were impossible that a Man believing this to be true and that his Soul must live with him when he is dead either in Eternal happiness or Eternal misery should suffer such an excellent thing to be lost and perish through his own default In respect of the latter one would think it impossible that such a vile such an abominable thing as sin hath made it should ever come to be good and prosper And indeed it is beyond the power of Men or Angels to effect it The recovery of a lost Soul is more pretious then so But to this it may be said as our Saviour said to his Disciples Mat. 19.26 With Men it is impossible but all things are possible to God 2. I proceed to the second thing proposed to shew wherein the prosperity of the Soul consists and when it may be said to prosper By way of Answer to this we must take notice that Soul-prosperity comes under a double consideration 1. In respect of its Rise 2. In respect of its Growth 1. In respect of its Rise and first Foundation This must be considered two ways 1. Either as looking after it upward without us 2. Or looking after it inwardly within us 1. If we look after it upward we shall find its first foundation laid in God's Eternal Electing Love 2. If we look after it inwardly within us then we shall find that it begins in that day and hour when by the word and spirit of Christ the whole Man both Body and Soul is brought into a state of Fellowship and Union with Christ Which is done and not done any other way I speak not of Elect Infants dying in their infancy then by obeying the call of Christ to come to him and abide with him and in him resigning our selves to him to be ruled and saved by him in his own way Thus understand it 1. God's Eternal love is God's Eternal purpose to work in the Soul in his appointed time that good thing which he knows will put it into a capacity of prospering Eph. 1.9 He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure as he had purposed in himself ver 11 In whom that is in Christ we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will This Eternal purpose ye see to do so and so for to work so and so in such and such a Soul is his Eternal love to those Souls The time when this purpose takes effect is then and not till then when the Soul obeyeth the call of Christ Then it is that an actual Application of that good thing which was intended is made This is exemplified in the Lord 's dealing with Paul He was a chosen Vessel from all Eternity Act. 9.15 But then was not this good thing wrought in him by the improvement whereof his Soul might prosper untill he obeyed the Call of Christ For till then he was a Persecutor of the Church of God and that beyond measure But when it pleased God to call him by his grace and to reveal his Son in him then that good thing was wrought in him according as God had purposed as he declares Gal. 1.13 14 15 16 Immediately he conferred not with flesh and blood But as Act. 9.20 he straitway Preached in the Synagogue that Christ was the Son of God for as he tells King Agrippa Act. 26.19 He was not disobedient to the heavenly Vision Now if ye ask what this good thing was which he received in obeying this call in improvement whereof his Soul began presently to prosper I shall give it you in a word It was a Heaven-born principle of Spiritual life 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Then as he saith Eph. 2.5 He was quickned who before was dead in sins and trespasses Then his Soul was in a way of thriving As a Tree when there is life in the Root it is capable if well ordered of prospering and bringing forth fruit Thus it is evident that if we look upward we find the first foundation of Soul-prosperity is laid in God's Eternal Electing Love But if we look inward it is then laid when once we are effectually called 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling That is He hath brought us into a state of Salvation which is the only state wherein the Soul prospers And there it shall prosper Rom. 8.28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are called according to his purpose vers 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified When this Call is first obeyed the Soul begins to prosper for the Understanding begins then to be savingly enlightened 2 Pet. 1.9 But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see far off In that day of God's power the Soul is made willing Psal 110.3 And then the Conscience begins to be purged from dead works Heb. 9.14 And this good thing thus in this day begun shall one day be made perfect in full and absolute Soul prosperity 1 Thes 5.23 The very God of peace sanctifie you wholly So prays the Apostle for them and is confident his prayers shall be heard vers 24 Faithful is he that calleth you who will also do it He saith to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1.8 9. Who shall confirm you to the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ. I might now dismiss this point concerning the first Rise and Foundation of this Soul-prosperity and proceed to shew the growth and progress of it But I must first speak a few words to prevent if possible all mistakes by any thing that hath been said It cannot be denyed but in some that never yet heartily and unfeignedly obeyed the call of Christ what by one means what by another they living under the ministry of the Gospel there may be wrought not only a fair Reformation of the outward Man but likewise some inward work upon the Soul and that in each of the three forementioned excellent Faculties which have an appearance of very great tendency to Soul-prosperity but indeed come very far short of it as to the truth and reality of the matter 1. In the Understanding there may be much light in the things of God We read Matth. 7.22 that not only one or two but Many shall say we have Prophesied in thy Name Some think they lyed in saying so as if none were partakers of such excellent gifts in their unconverted state but the Scripture is clear to the contrary Heb. 6.4 Those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the
