeal and zealous with judgement 7. Such as are of experience in the things of God and not young beginners or Novices in Religion 8. Such as bear reverence to the judgements of the generality of wise and godly men and are tender of the Unity of the Church and not such as would draw you into a Sect or party to the contempt of other Christians no not to a party that hath the favour of Rulers and the people to promote them 9. Such as are gentle peaceable and charitable and not such as burn with hellish malice against their Brethren nor with an ungodly or cruel consuming zeal 10. Such as not live not sensually and wickedly contrary to the doctrine which they preach but shew by their lives that they believe what they say and feel the power of the truths which they preach § 4. And your familiar companions have great advantage to help or hinder your salvation as well Imperat Reâ— ut nostrae religionis illorum mensa nullum communem haberent neque cum Catholicis omino vescerentur Quae res non ipâ—â—s aliquod praestitit beneficium sed nobis maximum conâ—ulit lucrum Nam si sermo â—oâ—â—m sicut cancer consuevit serpere quanto magis communis mensa ciborum potuit inquinare cum dicat Apostolus cum nefariis nec cibum habere communem Victor Utic p. 418. Magnum virtutis praesidium societas bonoâ—um socius exemplo excitat sermone recreat consilio instâ—uiâ— orationibus adjuvat autoritate continet quae omnia so itudini desunt Ios. Acosta l. 4. c. 13. Dicunt Stoici Amicitiam solos inter bonâ—s quos sibi invicem studiorum similitudo conciliet posse consistere Porro amicitiam ipsam societatem quandam esse dicunt omnium quae sunt ad vitam necessaria cum amicis ut nobismet ipsis utamur atque ob id amicum eligendum amicorumque multitudinem â—â—â—â—er expetenda ponunt inter malos non posse constare amicitiam Laert. in Zenone as your Teachers The matter is not so great whom you meet by the way or travell with or trade and buy and sell with as whom you make your intimate or familiar friends For such have both the advantage of their interest in your affections and also the advantage of their nearness and familiarity and if they have but also the advantage of higher abilities than you they may be powerful instruments of your good or hurt If you have a familiar friend that will defend you from error and help you against temptations and lovingly reprove your sin and feelingly speak of God and the life to come inditing his discourse from the inward power of faith and love and holy experience the benefit of such a friend may be more to you than of the learnedst or greatest in the world How sweetly will their speeches relish of the Spirit from which they come How deeply may they pierce a careless heart How powerfully may they kindle in you a love and zeal to God and his Commandments How seasonably may they discover a temptation prevent your fall reprove an error and recover your souls How faithfully will they watch over you How profitably will they provoke and put you on and pray with you fervently when you are cold and mind you of the Truth and duty and mercy which you forget It is a very great mercy to have a judicious solid faithful companion in the way to Heaven § 5. But if your ears are daily filled with froth and folly with ribaldry or idle stories with Oaths and Curses with furious words or scorns and jears against the godly or with the Sophistry of deceivers is it likely this should leave a pleasant or wholsome relish on your minds Is it likely that the effect should not be seen in your lean or leprous hearts and lives as well as the effects of an infected or unwholsome air or diet will be seen upon your diseased bodies He is ungodly that liketh such company best And he is proud and presumptuous that will unnecessarily cast himself upon it in confidence that he shall receive no hurt And he is careless of himself that will not cautelously avoid it And few that long converse with such come off without some notable loss except when we live with such as Lot did in Sodom grieving for their sin and misery or as Christ conversed with publicans and sinners with a holy zeal and diligence to convert and save them or as those that have not liberty who bear that which they have not power to avoid § 6. Among the rest your danger is not least from that are eager to proselite you to some party or unsound opinion that they think they are in the right and that they do it in love and that they think it necessary to your salvation and that Truth or Godliness are the things which they profess all this makes the danger much the greater to you if it be not Truth and Godliness indeed which they propose and plead for And none are in more danger than the ungrounded and unexperienced that yet are so wise in their own esteem as to be confident that they know Truth from Error when they hear it and are not afraid of any deceit nor much suspicious of their own understandings But of this before § 7. The like danger there is of the familiar company of lukewarm ones or the prophane At Non tamen at corporum sic animorum moâ—bi transseunt ad nolentes Imo vero nobilis animus viâ—iorum odro ad amorem vâ—rtutis accâ—nditur Petraâ—â—h Dialog de aâ—iâ— moriâ— first you may be troubled at their sinful or unsavoury discourse and make some resistance against the infection But before you are aware it may so cool and damp your graces as will make your decay discernable to others First You will hear them with less offence and then you will grow indifferent what company you are in and then you will laugh at their sin and folly and then you will begin to speak as they and then you will grow cold and seldomer in prayer and other holy duties and if God prevent it not at last your judgements will grow blind and you will think all this allowable § 8. But of all bad company the nearest is the worst If you choose such into your families or into your nearest conjugal relations you cast water upon the fire you imprison your selves in such â—etters as will gall and grieve
for the soul is that which least endangereth it by being over-pleasing to the Body and in which the flesh hath the smallest interest to set up and plead against the Spirit Not but that the largest stock must be accepted and used for God when he trusteth us with it for when he setteth us the hardest work we may expect his greatest help But a dwelling as in Tents in a constant unsetledness in a moveable condition having little and needing little never feeling any thing in the creature to tempt us to say Soul take thy Rest this is to most the safest life which giveth us the freâ—st advantages for Heaven § 5. Take heed therefore as you love your souls of falling into the snare of worldly Hopes and laying designs for rising and riâ—hâ—s and pleasing your selves in the thoughts and prosecution of these things â—â—r then you are in the readiest way to perdition even to idolatrous worldliness and apostacy of heart from God and opening a door to every sin that seems but necessary to your worldly ends and to odious Hypocrisie for a cloke to all this and to quiet your guilty minds with something that is like Religion When once you are saying with worldly security as he Luke 12. 17 18. 19. I will pull down my barn and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and goods and I will say to my soul Soul thou hast much goâ—ds laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and â—e mercy you are then befooling your selves and near being called away as fools by dâ—â—th â— 20 21. And when without a sense of the uncertainty of your lives you are saying as those in â—ames 4. 13 14. To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas you know not what will be on the morrow You forget what your lives are that they are a vapour appearing a little while and then vanishing away Ver. 14. Boast not thy self therefore of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Prov. 27. 1. Direct 20. SEe that your Religion be purely Divine and animated all by God as the Beginning the Direct 20. D 〈…〉 ma 〈…〉 dâ—â—â—â—â—â—bat â—iaâ—◠〈…〉 nem 〈◊〉 â—e◠〈◊〉 â—eâ—i 〈◊〉 sufficere quâ—dem ad bene beateque vivendum â—aeâ—erum instrumentis indigere corporis bonis robore sanitate integritate 〈◊〉 c. Exterioribus etiam opiâ—â—â—â— genâ—ris claâ—itate gloria c. Ea si non affluerint nihilominus tamen beatum foâ—â—â—apiâ—â—tem Arbitratur Deos humana câ—rnere atque curare daemones esse Porro in dialogâ—â— justitiam Divinâ—m legem â—â—bitratus est ut ad juâ—e agendum poâ—entius persuâ—deret nè post mortem poenas improbi luerent Laert. in Plaâ— .. Way and the End and that first upon thy Soul and then upon all that thou hast or dost there be written HOLINESS TO THE LORD and that thou corrupt not all with an inordinate hypâ—critical respect to man § 1. To be Holy is to be Divine or devoted to God and appropriated to Him and his Will and Use and that our Hearts and Lives be not Common and Unclean To be Godly is to Live to God as those that from their hearts believe that he is God indeed and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him that he is our God All-sufficient our shield and exceeding great reward Heb. 11. 6. Gen. 15. 1. 17. 1. And that Of Him and Through Him and To Him are all things that all may give the Glory for ever unto him Rom. 11. 36. As God is infinitely above all Creatures so Living upon God and unto God must needs advance us above the highest sensual life And therefore Religion is transcendently above all Sciences or Arts so much of God as is in you and upon you so much you are more excellent than the highest worldly perfection can advance you to GOD should be the First and Last and All in the mind and mouth and life of a believer God must be the Principal Matter of your Religion The Understanding and Will must be exercised upon him When you awake you should be still with him Psal. 139. 8. Your Meditatiâ—ns of him should be sweet and you should be glad in the Lord Psal. 104. 34 Yet creatures under Him may be the frequent less principal matter of your Religion but still as referred unto Him God must be the Author of your Religion God must institute it if you expect he should accept it and reward it God must be the Rule of your Religion as Revealing his Will concerning it in his Word God must be the Ultimate End of your Religion It must be intended to Please and Glorifie Him God must be the continual Motive and Reason of your Religion and of all you do you must be able truly to fetch your Reason from Heaven and to say I do it because it is his will I do it to please and glorifie and enjoy him God must be taken as the Soveraign Iudge of your Religion and of you and of all you do And you must wholly look to his Justification and approbation and avoid what ever he condemneth Can you take God for your Owner your Soveraign your Saviour your sufficient Protector your Portion your All If not you cannot be godly nor be saved If his Authority have not more Power upon you than the authority of the Greatest upon earth you are Atheistical Hypocrites and not truly Religious whatever you pretend If HOLINESS TO THE LORD be written upon you and all that 's yours you are devoted to him as his Own peculiar ones If your Names be set upon your Sheep or Plate or Clothes you will say if another should take them They are mine Do you not see my mark upon them Slavery to the Flesh the World and the Devil is the mark that is written upon the ungodly upon the foreheads of the prophane and upon the Hearts of Hypocrites and all and Satan the world and the flesh have their service If you are Conseerated to God and bear his Name and Mark upon you tell every one that would lay claim to you that you are His and resolved to live to Him to Love Him to Trust Him and to stand or fall to him alone Let God be the very Life and Sense and End of all you do § 2. When once Man hath too much of your regard and observation that you set too much by his favour and esteem or eye him too much in your profession and practice when mans approbation too much comforteth you and manâ— displeasure or dispraise doth too much trouble you when your fear and love and care and obedience are too much taken up for Man You so far withdraw your selves from God and are becoming the servants of men and friends of the world and turning back to bondage and forsaking your Rock and Portion and
Love of God and therefore it is Best 20. The grand impediment to all Religion and our Salvation which hindereth both our Believing Loving and Obeying is the inordinate sensual inclination to Carnal self and present transitory things cunningly proposed by the Tempter to ensnare us and divert and steal away our hearts from God and the life to come The understanding of these Propositions will much help you in discerning thr Nature and Reason of Religion DIRECT II. Diligently labour in that part of the life of faith which consisteth in the constant use of Christ as the Means of the souls access to God acceptance with him and comfort from him And think not of coming to the Father but by him § 1. TO talk and boast of Christ is easie and to use him for the increase of our carnal security and boldness in sinning But to live in the daily Use of Christ to those Ends of his Office to which he is by us to be made use of is a matter of greater skill and diligence than many self 〈…〉 Professors are aware of What Christ himself hath done or will do for our salvation is â—â—â—â— directly the thing that we are now considering of but what Use he requireth us to make of him Paul Sâ—aiiger Thes. p. 725. Christus solus quidem secundum utramque naturam di 〈…〉 Id. p 725. in the life of saith He hath told us that his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed and that except we eat his flesh and drink his blood we have no life in us Here is our Use of Christ expressed by eating and drinking his flesh and blood which is by faith The General parts of the work of Redemption Christ hath himself performed for us without asking our Consent or imposâ—â—g upon us any Condition on our parts without which he would not do that work As the Sun doth illustrate and warm the earth whether it will or not and as the Rain falleth on the Grass without asking whether it consent or will be thankful so Christ without our consent or knowledge did take our nature and fulfill the Law and satisfie the offended Law-giver and Merit grace and conquâ—â— Satan Death and Hell and became the Glorified Lord of all But for the exercise of his graces in us and our advancement to communion with God and our living in the strength and joyes of faith he is himself the Object of our Duty even of that Faith which we must daily and diligently exercise upon him And thus Christ will profit us no further than we make Use of him by faith It is not a forgotten Christ that objectively comforteth or encourageth the soul but a Christ believed in and skilfully and faithfully Used to that end It is Objectively principally that Christ is called Our wisdom 1 Cor. 1. 30. The knowledge of him and the mysteries of Grace in him is the Christian or Divine Philosophy or Wisdom in opposition to the vain Philosophy which the Learned Heathens boasted of And therefore Paul determined to know nothing but Christ crucified that is to make oftentation of no other knowledge and to glory in nothing but the Cross of Christ and so to preach Christ as if he knâ—w nothing else but Christ. See 1 Cor. 1. 23. 2. 2. Gal. 6. 14. And it is Objectively that Christ is said to dwell in our hearts by faith Ephes. 3. 17. Faith keepeth him still upon the heart by continual cogitation application and improvement As a friend is said to dwell in our hearts whom we continually love and think of § 2. Christ himself teacheth us to distinguish between Faith in God as God and faith in himself Namquâ—â—mpâ—â—â—â—nâ— involute non â—â—â—â—haec soâ—um sed qâ—â—â—â—unquâ— Divinae â—â—eâ—ae prâ—dunt credit de quibus tamen nâ—n omnibus interrâ—gatur quod eâ— expresse â—â—iâ—e omnia illi minime opus sit omnia 5. c 6. p. 461. Christian Religion beginneth not at the Highest but the Lowest with Christ incarnate teaching dying â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 1â—1 out of Iâ—â—tâ—r as Mediator John 14. 1. Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God or Believe ye in God â— believe also in me These set together are the sufficient cure of a troubled heart It is not Faith in God as God but Faith in Christ as Mediator that I am now to speak of And that not as it is inherent in the understanding but as it is operative on the heart and in the life And this is not the smallest part of the life of faith by which the just are said to live Every true Christian must in his measure be able to say with Paul Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me The Pure Godhead is the Beginning and the End of all But Christ is the Image of the invisible God the first born of every creature and by him all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things do consist And he is the Head of the Body the Church who is the beginning the first born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence Col. 1. 16 17 18 19. In him it is that we who were sometime far off are made nigh even by his blood For he is our Peace who hath recâ—nâ—iled both Iew and Gentile unto God in one body by the Cross having slain the â—nâ—ity thereby and came and preached peace to them that were far off and to them that were â—igâ— For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father so that now we are no more i◠〈…〉 s and forâ—â—igners but fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes. 2. 1â— â—â—â—â—â—â—6 17 18. In him it is that we have beldness and access with confidence through faith in him Epâ— â—â—â—â—â— He is the Way the Truth and the Life and no man cometh to the Father but by him John 14. 6. It is by the blood of Iesus that we have boldness and liberty â— to enter into the holiest by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh Because we have so Great a Priest over the House of God we may draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith c. Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. By him it is that we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and boast in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5. 1 2. So that we must have all our Communion with God through him § 3. Supposing what I
is here a great encouragement to the soul to think that Jesus our great High Priest doth make all his Children Priests to God They are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the prayses of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellâ—us light An holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5 â— Even their broken hearts and contrite Spirits are a sacrifice which God will not despâ—se Psal. 51. 17. He knoweth the meaning of the Spirits groans Rom. 8. 26 27. § 19. 16. The strength of corruptions which molest the soul and are too often strugling with it and too much prevail doth greatly discourage us in our approach to that God that hateth all the workers of iniquity And here faith may find relief in Christ not only as he pardoneth us but as he hath conquered the Devil and the world himself and bid us be of good cheer because he hath conquered and hath all power given him in Heaven and Earth and can give us victorious grace in the season and measure which he seeth meetest for us We can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us Go to him then by faith and prayer and you shall find that his grace is sufficient for you § 20. 17. The thoughts of God are the less delightful to the soul because that Death and the Grave do interpose and we must pass through them before we can enjoy him And it is unpleasing to nature to think of a separation of soul and body and to think that our flesh must rot in darkness But against this faith hath wonderful relieâ— in Iesus Christ. For asmuch as we were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part with us that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death even the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Hâ—b 2. 14 15. O what an encouragement it is to faith to observe that Christ once dyed himself and that he rose from the dead and reigneth with the Father it being impossible that death should hâ—ld him And having conquered that which seemed to conquer him it no more hath dominion over him but he hath the Keyes of Death and Hell we may now entertain death as a disarmed enemy and say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Yea it is sanctified by him to be our friend even an entrance into our Masters joy it being best for us to depart and be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. and therefore death is become our gain v. 21. O what abundance of strength and sweetness may faith perceive from that promise of Christ John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be As he was dead but now liveth for evermore so hath he promised that because he liveth therefore shall we live also John 14. 19. But of this I have written two Treatises of Death already § 21. 18. The terror of the day of Iudgement and of our particular doom at death doth make the thoughts of God less pleasing and delectable to us And here what a relief is it for faith to apprehend that Iesus Christ must be our Judge And will he condemn the members of his body Shall we be afraid to be judged by our dearest friend by him that hath justified us himself already even at the price of his own blood § 22. 19. The very strangeness of the soul to the world unseen and to the inhabitants and employments there doth greatly stop the soul in its desires and in its delightful approaches unto God Had we seen the world where God must be enjoyed the thoughts of it would be more familiar and sweet But faith can look to Christ and say My head is there he seeth it for me he knoweth what he possesseth prepareth and promiseth to me and I will quietly rest in his acquaintance with it § 23. 20. Nay the Godhead it self is so infinitely above us that in it self it is inaccessible and it is ready to amaze and overwhelm us to think of coming to the incomprehensible Majesty But it emboldneth the soul to think of our Glorified Nature in Christ and that even in Heaven God will everlastingly condescend to us in the Mediator For the Mediation of Redemption and acquisition shall be ended and thus he shall deliver up the Kingdom to the Father yet it seems that a Mediation of fruition shall continue For Christ said to his Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory John 17. 24. We shall rejoyce when the marriage of the Lamb is come Rev. 19. 7. They are blessed that are called to his Marriage Supper v. 9. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple and the Light of the New Ierusalem Rev. 21. 22 23. Heaven would not be so familiar or so sweet to my thoughts if it were not that our glorified Lord is there in whose Love and Glory we must live for ever O Christian as ever thou wouldst walk with God in comfortable communion with him study and exercise this Life of faith in the daily use and improvement of Christ who is our Life and Hope and All. DIRECT III. Gr. Dir. 3. Understand well what it is to believe in the Holy Ghost and see that he dwell To believe in the Holy Ghost and live upon his Grace and operate in thee as the Life of thy soul and that thou do not resist or quench the Spirit but thankfully obey him § 1. EAch person in the Trinity is so believed in by Christians as that in Baptism they enter Scrutari temeritas est credere pietas nesse vita Bernard de consid ad Eâ—geâ— l. 5. distinctly into Covenant with them which is to Accept the Mercies of and perform the 〈…〉 each person distinctly As to take God for Our God is more than to believe that there is a God â—nd to take Christ for Our Saviour is more than barely to believe that he is the Messiah so to Believe in the Holy Ghost is to take him for Christs Agent or Advocate with our souls and for our Guide and Sanctifier and Comforter and not only to believe that he is the third person in the Trinity This therefore is a most practical Article of our Belief § 2. If the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost be the unpardonable sin then all sin against the Holy Ghost must needs have a special aggravation by being such And if the sin against the Holy Ghost be the greatest sin then our duty towards the Holy Ghost is certainly none of our smallest duties Therefore the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit and our duty towards him and sin against him deserve not the least or
his Wisdom Clemency and Justice 3. And effectively on his Subjects and Servants who are by his Laws reduced to a Conformity to his mind As a man may first cut his Arms or Image on his seal and then by that seal imprint it on the wax and though it be perfectly cut on the seal it may be imperfectly printed on the wax so Gods Image is naturally perfect in his Son and Regularly or expressively perfect on the seal of his holy Doctrine and Laws but imperfectly on his subjects according to their reception of it in their several degrees § 6. Therefore it is easie to discern their error that tell men the Light or Spirit within them is their Rule and a perfect Rule yea and that it is thus in all men in the world when Gods Word and experience flatly contradict it telling us that Infidels and enemies of God and all the ungodly are in Darkness and not in the Light and that all that speak not according to this Word the Law and Testimony have No Light in them and therefore no perfect Light to be their Rule Isa. 8. 20. The Ministry is sent to bring them from darkness to Light Therefore they had not a sufficient Light in them before Acts 26. 17 18. Wo to them that put darkness for light and light for darkness Isa. 5. 20. telling the children of darkness and the haters of the Light that they have a perfect Light and Rule within them when God saith They have no Light in them See 1 John 1. 5. 4 6 7 8. He that saith he is in the Light and hateth his brother is in darkness even till now 1 John 2. 9 10 11. The Light within a wicked man is darkness and blindness and therefore not his Rule Matth. 6. 23. Ephes. 5. 8. Even the Light that is in godly men is the knowledge of the Rule and not the Rule it self at all nor ever called so by God Our Rule is perfect our knowledge is imperfect for Paul himself saith We know in part But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Now we see through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. 9 10 12. The Gospel is bid to them that are lost being blinded by Satan 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. § 7. There is an admirable unsearchable concurrence of the Spirit and his appointed means and the will of man in the procreation of the new creature and in all the exercises of grace as there is of Male and Female in natural generation and of the Earth the Sun the Rain the industry of the Gardiner and the seminal vertue of Life and specification in the production of Plants with their flowers and fruits And as wise as it would be to say It is not the Male but the Female or the Female but the Male that generateth or to say It is not the Earth but the Sun or not the Sun but the Rain or not the Rain but the seminal Vertue that causeth Plants with Flowers and Fruits So wise is it to say It is not the Spirit but the Word and Means or it is not the Word and Means but the Spirit or it is not the Reason and Will and industry of man but the Spirit Or if we have not wisdom enough to assign to each cause its proper interest in the effect that therefore we should separate what God hath conjoyned or deny the truth of the causation because we comprehend not the manner and influence this is but to choose to be befooled by Pride rather than confess that God is wiser than we § 8. 2. You may here discern also how the Spirit assureth and comforteth believers and how palpably they err that think the Spirit comforteth or assureth us of our salvation without the use of its Evidencing grace The ten things mentioned § 4. is all that the Spirit doth herein But to expect his Comforts without any measure of discerning his graces which can only rationally prove our right to the blessings of the Promise this is to expect that he should comfort a Rational Creature not as Rational but darkly cause him to rejoyce he knoweth not why and that he should make no use of faith to our comfort For faith resteth understandingly upon the Promise and expecteth the performance of it to those that it is made to and not to others Indeed there is a common encouragement and comfort which all men even the worst may take from the universal conditional Promise and there is much abatement of our fears and troubles that may be fetcht from probabilties and uncertain hopes of our own sincerity and interest in the Promise But to expect any other assurance or comfort from the Spirit without Evidence is but to expect immediate revelations or inspirations to do the work which the Word of promise and faith should do The souls Consent to the Covenant of ☜ Grace and fiducial Acceptance of an offered Christ is justifying saâ—ing faith Every man hath an object in the Promise and offer of the Gospel for this act and therefore may rationally perform it Though all have not hearts to do it This may well be called Faith of adherence and is it self our evidence from which we must conclude that we are true Believers The discerning of this Evidence called by some the Reflex act of faith is no act of faith at all it being no believing of another but the act of Conscience knowing what is in our selves The discerning and concluding that we are the children of God participateth of faith and conscientious knowledge which gave us the premises of such a conclusion § 9. 3. You may hence perceive also how we are said to be sealed by the Spirit Even as a mans Eph. 1. 13. Rom. 8. 9. Ephes. 4 30. seal doth signifie the thing sealed to be his own So the Spirit of holiness in us is Gods seal upon us signifying that we are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. Every one that hath the Spirit is sealed by having it and that is his Evidence which if he discern he may know that he is thus sealed § 10. 4. Hereby also you may see what the earnest and first fruits of the Spirit is The Spirit is 2 Coâ— 1. 22. given to us by God as the earnest of the Glory which he will give us To whomsoever he giveth the Spirit of Faith and Love and Holiness he giveth the seed of life eternal and an inclination thereto which is his earnest of it § 11. 5. Hereby also you may see how the Spirit witnesseth that we are the children of God The word Witness is put here principally for Evidence If any one question our adoption the Witness or Evidence which we must produce to prove it is the Spirit of Iesus sanctifying us and dwelling in us This is the chief part at least of the sense of the Text Rom. 8. 16. Though it is true that the same Spirit witnesseth by 1. Shewing us the
grace which he hath given us 2. And by shewing us the truth of the Promise made to all believers 3. And by helping us from those Promises to conclude with boldness that we are the children of God 4. And by helping us to rejoyce therein § 12. II. I have been the longer though too short in acquainting you with the Office of the Holy Ghost supposing your Belief that he is the third person in the Trinity because it is an Article of grand importance neglected by many that profess it and because there are so many and dangerous errors in the world about it Your great care now must be 1. To find this Spirit in you as the Principle of your operations and 2. To obey it and follow its motions as it leadeth you up to communion with God Of the first I have spoken in the first Chapter For the second observe these few Directions § 13. Direct 1. Be sure you mistake not the Spirit of God and its motions nor receive instead of Direct 1. them the motions of Satan or of your passions pride or fleshly wisdom It is easie to think you are obeying the Spirit when you are obeying Satan and your own corruptions against the Spirit By these fruits the Spirit of God is known 1. The Spirit of God is for Heavenly Wisdom and neither for Foolishness or treacherous craftiness Psal. 19. 7. 94. 8. Jer. 4. 22. 1 Cor. 2. 4 5 6 7. 2. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of Love delighting to do good its doctrine and motions are for Love and tend to Good abhorring both selfishness and hurtfulness to others Gal. 5. 21 22. 3. He is a Spirit of Concord and is ever for the Unity of all believers abhorring both Divisions among the Saints and carnal complyances and â—onfederacies with the wicked 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 4. 3 4 5 6 13. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Nâ—mo magnus sine aâ—iquo afflaâ—â— Dâ—vâ—â—o â—nquam suit â—â—â—â— 2. â—â— Nâ—â— Dâ—o 3. 3. Rom. 16 17 18. 4. He is a Spirit of humility and self-denyal making us and our knowledge and gifts and worth to be very little in our own eyes Abhorring pride ambition self-exalting boasting as also the actual debasing of our selves by earthliness or other sin Matth. 18. 3. Eph. 4. 2. 5. He is a Spirit of meekness and patience and â—orbearance Abhorring stupidity and inordinate passion boisterousness tumult envy contention reviling and revenge Math. 11. 28 29. Ephes. 4. 2. Iames 3. 1 Pet. 2. 20 21 23. Gal. 5. 20. Rom. 12. 18 19 20. Eph. 4. 31. Col. 3. 8. 6. He is a Spirit of zeal for God resolving men against known sin and for known truth and duty Abhorring a furious destroying zeal and also an indifferency in the cause of God and a yielding complyance with that which is against it Gal. 4. 18. Numb 25. 11 13. Titus 2. 14. Iames 3. 15. 17. Luke 9. 55. Rev. 3. 16. 7. He is a Spirit of Mortification crucifying the flesh and still conâ—ending against it and causeing men to live above all the Glory and Riches and Pleasures of the world Abhorring both carnal licentiousness and sensuality and also the destroying and disabling of the Body under preâ—ence of true mortification Rom. 8. 1. 13. Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 13. 13 14. 1 Cor. 9. 27. 2 Pâ—t 2. 19. Col. 2. 18 21 23. 8. The Spirit of Christ contradicteth not the doctrine of Christ in the holy Scripture but moveth us to an exact conformity thereto Isa. 8. 20. This is the sure Rule to try pretences and motions of every Spirit by For we are sure that the Spirit of Christ is the Author of that word and we are sure he is not contrary to himself 9. The motions of the Spirit do all tend to our Good and are neither Ludicrous impertinent or hurtful finally They are all for the perfecting of sanctification obedience and for our salvation Therefore unprofitable trifles or despair and hurtful distractions and disturbances of mind which drive from God unfit for duty and hinder salvation are not the motions of the Spirit of God 2 Tim. 1. 7. Rom. 8. 15. Isa. 11. 2. Gal. 5. 22. Zech. 12. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 6. 10. Lastly The Spirit of God subjecteth all to God and raiseth the heart to him and maketh us spiritual and divine and is ever for Gods glory 1 Iohn 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 17 20. Ephes. 2. 18 22. Phil. 3. 3 19 20. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 4 6. Examine the Texts here cited and you will find that by all these fruits the Spirit of God is known from all seducing Spirits and from the fancies or passions of self-conceited men § 14. Direct 2. Quench not the Spirit either by wilful sin or by your neglecting of its offered help Direct â— It is as the spring to all your spiritual motions as the Wind to your Sails You can do nothing without it Therefore reverence and regard its help and pray for it and obey it and neglect it not When you are sure it is the Spirit of God indeed that is knocking at the door behave not your selves as if you heard not 1. Obey him speedily Delay is a present unthankful refusal and a kind of a denyal 2. Obey him throughly A half obedience is disobedience Put him not off with Ananias and Saphira's gift the half of that which he requireth of you 3. Obey him constantly not sometime hearkning to him and more frequently neglecting him but attending him in a learning obediential course of life § 15. Direct 3. Neglect not those means which the Spirit hath appointed you to use for the receiving Direct 3. of us help and which be useth in his holy operations If you will meet with him attend him in his own way and expect him not in by-wayes where he useth not to go Pray and meâ—itaâ—e and hear and read and do your best and expect his blessing Though your plowing and sâ—winâ— will not give you a plentiful harvest without the Sun and Rain and the blessing of God yet these will not do â—t neither unless you plow and sow God hath not appointed a course of means in Nature or Morality in vain nor will he use to meet you in any other way § 16. Direct 4. Do most when the Spirit helpeth you most Neglect not the extraordinary measures Direct 4. of his assistance If he extraordinarily help you in prayer or meditation improve that help and break not â—st so soon as at other times without necessity Not that you should omit duty till you seel his help For he useth to come in with help in the performance and not in the neglect of duty But tire not out your self with affected length when you want the life § 17. Direct 5. Be not unthankful for the assistance he hath given you Deny not his grace Direct 5. Ascribe it not to nature Remember it to encourage your future expectations
Dominion God hath over you and how absolutely and wholly you are His. 2. Let it exceedingly Please you to think that you are wholly his it being much better for you as to your Safety Honour and Happiness than to be your Own or any 's else 3. As God requireth it in his Covenant of Grace that he have his Right by your Consent and not by Constraint so you must thankfully accept the motion and with hearty and full Consent of Will Resign your selves to him as his Own even as his Creatures his Ransomed ones and his Regenerate Children by a Covenant never to be violated 4. You must carefully watch against the Claim and reserves of carnal selfishness lest while you confess you are Gods and not your Own you should secretly still keep possession of your selves against him or re-assume the possession which you surrendred 5. You must Use your selves ever after as Gods and not your Own § 3. II. In this Using your selves as wholly Gods consisteth both your further duty and your benefits 1. When Gods Propriety is discerned and consented to it will make you sensible how you are obliged to employ all your powers of soul and body to his service and to perceive that Nothing should be alienated from him no creature having any co-ordinate title to a thought of your hearts or a glance of your affection or a word of your mouths or a minute of your time The sense of Gods Propriety must cause you to keep constant accounts between God and you and to call your selves to a frequent reckoning whether God have his Own and you do not defraud him whether it be his work that you are doing and for him that you think and speak and live And all that you have will be Used as his as well as your selves For no man can have any good thing that is more his Own than he is his own himself § 4. 2. Propriety discerned doth endear us in affection to our Owner As we love our Own Children so they love their Own Fathers Our very Dogs love their Own Masters better than another When we can say with Thomas My Lord and my God it will certainly be the voice of Love Gods Common Propriety in us as his Created and Ransomed ones obligeth us to Love him with all our heart But the knowledge of his peculiar propriety by Regeneration will more effectually command our Love § 5. 3. Gods Propriety perceived will help to satisfie us of his Love and Care of us and will help Deorum providentia Mundus administratur â—demque consulunt rebus humanis neâ— soâ—um universâ—s verum eâ—aâ— singâ—â—â—â— â—icero 1. de Dâ—via us to Trust him in every danger and so take off our inordinate fear and anxieties and caring for our selves The Apostle proveth Christs Love to his Church from his Propriety Ephes. 5. 29. No man ever yet hated his Own flesh God is not regardless of his Own As we take care of our Cattel to preserve them and provide for them more than they do for themselves for they are more Ours than their own so God is more concerned in the welfare of his children than they are themselves they being more his than their own Why are we afraid of the wrath and cruelty of man Will God be mindless and negligent of his Own Why are we over-careful and distrustful of his providence Will he not take care of his Own and make provision for them God even our own God shall bless us Psal. 67 6. Gods interest in his Church and Cause and Servants is an argument which we may plead with him in prayer 1 Chron. 17. 21 22. and with which we may greatly encourage our confidence Isa. 48. 9 11. For my Names sake will I defer mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off For mine Own sake even for mine Own sake will I do it For how should my Name be polluted and I will not give my Glory to another Isa. 43. 1 2. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that formed thee O Israel Fear not for I have Redeemed thee I have called thee by name thou art Mine When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee c. If God should neglect Our interest he will not neglect his Own § 6. 4. Gods propriety in us discerned doth so much aggravate our sin against him that it should greatly restrain us and further our humiliation and recovery when we are fallen Lev. 20. 26. Ye shall be Holy unto me for I the Lord am Holy and have severed you from other people that you should be mine Ezek. 16. 8. I sware unto thee and entered into a Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine saith the Lord when he is aggravating Ierusalems sin 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your Spirits which are Gods Justice requireth that every one have his own § 7. 5. It should silence all murmurings and repinings against the Providence of God to consider that we are his Own Doth he afflict you and are you not his own Doth he kill you Are you not his own As a Ruler he will shew you reason enough for it in your sins But as your absolute Lord and Owner he need not give you any other Reason than that he may do with his own as he list It is not possible that he can do any wrong to that which is absolutely his Own If he deny you health or wealth or friends or take them from you he denyeth you or taketh from you nothing but his own Indeed as a Governour and a Father he hath secured the faithful of eternal life Otherwise as their Owner he could not have wronged them if he had made the most innocent as miserable as he is capable to be Do you labour and beat and kill your Cattel because they are your own by an imperfect propriety and dare you grudge at God for afflicting his Own when their Consciences tell them that they have deserved it and much more § 8. And that you may not think that you have Resigned your selves to God entirely when you do Sins against Gods Dominion but hypocritically profess it observe 1. That that man is not thus Resigned to God that thinketh any service too much for God that he can do 2. Nor he that thinketh any cost too great for God that he is called to undergo 3. Nor he that thinketh that all is won of his time or wealth or pleasure or any thing which he can save or steal from God For all is lost that God hath not 4. Nor he that must needs be the Disposer of himself and his condition and affairs and God must humour him and accommodate his Providence to his carnal interest and will or else he cannot bear it or think well of it 5. Remember that all
world would be without it and sure this will make you think honourably and delightfully of the Government of God What would a Nation be without Government but like a company of Thieves and lawless Murderers or like the Pikes in a Pond that first eat up the other Fish and then devour one another the greater living upon the less Bears and Wolves would live quietlier together than ungoverned men except those few that are truly subject to the Government of God Government maintaineth every man in his propriety and keepeth lust and madness from breaking out and keepeth peace and order in the world What would a family be without Government Children and Servants are kept by it in their proper place and work Think then how necessary and excellent is the Universal Government of God § 13. Direct 10. Think well â—f the Endless Rewards and Punishments by which God will procure Direct 10. obedience to his Laws or vindicate the honour of his Government on the disobedient That the world may see that he giveth sufficient motives for all that he requireth he will reward the obedient with everlasting blessedness and punish the Rebells with endless misery You shall not say that he bids you work for nothing Though you can give him nothing but his own and therefore can merit nothing of him in point of Commutative Justice yet as he is a Governour and a Father he will put so wide a difference between the obedient and the rebellious that one shall be judged to everlasting joy with a Well done good and faithful servant and the other to everlasting punishment Matth. 25. Is there not enough in Heaven in a life of endless joyes with God to make obedience lovely to you and to make sin loathsome Is there not enough in Hell to deter you from disobedience and drive you unto God God will Rule whether you will or not Consent to be obedient or he will punish you without asking your consent § 14. The Directions for the nearer exciting of your obedience and confirming your full subjection More special Directions for Obedience are these Direct 1. Keep still the face of your souls upon God and in the sense of his Greatness and of Direct 1. his continual presence and of his particular providence And this will keep you in an obediential frame You will easily then perceive that so great a God cannot be disobeyed without great iniquity and guilt And that a God that is continually with you must be continually regarded And that a God that exactly observeth and mindeth the thoughts and words of every man should by every man be exactly minded and observed This will help you to understand the meaning of the Tempter when you perceive that every Temptation is an urging of you to offend for nothing so great a God that is just then observing what you do § 15. Direct 2. Alwayes remember whither you are going that you are preparing for Everlasting Direct 2. Rest and Ioy and must pass through the righteous judgement of the Lord and that Christ is your Guide and Governour but to bring you safely home as the Captain of your salvation and that sin is a rejecting of his help and of your happiness Think not that God doth Rule you as a Tyrant to your hurt or ruine to make his own advantage of you or by needless Laws that have no respect to your good and safety But think of him as one that is conducting you to eternal life and would now guide you by his counsel and afterwards take you to his glory Think that he is leading you to the world of Light and Life and Love and Ioy where there are Rivers of pleasure and fulness of delight for evermore that you may see his face and feel his Love among a world of blessed Spirits and not be weeping and gnashing the teeth with impious impenitent souls And is not such a Government as this desirable It is but like the Government of a Physicion to save his Patients life Or like your Government of your children which is necessary to their good that cannot feed or rule themselves Or like a Pilots governing the Ship which is conveying you to possess a Kingdom If the Marriners obey him they may safely arrive at the desired Port but if they disobey him they are all cast away and perish And should such a Government as this is seem grievous to you or should it not be most acceptable and accurately obeyed § 16. Direct 3. Still think what dangers difficulties and enemies you must pass through to this Rest Direct 3. and that all your safety dependeth upon the conduct and assistance of your Guide And this will bring over self-love to command you strict obedience You are to pass through the Army of your enemies And will you here disobey the Captain of your salvation or would you have him leave you to your selves Your disease is mortal and none but Jesus Christ can cure it and if he cure it not you are lost for ever no pain of Gowt or Stone is comparable to your everlasting pain And yet will you not be obedient to your Physicion Think when a Temptation comes If there were a narrow Bridge over the deepest Gulf or River and all my friends and happiness lay on the further side and I must needs go over whether I will or not if Christ would take me by the hand and lead me over would I be tempted to refuse his help or to lose his hand or if he should offer to lose me and leave me to my self should I not tremble and cry out as Peter Lord save me Matth. 14. 30. Or as the disciples Save Master we perish And should I not then hold him fast and most accurately obey him when he is leading me to Life Eternal that I may escape the Gulf of endless misery § 17. Direct 4. Remember still how bad and blind and backward and deceitful and weak you are Direct 4. your selves and therefore what need you have of the greatest watchfulness lest you should disobey your Pilot and lose your Guide before you are aware O what a heart have we to watch A lazy heart that will be loytering or sitting down when we should be following our Lord. A foolish heart that will let him go while we play with every play-fellow in our way A cowardly heart that will steal away or draw back in danger when it should follow our General A treacherous heart that will give us the slip and deceive us when we seemed surest of it A pur-blind heart that even when it followeth Christ our Guide is hardly kept from missing the Bridge and falling into the Gulf of misery Think well of these and you will obey your Governour § 18. Direct 5. Forget not the fruits of your former obedience and disobedience if you would be Direct 5. kept in an obedient frame Remember that obedience hath been sweetest afterward and that you
thus you must do The eye maketh an easier and deeper impression on the imagination and mind than the ear doth Therefore Christs example should be much preached and studied It will be a very great help to us to have still upon our minds the Image of the Holy Life of Christ that we be affected as if we always saw him doing the holy actions which once he did Paul calls the Galathians foolish and bewitched that obeyed not the truth when Christ had been set forth as crucified among them evidently before their eyes Gal. 3. 1. Papists think that Images serve well for this turn But the Records of Scripture and the living Images of Christ whom they persecute and kill are farr more useful How much example is more operative than doctrine alone you may perceive by the enemies of Christ who can bear his holy doctrine when they cannot bear his holy Servants that practise that doctrine before their eyes And that which most stirs up their enmity hath the advantage for exciting the believers piety Let the Image of Christ in all his holy examples be allways lively written upon your minds 1. Let the great ones of the world remember that their Lord was not born of such as bore rule or were in worldly pomp and dignity but of persons that lived but meanly in the world however they were of the royal line How he was not born in a pallace but a stable and laid in a manger without the attendance or accommodations of the rich 2. Remember how he subjected himself unto his reputed Father and his Mother to teach all Children Luke â— 51. subjection and obedience 3. And how he condescended to labour at a Trade and mean imployment in the world to teach us that our Bodies as well as our Minds must express their obedience and have their ordinary imployment and to teach men to labour and live in a calling and to comfort poor labourers with assurance that God accepteth them in the meanest work and that Christ himself lived so before them and chose their kind of life and not the life of Princes and Nobles that live in Pomp and Ease and Pleasure 4. Remember how he refused not to submit to all the ordinances of God and to fullfil all righteousness and to be initiated into the solemn administration of his office by the Baptism of Iohn Mat. 3. 15 1â— 17. which God appoved by sending down upon him the Holy Ghost To teach us all to expect his Spirit in the use of his ordinances 5. Remember how he voluntarily begun his work with an encounter with the Tempter in the Wilderness upon his fasting and suffered the Tempter to proceed till he moved him to the most odious sin even to worship the Devil himself To teach us that God loveth tryed Servants and expecteth that we be not turned from him by temptations especially those that enter upon a publick ministry must be tryed men that have overcome the Tempter and to comfort tempted Christians who may remember that their Saviour himself was most blasphemously tempted to as odious sins as ever they were and that to be greatly tempted without consenting or yielding to the sin is so farr from being a sin in it self that it is the greatest honour of our obedience and that the Devil who molesteth and haunteth us with his temptations is a conquered enemy whom our Lord in person hath overcome 6. Remember how earnestly and constantly he preached not stories or jingles or subtile controversies but Repentance and faith and self-denial and obedience So great was his Love to souls that when he had auditors he preached not only in the Temple and Synagogues but in mountains and in a ship and any other convenient place and no fury of the Rulers or Pharises could silence him till his hour was come having his Fathers Commission And even to particular persons he vouchsafed by conference to open the Mysteries of Salvation To teach us to love and attend to John 3. 4. the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel and not to forbear any necessary means for the honour of God and the saving of souls because of the enmity or opposition of malitious men but to work while it is day seeing the night is coming when none can work John 9. 4. 7. Remember how compassionate he was to mens bodys as well as to their souls going up and down with unwearied diligence doing good healing the blind and lame and deaf and sick and possessed and how all his miracles were done in charity to do good and none of them to do hurt So that he was but living walking LOVE and MERCY To teach us to know God in his Love and Mercy and to abound in Love and Mercy to our brethren and to hate the spirit of hurtfulness persecution and uncharitableness and to lay out our selves in doing good and to exercise our compassion to the bodys of men as well as to their souls according to our power 8. Remember how his Zeal and Love endured the reproach and resisted the opposition of his friends who went to lay hold on him as if he had been besides himself And â—ow he bid Peter Get Mat 3. 20 21 Mat. 16. 22 23. behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things of God but those of men when in caâ—nal Love and wisdom he rebuked him for resolving to lay down his life saying Be it farr from thee this shall not be unto thee To teach us to expect that carnal Love and Wisdom in our nearest friends will rise up against us in the work of God to discourage us both from duty and from sufferings and that all are to be shaken off and counted as the instruments of Satan that would tempt us to be unfaithful to our trust and duty and to savour our selves by a sinâ—ul avoiding of the sufferings which God doth call us to undergo 9. Remember how through all his life he despised the Riches of the world and chose a life of poverty and was a companion of the meanest neither possessing nor seeking sumptuous houses or great attendance or spacious lands or a large estate He lived in a visible contempt of all the wealth and splendor and greatness of the world To teach us how little these little things are to be esteemed â—nd that they are none of the treasure and portion of a Saint and what a folly it is to be fond of â—â—â—â—h snares and diversions and temptations which make the way to Heaven to be to us as a needlâ—â—s â—yâ— 10. Observe how little he regarded the honour and applause of men how he made himself of no 〈…〉 6. 15 refutation 〈◊〉 took upon him the form of a Servant refusing to be made a King or to have a Kingdom of this â—â—â—â—ld Though he told malignant Blasphemers how greatly they sinned in dishonouring him yet did he not seek the honour of the world To teach
but Christ that profits you § 2â— Direct 14. This is distracted contradiction To set Christ against Christ and the Spirit Direct 14. against the Ordinances of the Spirit Is it not Christ and the Spirit that appointed them Doth he not best knâ—w in what way he will give his grace Can you not preserve the soul and life without killing the body Cannot you have the Water and value the Cistern or Spring without cutting off the â—â—â—â—s that must convey it O wonderful that Satan could make men so mad as this reasoning hâ—th shewed us that many are in our dayes And to set up superstition or pretend a good heart against Gods worship is to accuse him that appointed it of doing he knew not what and to think that we are wiser than he and to shew a good heart by disobedience pride contempt of God and of his mercies Tit. 4. Temptations to frustrate holy duties and make them uneffectual § 1. THe Devil is exceeding diligent in this 1. That he may make the soul despair and say Now I have used all means in vain there is no hope 2. To double the sinners misery by turning the very remedy into a disease 3. To shew his malice against Christ and say I have turned thy own means to thy dishonour § 2. Consider therefore how greatly we are concerned to do the work of God effectually Means well used are the way to more grace to communion with God and to salvation But ill used they dishonour and provoke him and destroy our selves like children that cut their fingers with the knife when they should cut their meat with it § 3. Tempt 1. Duty is frustrated by false ends As 1. To procure God to bear with them in their Tempt 1. sin when as it is the use of duty to destroy sin 2. To make God satisfaction for sin which is the work of Christ 3. To merit grace when the imperfection merits wrath 4. To prosper in the world and escape affliction Jam. 4. 3. and so they are but serving their flesh and desiring God to serve it 5. 〈…〉 uiet conscience in a course of sin by sinning more in offering the sacrifice of fools Eccles. 5. 1 2. 6. To be approved of men and verily they have their reward Matth. 6. 5. 7. To be saved when they can keep the world and sin no longer that is to obtain that the Gospel may all be false and God unjust § 4. Direct 1. First see that the Heart be honest and God and Heaven and Holiness most desired else all Direct 1. that you do will want right ends § 5. Tempt 2. When ignorance or error make men take God for what he is not thinking blasphemously Tempt 2. of him as if he were like them and liked their sins or were no lover of Holiness they frustrate all their worship of him § 6. Direct 2. Study God in his Son in his Word in his Saints in his Works Know him as described Direct 2. before Chap. 3. Direct 4. And see that your wicked corrupted hearts or wilful forgetting him blind not your understandings § 7. Tempt 3. To come to God in our selves and out of Christ and use his name but customarily and Tempt 3. not in faith and confidence § 8. Direct 3. Know well your sin and vileness and desert and the Justice and Holiness of God Direct 3. and then you will see that if Christ reconcile you not and Justifie you not by his blood and do not sanctifie and help you by his Spirit and make you sons of God and intercede not for you there is no access to God nor standing in his sight § 9. Tempt 4. The Tempter would have you pray hypocritically with the tongue only without the Tempt 4. heart To put off God in a few customary words with seeming to pray as they do the poor Jam. 2. with a few empty words either in a form of words not understood or not considered or not felâ— and much regarded or in more gross hypocrisie praying for the Holiness which they will not have and against the sin which they will not part with § 10. Direct 4. O fear the holy jealous heart-searching God that hateth hypocrisie and will be Direct 4. worshipped seriously in Spirit and Truth and will be sanctified of all that draw near him Lev. 10. 3. and saith they worship him in vain that draw nigh him with the lips when the heart is far from him Matth. 15. 8 9. See God by faith as present with thee and know thy self and it will waken thee to seriousness See Heb. 4. 13. Hos. 8. 12 13. § 11. Tempt 5. He would destroy Faith and Hope and make you doubt whether you shall get any Tempt 5. thing by duty § 12. Direct 5. But 1. Why should God command it and promise us his blessing if he meant not Direct 5. to perform it 2. Remember Gods Infiniteness and Omni-presence and All-sufficiency He is as verily with thee as thou art there he upholdeth thee he sheweth by his mercies that he regardeth thee and by his regarding lower things And if he regard thee he doth regard thy duties It is all one with him to hear thy prayers as if he had never another creature to regard and hear Believe then and hope and wait upon him § 13. Tempt 6. Sometime the Tempter will promise you more by holy duty than God doth and make Tempt 6. you expect deliverance from every enemy want and sickness and speedier deliverance of soul than ever God promised and all this is to make you cast away all as vain and think God faileth you when you miss your expectations § 14. Direct 6. But God will do all that He promiseth but not all that the Devil or your selves Direct 6. promise See what God promiseth in his Word That 's enough for you Make that and no more the end of duties § 15. Tempt 7. The Tempter usually would draw you from the heart and life of duty by too much Tempt 7. ascribing to the outside Laying too much on the bare doing of the work the giving of the alms the hearing the Sermons the saying the words the hansome expression order manner which in their places are all good if animated with Spirit life and seriousness § 16. Direct 7. Look most and first to the soul in duty and the soul of duty The picture of meat Direct 7. feedeth not the picture of fire warmeth not Fire and shadows will not nourish us God loveth not dead carcasses instead of spiritual worship we regard not words our selves further than they express the Heart Let the outer part have but its due § 17. Tempt 8. He tempteth you to rest in a forced affected counterseit servency stirred up by a desire Tempt 8. to take with others § 18. Direct 8. Look principally at God and holy motives and less at men that all your fire be Direct 8.