unto you 1. Wherein the prosperity of the Soul consisteth and when it may be said to prosper I told you then that the prosperity thereof is to be considered both in its first rise and foundation Or in its growth and progress As to the first rise of it it was proved that if we look upwards we shall find it begin in God's Eternal Electing love which is without beginning But if we look inwardly so as to discern it in our selves The first foundation of it is laid in that day and hour though the very day and hour hath I think not been discerned by many though perhaps by some But however discerned or not discerned in that day and hour it begins when by the word of Christ and by the Spirit of Christ the whole Man both Soul and Body is brought into a state of Union with Christ For then the Soul receives the first Seeds of Heaven-born principles of Spiritual life and then begins to be in a capacity of prospering 2. As the first foundation is laid in these principles So the growth and progress thereof consists in their increase As they increase so the prosperity of the Soul increaseth So that if ye give up your selves to be guided by right reason your work for the substance of it is first to see that your Souls are Spiritually alive And secondly that they thrive and prosper in that wherein they live In reference to the former of them I have two things to say 1. To all and every one of you that you would set some time apart seriously to debate the matter between God and your selves alone and none else with you whether ever ye felt the day of God's power upon your spirits to prevail so far upon you As 1. To cast you down from the good opinion which ye had of your selves by a thorough conviction of the woful mistake wherein ye were about the state of your Souls That ye thought them alive when they were as now ye see dead in sin pleasing your selves with the Religion of your Education as Paul did before his Converson That ye thought ye had good hearts toward God whereas now ye see that as Psal 5.9 your inward parts were very wickedness That whereas ye thought not of any danger ye were in of the wrath to come now ye see ye are condemned by a holy and righteous Law And that what by reason of your Actual sins and what by reason of your Original sin ye utterly despair of Salvation in that state wherein ye pleased your selves and see clearly that outward Reformation will not serve your turn but ye must be inwardly changed into the Image of God and be born again by the Spirit of God else ye can never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This is such a casting down as Paul experienced when he said Sin revived and I died Rom. 7.9 2. Whether besides this casting down ye have also experienced the day of God's power so far to prevail upon you as to raise up your hearts to a willing and hearty acceptance of Christ to all intents and purposes in order to Salvation To kill and destroy that enmity which you find in your hearts against the ways of God so as to bring you into a state of Reconciliation with God and to all the means of conformity to him and Communion with him to impute unto you the merits of Christ's death for a full and free discharge from the guilt of all your sins and to impute unto you his Righteousness that ye may be accepted as righteous unto Eternal life To mortifie all your corruptions to quicken your dead hearts with the principles of Spiritual life those principles of true holiness without which ye know ye shall never see God with a sincere resolution in his strength to wait upon him and keep his way That he would do all this for you and work all this in you and that ye are humbled for defects in living no more upon him that he might be all this unto you Verily so far as any person can really assert this that thus he hath been cast down and thus he hath been and is raised up though he may sometimes be in the dark as to the safety of his estate for Eternity he hath good Scripture ground thò he may not see it to believe that he is called into fellowship with Christ 1 Cor. 1.9 And that his Soul begins to live and is in a capacity of prospering For when the Soul it may be after a long shutting up under unbelief thus opens to Christ then Christ comes into the Soul as Rev. 3.20 And when he comes he brings the principles of Spiritual life with him 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life This is the first Particular A word to all 2. I have a word to some to those I mean that know nothing as yet what either this casting down or lifting up means And it is a word of advice That as ever they desire their Souls should live and be in a capacity of prospering that they would break off from all their dead works and resolve for this end that they may be thus cast down and lifted up To be swift to hear as Jam. 1.19 And to attend unto the words of this life so as it is said to be Joh. 5.20 The word whereby dead Souls are quickened Joh. 5.25 the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live And that in order hereunto ye would take the right way of working what ye hear upon your hearts thus or to this purpose reason the case with your selves 1. Soul-prosperity I am now convinced is the most desirable prosperity And if my Soul prosper not all the sooner possibly it may never prosper for this night it may be taken from me And if it do not prosper nothing will prosper with me so as to turn to good whilst I live and when I am dead I shall be one of the most woful and miserable Creatures to all Eternity that ever God made next to the Devils 2. If my Soul be as I have reason to be asraid it is still in its unregenerate state then it is spiritually dead in sin and while it continues so it is in no more capacity of prospering then a dead Tree while it continues dead is in a capacity of bringing forth ripe fruit This I now clearly see though I did not so much as think on it before 3. If I do not so receive Jesus Christ as that Jesus Christ may receive me into a state of Union with himself my Soul can never live for so I hear from 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath not the Son hath not life 4. If I would so receive Jesus Christ as that he may receive me into Union with himself and I receive life from him I must so receive the word as to be so cast down and so lifted up as I have heard Therefore by his help