things and greatest interest of our souls being there will greatly raise us to the Love of God if any thing will do it To foresee how near him we shall be ere long and what a glorious proof we shall have of his good will and how our souls will be ravished everlastingly with his Love To think what hearts the blessed have that see his glory and live with Christ How full of love they are and what a delight it is to them thus to love must needs affect the heart of a Believer Lift up thy head poor drowsie sinner Look up to Heaven and think where thou must live for ever Think what the holy ones of God are doing Do they love God or do they not Must it not be then thy life and work for ever And canst thou forbear to love him now that is bringing thee to such a world of Love Thou wouldst love him more that would give thee security to possess a Kingdom which thou never sawest than him that giveth thee but some toy in hand And let it not seem too distant to affect thee The time is as nothing till thou wilt be there Thou knowest not but thou maist be there this night There thou shalt see the Maker of the worlds and know the mysteries of his wonderous works There thou shalt see thy blessed Lord and feel that love which thou readest of in the Gospel and enjoy the fruits of it for ever There thou shalt see him that suffered for thee and rose again whom Angels see and worship in his glory Thou shalt see there a more desirable sight than those that saw him heal the blind and lame and sick and raise the dead or those that saw him in his transfiguration or than those that saw him on the Cross or after his resurrection or than Stephen saw when he was stoned or Paul when he was converted yea more than it is like he saw when he was in his rapture in the third Heavens O who can think believingly on the life which we must there shortly live the glory which we must see the love which we must receive and the love which we must exercise and not feel the fire begin to flame and the Glass in which we see the Lord become a burning-glass to our affections CHRIST and HEAVEN are the Books which we must be often reading the Glasses in which we must daily gaze if ever we will be good proficients and practitioners in the Art of holy Love § 34. Direct 13. Exercise your souls so frequently and diligently in this way of Love that the Method Direct 13. of it may be familiar to you and the means and motives still at hand and you may presently be able to fall into the way as one that is well acquainted with it and may not be distracted and lâ—st in generals as not knowing where to fix your thoughts I know no Methods alone will serve to raise the dead and cause a carnal senseless heart to love the Lord But I know that many honest hearts that have the Spirit of Love within them have great need to be warned that they quench not the Spirit and great need to be directed how to stir up the grace which is given them and that many live a more dull or distracted uncomfortable life than they would do if they wanted not Skill and Diligence The soul is most backward to this highest work and therefore hath the greater need of helps And the best have so much need as that it is well if all will serve to keep up Loving and Grateful thoughts of God upon their minds And when every Trade and Art and Science requireth diligence exercise and experience and all are Bunglers at it at the first can we reasonably think that we are like to attain any high degrees with sleight and short and seldom thoughts § 35. Direct 14. Yet let not weak-headed or melâ—ncholly persons set themselves on those Methods Direct 14. or lengths of Meditation which their heads cannot bear lest the Tempter get advantage of them and abate their Love by making Religion seem a torment to them but let such take up with shorter obvious Meditations and exercise their Love in an active obediential way of living That is the best Physick that is fitted to the Patients strength and case And that 's the best Shoo that is meetest for the foot and not that which is the biggest or the finest It is a great design of Satan to make all duties grievous and burdensome to us and thereby to cast us into continual pain and fear and trouble and so destroy our delight in God and consequently our Love Therefore pretend not to disability for carnal unwillingness and laziness of mind but yet marr not all by grasping at more than you are able to bear Take on as you are able and increase your work if God increase your strength If a melancholly person crack his brain with immoderate unseasonable endeavours he will but disable himself for all § 36. Direct 15. Keep clear and hold fast the Evidences of thy Sincerity that thou maist perceive Direct 15. thy interest in the Love of God and resist the temptations which would hide his Love to thee and cause thee to doubt of it or deny it Satan hath not his end when he hath troubled thee and robbed thee of thy peace and comfort It is worse that he is seeking to effect by this His malice is more against God than against thee and more against God and thee in this point of Love than in any other grace or duty He knoweth that God esteemeth this most And he knoweth if he could kill thy love he kills thy soul. And he knoweth how natural it is to man to love those that love him and hate those that hate him be they never so excellent in themselves And therefore if he can perswade thee into despair and to think that God hateth thee and is resolved to damn thee he will not despair of drawing thee to hate God Or if he do but bring thee to fear that he loveth thee not he will think accordingly to abate thy love I know that a truly gracious soul keepeth up its love when it loseth its assurance and mourneth and longeth and seeketh in love when it cannot triumph and rejoyce in love But yet there are some prints left on the heart of its former apprehensions of the love of God And such souls exceedingly disadvantage themselves as to the exercises of love and make it a work of wondrous difficulty O it will exceedingly kindle love when we can see Gods surest Love-tokens in our hearts and look to the promises and say They are all mine and think of Heaven as that which shall certainly be our own and can say with Thomas My Lord and my God and with Paul that The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God that loved me and gave himself for
119. 162. Ier. 15. 16. 7. Delight thy self in his Image though but imperfectly printed on thy soul and also on his holy servants Gal. 2. 20. 1 Cor. 15. 10. 2 Cor. 7 18. 8. Delight your selves in the consideration of the Glory which he hath from all his creatures and the universal fullfiling of his will As the prosperity and happiness of your friend delighteth you and the success of any excellent enterprises and the praise of excellent things and persons and as you have a special delight in the success of truth and the flourishing order and unity and peace and prosperity of Kingdoms especially of the Church much more than in your personal prosperity unless you have selfish private base unmanly dispositions so much more should you delight in the Glory and Happiness of God 9. Delight your selves in the safety which you have in his favour and defence and the treasury which you have in his All sufficiency and Love for your continual supplies in every want and deliverance in every danger and the ground of quiet contentedness and confidence which is offered to fearful souls in him 10. Delight yourselves in the particular discoveries of his common mercies to the world and his special mercies to his saints and his personal mercies to your selves from your birth to this moment both upon your souls and bodies and friends and names and estates and affairs in all relations 11. Delight your selves in the Priviledge you enjoy of speaking to him and of him and hearing from him and adoring and worshipping him and singing and publishing his Praise and in the communion which your souls may have with him through Christ on his Days and at all times in his sacraments and in all your lives And say as Solomon 1 King 8. 27. And will God indeed dwell on earth will he dwell and walk with sinful men When the Psal 68 3 4 5. 69 30 31 32. Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him Psalm 40. 16. Let those that seek him Rejoyce and be glad in him and 122. 1. Let us be glad to go up to the house of the Lord and joyn with his holy Assemblies in his worship Psalm 46. 4. The streams of his Grace make glad the City of God the holy Tabernacles of the most high God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved 12. Delight your selves above all in the forethoughts and hope of the Glory which you shall see and enjoy for ever I do but name all these for your memory because they are before spoken of in the Directions for Love § 4. Direct 4. Understand how much these holy Delights are pleasing unto God and how much he Direct 4. is for his peoples pleasure For it much hindereth the Joy of many Christians that they think it is How much God is for his servants Deligâ—ts against the will of God that such as they should so much Rejoyce Or at least that they apprehend not how much he hath commanded it and how great a duty it is and how much pleasing to their God Consider 1. It is not for nothing that the nature of man is made capable of higher and larger delights than the bruitish sensual nature is And that in this we are made little lower than Angels Phil. 3. 1. Isa. 58. 19. Job 22. 26. Isa. 55. 2 3. Psal. 4. 7. Acts 14. 15. Deut 27. 7. 1â— 12 18. â— Pet. 1 â— 4 6. Joh. 14. 16 26. 15. 2â— Isa. 53. 3. 4. 1 Pet. 1. 8 9. Mat. 11. 28. Isa. 55. 1. Rev. 22. 17. 1 Thes. 5. 11 14 16. Phil. 4. 4. Psal. 33 1. 1 Pet. 5. 7. Joh. 5. 40. 2. Nor is it for nothing that God hath made Delight and Complacency the most powerful commanding affection and the end of all the other passions which they proâ—essedly subserve and seek and the most natural inseparable affection of the soul there being none that desireth not delight 3. Nor is it in vain that God hath provided and offered such plenty of most excellent objects for our Delight especially himself in his attributes Love Mercy Son Spirit and Kingdom which Bruits were not made to know or to enjoy 4. Nor hath he given us in vain such excellent convenient and various helps and inferiour preparations which tend to our delight even for body and mind to further our Delight in God 5. Nor is it in vain that he maketh us yet more neerly capable by his Spirit even by affecting humiliations and mortifying cleansing illuminating and quickning works And that the Kingdom of God consisteth in Righteousness Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost And that the spirit hath undertaken to be the comforter of Believers who is sent upon no low or needless work 6. Nor did Christ purchase his peoples Joys in vain by the price of his grievous sufferings and sorrows Having bâ—rn our griefs and being made a man of sorrows that we that see him not might rejoyce in believing with joy unspeakable and full of glory 7. Nor is it in vain that he hath filled his word with such matter of Delight and Comfort in the gladdest tidings that could come to man and in such free and full and faithful promises 8. Nor hath he multiplied his commands for his Rejoycing and delight in vain again and again commanding us to Rejoyce and allwaies to Rejoyce 9. Nor is it insignificant that he hath forbidden those worldly cares and fears and griefs which would devour their joyes Nor that he hath so clearly shewed them the way to Joy and blameth them if they walk not in it 10. He filleth up their lives with mercies and matter of delight by his direction support provisions and disposals And all this in their way of tryal and in the valley of tears 11. How tender is he of their sufferings and sorrows not afflicting willingly nor delighting to grieve the sons of men 12. He taketh not away their delight and comfort till they cast it away themselves by sinning or self-afflicting or neglecting his proposed pleasures 13. He never faileth to meet them with his delights while they walk in the way prescribed to that end unless Isa 63. 9. 2 Cor. 2. 7. Zeph. 3. 17. Deut. 30 9. 10. 15. Isa 62. 5. Jam. 2. 13. Joh. 14. 13. 18. when it tendeth to their greater pleasure to have some present interruption of the pleasure 14. In their greatest needs when themselves and other helps must fail he giveth them oft-times the greatest joys 15. And he takes their delights and sorrows as if they were his own In all their afflictions he is afflicted and he delighteth in their wellfare and rejoyceth over them to do them good Cannot you see the will of your Father in all this 16. If you cannot yet lift up your heads and foresee the eternal Delights which he hath prepared for you when you shall enter into your Masters Joy And then judge whether God be for your Delight § 5. Direct
a name above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus is Christ to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Pray therefore that the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of glory may give you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the acknowledgement of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his right hand in the coelestials fâ—r above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be Head over all things to his Church Eph. 1. 17 c. The Father hath glorified his name in his Son Iohn 12. 28. 13. 31 32. 14. 13. 17. 1. § 6. Direct 4. Behold God as the End of the whole Creation and intend him as the End of all the Direct 4. actions of thy life You honour him not as God if you practically esteem him not as your ultimate end even the Pleasing of his will and the honouring him in the world If any thing else be made your chiefest end you honour it before him and make a God of it § 7. Direct 5. Answer all his blessed attributes with suitable affections as I have directed in my Direct 5. Treatise of the Knowledge of God and here briefly Dir. 4. and his Relations to us with the duty which they command subjection Love c. as I have opened in the foregoing Directions We glorifie him in our hearts when the Image of his Attributes is there received § 8. Direct 6. Behold him by faith as allways present with you And then every Attribute will Direct 6. the more affect you and you will not admit dishonourable thoughts of him Pray to him as if you saw him and you will speak to him with reverence Speak of him as if you saw him and you dare not take his name in vain nor talk of God with a common frame of mind nor in a common manner as of common things By faith Moses forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. God is contemned by them that think they are behind his back § 9. Direct 7. Think of him as in Heaven where he is revealed in Glory to the blessed and magnified Direct 7. by their high everlasting Praise Nothing so much helpeth us to Glorifie God in our minds as by faith to behold him where he is most Glorious The very reading over the description of the Glory of the New Ierusalem Rev. 21. 22. will much affect a believing mind with a sense of the Gloriousness of God Suppose with Stephen we saw Heaven opened and the ancient of daies the Great Jehovah Gloriously illustrating the City of God and Jesus in Glory at his right hand and the innumerable army of Glorifyed Spirits before his throne Praysing and magnifying him with the highest admirations and joyfullest acclamations that creatures are capable of would it not raise us to some of the same admirations The soul that by faith is much above doth most Glorifie God as being neerest to his Glory § 10. Direct 8. Foresee by faith the coming of Christ and the day of the universal Iudgement when Direct 8. Christ shall come in flaming fire with thousands of his holy Angels to be Glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thes. 1. 10. § 11. Direct 9. Abhor all Doctrines which blaspheam or dishonour the name of God and would Direct 9. blemish and hide the Glory of his Majesty I give you this rule for your own preservation and not in imitation of uncharitable firebrands and dividers of the Church to exercise your pride and imperious humour in condemning all men to whose opinions you can maliciously affix a blasphemous consequence which either followeth but in your own imagination or is not acknowledged but hated by those on whom you do affix it Let it suffice you to detest false doctrines without detesting the persons that you imagine guilty of them who profess to believe the contrary truth as stedfastly as you your selves § 12. Direct 10. Take heed of sinking into flesh and earth and being diverted by things sensible from Direct 10. the daily contemplation of the Glory of God If your belly become your God and you mind earthly things and are set upon the honours or profits or pleasures of the world when your conversation should be in Heaven you will be glorying in your shame when you should be admiring the Glory of your Maker Phil. 3. 18 19 20. and you will have so much to do on earth that you will find no leisure because you have no hearts to look up seriously to God Directions for Glorifying God with our tongues in his Praises § 13. Direct 1. Conceive of this duty of Praising God according to its superlative excellencies as being Direct 11. the highest service that the tongue of men or Angels can perform To Bless or Praise or Magnifie How great a duty Praising God is God is not to make him Greater or better or happier than he is but to declare and extol his Greatness Goodness and felicity And that your hearts may be inflamed to this excellent work I will here shew you how great and necessary how high and acceptable a work it is § 14. 1. It is the giving to God his chiefest due A speaking of him as he is And when we have Christianus est homo dicens faciâ—â—â—â—â—â—grata diabolo oâ—nans 〈…〉 am Dâ—â— â—â—â—â—oris vitae à salutis suae Bâ—choâ—â—â—â— spoken the highest how far fall we short of the due expression of his glorious perfections O how great Praise doth that Allmightiness deserve which created and conserveth all the world and over-ruleth all the sons of men and is able to do whatsoever he will Great is the Lord and Greatly to be praised and his Greatness is unsearchable One Generation shall praise his works to another and declare his mighty acts I will speak of the glorious honour of thy Majesty and of thy wondrous works And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts and I will declare thy Greatness Psalm 145. 3 4 5. What Praise doth that knowledge deserve which extendeth to all things that are or were or ever shall be and that wisdom which ordereth all the world He knoweth every thought of man
20. Insomuch as it sâ—â—mâ—th one of the greatest impediments to the Conversion of the Heathen and Mahomâ—tan world and the chiefest means of confirming them in their Iâ—â—â—â—delity and making them hate and scorn Christianity that the Romish and the Eastern and Southern Churches within their view do worship God so dishonourably as they do as if our God were like a little Child that must have pretty toyes bought him in the Fair and brought home to please him Whereas it the unreformed Churches in the East West and South were Reformed and had a Learned Pious Able Ministry and clearly preached and seriously applyed the Word of God and worshipped God with understanding gravity reverence and serious spirituality and lived a holy heavenly mortified self-denying conversation this would be the way to propagate Christianity and win the Infidel world to Christ. § 43. Direct 12. If you will glorifie God in your lives you must be above a selfish private narrow Direct 12. mind and must be chiefly intent upon the publick good and the spreading of the Gospel through the world A selfish private narrow soul brings little honour to the cause of God It s alwayes taken up about it self or imprisoned in a corner in the dark to the interest of some Sect or Party and seeth not how things go in the world Its desires and prayers and endeavours go no further than they can see or travel But a larger soul beholdeth all the earth and is desirous to know how it goeth with the Cause and Servants of the Lord and how the Gospel gets ground upon the unbelieving Nations and such are affected with the state of the Church a thousand miles off almost as if it were at hand as being members of the whole body of Christ and not only of a Sect. They pray for the Hallowing of Gods Name and the coming of his Kingdom and the doing of his will throughout the Earth as it is in Heaven before they come to their own necessities at least in order of esteem and desire The prosperity of themselves or their Party or Countrey satisfieth them not while the Church abroad is in distress They live as those that know the Honour of God is more concerned in the welfare of the whole than in the success of any party against the rest They pray that the Gospel may have free course and be glorified abroad as it is with them and the Preachers of it be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men 2 Thess. 3. 1 2. The silencing the Ministers and suppressing the interest of Christ and souls is the most grievous tydings to them Therefore they pray for Kings and all in authority not for any carnal ends but that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2 3. Thus God must be glorified by our Lives DIRECT XVI Let your life on Earth be a conversation in Heaven by the constant work of Gr. Dir. 16. Faith and Love even such a faith as maketh things future as now present and the unseen world as if it were continually open to your sight and such a Love as makes you long to see the glorious face of God and the glory of your dear Redeemer and to be taken up with blessed Spirits in his perfect endless Love and Praise MY Treatise of The Life of Faith and the fourth Part of The Saints Rest being written wholly or mostly to this use I must refer the Reader to them and say no more of it in this Direction DIRECT XVII As the soul must be carried up to God and devoted to him according to all the Gr. Dir. 17. foregoing Directions so must it be delivered from carnal selfishness or flesh-pleasing I pass not this by as a small matter to be passed by also by the Reader For I take the Love of God kindled by Faith in Christ with the full Denyal of our carnal selves to be the sum of all Religion But because I would not injure so great a duty by saying but a little of it And therefore desire the Reader who studieth for Practice and needeth such helps to peruse the mentioned Books of Self-denyal and Crucifying the World which is the grand enemy to God and Godliness in the world and from the three great branches of this Idolatry viz. the Love of sensual pleasures the Love of worldly wealth and the proud desire and Love of worldly honour and esteem And the mortifying of these must be much of the labour of your lives OF this also I have written so much in a Treatise of Self-denyal and in another called The Crucifying of the World by the Cross of Christ that I shall now pass by all save what will be more seasonable anon under the more Particular Directions in the fourth Tome when I come to speak of Selfishness as opposed to the Love of others I Have now given you the General Grand Directions containing the very Being and Life of Godliness and Christianity with those particular sub-directions which are needful to the performance of them And I must tell you that as your life and strength and comfort principally depend on these so doth your success in resisting all your particular sins And therefore if you first obey not these General Directions the more particular ones that follow will be almost useless to you even as branches cut off from the Stock of the Tree which are deprived thereby of their support and life But upon supposition that first you will maintain these Vital parts of your Religion I shall proceed to Direct you first in some particulars most nearly subordinate to the forementioned duties and then to the remoter branches APPENDIX The true Doctrine of LOVE to GOD to HOLINESS to OUR SELVES and to OTHERS opened in certain Propositions Especially for resolving the Questions what self-love is lawful What sinful Whether God must be loved above our own felicity And how Whether to Love our felicity more than God may stand with a state of saving grace Whether it be a middle state between sensuality and the Divine nature to Love God more for our selves than for Himself Whether to Love God for our selves be the state of a Believer as he is under the promise of the New Covenant And whether the spirit and sanctification promised to Believers be the Love of God for himself and so the Divine nature promised to him that chooseth Christ and God by him out of self-love for his own felicity How God supposeth and worketh on the principle of self-love in mans Conversion With many such like To avoid the tediousness of a distinct debating each Question THough these things principally belong to the Theorie and so to another Treatise in hand called Methodus Theologiae yet because they are also Practical and have a great influence upon the more Practical Directions and the right understanding of them may help the Reader himself to determine a multitude of Cases of Conscience the
have a false imperfect notion of God and Holiness as being the felicity of man and though not to deny yet to leave out the essential superlative notion of the Deity And it is more common to confess all this of God and Holiness notionally as was aforesaid and practically to take in no more of God and Holiness but that they are better for us than temporary pleasures And some go further and take them as better for them than any though perpetual meer sensual delights And so make the perfection of mans highest faculties practically to be their ultimate end And desire or Love God and Holiness defectively and falsly apprehended for themselves or their own felicity and not Themselves and their felicity and Holiness ultimately for God Which sheweth that though these men have somewhat overcome the sensual concupiscence or flesh yet have they not sufficiently overcome the SELFISH disposition nor yet known and Loved God as God nor Good as Good 75. Yet is it not a sin to Love God for our selves and our own felicity so be it we make him not a meer Means to that felicity as our absolutely ultimate End For as God indeed is 1. The efficient of all our Good 2. The Dirigent Cause that leadeth us to it 3. The End in which our felicity truly consisteth so is he to be Loved on all these accounts 76. If God were not thus to be Loved for our selves subordinated to him Thankfulness would not be a Christian duty 77. Our Love to God is a Love of Friendship and a desire of a kind of Union Communion or Adherence But not such as is between creatures where there is some sort of equality But as between them that are totally unequal the one infinitely below the other and absolutely subject and subordinate to him 78. Therefore though in Love of Friendship a Union of both parties and consequently a conjunct interest of both and not one alone do make up the ultimate End of Love yet here it should be with an utter disproportion we being obliged to know God as Infinitely Better than our selves and therefore to Love him incomparably more though yet it will be but according to the proportion of the faculties of the Lover 79. The purest process of Love therefore is first thankfully to perceive the Divine Efficiencies and to Love God as communicative of what we and all things are and have and shall receive and therein to see his perfect Goodness in Himself and to Love him as God for that Goodness wherein is nothing but the final Act which is our Love and the Final Object which is the Infinite Good so that the Act is mans from God but nothing is to be joyned with God as the absolutely final Object For that were to joyn somewhat with God as God 80. And though it be most true that this Act may be made the object of another Act and as Amesius saith Omnium gentium consensu dicimus Volo Velle so we may and must say Amo Amare I Love to Love God and the very exercise of my own Love is my Delight and so is my Felicity in the very Essential Nature of it being a complacency and being on the highest objective Good And also this same Love is my Holiness and so It and I are Pleasing unto God yet these are all consequential to the true notion of the final Act and circularly lead to the same again We must Love our Felicity and Holiness which consisteth in our Love to God but as that which subordinately relateth to God in which he is first glorified and then finally pleased and so from his Will which we delight to please we ascend to his total perfect Being to which we adhere by perfect Love In a word our Ultimate End of Acquisition and Gods own so far as he may be said to have an End is the pleasing of the Divine Will in his Glorification And our ultimate End of Complacency objectively is the Infinite Goodness of the Divine Will and Nature 81. There is therefore place for the Question Whether I must Love God or my self more or better as it is resolved But there is no place for the Question Whether I must Love God or my self Because God alloweth me not ever to separate them Though there is a degree of just self-lothing or self-hatred in deep Repentance Nor yet for the Question Whether I must seek Gods glory and pleasure or my own felicity for I must ever seek them both though not with the same esteem Yea I may be said to seek them both with the same Diligence because by the same Endeavour and act that I seek one I seek the other and I cannot possibly do any thing for one that doth not equally promote the other if I do them rightly preferring God before my self in my inward Estimation Love and Intention 82 Though it be essential to Divine Love and consequently to true Holiness to Love God for Himself and as Better than our selves or else we Love him not as God as is before said yet this is hardly and seldom perceived in the beginning in him that hath it Because the Love of our self is more Passionate and raiseth in us more subordinate passions of fear of punishment and desires of felicity and sorrow for hurt and misery c. Whereas God being Immaterial and Invisible is not at all an object of our sense but only of our Reason and our Wills and therefore not directly of sensitive Passionate Love Though consequently while the soul is united to the body its acting even on Immaterial objects moveth the lower sensitive faculties and the corporeal spirits Also God needeth nothing for us to desire for him nor suffereth nothing for us to grieve for though we must grieve for injuring him and being displeasing to his Will 83. I cannot say nor believe though till it be searched the opinion hath an enticing aspect that the Gospel faith which hath the promise of Iustification and of the Spirit is only a Believing in Christ as the Means of our felicity by Redemption and Salvation out of the principle of self-love alone and for no higher end than our said Felicity Because he is not believed in as Christ if he be not taken as a Reconciler to bring us home to God And we take him not to bring us to God as God if it be not to bring us to God as the Beginning and End of all things and as infinitely more Lovely than our selves And our Repentance for not Loving God accordingly above our selves must go along with our first justifying faith Therefore though we are Learners before we are Lovers and our Assent goeth before the Wills Consent yet our Assent that God is God and better than our selves must go together with our Assent that Christ is the Mediator to save us by bringing us to him And so must our Assent that this is salvation even to Love God above our selves and as better than our selves And
in our practice 99. For it is specially to be noted that the Doctrinal or Objective means of Love which Christ doth use and his internal spiritual influx do concur And his way is not to work on us by his spirit alone without those objects nor yet by the objects without the spirit nor by both distinctly and dividedly as producing several effects But by both conjunctly for the same effect The spirits influx causing us effectually to improve the objects and reasons of our Love As the hand that useth the seal and the seal it self make one impression 100. As Christ began to win our Love to God by the excitation of our self love multiplying and revealing Gods mercies to our selves so doth he much carry it on to increase the same way For while every day addeth fresh experience of the greatness of Gods Love to us by this we have a certain Tast that God is Love and Good in Himself and so by degrees we learn to Love him more for himself and to improve our notional esteem of his Essential Goodness into Practical 101. Though Faith it self is not wrought in us without the Holy Ghost nor is it if sincere a common gift yet this operation of the spirit drawing us to Christ by such arguments and means as are fitted to the work of believing is different from the Consequent Covenant-right to Christ and the spirit which is given to Believers and from the spirit of Adoption as recovering us as aforesaid to the Love of God 102. In this last sense it is that the Holy Ghost is said to dwell in Believers and to be the new name the pledge the earness the first fruits of life eternal the witness of our right to Christ and life and Christs agent and witness in us to maintain his cause and interest 103. Even as a man that by sickness hath lost his Appetite to meat is told that such a physicion will cure him if he will take a certain medicinal food that he will give him And at first he taketh it without appetite to the food or medicine in it self but meerly for the Love of health but after he is doubly brought to Love it for it self First because he hath tasted the sweetness of that which he did but see before and next because his health and appetite is recovered so is it with the soul as to the Love of God procured by believing When we have tasted through the perswasion of self-love our tast and recovery cause us to Love God for himself 104. When the soul is risen to this Habitual predominant Love of GOD and Holiness as such for their own Goodness above its own felicity as such though ever in conjunction with it and as his felicity it self then is the Law written in the Heart and this Love is the virtual fullfilling of all the Law And for such it is that it is said that the Law is not made that is In that measure that they Love the Good for it self they need not be moved to it with threats or Promises of extrinsick things which work but by self-love and fear Not but that Divine Authority must concur with Love to produce obedience especially while Love is but imperfect but that Love is the highest principle making the commanded Good connatural to us 105. And I think it is this spirit of Adoption and Love which is called The Divine Nature in us as it inclineth us to Love God and Holiness for it self as Nature is inclined to self-love and to food and other necessaries Not that the specifick essential Nature that is substance or form of the soul is changed and man Deified and he become a God that was before a man But his humane Soul or Nature is elevated or more perfected as a sick man by health or a blind man by his sight by the spirit of God inclining him habitually to God himself as in and for himself And this is all which the publisher of Sir H. Vanes notions of the two Covenants and two Natures can soundly meâ—n and seemeth to grope after 106. By all this you see that as the Love of God hath a double self-love in us to deal with so it dealeth variously with each 1. Sensual inordinate self-love it destroyeth both as it consisteth in the inordinate Love of sensual pleasure and in the inordinate love of self or life 2. Lawful and just self-love it increaseth and improveth to our further good but subjecteth it to the highest purest Love of God 107. By this you may gather what a confirmed Christian is even one in whom the pure Love of God as God and all things for God is predominant and more potent than not only the vicious but also the good and lawful and necessary love of himself 108. Though Christians therefore must study themselves and keep up a care of their own salvation yet must they much more study God his Greatness Wisdom and Goodness as shining in his works and word and in his Son and as foreseen in the Heavenly Glory And in this knowledge of God and Christ is life eternal And nothing more tendeth to the holy advancement and perfection of the soul than to keep continually due apprehensions of the Divine Nature Properties and Glorious appearances in his works upon the Soul so as it may become a constant course of contemplation and the habit and constitution of the mind and the constant guide of Heart and Life 109. The attainment of this would be a tast of Heaven on Earth Our wills would follow the will of God and Rest therein and abhor reluctancy All our duty would be both quickned and sweetned with Love Self-interest would be disabled from either seducing us to sin or vexing us with griefs cares fears or discontents We should so far trust soul and body in the Will and Love of God as to be more comforted that both are at his will than if they were absolutely at our own And GOD being our All the constant fixing satisfying object of our Love our souls would be constantly fixed and satisfied and live in such experience of the sanctifying grace of Christ as would most powerfully conquer our unbelief and in such foretasts of Heaven as would make Life sweet Death wellcome and Heaven unspeakably desirable to us But it is not the meer Love of personal Goodness as our own perfection that would do all this upon us 110. The soul that is troubled with doubts whether he Love God as God or only as a means of his own felicity in subordination to self-love must thus resolve his doubts If you truly believe that God is God that is the Efficient Dirigent and Final cause the just end of every rational agent the Infinite Good and chiefly to be loved in comparison of whom you are vile contemptible and as nothing If you feelingly take your self as lothsome by sin If you would not take up with an everlasting sensual pleasure alone without Holiness if you could
â—â—l Câ—â—is c. 1. revelations without any credible seal or Divine attestation and obtruded on the world by the power of the sword 2. And God hath given the world sufficient preservatives against them in the nullity of the proof of them and the evident foppery of the writings and the things themselves So that honesty and diligence will easily escape them § 18. Direct 15. Observe the supernatural effects of the Gospel upon the souls of believers How it Direct 15. planteth on man the Image of the Holy God Powerfully subduing both sense and the greatest interest Preâ—as fundamentum est omnium vâ—â—tutum 〈◊〉 pâ—o 〈◊〉 of the flesh to the will of God and making men Wise and Good and putting an admirable difference between them and all other men And then judge whether it be not Gods seal having his Image first upon it self which he doth use and honour to be the instrument of imprinting his Image upon us § 19. Direct 16. Mark well the certain Vanity of all other Religions that prevail on the earth Idolatry Direct 16. and Mahometanism which openly bear the mark of their own shame have shared between them allmost all the rest of the earth For meer Deisme is scarce any where in Possession and Iudaism hath no considerable inheritance and both of them as sensibly confuted by mans corruption necessity and desert § 20. Direct 17. Mark the great difference between the Christian part of the world those that receive Direct 17. Christianity seriously and in sincerity and all the rest Those that are farthest from Christianity are Zeaophoâ— reporteth Cyrus as saâ—ing If all my familiars wrre â—ndued with piety to God they would 〈…〉 evil to one anâ— the and to mâ— l. 8. furthest from piety honesty civility or any laudable parts or conversations Most of them are beastly and ungodly And the rest are but a little better And ignorance and bruitishness cannot be the perfection of a man Nay among professed Christians the multitudes that have but the Name and hate the Nature and Practice of it are like Swine or Wolves and some of the worst near kin to Devils When all that receive Christianity practically into their hearts and lives are heavenly and holy and in the same measure that they receive it their sins are all mortified and they are devoted to God and possessed with Justice Charity and Patience to men and are carried up above this world and contemn that which the rest do make their felicity and delight So that if that â—e Good which doth Good then is the Goodness of the Christian faith apparent to all that have any acquaintance reason and in partiality to judge § 21. Direct 18. Bethink you what you should have been your selves if you had not been Christians Direct 18. Yea what would yet be the consequent if you should fall from the Christian faith Would you not look at the life to come as doubtful And resolve to take your pleasure in the world and to gratifie Pâ—eâ—aâ—e adâ—erâ—â—s Deos â—ubâ—â—â—â—a â—ides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humanâ— generâ—◠〈…〉 vâ— uâ—â—â—â—â—â—a toâ—â—a uâ—â—ecessâ—â—â— Cicâ—o â—d Naâ— Dâ—o 1. the flesh and to neglect your souls and to venture upon allmost any vice that seemeth necessary to your caâ—nal ends Christianity hath cleansed and sanctified you if you are sanctified And if which God forbid you should forsake Christianity it is most likely you would quickly shew the difference by your dirty fleshly worldly lives § 22. Direct 19. When you see the evidence of Divine Revelation and authority it is enough to silence Direct 19. your doubts and cavils about particular words or circumstances For you know that God is True and Infallible and you know that you are silly ignorant worms that are utterly at a loss when you have â—ot one at hand to open every difficulty to you And that all arts and sciences seem full of difficulties and contradictions to ignorant unexperienced novices § 23. Direct 20. Allow all along in your learning for the difficulties which must needs arise from Direct 20. the translation ambiguity of all humane language change and variety of words and customs time place and other circumstances and especially from your own unacquaintedness with all these That so your own infirmities and ignorance and mistakes in reasoning may not be ascribed to the truth § 24 Direct 21. Understand the proper use of holy Scripture and so how far it is Divine that so you Direct 21. be not tempted to unbelief by expecting in it that which never was intended and then finding your causeless expectations frustrate It is not so Divine as to the terms and style and order and such modal and circumstantial matters as if all the exactness might be expected in it that God could put into a Book Nor is it intended as a system of Physicks or Logick or any subservient sciences or arts But it is an Infallible Revelation of the will of God for the Government of the Church and the conducting men to life eternal And it is ordered and worded so as to partake of such humane infirmity as yet shall no way impeach the Truth or efficacy of it but rather make it more suitable to the generality of men whose infirmity required such a style and manner of handling So that as a child of God hath a Body from Parents which yet is of God but sâ— of God as to partake of the infirmities of the parents or rather as Adam had a body from God but yet from Earth and accordingly frail but a soul more immediately from God which was more pure and divine so ☞ Scripture hath its style and language and method so from God as to have nothing in it unsuitable to its ends but not so from God as if he himself had shewed in it his own most perfect wisdom to the utmost and as if there were nothing in it of humane imperfection But the Truth and Goodness which is the soul of Scripture is more immediately from God The style and method of the penmen may be various but the same soul animateth all the parts It is no dishonour to the Holy Scriptures if Cicero be preferred for purity of style and phrase and oratory as for other common uses But certainly it is to be preferred as to its proper use that being the best style for an Act of Parliament which is next to the worst in an Oration The means are for the end § 25. Direct 22. Consider how great assistance Apparitions and Witch-crafts and other sensible Evidences Direct 22. of Spirits conversing with mankind do give to faith Of which I have written in the forementioned Treatises and therefore now pass it over § 26. Direct 23. Consider what advantage faith may have by observing the nature and tendencie of Direct 23. the soul and its hopes and fears of a life to come together with the superior glorious worlds which See mâ— Book
own word for it and plead with them the Arguments which he hath put into our mouths and yet we speak as to posts and stones to men past feeling what a pittiful sight was it to see Christ stand weeping over Ierusalem for the hardness of their hearts and the nearness and greatness of their misery while they themselves were so far from weeping for it that they raged against the life of him that so much pityed them We bless God that it is not thus with all He hath encouraged some of us with the heart-yielding obedient attention of many great Congregations But among the best alas how many of these hardned sinners are mixed and in many places how do they abound Hence it is that such odious abominations are committed such filthiness and lying and perjury and acts of malicious enmity against the servants of the Lord and that so many are haters of God and Godliness If Satan had not first hardned their hearts he could never have brought them to such odious crimes as now with impudency are committed in the Land As Lots daughters were fain to make their Father drunk that he might commit the sin of incest so the Devil doth first deprive men both of reason and feeling that he may bring them to such heinous wickedness as this and make them laugh at their own destruction and abhor those most that fain would save them And they are not only past feeling but so hate any quickning Ministry or Truth or Means which would recover their feeling that they seem to go to Hell as some condemned Malefactors to the Gallows that make themselves drunk before they go as if it were all they had to care for to keep themselves hoodwinkt from knowing or feeling whither they go till they are there § 9. See what a Picture of a hardned people God giveth to Ezekiel 3. 7. But the house of Israel will not hearken to thee for they will not hearken to me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard hearted Observe but what a case it is that they are so insensible of and then you will see what a hard hearted sinner past feeling is 1. They are the servants of sin Rom. 6. 16. in the power of it corrupted by it and yet they feel it not 2. They have the guilt of many thousand sins upon them all is unpardoned that ever they committed and yet they feel it not 3. They have the threatnings and curses of God in force against them in his Word even words so terrible as you would think might affright them out of their sins or their wits and they take on them to believe this Word of God and yet they feel not 4. They are in the power of the Devil ruled and deceived by him and taken captive by him at his will Acts 26. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 26. 5. They may be certain that if they dye in this condition they shall be damned and they are uncertain whether they shall live another day they are never sure to be one hour longer out of Hell and yet they feel not 6. They know that they must dye and that it is a great change and of the greatest endless Ferâ—emini moriem nâ— sentieti â— an caeci autem an videntes id in vestra manu est Optate igitur bene mori quod ipsum nisi bene vixeritis frustra est Optate inquam initimini quod in vobis est facile reliquum illi committite qui vos in hanc vitam ultro non vocatos intulit egressuris non nisi vocatus rogatus manum dabit Non mori autem nolite optare Petrarch Dial. 107. l. 2. consequence that death will make with them and they know that this is sure and near and are past doubt of it and yet they feel it not 7. They must shortly appear before the Lord and be judged for all that they have done in the body and be doomed to their endless state and yet they feel not 8. They know that life is short and that they have but a little time to prepare for all this terrible change and that it must go with them for ever as they now prepare and yet they feel not 9. They hear and read of the case of hardned wicked men that have gone before them and have resisted grace and lost their time as they now do and they read or hear of the miserable end that such have come to and yet they feel not 10. They have a world of examples continually before them They see the filthy lives of many for their warning and the holy lives of others for their imitation and see how Christ and Satan strive for souls and yet they feel not 11. They are alwayes before the eye of God and do all this before his face He warneth them and calleth them to repentance and yet they feel not 12. They have Christ as it were crucified before their eyes Gal. 3. 1. They hear of his sufferings They may see in him what sin is and what the Love of God is He pleadeth with them his blood and sufferings against their obstinate unkindness and yet they feel not 13. They have everlasting joy and glory offered them and Heaven so opened to them in Gods promises that they may see it as in a glass 1 Cor. 13. 12. They take on them to believe how much the blessed Spirits there abhorr such wickedness as theirs and yet they feel not 14. They have the Torments of Hell opened to them in the Word of God They read what impenitent souls must suffer to all eternity They hear some in despair in this life roaring in the misery of their souls They hear the joyful thanksgivings of believers that Christ delivereth them from those torments and yet they feel not 15. All the promises of Salvation in the Gospel do put in an exception against these men unless they be converted They are made to the penitent and not to the impenitent There is Justification and life but not for them There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. But he that believeth not is condemned already John 3. 18 36. and they that after their hardness and impenitent hearts do treasure up wrath against the day of wrath shall have tribulation and anguish Rom. 2. 5 6 7. Here is comfort for repenting sinners but none but on condition they Repent for them when others are welcomed to Christs marriage feast he saith to these How came you in hither and yet they feel not 16. They still carry about with them the doleful evidences of all this misery One would think the ambitious and covetous and voluptuous might see these death-marks on themselves and the ungodly might feel that God hath not their hearts especially they that hate the godly and shew their wolvish cruelty against them and are the progeny of Cain and yet they feel not any
act Keep your hearts with all diligence for from thence are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good But the viperous generation that are evil cannot speak good for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Math. 12. 33 34. Till the spirit have regenerated the soul all outward Religion will be but a dead and pittiful thing Though there is something which God hath appointed an unregenerate man to do in order to his own conversion yet no such antecedent act will prove that the person is justified or reconciled to God till he be converted To make up a Religion of doing or saying something that is good while the heart is void of the spirit of Christ and sanctifying grace is the Hypocrites Religion Rom. 8. 9. § 8. Direct 3. Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts and the desire and other affections or passions Direct 3. of the mind as well as of the sins of tongue or hand A lustful thought a malicious thought a proud ambitious or covetous thought especially if it proceed to a wish or contrivance or consâ—nt is a sin the more dangerous by how much the more inward and neer the heart as Christ hath shewed you Mat. 5. 6. The Hypocrite who most respecteth the eye of man doth live as if his Thoughts were free § 9. Direct 4. Make conscience of secret sins which are committed out of the sight of men and may Direct 4. be concealed from them as well as of open and notorious sins If he can do it in the dark and secure his reputation the Hypocrite is bold But a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to his conscience and much more to the all-seeing God § 10. Direct 5. Be faithful in secret duties which have no witness but God and Conscience As meditation Direct 5. and self-examination and secret prayer And be not only Religious in the sight of men § 11. Direct 6. In all publick worship be more laborious with the heart than with the tongue or knee Direct 6. and see that your tongue over-run not your heart and leave it not behind Neglect not the due composure of your words and due behaviour of your bodys But take much more pains for the exercise of holy desires from a believing loving fervent soul. § 12. Direct 7. Place nâ—t more in the externals or modes or circumstances or ceremonies of worship Direct 7. than is due and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things than cometh to their share but 〈…〉 ed mâ—â—â—â—ad of hurt fuâ—â—â—â—nes ceremonies be obâ—iteraâ—â—d by ceremoniâ—s Let the Prâ—â—sts perswade the novâ—â—â—â— that holy water Images â—oâ—aâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 and â—oâ—ches and the rest which the Church alloweth and uâ—â—th are very â—it for them and let them exâ—â—l them with many praises in their popular Sermons that instead of the old superstition they may be used to new and religious signs This is to quenth the â—iâ—e with oyl let the great substantials of Religion have the precedencie and be far preferred before them Let the Love of God and man be the sum of your obedience And be sure you learn well what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice And remember that the great thing which God requireth of you is to do Iustice and love mercy and walk humbly with your God Destroy not him with your meat fâ—r whom Christ dyed Call not for fire from Heaven upon dissenters and think not every man intollerable in the Church that is not in every little matter of your mind Remember that the hypocrisie of the Pharisees is described by Christ as consisting in a zeal for their own traditions and the inventions of men and the smallest matters of the Ceremonial Law with a neglect of greatest moral duties and a furious cruelty against the spiritual worshipers of God Math. 15. 2. Why do thy disciples transgress the Tradition of the Elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread v. 7. Ye Hypocrites well did Esaias prophesie of you saying This people draweth niâ—â—â—ntâ— me with their mouth and hâ—â—â—â—ureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me but in vain do they worship me teaching fâ—r doctrines the commandments of men Math. 23. 4 5 6 13 14 c. They bind heavy burdens which they touch not themselves All their works they do to be seen of men They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the burdens of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief sâ—ats in the Synagogues and greetings in publick and to be called Rabbi But they shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men and were the greatest enemies of the entertainment of the Gospel by the people They tythed mint and annise and cummin and omitted the great matters of the Law Iudgement and Mercy and Faith They streined at a gnat and swallowed a Camel They had a great veneration for the dead Prophets and Saints and yet were persecuters and murderers of their successors that were living v. 23 c. By this description you may see which way Hypocrisie doth most ordinarily work even to a blind and bloody zeal for opinions and traditions and ceremonies and other little things to the treading down the interest of Christ and his Gospel and a neglect of the life and power of Godliness and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ whom they are bound to love above their ceremonies I marvel that many Papists tremble not when they read the Character of the Pharisees But that hypocrisie is a hidden sin and is an enemy to the light which would discover it § 13. Direct 8. Make conscience of the duties of obedience to superiors and of justice and mercy Direct 8. towards men as well as of acts of piety to God Say not a long mass in order to devour a widows house or a Christians life or reputation Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are in prayers And labour as much to exceed common men in the one as in the other Set your selves to do all the good you can to all and do hurt to none And do to all men as you would they should do to you § 14. Direct 9. Be much more busie about your selves than about others and more censorious of Direct 9. your selves than of other men and more strict in the Reforming of your selves than of any others For this is the character of the sincere When the Hypocrite is little at home and much abroad and is a sharp reprehender of others and perniciously tender and indulgent to himself Mark his discourse in all companies and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures and bitter reproach of others How such men and such men that differ from him or have opposed him or that he hates are thus and thus faulty and bad and hateful Yea he is as great an accuser of his
his head His clothing you may read of at his crucifying when they parted it As for money he was fain to send Petâ—r to a â—â—â—â—h for some to pay their tribute If Christ did scrape and care for Riches then so do thou Iâ— he thought it the happiest life do thou think so too But if he contemned it do thou contemn it If his whole life was directed to give thee the most perfect example of the contempt of all the prosperity of this world then learn of his example if thou take him for thy Saviour and if thou love thy self Though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich 2 Cor. 8 9. § 31. Direct 10. Think on the example of the primitive Christians even the best of Christs servants Direct 10. and see how it condemneth worldliness They that by miracle in the name of Christ could give limbs to the lame yet tell him Silver and Gold have we none Acts 3. 6. Those that had possessions sold them and laid the money at the Apostles feet and they had all things common to shew that faith overcometh the world by contemning it and subjecting it to charity and devoting it entirely to God Read whether the Apostles did live in sumptuous houses with great attendance and worldly Cheâ—â—â—â—stome saith his enemies â—harged him with many crimes but never with Covâ—tousness or Wantonâ—ess And so it was with Christ and his enemies plenty and prosperity And so of the rest § 32. Direct 11. Remember to what ends all worldly things were made and given you and what a Direct 11. happy advantage you may make of them by renouncing them as they would be provision for your lusts and by devoting your selves and them to God The use of their sweetness is to draw your souls to taste Et siâ—uâ— in patria Deâ—s est speculum in quo reiucent creaturae sic è converso in via creaturae sunt speculum quo creator videtur Paul Scaâ—iger in Ep. Câ—th l. 14. Thes. 123. p. 689. by faith the heavenly sweetness They are the Looking-glass of souls in flesh that are not yet admitted to see things spiritual face to face They are the provender of our bodies our travelling furniture and helps our Inns and solacing company in the way they are some of Gods Love-tokens some of the lesser pieces of his Coin and bear his Image and superscription They are drops from the Rivers of the eternal pleasures to tell the mind by the way of the senses how good the Donor is and how amiable and what higher Delights there are for souls and to point us to the better things which these foretell They are messengers from Heaven to testifie our Fathers care and love and to bespeak our thankfulness love and duty and to bear witness against sin and bind us faster to obedience They are the first Volume of the Word of God The first Book that man was set to read to acquaint him fully with his Maker As the Word which we read and hear is the Chariot of the Spirit by which it maketh its accesses to the soul so the delights of sight and taste and smell and touch and hearing were appointed as an ordinary way for the speedy access of heavenly love and sweetness to the Heart that upon the first perception of the goodness and sweetness of the creature there might presently be transmitted by a due progression or deep impression of the goodness of God upon the soul That the creature being the Letters of Gods Book which are seen by our eye the sense even the Love of our great Creator might presently be perceived by the mind and no letter might once be lookt upon but for the sense no creature ever seen or tasted or heard or felt in any delectable quality without a sense of the Love of God That as the touch of the hand upon the strings of the Lute do cause the melody so Gods touch by his mercies upon our hearts might presently tune them into Love and Gratitude and Praise They are the Tools by which we must do much of our Masters work They are means by which we may refresh our brethren and express our love to one another and our love to our Lord and Master in his servants They are our Masters stock which we must trade with by the improvement of which no less than the Reward of endless Happiness may be attained These are the Uses to which God gives us outward mercies Love them thus and Delight in them and Use them thus and spare not yea seek Even Dyonisius the Tyrant was bountiful to Philosophers To Plato he gave above fourscore Talents Laert. in Platoâ—e and much to Aristippus and many more and he offered much to many Philosophers that refused it And so did Croesus them thus and be thankful for them But when the creatures are given for so excellent a use will you debase them all by making them only the fuell of your lusts and the provisions for your flesh And will you love them and dote upon them in these base respects while you utterly neglect their noblest use You are just like children that cry for Books and can never have enouw but its only to play with them because they are fine but when they are set to learn and read them they cry as much because they love it not Or like one that should spend his life and labour in getting the finest clothes to dress his Dogs and Horses with but himself goeth naked and will not wear them § 33. Direct 12. Remember that God hath promised to provide for you and that you shall want Direct 12. nothing that is good for you if you will live above these worldly things and seek first his Kingdom and the righteousness thereof And cannot you trust his promise If you truly believe that he is God Matth. 10. 30. Luke 12. 7. and that he is true and that his particular providence extendeth to the very numbring of your hairs you will sure trust him rather than trust to your own forecast and industry Do you think his provision is not better for you than your own All your own care cannot keep you alive an hour nor cannot prosper any of your labours if you provoke him to blast them And if you are not content with his provisions nor submit your selves to the disposals of his love and wisdom you disoblige God and provoke him to leave you to the fruits of your own care and diligence And then you will find that it had been your wiser way to have trusted God § 34. Direct 13. Think often on the dreadful importance and effects of the Love of Riches or a Direct 13. worldly mind 1. It is a most certain sign of a state of death and misery where it hath the upper The mischiefs of a worldly mind Look upon the face of the calamitous world and enquire
a continual suâ—vitv affording still fresh delights though thou meditate on him a thousand years or to all eternity Thou maist better say that the Ocean hath not water enough for thee to swim in or that the Earth hath not room enough for thee to tread upon than that there is not matter enough in God for thy longest Meditations and most delighting satisfying thoughts The blessed Angels and Saints in Heaven will find enough in God alone to employ their minds to all eternity O horrid darkness and atheism that yet remaineth on our hearts that we should want matter for our thoughts to keep them from feeding upon air or filth or want matter for our delight to keep our mindâ— from begging it at the creatures door or hungring for the husks that feed the Swine when we have the Infinite God Omnipotent Omniscient most good and bountiful our life and hope and happiness to think on with delight § 3. Direct 3. If you have but an eye of faith to see the things of the unseen world as revealed Direct 3. in the sacred Word you cannot want matter to employ your thoughts Scripture is the glass in which 3. The world to come you may see the other world There you may see the Antient of Dayes the Eternal Majesty shining in his Glory for the felicitating of holy glorified Spirits There you may see the humane nature advanced above Angels and enjoying the highest Glory next to the uncreated Majesty and Christ reigning as the King of all the world and all the Angels of God obeying honouring and worshipping him you may see him sending his Angels on his gracious messages to the lowest members of his body the little ones of his flock on earth you may see him interceding for all his Saints and procuring their peace and entertainment with the Father and preparing for their reception when they pass into those mansions and welcoming them one by one as they pass hence There you may see the glorious celestial society attending admiring extolling worshipping the Great Creator the Gracious Redeemer and the Eternal Spirit with uncessant glorious and harmonious Praise you may see them burning in the delicious flames of holy Love drawn out by the Vision of the face of God and by the streams of Love which he continually powreth out upon them you may see the magnetick attraction of the uncreated Love and the felicitating closure of the attracted Love of holy Spirits thus united unto God by Christ and feasting everlastingly upon him you may see the ravishments of joy and the unspeakable pleasures which all these blessed Spirits have in this transporting Sight and Love and Praise You may see the extasies of Ioy which possess the souls of those that are newly passed from the Body and escaped the sins and miseries of this world and find there such sudden ravishing entertainment unspeakably beyond their former expectations conceivings or belief You may see there with what wonder what pity what lothing and detestation those holy glorified souls look down upon earth on the negligence contempt sensuality and profaneness of the dreaming and distracted world You may see there what you shall be for ever if you be the holy ones of Christ and where you must dwell and what you must do and what you shall enjoy All this you may so know by sound believing as to be carried to it as sincerely as if your eyes had seen it Heb. 11. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 7. And yet can your thoughts be idle or carnal or worldly and sinful for want of work Are your meditations dry and barren for want of matter to employ them Doth the fire of Love or other holy affections go out for want of fuell to feed it Is not Heaven and Eternity spatious enough for your minds to expatiate in Is not such a world as that sufficient for you to study with fresh and delectable variety of discoveries from day to day or that which is more delightful than variety Would you have more matter or higher and more excellent matter or sweeter and more pleasant matter or matter which doth nearlier concern your selves Get that faith which all that shall be saved Live by which makes things absent as operative in some measure as if they were present and that which will be as if it now were and that which is unseen as if it were now open to your eyes and then your Thoughts will want neither matter to work upon nor altogether an actuating excitation If this were not enough I might tell you what Faith can see also in Hell which is not unworthy See in my Tract on Heb 11. 1. called The Life of Faith of your serious Thoughts What work is there what direful complaints and lamentations what self-tormentings and what sense of Gods displeasure and for what But I will wholly pass this by that you may see there is delightful work enough for your thoughts and that I set you no unpleasant task § 4. Direct 4. Get but the Love of God well kindled in your Heart and it will find employment Direct 4. even the most high and sweet employment for your Thoughts Your selves shall be the Judges whether 4. The work of Love your Love doth not for the most part rule your thoughts assigning them their work and directing them when and how long to think on it See but how a lustful lover is carried after a beloved silly piece of flesh Their thoughts will so easily and so constantly run after it that they need no spur Mark in what a stream it carrieth them how it feedeth and quickneth their invention and elevateth an ordinary fancy into a Poetical and passionate strain What abundance of matter can a Lover find in the narrow compass of a dirty Corpse for his thoughts to work on night and day And will not the Love of God then much more fill and feast your thoughts How easily can the Love of money find matter for the thoughts of the worldling from one year to another It s easie to think of any thing which you love O what a happy spring of Meditation is a rooted predominant Love of God Love him strongly and you cannot forget him You will then see him in every thing that meets you and hear him in every one that speaketh to you If you miss him or have offended him you will think on him with grief If you taste of his Love you will think of him with Delight If you have but hope you will think of him with Desire and your Minds will be taken up in seeking him and in understanding and using the Means by which you may come to enjoy him Love is ingenious and full and quick and active and resolute It is valiant and patient and exceeding industrious and delighteth to encounter difficulties and to appear in labours and to shew it self in advantageous sufferings and therefore it maketh the mind in which it reigneth exceeding busie and findeth the
interâ—ss him in all § 26. Direct 12. Let every meditation be undertaken in a humble sense of thy own insufficiency Direct 12. with a believing dependance on thy Head and Saviour to guide and quicken thee by his holy Spirit and to cover the infirmities of thy holiest thoughts Whatever good is written upon our hearts must be written by the Spirit of the living God and this trust we must have through Christ to Godward not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3. 3 4 5. How heavily will all go on or rather how certainly shall we labour in vain and cast off all if Christ cast us off and leave us to our selves Think not that your life and strength is radically in your selves Go to him by renewed acts of faith by whom you must be quickned § 27. Direct 13. Let not your holy thoughts be so seldom as to keep you strange to the matter of Direct 13. your meditations nor so short as to be gone before you have made any thing of it Now and then a cursory thought will not acquaint the soul with God nor bring it to a habit and temperament of holiness Whereas that which you think on frequently and seriously as your business and delight will become the nutriment and nature of your souls As the air which we daily breathe in and the food which we daily live upon doth to our bodies And you will find that as use will breed skill and strength so it will cause such acquaintance and familiarity as will very much tend to the fruit and comfort of the work Whereas they that only cast now and then a look at God and holiness or are seldom and short in holy thoughts do lose so quickly the little which they get that it makes no great alteration on them § 28. Direct 14. Yet do not over-do in point of violence or length but carry on the work sincerely Direct 14. according to the abilities of your minds and bodies lest going beyond your strength you craze your brains and discompose your minds and disable your selves to do any thing at all Though we cannot estimatively love God too much yet is it possible to think of him with too much passion or too long at once Because it may be more than the Spirits and brain can bear And if once they be overstrained if they break not like a Lute-string screwed too high they will be like a legg that is out of joint that can pain you but not bear you While the soul â—ideth on so lame or dull a Horse as the body is it must not go the pace which it desireth but which the body can bear or else it may quickly be dismounted or like one that rideth on a tired Horse It is not the Horse that goeth at first with chafing heat and violence which will travel best But you must put on in the pace that you are able to hold out You little know how lamentable and distressed a case you will be in or how great an advantage the Tempter hath if once he do but tire you by over-doing § 29. Direct 15. Choâ—se not unnecessarily or ordinarily the bitterest or most unpleasant subjects for Direct 15. your meditation lest you make it grow a burden to you but dwell most on the sweet delightful thoughts of the infinite Love of God revealed by Christ and the eternal glory purchased by him and the wonderful helps and mercies in the way As it is the Gospel which Christs Ministers must preach to others so it is the Gospel which in your Meditations you must preach most to your selves It s Love and Pleasure which you must principally endeavour to excite And you must do it by contemplating amiableness and felicity the objects of love and pleasure For the thoughts of terror and wrath and misery are unfit to stir up these Though to the unconverted dull secure presumptuous or sensual sinner such thoughts are very necessary to awake him and prepare him for the thoughts of love and peace It is the principal part of this art to keep off loathing and aversness and to keep up readiness and delight § 30. Direct 16. When you are in company let out the fruit of your secret meditations in holy Direct 16. edifying discourse Gather not for your selves only but that you may communicate to others The good Scribe instructed to the Kingdom of God must bring forth out of his treasure things new and old Matth. 13. 52. That is Good which doth good God is communicative and the best men are likest to him Nay a fluent discourse sometimes is a great instructer to our selves and bringeth those things into our minds with clearness which long meditation would not have done For one thing leadeth in another and in a warm discourse the Spirits are excited and the understanding and memory are engaged to a close attention so that just in the speaking we have oft-times such a sudden appearance of some truth which before we took no notice of that we find it is no small addition to our knowledge which comes in this way As some find that vocal prayer doth more excite them and keep the mind from wandring than meer mental prayer doth so free discourse is but a vocal meditation And what mans thoughts are not more guilty of disorder vagaries and interruptions than his discourse is § 31. Direct 17. Obey all that God revealeth to you in your meditations and turn them all into Direct 17 faithful practice and make not thinking the end of thinking Else you will but do as the ungodly and disobedient in their prayers Eccles. 5. 1 2. who offer to God the Sacrifice of fools and consider not that they do evil Away with the sin and do the duty on which you think § 32. Direct 18. Think not that the same measure of contemplation and striving with their own affections Direct 18. is necessary to all but that an obediential active life may be as acceptable to God when he calleth men to it as a more contemplative life This leadeth me necessarily to give you some Directions about the difference of these wayes Tit. 4. The Difference between a Contemplative life and an obedient active life with Directions concerning them THis task will be best performed by answering those Questions which here need a Solution § 1. Quest. 1. What is a Contemplative Life and what is an Active obediential life Quest. 1. Answ. Every active Christian is bound to somewhat of contemplation and all contemplative persons What is a contemplative life are bound to Obedience to God and to so much of Action as may answer their abilities and opportunities But yet some are much more called to the one and some to the other And we denominate from that which is most eminent and the chief We call that a Contemplative life when a mans state and calling
good Nor is he most beloved of God who hath rolled over the greatest number of good thoughts in his mind or of good words in his mouth no nor he that hath stirred up the strongest passions hereabouts but he that Loveth God and Heaven best and hateth sin most and whose will is most confirmed for Holiness of life He that goeth about his labour in obedience to God may have as much comfort as another that is meditating or praying But neither labour nor prayer is matter of comfort to an ungodly carnal heart Yea if decay of memory or natural ability take you off both Action and Conâ—â—mplation you may have as much acceptance and solid comfort in a patient bearing of the Cross and an obedient ☜ cheerful submission to the holy Will of God Tit. 5. Directions to the Melancholy about their Thoughts IT is so easie and ordinary a thing for some weak-headed persons to cast themselves into Melancholy Read more after Paâ—t 3. against Despair by over-straining either their Thoughts or their Affections and the case of such is so exceeding lamentable that I think it requisite to give such some particular Directions by themselves And the rather because I see some Persons that are unacquainted with the nature of this and other diseases exceedingly abuse the name of God and bring the profession of Religion into scorn by imputing all the affects and speeches of such Melancholy persons to some great and notable operations of the spirit of God and thence draw observations of the methods and workings of God upon the soul and of the nature of the legal workings of the spirit of bondage As some other such have divulged the prophecies the possessions and dispossessing of Hysterical Women as I have read especially in the Writings of the Fryars I do not call those Melancholy who are rationally sorrowful for sin and sensible of their misery and sollicitous about their recovery and salvation though it be with as great seriousness as the faculties can bear As long as they have sound Reason and the imagination fantasie or thinking faculty is not crazed or diseased But by Melancholy I mean this diseased crazynes hurt or errour of the imagination and consequently of the understanding which 〈◊〉 dicunt â—â—p entem nunquam sanitate mentis excâ—dere Incidere tamen aliquando in imaginationes absurdas propter atraebiâ—is redundantiam sive ob delâ—rationem non quidem deviatione rationis verum ex imbecilâ—itate naturae Laert. in Zâ—â—one is known by these following signes which yet are not all in every Melancholy person § 2. 1. They are commonly exceeding fearful causlesly or beyond what there is cause for every thing which they hear or see is ready to increase their fears especially if fear was the first cause as ordinarily it is 2. Their fantasie most erreth in aggravating their sin or dangers or unhappiness every ordinary infirmity they are ready to speak of with amazement as a heynous sin And every possible danger they take for probable and every probable one for certain and every little danger for a great one and every calamity for an utter undoing 3. They are still addicted to excess of sadness some weeping they know not why and some thinking it ought to be so and if they should smile or speak merrily their hearts smite them for it as if they had done amiss 4. They place most of their Religion in sorrowing and austerities to the flesh 5. They are continual self-accusers turning all into matter of accusation against themselves which they hear or read or see or think of quarrelling with themselves for every thing they do as a contentious person doth with others 6. They are still apprehending themselves forsaken of God and are prone to despair They are just like a man in a Wilderness forsaken of all his friends and comforts forlorn and desolate their continual thought is I am undone undone undone 7. They are still thinking that the day of Grace is past and that it is now too late to repent or to find mercy If you tell them of the tenour of the Gospel and offers of free pardon to every penitent believer they cry out still too late too late my day is past not considering that every soul that truly repenteth in this life is certainly forgiven 8. They are oft tempted to gather despairing thoughts from the doctrine of Predestination and to think that if God have reprobated them or have not elected them all that they can do or that all the world can do cannot saâ—e them and next they strongly conceit that they are not elected and so that they are past help or hope not knowing that God electeth not any man separatedly or simply to be saved but conjunctly to believe repent and to be saved and so to the end and means together and that all that will repent and choose Christ and a holy life are elected to salvation because they are elected to the means and condition of salvation which if they persevere they shall enjoy To Repent is the best way to prove that I am elected to Repent 9. They never read or hear of any miserable instance but they are thinking that this is their case If they hear of Cain of Pharaoh given up to hardness of heart or do but read that some are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction or that they have eyes and see not ears and hear not hearts and understand not they think This is all spoken of me or this is just my case If they hear of any terrible example of Gods judgements on any they think it will be so with them If any dye suddenly or a house be burnt or any be distracted or dye in despair they think it will be so with them The reading of Spira's case causeth or increaseth Melancholy in many the ignorant Author having described a plain Melancholy contracted by the trouble of sinning against Conscience as if it were a damnable despair of a sound understanding 10. And yet they think that never any one was as they are I have had abundance in a few weeks with me almost just in the same case and yet every one say that never any one was as they 11. They are utterly unable to Rejoyce in any thing They cannot apprehend believe or think of any thing that is comfortable to them They read all the threatnings of the word with quick sense and application but the Promises they read over and over without taking notice of them as if they had not read them or else say They do not belong to me The greater the mercy of God is and the riches of grace the more miserable am I that have no part in them They are like a man in continual pain or sickness that cannot rejoyce because the feeling of his pain forbiddeth him They look on husband wife friends children house goods and all without any comfort as one would do that is going to be executed for some
the Love of God we must be content to be shut out from the Love of God § 47. Inst. 9. Thus also the vulgar separate the Mercy and the Iustice of God! As if God knew Instance 9. not better than man to whom his mercy should extend And as if God be not merciful if he will be a righteous Governour and unless he will suffer all the world to spit in his face and blaspheme him and let his enemies go all unpunished § 48. Inst. 10. Thus many separate Threatnings and Promises Fear and Love a perfect Law and a pardonining Instance 10. Gospel As if he that is a man and hath both fear and Love in his nature must not make use of both for God and his salvation and the Law-giver might not fit his Laws to work on both As if Hell may not be feared and Heaven loved at once § 49. Inst. 11. Thus hypocrites separate in conceit their seeming Holiness and devotion to God from Instance 11. duties of Iustice and Charity to men As if they could serve God acceptably and disobey him wilfully Or as if they could love him whom they never saw and not love his Image in his works and children whom they daily see As if they could hate and persecute Christ in his little ones or at least neglect him and yet sincerely love him in himself § 50. Inst. 12. Thus by many Scripture and Tradition Divine faith and humane faith are commonly Instance 12. opposed Because the Papists have set Tradition is a wrong place many cast it away because it fits not that place When mans Tradition and Ministerial Revelation is necessary to make known and bring down Gods Revelation to us And a subservient Tradition is no disparagement to Scripture though a supplemental Tradition be And man must be believed as man though not as God! And he that will not believe man as man shall scarce know what he hath to believe from God § 51. Inst. 13. Thus many separate the sufficiency of the Law and Rule from the usefulness of an Instance 13. Officer Minister and Iudge As if the Law must be imperfect or else need no Execution and no Iudge for execution Or as if the Iudges execution were a supplement or addition to the Law As if the Question Who shall be the Iudge Did argue the Law of insufficiency and the promulgation and execution were not supposed § 52. Inst. 14. Thus also many separate the necessity of a publick Iudge from the lawfulness and Instance 14. necessity of a private judgement or discerning in all the rational subjects As if God and man did govern only Brutes or we could obey a Law and not judge it to be a Law and to be obeyed and not understand the sense of it and what it doth command us As if fools and mad men were the only subjects As if our learning of Christ as his Disciples and meditating day and night in his Law and searching for Wisdom in his Word were a disobeying him as our King As if it were a possible thing for subjects to obey without a private judgement of discretion Or as if there were any repugnancy between my judging what is the Kings Law and his judging whether I am punishable for disobeying it or as if judging our selves contradicted our being judged of God! § 53. Inst. 15. So many separate between the operation of the Word and Spirit the Minister and Instance 15. Christ As if the Spirit did not usually work by the Word and Christ did not preach to us by his Ministers and Embassadors And as if they might despise his Messengers and not be taken for despisers of himself Or might throw away the dish and keep the milk § 54. Inst. 16. Thus many separate the special Love of Saints from the common Love of man as man Instance 16. As if they could not Love a Saint unless they may hate an enemy and despise all others and deny them the Love which is answerable to their Natural Goodness § 55. Inst. 17. Thus many separate Universal or Catholick Union and Communion from particular Instance 17. And some understand no Communion but the Universal and some none but the particular Some say we separate from them as to Catholick Communion if we hold not local particular Communion with them yea if we joyn not with them in every mode As if I could be personally in ten thousand thousand Congregations at once or else did separate from them all Or as if I separated from all mankind if I differed from all men in my visage or complexion Or as if I cannot be absent from many thousand Churches and yet honour them as true Churches of Christ and hold Catholick communion with them in Faith Hope and Love Yea though I durst not joyn with them personally in Worship for fear of some sinful condition which they impose Or as if I need not be a member of any ordered worshipping Congregation because I have a Catholick faith and Love to all the Christians in the world § 56. Inst. 18. Thus are the outward and inward worship separated by many who think that all Instance 18. which the Body performeth is against the due spirituality or that the spirituality is but fansie and contrary to the form or outward part As if the heart and the knee may not fitly bow together nor decency of order concur with Spirit and truth § 57. Inst. 19. Thus many separate faith and obedience Pauls Iustification by faith without the Instance 19. works of the Law from Iames's Iustification by works and not by faith only and Christs Justification by our words Matth. 12. 37. And thus they separate free Grace and Iustification from any necessary condition and from the rewardableness of obedience which the Antients called Merit But of this at large elsewhere § 58. Inst. 20. And many separate Prudence and zeal meekness and resolution the wisdom of the Instance 20. Serpent and the innocency of the Dove yielding to no sin and yet yielding in things lawful maintaining our Christian liberty and yet becoming all things to all men if by any means we may save some These Instances are enow I will add no more § 59. Direct 18. Take heed of falling into factions and parties in Religion be the party great or Direct 18. small high or low in honour or dishonour and take heed lest you be infected with a factious censorious uncharitable hurting zeal For these are much contrary to the interest Will and Spirit of Christ Therefore among all your readings deeply suck in the doctrine of charity and peace and read much Reconciling moderating Authors Such as Drury Hall Davenant Crocius Bergius Martinius Amyraldus Dallaeus Testardus Calixtus Hottonus Junius Paraeus and Burroughs their Irenicons § 60. The reading of such Books extinguisheth the consuming flame of that infernal envious zeal described Iames 3. and kindleth charity and meekness and mellowness and
moderation in the heart and cureth those bloodshotten eyes which are unable till cured to discern the truth It helpeth us to knowledge and to that which is more edifying and keepeth knowledge from puffing us up And experience will tell you at long running that among Antients and Moderns Greeks and Latines Papists and Protestants Lutherans and Calvinists Remonstrants and Contraremonstrants Prelatists Presbyterians Independents c. commonly the Moderaters are not only the best and most charitable but the wisest most judicious men § 61. Direct 19. With all your Readings still joyn the reading of the Scriptures and of the most Direct 19. holy and practical Divines not fantastical Enthusiastick counterfeits Paracelsian Divines but those that lead you up by the solid doctrine of faith and Love to true Devotion and Heavenly mindedness and conversation § 62. This must be your bread and drink your daily and substantial food without this you may soon be filled with air that cannot nourish you and prove in the end as sounding brass and tinkling Cymbals These will breed strength and peace and joy and help you in your Communion with God and hopes of Heaven and so promote the End of all your Studies There is more life and sweetness in these than in the things that are more remote from God and Heaven § 63. Direct 20. Lastly Do all as dying men promise not your selves long life lest it tempt you Direct 20. to waste your time on things least necessary and to loiter it away or lest you lose the quickning benefit which the sight of death and eternity would yield you in all your studies § 64. The nearer you apprehend your selves to death and Heaven the greater help you have to be mortisied and Heavenly This will make you serious and keep up right intentions and keep out wrong ones and powerfully help you against temptations that when you have studied to save others you may not be cast-awayes nor be cheated by the Devil with the shell and leaves and flowers while you go without the saving fruit § 65. I have spoken the more on this subject of Governing the Thoughts because it is so great and excellent a part of the work of man and God doth so much regard the heart and the Spirit of Christ and Satan so much strive for it and grace is so much employed about it and our Happiness or misery Joy or sorrow is greatly promoted by our Thoughts And more I would have said but that in the third Chapter and in my Treatise of the Divine Life there is much said already And for a Method and Directions for particular Meditations I have given it at large in the fourth Part of the Saints Rest from whence it may easily be taken and applyed to other subjects as it is there to Heaven It is easie to write and read Directions but I fear lest slothfulness through the difficulty of Practice will frustrate my Directions to the most But if any profit by them my labour is not lost CHAP. VII Directions for the Government of the Passions § 1. THE Passions are to be considered 1. As in themselves and the sin of them as respecting God and ourselves only And so I am to speak of them here 2. As they are a wrong to others and a breach of the commandments which require Love and duty towards our Neighbour And so I shall speak of them after § 2. Passions are not sinful in themselves for God hath given them to us for his service And there is none of them but may be sanctified and used for him But they are sinful 1. When they are misguided and placed on wrong objects 2. When they darken reason and delude the mind and keep out truth and seduce to error 3. When they rebel against the Government of the will and trouble it and hinder it in its choice or prosecution of good or urge it violently to follow their bruitish inclination 4. When they are unseasonable 5. Or immoderate and excessive in degree 6. Or of too long continuance 7. And when they tend to evil effects as to unseemly speeches or actions or to wrong another § 3. Passions are Holy when they are devoted to God and exercised upon him or for him They are Good when 1. They have right objects 2. And are guided by Reason 3. And are obedient to the well-guided will 4. And quicken and awake the Reason and the will to do their duty 5. And tend to good effects exciting all the other powers to their office 6. And exceed not in degree so as to disturb the brain or body Tit. 1. Directions against all sinful Passions in general § 4. Direct 1. TRust not to any present actual resistance without any due Habitual mortification of Direct 1. Passions and fortification of the soul against them Look most to the holy constitution of your mind and life and then sinful Passions will fall off like scabs from a healthful body when the blood is purified § 5. No wonder if an unholy soul be a slave to Passion when the Body is inclined to it For such a one is under the power of selfishness carnality and worldliness and from under the Government of Christ and his spirit and wanteth that life of Grace by which he should cure and subdue the corruptions of nature The way for such a one to master passion is not to strive by natural selfish principles and reasons which are partial poor and weak but to look first to the main and to seek with speed and earnestness for a New and sanctified heart and get Gods Image and his spirit and renewing quickning Grace This is the only effectual conqueror of Nature A dull and gentle disposition may seem without this to conquer that which never much assaulted it the tryal of such persons being some other way But none conquereth Satan indeed but the spirit of Christ. And if you should be free from passion and not be free from an unholy carnal worldly heart you must perish at last if you seemed the â—almest persons upon earth Begin therefore at the foundation and see that the Body of sin be mortified and that the whole tree be rooted up which beareth these evil bitter fruits and that the Holy victorious new-nature be within you and then you will resist sin with Light and Life which others resist but as in their sleep § 6. Direct 2. More particularly let your souls be still possessed with the fear of God and live as in Direct 12. his family under his eye and Government that his authority may be more powerful than temptations and your holy converse with him may make him still more regarded by you than men or any creatures And then this Sun will put out the lesser lights and the thunder of his voice will drown the whisperers that would provoke you and the humming of those wasps which make you so impatient God would make the creature nothing and then it would do