of the Physician who often conceals the danger lest the sick Man's fears and phansie might do him more hurt then his Physick doth him good But it is otherwise in Soul-sickness a clear insight into the Disease is of great use that every one should understand according to that expression 1 Kings 8.38 the plague of his own heart and what strength it hath got over him how long it hath been growing upon him and by what means and occasions he fell into it These are good steps toward spiritual health This is required in order to cure Jer. 3.13 Know and acknowledge thine iniquity And then distinctly to understand the way of cure and to follow those directions which Jesus Christ the great Physician of our Souls prescribes is a far greater and better step Having premised these things I shall now lay before you what is prescribed by him 1. When the Body is full of corrupt humours there is need of Purging Physick Even such need hath the Soul when it is over-grown and oppressed with corrupt lusts which are the noisome steams of Original corruption It was well with them of whom it is said 1 Pet. 1.22 that they had purified their Souls This is commanded Jam. 4.8 Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded 2 Cor. 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit This is absolutely necessary for as sin is to the Soul as sickness is to the Body so the purging out of these corrupt lusts is to the Soul what this purging Physick is to the Disease Joh. 15.2 Every branch in me saith Christ I will purge that it may bring forth more fruit In Mal. 3.3 it is prophesied That God will sit as a Refiner and as a Purifier of Silver and purifie the Sons of Levi that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in Righteousness Now this purging and emptying the heart of the evil treasure that is in it is all one with mortification and wherever and in whom soever this is neglected that necessary and commendable practice of abounding in the External duties of Religion avails nothing to Soul-prosperity Ye see this exemplified in the Pharisees Matth. 6. Nay though the Soul be alive to Christ yet if this be neglected the Soul prospers not This is evident in those Church members in Corinth Paul supposed them to be in Christ Yet their unmortified lusts clearly proved it against them that they did not thrive their Souls did not prosper They were but Babes in Christ They were in a comparative sense in respect to what they ought to have been and might have been but very Carnal still 1 Cor. 3.2 3. This then ought to be taken notice of that besides the real foundation of universal mortification that is laid in at first in the Soul's Conversion to Christ wherein the absolute and un-interrupted Reign of Original sin is broken yet the continual exercise of mortification is to be minded and taken up otherwise it is not like to go well with the Soul For it is in this case as it was with the Monarchies Dan. 4.12 Though their Dominion was taken away yet their lives were continued for a season So it is here for Original sin is like Leaven which being mingled with the Dough the Bread will always more or less taste of it So that the most mortified Christian hath still more mortifying work on his hands which he must dispatch Those that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 and savour the things of the Spirit vers 5. Yet are pressed to a further progress in this duty vers 13 but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live This in general 2. When by communing with our own hearts and observing the out-goings of our own Spirits we clearly see that we are among the transgressors not among the righteous I mean among the sick and not among the sound then speedily and seriously to set our selves to the use of such purging and mortifying means as Christ hath prescribed in his word And here I desire you to note that the means appointed in this case to be used come under a double consideration 1. Some there are which we may not desire nor adventure upon but as the Providence of God according to the condition we are in calls us to make use of 2. There are other means which whatever our condition be we ought immediately and daily to apply our selves to make use of as the matter requires and upon special occasions in a manner more then ordinary For the former of these they are of two sorts 1. The Evil of Affliction And 2. The Evil of Sin 1. The Evil of Affliction of what kind soever it be or for what cause soever it comes to be our portion whether upon our own Personal account or upon the Common account of Religion These are the means that God makes use of Dan. 11.35 And some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white Isa 27.9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away their sin And they are fit means for they have a great tendency to awaken the Conscience as Gen. 42.21 And they said one to another we are verily guilty concerning our Brother To break the unruliness of our Spirits and to make us willing to hearken to what God speaks unto us in his word Hos 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early And therefore when God is pleased to exercise us this way we ought to improve them for this end And it is a great aggravation of sin and a great evidence of an heart greatly unmortified not to do it Isa 57.17 For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart Therefore Hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Mic. 6.9 Yet for all this we may not desire to come under the lash of any of God's Rods when we are free in hope that we may thus improve them For who knows afore-hand but that when he hath his desire and is under the Rod that it will not either be with him as it was with Ahaz 2 Chron. 28.22 And in the time of his sickness he did trespass yet more against the Lord. This is that King Ahaz Or otherwise with him that it was with Nabal whose heart was as unsensible in him as a stone during the time of his sickness 1 Sam. 25. This we are sure of that there needs an Almighty power to work with them to make them have any effectual influence to purge out so much as one of those lusts which hinder the well-fare and prosperity of the Soul And what ground we have to hope that God will put forth any such