Idolatry of the Israelites it is as they feared their Idols of Wood and Stone To fear them shewed that they took them for their Gods 2 Kings 17. 38 39. Dan. 6. 26. § 7. Direct 7. Consider that it is a folly to be inordinately fearful of that which never did befall Direct 7. thee and never befalleth one of many hundred thousand men I mean any terrible appearance of the Devil Thou never sawest him nor hearest credibly but of very few in an age that see him besides Witches This fear therefore is irrational the danger being utterly improbable § 8. Direct 8. Consider that if the Devil should appear to thee yea and carry thee to the top of Direct 8. a Mountain or the pinnacle of the Temple and talk to thee with blasphemous temptations it would be no other than what thy Lord himself submitted to who was still the dearly beloved of the Father Matth. 4. One sin is more terrible than this § 9. Direct 9. Remember that if God should permit him to appear to thee it might turn to thy very Direct 9. great advantage by killing all thy unbelief or doubts of Angels and Spirits and the unseen world It would sensibly prove to thee that there is indeed an unhappy race of Spirits who envy man and seek his ruine and so would more convince thee of the evil of sin the danger of souls the need of godliness and the truth of Christianity And it is like this is one cause why the Devil no more appeareth in the world not only because it is contrary to the ordinary Government of God who will have us live by faith and not by fight but also because the Devil knoweth how much it would do to destroy his Kingdom by destroying Infidelity Atheism and security and awakening men to faith and fear and godliness The Fowler or the Angler must not come in sight lest he spoil his Game by frighting it away § 10. Direct 10. If it be the spiritual temptations and molestations only of Satan which you fear Direct 10. remember that you have more cause to fear your selves for he can but tempt you and if you do not more against your selves than all the Devils in Hell can do you will never perish And if you are willing to accept and yield to Christ you need not inordinately fear either Satan or your selves For it is in the name and strength of Christ and under his conduct and protection that you are to begin and finish your warfare And the Spirit that is in us is greater and stronger than the Spirit that is in the world and that molesteth us 1 Iohn 4. 4. And the Father that giveth us to Christ is greater than all and none can pluck us out of his hands John 10. 29. And the God of peace will tread down Satan under our feet Rom. 16. 20. If it were in his power he would molest us daily and we had never escaped so far as we have done Our daily experience telleth us that we have a Protector Directions against the sinful fear of men and sufferings by them § 1. Direct 1. Bottom thy soul and hopes on Christ and lay up thy treasure in Heaven be not a Direct 1. worldling that liveth in hope of happiness in the creature and then thou art so far above the fear of men Omma Christe tuâ— superant tormenta ferendo Tollere quae nâ— queunt haec toleraâ—e queunt His vita â—aruisse fâ—uâ— est posâ—isse potiri Et superasse paâ—â— est superesse mori as knowing that thy treasure is above their reach and thy foundation and fortress safe from their assaults It is a base hypocritical worldly heart that maketh you immoderately afraid of men Are you afraid lest they should storm and plunder Heaven Or lest they cast you into Hell or lest they turn God against you or lest they bribe or over-awe your Judge No no these are none of your fears No you are not so much as afraid lest they hinder one of your prayers from prevailing with God nor lest their Prison walls and chains should keep out God and his Spirit from you and force you from your communion with him You are not afraid lest they forcibly rob you of one degree of grace or heavenly mindedness or hopes of the life to come If it be lest they hinder you from these by tempting or affrightning you into sin which is all the hurt they can do your souls then you are the more engaged to cast away the fears of their hurting your bodies because that is their very temptation to hurt your souls No it is their hurting of your flesh the diminishing your estates the depriving you of your liberty or worldly accommodations or of your Ad tribunal aeternum judicis justâ— provocatio salva est â—â— solet is perperam judicata resemderâ— Pâ—tra â—h Dial. 66. li. 2. lives which is the thing you fear And doth not this shew how much your hearts are yet on earth and how much unmortified worldliness and fleshliness is still within you and how much yet your hearts are false to God and Heaven O how the discovery should humble you to find that you are yet no more dead to the things of the world and that the Cross of Christ hath yet no more crucified it to you to find that yet the fleshly interest is so powerful in you and the interest of Christ and Heaven so low That God seemeth not enough for you and that you cannot take Heaven alone for your portion but are so much afraid of losing earth O presently search into the bottom of this corruption in your hearts and lament your worldliness and hypocrisie and work it out and set your hearts and hopes above and be content with God and Heaven alone and then this inordinate fear of man will have nothing left to work upon § 2. Direct 2. Set God against man and his wisdom against their policy and his Love and mercy Direct 2. against their malice and cruelty and his power against their impotency and his truth and omniscience and righteousness against their slanders and lies and his promises against their threatnings and then if yet thou art inordinately afraid of man thou must confess that in that measure thou believest not in God If God be not wise enough and good enough and just enough and powerful enough to save thee so far as it is â—est for thee to be saved then he is not God Away with Atbeism and then fear not man § 3. Direct 3. Remember what man is that thou art afraid of He is a bubble raised by Providence Direct 3. to 〈…〉 ut the world and for God to honour himself by or upon He is the meer product Joâ— 13. â—5 Psal. 1. 5 6. 68. 2. Psal. 73 20. Job 20. 8. Victor uticâ—â—â—â— saith of Au gustine that he dyed of fear Nunc illud eloquentiae quod ubertim per omnes
reason when we mourn not for sin as sin but as one sin hindereth another or as it marred some ill design 2. And by the effect when it doth but sink men in despair or torment th 〈…〉 and not at all separate them from the sin 3. When it cometh not at all from any love to God or care to please him but only an unwillingness to be damned and so it is lâ—mented only as a means of damnation which though it be a sorrow positively neither good nor â—â—il yet it is evil privatively § 5. But it is the Passion of Grief as in its excess that I am now to speak against And it is in 〈…〉 maâ—h 〈…〉 and heaviness â—â— an enemy to Christianâ—ty and to the Spirit of God excess 1. When we grieve for that which we ought not at all to grieve for that is either for some gâ—od or for a thing indifferent that is neither good or bad Both which come from the error of the mind a. When we grieve too much for that which we may grieve for lawfully in some measure that is for our own afflictions or penal suffering 3. When we grieve too much for that which we are bound to grieve for in some measure As 1. For our sin 2. For our loss of the favour of God or of his Grace and Spirit 3. For other mens sin and suffering 4. For the sufferings of the Church and calamities of the world 5. For Gods dishonour § 6. Though it is not easie to have too much sorrow for sin considering it Estimatively that is we can hardly take sin for a worse evil than it is and accordingly grieve for it yet it is oft too easie to have too much sorrow for sin or any other evil intensively as to the greatness of the Passion And thus sorrow for sin is too great 1. When it distracteth the mind and overturneth reason and maketh us unfit for the ends of sorrow 2. When it so cloudeth and clotheth the soul in grief that it is made unfit to see and consider of the promise to rellish mercy or believe it to acknowledge benefits or own Grace received or be thankful for it to feel the Love of God or love him for it to praise him or to mind him or to call upon him when it driveth the soul from God and weakneth it to duty and teacheth it to deny mercy and sinketh it towards despair all this is too much and sinful sorrow and so is all that doth the soul more hurt than good For sorrow is not good of it self but as it doth good or sheweth good § 7. Direct 1. Keep your hearts as true and close to God as possible and make sure of his love Direct 1. that you may know you have not an unregenerate miserable soul to mourn for and then all other grief is the more curable and more tollerable Be once able to say that God is on your side that Christ and the Spirit and Heaven is yours and then you have the greatest Cordial against excessive grief that this world affords If you say How should this be done I answer that is opened in its proper place No marvail if sorrow overwhelm that soul that is in the chains of sin under the Curse of God as soon as awakened conscience comes to feel it And it is most miserable when it hath the smallest sorrow there being some hope that sorrow may drive it home to Christ. Therefore it thou have been a secure unhumbled carnal wretch and God be now beginning to humble thee by shewing thee thy sin and misery take heed as thou lovest thy soul that thou drive not away necessary healing sorrow and repentance under precence of driving away melancholy or over much sorrow Thy smart tendeth to thy hopes of Cure § 8. Direct 2. Renew not the wounds of Conscience by renewed willful gross sin For sin will bring Direct 2. sorrow especially if thou have any life of grace to feel it Even as falls and breaking the bones brings pain Obey carefully if thou wouldst have peace § 9. Direct 3. Be well acquainted with the General grounds of hope in the Mercy of God the Office Direct 3. and Death of Christ and the free universal offer of pardon grace and life in the New Covenant Abundance of grief doth dwell in many humbled souls through the ignorance of these General grounds of comfort which would vanish away if these were known § 10. Direct 4. Know well the true nature and use of godly sorrow how it is but a means to higher Direct 4. grace and a thing which may exceed and not a thing that we should stop in or think we can never have too much of it Desire is but in its place and to its proper ends § 11. Direct 5. Know well the nature and excellency of those higher graces which sorrow tendeth Direct 5. to Even Love and Thankfulness and Delight in God and fruitful Obedience And then you will be carried after these and will learn to hate the sorrow that hindereth them and to cherish that sorrow which leadeth you up to them and to value it but as a means to them § 12. Direct 6. Manage all your affairs especially those of your souls with prudent foresight and Direct 6. look not only on things as they appear at hand Judge not by Sense but by Reason for Sense cannot 〈◊〉 sâ—ntentiâ—â—â—â—â— Pruâ—â—n â—â—m viroâ—um esse prius quam adversa câ—ntingant praeviâ—â—re â—â— venâ—â—nt â—â—â—â—iuâ— vero cum iâ—â—a contigeâ—â—r aequo animo sâ—râ—e I aâ—â—t in Pâ—ttaâ— fâ—resee but pleaseth it self at present with that which must be bitterness in the end Thus carnal delight is the common way to overwhelming sorrow He that would not have the pain and sickness of a Surfeit to morrow must not please his appetite against reason to day Poyson will gripe and kill nevertheless for tasting sweet You must fore-know how that which you take will work and what will be the effects of it and not only how it tasteth if you would escape the pain The Drunkard thinketh not of his vomiting and poverty or shame or sickness and therefore causeth them There is no sorrow so intollerable as that of a guilty soul that 's passing in terror to the Bar of God and thence to everlasting pain Foresee this sorrow in your most pleasant sin and remember that when you are tempted to sin you are tempted to sorrow and then you may prevent it And in all your particular actions use a foreseeing judgement and ask what is like to be the end before you enter on the beginning Most of our sorrows come for want of this and express themselves by Had I known or Had I thought of this I had prevented it Do nothing which you may foresee must be repented of for Repentance is sorrowful and the weightier the case the deeper the sorrow How easie and comfortable a life and death might men attain if
that toucheth not the heart neither Is it loss of children or friends or is it pain and sickness I confess these are sore but yet they do not touch the heart If they come thither it is your doing and though thither they should come moderately if they are immoderate it is your own sinful doing It is you that grieve and make the heart ake God and man did but make the flesh ake If others hurt your bodys will you therefore vex your minds Will you pierce through your hearts because they touch your name or goods If so remember which part of your sorrow is of their making and which is of your own And can you for shame go beg of Gâ—d or man to ease the grief which you your selves are causing and willfully continue it while you pray against it And why lament you that which you cause and choose It is a shame to be willfully your own tormentâ—r◠§ 20. Direct 14. Abhor all that tendeth to take down the power and government of Reason that is Direct 14. all fâ—â—bleness and câ—wardize of mind and a melancholy a piâ—vish passionate disposition and labour to keep up the authâ—rity of Reason and to keep all your passions subject to your wills which must be done by Christian faith and fortitude If you come once to that childish or distracted pass as to grieve and say I cannot help it I know it is sinful and immoderate but I cannot choose if you say true you are out of the reach of counsel advice or comfort You are not to be preacht to nor talkt to nor to be written for we do not write Directions to teach men how to touch the Stars or explain the Asperites or inequalities of the Moon or the Opacous parts of Saturn or to govern the Orbs or rule the Chariot of the Sun If it be become a natural impossibility to you Doctrine can give you no remedy But if the impossibility be but Moral in the weakness of your Reason and want of consideration it may by Doctrine Consideration and Resolution be overcome You can do more if you will than you think you can How come you to lose the command of your Passions Did not God make you a rational creature that hath an understanding and will to rule all Passions How come you to have lost the Ruling power of Reason and will You would take it for a disparagement to be told that you have lâ—st the use of your Reason And is it not a principal use of it to Rule the passions and all other inferior subject powers You say you cannot choose but grieve But if one could give you that creature which you want or desire then you could choose You could rejoyce if one could restore you that Child that Friend that Estate which you have lost But God and Christ and Heaven it seems are not enough to cure you if you must have but theâ— you cannot choose but grieve And what hearts have you then that are thus affected Should not those hearts be rather grieved for God will sometime make you see that you had more power than you used § 21. Direct 15. Observe the mischiefs of excessive sorrow that you may feel what reason you have Direct 15. to avoid it While you know not what hurt is in it you will be the more remiss in your resisting it I shall briefly name you some of its unhappy fruits § 22. 1. It is a continual pain and sickness of the mind This you know by feeling 2. It is a The ill effects of sinful grieâ— destroyer of bodily health and life For worldly sorrow worketh death 2 Cor. 7. 10. Prov. 17. 22. A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit dryeth the the bones 3. It putteth the soul out of relish with its mercies and so causeth us to undervalue them and consequently to be unthankful for them and not to improve them 4. It destroyeth the sense of the Love of God and lamentably undisposeth the soul to Love them And therefore should be abhorred by us were it but for that Even Anaâ—agoâ—as a Philosopher could say â—o one that asked him Nullâ—m tibi paâ—riae â—ura est Mihi quidem pâ—â—â—â—iae cura est quidem summa digitum 〈…〉 lum intendâ—ns Laâ—rt p 85. one effect 5. It destroyeth the joy in the Holy Ghost and unfitteth us to obey that command of God Rejoyce continually 6. It contradicteth a Heavenly mind and conversation and hindereth us from all foreâ—asts of the everlasting joys 7. It undisposeth us to the excellent work of Praise Who can ascend in the Praises of God while Grief doth oppress and captivate the soul 8. It destroyeth the sweetness of all Gods Ordinances Hearing Reading Prayer Sacraments we may force our selves to use them but shall have no delight in them 9. It hindreth the exercise of Faith and raiseth distrust and sinful doubts and fears within us 10. It causeth sinful discontents and murmurings at God and man 11. It maketh us impatient pievish froward angry and hard to be pleased 12. It weakneth the soul to all that 's good and destroyeth its fortitude and strength For it is the Ioy of the Lord that is our strength Neh. 8. 10. 13. It hindreth us in the duties of our callings who can do them as they should be done under the clog of a disquiet mind 14. It maketh us a grief and burden to our friends and robs them of the comfort which they should have in and by us 15. It maketh us unprofitable to others and hindreth us from doing the good we might when we should be instructing exhorting and praying for poor sinners or minding the Church of God we are all taken up at home about our own afflictions 16. It maketh us a stumbling block and scandal to the ungodly and hindreth their conversiion while the Devil setteth us before the Church doors to keep away the ungodly from a holy life as men set scar-crows in their fields and gardens to frighten away the birds 17. It dishonoureth Religion by making men believe that it is a melancholy vexatious self-tormenting life 18. It obscureth the Glory of the Gospel and crosseth the work of Christ his Spirit and Ministers who all come upon a message of Great joy to all Nations and proclaim Glad tidings to the worst of sinners much more to the sons of God and heirs of life 19. It misrepresenteth God himself as if we would perswade men that he is a hard and cruel master that none can please though they do all through a Mediator upon a covenant of grace and that it is worse with us since we served him than before and that he delighteth in our grief and misery and is against our peace and joy and as if there were no joy nor pleasure in his service Such hideous doctrine do our lives preach of God when those that profess to fear and seek him do live in such immoderate
this comparison to presumption But I know also that a Christian may and must use it against Despair and not think of God and the Redeemer as if he would save so few as are next to none at all § 31. Direct 20. Remember that God commandeth faith and hope and forbiddeth unbelief and despair Direct 20. and that it is your sin And will you sin more when you have sinned so much already What if you Psal. 33 18. 42 5. 43 5. 147. 11. 71. 14. see no other reason why you should Hope and why you should not despair but Gods command Is not that enough I charge you in the name of God obey him and despair not Sin not wilfully thus against him Psal. 146. 5. 31. 24. Rom. 8. 24. 15. 4 13. Col. 1. 23. 1 Thes. 5. 8. Heb. 3. 6. 6. 11 18 19. Tit. 1. 2. Hope is your duty and dare you plead against duty Despair is your sin and will you justifie it Yea consider what a deal of comfort is in this For if there were no Hope of your salvation God would never have made it your Duty to hope nor forbidden you to despair He doth not bid the Devils nor the damned Hope as he doth you He forbiddeth not them to despair as he doth you There is cause for this He would have done it if your condition were as Hopeless as theirs is § 32. Direct 21. If God forbid you to despair it s certainly the Devil that biddeth it And will you Direct 21. knowingly obey the Devil What if the Devil perswaded you to it openly with his own mouth would you not know that it is bad which such an enemy draweth you to Methinks this should be a very great comfort to you to think that it is the Devil that perswadeth you to despair For that proveth that you should not despair and that proveth that your case is not desperate but hopeful § 33. Direct 22. Think whither it tendeth to despair is to give up all hopes of your salvation Direct 22. and when you have no hope you will use no means for to what purpose should a man seek for that which he hath no hopes to find And so when this weight is taken off all the wheels stand still The meaning of the Devil hath two parts the first is Do not hear nor read nor pray nor seek advise nor talk any more about it with good people for there is no hope And the next part is either make away thy self or else sin boldly and take the pleasure of sin while thou maist for there is no hope of any better And dost thou think that either of these is from God Or is it for thy good what is the meaning of all but cast away thy soul while thou Hopest thou wilt seek and use some means but to cast away hope is to cast away all And hast thou so far lost self-love as to be thy self the doer of such a deed § 34. Direct 23. Think what a wrong thou dost to the Father the Saviour and the Sanctifier of souls Direct 23. to think so poorly and despairingly of his grace as if it were not able to prevail against thy sin and to obscure thus the glory of his redemption and to believe the Devil in his slandering extenuating and dishonouring that in God which he will have most glorified by sinners § 35. Direct 24. Bethink thee what one person thou canst name in all the world that ever perished Direct 24. or was rejected that was willing in this life to be saved and sanctified by Christ and had rather have Christ and perfect holiness than the treasures or pleasures of the world Name me any one such person if thou canst but I am sure thou canst not And dost thou fear that which never was done to any one or think that Christ will begin with thee § 36. Direct 25. Up man and be doing and resolve in despight of the Devil that thou wilt wait on Direct 25. God in the use of means and cast thy self on Christ and if thou perish thou wilt perish there Do this and thou shalt never perish Thou canst not do worse than Despair and give up all nor canst thou please the Devil more nor displease God more nor wrong Christ and the spirit more Thou art certain that thou canst lose nothing by trusting thy soul on Christ and hoping in him and patiently using his means Do but this and hope shall save thee when Satan by despair would damn thee § 37. Direct 26. Understand in what time and order it is that that Christ giveth his grace and saveth Direct 26. his people from their sins that he doth it not all at once but by degrees and taketh all the time of this present life to do it in As able as your Physicion is he will not finish the cure till your life be finished The next life is the state of absolute perfection All things are imperfect here Despair not therefore of all that you have not yet attained Your sin may be more mortified yet and your grace yet more strengthened If it be done before you come to judgement it s well for you Do your part in daily diligence Do you plant and water and he will give the increase Read more of this bâ—forâ— Part 2. against Melancholy CHAP. VIII Directions for the Government of the Senses PART I. General Directions for the Government of the Senses by a Life of Faith § 1. THE most wise and gracious God having been pleased to constitute us of soul and body that our nobler part in its preparation and passage to a nobler state might have a companion and instrument suited to the lower place and employment through which it is to pass hath appointed our senses not only for the exercise and helps of life and the management of our inferiour actions and the communication of his inferiour mercies but also to be the common passage to the fantasie and so to the mind to be serviceable to our Rational powers and help in our service of our Maker and communion with him in his higher gifts To these ends all our senses should be used as being capable of being sanctified and serviceable to God But sin made its entrance by them and by sin they are now corrupted and vitiated with the body and are grown inordinate violent and unruly in their appetite and the rational powers having lost and forsaken God their proper End and chiefest Object have hired or captivated themselves to the sensitive appepetite to serve its Ends. And so the sensitive appetite is become the ruling faculty in the unsanctified and the senses the common entrance of sin and instruments of Satan And though the work of Grace be primarily in the Rational powers yet secondarily the lower powers themselves also are sanctified and brought under the Government of a renewed Mind and Will and so restored to their proper
excess in whomsoever 4. And in curiosity of dyet a difference must be allowed The happier healthful man need not be so curious as the sick And the happy Plowman need not be so curious as state and expectation somewhat require the Noble and the Rich to be 5. And for length of time though unnecessary sitting out time at meat be a sin in any yet the happy poor man is not obliged to spend all out so much this way as the Rich may do 6. And it is not all delight in meat or pleasing As Isaac's pleasant meat Gen. 27. 7. the appetite that is a sin But only that which is made mens end and not referred to a higher end even when the Delight it self doth not tend to health nor alâ—crity in duty nor is used to that end but to please the flesh and tempt unto excess 7. And it is not necessary that we measure the profitableness of quantity or quality by the present and immediate benefits but by the more remote sometimes so merciful is God that he alloweth us that which is truly for our good and forbiddeth us but that which doth us hurt or at least no good 8. All sin in eating is not Gluttony but only such as are here described § 5. II. The causes of Gluttony are these 1. The chiefest is an inordinate appetite together with a Non potest temperantiam laudare is qu summum bonum ponit in voluptate Est enim temperantia libidinum inimica Cicero Saith Aristotle He is temperate that takes pleasure to deny fleshly pleasure but he is intemperate that is troubled because he cannot have them Ethic. l. 2. c. 3. fleshly mind and will which is set upon Flesh-pleasing as its felicity They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh Rom. 8. 6 7. This Gulosity which Clemens Alexandrinus calleth The Throat-Devil and the Belly-Devil is the first cause § 6. 2. The next cause is The want of strong Reason faith and a spiritual appetite and mind which should call off the Glutton and take him up with higher pleasures even such as are more manly and in which his real Happiness doth consist They that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit Rom. 8. 6. Reason alone may do something to call up a man from this felicity of a beast as appeareth by the Philosophers assaults upon the Epicures but faith and love which feast the soul with sweeter delicates must do the cure § 7. 3. Gluttony is much increased by Use when the Appetite is used to be satisfied it will be the more importunate and impetuous whereas a custome of Temperance maketh it easie and makes excess a matter of no delight but burden I remember my self that when I first set upon the use of Cornario's and Lessius dyet as it is called which I did for a time for some special reasons it seemed a little hard for two or three dayes but within a week it became a pleasure and another sort or more was not desirable And I think almost all that use one dish only and a small quantity do find that more is a trouble and not a temptation to them so great a matter is use unless it be with very strong and labouring persons § 8. 4. Idleness and want of diligence in a calling is a great cause of Luxury and Gluttony Though labour cause a healthful appetite yet it cureth a beastly sensual mind An idle person hath leisure to think of his guts what to eat and what to drink and to be longing after this and that whereas a man that is wholly taken up in lawful business especially such as findeth employment for the mind as well as for the body hath no leisure for such thoughts He that is close at his studies or other calling hath somewhat else to think on than his appetite § 9. 5. Another incentive of Gluttony is the Pride of Rich men who to be accounted good House-keepers Socrates dixit eos qui praecocia magno emerent desparere se ad maturitatis tempus perventuros Laâ—rt ia Socrat Cum vocasset ad coenam divites Zantippâ—n modici puderet apparatus Bono inquit esto animo Nam siqui em modesti erunt frugique mensam non aspernabuntur sin autem intemperantes nulla nobis de hisce cura fuâ—rit Idem ibid. Arebat alios vivere ut ederent se autem edere ut vivat Ibid. and to live at such rates as are agreeable to their Grandure do make their houses shops of sin and as bad as Ale-houses making their Tables a snare both to themselves and others by fullness variety deliciousness costliness and curiosity of Fare It is the honour of their Houses that a man may drink excessively in their Cellars when he please and that their Tables have excellent provisions for gluttony and put all that sit at them upon the tryal of their Temperance whether a bait so near them and so studiously fitted can tempt them to break the bounds and measure which God hath set them It is a lamentable thing when such as have the rule of others and influence on the common people shall think their honour lieth upon their sin yea upon such a constant course of sinning and shall think it a dishonour to them to live in sweet and wholsome Temperance and to see that those about them do the like And all this is either because they over-value the esteem and talk of fleshly Epicures and cannot bear the Censure of a Swine or else because they are themselves of the same mind and are such as Glory in their shame Phil. 3. 18 19. § 10. 6. Another incentive is the custome of urging and importuning others to eat still more and more as if it were a necessary act of friendship People are grown so uncharitable and selfish that they suspect one another and think they are not welcome if they be not urged thus to eat And those that invite them think they must do it to avoid the suspicion of such a sordid mind And I deny not but it is fit to urge any to that which it is fit for them to do and if we see that modesty maketh them eat less than is best for them we may perswade them to eat more But now without any due respect to what is best for them men think it a necessary complement to provoke others more and more to eat till they peremptorily refuse it But amongst the familiarest friends there is scarce any that will admonish one another against excess and advise them to stop when they have enough and tell them how easie it is to step beyond our bounds and how much more prone we are to exceed than to come short And so custome and complement is preferred before temperance and honest fidelity You 'll say what will men think of us if we should not perswade them to eat much more if we should desire them to eat no more I
Fornication and all Uncleanness § 1. THough as it is a sin against another Adultery and Fornication is forbidden in the seventh Commandment and should there be handled yet as it is a sin against our own bodies which should be members of Christ and Temples of the Holy Ghost as 1 Cor. 6. 15 18 19. So it is here to be handled among the rest of the sins of the senses And I the rather choose to take it up here because what I have said in the two last Titles against Gluttony and Drunkenness serve also for this The same arguments and convincing questions and directions will almost all serve if you do but change the name of the sin And as the Reader loveth not needless tediousness so I am glad of this means to avoid the too often naming of such an odious filthy sin yet something most proper to it must be spoken And 1. I shall shew the Greatness of the sin and 2. give Directions for the cure § 2 1. There is no sin so odious but Love to it and frequent using it will do much to reconcile the very judgement to it either to think it lawful or tolerable and venial to think it no sin or but a little sin and easily forgiven And so with some brutish persons it doth in this But 1. It is Reason enough against any sin that it is forbidden by the most wise infallible universal King of all the world Thy Makers will is enough to condemn it and shall be enough to condemn those that are the servants of it He hath said Thou shalt not commit adultery 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor esseminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind shall inherit the Kingdom of God V. 15 16 17 18 19. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid What Know ye not that he which is joyned to an harlot is one body for two saith he shall be one flesh But he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Flee fornication every sin that a man doth is without the body but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body What! know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you Mark that he speaketh not this to fornicators for their bodies are not Temples of the Holy Ghost but to them that by filthy Hereticks in those times were tempted to think fornication no great sin So Ephes. 5. 3 4 5 6. But fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness let it not be once named among you as becometh Deut. 23 Prov. 25. 2â— Prov. 5. 3 5. Prov. 7. 5 6 7 Prov. 9. â—â— 14 15 Prov. 2â— 14 Eccles. 7. 27 Gen. 38. 24. Saints Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience be not ye therefore partakers with them Gal. 5. 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Thess. 4. 3. For this is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence as the Gentiles which know not God See also Col. 3. 5 6. Heb. 13. 4. Marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge Rev. 21. 8. The abominable and whoremongers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone Rev. 22. 15. For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers Jude 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire I shall add no more lest I be tedious § 3. 2. Besides Scripture God hath planted in nature a special pudor and modesty to restrain this sin Saith Boniface alias Wiâ—frid of the English Mercian King Ethilbald a fornicator Opprobrium generis nostri paâ—imur sive à Christianis sive Paganis dicentibus quod gens Anglorum spâ—eâ—o more caeterarum gentium c. â—inâ—â—entium equorum consuâ—tudâ—ne vel rudentum asinorum more luxuriando adulterando omnia turpitâ—r foedet coâ—fundâ—t Epist. Bonif. 10. ad Peâ—â—â—â—rid Salvagus Sarzanensis Episcopus Pauli 5. justu Visitationem Ecclesiarum Stiriae Carinthiae Carniolae instituerat Qua peracta sex omnino Sacerdotes qui non essent concubinaâ—iâ— in tribus illis Provinciis inveniâ— cum tamen magna pars ex Jesuitaâ—um disciplina prodiâ—sset c. Girald Apolog. pro Senatâ— Venet. p. â—65 Maechum in adulterio deprehensum necato was a Roman Law 12. tâ—â— and they that commit it do violate the Law of Nature and sin against a witness and condemner that is within them And scarce any one of them ever committeth it boldly quietly and fearlesly till first they have hardned their hearts and seared their consciences and overcome the light of nature by frequent wilful sinning Nature hideth the obscene parts and teacheth man to blush at the mention of any thing that is beyond the bounds of modesty Say not that it is meer custom for the vitiated nature of man is not so over precise nor the villany of the world so rare and modest but before this day it had quite banished all restraints of this sin above most others if they could have done it and if God had not written the Law which condemneth it very deep in nature with almost indelible Characters So that in despight of the horrid wickedness of the earth though mankind be almost universally inclined to lust yet there be universally Laws and Customs restraining it so that except a very few Savages and Cannibals like beasts there is no Nation on the earth where filthiness is not a shame and modesty layeth not some rebukes upon uncleanness Ask no further then for a Law when thy Nature it self is a Law against it And the better any man is the more doth he abhor the lusts of uncleanness So that among Saints saith the Apostle it is not to be named that is not without need and detestation Ephes. 5. 3. v. 12. For it is a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them in secret And when drunkenness had uncovered the shame of Noah his Son Cham is cursed for beholding it and the other Sons blest for their modest and reverent
all their labour and suffering To think of the blessed end of all their pains and patience and how far they are now from repenting of it methinks should stir us up to zeal and diligence § 24. 8. To foresee what thoughts all the world will have of holy diligence at last how the best will wish they had been better and had done much more for God and their salvation and how the worst will wish when it is too late that they had been as zealous and diligent as the best How earnestly they will then knock and cry Lord open to us when it is all in vain and say to the watchful diligent souls Give us of your Oyle for our Lamps are gone out Matth. 25. To think how glad the most ungodly would then be if they might but have dyed the death of the righteous and their latter end might be Num. 23. 10. as his And what heart-tearing grief will seize upon them for ever to think how madly they lost their souls and sluggishly went to Hell to spare their pains of that sweet and holy work that should have prevented it Will not such forethoughts awaken the most sluggish stupid souls that will but follow them till they can do their work § 25. 9. Remember that thou must be zealous and diligent in this or nothing For there is nothing else that is worth thy seriousness in comparison of this To be earnest and laborious for perishing vanities is the disgrace of thy mind and will prove thy disappointment and leave thee at last in shame and sorrow when holy diligence will recompence all thy pains § 26. 10. Remember also that thou hast been slothful and negligent too long And how dost thou repent of thy former sloth if thou wilt be as slothful still Art thou grieved to think how many duties slothfulness hath put by and how many it hath murdered and frustrated and made nothing of and how much Grace and Mercy and Comfort it hath already deprived thee of and how much better thy case were if thou hadst lived in as much holy diligence as the best thou knowest And yet wilt thou be slothful still § 27. 11. Remember that thou hast thy Life and health and wit and parts for nothing else but by thy present duty to prepare for everlasting joyes that all Gods mercies bind thee to be diligent and every Ordinance and all his helps and means of grace are given to further thee in the work and Sun and Moon and Air and Earth and all attend thee with their help And yet wilt thou be cold and slothful and frustrate all these means and mercies § 28. 12. Remember how diligent thy Enemy is Satan goeth about even night and day like a 1 Pet. 5. ◠roaring Lyon seeking to devour And wilt thou be less diligent to resist him § 29. 13. Think what an example of diligence Christ himself hath left thee And how laboriously blessed Paul and all the holy Servants of Christ did follow their Masters work Did they Pray and watch and work as slothfully as thou dost § 30. 14. Remember how hot and earnest thou wast formerly in thy sin And wilt thou now be cold and negligent in thy duty when God hath set thee in a better way § 31. 15. Observe how eager and diligent worldlings are for the world and flesh-pleasers for their sports and pleasures and proud persons for their greatness and honour and malignant persons to oppose the Gospel of Christ and their own and other mens salvations Look on them and think what a shame it is to thee to be more cold and remiss for God § 32. 16. Observe how an awakening pang of Conscience or the sight of death when it seems to be at hand can waken the very wicked to some kind of serious diligence at the present so that by their confessions and cryes and promises and amendments while the fit was on them they seemed more zealous than many that were sincere And shall not saving grace do more with you than a fit of fear can do with the ungodly § 33. 17. Remember of how sad importance it is and what it signifieth to be cold and slothful If it be predominant so as to keep thee from a holy life it is damnable The spirit of slumber is a most dreadful judgement But if it do not so prevail yet though thou be a Child of God it signifieth a great debility of soul and foretelleth some sharp affliction to befall thee if God mean to do thee good by a recovery The decay of natural heat is a sign of old age and is accompanied with the decay of all the powers And sicknesses and pains do follow such decays of life And as you will make your Horse feel the rod or spur when he grows dull and heavy expect when you grow cold and dull to feel the spur of some affliction to make you stir and mend your pace § 34. 18. Remember that thy sloth is a sinning against thy knowledge and against thy experience and against thy own Covenants promises and profession and therefore an aggravated sin These and such like serious thoughts will do much to stir up a slothful soul to Zeal and Diligence § 35. Direct 4. Drown not your hearts in worldly business or delights for these breed a Direct 4. loathing and aversness and weariness of holy things They are so contrary one to the other that Luk. 8. 14. the mind will not be eagerly set on both at once but as it relisheth the one it more and more disrelisheth the other There is no heart left for God when other things have carryed it away § 36. Direct 5. Do all you can to raise your hearts to the Love of God and a delight in holy things Direct 6. and then you will not be slothful nor weary nor negligent Love and Delight are the most excellent remedy against a slow unwilling kind of duty Know but how good it is to walk with God and do his work and thou wilt do it chearfully § 37. Direct 6. A secret root of unbelief is the mortal enemy of zeal and diligence Labour for a Direct 7. well-grounded belief of the word of God and the world to come and stir up that belief into exercise when you would have your slothful hearts stird up When there is a secret questioning in the heart What if there should be no life to come What if the grounds of Religion are unsound This blasteth the vigor of all endeavors and inclineth men to serve God only with hypocritical halving and reserves and maketh men resolve to be no further Religious than stands with present fleshly happiness § 38. Direct 7. Take heed of debauching Conscience by venturing upon doubtful things much more Direct 7. by known and willful sin For when once Conscience is taught to comply with sin and is mastered in Rom. 14 21. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 6. Eph. 4. 29 30. one thing
speak of For 1. Such a heart will be like a Spring which is alwayes running and will contiuually feed the streams Forced and feigned things are of short continuance The hypocrites affected forced speech is exercised but among those where it may serve his pride and carnal ends At other times and in other company he hath another tongue like other men It is like a Land-flood that is quickly gone or like the bending of a Bow which returneth to its place as soon as it is loosed 2. And that which cometh from your hearts will be serious and hearty and likeliest to do good to others For words do their work upon us not only by signifying the matter which is spoken but also by signifying the affections of the speaker And that which will work affections must express affection ordinarily If it come not from the heart of the speaker it is not so like to go to the hearts of the hearers A hearty Preacher and a hearty feeling discourse of holy things do pierce heart-deep and do that good which better composed words that are heartless do not § 2. Direct 2. Yet for all that when your hearts are cold and dull and barren do not think that Direct 2. your tongues must therefore neglect their duty and be silent from all good till your hearts be better but force your tongues to do their duty if they will not do them freely without constraint For 1. Duty is duty whether you be well disposed to it or not If all duty should cease when men are ill disposed to it no wicked man would be bound to any thing that is truly holy 2. And if Heart and Tongue be both obliged it is worse to omit both than one 3. And there may be sincerity in a duty when the heart is cold and dull 4. And beginning to do your duty as well as you can is the way to overcome your dulness and unfitness when you force your tongues at first to speak of that which is good the words which you speak or hear may help to bring you into a better frame Many a man hath begun to pray with coldness that hath got him heat before he had done And many a man hath gone unwillingly to hear a Sermon that hath come home a converted soul. 5. And when you set your selves in the way of Duty you are in the way of promised grace § 3. Object But is not this to play the Hypocrite to let my tongue go before my heart and speak the Object things which my heart is not affected with Answ. If you speak falsly and dissemblingly you play the Hypocrites But you may force your Answ. selves to speak of good without any falshood or hypocrisie Words signifie as I told you the matter spoken and the speakers mind Now your speaking of the things of God doth tell no more of your mind but this that you take them to be true and that you desire those that you speak to to regard them And all this is so and therefore there is no hypocrisie in it Indeed if you told the hearers that you are deeply affected with these things your selves when it is not so this were hypocrisie But a man may exhort another to be good without professing himself to be good yea though he confess himself to be bad Therefore all the good discourses of a wicked man are not hypocrisie Much less the good discourse of a sincere Christian that is dull and cold in that discourse And if a duty had some hypocrisie in it it is not the duty but the hypocrisie that God disliketh and you must forsake As if there be coldness in a duty it is the coldness and not the duty that is to be blamed and forborn And wholly to omit the duty is worse than to do it with some coldness or hypocrisie which is not the predominant complexion of the duty § 4. Object But if it be not the fruit of the Spirit it is not acceptable to God And that which Object I force my tongue to is none of the fruits of the Spirit Therefore I must stay till the Spirit move me Answ. 1. There are many duties done by Reason and the common assistances of God that are better Answ. than the total omission of them is Else no unsanctified man should hear the Word or pray or relieve the poor or obey his Prince or Governours or do any duty towards children or neighbours because whatsoever is not the fruit of the special grace of the Spirit is sin and without faith it is impossible to please God and all men have not faith Heb. 11. 6. 2 Thess. 3. 2. 2. It is a distracted conceit of the Qâ—akers and other Fanaticks to think that Reason and the Spirit of God are not conjunct principles in the same act Doth the Spirit work on a man as on a beast or a stone and cause you to speak as a Clock that striketh it knoweth not what or play on mans soul as on an instrument of Musick that hath neither knowledge of the melody nor any pleasure in it No the Spirit of God supposeth Nature and worketh on man as man by exciting your own Understanding and Will to do their parts So that when against all the remnant of dulness and backwardness that is in you you can force your selves to do your duty it is because the Spirit of God assisteth you to take that resolution and use that force For thus the Spirit striveth against the flesh Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 16 17 18 c. Though it is confessed that there is more of the Spirit where there is no backwardness or resistance or need of forcing § 5. Direct 3. By all means labour to be furnished with understanding in the matters of God For Direct 3. 1. An understanding person hath a Mine of holy matter in himself and never is quite void of matter for good discourse He is the good Scribe that is instructed to the Kingdom of God that bringeth out of his treasury things new and old Matth. 13. 52. 2. And an understanding person will speak discreetly and so will much further the success of his discourse and not make it ridiculous contemptuous or uneffectual through his indiscretion But yet if you are ignorant and wanting in understanding do not therefore be silent for though your ability is least your necessity is greatest Let necessity therefore constrain you to ask instruction as it constraineth the needy to beg for what they want But spare no pains to increase your knowledge § 6. Direct 4. If your own understandings and hearts do not furnish you with matter have recourse to Direct 4. those manifold helps that God vouchsafeth you As 1. You may discourse of the last Sermon that you heard or some one lately preached that nearly touched you 2. Or of something in the last Book you read 3. Or of some Text of Scripture obvious to your thoughts 4. Or of
some notable yea or ordinary providence which did lately occurr 5. Or of some examples of good or evil that are fresh before you 6. Or of the right doing of the duty that you are about or any such like helps Direct 5. § 7. Direct 5. Talk not of vain unprofitable controversies nor often of small circumstantial matters that make but little to edification For there may be idle talking about matters of Religion as well as about other smaller things Especially see that the quarrells of the times engage not your thoughts and speeches too far into a course of unprofitableness or contention § 8. Direct 6. Furnish your selves before hand with matter for the most edifying discourse and never Direct 7. go abroad empty And let the matter be usually 1. Things of weight and not small matters 2. Things of certainty and not uncertain things Particularly the fittest subjects for your ordinary discourse are these 1. God himself with his Attributes Relations and Works 2. The great mysterie of mans Redemption by Christ His person office sufferings doctrine example and work His resurrection ascension glory intercession and all the priviledges of his Saints 3. The Covenant of Grace the promises the duties the conditions and the threatnings 4. The workings of the Spirit of Christ upon the soul and every grace of the Spirit in us with all the signs and helps and hinderances of it 5. The wayes and wiles of Satan and all our spiritual enemies the particular temptations which we are in danger of what they are and how to avoid them and what are the most powerful helps against them 6. The corruption and deceitfulness of the heart The nature and workings effects and signs of ignorance unbelief hypocrisie pride sensuality worldliness impiety injustice intemperance uncharitableness and every other sin with all the helps against them all 7. The many duties to God and man which we have to perform both internal and external and how to do them and what are the chiefest hindrances and helps As in reading hearing meditating prayer giving alms c. And the duties of our Relations and several places with the contrary sins 8. The Vanity of the world and deceitfulness of all earthly things 9. The powerful Reasons used by Christ to draw us to holiness and the unreasonable madness of all that is brought against it by the Devil or by wicked men 9. Of the sufferings which we must expect and be prepared for 10. O◠death and the preparations that will then be found necessary and how to make ready for so great a change 11. Of the day of judgement and who will be then justified and who condemned 12. Of the joyes of Heaven the employment the company the nature and duration 13. Of the miseries of the damned and the thoughts that then they will have of their former life on earth 14. Of the state of the Church on earth and what we ought to do in our places for its welfare Is there not matter enough in all these great and weighty points for your hourly meditation and conference § 9. Direct 7. Take heed of proud self-conceitedness in your conference Speak not with supercilious Direct 7. censorious confidence Let not the weak take on them to be wiser than they are Be readier to speak by way of Question as Learners than as Teachers of others unless you are sure that they have much more need to be taught by you than you by them It 's ordinary for novices in Religion to cast all their discourse into a Teaching strain or to make themselves Preachers before they understand It is a most loathsome and pitiful hearing and yet too ordinary to hear a raw self-conceited ungrounded unexperienced person to prate magisterially and censure confidently the doctrine or practices or persons of those that are much better and wiser than themselves If you meet with this proud censorious spirit rebuke it first and read to them Iam. 3. and if they go on turn away from them and avoid them for they know not what manner of spirit they are of they serve not the Lord Jesus whatever they pretend or think themselves but are proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and making divisions in the Church of God and ready to fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. 6. 3 4 5 Rom. 16. 17. Luk. 9. 55. Direct 8. § 10. Direct 8. Let the wisest in the company and not the weakest have most of the discourse But yet if any one that is of an abler tongue than the rest do make any determinations in doubtful controverted points take heed of a hasty receiving his judgement let his reasons seem never so plausible or probable but put down all such opinions as doubts and move them to your Teachers or some other impartial able men before you entertain them Otherwise he that hath most wit and tongue in the company might carry away all the rest into what errour or heresie he please and subvert their faith when he stops their mouths § 11. Direct 9. Let the matter of your speech be suitable to your end even to the good of your Direct 9. selves or others which you seek The same subject that is fit for one company is very unfit for others Learned men and ignorant men pious men and prophane men are not fit for the same kind of discourse The medicine must be carefully fitted to the disease § 12. Direct 10. Let your speech be seasonable when prudence telleth you it is not like to do more Direct 10. harm than good There is a season for the prudent to be silent and refrain even from good talk Amos 5. 17. Psal. 39. 1 2. Cast not Pearls before Swine and give not holy things to Dogs that you know will turn again and rend you Matth. 7. 6. Yea and among good people themselves there is a time to speak and a time to be silent Eccles. 3. 7. There may possibly be such excess as tendeth to the tiring of the hearers and more may be cram'd in than they can digest and surfetting may make them loath it afterwards You must give none more than they can bear And also the matters of your business and callings must be talkt of in their time and place § 13. Direct 11. Let all your speech of holy things be with the greatest seriousness and reverence Direct 11. that you are able Let the words be never so good yet levity and rudeness may make them to be prophane God and holy things should not be talkt of in a common manner But the gravity of your speech should tell the hearers that you take them not for small or common matters If servants and others that live near together would converse and speak as the Oracles of God how holy and heavenly and happy would such families or societies be CHAP. XVII Directions for each particular member of the Family how to spend every ordinary day of
satisfaction for our sins and Risen from the dead and conquered death and Satan and is ascended and Glorified in Heaven and that he is the King and Teacher and High Priest of the Church That he hath made a new Covenant of Grace and pardon and offered it in his Scriptures and by his Ministers to the World and that those that are sincere and faithful in this Covenant shall be saved and those that are not shall remedilâ—sly be damned because they reject this Christ and Grace which is the last and only remedy And here open to them the nature of this Covenant that God doth offer to be our Reconciled God and Father and Felicity and Christ to be our Saviour to forgive our sins and reconcile us unto God and renew us by his spirit and the Holy Spirit to be our sanctifier to illuminate and regenerate and confirm us and that all that is required on our part is such an unfeigned consent as will appear in the performance in our serious endeavours Even that we wholly give up our selves to be renewed by the holy spirit to be justified taught and Governed by Christ and by him to be brought again to the Father to Love him as our God and End and to live to him and with him for ever But whereas the temptations of the Devil and the allurements of this deceitful world and the desires of the flesh are the great enemies and hinderances in our way we must also consent to renounce all these and let them go and deny our selves and take up with God alone and what he seeth meet to give us and to take him in Heaven for all our portion And he that consenteth unfeignedly to this Covenant is a member of Christ a justified reconciled Child of God and an heir of Heaven and so continuing shall be saved and he that doth not shall be damned This is the Covenant that in Baptism we solemnly entred into with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as our Father and Felicity our Saviour and our Sanctifier This in some such brief explication you must familiarly open to them again and again § 10. Direct 10. When you have opened the Baptismal Covenant to them and the Essentials of Direct 10. Christianity cause them to learn the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments And tell them the Uses of them that man having three Powers of soul his Understanding his Will and his Obediential or executive power all these must be sanctified and therefore there must be a Rule for each And that accordingly the Creed is the summary Rule to tell us what our Understandings must Believe and the Lords Prayer is the summary Rule to direct us what our wills must desire and our tongues must ask and the Ten Commandments is the summary Râ—le of our Practice And that the Holy Scripture in general is the more large and perfect Rule of all And that all that will be taken for true Christians must have a General implicite Belief of all the Holy Scriptures and a particular explicite Belief Desire and sincere practice according to the Creeds Lords Prayer and ten Commandments § 11. Direct 11. Next teach them a short Catechism by memory which openeth these a little Direct 11. more fully and then a larger Catechism The shorter and larger Catechism of the Assembly are very well fitted to this use I have published a very brief one my self which in eight Articles or Answers containeth all the essential points of Belief and in One Answer the Covenant-consent and in four Articles or Answers more containeth all the substantial parts of Christian duty The answers are some of them long for Children But if I knew of any other that had It is in my 〈…〉 and by it self so much in so few words I would not offer this to you because I am conscious of its imperfections But there are very few Catechisms that differ in the substance Which ever they learn let them as they go have your help to understand it and let them keep it in memory to the last § 12. Direct 12. Next open to them more distinctly the particular part of the Covenant and Catechism Direct 12. And here I think this Method most profitable for a family 1. Read over to them the best expositions that you can get on the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments which are not too large to confound them nor too brief so as to be hardly understood For a summary Mr. Brinsleyes True watch is good but thus to read to them such as Mr. Perkins on the Creed and Dr. King on the Lords Prayer and Dod on the Commandments are fit so that you may read one Article one Petition and one Commandment at a time And read these over to them divers times 2. Besides this in your familiar discourse with them open to them plainly one Head or Article of Religion at a time and another the next time and so on till you come to the end And here 1. Open in one discourse the nature of man and the Creation 2. In another or before it the nature and attributes of God 3. In another the fall of man and especially the Corruption of our nature as it consisteth in an inordinate inclination to earthly and fleshly things and a backwardness or averseness or enmity to God and Holiness and the Life to come and the nature of sin and the impossibility of being saved till this sin be pardoned and these natures renewed and restored to the Love of God and Holiness from this Love of the world and fleshly pleasures 4. In the next discourse open to them the doctrine of Redemption in general and the Incarnation and natures and person of Christ particularly 5. In the next open the Life of Christ his fulfilling the Law and his overcoming the Tempter his humble life and contempt of the world and the end of all and how he is exemplary and imitable unto us 6. In the next open the whole Humiliation and suffering of Christ and the pretenses of his persecutors and the Ends and Uses of his suffering death and burial 7. In the next open his Resurrection the proofs and the Uses of it 8. In the next open his Ascension Glory and Interâ—ession for us and the Uses of all 9. In the next open his Kingly and Prophetical offices in General and his making the Covenant of Grace with man and the nature of that Covenant and its effects 10. In the next open the Works or Office of the Holy Ghost in General as given by Christ to be his Agent in men on earth and his great witness to the world and particularly open the extraordinary gift of the spirit to the Prophets and Apostles to plant the Churches and indite and seal the holy Scripture and shew them the authority and use of the holy Scriptures 11. In the next open to them the ordinary works of the Holy Ghost as the Illuminater Renewer
some that may inform you should hear them pray sometime that you may know their spirit and how they profit § 20. Direct 20. Put such Books into their hands as are meetest for them and engage them to Direct 20. read them when they are alone And ask them what they understand and remember of them And hold them not without necessity so hard to work as to allow them no time for reading by themselves But drive them on to work the harder that they may have some time when their work is done § 21. Direct 21. Cause them to teach one another when they are together Let their talk be profitable Direct 21. Let those that read best be reading sometime to the rest and instructing them and furthering their edification Their familiarity might make them very useful to one another § 22. Direct 22. Tire them not out with too much at once but give it them as they can receive it Direct 22. Narrow mouth'd bottles must not be filled as wider vessels § 23. Direct 23. Labour to make all sweet and pleasant to them and to that end sometime mix Direct 23. the reading of some profitable history as the Book of Martyrs and Clarkes Martyrologie and his Lives § 24. Direct 24. Lastly Entice them with kindnesses and rewards Be kind to your Children Direct 24. when they do well and be as liberal to your servants as your Condition will allow you For this maketh your persons acceptable first and then your instructions will be much more acceptable Nature teacheth them to Love those that Love them and do them good and to hearken willingly to those they love A small gift now and then might signifie much to the further benefit of their souls § 25. If any shall say that here is so much ado in all these directions as that few can follow Direct 25. them I intreat them to consult with Christ that dyed for them whether souls be not pretious and worth all this adoe And to consider how small a labour all this is in comparison of the everlasting end And to remember that all is Gain and pleasure and a delight to those that have holy hearts And to remember that the effects to the Church and Kingdom of such holy Government of families would quite over-compensate all the pains CHAP. XXIII Tit. 1. Directions for Prayer in General § 1. HE that handleth this Duty of PRAYER as it deserveth must make it the second The Stoicks say Orabit sapiens ac vâ—ta faciet bona à diis postulans Lacrt. it Zenone So that when Scneca saith Cur deos precibus fatigatis c. he only intendeth to reprove the slothful that think to have all done by prayer alone while they are idle and neglect the means Part in the Body of Divinity and allow it a larger and exacter Tractate than I here intend For I have before told you that as we have three Natural faculties An Understanding Will and Executive Power so these are qualified in the Godly with Faith Love and Obedience and have three particular Rules The Creed to shew us what we must Believe and in what Order The Lords Prayer to shew us what and in what order we must Desire and Love And the Decalogue to tell us what and in what order we must do Though yet these are so near kin to one another that the same actions in several respects belong to each of the Rules As the Commandments must be Believed and Loved as well as Obeyed and the matter of the Lords Prayer must be believed to be good and necessary as well as Loved and Desired and Belief and Love and Desire are commanded and are part of our obedience yet for all this they are not formally the same but divers And as we say that the Heart or Will is the man as being the Commanding faculty so Morally the Will the Love or Desire is the Christian and therefore the Rule of Desire or Prayer is a Principal part of true Religion The internal part of this Duty I partly touched before Tom. 1. Chap. 3. and the Church Part I told you why I past by Tom. 2. it being not left by the Government where we live to Private Ministers discussion save only to perswade men to obey what is established and commanded Therefore because I have omitted the later and but a little toucht upon the former I shall be the larger on it in this place to which for several Reasons I have reserved it § 2. Direct 1. See that you understand what Prayer is Even The expressing or acting of our Direct 1. Desires before another to move or some way procure him to grant them True Christian Prayer is The believing and serious expressing or acting of our lawful desires before God through Iesus our Mediator by the help of the Holy Spirit as a means to procure of him the grant of these desires Here note 1. That inward Desire is the soul of Prayer 2. The expressions or inward actings of them is as the Body of Prayer 3. To men it must be Desire so expressed as they may Plerumque hoc negotium plus gentibus quam sermonibus agitur August Epist. 121. understand it But to God the inward acting of Desires is a Prayer because he understandeth it 4. But it is not the acting of Desire simply in it self that is any Prayer For he may have Desires that offereth them not up to God with Heart or Voice But it is Desires as some way offered up to God or represented or acted towards him as a means to procure his blessing that is Prayer indeed § 3. Direct 2. See that you understand the Ends and Use of Prayer Some think that it is of Direct 2. no Use but only to move God to be willing of that which he was before unwilling of And therefore because that God is Immutable they think that Prayer is a Useless thing But Prayer is Useful 1. As an act of Obedience to Gods Command 2. As the performance of a condition without which he hath not promised us his Mercy and to which he hath promised it 3. As a Means to actuate and express and increase our own Humility Dependance Desire Trust and Hope in God and so to make us capable and fit for Mercy who else should be uncapable and unfit 4. And so though God be not changed by it in himself yet the Real change that is made by it on our selves doth infer a change in God by meer Relation or Extrinsical denomination he being one that is according to the tenour of his own established Law and Covenant engaged to disown or punish the Unbelieving Prayerless and Disobedient and after engaged to Own or pardon them that are Faithfully Desirâ—us and Obedient And so this is a Relative or at least a denominative change So that in Prayer Faith and Fervency are so far from being useless that they as much prevail for the thing
and hope for audience when they beg for mercy and offer up prayer or praises to him § 15. III. In the Communication though the Sacrament have respect to the Father as the Joh. 3. 5. 1 Cor. 12. 12 â—3 1 Cor. 15 45. Gal. 3. 14. 4. 6. Eph. 2. 22. principal Giver and to the Son as both the Gift and Giver yet hath it a special respect to the Holy Ghost as being that spirit given in the flesh and blood which quickeneth souls without which the flesh will profit nothing And whose Operations must convey and apply Christs saving benefits to us Ioh. 6. 63. 7. 39. § 16. These three being the parts of the Sacrament in whole as comprehending that sacred Action and participation which is essential to it The material Parts called the Relate and correlate are 1. Substantial and Qualitative 2. Active and passive 1. The first are the Bread and Wine as signs and the Body and Blood of Christ with his graces and benefits as the things signified and given The second are the Actions of Breaking Pouring out and Delivering on the Ministers part after the Consecration and the Taking Eating and Drinking by the Receivers as the sign And the thing signified is the Crucifying or Sacrificing of Christ and the Delivering himself with his benefits to the believer and the Receivers thankful Accepting and using the said gift To these add the Relative form and the ends and you have the definition of this Sacrament Of which see more in my Univers Concord p. 46 c. § 17. Direct 3. Look upon the Minister as the Agent or Officer of Christ who is commissioned by Direct 3. him to seal and deliver to you the Covenant and its benefits And take the Bread and Wine as if you heard Christ himself saying to you Take my Body and Blood and the pardon and Grace which is thereby purchased It is a great â—â—â—â—p in the application to have Mercy and pardon brought us by the hand of a commissioned Officer of Christ. § 18. Direct 4. In your preparation before hand take heed of these two extreams 1. That you Direct 4. come not prophanely and carelesly with common hearts as to a common work For God will be sanctified in them that draw near him Lev. 10. 3. And they that eat and drink unworthily not discerning the Lords Body from common bread but eating as if it were a common meal do eat death to Quinam auteâ—â— indigâ—i ineptive sint quibus Angelorum panis praebeatur sacerdoâ—um ipsoâ—um audâ—ta confessione â—aeâ—erisque perspectis judicium esto Acosta â— 6. c. 10. p. 549. themselves instead of life 2. Take heed lest your mistakes of the nature of this Sacrament should possess you with such fears of unworthy receiving and the following dangers as may quite discompose and unfit your souls for the joyful exercises of faith and Love and Praise and Thanksgiving to which you are invited Many that are scrupulous of Receiving it in any save a feasting gesture are too little careful and scrupulous of Receiving it in any save a feasting frame of mind The first extream is caused by Prophaneness and negligence or by gross ignorance of the nature of the Sacramental work The later extream is frequently caused as followeth 1. By setting this Sacrament at a greater distance from other parts of Gods worship than there is cause so that the excess of Reverence doth overwhelm the minds of some with terrours 2. By studying more the terrible words of eating and drinking damnation to themselves if they do it unworthily than all the expressions of Love and mercy which that blessed feast is furnished with So that when the Views of infinite Love should ravish them they are studying wrath and vengeance to terrifie them as if they came to Moses and not to Christ. 3. By not understanding what maketh a Receiver worthy or unworthy but taking their unwilling infirmities for condemning unworthiness 4. By Receiving it so seldom as to make it strange to them and increase their fear whereas if it were administred every Lords day as it was in the Primitive Churches it would better acquaint them with it and cure that fear that cometh from strangeness 5. By imagining that none that want Assurance of their own sincerity can receive in faith 6. By contracting an ill habit of mistaken Religiousness placeing it all in poâ—ing on themselves and mourning for their corruptions and not in studying the Love of God in Christ and living in the daily Praises of his name and joyful Thanksgiving for his exceeding mercies 7. And if besides all these the Body contract a weak or timerous melancholy distemper it will leave the mind capable of almost nothing but fear and trouble even in the sweetest works From many such causes it cometh to pass that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is become more terrible and uncomfortable to abundance of such distempered Christians than any other ordinance of God And that which should most comfort them doth trouble them most § 19. Quest. 1. But is not this Sacrament more holy and dreadful and should it not have more preparation Quest. 1. than other parts of worship Answ. For the degree indeed it should have very careful preparation And we cannot well compare it with other parts of worship as Praise Thanksgiving Covenanting with God Prayer c. because that all these other parts are here comprized and performed But doubtless God must also be sanctified in all his other worship and his name must not be taken in vain And when this Sacrament was received every Lords day and often in the week besides Christians were supposed to live continually in a state of general preparation and not to be so far from a due particular preparation as many poor Christians think they are § 20. Quest. 2. How often should the Sacrament be now administred that it neither grow into contempt Quest. 2. or strangeness Answ. Ordinarily in well disciplined Churches it should be still every Lords day For 1. We have no reason to prove that the Apostles example and appointment in this case was proper to those times any more than that Praise and Thanksgiving daily is proper to them And we may as well deny the obligation of other institutions or Apostolical orders as that 2. It is a part of the seâ—led order for the Lords days worship And omitting it maimeth and altereth the worship of the day and occasioneth the omission of the Thansgiving and Praise and lively commemorations of Christ which should be then most performed And so Christians by use grow habited to sadness and a mourning melancholy Religion and grow unacquainted with much of the worship and spirit of the Gospel 3. Hereby the Papists lamentable corruptions of this ordinance have grown up even by an excess of reverence and fear which seldom receiving doth increase till they are come to Worship Bread as their God 4. By seldom communicating men are
words of the Institution are read and the Bread and Wine are solemnly Consecrated by separating them to that sacred use and the acceptance and blessing of God is desired admire the mercy that prepared us a Redeemer and say O God how wonderful is thy Wisdom and thy Love How strangely dost thou glorifie thy mercy over those sins that gave thee advantage to glorifie thy justice Even thou our God whom we have offended hast out of thy own treasury satisfied thy own justice and given us a Saviour by such a Miracle of Wisdom Love and Condescension as men or Angels shall never be able fully to comprehend so didst thou love the sinful world as to give thy Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life O thou that hast prepared us so full a remedy and so pretious a gift sanctifie these creatures to be the Representative Body and Blood of Christ and prepare my heart for so great a gift and so high and holy and honourable a work § 53. 5. When you behold the Consecrated Bread and Wine discern the Lords Body and reverence it as the Representative Body and Blood of Iesus Christ and take heed of prophaning it by looking on it as common Bread and Wine Though it be not Transubstantiate but still is very Bread and Wine in its Natural Being yet it is Christs Body and Blood in representation and effect Look on it as the consecrated Bread of life which with the quickning Spirit must nourish you to life eternal § 54. 6. When you see the Breaking of the Bread and the Pouring out of the Wine let Repentance and Love and Desire and Thankfulness thus work within you O wondrous Love O hateful sin How merciful Lord hast thou been to sinners and how cruel have we been to our selves and thee Could Love stoop lower Could God be merciful at a dearer rate Could my sin have done a more horrid deed than put to death the Son of God How small a matter hath tempted me to that which must cost so dear before it was forgiven How dear payed my Saviour for that which I might have avoided at a very cheap rate At how low a price have I valued his blood when I have sinned and sinned again for nothing This is my doing My sins were the thorns the nails the spear Can a murderer of Christ be a a small offendor O dreadful justice It was I and such other sinners that deserved to bear the punishment who were guilty of the sin and to have been fewel for the unquenchable flames for ever O pretious Sacrifice O hateful sin O gracious Saviour How can mans dull and narrow heart be duly affected with such transcendent things or Heaven make its due impression upon an inch of flesh Shall I ever again have a dull apprehension of such Love Or ever have a favourable thought of sin Or ever have a fearless thought of Iustice O break or melt this hardned heart that it may be somewhat conformed to my crucified Lord The tears of Love and true Repentance are easier than the flames from which I am redeemed O hide me in these wounds and wash me in this pretious blood This is the Sacrifice in which I trust This is the Righteousness by which I must be justified and saved from the Curse of thy violated Law As thou hast accepted this O Father for the world upon the Cross Behold it still on the behalf of sinners and hear his blood that cryeth unto thee for mercy to the miserable and pardon us and accept us as thy Reconciled Children for the sake of this Crucified Christ alone We can offer thee no other Sacrifice for sin and we need no other § 55. 7. When the Minister applyeth himself to God by Prayer for the efficacy of this Sacrament that in iâ— he will give us Christ and his Benefits and pardon and justifie us and accept us as his reconciled Children joyn heartily and earnestly in these requests as one that knoweth the need and worth of such a mercy § 56. 8. When the Minister delivereth you the consecrated Bread and Wine look upon him as the messenger of Christ and hear him as if Christ by him said to you Take this my broken body and blood and feed on it to everlasting life and take with it my sealed Covenant and therein the sealed testimony of my Love and the sealed pardon of your sins and a sealed gift of life eternal so be it you unfeignedly consent unto my Covenant and give up your selves to me as my Redeemed ones Even as in delivering the possession of House or Lands the deliverer giveth a Key and a twig and a turfe and saith I deliver you this house and I deliver you this land so doth the Minister by Christs authority deliver you Christ and pardon and title to eternal life Here is an Image of a sacrificed Christ of Gods own appointing which you may lawfully use And more than an Image even an Investing instrument by which these highest mercies are solemnly delivered to you in the name of Christ. Let your hearts therefore say with Ioy and Thankfulness with faith and Love O matchless bounty of the eternal God! what a gift is this and unto what unworthy sinners And will God stoop so low to man and come so neer him and thus reconcile his worthless enemies Will he freely pardon all that I have done and take me into his family and love and feed me with the flesh and blood of Christ I believe Lord help mine unbelief I humbly and thankfully accept thy gifts Open thou my heart that I may yet more joyfully and thankfully accept them Seeing God will glorifie his Love and mercy by such incomprehensible gifts as these behold Lord a wretch that needeth all this mercy And seeing it is the offer of thy Grace and Covenant my soul doth gladly take thee for my God and Father for my saviour and my sanctifier And here I give up my self unto thee as thy Created Redeemed and I hope Regenerate one as thy Own thy Subject and thy Child to be saved and sanctified by thee to be beloved by thee and to Love thee to everlasting O seal up this Covenant and pardon by thy Spirit which thou sealest and deliverest to me in thy Sacrament that without reserve I may be entirely and for ever thine § 57. 9. When you see the Communicants receiving with you let your very hearts be united to the Saints in love and say How goodly are thy tents O Jacob How amiable is the family of the Nâ—â—b 24. 5. Psal 13. 15. 4. 16. 2 3. Iuk 19 8. Psal. 84. 10. Lord How good and pleasant is the unity of brethren How dear to me are the pretious members of my Lord though they have yet all their spots and weaknesses which he pardoneth and so must we My goodness O Lord extendeth not unto thee but unto thy Saints the excellent ones on earth in
when the next sickness cometh to remember that they were unthankful for their last recovery and how falsly they dealt with God in the breaking of their promises Foresee this that you may prevent it Tit. 3. Directions for a Comfortable or Peaceable Death COmfort is not desirable only as it Pleaseth us but also as it strengtheneth us and helpeth us in our greatest duties And when is it more needful than in sickness and the approach of death I shall therefore add such Directions as are necessary to make our departure comfortable or peaceful at the least as well as safe Direct 1. Because I would make this Treatise no longer than I needs must in order to overcome Direct 1. the fears of Death and get a chearful willingness to dye I desire the sick to read over those twenty Considerations and the following Directions which I have laid down in my Book of Self-denyal And when the fears of death are overcome the great impediment of their comfort is removed § 2. Direct 2. Misunderstand not sickness as if it were a greater evil than it is but observe how Direct 2. great a mercy it is that Death hath so suitable a harbinger or fore-runner That God should do so much before he taketh us hence to wean us from the world and make us willing to be gone that the unwilling flesh hath the help of pain and that the senses and appetite languish and decay which did draw the mind to earthly things and that we have so lowd a call and so great a help to true Mr. Vinâ—s Mr. Capell Mr. Holli gâ—orth Mr Aâ—hhâ—ost Mr A bâ—osâ— M 〈…〉 Bâ—raell c. repentance and serious preparation I know to those that have walked very close with God and are alwayes ready a sudden death may be a mercy as we have lately known divers holy Ministers and others that have dyed either after a Sacrament or in the Evening of the Lords Day or in the midst of some holy exercise with so little pain that none about them perecived when they dyed But ordinarily it is a mercy to have the flesh brought down and weakned by painful sickness to help to conquer our natural unwillingness to dye § 3. Direct 3. Remember whose Messenger sickness is and who it is that calleth you to dye It is Direct 3. he that is the Lord of all the world and gave us the Lives which he taketh from us And it is he that must dispose of Angels and Men of Princes and Kingdoms of Heaven and Earth and therefore there is no reason that such Worms as we should desire to be excepted You cannot deny him to be the Disposer of all things without denying him to be God It is he that Loveth us and never meant us harm in any thing that he hath done to us that gave the life of his Son to Redeem us and therefore thinketh not Life too good for us Our sickness and death are sent by the same Love that sent us a Saviour and sent us the powerful Preachers of his Word and sent us his Spirit and secretly and sweetly changed our hearts and knit them to himself in Love which gave us a life of pretious mercies for our souls and bodies and hath promised to give us life eternal And shall we think that he now intendeth us any harm Cannot he turn this also to our good as he hath done many an affliction which we have repined at § 4. Direct 4. Look by faith to your dying buryed risen ascended glorified Lord. Nothing will Direct 4. more powerfully overcome both the poyson and the fears of Death than the believing thoughts of him that hath triumphed over it Is it terrible as it separateth the soul from the body So it did by our Lord who yet overcame it Is it terrible as it layeth the body in the grave So it did by our Saviour though he saw not corruption but quickly rose by the power of his Godhead He dyed to teach us believingly and boldly to submit to death He was buried to teach us not overmuch to fear a grave He rose again to conquer death for us and to assure those that rise to newness of life that they shall be raised at last by his power unto glory and being made partakers of the first resurrection the second death shall have no power over them He liveth as our Head that we might live by him and that he might assure all those that are here risen with him and seek first the things that are above that though in themselves they are dead yet their life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 1 2 4 5. What a comfortable word is that John 14. 19. Because I live ye shall live also Death could not hold the Lord of life Nor can it hold us against his will who hath the keyes of death and Hell Rev. 1. 18. He loveth every one of his sanctified ones much better than you love an eye or a hand or any other member of your body which you will not lose if you are able to save it When he ascended he left us that message full of comfort for his followers John 20. 17. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God which with these two following I would have written before me on my sick-bed John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my servant be And Luke 23. 43. Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise O what a joyful thought should it be to a Believer to think when he is dying that he is going to his Saviour and that our Lord is risen and gone before us to prepare a place for us and take us in season to himself Iohn 14. 2 3 4. As you believe in God believe thus in Christ and then your hearts will be less troubled Ver. 1. It is not a stranger that we talk of to you but your Head and Saviour that loveth you better than you love your selves whose office it is there to appear continually for you before God and at last to receive your departing souls and into his hand it is that you must then commend them as Stephen did Acts 7. 59. § 5. Direct 5. Choose out some Promises most suitable to your condition and roll them over and over Direct 5. in your mind and feed and live on them by faith A sick man is not usually fit to think of very many things and therefore two or three comfortable promises to be still before his eyes may be the most profitable matter of his thoughts such as those three which I named before If he be most troubled with the greatness of his sin let it be such as these Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world
that be gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Act. 13. 39. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Heb. 8. 12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more If it be the weakness of his grace that troubleth him let him choose such passages as these Isa. 40. 11. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bâ—som and shall gently lead those that are with young Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Matth. 26. 41. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Joh. 6. 37. All that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Luk. 17. 5. The Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our faith If it be the fear of death and strangeness to the other world that troubleth you remember the words of Christ before cited and 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 4 5 6 8. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Phil. 1. 23. For I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them 1 Cor. 15. 55. O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Act. 7. 59. Lord Iesus receive my spirit Fix upon some such word or promise which may support you in your extremity § 6. Direct 6. Look up to God who is the Glory of Heaven and the Light and Life and Ioy of souls Direct 6. and believe that you are going to see his face and to live in the perfect everlasting fruition of his fullest Love among the glorified If it be delectable here to know his works what will it be to see the Cause of all All Creatures in Heaven and Earth conjoyned can never afford such content and joy to holy souls as God alone O if we knew him whom we must there behold how weary should we be of this dungeon of mortality and how fervently should we long to see his face The Chicken that cometh out of the shell or the Infant that newly cometh from the womb into this illuminated world of humane converse receiveth not such a joyful change as the soul that is newly loosed from the flesh and passeth from this mortal life to God One sight of God by a blessed soul is worth more than all the Kingdoms of the earth It is pleasant to the eyes to behold the Sun But the Sun is as darkness and useless in his Glory Rev. 21. 23. And the City had no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it For the Glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof Rev. 22. 3 4 5. And there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads and there shall be no night there and they need no candle nor light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them Light and they shall reign for ever and ever If David in the Wilderness so impatiently thirsted to appear before God the living God in his Sanctuary at Ierusalem Psal. 42. How earnestly should we long to see his Glory in the Heavenly Ierusalem The glimpse of his back-parts was as much as Moses might behold Exod. 34. yet that much put a shining glory upon his face v. 29 30. The sight that Stephen had when men were ready to stone him was a delectable sight Act. 7. 55 56. The glimpse of Christ in his transfiguration ravished the three Apostles that beheld it Mat. 17. 2 6. Pauls vision which rapt him up into the third Heavens did advance him above the rest of mankind But our Beatifical sight of the Glory of God will very far excell all this When our perfected bodies shall have the perfect Glorious Body of Christ to see and our perfected souls shall have the God of Truth the most perfect uncreated Light to know what more is a created understanding capable of And yet this is not the top of our felicity For the Understanding is but the passage to the Heart or Will and Truth is but subservient to Goodness And therefore though the Understanding be capable of no more than the Beatifical Vision yet the Man is capable of more even of receiving the fullest communications of Gods Love and feeling it poured out upon the heart and living in the returns of perfect Love and in this entercourse of Love will be our highest Ioyes and this is the top of our heavenly felicity O that God would make us foreknow by a lively faith what it is to behold him in his Glory and to dwell in perfect Love and Ioy and then death would no more be able to dismay us nor should we be unwilling of such a blessed change But having spoken of this so largely in my Saints Rest I must stop here and refer you thither § 7. Direct 7. Look up to the Blessed Society of Angels and Saints with Christ and remember their Direct 7. blessedness and joy and that you also belong to the same society and are going to be numbred with them It will greatly overcome the fears of death to see by faith the Joyes of them that have gone before us and withall to think of their relation to us As it will encourage a man that is to go beyond Sea if the far greatest part of his dearest friends be gone before him and he heareth of their safe arrival and of their Joy and happiness Those Angels that now see the face of God are our special friends and guardians and entirely Love us better than any of our friends on earth do They rejoiced at our Conversion and will rejoice at our Glorification And as they are better and Love us better so therefore our Love should be greater to them than to any upon earth and we should more desire to be with them Those blessed souls that are now with Christ were once as
Sacrifice for their sins and to make a promise of pardon and salvation to all that will accept him and his gift and he intreateth all that hear the Gospel to accept it And accordingly he will save all that consent unto his Covenant I am a sinful child of Adam and therefore am one that Christ became a Sacrifice for and I consent unto his Covenant and therefore I am one that Christ by that Covenant doth justifie and will save § 29. Tempt 6. Sometime the Tempter troubleth the soul with Temptations to Blasphemy and Tempt 6. Infidelity and asketh him How knowest thou that there is a God or a life to come or that souls are immortal or that the Scripture is true Of this I spake before To this we must then answer I abhor thy suggestions These things I have seen proved long ago and I will not so far gratifie thee in my weakness and extremity as to question and dispute these sealed fundamental truths no more than I will dispute whether there be a Sun or earth § 30. Tempt 7. Sometimes the Tempter will say At best thou hast no Assurance of salvation Tempt 7. and how canst thou choose but tremble to think of dying when thou knowest not whether thou shalt go to Heaven or Hell To this the soul that hath not Assurance must answer It is my own mistake or weakness that keepeth me unassured And I will neither take part with my infirmities nor increase them by their effects My hopes are such as should draw up my desires though I want full assurance The Child delighteth in the company of the Mother and every man of his friend though he is not certain that the Mother or friend will not hurt him or take away his life Why should I trouble my self with improbabilities Or fear that which I have no found reason to fear Rather I should be glad to dye that death may perfect my Assurance and put an end to all my doubts and fears § 31. Tempt 8. But saith the Tempter How strange art thou to God and the life to come Thou Tempt 8. never sawest it Is it not dreadful to enter upon an unchangeable life in a world which thou art so great a stranger to Answ. But Christ is not a stranger to it He seeth it for me and I will implicitely trust him where should my eyes be but in my head I shall never see it till I come thither When I have been there a while this darkness and fear and strangeness will be gone I was as strange to this world before I came into it and more And all those holy souls in Heaven were strange to it once as well as I I should therefore long to be with Christ that I may be strange to him no more § 32. Tempt 9. But saith the Tempter thy fears and unwillingness is a sign that thou hast no Tempt 9. Love to God nor heavenly mind and how then canst thou hope to come to Heaven Answ. My fears come from strangeness and weakness of faith and a natural enmity to death If I could come to Christ in joy and glory and be perfected in holiness without dying I should not be unwilling of it God looketh not that my Nature should be willing to dye but that Grace make me willing to be with Christ and patiently submit to so dark a passage Even Christ himself prayed that if it were possible that Cup might pass from him § 33. Tempt 10. But what will thy Wife and Children do when thou art gone Answ. God hath Tempt 10. more interest in them than I have He will look to his own without my care Doth all the world depend upon him and is he not to be trusted with my Wife and Children § 34. Tempt 11. But thou wilt never more be serviceable to the Church All thy work will for Tempt 11. euer â—e at an end And there are many things which thou mighâ—st have done before thou dyest which will all be lost Answ. 1. I shall have higher and holier and sweeter work whether it will any thing conduce to the good of those on earth I know not but I know it will more conduce to the highest most desirable ends 2. As my work will be done so my trouble and weariness and fears and sufferings from a malignant unthankful world will all be done 3. And when my work is done my Reward and Everlasting Rest begin 4. And God needeth not such a Worm as I The work is his and it is reason that he should choose his workmen § 35. Tempt 12. But when thou hast said all Death will be death the King of terrors Answ. And Tempt 19. when thou hast said all God will be God and Heaven will be Heaven and Christ will be Christ that Mat. 28. 19 20. John 17. 2. Rev. 1. 18. Rom. 10. 9 10 11 12. hath conquered death and hath the keyes or power of Death and Hell and the promise will be sure and those that trust on him shall never be ashamed or confounded And therefore the Spirit is willing though the flesh be weak Tit. 4. Directions for doing Good to others in our Sickness § â— THe whole life of a Christian should be a serving of his God And though his body in sickness seem to be unserviceable yet it is not the least or lowest of his services which he is then at last to do Partly by his holy example and partly by his speeches which are both more obsorved in dying men than in any others For now all suppose that if there were before any mask of hypocrisie it is laid aside and the soul that is going to the Barr of God will deal sincerely And now it is supposed that we are delivered much from all the befooling delusions of prosperity and therefore fitter to be Counsellors to others And every Christian should be very desirous to do good to the last and be found so doing § 2. Direct 1. Shew not a distempered impatient mind Though pain will be pain and flesh will Direct 1. he flesh yet shew men that you have also Reason and Spirit And that it calmeth your soul though Heb. 12. 7 8 9. Rom. 8. 28. it ease not your body Speak good of God as beseemeth one that indeed believeth that it is good for us when we are afflicted by him and that all shall work together for good to us Speak not a repining word against him Job 1. 22. In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly And speak not too pievishly and impatiently to those about you Though weakness incline you to it yet let the power of grace appear § 3. Direct 2. Let those that are about yoâ— see that you take the life to come for a reality and that Direct 2. you verily expect to live with Christ in joyes for ever Let them see this in your holy joy and confidence and your thankfulness to God for the