really happy as his Soul prospers These things being so one would think I might forbear to press any thing farther and might say concerning this duty of minding Soul-prosperity as the Apostle doth of Brotherly love 1 Thes 4.9 ye need not that I should write any more concerning it But considering what a deep inward rooted respect for and reaching after the things of the World there appears to be in some who yet profess they are fully convinced of the vanity thereof and such a strong byass in others turning them aside into ways that are not good So far it may be charged upon them as Rom. 1.18 They hold the truth they believe in unrighteousness not suffering it to exercise its autority in their Consciences And feeing it is so difficult a thing yea impossible without the Almighty power of the Spirit of God to raise up a drosly earthy spirit sunk into the world to look after things that are not seen to mortifie the deeds of the flesh and to set their affections on things that are above or to six a vain light spirit so as to reduce it to a sober and serious consideration of the things of Eternity and yet both the one and the other must be done by all those that resolve to mind the prosperity of their Souls above all other prosperity I shall to what hath been said already before I come to shew the great work that is to be done for the welfare of Souls first give you some Arguments to prove the Inference That if Soul-Prosperity be the most desirable Prosperity Then is it the most rational thing in the world to mind it above all things else 1. It is a rational thing ye must all grant it for any man to part with any thing except the Peace of his own Conscience and to do any thing that is possible to be done except sinning against God for the preservation of natural life It is a Scripture expression Prov. 6.26 that Life is pretious It is indeed the most pretious thing in Nature Matth. 6.25 Is not the life more than meat Act. 27. They cast away the Lading of the Ship in hope to save their lives Esth 7.2 3 4 Let my life be given me at my petition For we are sold I and my people to be destroyed to be slain and to perish If we had beensold for Bond-men and for Bond-women I had held my tongue See how she pleaded for her life he valued not the one half of 127 Provinces in comparison of that And we read of a poor woman that had spent all that she had in hope of health which is a degree below life Mar. 5. Now if it should be asked as Jam. 4.14 What is this life that is so much valued we must answer as he doth That it is a vapour which appeareth for a very little time and then vanisheth away The frailty whereof is set forth by heaps of similitudes in Scripture from the most perishing things that come under observation It is but a little warm breath turned in and out at our nostrils a narrow passage and soon stopt Isa 2.22 Cease from Man whose breath is in his nostrils and wherein is he to be accounted of Now if it be so agreeable to reason by all lawful means to serve the Providence of God for the preservation of such poor and frail things as our lives are as indeed we are bound in obedience to God's command Is it not much more rational to do whatever God would have us to do for the life and well-fare of our immortal Souls Certainly if Nature teach a Man to prize his life above the World Grace should make a Man to prize his Soul above his Life Believe it To save our Lives and to save our Souls are two things This we find in Scripture that those who have learned to value their Souls according to their excellency and have understood how much their own happiness is concerned in them have willingly run the hazard of their lives to save their Souls not only as Paul 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away but also as they Revel 12.11 they loved not their lives unto the death They did not so love their lives as out of inordinate care to preserve them and so to escape death when God called them by their open profession to give in their testimony for Christ and his Gospel against the Anti-Christian Generation So Dan. 3.19 c. The three Witnesses chose rather to be thrown into the fiery Furnace then to worship the Golden Image Heb. 11.35 Others were tortured not accepting deliverance Yea so careless have some of the Saints of old been of their Bodies in comparison of their care for the well-fare of their Souls as if they had been other folks Bodies and not their own We read Act 7 that when the sentence of death was passed upon Stephen he prays not for the mitigation of his Enemies rage he is totally silent concerning his burial It 's true there were some good Men took care of it Act. 8.2 but not at his intreaty that we read of but that which his thoughts were most taken up withal ye read vers 59. They stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit So the Lord Jesus left his Body in the hands of Pilate but he commended his Spirit into his Father's hands Luk. 23.46 It is observable what we have Psal 141.7 8. when some of David's followers were hackt and hewed in pieces and left unburied or as some think when their dead Bodies after they were buried were digged up and their bones were scattered about the Grave's mouth When David saw or heard of this see what he had most in his thoughts Lord leave not my Soul destitute Thus ye have one argument to make good the Inference That it is the most rational thing in the World to mind the wellfare of our Souls above all things else because it is very rational above all outward things to mind the preservation of our lives And that though it be so those that have been wise to Salvation have minded the saving of their Souls above the saving of their Lives there being indeed no comparison between this Natural life and the Spiritual life of the Soul 2. It is every way most rational agreeable to the best and highest principles of reason to mind that most which Jesus Christ in whom dwelt all the Treasures of Wisdom minded most This none will deny but that as it is the highest pitch of our holiness that our Ends in all things fall in with his So it ought to be our greatest business that in all things we should be of the same mind with Christ Now that this was and still is the greatest work that Jesus Christ did and still doth mind in our behalf will appear by these particulars 1. This was