united your Heart unto himself and turned it from sin to Holiness from the world to God and from Earth to Heaven and made you a new creature to live for Heaven as you did for earth Surely this is not so small and indiscernable a work or change but he that hath felt it on himself may know it It is a great work to bring a sinner to feel his unrighteousness and misery and to apply himself to Christ for Righteousness and life It is a great work to take off the heart from all the felicity of this world and to set it unfeignedly upon God and to cause him to place and seek his happiness in another world what ever become of all the prosperity or pleasure of the flesh It is thus with every true Believer for all the remnant of his sins and weaknesses And may you not know whether it be thus or not with you One of these is your case And it 's now time to know which of them it is when God is ready to tell you by his judgement If indeed you are in Christ and his Spirit be in you and hath renewed you and sanctified you and turned your heart and life to God I have then nothing more than Peace and Comfort to speak to you as in the following Exhortation But if it be otherwise and you are yet in a carnal state and were never renewed by the spirit of Christ Will you give me leave to deal faithfully with you as is necessary with one in your condition and to set before you at once your sin and your Remedy and to tell you what yet you must do if you will be saved IV. And first will you here lay to heart your folly and unfeignedly lament your sinful life before the Lord Not only this or that particular sin but principally your fleshly heart and life that in the main you have lived to this corruptible flesh and loved and sought and served the world before your God and the happiness of your soul. Alas friend did you not know that you had an immortal soul that must live in joy or misery for ever Did you not know that you were made to Love and serve and honour your maker and that you had the little time of this life given you to try and prepare you for your endless life and that as you lived here it must go with you in heaven or hell for ever If you did not believe these things why did you not come and give your Reasons against them to some judicious Divine that was able to have shewed you the Evidence of their truth If you did believe them alas how was it possible that you could forget them Could you believe a Heaven and a Hell and not regard them or suffer any transitory worldly vanity to be more regarded by you Did you know what you had to do in the world and yet is it all undone till now Were you never warned of this day Did never Preacher nor Scripture nor book nor friend nor conscience tell you of your end and tell you what would be the fruit of sin and of your contempt and slighting of Christ and of his grace Did you know that you must Love God above the world if ever you would be saved and that you must to that end be partaker of Christ and renewed by his spirit and yet would you let out your heart upon the world and follow the bruitish pleasures of the flesh and never earnestly seek after that Christ and spirit that should thus renew and sanctifie you Do you not think now that it had been wiser to have sought Christ and grace and set your affections first on the things above and to have made sure work for your soul against such a day as this than to have hardened your heart against Gods grace and despised Christ and Heaven and your salvation for a thing of nought You see now what it was that you preferred before Heaven what have you now got by all your sinful Love of the world where now is all your fleshly pleasure Will it all now serve turn to save you from death or the wrath of God and everlasting misery will it now go with you to another world Or do you think it will comfort a soul in Hell to remember the wealth which he gathered and left behind him upon earth would it not now have been much more comfortable to you if you could say My dayes were spent in Holiness in the Love of my dear Redeemer and in the hearty service of my God in praising him and praying to him in learning and obeying his holy word and will My business in the world was to please God and seek a better world and while I followed my lawful trade or calling my eye was chiefly on eternal life Instead of pleasing the flesh I delighted my soul in the Love and praise and service of my Redeemer and in the hopes of my eternal blessedness and now I am going to enjoy that God and happiness which I believ'd and sought Would not this be more comfortable to you now than to look back on your time as spent in a worldly fleshly life which you preferred before your God and your salvation Christ would not have forsaken you in the time of your extremity as the world doth if you had cleaved faithfully to him You little know what peace and comfort you might have found even on earth in a holy life How sweet would the word of God have been to you How sweet would prayer and meditation and holy conference have been Do you think it is not more pleasant to a true Believer to read the promises of eternal life and to think and talk of that blessed state when they shall dwell with God in Ioy for ever than it was to you to think and talk of worldly trash and vanity If you had used the world as a traveller doth the necessaries of his journey the thought of heaven would have offorded you solid rational comfort all the way O little do you know the sweetness of the Love of God in Christ and how good a Christian findeth it when he can but exercise and increase his knowledge and faith and Love to God and thankfulness for mercy and hopes of Heaven and walk with God in a heavenly conversation Do you not wish now that this had been your course But that which is done cannot be undone and time that is past can never be called back But yet there is a sure Remedy for your soul if you have but a heart to entertain and use it God so loved the world Joh. 3. 16 18. that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever Believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Iesus Christ being God and Man is the Mediator between God and man His death is a sufficient Sacrifice for our sins It is his Office to save all those that come to God by him Do but unfeignedly
life and consequently rejected Christ as a Saviour and the Holy Ghost as a sanctifier and all the mercy which he offered you on these terms Quest. 8. If this hath been your case are you now unfeignedly grieved for it Not only because it hath brought you so near to Hell but also because it hath displeased God and deprived you of that Holy and comfortable life which you might all this while have lived and endangered all your hopes of Heaven Do you so far Repent as that your very Heart and Love is changed so that now you had rather have a Holy life on earth and the sight and enjoyment of God in the Heavenly Joyes for ever than to have all the pleasure and prosperity of this world Do you hate your sins and loath your self for them and truly desire to be made Holy Are you firmly Resolved that if God do recover you to health you will live a new and Holy life that you will forsake your fleshly worldly life and all your wilful sins and will set your self to learn the will of God and call upon him and live in the holy Communion of Saints and make it your chief care to please God and to be saved Quest. 9. Are you willing to these ends to Give up your self absolutely now to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as your Reconciled Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier to be sanctified and Iustified and saved from your sins and from the wrath of God and live to God in Love and Holiness And are you willing to bind your self to this by entring into this Covenant with God renouncing the Flesh the World and the Devil Either your Heart is willing and sincere in this Resolution and Covenant or it is not If it be not there is no hope that your sin should be pardoned and your soul be saved upon any other or easier terms And for all that God is merciful and Christ died for sinners it was never his intent to save one impenitent unsanctified soul But if your Heart unfeignedly consent to this I Matth. 28. 19 â—0 2 Cor. 6. 10 17 18. have the commission of Christ himself to tell you that God will be your Reconciled God and Father and Christ will be your Saviour and the Holy Spirit will be your Sanctifier and Comforter and your sins are pardoned and your soul shall be saved and you shall dwell in Heaven with God for ever God did consent before you consented He shewed his Consent in purchasing and making and offering you this Covenant Shew your unfeigned Consent now by accepting it and giving up your self unreservedly to him and you have Christs Blood and Spirit and Sacrament to seal it to you The flesh and the world have deceived you but Trust in Christ upon his Covenant terms and he will never deceive you And now alas what pity is it that a soul that is in so miserable a case and is lost for ever if it have not help and speedy help should be deprived of all this Grace and Glory and only for want of Repenting and Consenting What pity is it that a soul that is ready to go into another world where mercy shall never more be offered it should rather go stupidly on to hell than Return to God and Accept his mercy Do but truly Repent and Consent to this Covenant and all the mercies of it are certainly yours God will be your God and Christ and the Spirit and pardon and Heaven and all are yours The Lord open and perswade your heart that you may not be undone and lost for ever for want of accepting the mercy that is offered you And now I know it would be comfortable to you if you could be fully assured that you are forgiven and shall be saved In a matter of such unspeakable moment how jâ—yful would a well-grounded certainty be to any man that hath the right use of his understanding I tell you therefore from God that there is no cause of your doubting on his part but only on your own There is no doubt to be made whether God be merciful nor whether Christ be a sufficient Saviour and sacrifice for your sins nor whether the Covenant be sure and promise of pardon and salvation to all true penitent believers be true All the doubt is whether your faith and Repentance be sincere or not And for that I can but tell you how you may know it and I shall open the Truth to you that I may neither Deceive you nor causlâ—sly Discomfort you If this Repentance and Change which you now profess and this Covenant which you have made Matth. 13. 19 20 21 22 23. Rom. 8. 7 8 9. Heb. 12. 14. Joh. 3. 3 5 6. Matth. 18. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Eph. 6. 24. 1 Cor. 16. 22. Luk. 14. 26 27. with God 1. Do come only from a present fear and not from a changed renewed heart 2. And if your Resolutions be such as would not hold you to a holy life if you should recover but would die and fade away and leave you as were before when the fear is past then is it but a forced hypocritical Repentance and will not save you if you so die Though a Minister of Christ should Absolve you of all your sins and seal it by giving you the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for all this you are lost for ever if you have no more For Absolution and the Sacrament are given you but on supposition that yâ—ur faith and Repentance be sincere And if this Condition fail in you the Action of the holiest Minister in the world will never save you But 1. If your Repentance and Covenant come not only from a present fear but from a Renewed Heart which now Loveth God and Christ and Heaven and Holiness better than all the Honours and Riches and Pleasures of the flesh and world and had rather have them even on Gods terms 2. And if this change be such as if you should recover would hold you to a Holy Life and not die or dwindle into hypocritical formality when the fright is over then I can assure you from the word of God that if you die in this Repentance you shall certainly be saved And though Late Repentance have so many difficulties that it too seldom proveth true and sound and it is an unspeakable madness to cast our salvation on so great a hazard and to defer that till such a day as this which should be the principal work of all our lives and for which the greatest care and diligence is not too much Yet for all that when Conversion is indeed sincere it is alwayes acceptable how late soever And a returning prodigal shall find Luk. 15. 19 20 21 22. Joh. 6. 37. better entertainment with God than he could possibly expect And never will Christ cast out one soul that cometh to him in sincerity of heart The Lord give you such a Heart and all is yours Amen
upon a Cross at the will of proud malitious persecutoâ—s You shall there see that Person whom God hath Chosen to advance above the whole Creation and in John 17. â—4 Phil. 2 7 8 9 10. whom he will be more glorified than all the Saints The wonderful condescension of his Incarnation and the wonderful Mysterie of the Hypostatical Union will there be better understood And which is all in all you shall see the most Blessed God himself whether in his Essence or not yet undoubtedly in his Glory in that state or place which he hath prepared to reveal his Glory in Matth. 5. 8. Heb. 12. 14. for the Glorifying of holy Spirits You shall see him whose sight will perfect your understandings and Love him and feel the fulness of his Love which is the highest felicity that any created Being can attain Though this will be in different measures as souls are more or less amiable and capacious or else the humane nature of Christ would be no happier than we yet none shall have any sinful or trouble some imperfection and all their capacities shall be filled with God O dear friend I am even confounded and ashamed to think that I mention to you such high and glorious things with no more sense and admiration and that my soul is not drawn up in the flames of a more â—ervent Love nor lifted up in higher joyes nor yet drawn out into more longing desires when I speak of such transcendent happiness and joy O had you and I but a glimpse with Acts 7. 56. 2 Cor. 12. 3 4 5. Gal. 1. 4. blessed Stephen or Paul of these unutterable pleasures how deeply would it affect us and how should we abhorr this life of sin and be aweary of this dark and distant state and be glad to be gone from this Prison of flesh and to be delivered from this present evil world This is the life that you are going to live Though a painful Death must open the Womb of Time and let you into eternity how quickly will the pain be over And though Nature make Death dismal to you and sin have made it penal and you look at it now with backwardness and fear yet this will all be quickly past and your souls will be born into a world of joy which will make you forget all your fears and sorrows It is meet that as the Birth of Nature had its pains and the Birth of Grace hads its penitent John 16. 21. John 3. 3 5 7 8. sorrows so the Birth of Glory should have the greatest difficulties as it entreth us into the happiest state O what a change will it be to a humbled fearful soul to find it self in a moment dislodged from a sinful painful flesh and entred into a world of Light and Life and holy Love unspeakably above all the expressions and conceptions of this present life Alas that our present ignorance and fear should make us draw back from such a change That whilst all our brethren that dyed in faith are triumphing in these Joyes with Christ our trembling souls should be so loth to leave this flesh and be afraid to be called to the same felicity O what an enemy is the remnant of Unbelief to our imprisoned and imperfect souls That it can hide such a desirable Glory from our eyes that it should no more affect us and we should no more desire it but are willing to stay so long from God How wonderful is that Love and Mercy that brings such backward souls to Happiness and will drive us away from this beloved world by its afflicting miseries and from this beloved flesh by pain and weariness and will draw us to our joyful blessedness as it were whether we will or not and will not leave us out of Heaven so long till we are willing our selves to come away You seem now to be almost at your journeys end But how many a foul step have those yet to go whom you leave behind you in this dirty world You have fought a good fight and kept the faith and shall never be troubled with an enemy or temptation when this one concluding brunt is over You shall never be so much as tempted to unbelief or pride or worldly mindedness or fleshly lusts or to any defects in the service of your Lord But how many temptations do you leave us encompassed with and how many dangers and enemies to overcome And alas how many falls and wounds may we receive You seem to be near the end of your race when those behind you have far to run You are entring into the harbour and leave us tossed by Tempests on the Waves Flesh will no more entice or clog your soul You will no more have unruly senses to command nor an unreasonable appetite to govern nor a stragling fantasie or wandering thoughts or headstrong lusts or boistrous passions to restrain You will no longer carry about a root of corruption nor a principle of enmity to God! It will no more be difficult or wearisome to you to do good Your service of God will no more be mixed and blemished with imperfections You shall never more have a cold or hard or backward heart or a careless customary duty to lament That primitive Holiness which consisteth in the Love of God and the exercise and delights thereof will be perfected And those subservient duties of Holiness which consist in the use of Recovering means will cease as needless Preaching and Studying and Books will be necessary no more Sacraments and Church Discipline and all such means have done their work Repentance and Faith have attained their end As your bodies after the Resurrection 2 Cor. 3. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 6. 1 Cor. 13. 12. will have no need of food or rayment or care or labour so your souls will be above the use of such Creatures and Ordinances as now we cannot be without For the Glass will be unnecessary when you must see the Creator face to face Will it not be a joyful day to you when you shall know God as much as you desire to know him and love him as much as you desire to love him and be loved by him as much as much as you can reasonably desire to be loved and rejoyce in him as much as you desire to rejoyce Yea more than you can now desire I open you but a Casement into the everlasting mansions and shew you but a dark and distant prospect of the promised Land the Heavenly Ierusalem The satisfying sight is reserved for the time when thereby we shall have that satisfying fruition And is there any such thing to be hoped for on earth Will health or wealth will the highest places or the greatest pleasures make man happy You know it will not Or if it would the happiness would be so short as maketh it little worthy of our regard Have you not seen an end of all perfection Have you not observed and tryed what a deluding dream
and endeavours do contain the seed of life eternal and are such a preparation for it as cannot be in vain Would God concurr thus with any word which is not true and holy and good to make it effectual for the renovation of so many millions of souls Have you not found that his work of Grace is earryed on by heavenly Wisdom Love and Power and is a witness of his special providence and containeth his own Image upon the soul And shall we then question the Author of the seal when we see that the Image and superscription which it imprinteth is Divine And have you not had such experiences your 5. self of the fulfilling of this word in the answer of prayers manifest both on mens souls and bodies which are enough to confute the Tempter that would shake your faith when he seeth you in your weakness unfit to call up all those Evidences which at another time you have discerned For my own part I must bear this witness to the truth that I have known and felt and seen and heard such wonders wrought upon servent prayer as have many a time convinced me of the truth of the promises and the special providence of God to his poor petitioners I have oft known the Acute and Chronical Diseases of afflicted ones relieved by prayer without any natural means Some of the most violent cured in an hour and some by more slow degrees Besides the effects upon mens souls and estates and publick affairs which plainly demonstrated the means and cause And shall a promise thus sealed to us be ever questioned again Nay have you not the Witness in your self 6. 1 John 5. 10 11 12. Even the Spirit of Christ which is the pledge and earnest of your inheritance and the seal and mark of God upon you In a word it is an unquestionable truth that the rational 7. world neither is nor ever was nor can be governed agreeably to its nature without an End to move and rule them which is beyond this life and without the Hopes and fears of a Reward and Punishment hereafter Were this but taken out of the world man would no longer live like man but as the most odious noxious creature upon earth And it is as sure that it agreeth not with the Omnipotence Wisdom and Goodness of God to Govern so noble a Creature by a lye and to make a Nature that must be so governed And it is as certain that all other Revelation is defective and that Life and Immortality the end and the way were never so brought to light as they are in the Gospel by 2 Tim. 1. 10. Christ and by his Spirit Say then to the malitious Tempter The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke theâ— Zech. 3. 2. O full of all subtilty and mischief thou enemy of God and righteousness Wilt thou not cease to be a lying Spirit and to pervert the truth and right wayes of the Lord Act 13. 10. Lift up your soul to God and say I believe Lord help mine unbelief Though Satan stand to resist me at my right hand am I not a brand pluckt out of the fire Am I not thine and have I not resigned this soul to thee and didst thou not accept it in thy holy Covenant O then defend it as thine own Plead thou my Cause and confirm thy work and justifie both thy truth and me against the malitious enemy of both O let the intercession of my Saviour prevail that my faith fail not And take away the filthy garments from me Zech. 3. 3 4. and cause mine iniquities to pass away And though my soul be troubled what shall I say Father save me from this hour But then what passage shall I have into thy presence I was born a mortal wight John 12. 23 27 28. John 17. 1. and go but the way as all Generations have gone before me and follow my Lord and all his Saints Father receive and glorifie thy servant that thy servant may glorifie thy name for ever Receive O Father the soul which thou hast made Receive O Saviour the soul which thou hast so dearly bought and loved to the death Acts 7. 59. and washed in thy blood Receive the soul which thou hast regenerated by thy Spirit and in some measure quickned Psal. 39. 5 7 8 11. Psal. 32. 1 2 3. Rom. 4. 7 8. 24. Psal. 25. 7. Psal. 19. 12 13. 1 Pet. 2. 22. Matth. 3. 15. Heb. 9. 26. Isa. 53. 10. 3 4 6 7 8 9. Matth. 3 17. 17. 5. 12. 18. Rom. 5. 1 2 3 5 10. Ephes. 2. 14. Heb. 10. 10 12 14 18. Heb 7. 26 2â— Ephes. 1. 6 7 11 13. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Phil. 3. 9 10 11. Eph. 5. 26 27. Psal. 139. 16 17 18. Psal. 16. 6 7. Psal. 6â— 9. Psal. 46. 4. Psal. 42. 3 4. Psal. 89. 15. Psal. 36. 8. John 4. 10 13 14. Psal. 42. 4. Psal. 107. 6. 13. Psal. 107. 17 14. by the immortal seed Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth my age before thee is as nothing and every man at his best estate is vanity When thy rebukes correct us for iniquity thou makest our beauty to câ—nsume as a nâ—oth And now O Lord what wait I for Is not my hope alone in thee Deliver me from my transgressions and impute not to me the sins which I have done Remember not against me the sins of my youth and forgive the iniquities of my riper years Charge not upon me my grieving of thy Spirit and neglects and resistances of thy grace Forgive my sins of ignorance and of knowledge my sins of slâ—thfulness rashness and presumption especially those which I have wilfully committed against thy warnings and the warnings of my Conscience Who can understand his errors Cleanse thou me from secret sins O pardon my unprofitableness and abuse of thy mercies and my sluggish loss of pretious time that I have served thee no better and loved thee no more and improved no better the day of grace Though folâ—y and sin have darknâ—d my light and blemished my most holy services and my transgressions have been multiplyed in thy sight yet is the Sacrifice sufficient which thou hast accepted from our great High Priest who made his soul an offering for sin In him thou art well pleased He is our peace In him I trust He was holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners He did no iniquity He fulfilled all Righteousness and by once offering of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified He is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Accept me O Father in him thy well beloved Let my sinful soul be healed by his stripes who bare our sins in his body on the Cross. Let me be found in him not having any Legal righteousness of my own but that which
is through the faith of Christ that being made conformable unto his death I may attain to the Resurrection of the dead and may by him be presented without spot or blemish My God thou hast encouraged my fearful soul by the multitude of thy mercies as well as by thy promises to trust thee and yield it self to thee Thou hast filled up all my dayes with mercy Every place that I have lived in and every relation and all that I have had to do with in the world are the witnesses of thy Love and mercy to me Thy eyes beheld my substance being yet imperfect and all my members were written in thy Book My parents were instructed by thee to educate me and all things commanded by thee to serve for my preservation comfort and salvation Thou hast brought me forth in a land and age of mercies and caused me to hear and see the things which others have not seen or heard The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places My life hath not been spent in a howling wilderness nor in banishment from thy Sanctuary or the communion of thy Saints nor hath it been wholly consumed in darkness and sorrow and unserviceable barrenness But often have I heard the joyful sound and I have gone with the multitude to the house of God and there have seen the light of thy countenance and drank of the Rivers of thy pleasure even of the waters of life and have been solaced with the voice of joy and praise How oft have I cryed unto thee in my trouble and thou hast delivered me out of my distresses When for my folly and transgression I was afflicted thou broughtst me out of darkness and the shadow of death Thou renewedst my age as Hezekiahs and causedst the shadow of my Dyal to go back and hast set me at liberty to praise thee for thy Goodness and declare thy Psal. 107. 8. 15 Psal. 50. 15. 2 Cor. 1. 9 10. Psal. 23. Psal. 139. 17 18. Heb. 13. 5. John 13. 1. Psal 57. 10. 108. 4. 36. 5. 103. 17. 136. Psal. 63. 3. Phil. 1. 23. Luke 2. 29 30. 2 Cor. 1. 2 3 4 5 7 8. works to the children of men In the day of trouble I called upon thee and thou didst deliver me that I might glorifie thee Thou causedst me to receive the sentence of death that I might trust in God that raiseth the dead My Shepheard hath led me in his pleasant pastures by the silent streams He restored my soul and conducted me in the paths of righteousness How pretious are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the summ of them If I should count them they are more in number than the sand And will that mercy now forsake me which hath abounded to me and supported me so long Thou hast said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Having loved thy own that are in the world thou wilt love them to the end For thy mercy is great and reacheth to the Heavens and it endureth for ever O therefore when I awake let me be with thee And as thy loving kindness is better than Life and to depart and be with Christ is far better than the best condition upon earth so let thy servant depart in peace his eye of faith beholding thy salvation And when my earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved let me have that building of God the house not made with hands eternal in the heavens Let my present burden of sin and suffering make me more earnestly to groan not to be unclothed but to be clothed upon that mortality may be swallowed up of life that being absent from the body I may be present with the Lord. And seeing this Cup may not pass from me and I must not look for the Chariot of Elias to carry me unto Heaven let thy Will be done and let me rest therein and let death be the gain and advantage of my soul And Phil. 1 21. 2 Cor. 4. 16 â—8 1 Kings 19. 4. while this outward man is perishing let the inner man be renewed from day to day For what am I better than my Fathers and all thy Saints and the generations of mankind that I should think of any other passage than this of Death to the world of immortality O let this fainting heart be glad and let my glory rejoyce and in Love and Ioy in Thankfulness and Praise let me pass into the world of Love and Ioy where Thanksgiving and Praise shall be my work for ever And though my flesh and heart will fail Psal. 73. 26. be thou the strength of my heart O God and my portion for ever Though I must walk through the valley of the shadow of death let me fear no evil But be thou still with me and let me be comforted by thy rod Psal. 23. 4 5 6. and staff Let the goodness and mercy which hath followed me thus far all my dayes receive me at the last that I may dwell with thee for ever For it is the will of my Redeemer that those which thou hast given him be with him where he is to behold the glory which thou hast given him And that his servants John 17. 24. John 12. 26. Acts 7. 59. Luke 23. 43. John 20. 17. Joh. 14. 1 2 3. Psal. 16. 11 12. should follow him that where he is there also may his servants be Amen Lord Iesus Good is thy Will and the Word which thou hast spoken Into thy hands I commend my Spirit which thou hast Redeemed Receive it and let me be with thee in Paradise O thou that hast called us thy Brethren when thou didst ascend to thy Father and our Father and to thy God and our God take up this poor unworthy soul to the mansions which thou hast prepared for us that I may be with thee where thou art And though this flesh must perish let it rest in hope and be but sowed as a grain of wheat till thy powerful Call shall raise it from the dust and this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality and this 1 Cor. 15. 53 54 55. natural body shall be raised a spiritual body and death shall be swallowed up in Victory For though I be dead my life is hid with Christ in God And when thou appearest who art my Life then let me appear with Col. 3. 3 4 5. 2 Thess. 1. 10 11. thee in glory O hasten that appearance and come with thy holy glorious Angels to be glorified in thy Saints and admired in and by Believers When thou wilt change our vile bodies and make them like to thy Glorious Body by the mighty working by which thou canst subdue even all things to thy self Hast Phil. 3. 21. Rev. 2â— 20 17 Eph. 5. 26 27. 1 Cor. 15. 45. Acts 3. 5. John 14. 19. Rev. 14. 13. Matth. 10. 30. Luke 21. 18. Heb. 12. 22 23 Rev. 1. 6. Rom. 11. 36. Rev.
juris remaining still the same if a Parish omit for divers years to choose any Constable or Church-warden yet the next time they do choose one according to Law the Law doth authorize him nevertheless though there was an interruption or vacancy so long And so in Corporations unless the Law or Charter say the contrary so is it in the present case 1. It is the established Law of Christ which describeth the office determineth of the degree and kind of power and Granteth or Conveyeth it when the person is determined of by the Electors and Ordainers though by Ordination the Delivery and Admission is regularly to be solemnized which actions are of just so much necessity as that Law hath made them and no more 2. And if there were never so long an interruption or vacancy he that afterward entereth lawfully so as to want nothing which the Law of Christ hath made necessary to the Being of the office doth receive his power nevertheless immediatly from the Law of Christ. And Bellarmine himself saith that it is not necessary to the people and to the validity of Sacraments and offices to them to know that their Pastors be truly called or ordained And if it be not necessary to the validity of Sacraments it is not necessary to the validity of Ordination And W. Iohnson confesseth to me that Consecration is not absolutely necessary See my Disput. with him of the successive Vâ—sibility of the Church p. 336. ad esse officii to the Pope himself no nor any one sort of Electors in his Election p. 333. And in his Repl. Term. Expl. pag. 45. he saith Neither Papal nor Episcopal jurisdiction as all the Learned know depends of Episcopal or Papal ordination nor was there ever interruptions of successions in Episcopal jurisdiction in any see for want of that alone that is necessary for consecrating others validly and not for jurisdiction over them You see then how little sincerity is in these mens disputations when they would perswade you to reject your lawful Pastors as no true Ministers of Christ for want of their Ordination or Succession § 11. Direct 4. Though the Sacraments and other ministerial offices are valid when a Minister is qualified Direct 4. in his abilities and call but with so much as is essential to the office though he be defective in degree of parts and faithfulness and have personal faults which prove his own destruction yet so great is the difference between a holy heavenly learned judicious experienced skilful zealous laborious faithful Minister and an ignorant ungodly idle unskilful one and so highly should every wise man value the best means and advantages to his eternal happiness that he should use all lawful means in his power to enjoy and live under 〈…〉 8. P 〈…〉 Domâ—ni is a peccatore Praepo 〈…〉 separate sâ— debâ—â— Wâ—iâ—â— Gâ—otius 〈…〉 Imâ—â—â—â— p. 230. â—iting saith Jubentur eâ—im singulâ— multo magâ—s universi â—avere prophetas faâ—soâ— alâ—â—num Pastorâ—m 〈…〉 ar qui dissâ—â—â—â— faâ—iunt â—â—fâ—â— sâ—â— câ—nt a doâ—â—â—â—inam 2. Imperatur â—â—delibus familiarem eorum consuâ—tudinem declinare qui Fratres c. 2 Cor. 5. Rom. 16. 17. Joh. 10. 2 Tim. 3 6. 2 Thes. 3. 6 14. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. such an able godly powerful ministry though he part with his worldly wealth and pleasure to attain it I know no evil must be done for the attainment of the greatest helps For we cannot expect that God should bless a sinful course or that our sin should tend to the saving of our souls And I know God can bless the weakest means when they are such as he appointeth us to use and can teach us by Angels when he denyeth us the help of men But Scripture reason and experience telleth us that ordinarily he worketh morally by means and fitteth the means to the work which he will do by them And as he doth not use to light men by a cold or stone but by a Candle nor by a rotten post or Glow-worm so much as by a Torch or Luminary so he doth not use to work as much by an ignorant drunken idle person who despiseth the God the Heaven the Christ the Spirit the Grace the sacred Word which he Preacheth and vilifieth both his own and other mens souls as he doth by an able and compassionate Minister And the soul is of so much more worth than the Body and Eternal things than temporal that a little commodity to the soul in order to the securing of our salvation must be preferreâ— before a great deal of worldly riches He that knoweth what his soul hiâ— Sâ—viour and Heaven is worth will not easily sit down contented under such a dark and dull and stâ—rving Minister 〈…〉 feeleth he can but little profit by if better may be had on lawful terms Hâ— that feeleth no difference between the Ministry of these two sorts of men it is because he is a stranger to the work of the Gospel on the soul And if the Gospel in its truth or worth or use be â—id it is â—id to them that â—re lost the †Saâ—a 〈…〉 r their own worldly advantages saith Dr. Haâ—moâ—d Dan. 1. 12 13. Ezâ—k 4. 12 15. Read c. 3. Aâ—osta 〈◊〉 rebuking the nâ—gligence of their Priâ—sts that taught the Indians the Catechism idly and without explication or callâ—ng them to account about the sensâ— and then laid all the fault on the blockishness of the people when Tota 〈…〉 ratio â—rat umbâ—atilis 〈…〉 iâ—qâ—it si hominâ—s iâ—â—câ—iâ— aâ—â—riâ—â—o discendi percupidi tales praeceptores 〈…〉 liud quem ut duplo 〈…〉 a biâ—rarâ—r Olim in symbolo addiscendo intelligendo mysteriisque 〈…〉 noscendis viri ingeâ—o praestaâ—tes â—â—â—â—eratura celebrâ—s diu in catechumâ—norum ordine tenebantur cum Ecclesiastica disciplina vigeret Neque ante ad fideâ— Sacramentum admittâ— bantur quam multas ab Episâ—opo de sâ—mbolo conciones audissent diu multum cum Caâ—echista contu issâ—nt post quas omnes cuâ—aâ— medâ—â—aâ—ionâ—â— magnum erat si recta sentirent consentanea responderent c. And he addeth pag. 360 Equidem sic opinioâ— neque ab ea opinione avelli unquam potero quin peâ—â—imo praeceptori omnes esse auditores â—ebetes creâ—â—m A bad Teacher hatâ— a wayâ—s bad Schollars Even in the Roman Church how little their authority can do against prophaneness and negligence the same Aâ—osta sheweth l. 6. c. 2. p. 519. Cum in provinciali Concilio Lim nsi ab omnibus Peruenâ—bus Episcopis caeterisque gravibus viris ad ea viâ—ia emendanda multum operae studii collatum sit atque edita extent egregia decreta de reformatione permulâ—a nihil tamen amplius perfectum est quam si ab otiosis nautis de republica moderanda consultatum esset â—oâ—isiâ— Moâ—â—â—â— Ep. 3. mentioneth iâ— as the errour of a new sprung sâ—ct that heynous sinners even so continuing mâ—y be Priests And Ep. 73. it 's said No
Make sure of the sincerity of your Charity and hold it fast and then no error that you hold will be destructive to you But if you know more than others and use your knowledge to the weakning of your Love you are but as our first Parents deceived and destroyed by a dâ—sire of fleshly uneffectual knowledge Such knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth 1 Cor. 8. 1. To contend for Truth to the lâ—ss of Love in your selves and the destruction of it among others is but to choak your selves with excellent food and to imitate that Orthodox Catholick Physicion that gloried that he killed his Patients secundum artem by the most accurate method and excellent Rules of Art that men could dye by § 11. Direct 10. Pretend no Truth against the power and practice of Godliness For this also is Direct 10. its prâ—pâ—â— End Iâ—â—â— be not Truth that is accâ—rding to Godliness it is no truth worthy our seeking or 1 Tim. 6 3. Tâ—â— 1. 1. 1 Tiâ— 4. 7 8 1 Tim. 6. 5 6 11. câ—ntending â—or And if it be contrary to Godliness in it self it is no truth at all Therefore if it be used agaiâ—st Godliness it is used contrary to the Ends of Truth Those men that suppress or hinder tâ—e 〈◊〉 Knowledge and Holiness and Concord and Edification under pretence of securing dâ—â—â—â—nding or propâ—gating the Orthâ—dâ—x belief will find one day that God will give them as 2 Pet. 1. â— 3. 11. little thanks for their blâ—â—d prâ—posterous zeal â—oâ— truth as a tender Father would do to a Physicion that killed his Children bâ—câ—usâ— they distasted or spit out his Medicines It is usually a pitiful defence of Truth that is made by the Enemies of Godliness More near and particular Directions against Error § 12. Direct 1. Begin at the Greatest most Evident Certain and Necessary Truths and so proceed Direct 1. orderly to the knowledge of the less by the help of these As you climb by the Body of the Tree unto See Ch. 2. D. 3. the branches If you begin at those truths which spring out of greater common truths and know not the premises while yoâ— plead for the conclusion you abuse your Reason and lose the Truth and your labour both For thâ—re is no way to the branches but by ascending from the stock The Principles wâ—ll laid must bâ— your help to all your following knowledge § 13. Direct 2. The two first Things which you are to learn are what man is and what God is Direct 2. the Nâ—ture and Relâ—tion of the two Parties is the first thing to be known in order to the knowledge of the Câ—venant it self and all following transâ—ctions between God and man One error here will introduce abundance A thousand other points in Natural Philosophy you may safely be ignorant of bâ—t if you know not what Man is what Reason is what Natural Free-will is and what the inferiâ—ur sensitive U Deum noâ—is etâ—â— ignâ—â—â—â—s â—cum faâ—iem 〈◊〉 â—bi â—â—â—â—â—â— noâ—um eslâ—â—◠〈◊〉 etiamsi â—gâ—oreâ— â—â—cum 〈…〉 Direct 3. Nulla â—â—ga Dâ—â—â—â— pâ—â—â—â—â— est nisi hâ—nâ—stâ—â—â— nâ—mâ—nâ— Dâ—oâ—â—m ac 〈…〉 o Plaâ—â— facultiâ—s are as to their Uses it will lay you open to innumerable errors In the Nature of man you must see the foundation of his relations unto God And if you know not those Great Relâ—â—iâ—ns the duties of which must take up all our lives you may easily foresee the consâ—quents of such ignorance or error So if you know not what God is and what his Relations to us are so far as is necessary to our living in the duties of those Relations the consequents of your ignorance will bâ— sad If learned men be but perverted in their apprehensions of some onâ— Attribuâ—e of God as those that think his Goâ—dness is nothing but his Benignity or proneness to do good or that he is a Nâ—â—â—â—sâ—â—ry agâ—â—t dâ—ing good ad ultimum posse c. what abundance of hoâ—rid and impious consequâ—nts will follow § 14. Direct 3. Hâ—ving sâ—undly understood both these and other Principles of Religion try all the subsequent truths â—erâ—â—y and receive nothing as truth that is certainly inconsistent with any of these principles Even Principles that are not of sense may be disputed till they are wâ—ll râ—ceived and with those that have â—â—t received them But afterward they are not to be called iâ— question for then you wâ—uld never proceed â—or build higher if you still stand questioning all your grounds Indeed no truth is inconsistent with any other truth But yet when two dark or doubâ—ful points are compared together it is hard to know which of them to reject But here it is easie Nothing that contradicteth the trâ—e Nature of Gâ—d or man or any Principle must be hâ—ld § 15. Direct 4. Bâ—lieve notâ—ing which certainly contradicteth the End of all Religion If it be of a Direct 4. naâ—â—râ—l or necessary tendency to ungodliness against the Love of God or against a holy and heavenly mind and conversation it cannot bâ— truth what ever it preâ—end § 16. Direct 5. Be sure to distinguish well betwixt revealed and unrevealed things And before you Direct 5. dispute any question search first whetâ—er thâ—â—â—solution be Revealed oâ— not And if it be not lay it ☞ by and take it as part of your necessary submission to be ignorant of what God would have you ignorant as it is part of your obedience to labour to know what God would have you know And when some things unrâ—veâ—lâ—d are mixed in the controversie take out those and lay them by before you go any further and see that the resolution of the râ—st be not laid upon them nor twisted with them to â—ntangle the whole in uncertainty or confusion Thus God instructed Iob by convincing him of Job 38. 39. 40. 41. Non 1 sumu quâ—bâ—s nihil vâ—rum essvâ—dâ—aâ—uâ— sâ—d ii qui â—â—â—â—bâ—s â—â—â—â—â— faâ—sae â—â—aeâ—am adjunâ—â—â—â— est 〈◊〉 camuâ— â—an â simâ—â—â—â—â—â—â— uâ— c. Ciâ— dâ— Nat. Dâ—or p. 7. his ignorance and shâ—wing him how many things were past his knowledge Thus Christ instructed Nic dâ—mus about the work of Regeneration so as to let him know that though the Necessity of it must be known yâ—t the manner of the Spirits accâ—sses to the soul cannot be known Iohn 3. 7 8. And Paul in his discâ—urse of Election takes notice of the unsearchable depths and the creatures unfitness to dispute with God Rom. 9. When you find any dispuâ—es about Predetermination or Predestination resolved into such points as thâ—se Whether God do by physical premoving influx or by concourse or by moral operation ut finiâ— determine or spâ—cifie moral acts of man Whether a Positive Decâ—ee quoad actum be necessary to the Nâ—gation of effects as that such a one shall not have grace given him or be câ—â—verted or saved that all the millions of possible persons names and things shall not be
nothing home at last but repentance and shame Truth which is the means of the good of souls must not be betrayed as for the good of souls § 37. Direct 26. Doubt not of well proved Truths for every difficulty that appeareth against them Direct 26. There is scarce any truth in the World so plain but in your own thoughts or in the câ—vâ—ls of a wrangling wit there may such difficulties be raised as as you can hardly answer And there is scarce any thing so evident that some will not dispute against You see that even the learnedst Jesuits and all the Clergy of the Roman Kingdom will not stick to dispute all the World if they could out of the belief of all their senses while they maintain that Bread is not Bread and wine is not wine And yet how many Princes Lords and Rulers follow them and many millions of the people because they be not able to confute them If they had said that a man is no man but a warm Psal. 22. 6. they might in reason have expected as much belief § 38. Direct 27. Abuse not your own knowledge by subjecting it to your carnal interest or sensuality Direct 27. He that will sin against his Conscience and will not obey the Knowledge which he hath doth Maâ—â—5 29. Rom. 14. 22. deserve to be given over to blindness and deceit and to lose even that which he hath and to be forsaken till he believe and defend a lye that all they might be damned who obeyed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. God will not hold him guiltless who debaseth his sacred truth so far as to make it stoop to his commodity and â—ust where he is a Teacher he will be a King and sendeth his Truth as the instrument of his Government and not as a slave or pandor to the flesh He that will do Gods will shall know it Joh. 7. 17. But the carnal mind that cannot be subject to Gods Law is unfit to receive it because it is spiritually discerned Rom. 8. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14. CHAP. VIII Directions for the Union and Communion of Saints and the avoiding unpeaceableness and Schism THE PEACE and CONCORD of Believers is a thing that almost all those plead Of this subjâ—ct I have written already 1. My Univâ—â—sal Concord 2. My Catholiâ—k Unity 3. Of the True Catholick Châ—râ—h 4. My Châ—istiaâ— Coâ—â—ord for who call themselves Believers and yet a thing that almost all men hinder and resist while they commend it The Discord and DIVISIONS of believers are as commonly spoken against and by the same men as commonly fomented The few that are sincere both Rulers and private men desire Concord and hate Divisions in Love to Holiness which is promoted by it and in Love to the Church and good of souls and the honour of Religion and the Glâ—ry of God And the few of those few that are experienced wise judicious persons do choose the means that is fittest to attain these ends and do prudently and constantly prosecute them accordingly But these being in the World as a spoonful of fresh water cast into the Sea or a spoonful of water cast into the flames of a house on fire no wonder if the brinish Sea be not sweetened by them nor the consuming raging fire quenched by them The other Rulers of the world and of the Churches are for Concord and against Division because this tendeth to the quieting of the people under them Read over Sr. Fr. Bacoâ—s third Essaâ— and Hales of Schism and the making of men submissive and obedient to their wills and so to confirm their dignities dominions and interests And all men that are not Hâ—ly being predominantly SELFISH they would all be themselves the Center of that Union and bond of that concord which they desire And they would have it accomplished upon such terms â—â—d by such means as are most agreeable to their principles and Ends In which there are almost a many minds as Men so that among all the Commenders of UNITY and concord there are none that take the way to attain it but those that would center it all in GOD and seek it upon his terms and in his way The rest are all tearing Unity and Peace in pieces while they commend it and they fight against it while they seek it every man seeking it for Himself and upon his own terms and in his own way which are so various and inconsistent that East and West may sooner meet than they § 2. Yet must the sons of God be still the sons of Peace and continue their prayers and endeavours for UNITY how small soever be the hopes of their success If it be possible as much as in us lyeth Rom. 12 18. we must live peaceably with all men So far must they be from being guilty of any Schismes or unlawful Divisions of the Church that they must make it a great part of their care and work to preserve the Unity and peace of Christians In this therefore I shall next Direct them § 3. Direct 1. Understand first wherein the Unity of Christians and Churches doth consist Or else Direct 1. you will neither know how to preserve it nor when you violate it Christians are said to be United In vâ—ste Christi varietas siâ— sâ—issura non sit They be two things Unity and Uniformity â— Bacoâ— Essay 3. to Christ when they are entered into Covenant with him and are become his Disciples his Subjects and the members of his Political Body They are united to one another when they are united to Christ their common head and when they have that spirit that faith that Love which is communicated to every living member of the body This Union is not the making of many to be One Christian but of many Christians to be one Church which is considerable either as to its Internal Life or its external order and profession In the former respect the bonds of our Union are 1. The heart-Covenant or faith 2. And the spirit The Consent of Christ and of our selves concurring doth make the match or marriage between us and the spirit communicated from him to us is as the nerves or ligaments of the body or rather as the spirits which pass through all The Union of the Church considered Visibly in its outward Policy is either that of the whole Church or of the Particular Churches within themselves or of divers particular Churches accidentally united 1. The Union of the whâ—le is Essential integral or accidental The essential Union is that Relation of a Head and members which is between Christ and all the visible members of his Church The foundation of it is the mutual Covenant between Christ and them considered on their part as made Externally whether sincerely or not This is usually done in Baptism and is the chiefest act of their Profession of the faith Thus the Baptismal Covenant doth constitute us
Tim. 1. 4. James 3. 1 Cor. 3. 3. For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying zeal and strife and divisions or parties or factions are ye not carnal and walk as men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal Phil. 2. 1 2 3 4. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same Love of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Rom. 16 17 18. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions or parties and offences or scandals contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Abundance more such Texts may be recited § 49. II. The great Benefits of the Concord of Christians are these following 1. It is necessary The Benefits of Concord to the very Life of the Church and its several members that they be all One Body As their Union with Christ the Head and Principle of their life is principally necessary so Unity among themselves is secondarily necessary for the conveyance and reception of that Life which floweth to all from Christ. For though the Head be the Fountain of Life yet the nerves and other parts must convey that life unto the members And if any member be cut off or separated from the Body it is separated also from the Head and perisheth Mark well those words of the Apostle Ephes. 4. 3. to 16. Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace There is one Body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one Hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all But unto every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And be gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangeliâ—ts and some Pastors and Teachers For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the Edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the Unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that speaking the truth in Love we may grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ From whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by every joynt of supply according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying of it self in Love See here how the Churches Unity is necessary to its life and increase and to the due nutrition of all the parts § 50. 2. The Unity of the Church and the Concord of Believers is necessary to its strength and safety for Christ also strengtheneth as well as quickneth them by suitable means Wo to him that is alone But in the Army of the Lord of Hosts we may safely march on when straglers are catcht up or killed by the weakest enemy A threefold cord is not easily broken Enemies both spiritual and corporal are deterred from assaulting the Church or any of its members while they see us walk in our Military Unity and Order In this posture every man is a blessing and defence unto his neighbour As every Souldier hath the Benefit of all the conduct wisdom and valour of the whole Army while he keepeth in his place so every weak Christian hath the use and benefit of all the Learning the Wisdom and Gifts of the Church while he keepeth his station and walketh orderly in the Church The hand the eye the ear the foot and every member of the Body is as ready to help or serve the whole and every other particular member as it self But if it be cut off it is neither helpful nor to be helped O what a mercy is it for every Christian that is unable to help himself to have the help of all the Church of God their directions their exhortations their Love their prayers their liberality and compassion according to their several abilities and opportunities As infants and sick persons have the help of all the rest of the family that are in health § 51. 3. Unity and Concord as it proceedeth from Love so it greatly cherisheth and increaseth Peace containeth infinite blessings I strengtheneth faith It kindleth Charity The outward peace of the Church distilleth into peace of conscience and it turneth the writing and reading of Controversies into treatises of Mortification and Devotion Id. ibid. Against procuring Unity by sanguinaâ—y persecutions see Lord Bacon Essay 3. Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new Sects and Schisms than to reform abuses to compound the smaller differences to proceed mildly and not with sanguinaâ—y persecutions and rather to take off the principal authors by winning and advancing them than to â—nrage them by violence and bitterness Lord Bacon in his Essay 58. Ita hominis non implet justitiam Dei And it was a notable observation of a wise Father that those which held and persuaded pressure of Consciences were commonly interessed there in themselves for their own ends Id. Ess. 3. p. 19. Love even as the laying of the Wood or Coals together is necessary to the making of the fire which the separating of them will put out Holy Concord cherisheth holy converse and communion And holy communion powerfully kindleth holy Love When the servants of Christ do see in each other the lustre of his Graces and hear from each other the heavenly language which floweth from a Divine and heavenly mind this potently kindleth their affections to each other and maketh them close with those as the sons of God in whom they find so much of God Yea it causeth them to Love God himself in others with a reverent admiring and transcendent Love when others at the best can Love them but as men Concord is the womb and soil of Love although it be first its progeny In quietness and peace the voice of peace is most regarded § 52. 4. Unity and Concord is the Churches Beauty It maketh us amiable even to the eye of nature and venerable and terrible even to the eye of malice A concord in sin is no more honour than it is for conquered men to go together in multitudes to prison or captivity or for beasts to go by droves unto the slaughter But to see the Churches of Christ with one heart and soul acknowledging their Maker and Redeemer and singing his Praise as with one voice and living together in Love and Concord as those that have one Principle one Rule one nature one work one Interest and Hope and End this is the truly beauteous symmetry and delectable harmony Psal. 133. Behold how good
pretend to the greatest austerities do grow up to such a measure of sowre pride and uncharitable contempt of others and especially of all superiours and hellish railing against the holiest Ministers and people as we have scarce known or ever read of § 63. 7. These Divisions fill the Church with sin even with sins of a most odious nature They introduce a swarm of errors while it becomes the Mode for every one to have a doctrine of his own and to have something to say in Religion which may make him notable Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them They cherish pride and malice and belying others the three great sins of the Devil as naturally as dead flesh breedeth Worms They destroy impartial Christian Love as naturally as bleeding doth consume our vital heat and moisture What wickedness is it that they will not cherish In a word the Scripture telleth us The Greek word is Zeal that where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work And is not this a lamentable way of Reformation of some imaginary or lesser evils § 64. 8. These Divisions are the grief of honest spectators and cause the sorrows of those that are guilty of them They make all their duties uneasie to them and turn their Religion into a bitter unpleasant wrangling toil Like Oxâ—n in the yoke that strive against each other when they should draw in order and equality What a grievous life is it to Husband and Wife or any in the family if they live in discord So is it to the members of the Church When once men take the Kingdom of God to consist of meats or drinks or ceremonies which consisteth in Righteousness and Peace and Rom. 14. 17. 1 Tim. 1. 4. Joy in the Holy Ghost and turn to strive about unedifying questions they turn from all the sweetness of Religion § 65. 9. Sects and Divisions lead directly to Apostacy from the faith Nothing is more in the design of Satan than to confound men so with variety of Religions that they may think there is no certainty in any that so both the ignorant spectators may think all Religion is but fancy and deceit and the contenders themselves wheel about from Sect to Sect till they come to the point where they first set out and to be at last deliberately of no Religion who at first were of none for want of deliberation And it is no small success that Satan hath had by this temptatation § 66. 10. The Divisions of Christians do oft proceed to shake States and Kingdoms having a â—amentable influence upon the Civil peace And this stirreth up Princes jealousies against them and to the use of those severities which the suffering party takes for persecution yea and Turks and all Princes that are enemies to Reformation and Holiness do justifie themselves in their cruellest persecutions when they see the Divisions of Christians and the troubles of States that have followed thereupon If Christians and Protestants in special did live in that Unity Peace and Order as their Lord and Ruler requireth them to do the consciences of persecuters would even worry and torment them and make their lives a Hell on earth for their cruelty against so excellent a sort of men But now when they see them all in confusions and see the troubles that follow hereupon and hear them reviling one another they think they may destroy them as the troublers of the earth and their consciences scarce accuse them for it § 67. IV. It is necessary also for your true understanding the malignity of this sin that you The Aggravations of Schism take notice of the Aggravations of it especially as to us 1. It is a sin against so many and clear and vehement words of the Holy Ghost which I have partly before recited that it is therefore utterly without excuse Whoredoms and Treasons and Perjury are not oftner forbidden in the Gospel than this § 68. 2. It is contrary to the very design of Christ in our Redemption which was to Reconcile us all to God and unite and center us all in him To gather together in one the Children of God that are scattered abroad John 11. 52. To gather together in one all things in Christ Ephes. 1. 10. To make in himself of twain one new man so making peace Ephes. 2. 15. And shall we joyn with Satan the divider and destroyer against Christ the Reconciler in the very design of his Redemption § 69. 3. It is contrary to the design of the Spirit of Grace and contrary to the very nature of Christianity it self By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and have all been made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12 13. As there is one Body and one Spirit so it is our charge to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Ephes. 4. 3 4. The new nature of Christians doth consist in Love and desireth the Communion of Saints as such And therefore the command of this special Love is called the New Commandment John 17. 21. 13. 34. 15. 12 17. And they are said to be taught of God to love one another 1 Thess. 4 9. As self-preservation is the chief principle in the Natural body which causeth it to abhorr the wounding or amputation of its members and to avoid division as destruction except when a gangrened member must be cut off for the saving of the body so it is also with the mystical body of Christ. He is senseless and graceless that abhorreth not Church-wounds § 70. 4. These Divisions are sins against the nearest bonds of our high Relations to each other We are Brethren and should there be any strife among us Gen. 13. 8. We are all the children of Rom. 8. 16. 9. 26. God by faith in Christ Iesus Gal. 3. 26. We are the fellow-members of the body of Christ and 1 John 5. 2. should we tear his body and separate his members and cut his flesh and break his bones Eph. 5. 23. 30. For as the Body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. As we have many members in one body so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another Rom. 12. 4 5. He that woundeth or dismembreth your own bodies shall scarce be taken for your friend And are you Christs friends when you dismember or wound his body Is it lovely to see the children or servants Quicquid ad multitudinem vergit antipatâ—â—am continet quanto magis multitudo augetur tanto â—â—â—â—pathia quicquid vero ad unitatem tendit sympathiam habet quanto magis ad unitatem accedit tanto puâ—â—ori sympathia augetur Paul Scaliâ—er Epist. Cath. l. 3. p. 176. in your family together by the ears Is Civil Wars for
Love are the Churches dissolution which first causeth sissures and separations and in process crumbleth us all to dust And therefore the Pastors of the Church are the fittest instruments for the cure who are the Messengers of Love and whose Government is paternal and hurteth not the body but is only a Government of Love and exercised by all the means of Love All Christians in the world confess that LOVE is the very â—â—â—â— and perfection of all Grace and the End of all our other duties and that which maketh us like to God and that iâ— Love dwelleth in us God dwelleth in us and that it will be the everlasting Grace and the work of Heaven and the Happiness of souls and that it is the excellent way and the character of Saints and the Nâ—w Commandmâ—nt And all this being so it is most certain that no way is the 1 â—â—â—â— 4. 7. 8. â—â—â—â— 13 35. 〈…〉 way of God wâ—â—câ—â—â— not the way of Love And therefore what specious pretences soever they may have and one may cry up Truth and another Holiness and another order and another Unity it seâ—â— to jâ—â—â—â—â— their â—nvyings hatred cruelties it is most certain that all such pretences are Satanical deceiâ—â— And â—â— they bile and devour one another they are not like the sheep of Christ but shall be dâ—â—â—â—â—â—d one of another Gal. 5. 15. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore Love is the fulfilling 〈…〉 4. 2. 〈…〉 of the Law Rom. 13. 10. When Papists that shew their love to mens souls by racking their bodies and fryâ—â—g them in the fire can make men apprehensive of the excellency of that kind of Love they may â—â—â—â— it to the healing of the Church In the mean time as their Religion is such is their Concord while all those are called Members of their Union and Professors of their Religion who must be burnt to ashes if they say the contrary They that give God an Image and Carkass of Religion â—â—â—â— 1. 4 are thus content with the Image and Carkass of a Church for the exercise of it And if there were nothing â—llâ— but this to detect the sinfulness of the Sect of Quakers and many more it is enough to satisfie any sober man that it cannot be the way of God God is not the author of that Spirit and way which tends to wrath emulation hatred railing and the extinction of Christian Love to all â—â—vâ— their own Sect and party Remember as you love your souls that you shun all wayes that are destructive to universal Christian Love § 83. Direct 6. Make nothing necessary to the unity of the Church or the communion of Christians Direct 6. which God hath not made necessary or directed you to make so By this one â—olly the Papists are become see 〈…〉 p. 52â— the most notorious Schismaticks on earth even by making new Articles of faith and new parts of worship and imposing them on all Christians to be sworn subscribed professed or practised so as that no man shall be accounted a Catholick or have communion with them or with the Universal Church if they could hinder it that will not follow them in all their Novelties They that would subscribe to all the Scriptures and to all the antient Creeds of the Church and would do any thing that Christ and his Apostles have enjoyned and go every step of that way to Heaven that Peter and Paul went as far as they are able yet if they will go no further and believe no more yeâ— if they will not go against some of this must be condemned cast out and called Schismaticks by these notorious Schismaticks If he hold to Christ the Universal Head of the Church and will not be subject or sworn to the Pope the Usurping Head he shall be taken as cut off from Christ. And there is no certainty among these men what measure of faith and worship and obedience to them shall be judged necessary to constitute a Church-member For as that which served in the Apostles dayes and the following ages will not serve now nor the subscribing to all the other pretended Councils until then will not serve without subscribing to the Creed or Council of Trâ—nt so no body can tell what New Faith or Worship or Test of Christianity the next Council if the world see any more may require and how many thousand that are Trent-Catholicks now may be judged Hereticks or Schismaticks then if they will not shut their eyes and follow them any whither and change their Religion as oft as the Papal interest requireth a change Of this Chillingworth Hales and Dr. H. More have spoken plainly If the Pope had imposed but one lye Dâ— H. More saith Myst. Redemp p. 495. l. 10. c. 2. There is scarce any Church in Christâ—ndome at this day that doth not obtrude not only falshood but such falsehoods that will appear to any free Spirit pure contradictiors and impossibilities and that with the same gravity authority and importunity that they do the holy Oracles of God Now the consequence of this must needs be sad For what knowing and conscientious man but will be driven off if he cannot assert the truth without open asserting of a gross lye Id. p. â—26 And as for Opinions though some may be better than other some yet none should exclude from the fullest enjoyment of either private or publick rights supposing there be no venome of the persecutive spirit mingled with them But every one that professeth the faith of Christ and believeth the Scriptures in the Historical sense c. to be subscribed or one sin to be done and said All Nations and persons that do not this are no Christians or shall have no communion with the Church the man that refuseth that imposed lye or sin is guiltless of the Schism and doth but obey God and save his soul And the Usurper that imposeth them will be found the heinous Schismatick before God and the cause of all those Divisions of the Church And so if any private Sectary shall feign an opinion or practice of his own to be necessary to salvation or Church communion and shall refuse communion with those that are not of his mind and way it is he and not they that is the cause of the uncharitable separation * See Hales of Schisme p. 8. § 84. Direct 7. Pray against the Usurpations or intrusions of intrusions of impious carnal ambitious Direct 7. covetous Pastors into the Churches of Christ. For one wicked man in the place of a Pastor may do more In Ecclesiâ—s plus certaminum gignunt verba hominum quam Dei magâ—sque pugnatur fere de Apolline Petro Paulo quam de Christo Retine divina Relinque humana Bucholcer to the increase of a Schism or faction than many private men can do And carnal men have carnal minds and carnal interests which are both unreconcileable to the spiritual holy mind and interest For the
carnal mind is enmity against God and is not subject to his Law nor can be Rom. 8. 7. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God v. 8. And you may easily conceive what work will be made in the Ship when an enemy of the Owner hath subtilly possessed himself of the Pilots place He will charge all that are faithful as mutineers because they resist him when he would carry all away And if an enemy of Christ shall get to be Governour of one of his Regiments or Garrisons all that are not Traytors shall be called Traytors and cashiered that they hinder not the treason which he intendeth And as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now But what saith the Scripture cast out the bond-woman and her son c. Gal. 4. 29 30. It is not the sacred office of the Ministry nor the profession of the same religion that will cure the enmity of a carnal heart against both Holiness and the Holy seed The whole business of the world from age to age is but the management of that war proclaimed at sins first entrance into the World between the seed of the woman and the Serpent And none of the serpents seed are more cruel or more successful Gen. 3. 15. than those of them that creep into the Armies of Christ and especially that get the conduct of his Regiments Neither Brotherhood nor Unity of profest Religion would hold the hands of Poetae nunquam perturbarunt Respublicas Oratores non raro Buchoâ—tz malignant Cain from murdering his Brother Abel The same Religion and father and family reconciled not scoffing Ishmael to Isaac or prophane Esau to his brother Iacob The family of Christ and an Apostles office did not keep Iudas from being a Traytor to his Lord. If carnal men invade the Ministry they take the way of ease and honour and worldly wealth and strive for Dominion and who shall be the greatest and care not how great their Power and Iurisdiction is nor how little their profitable work is and their endeavour is to fit all matters of Worship and discipline to their ambitious covetous ends and the spiritual Worshipper shall be the object of their hate And is Acosta l. 6. c. 23. p. 579. Nothing so much hurteth this Church as a rabble of hirelings and self-seekers For what can natural men that scarce have the Spirit do in the cause of God A few in number that are excellent in vertue will more promote the work of God But they that come hither being humble and lovers of souls taking Christ for their pattern and bearing in their bodies his Cross and death shall most certainly find heavenly treasures and inestimable delights But when will this be When men cease to be men and to savour the things of men and to seek and gape after the things of men With men this is utterly impossible but with God all things are possible Because this is hard in the eyes of this people shall it therefore be hard in my eyes saith the Lord Zech. 10. pag. 580. I may say to some Ministers that cry out of the schismatical disobedience of the people as Acosta doth to to those that cryed out of the Indians dulness and wickedness It is long of the Teachers Deal with them in all possible love and tenderness away with Covetousness Lordliness and Cruelty give them the example of an upright life open to them the way of truth and teach them according to their capacity and diligently hold on in this way who ever thou art that art a Minister of the Gospel and saith he as ever I hope to enjoy thee O Lord Jesu Christ I am perswaded the harvest will be plentiful and joyful l. 4. p. 433. passim But saith he we quickly cease our labours and must presently have hasty and plenteous fruit But the Kingdom of God is not such Verily it is not such but as Christ hath told us like seed cast into the earth which groweth up by degrees we know not how p. 433 434. Hieroms case is many anothers Concivit odia perditorum Oderunt eum haeretici quia eos impugnare non desinit Oderunt Clerici quia vitam eorum insectatur crimina Sed plane eum boni omnes admirantur diligunt Posthumianus in Sulp. Severi Dialog 1. And Dial. 2. Martinus in Medio caetu conversatione populorum inter Clericos dissidentes inter Episcopos saevientes cum fere quotidianis scandalis huic atque inde premeretur inexpugnabili tamen adversus omnia virtute fundatus stetit Nec tamen huic crimini miscebo populares soli illum Clerici soli nesciunt Sacerdotes nec immerito Nosce illum invidi noluerunt quia si virtutes illius nossent suorum vitia cognovissent it any wonder if the Churches of Christ be torn by Schism and betrayed to prophaneness where there are such unhappy guides § 85. Direct 8. In a special manner take heed of pride Suspect it and subdue it in your selves Direct 8. and do what you can to bring it into disgrace with others Only by Pride cometh contention Prov. How the Jesuites have hereby distracted the Church read Mariana Archiâ—pisc Pragensis Censur de Bull. Iesâ—it Daâ— Hospital ad Reges c. Auâ— Ardingbelli Paradoxa Iesuitica Galindus Giraldus c. Arcana Iesuit 13. 10. I never yet saw one schism made in which Pride conjunct with Ignorance was not the cause nor never did I know one person forward in a schism to my remembrance but Pride was discernably his disease I do not here intend as the Papists to charge all with Schism or Pride that renounce not their understandings and choose not to give up themselves to a beastial subjection to Usurpers or their Pastors he that thinks it enough that his Teacher hath Reason and be a man instead of himself and so thinketh it enough that his Teacher be a Christian and Religious must be also content that his Teacher alone be saved But then he must not be the Teacher of such a damning way But by Pride I mean a plain over-valuing of his own understanding and Conceits and Reasoningâ— quite above all the Evidences of their worth and an undervaluing and contempt of the judgements and reasonings of far wiser men that had evidence enough to have evinced his folly and â—rror to a sober and impartial man Undoubtedly it is the Pride of Priests and people that hath so lâ—mensably in all ages â—orn the Church He that readeth the Histories of Schisms and Church-confusions and marketh the effects which this age hath shewed will no more doubt whether Pride were the cause than whether it was the wind that blew down Trees and houses when he seeth them one way overturned by multitudes where the tempest came with greatest force Therefore a Bishop must be no Nâ—vice lâ—st being lifted up with pride 〈◊〉
seen the Direct 18. fruits of the various courses of professors of Religion than of the young unripe unexperienced hot-headed sort Zeal is of great use to execute the resolutions of a well-informed man And the Zeal of others is very useful to warm the hearts of such as do converse with them But when it comes to matter of Iudgement once to decide a case of difficulty aged experience hath far the advantage And in no cases more than in those where Peace and Concord are concerned where rash hot-headed youth is very prone to precipitant courses which must be afterward repented of § 102. Direct 19. When fervent self conceited people would carry down all by censoriousness and passion Direct 19. it is time for the Pastâ—â—s and the aged and riper sort of Christians openly to rebuke them and appear against them and stand their ground and not to comply with the mis-guided sort to escape their censures Nothing hath more caused schisms in the Church except the Pride and ambition of the Clergie than that the riper and more judicious sort of people together with the Ministers themselves have been so loth to lye under the bitter censures of the unexperienced younger hotter sort and to avoid such censures and keep in with them they have followed those whom they should have led and have been drawn quite beyond their own understandings God hath made WISDOM to be the Guiâ—e of the Church and ZEAL to follow and diligently execute the commands of Wisdom Let ignorant well-meaning people censure you as bitterly as they please yet keep your ground and be not so proud or weak as to prefer their good esteem before their benefit and before the pleasing of God Sin not against your knowledge to escape the censure of the ignorant If you do God will make those men your scourges whom you so much over-valued And they shall prove to their spiritual Fathers as cockered children like Absalom do to their natural fathers and perhaps be the breaking of your hearts But if the Pastors and the riper experienced Christians will stand their ground and slick together and rebuke the exorbitancies of the censorious younger-ones they will maintain the credit of the Gospel and keep the truth and the Churches Peace and the hott spurs will in time either repent and be sober or be shamed and disabled to do much hurt § 103. Direct 20. Take heed how you let loose your zeal against the Pastors of the Church lest you Direct 20. bring their persons and next their effice into contempt and so break the bâ—nds of the Churches Unity and Peace There is no more hope of maintaining the Churches Unity and Concord without the Ministry than of keeping the strength or Unity of the members without the Nerves If these nerves be weak or labour of a Convulsion or other disease it is curing and strengthening them and not the cutting them asunder that mâ—st prove to the welfare and safety of the body Middle with the faults of the Ministry only so far as tendeth to a cure of them or of the Church but not to bring them into disgrace and weaken their interest in the people and disable them from doing good Abhor that proud rebellious spirit that is prone to set up it self against the officers of Christ and under pretence of greater Wisdom or Holiness to bring their Guides into contempt and is picking quarrels with them behind their back to make them a scorn or odious to the hearers Indeed a Minister of Satan that doth more harm in the Church than good must be so detected as may best disable him from doing harm But he that doth more good than hurt must so be disswaded from the hurt as not to be disabled from the Good My brethren be not many Masters or Teachers knowing that ye shall receive the greater Jam. 3. 1. condemnation § 104. Direct 21. Look more with an eye of Charity on what is Good in others and their worship of Direct 21. God than with an eye of malice to carp at what appeareth evil Some men have such distempered eyes that they can see almost nothing but faultiness in any thing of another party which they look at envy and faction maketh them carp at every word and every gesture And they make no Conscience of aggravating every failing and making Idolatry of every mistake in Worship and making Heresie or Blaspheamy of every mistake in judgement and making Apostacy of every fall nay perhaps the truth it self shall have no better a representation As Dr. H. More well noteth It would do much more good in the world if all parties were forwarder to find out and commend what is good in the doctrine and worship of all that differ from them This would win them to heaâ—ken to reforming advice and would keep up the credit of the common truths and duties of Religion in the world when this envious snarling at all that others do doth tend to bring the world to Aâ—hâ—ism and banish all reverence of Religion together with Christian Charity from the Earth § 105. Direct 22. Keep not strange to those from whom you differ but be acquainted with them Direct 22. and placidly hear what they have to say for themselves Oâ— else converse with them in Christian Love in Read the next Chap. 24. Sect. 20. all thâ—se duties in which you are agreed and this if you never talk of your differences will do much to reconcile you in all the rest It is the common way of division uncharitableness yea and cruelty ☜ at last to receive hard reports of those that differ from us behind their backs and to believe and aggravate Prince Frederick of Moâ—pelgard being instructed into a distaste of the Reformed Protestants when he had been at Câ—â—â—â—a and Hâ—â—vâ—tia was went to far Gâ—â—â—â— â—â— Hâ—lvetia viâ—i multa de qâ—ibus nihil paâ—â— coâ—â—â—â—â— quibus sâ—â—e aâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—t Tossaâ—us ad â—â—â—â—lium â—â—â—â—te Sâ—ult to iâ— Curric p 26. all and proceed to detraction and contention at a distance and in the dark and never be familiarly acquainted with them at all There is something in the apprehension of places and persons and things by the eye sight which no reports are able to match And so there is that satisfaction about men by familiar acquaintance which we cannot attain by hearsay from any how judicious soever All factions commonly converse together and seek no familiar converse with others but believe them to be any thing that 's naught and then report them to be so before they ever knew the persons of whom they speak I am perswaded this is one of the greatest feeders of enmity uncharitableness contention and slanders in the world I speak it upon great observation and experience I have seldom heard any man bitterly oppose the servants of Christ but either the grosly wicked or those that never had much acquaintance with them And I see commonly how bitter soever
them greater Love and Honour than you ow 〈…〉 ny Saints on Earth Eph. 3. 15. The whole â—â—â—â—ly in Heaven and Earth is named of Christ. Those are the happiest and noblest paâ—â—s that are most pure and perfect and dwell in the highest and most glorious habitations nearest unto Christ yea with him If Holiness be lovely the most Holy are the most lovely We have many obligations therefore to Love them more than the Saints on earth They are more excellent and amiable and Christ Loveth them more And if any be Honourable it must especially be those spirits that are of greatest excellencies and perfections and advanced to the greatest Glory and nearness to their Lord. Make Conscience therefore of this as your duty not only to Love and Honour blessed souls but to Love and Honour them more than those that are yet on Earth And as every Duty is attended with Benefiâ— so we shall find this exceeding great benefit in the performance of this duty that iâ— will incline our â—earts to be the more Heavenly and draw up our Desires to the society which we so much Love and Honour § 2. Direct 2. Remember that it is a part of the life of faith to see by it the Heavenly Society of Direct 2. the blessed and a part of your Heavenly Conversation to have frequent serious and delightful thoughts Heb. 11. 1. of thâ—se Crowned souls that are with Christ. Otherwise God would never have given us such descriptions of the Heavenly Ierusalem and told us so much of the Hosts of God that must inhabit it for ever that must come from the East and from the West and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God When it is said that our conversatiâ—n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. the meaning extendeth both to our Relation Priviledges and Converse We are Denizâ—ns or Citizens of the Heavenly Society and our title to their happiness is our highest Priviledge and Honour and therefore our daily business is there and our sweetest and most serious converse is with Christ and all those blessed spirits Whatever we are doing here our Eye and Heart should still be there For we look not at the temporal things which are seen but at the eternal things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4. 18. A wise Christian that hath forsaken the Kingdom of darkness will be desirous to know what the Kingdom of Christ is into which he is translated and who are his fellow Subjects and what are their several ranks and dignities so far as tendeth to his congruous converse with them all And how should it affect us to find that we are come unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of Iust men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant Heb. 12. 22 23 24. Live then as the members of this society and exclude not the chief members from your thoughts and converse though our local visible communion be only with these rural inferiour inhabitants and not with the Courtiers of the King of Heaven yet our Mental Communion may be much with them If our home and treasure be there with them our Hearts will be there also Mat. 6. 21. § 3. Direct 3. It is the will of God that the Memory of the Saints be honoured on earth when they are Direct 3. dead It is some part of his favour which he hath promised to them Prov. 10. 7. The memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Matth. 26. 13. Verily I say unto you wheresoever this Gospel shall be Preached in the whole world there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her The history of the Scripture recordeth the Lives of the Saints to their perpetual honour And God will have it so also for the sake of his abused servants upon earth that they may see that the slanders of malicious tongues shall not be able to obscure the glory of his Grace and that the lies of the ungodly prevail but for a moment And God will have it so for the sake of the ungodly that they may be ashamed of their malicious enmity and lyes against the godly while they perceive that the departed Saints do leave behind them a surviving testimony of their sanctity and innocency sufficient to confound the venemous calumnies of the Serpents Seed Yea God will have the Names of his eminent servants to be honoured upon earth for the honour of their Head and of his Grace and Gospel so that while malice would cast dishonour upon Christ from the meanness and failings of his servants that are alive the memory of the dead who were once as much despised and slandered shall rise up against them to his honour and their shame And it is very observable how God constraineth the bitter enemies of Holiness to bear this Testimony for the honour of Holiness against themselves that many who are the cruelest persecutors and murderers of the Living Saints do honour the Dead even to excess How zealous are the Papists for the multitude of their Holy dayes Concil Later sub Innoc. 3. can 3. and the honouring of their Names and Relicts and pretending many Miracles to be wrought by a very touch of their Shrines or Bones whilest they revile and muder those that imitate them and deprive Temporal Lords of their Dominions that will not exterminate them Yea while they burn the living Saints they make it part of their crime or Heresie that they honour not the Dayes and Relicts of the Dead so much as they To shew us that the things that have been shall be and that wickedness is the same in all generations Matth. 23. 29 30 31 32 33. Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites because ye build the Tâ—mbes of the Prophets and garnish the Sepulchres of the righteous and say If we had been in the dayes of our fathers we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets wherefore ye be witnesses to your selves that ye are the Children of them which killed the Prophets Filâ— ye up then the measure of your fathers Ye Serpents ye generation of Vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell I know that neither did the Pharisees nor do the Papists believe that those whom they murdered were Saints but Deceivers and Hereticks and the troublers of the World But if Charity be the grace most necessary to salvation then sure it will not keep any man from damnation that he had malice and uncharitableness sufficient to perswade him that the members of Christ were Children of the Devil But thus God will force even the persecutors and haters of his Saints to honour them And
salvation as the ungodly world doth Oh with what scorn and holy indignation would they refuse a world if it were offered them instead of God with what detestation would they reject the motion to any sin § 10. Direct 10. When you would revive in your minds a right apprehension and estimation of all earthly Direct 10. things as Riches and Honours and Greatness and Command and full provisions for the flesh bethink you then how the blessed souls with Christ esteem them How little do they set by all those things that worldlings make so great a stir for and for which they â—ell their God and their salvation How contemptible are Crowns and Kingdoms in their eyes Their judgement is more like to Gods than ours is Luk. 16. 15. That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God All the world would not hire a Saint in Heaven to tell one lie or take the name of God in vain or to forget God or be estranged from him for one hour § 11. Direct 11 When you see the Godly under the contempt of sinners here accounted as the filth of Direct 11. the world and the off-scouring of all things defamed reviled hated and persecuted Look up then to the 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. Saints with Christ and think how they are esteemed and used And when you would truly know what â—am 3. 45. a Believer is think not how they are esteemed and used by men but how they are esteemed and used by Christ. Judge not of them by their short afflictions nor by their meanness in the flesh but by their endless happiness and their glory above Look up to the home and world of Saints if you would know what Saints are and not to the few scattered imperfect passengers in this world that is not Heb 11. 33. worthy of them § 12. Direct 12. When you are tempted to think meanly of the Kingdom of Christ as if his flock were Direct 12. so small and poor and sinful as to be inconsiderable look up to the world of blessed souls which dwell above And there you shall see no such paucity or imperfections or blemishes as are here below The Subjects there are such as dishonour not their King Christs Kingdom is not of this world Joh. 18. 36. If you would know it in its Glory look up to the world where it is Glorious If when you hear men contemn the Kingdom of the Saints of Christ and at the same time did but see as Stephen did a glimpse into that Kingdom and all the Glory of the blessed there what thoughts would you have of the words which did dishonour it § 13. Direct 13. When you hear sinners boast of the Wisdom or Numbers of their party and appealing Direct 13. to the learned or great ones of the world look up to the blessed souls with Christ and ask whether they are not more wise and numerous than all the sinners upon earth The greatest Doctors are ignorant and unlearned in comparison of the meanest soul with Christ The greatest Monarchs are but worms in comparison of the Glorified Spirits with God If they say to you Are you wiser than so many and so wise and Learned men ask them Are you or all the ungodly wiser than all the blessed souls with Christ Let the wiser party carry it § 14. Direct 14. When you are tempted to be weary of a holy life or to think all your labour is vain Direct 14. look up to the blessed souls with Christ and there you will see the end of Holiness There you will see that of all the labour of your lives there is none that you are so sure to gain by and that in due time you shall reap if you faint not and if you sow to the spirit of the spirit you shall reap everlasting life Gal. 6. 8 9. And that when you have done the will of God if you have but patience you shall inherit the promise Heb. 10. 36. Ask your selves whether any of those blessed souls Repent now of the Holiness of their lives on earth or of their mortifying the flesh and denying themselves the delights of sin § 15. Direct 15. When you are tempted to turn back in the day of tryal and to forsake Christ or Direct 15. his cause when persecution ariseth then look to the blessed souls above and see what is the end of suffering for the sake of Christ and righteousness To foresee the great reward in Heaven will convince you that instead of being terrified by sufferings you should rejoyce and be exceeding glad Are you to lie Mat. 5. 11 12. in Prison or to burn in the Flames so did many thousands that are now in Heaven And do you think that they repent it now Ignatius Polycarp Cyprian and many such holy men were once used as hardly as you are now and put to death by cruel men Rogers Bradford Hooper Glover and multitudes with them were once in Prison and burnt in the Flames but where are they now and what is the end of all their pains Now whether do you think the case of Bonner or Bradford to be best Now had you rather be Gardiner or Philpot Now which think you doth most repent the poor Waldenses that were murdered by thousands or the Popes and Persecutors that murdered them § 16. Direct 16. When you are dismayed under the burden of your sins the greatness of your corruptions Direct 16. the weakness of your graces the imperfection of your duties look up to the blessed souls with Christ and remember that all those Glorified spirits were once in flesh as you now are and once they lay at the feet of God in tears and groans and cryes as you do They were once fain to cry out of the burden of their sins and mourn under the weakness of their graces as you now do They were once as much clog'd with flesh as you are and once as low in doubts and fears and bruised under the sense of Gods displeasure They once were as violently assaulted with temptations and had the same corruptions to lament and strive against as you have They were once as much afflicted by God and man But is there any of the smart of this remaining § 17. Direct 17. When you are deterred from the presence of the dreadful God and think he will not Direct 17. accept such worms as you look up to the blessed souls with Christ and remember how many millions of your brethren are there accepted to greater familiarity than that which you here desire Remember that those souls were once as dark and distant from God and unworthy of his acceptance as you now are A fearful Child receiveth boldness to see his Brethren in his Fathers arms § 18. Direct 18. When you are afraid of Satan lest he should prevail against you and devour you Direct 18. look up to the blessed souls with Christ and
our deliverance from the Powder-plot I know not why it should be thought unlawful to do the like in this case also Provided 1. That it be not terminated in the honour of a Saint but of the God of Saints for giving so great a mercy to his Church 2. That it be not to honour a Saint meerly as a Saint but to some extraordinary eminent Saints Otherwise all that go to Heaven must have Festivals kept in remembrance of them and so we might have a million for a day 3. That it be not made equal with the Lords Day but kept in such a subordination to that Day as the Life or death of Saints is of inferiour and subordinate respect to the work of Christ in mans Redemption 4. And if it be kept in a spiritual manner to invite men to imitate the Holiness of the Saints and the constancy of the Martyrs and not to encourage sensuality and sloth CHAP. XI Directions about our Communion with the Holy Angels § 1. Direct 1. BE satisfied in knowing so much of Angels as God in Nature and Scripture Direct 1. hath revealed but presume not to enquire further much less to determine of unrevealed things That there are Angels and that they are holy Spirits is past dispute But what number they are and of how many worlds and of what orders and different dignities and degrees and when they were created and what locality belongeth to them and how far they excell or differ from the souls of men these and many other such unnecessary questions neither Nature nor Scripture will teach us how infallibly to resolve Almost all the Hereticks in the first ages of the Church did make their doctrines of Angels the first and chief part of their Heresies arrogantly intruding into unrevealed things and boasting of their acquaintance with the orders and inhabitants of the higher worlds These being risen in the Apostles dayes occasioned Paul to say Col. 2. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind Direct 2. § 2. Direct 2. Understand so much of the Ministry of Angels as God hath revealed and so far take notice of your communion with them but affect not any other sort of communion Angelorum vocabulum nomen est officii non naturae nam sancti illi coelestis patriae spiritus semper sunt spiritus sed semper vocari Angeli non possunt Greâ—or I shall here shew how much of the Ministry of Angels is revealed to us in Scripture § 3. 1. It is part of the appointed work of Angels to be Ministring Spirits for the heirs of salvation Dan. 4. 13. Gen. 32. 1 2. Exod. 32. 2. Dan. 6. 22. Acts 12. 7 11. 1 King 19. 5 â— Heb. 1. 14. Not Ministers or Servants of the godly but Ministers of God for the godly As the Shepherd is not a servant of the sheep but for the sheep It is not an accidental or occasional work which they do extraordinarily but it is their undertaken Office to which they are sent forth And this their Ministry is about the ordinary concernments of our lives and not only about some great or unusual cases or exigents Psal. 34. 6 7. Psal. 91. 11 12. § 4. 2. It is not some but All the Angels that are appointed by God to this Ministration Heb. 1. 1 4. Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth c. Mark here that if you enquire whether God have any higher Spirits that are not imployed in so low an Office but govern these Angels or if you enquire whether only this world be the Angels charge or whether they have many other worlds also of Viators to take care of neither Nature nor Scripture doth give you the determination of any of these questions and therefore you must leave them as unrevealed things with abundance more with which the old Hereticks and the Popish Schoolmen have diverted mens minds from plain and necessary things But that all the Angels minister for us is the express words of Scripture § 5. 3. The work of this Office is not left promiscuously among them but several Angels have their Luke 1. 13. 18. 19 26 28. 2. 10 13 21. Actâ— 10. 7. 22. 12. 8 9. Dan. 3 28. 6. 22. Gen. 24. 40. several works and charge Therefore Scripture telleth us of some sent of one message and some on an other And tells us that the meanest of Christs members on earth have their Angels before God in Heaven Matth. 18. 10. I say unto you that in Heaven their Angels do alwayes behold the face of my Father which is in Heaven Whether each true Believer hath one or more Angels and whether one Angel look to more than one Believer are questions which God hath not resolved us of either in Nature or Scripture But that each true Christian hath his Angel is here asserted by our Lord. § 6. 4. In this office of Ministration they are servants of Christ as the Head of the Church and the 1 Peâ— 3. 22. Matth. 26. 53. Mediator between God and man to promote the ends of his superiour office in mans Redemption Mat. 28. 18. All power is given to me in Heaven and Earth John 13. 3. Eph. 1. 20 21 22. And set him at his right hand in the celestials far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church Rev. 23. 16. I Iesus have sent Rev. 1. 1. mine Angel to testifie unto you these things in the Churches Whether the Angels were appointed about the service of Adam in innocency or only began their Office with Christ the Mediator as his Ministers is a thing that God hath not revealed But that they serve under Christ for his Church is plain § 7. 5. This care of the Angels for us is exercised throughout our lives for the saving of us from 2 Kings 6. 17. all our dangers and delivering us out of all our troubles Psal. 34. 6 7. This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles the Angel of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him and delivereth them Psal. 91. 11 12. For he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes They shall bear thee up in their hand lest thou dash thy foot against a stone In all our wayes that are good and in every step we tread we have the care and Ministry of tutelar Angels They are our ordinary defence and guard § 8. 6. In all this Ministry they perfectly obey the Will of God and do nothing but by his command Dan. 4. 35. Psal. 103. 10. Zech. 1. 8 10.
Orbs besides what Scripture saith even reason will strongly perswade any rational man 1. When we consider that Sea and Land and Air and all places of this lower baser part of the world are replenished with inhabitants suitable to their natures And therefore that the incomparably more great and excellent Orbs and Regions should all be uninhabited is irrational to imagine 2. And as we see the Rational Creatures are made to govern the Brutes in this inferiour world so reason telleth us it is improbable that the higher Reason of the inhabitants of the higher Regions should have no hand in the government of man And yet God hath further condescended to satisfie us herein by some unquestionable apparitions of good Angels and many more of evil spirits which puâ—s the matter past all doubt that there are inhabitants of the unseen world And when we know that such there are it maketh it the more easie to us to believe that such we may be either numbered with the happy or unhappy Spirits considering the affinity which there is between the nature of our souls and them To conquer senseless Saducism is a good step to the conquest of irreligiousness He that is well perswaded that there are Angels and Spirits is much better prepared than a Sadducee to bâ—lieve the immortality of the soul And because the infinite distance between God and man is apt to make the thoughts of our approaching his Glory either dubious or very terrible the remembrance of those myriads of blessed Spirits that dwell now in the presence of that glory doth much embolden and confirm our thoughts As he that would be afraid whether he should have access to and acceptance with the King would be much encouraged if he saw a multituâ—e as mean as himself or not much unlike him to be familiar attendants on him I must confess such is my own weakness that I find a frequent need of remembring the holy Hosts of Saints and Angels that are with God to embolden my soul and make the thoughts of Heaven more familiar and sweet by abating my strangeness â—mazedness and fears And thus far to make them the Media that I say not the Mediators of my thoughts in their approaches to the Most High and Holy God Though the remembrance of Christ the true Mediator is my chief encouragement Especially when we consider how servently those holy Spirits do love every holy person upon earth and so that all those that dwell with God are dearer friends to us than our Fathers or Mothers here on earth are as is briefly proved before this will embolden us yet much more § 18. Direct 5. Make use of the thoughts of the Angelical Hosts when you would see the Glory and Direct 5. Majesty of Christ If you think it a small matter that he is the Head of the Church on earth a handful of people contemned by the Satanical party of the world yet think what it is to be Head over all things far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come that is Gave him a power dignity and name greater than any power dignity or name of men or Angels and hath put all things under his feet Ephes. 1. 21 22 23. Being made so much better than the Angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they Of him it is said Let all the Angels of God worship him Heb. 1. 4 6. Read the whole Chapter Our Head is the Lord of all these Hosts § 19. Direct 6. Make use of the remembrance of the glorious Angels to acquaint you with the dignity Direct 6. of humane nature and the special dignity of the servants of God and so to raise up your hearts in Magna dignitas fidelium animarum ut unaquaeque habeat ab ortu nativitatis in custodiam sui Angelum depuâ—atum imo plures Hitro Luke 20. 36. thankfulness to your Creator and Redeemer who hath thus advanced you 1. What a dignity is it that thâ—se holy Angels should be all Ministring Spirits sâ—nt for our good that they should love us and concern themselves so much for us as to rejoyce in Heaven at our conversion Lord What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him For thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels and hast crowned him with glory and honour Psal. 8. 4. 5. 2. But yet it is a higher declaration of our dignity that we should in Heaven be equal with them and so be numbered iâ—to their society and joyn with them everlastingly in the praise of our Creator 3. And it is yet a greater honour to us that our Natures are assumed into union of person with the Son of God and sâ— advanced above the Angels For he took not on him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham Nâ—r hath he put the world to come in subjection to the Angels Heb. 2. 5 16. This is the Lords doing and it is wonderous in our eyes § 20. Direct 7. When you would admire the works of God and his government look specially to the Direct 7. Angels part If God would be glorified in his works then especially in the most glorious parts If he take delight to work by Instruments and to communicate such excellency and honour to them as may conduce to the honour of the principal cause we must not overlook their excellency and honour unless we will deny God the honour which is due to him As he that will see the excellent workmanship of a Watch or any other Engine must not overlook the chiefest parts nor their operation on the rest So he that will see the excellent order of the works and Government of God must not over-look the Angels nor their Offices in the Government and preservation of the inferiour creatures so far as God hath revealed it unto us We spoil the Musick if we leave out these strings It is a great part of the glory of the works of God that all the parts in Heaven and Earth are so admirably conjoyned and joynted as they are and each in their places contribute to the beauty and harmony of the whole § 21. Direct 8. When you would be apprehensive of the excellency of Love and Humility and exact Direct 8. obedience tâ— the will of God look up to the Angels and see the lustre of all these vertues as they shine Heb. 1. 14. Psal. 103. 20 21 in them How perfectly do they Love God and all his Saints Even the weakest and meanest of the members of Christ With what humility do they condescend to minister for the heirs of salvation How readily and perfectly do they obey their Maker Though our chiefest pattern is Christ himself who came nearer to us and appeared in flesh to give us the example of all such duties yet under him the
3. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And this is life eternal to know thee c. Joh. 5. 21. The Son quickeneth whom he will v. 26. For as the Father hath life in Himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself Joh. 6. 27. Labour for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the son of man shall give unto you For him â—ath God the Father sealed V. 32. 33. He giveth Life unto the World V. 53 54 55 56. Whosâ— eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life dwelleth in me and I in him my flesh is meat indeed At the Living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me V. 63. It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 7. 39. This spake he of the spirit which they that believe in him should receive Joh. 3. 34. God giveth not the spirit to him by measure 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. The Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Phil. 1. 19. Through the supply of the spirit of Iesus Christ. Joh. 15. 4. Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me V. 5. I am the Vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit For without me or out of me or severed from me ye can do nothing I will add no more All this is proof enough that the spirit is not given radically or Immediately from God to any believer but to Christ and so derivatively from him to us Not that the Divine nature in the third person is subject to the humane nature in Christ But that God hath made it the office of our Mediators Glorified Humanity to be the Cistern that shall first receive the Waters of life and convey them by the pipes of his appointed means to all the offices of his house Or to be the Head of the Animal spirits and by nerves to convey them to all the members 3. We are much in the dark concerning the degree of Infants Glory And therefore we can as little know what degree of grace is necessary to prepare them for their Glory 4. It is certain that Infants before they are Glorified shall have all that Grace that is prerequisite to their preparation and fruition 5. No sanctified person on earth is in an Immediate capacity for Glory Because their sin and imperfection must be done away which is done at the dissolution of soul and body The very accession of the soul to God doth perfect it 6. Infants have no actual faith or hope or Love to God to exercise And therefore need not the influence of the spirit of Christ to exercise them 7. We are all so very much in the dark as to the clear and distinct apprehension of the true nature of Original inherent pravity or sin that we must needs be as much ignorant of the true nature of that Inherent sanctity or Righteousness which is its contrary or curâ— Learned Illirious thought it was a Substance which he hath in his Clavis pleaded for at large Others call it a Habit Others a nature or natural Inclination and a privation of a Natural Inclination to God Others call it an Indisposition of the mind and will to holy Truth and Goodness and an Ill disposition of them to errour and evil Others call it only the Inordinate Lust of the sensitive faculties with a debility of Reason and Will to resist it And whilest the nature of the soul it self and its faculties are so much unknown to it self the nature of Original pravity and Righteousness must needs be very much unknown 8. Though an Infant be a distinct natural person from his Parents yet is he not actually a distinct person Morally as being not a moral Agent and so not capable of moral Actions good or evil Therefore his Parents Will goeth for his 9. His first acceptance into the Complacencial Love of God as distinct from his Love of Benevolence is not for any inherent Holiness in himself but 1. As the Child of a believing Parent who hath Dedicated him to Christ and 2. As a member of Christ in whom he is well pleased 10. Therefore God can complacencially as well as benevolently Love an Infant in Christ who only believeth and Repenteth by the Parents and not by himself nor is not yet supposed to have the spirit of sanctification 11. For the spirit of sanctification is not the presupposed Condition of his acceptance into Covenant with God but a gift of the Covenant of God it self following both the Condition on our part and our right to be Covenanters or to Gods promise upon that condition 12. So the adult themselves have the operation of the spirit by which they Believe and Repent by which they come to have their Right to Gods part in the Covenant of Baptism for this is antecedent to their baptism But they have not that gift of the spirit which is called in Scripture the spirit Act. 26 8. 2 Tâ—m 4. 7. Rom. 8 30. Gal. 4. 6. of sanctification and of Power Love and a sound mind and is the benefit given by the Covenant of Baptism till afterward Because they must be in that Covenant before it can be made good to them And their Faith or Consent is their Infants right also antecedent to the Covenant gift 13. There is therefore some notable difference between that work of the spirit by which we first Repent and believe and so have our title to the promise of the spirit and that gift of the spirit which is promised to believers which is not only the spirit of Miracles given in the first times but some notable degree of Love to our Reconciled Father suitable to the Grace and Gospel of Redemption and Rom. 8 9. Rom. 8. 16. â—5 Reconciliation and is called the spirit of Christ and the spirit of Adoption which the Apostles themselves seem not to have received till Christs ascension And this seemeth to be not only different from the Gifts of the spirit common to Hypocrites and the unbelievers but also from the special gift of the spirit which maketh men believers So that Mr. Tho. Hooker saith trulyer than once I understood that Vâ—cation is a special Grace of the spirit distinct from Common Grace on one side and from sanctification on the other side Whether it be the same degree of the spirit which the faithful had before Christs Incarnation which causeth men first to believe distinct from the higher following degree I leave to enquiry But the certainest distinction is from the different effects 14. Though an Infant cannot be either disposed
to a holy life or fit for Glory immediately without an inward Holiness of his own yet by what is said it seemeth plain that meerly on the account of the Condition performed by the Parent and of his Union Relatively with Christ thereupon and his title to Gods promise on these Grounds he may be said to be in a state of salvation that is to have the pardon of his Original sin deliverance from hell in right adoption and a right to the needful operations of the Holy Ghost as given to him in Christ who is the first receiver of the spirit 15. But when and in what sort and degree Christ giveth the actual operations of the spirit to all Covenanted Infants it is wonderful hard for us to know But this much seemeth clear 1. That Christ may when he please work on the soul of an Infant to change its disposition before he come to the use of Reason 2. That Christ and his spirit as in Covenant with Infants are ready to give all necessary assistance to Infants for their inherent sanctification in the use of those means and on those Mr. Whiston p. 60. sheweâ—h That even the promises of a new Heart c. Ezek 36 37 c. Though they may run in the external tenour of them absolutely yet are not absolutely absolute but have a subordinate condition and that is That the parties concerned in them do faithfully use the means appointed of God in a subserviency to his working in or bestowing on them the Good promised further conditions on which we must wait for it and expect it For the Holy Ghost is not so engaged to us in our Covenant or Baptism as to be obliged presently to give us all the grace that we want But only to give it us on certain further conditions and in the use of certain means But because this leadeth me up to another question I will suspend the rest of the answer to this till that be handled Only I must answer this objection Obj. It is contrary to the Holy nature of God complacenically to Love an unsanctified Infant that is yet in his Original Corruption unchanged and he justifieth none relatively from the guilt of sin whom he doth not at once inherently sanctifie Answ. 1. Gods complacencial Love respecteth every one as he is For it is Goodness only that he so Loveth Therefore he so Loveth not those that either Actually or Habitually Love not Him under any false supposition that they do Love him when they do not His Love therefore to the Adult and Infants differeth as the objects differ But there is this Lovely in such Infants 1. That they are the Children of believing sanctified Parents 2. That they are by his Covenant Relatively United to Christ and so are Lovely as his members 3. That they are pardoned all their original sin 4. That they are set in the way to Actual Love and holiness being thus dedicated to God 2. All imperfect Saints are sinners And all sinners are as such abhorred of God whose pure eyes cannot behold iniquity As then it will stand with his purity to accept and love the Adult upon their first believing before their further sanctification and notwithstanding the remnant of their sins so may it do also to accept their Infants through Christ upon their Dedication 3. As the actual sin imputed to Infants was Adams and their Parents only by Act and not their own it is no wonder if upon their Parents faith and repentance Christ wash and justifie them from that guilt which arose only from anothers act 4. And then the inherent pravity was the effect of that Act of their Ancestors which is forgiven them And this pravity or inherent Original sin may two wayes be said to be mortified radically or Virtually or inceptively before any inherent change in them 1. In that it is mortified in their Parents from whom they derived it who have the power of choosing for them and 2. In that they are by Covenant engraffed into Christ and so related to the cause of their future sanctification yea 3. In that also they are by Covenant and their Parents promise engaged to use those means which Gods being a God to any individual person doth râ—quire and presuppose that they do for the present supposing them capable or for the future as soon as capable take God in Christ as their God Ibid. p. 61. Christ hath appointed for sanctification 5. And it must be remembred that as this is but an inceptive preparatory change so the very pardon of the Inherent vitiosity is not perfect as I have elsewhere largely proved however some Papists and Protestants deny it While sin remaineth sin and corruption is still indwelling besides all the unremoved penalties of it the very being of it proveth it to be so far unpardoned in that it is not yet abolished and the continuance of it being not its smallest punishment as permitted and the spirit not given so far as to cure it Imperfect pardon may consist with a present right both to further sanctification by the Spirit and so to Heaven Obj. Christs body hath no unholy members Answ. 1. 1 Cor. 7. 14. Now are your Children holy They are not wholly unholy who have all the fore-described holiness 2. As Infants in Nature want memory and actual reason and yet initially are men so as Christs members they may want actual and habitual faith and Love and yet initially be sanctified by their Union with him and his spirit and their Parents Dedication and be in the way for more as they grow fit And be Christians and Saints in fieri or initially only as they are men Quest. 43. Is the right of the Baptized Infants or adult to the sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost now Absolute or suspended on further Conditions And are the Parents further duty for their Children such conditions of their Childrens reception of the Actual assistances of the Spirit Or are Childrens own actions such Conditions And may Apostate Parents forfeit the Covenant benefits to their Baptized Infants or not Answ. THE question is great and difficult and few dare meddle with it And almost all Infant-cases are to us obscure I. 1. It is certain that it is the Parents great duty to bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 2. It is certain that God hath appointed this to be the means of their actual knowledge faith Eph. 6 4 5. Col 3. 21. Gen. 18 19. Deut. 6. 6 7 8. 11. 18 19 20. and holiness 3. And God doth not appoint such means unnecessarily or in vain nor may we ordinarily expect his grace but in the use of the means of Grace which he hath appointed us to use 4. It is certain that Gods receiving the Children of the faithful is an act of Gods Love to the Parents as well as the Children and promised as a part of his blessing on themselves 5. It is certain that these Parents
and instruction 3. If they may do so in the Psalms in Metre there can no reason be given but they may lawfully do so in the Psalms in prose For saying them and singing them are but modes of utterance both are the speaking of Prayer and praise to God And the ancient singing was liker our saying than to our tunes as most judge 4. The primitive Christians were so full of the zeal and Love of Christ that they would have taken it for an injury and a quenching of the spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the praises of the Church 5. The use of the tongue keepeth awake the mind and stirreth up Gods graces in his servants 6. It was the decay of zeal in the people that first shut out Responses while they kept up the ancient zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the pride and usurpation of some Priests thereupon who thought the people of God too prophane to speak in the assemblies and meddle so much with holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessours even when they lost the Life and spirit which should animate them And so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their ancestors had used in the fervour of their souls 6. And if it were not that a dead hearted formal people by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of seriousness I think few good people would be against them now If all the serious zealous Christians in the assembly speak the same words in a serious manner there will appear nothing in them that should give offence If in the fulness of their hearts the people should breakout into such words of prayer or confession or praise it would be taken for an extraordinary pang of zeal and were it unusual it would take exceedingly But the better any thing is the more loathsome it appeareth when it is mortified by hypocrisie and dead formality and turned into a mockery or an affected scenical act But it is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the Life and spirit to the words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore 7. Those that would have private men pray and prophesie in publick as warranted by 1 Cor. 14. Ye may all speak c. do much contradict themselves if they say also that Lay man may say nothing but Amen 8. The people were all to say Amen in Deut. 27. 15 16 18 19 20 c. And yet they oftentimes said more As Exod. 19. 8. in as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God himself gave Moses a Sermon in a form of words to Preach to the people and Moses had repeated it as from the Lord it being the Narrative of his mercies the command of obedience and the promises of his great blessings upon that condition all the people answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do The like was done again Exod. 24. 3. And Deut. 5. 27. And lest you should think either that the Assembly was not as solemn as ours or that it was not well done of the people to say more than Amen God himself who was present declared his approbation even of the words when the speakers hearts were not so sincere in speaking them as they ought vers 28 29. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me and the Lord said unto me I have heard the voice of the words of this people They have well said all that they have spoken O that there were such a heart in them Obj. But this is but a speech to Moses and not to God Answ. I will reciâ—e to you a form of prayer which the people themselves were to make publickly to God Deut. 26 13 14 15. Then shalt thou say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the ☞ hallowed things out of my house and also have given them to the Levite and to the stranger to the fatherless and the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my mourning neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the dead but I have â—earkened to the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me Look down from thy holy habitation from Heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest unto our Fathers a Land that floweth with milk and honey Is not here a full form of Prayer to be used by all the people And remember that Ioseph and Mary and Christ himself were under this Law and that you never read that Christ found fault with the peoples speech nor spake a word to restrain it in his Churches In Lev. 9. 24. When all the people saw the Glory of the Lord and the fire that came out from it and consumed the burnt Offering they shouted and fell on their faces which was an acclamation more than bare Amen 2 King 23. 2 3. King Iosiah went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah c. And the Priests and the Prophets and all the people both small and great and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the Covenant And the King stood by a pillar and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments c with all their heart and all their soul c. and all the people stood to the Covenant Where as a King is the speaker it 's like that the people used some words to express their consent 1 Chron. 16. 35 36. When David delivered a Psalm for a form of praise in which it is said to the people v. 35. And say ye save us O God of our salvation and gather us together and deliver us from the Heathen that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory in thy praise blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever All the people said Amen and praised the Lord. Where it is like that their praising the Lord was more than their Amen And it is a command Psal. 67. 3 5. Let all the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee And he that will limit this to single persons or say that it must not be Vocally in the Church or it must be only in metre and never in prose or only in tunes and not without must prove it lest he be proved an adder to Gods word But it would be tedious to recite all the repeated sentences in the Psalms
serve the Devil and the Flesh. God must be our First and Last and All. § 4. Not that any exact or full Body or Method of Divinity is to be Learnt so early But 1. The Baptismal Covenant must be well opened betime and frequently urged upon their hearts 2. Therefore the Creed the Lords Prayer and Decalogue must be opened to such betime that is They must be wisely Catechised 3. They must be taught the Scripture History especially Genesis and the Gospel of Christ. 4. They must with the other Scriptures read the most plain and suitable Books of practical Divinâ—s after named 5. They must be kept in the company of suitable wise and exemplary Christians whose whole conversation will help them to the sense and Love of Holiness And must be kept strictly from perverting wicked company 6. They must be frequently lovingly familiarly yet seriously treated with about the state of their own souls and made to know their need of Christ and of his holy spirit of Justification and Renovation 7. They must be trained up in the Practice of Godliness in Prayer pious speeches and obedience to God and man 8. They must be kept under the most powerful and profitable Ministers of Christ that can be had 9. They must be much urged to the study of their own hearts To know themselves what it is to be a Man to have Reason Free-will and an Immortal soul what it is to be a Child of Lapsed Adam and an unregenerate unpardoned sinner what it is to be a Redeemed and a sanctified Justified person and an adopted heir of life eternal And by close examination to know which of these conditions is their own To know what is their daily duty and what their danger and what their Temptations and impediments and how to escape § 5. For if once the soul be truly sanctified then 1. Their salvation is much secured and the main work of their lives is happily begun and they are ready to Die safely when ever God shall call them hence 2. It will possess them with a right end in all the studies and labours of their lives which is an unspeakable advantage both for their pleasing of God and profiting themselves and others without which they will but prophane Gods name and word and turn the Ministry into a worldly fleshly life and study and Preach for Riches Preferment or applause and live as he Luk. 12. 18 19. Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry and they will make Theology the way to hell and study and preach their own condemnation 3. A Holy heart will be alwayes under the Greatest Motives and therefore will be constantly and powerfully impelled as well in secret as before others to diligence in studies and all good endeavours 4. And it will make all sweet and easie to them as being a noble work and relishing of Gods Love and the endless Glory to which it tendeth A holy soul will all the year long be employed in sacred studies and works as a good stomach at a feast with constant pleasure And then O how happily will all go on When a carnal person with a dull unwilling weary mind taketh now and then a little when his carnal interest it self doth prevail against his more slothful sensual inclinations but he never followeth it with hearty affections and therefore seldom with good success 4. And a holy soul will be a continual Treasury and fountain of holy matter to pour out to others when they come to the Sacred Ministry so that such a one can say more from the feeling and experience of his soul than another can in a long time gather from his Books 5. And that which he saith will come warm to the hearers in a more lively experimental manner than usual carnal Preachers speak 6. And it is liker to be attended by a greater blessing from God 7. And there are many Controversies in the Church which an experienced holy person caeteris paribus hath great advantage in above all others to know the right and be preserved from errours § 6. Direct 2. Let young mens time till about 18 19 or 20 be spent in the improvement of their Memories rather than in studies that require much judgement Therefore let them take that time to get Organical knowledge such as are the Latine and Greek tongues first and chiefly and then the Hebrew Chaldee Syriack and Arabick with the exactest acquaintance with the true Precepts of Logick And let them learn some Epiâ—ome of Logick without Book In this time also let them be much conversant in History both Civil Scholastical of Philosophers Orators Poets c. and Ecclesiastical And then take in as much of the Mathematicks as their more necessary studies will allow them time for still valuing Knowledge according to the various degrees of usefulness § 7. Direct 3. When you come to seek after more abstruse and real wisdom joyn together the study of Physicks and Theologie and take not your Physicks as separated from or independant on Theologie But as the study of God in his works and of his works as leading to himself Otherwise you will be but like a Scrivener and Printer who maketh his Letters well but knoweth not what they signifie § 8. Direct 4. Unite all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or knowledge of Real eâ—tities into one science both spirits and Bodies God being taken in as the First and last the Original Director and End of all And study not the doctrine of Bodies alone as separated from spirits For it is but an imaginary separation and a delusion to mens minds Or if you will call them by the name of several sciences be sure you so link those severals together that the due dependance of bodies on spirits and of the Passive natures on the Active may still be kept discemable And then they will be one while you call them divers § 9. Direct 5. When you study only to know what is True you must begin at the Primum câ—gnoscibile and so rise in ordine cognoscendi But when you would come to see things in their proper Order by a more perfect satisfying knowledge you must draw up a synthetical sebeme juxta ordinem â—ssendi where God must be the First and Last the first Efficient Governour and End of all § 10. Direct 6. Your first study of Philosophy therefore should be of your selves To know a man And the Knowledge of mans soul is a part so necessary so neer so useful that it should take up both the first and largest room in all your Physicks or knowledge of Gods works Labour therefore to be accurate in this § 11. Direct 7. With the knowledge of your selves joyn the Knowledge of the rest of the works of God but according to the usefulness of each part to your moral duty and as all are Related to God and You. § 12. Direct 8. Be sure in all your progress that you keep a distinct knowledge of things certain and things
spirit of God hath taught them to perform or would force men from that which the spirit of Christ is sent to draw them to this is to raise War against that spirit into whose name you were your selves baptized § 11. 4. Persecution endeavoureth the damnation of mens souls either by depriving them of the Preaching of the Gospel which should save them or by forcing them upon that sin for which God will condemn them Yea the banishing or silencing of one faithful Preacher may conduce to the damnation of many hundreds If it be said that others who are set up in their stead may save mens souls as well as they I answer 1. God seldome if ever did qualifie supernumeraries for the work of the Ministry Many a Nation hath had too few but I never read of any Nation that had too many who were well qualified for that great and difficult work no not from the dayes of Christ till now so that if they are all fit men there are none of them to be spared but all are too few if they conjoyn their greatest skill and diligence Christ biddeth us pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth more labourers into his Harvest but never biddeth us pray to send out fewer or to call any in that were but tolerably fitted for the work 2. Many persecutors banish all Preachers of the Gospel and set up no other to do the service which they were called to And it is rarely seen that any who can find in their hearts to cast out any faithful Ministers of Christ have hearts to set up better or any that are competent in their stead But it is ordinarily seen that when the judgement is so far depraved as to approve of the casting out of worthy men it is also so far depraved as to think an ignorant unskilful heartless or scandalous sort of Ministers to be as fit to save men souls as they And how many poor Congregations in the Eastern and the Western Churches nay how many thousand have ignorant ungodly sensual Pastors who are such unsavoury Salt as to be unfit for the Land or for the Dunghill Whilest men are extinguishing the clearest lights or thrusting them into obscurity Matth. 5. 13 14 15. Luk. 14. 35. 3. And there may be something of suitableness between a Pastor and the flock which may give him advantage to be more profitable to their souls than another man of equal parts 4. And though God can work by the weakest means yet ordinarily we see that his work upon mens souls is so far Moral as that he usually prospereth men according to the fitness of their labours to the work and some men have far more success than others He that should expell a dozen or twenty of the ablest Physicions out of London and say theâ—e are enough left in their steads who may save mens lives as well as they might notwithstanding that assertion be found guilty of the blood of no small numbers And as men have sometime an averseness to one sort of food as good as any to another man and as this distemper is not laudable and yet he that would force them to eat nothing else but that which they so abhor were liker to kill them than to cure them so is it with the souls of many And there are few who have any spiritual discerning and relish but have some special sense of what is helpful or hurtful to their souls in Sermons Books and Conference which a stander by is not so fit a judge of as themselves So that it is clear that persecution driveth men towards their damnation And O how sad a case it is to have the damnation of one soul to answer for which is worse than the murdering of many bodies Much more to be guilty of the perdition of a multitude § 12. 5. Persecution is unjustice and oppression of the innocent And what a multitude of terrible threatnings against this sin are found throughout the holy Scriptures Doth a man deserve to be cruelly used for being faithful to his God and for preferring him before man and for being afraid to sin against him or for doing that which God commandeth him and that upon pain of greater sufferings than man can inflict upon him Is it not his Saviour that hath said Fear not them that can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Though Christianity was once called a Sect which every where was spoken against Act. 28. 22. and Paul was accused as a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition among the people Act. 24. 5. and Christ was Crucified as a Usurper of the Crown yet innocency shall be innocency still in spight of malice and lying accusations because God will be the final Judge and will bring all secret things to light and will justifie those whom injustice hath condemned and will not call them as slandering tongues have called them Yea the Consciences of the persecuters are often forced to say as they did of Daniel Dan. 6. 5. We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel except we find it against him concerning the Law of his God And therefore the net which they were fain to lay for him was a Law against his Religion or prayers to God For a Law against Treason sedition swearing drunkenness fornication c. would have done them no service And yet they would fain have aspersed him there verse 4. Jer. 22. 13. Woe to hiâ— that buildeth his house by unrighteousness c. Isa. 33. 1. Woe to thee that spoilest and thou wast not spoiled Isa. 5. 20. Woe to them that call evil good and good evil Jer. 2. 34. In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents Prov. 6. 16 17. Hands that shed innocent blood the Lord doth hate c. § 13. 6. Persecution maketh men likest unto Devils and maketh them his most notable servants in Daemones ex hominibus fieri quidam opinatâ— sunt perpetua criminum licentia c. Quod ut forte tolerabiliter dictum sit malarum voluntatum similitudo efficit qua homo malus atque in malis obstinatus pene daemonem aequat Petrarch de injusto Domin the world Many wicked men may neglect that duty which they are convinced they should do But to hate it and malice men that do it and seek their ruine this if any thing is a work more beseeming a Devil than a man These are the Commanders in the Armies of the Devil against the Cause and Kingdom of the Lord Iohn 8. 42. 44. and accordingly shall they speed § 14. 7. Persecution is an inhumane disingenuous sin and sheweth an extinction of the light of Nature A good natured man if he had no grace at all would abhorr to be cruel and to oppress his brethren and that meeâ—ly because they are true to their
rend us Much more if it be some potent enemy of the Church who will not only rend us but the Church it self if he be so provoked Reproving him then is not our duty 3. Particularly When a man is in a passion or drunk usually it is no season to reprove him 4. Nor when you are among others who should not be witnesses of the fault or the reproof or whose presence will shame him and offend him except it be only the shaming of an incorrigible or malicious sinner which you intend 5. Nor when you are uncertain of the fact which you would reprove or uncertain whether it be a sin 6. Or when you have no witness of it though you are privately certain with some that will take advantage against you as slanderers a reproof may be omitted 7. And when the offenders are so much your superiours that you are like to have no better success than to be accounted arrogant A groan or tears is then the best reproof 8. When you are so utterly unable to manage a reproof that imprudence or want of convincing reason is like to make it a means of greater hurt than good 9. When you foresee a more advantageous season if you delay 10. When another may be procured to do it with much more advantage which your doing it may rather hinder In all these cases that may be a sin which at another time may be a duty § 18. But still remember 1. That pride and passion and slothfulness is wont to pretend such reasons falsly upon some sleight conjectures to put by a duty 2. That no man must account another Gen. 20. 36. a Dog or Swine to excuse him from this duty without cogent evidence And it is not every wrangling opposition nor reproach and scorn which will warrant us to give a man up as remediless Job 31. 13. Heb. 13. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 13. 2 Tâ—m 2. 25 26. and speak to him no more but only such 1. As sheweth a heart utterly obdurate after long means 2. Or will procure more suffering to the reprover than good to the offender 3. That when the thing is ordinarily a duty the reasons of our omission must be clear and sure before they will excuse us § 19. Quest. Must we reprove Infidels or Heathens What have we to do to judge them that are without Answ. Not to the ends of excommunication because they are not capable of it which is meant Deut. 22. 1. 1 Cor. 5. But we must reprove them 1. In common compassion to their souls What were the Apostles and other Preachers sent for but to call all men from their sins to God 2. And for the defence of truth and godliness against their words or ill examples CHAP. XVII Directions for keeping Peace with all men § 1. PEace is so amiable to Nature it self that the greatest destroyers of it do commend it and those persons in all times and places who are the cause that the world cannot enjoy it will yet speak well of it and exclaim against others as the enemies of peace as if there were no other name but their Own sufficient to make their adversaries odious As they desire salvation so do the ungodly desire Peace which is with a double error one about the Nature of it and another about the Conditions and other Means By Peace they mean the quiet undisturbed enjoyment of their honours wealth and pleasures that they may have their lusts and will without any contradiction And the Conditions on which they would have it are the complyance of all others with their opinions and wills and humble submission to their domination passions or desires But Peace is another thing and otherwise to be desired and sought Peace in the mind is the delightful effect of its internal harmony as Peace in the body is nothing but its pleasant health in the natural position state action and concord of all the parts the humours and spirits And Peace in Families Neighbourhoods Churches Kingdoms or other Societies is the quietness and pleasure of their order and harmony and must be attained and preserved by these following means § 2. Direct 1. Get your own hearts into a humble frame and abhor all the motions of Pride and Direct 1. self exalting A humble man hath no high expectations from another and therefore is easily pleased or quieted He can bow and yield to the pride and violence of others as the Willow to the impetuous winds His language will be submissive his patience great he is content that others go before him He is not offended that another is preferred A low mind is pleased in a low condition But Pride is the Gun-powder of the mind the family the Church and State It maketh men ambitious and setteth them on striving who shall be the greatest A proud mans Opinion must alwayes go for truth and his will must be a Law to others and to be sleighted or crossed seemeth to him an unsufferable wrong And he must be a man of wonderful complyance or an excellent artificer in man-pleasing and flâ—ttery that shall not be taken as an injurious undervaluer of him He that overvalueth himself will take it ill of all that do not also overvalue him If you forgetfully go before him or overlook him or neglect a complement or deny him something which he expected or speak not honourably of him much more if you reprove him and tell him of his faults you have put fire to the Gun-powder you have broke his peace and he will break yours if he can Pride broke the Peace between God and the apostate Angels but nothing unpeaceable must be in Heaven and therefore by self-exâ—lting they descended into darkness And Christ by self-humbling ascended unto Glory It is a matter of very great difficulty to live peaceably in family Church or any society with any one that is very Proud They expect so much of you that you can never answer all their expectations but will displease them by your omissions though you never speak or do any thing to displease them What is it but the lust of Pride which causeth most of the wars and bloodshed throughout the World The Pride of two or three men must cost many thousands of their subjects the loss of their Peace Estates and Lives Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi What were the Conquests of those Emperours Alexander Caesar Tamerlane Machumet c. but the pernicious effects of their infamous Pride Which like Gun-powder taking fire in their breasts did blow up so many Cities and Kingdoms and call their Villanies by the name of Valour and their Murders and Robberies by the name of War If one mans Pride do swell so big that his own Kingdom cannot contain it the Peace of as much of the World as he can conquer is taken to be but a reasonable sacrifice to this infernal vice The lives of thousands both Subjects and Neighbours called enemies by this malignant spirit must be cast
bear too patiently with your selves If another speak evil of you he doth not make you evil It 's worse to make you bad than to call you so And this you do against your selves Doth your Neighbour wrong you in your honour or Estate But he endangereth not your soul He doth not forfeit your salvation He doth not deserve damnation for you nor make your soul displeasing to God But all this you do against your selves even more than all the Devils in Hell do and yet you are too little offended with your selves see here the power of blind self-love If you loved your Neighbours as your selves you would agree as peaceably with your Neighbours almost as with your selves Love them more and you will bear more with them and provoke them less § 5. Direct 4. Compose your minds to Christian gentleness and meekness and suffer not Passion to Direct 4. make you either turbulent and unquiet to others or impatient and troublesome to your selves A gentle and quiet mind hath a gentle quiet tongue It can bear as much wrong as another can do according to its measure It is not in the power of Satan He cannot at his pleasure send his Emissary and by injuries or foule words procure it to sin But a Passionate person is frequently provoking or provoked A little thing maketh him injurious to others and a little injury from others disquieteth himself He is daily troubling others or himself or both Coals of fire go from his lips It is his very desire to provoke and vex those that he is angry with His Neighbours Peace and his own are the fuel of his anger which he consumeth in a moment To converse with him and not provoke him is a task for such as are eminently meek and self-denying He is as the leaves of the Aspe tree that never rest unless the day be very calm The smallest breath of an angry tongue can shake him out of his tranquillity and turn him into an Ague of disquietness The Sails of the Windmill are scarce more at the winds command than his heart and tongue is at the command of Satan He can move him almost when he please Bid but a Neighbour speak some hard speeches of him or one of his Family neglect or cross him and he is presently like the raging Sea whose waves cast up the mire and dirt An impatient man hath no security of his own peace for an hour Any enemy or angry person can take it from him when they please And being troubled he is troublesome to all about him If you do not in your patience possess your souls they will be at the mercy of every one that hath a mind to vex you Remember then that no peace can be expected without Patience nor patience without a meek and gentle mind Remember that the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God 1 Pet. 3. 4. And that the wisdom from above is first pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated Jam. 3. 17. And that the eternal wisdom from above hath bid you learn of him to be meek and lowly in spirit as ever you would find rest to your souls Matth. 11. 28 29. And he that loseth his own peace is likest to break the peace of others § 6. Direct 5. Be careful to maintain that order of Government and obedience which is appointed Direct 5. of God for the preservation of Peace in families Churches and Common-wealths If you will break this vessel peace will flow out and be all quickly spilt What peace in Schools but by the authority of the Schoolmaster Or in Armies but by the authority of the General If an unwise and ungodly Governour do himself violate the foundations and boundaries of peace and either weakly or wilfully make dividing Laws no wonder if such wounds do spend the vital blood and spirits of that society It being more in the power of the Governours than of the Subject to destroy Peace or to preserve it And if the Subjects make not conscience of their duty to their Superiours the banks of peace will soon be broken down and all will be overwhelmed in tumult and confusion Take heed therefore of any thing which tendeth to subvert or weaken Government Disobedience or Rebellion seldome wanteth a fair pretence but it more seldome answereth the agents expectation It usually pretendeth the weaknesses miscarriages or injurious dealings of superiours But it as usually mendeth an inconvenience with a mischief It setteth fire on the house to burn up the Rats and Mice that troubled it It must be indeed a grievous malady that shall need such a mischief for its remedy Certainly it is no means of Gods appointment Take heed therefore of any thing which would dissolve these bonds Entertain not dishonourable thoughts of your Governours and receive not nor utter not any dishonourable words against them If they be faulty open not their shame Their honour is their interest and the peoples too Without it they will be disabled for effectual Government When subjects or servants or children are sawcily censorious of superiours and make themselves Judges of all their actions even those which they do not understand and when they presume to defame them and with petulant tongues to cast contempt upon them the fire is begun and the sacred bonds of peace are loosed When superiours rule with Piety Justice and true love to their subjects and Inferiours keep their place and rank and all conspire the publick good then Peace will fourish and not till then § 7. Direct 6. Avoid all revengeful and provoking words When the poyson of Asps is under mens Direct 6. lips Rom. 3. 13. no wonder if the hearers minds that are not sufficiently antidoted against it fester Death and life are in the power of the tongue Prov. 18. 21. When the tongue is as a Sword yea a sharp sword Psal. 57. 4. and when it is purposely whetted Psal. 64. 3. But no marvel if it pierce and wound them that are unarmed But by long forbearing a Prince is perswaded and a soft tongue breaketh the bone Prov. 25. 15. A railer is numbered with those that a Christian must not eat with 1 Cor. 5. For Christianity is so much for Peace that it abhorreth all that is against it Our Lord when he was reviled reviled not again and in this was our example 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. A scorning railing reproachful tongue is set as Iames saith 3. 6. on fire of Hell and it setteth on fire the course of nature even persons families Churches and Common-wealths Many a a ruined society may say by experience Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth James 3. 5. § 8. Direct 7. Engage not your selves too forwardly or eagerly in disputes nor at any time without Direct 7. necessity And when necessity calleth you set an extraordinary watch upon your passions Though disputing is lawful and sometime necessary to defend
nature of Carnal-selfishness and it is no better § 4. 3. SELFISHNESSE is the corruption of all the faculties of the soul. It is the sin of the mind by self-conceitedness and pride It is the sin of the will and affections by self-love and all the selfish passions which attend it Selfish desires angers sorrows discontents jealousies fears audacities c. It is the corruption of all the inferiour faculties and the whole conversation by self-seeking and all the forementioned evils § 5. 4. Selfishness is the commonest sin in the world Every man is now born with it and hath it more or less And therefore every man should fear it § 6. 5. Selfishness is the hardest sin in the world to overcome In all the unregenerate it is predominant For nothing but the sanctifying Spirit of God can overcome it And in many thousands that seem very zealous in Religion and very mortified in all other respects yet in some way or other selfishness doth so lamentably appear yea and is so strong in many that are sincere that it is the greatest dishonour to the Church of Christ and hath tempted many to infidelity or to doubt whether there be any such thing as true sanctification in the world The persons that seemed the most mortified Saints if you do but cross them in their self-interest or opinion or will or seem to slight them and have a low esteem of them what swellings what heart-burnings what bitter censurings what proud impatience if not Schisms and separations will it cause God hath better servants but too many which seem to themselves and others to be the best are no better How then should every Christian abhor and watch against this Universal Evil § 7. Direct 2. Consider oft how amiable a creature man would be and what a blessed condition the Direct 2. world and all societies would be in if selfishness were but overcome There would then â—e no pride no covetousness no sensuality no tyranny or oppressing of the poor no malice cruelty or persecution no Church-divisions no scandals nothing to dishonour Religion or to hinder the saving progress of the Gospel no fraud or treacheries no over-reaching or abusing others no lying noâ— deceit no neglect of our duty to others In a word no injustice or uncharitableness in the world § 8. Direct 3. Iudge of good and evil by sober Reason and not by bruitish sense And then oft Direct 3. consider whether really there be not a more excellent end than your self ish interest Even the publick good of many and the pleasing and glorifying of God And whether all mediate good or evil should not be judged of principally by those highest ends Sense leadeth men to selfishness and privateness of design But true Reason leadeth men to prefer the publick or any thing that is better than our self-interest § 9. Direct 4. Nothing but returning by converting Grace to the true Love of God and of Man for Direct 4. his sake will conquer selfishness Make out therefore by earnest prayer for the Spirit of Sanctification And be sure that you have a true apprehension of the state of Grace that is that it is indeed The Love of God and Man Love is the fulfilling of the Law Therefore Love is the Holiness of the soul Set your whole study upon the exercise and increase of Love and selfishness will dye as Love reviveth § 10. Direct 5. Study much the self-denying example and precepts of your Saviour His life and Direct 5. doctrine are the liveliest representation of self-denyal that ever was given to the World Learn Christ and you will learn self-denyal He had no sinful selfishness to mortifie yet natural-self was so wonderfully denyed by him for his Fathers Will and our Salvation that no other Book or Teacher in the world will teach us this lesson so perfectly as he Follow him from the Manger or rather from the Womb to the Cross and Grave Behold him in his poverty and contempt enduring the contradiction and ingratitude of sinners and making himself of no reputation Behold him apprehended accused condemned crowned with thorns clothed in purple with a reed in his hand scourged and led away to execution bearing his Cross and hanged up among Thieves forsaken by his own Disciples and all the world and in part by him who is more than all the world And consider why all this was done For whom he did it and what lesson he purposed hereby to teach us Consider why he made it one half the condition of our salvation and so great a part of the Christian Religion to Deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow him and will have no other to be his Disciples Luke 14. 26 31 33. Were a Crucified Christ more of our daily study and did we make it our Religion to learn and follow his holy example self-denyal would be better known and practised and Christianity would appear as it is and not as it is misunderstood adulterated and abused in the world But because I have long ago written a Treatise of Self-denyal I shall add no more CHAP. XXVII Cases and Directions for Loving our Neighbour as our selves Tit. 1. Cases of Conscience about Loving our Neighbour Quest. 1. IN what sense is it that I must love my neighbour as my self Whether in the kind of Quest. 1. love or in the degree or only in the reality Answ. The true meaning of the Text is You must love him according to his true worth without the diversion and hinderance of selfishness and partiality As you must love your self according to that degree of Goodness which is in you and no more so must you as impartially love your neighbour according to that degree of Goodness which is in him So that it truly extendeth to the reality the kind and the degree of love supposing it in both proportioned to the goodness of the object But before this can be understood the true nature of Love must be well understood Quest. 2. What is the true Nature of Love both as to my self and neighbour Quest. 2. Answ. Love is nothing but the prime motion of the Will to its proper object which is called Complacence The object of it is simple Goodness or Good as such It ariseth from suitableness between the Object and the Will as appetite doth from the suitableness of the appetent faculty and the food This GOOD as it is variously modified or any way differeth doth accordingly cause or require a difference in our Love Therefore that Love which in its prime act and nature is but one is diversly denominated as its objects are diversified To an object as simply Good in it self it followeth the Understandings Estimation and is called as I said meer Complacence or Adhesion To an Object as not yet attained but absent or distant and attainable it is called Desire or Desiring Love And as expected Hope or Hoping Love which is a conjunction of Desire
Chastity and Order so it is a matter of great convenience in a Commonwealth that Sots and Swaggerers and Phreneticks and Ideots and proud and wanton lustful persons should be openly distinguished from others As in a plague-time the doors of infected houses are marked with a Lord have mercy on us And the wisest Magistrate knew not how to have accomplished this himself by a Law as the wretches themselves do by their voluntary choice For if it were not voluntary it would be no distinguishing badge of their profession Now for any honest civil people to joyn with them and take up their livery and the habit of their Order is to profess themselves such as they and so to encourage and approve them or else to confound the proud and humble the vain and sober the wanton and the chaste and destroy the benefit of distinction By this you may see that it is not so much the bare fashion it self that is to be regarded as the signification and the consequents of it The same fashion when used by sober persons to better signification and consequents may be lawful which otherwise is unlawful Therefore those fashions that can hardly ever be supposed to have a good signification and consequents are hardly ever to be supposed lawful Note also that any one of the foresaid evils maketh a fashion evil but it must be all the requisites concurrent that must prove your fashions good or lawful § 14. Quest. 4. Is it not sometime lawful to follow the fashions Answ. It is alwayes lawful to Quest. 4. follow the sober fashions of sober people but it is not lawful to follow the vain immodest ill-signifying fashions of the riotous proud and wanton sort unless it be in such cases of Necessitie as David was in when he behaved himself like a mad-man or as Paul when he told them that he was a Pharisee Acts 23. 6. to escape in a persecution or from Thieves or enemies 2. Or unless for a time it prove as conducible to the good of others as Paul's circumcising Timothy was or his becoming all things to all men that he might win some But to follow ill signifying fashions unneâ—essarily or for carnal Phil. 3. 10. Rom. 12. 2. Ephes. 5. 11. ends to avoid the disesteem or evil speeches of carnal persons or to seem to be as fine as they this is undoubtedly a sin § 15. Direct 6. Be sure to avoid excess of costliness in your apparell Remember that you must Direct 6. answer for all your estates And one day it will prove more comfortable to find on your accounts So much a year laid out in clothing the naked than So much a year in bravery or curiosity for your selves or your children Costly apparel devoureth that which would go far in supplying the necessities of the poor § 16. Direct 7. Be sure you waste not your pretious time in needless curiosity of dressing I Direct 7. cannot easily tell you how great a sin and horrible a sign of folly and misery it is in those Gallants that spend whole hours yea most part of the morning in dressing and neatifying themselves before they appear to the sight of others so that some of them can scarce do any thing else before dinner time but dress themselves The morning hours that are fittest for prayer and reading the Word of God are thus consumed They spend not a quarter so much time in the serious searching and adorning of their souls nor in any holy service of God but God and family and soul and all is thus neglected § 17. Direct 8. Next to the usefulness of your apparel for your bodies and labours let your Rule be Direct 8. to imitate the common sort of the grave and sober persons of your own rank Not here and there one that in other things are sober who themselves follow the fashions of the proud and vain but the ordinary fashion of grave and sober persons For thus you will avoid both the levity of the proud and the needless singularity of others § 18. Direct 9. Regard more the hurt that your fashion may do than the offence or obloquy of Direct 9. any For proud persons to say you are sordid or not fine enough and talk of your course attire is no great disgrace to you nor no great hurt But it is a greater disgrace to be esteemed Proud It signifieth an empty childish mind to be desirous to be thought fine It is not only Pride but the Pride of a fool distinct from the Pride of those that have but manly wit And you ought not thus to disgrace your selves as to wear the badge of Pride and folly no more than an honest woman should wear the badge and attire of a Whore Moreover mean apparel is no great temptation to your selves or others to any sin But proud and curious apparel doth signifie and stir up a lustful or proud disposition in your selves and it tempteth those of the same sex to envy and to imitate you and those of the other sex to lust or wantonness You spread the Devils Nets even in the Churches and open Streets and Meetings to catch deluded silly souls You should rather serve Christ with your apparel by expressing humility self-denyal chastity and sobriety to draw others to imitate you in good than to serve the Devil and pride and lust by it by drawing men to imitate you in evil § 19. Direct 10. Remember what a Body it is that you so carefully and curiously adorn Well is it Direct 10. called by the Apostle a vile body Phil. 3. 21. What a silly lothesome lump of dirt is it What a thing would the Pox or Leprosie or almost any sickness make it appear to be What lothesome excrements within are covered by all that bravery without Think what it is made of and what is within it and what it will turn to How long it must lye rotting in a darksome grave more lothesome than the common dirt and then must turn to common earth And is Purple and Silk Luke 19. 19. and a curious dress beseeming that body that must shortly have but a Winding sheet and must lye thus in the grave and it s to be feared the soul for this pride lye in Hell Luke 16. 23 25. Is all this cost and curiosity comely for one that knoweth that he is returning to the dust § 20. Direct 11. Remember that you have sinful souls that have continual cause of humiliation Direct 11. and that have need of more care and adorning than your bodies And therefore your apparel should express your humiliation and shew that you take more care for the soul. How vile should that sinner be in his own eyes who knoweth what he hath done against God What mercy he hath sinned against What a God he hath offended What a Saviour he hath slighted What a Spirit of Grace he hath resisted and what a Glory he hath undervalued and neglected He that
and Sanctifier of souls and in what order he doth all this by the Ministry of the Word 12. In the next open to them the office and use and duty of the ordinary Ministry and their duty toward them especially as Hearers and the nature and use of publick Worship and the nature and Communion of Saints and Churches 13. In the next open to them the Nature and use of Bâ—pâ—ism and the Lords Supper 14. In the next open to them the shortness of life and the state of souls at death and after death and the day of Judgement and the Justification of the Righteous and the Condemnation of the wicked at that day 15. In the next open to them the Joyes of Hâ—aven and the miseries of the damned 16. In the next open to them the vanity of all the pleasure and profits and honour of this World and the method of Temptations and how to overcome them 17. In the next open to them the reason and use of suffering for Christ and of self denyal and how to prepare for sickness and death And after this go over also the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments § 13. Direct 13. After all your instructions make them briefly give you an account in their own Direct 13. words of what they understand and remember of all or else the next time to give account of the fâ—rmer And encourage them for all that is well done in their endeavours § 14. Direct 14. Labour in all to keep up a â—akened serious attention and still to print upon their Direct 14. hearts the greatest things And to that end For the Matter of your teaching and discourse let nothing be so much in your mouths as 1. The Nature and Relations of God 2. A Crucified and a Glorified Christ with all his grace and priviledges 3. The operations of the spirit on the soul. 4. The madness of sinners and the vanity of the world 5. And endless Glory and Joy of Saints and misery of the ungodly after death Let these five points be frequently urged and be the life of all the rest of your discourse And then for the Manner of your speaking to them let it be alwayes with such a mixture of familiarity and seriousness that may carry along their serious attentions whether they will or no Speak to them as if they or you were dying and as if you saw God and Heaven and Hell § 15. Direct 15. Take each of them sometime by themselves and there describe to them the work Direct 15. of Renovation and ask them whether ever such a work was wrought upon them Shew them the true Marks of Grace and help them to try themselves Urge them to tell you truly whether their Love to God or the Creature to Heaven or Earth to Holiness or Flesh-pleasing be more and what it is that hath their hearts and care and chief endeavour And if you find them regenerate help to strengthen them If you find them too much dejected help to Comfort them And if you find them unregenerate help to convince them and then to humble them and then to shew them the remedy in Christ and then shew them their duty that they may have part in Christ and drive all home to the end that you desire to see But do all this with Love and gentleness and privacy § 16. Direct 16. Some pertinent Questions which by the answer will engage them to teach themselves Direct 16. or to judge themselves will be sometimes of very great use As such as these Do you not know that you must shortly dye Do you not believe that immediately your souls must enter upon an endless life of joy or misery Will worldly wealth and honours or fleshly pleasures be pleasant to you then Had you then rather be a Saint or an ungodly sinner Had you not then rather be one of the holiest that the World despised and abused than one of the greatest and richest of the wicked When Time is past and you must give account of it had you not then rather it had been spent in holiness and obedience and diligent preparation for the life to come than in pride and pleasure and pampering the flesh How could you make shift to forget your endless life so long Or to sleep quietly in an unregenerate state What if you had died before conversion what think you had become of you and where had you now been Do you think that any of those in Hell are glad that they were ungodly or have now any pleasure in their former merriments and sin What think you would they do if it were all to do again Do you think if an Angel or Saint from Heaven should come to decide the Controversie between the Godly and the Wicked that he would speak against a Holy and Heavenly life or plead for a loose and fleshly life or which side think you he would take Did not God know what he did when he made the Scriptures Is he or an ungodly scorner to be more regarded Do you think every man in the World will not wish at last that he had been a Saint what ever it had cost him Such kind of Questions urge the Conscience and much convince § 17. Direct 17. Cause them to learn some one most plain and pertinent text for every great Direct 17. and necessary duty and against every great and dangerous sin and often to repeat them to you As Luk. 13. 3 5. Except ye Repent ye shall all perish Joh. 3. 5. Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven So Mat. 18. 3. Rom. 8. 9. Heb. 18. 14. Ioh. 3. 16 Luk. 18. 1 c. So against lying swearing taking Gods name in vain flesh-pleasing Gluttony pride and the rest § 18. Direct 18. Drive all your Convictions to a Resolution of Endeavour and amendment and Direct 18. make them sometime promise you to do that which you have convinced them of And sometimes before witnesses But let it be done with these necessary Cautions 1. That you urge not a promise in any doubtful point or such as you have not first convinced them of 2. That you urge not a promise in things beyond their present strength As you must not bid them promise you to Believe or to Love God or to be tender-hearted or heavenly-minded but to do those duties which tend to these as to hear the Word or read or pray or meditate or keep good company or avoid temptations c. 3. That you be not too often upon this or upon one and the same strain in the other methods lest they take them but for words of course and custome teach them to contemn them But seasonably and prudently done their promises will lay a great engagement on them § 19. Direct 19. Teach them how to pray by formes or without as is most suitable to their â—ase and Direct 19. parts And either your self or