as ever we desire that our Souls should prosper and thrive as a watered Garden according to that promise Jer. 31.12 See that these waters have a free passage Let faith be exercised upon those truths which hold forth the freeness and riches of the grace of Christ For those are the truths the Prophet saw in his Vision represented by those waters And let this be in conjunction with the exercise of Repentance This is the way by the Spirit of grace working with these truths whereby Souls are healed and purged 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit These were the truths by obedience whereunto their Souls were purified This is the way whereby the Lord first begins to heal and purge the Soul For this I shall give you but one place of Scripture but it is a place to be taken notice of It is 2 Corinth 5.19 Wherein note three things 1. God intending according to his Eternal purpose to heal some sick quicken some dead save some lost Souls declares his purpose to do it by way of Reconciling them to himself This he will do before they shall be possessed of that Salvation he hath chosen them unto His method is first to purge their Souls mortifying that enmity that is in their hearts both against his ways and their own good and so to reduce them to terms of Reconciliation with himself and make them willing to be Reconciled unto him 2. How God will do this God was in Christ The Divine Nature assumed the Human Nature and so in and through Christ God-Man in one Person offers terms of Love and Peace to them as the most effectual way to prevail upon them and to bring their Souls about to him 3. But in what peculiar way will he more transcendently manifest this grace and mercy The Text tells us he will do it in not imputing their iniquities proposing and promising a full and everlasting pardon of all sin never to be called in if his terms be accepted of And the sinner being made willing to be Reconciled unto God Thus he subdues the heart conquering it by Love And thus the work of purging and cleansing the Soul is begun Luk. 7.47 Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much And as thus it is begun so upon a failure it is renewed and continued When a Soul that is Diseased and polluted is awakened to apply himself to Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness in the exercise of Faith and Repentance making way that the waters of the Sanctuary the Spirit of grace and the Gospel of grace may not be stopt in their course but have a free passage into the Soul the hope of Reconciliation with God is raised greatly and that stirs up the Soul to purifie himself 1 Joh. 3.3 Every one that hath this hope purifieth himself Observe that He purifies himself This is necessary For as Physick is most effectual to purge out corrupt humours when Nature works with it for it is to no purpose to give it to a dead Man and when Nature is quite spent in a sick Person it comes too late So it is here The Soul that thus applies it self to Christ will find his blood to be a healing purging sin-mortifying blood But in applying our selves thereunto our own thoughts and affections our own endeavours and resolutions against all occasions of sin against the first risings of sin and we must apply our selves to what mortifying means we find prescribed and have been found to be of use to others All these we must set on work and then the Spirit of God will work with us Rom. 8.13 if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live And doing thus we may be said To purge our selves as 2 Cor. 7.1 2 Tim. 1.21 If we do thus We shall be Vessels of honour fit for the Master's use That is our Souls shall prosper This is the first thing that I have to commend unto you as ye mind the well-fare and prosperity of your Souls to mind this There is another kind of Physick to be made use of as the matter requires and that is Cordials for the healing of a fainting Soul This may be spoken unto hereafter when I have first spoken unto what is most times to be made use of betwixt this of Purging and that of Cordials SERMON VIII 2. THe next thing that I shall take notice of as necessary for the health and well-fare of the Body which as the Lord shall enable me I shall apply to the point in hand is the observing of a good Diet with respect to the choice of meats such as by experience have been found best agreeable to the Nature and Constitution of the Body and in proportion suitable to the natural heat of our stomachs for Concoction and Digestion This is a great means of health especially for such as are naturally weak and infirm For usually as is our Food so is our Blood as is our Blood so are our Spirits and as are our Spirits so are our Bodies for health or sickness for strength or weakness Now as I told you what in a natural way is for the health and well-fare of the Body is in a spiritual way applicable to the health and well-fare of the Soul I shewed you that it was so in that which I spake last unto I am now to shew it is so in this In order hereunto we must take notice that as God hath provided and that with great variety Food and nourishment for the preservation of the Natural life of our Bodies So he hath for the preservation of the Spiritual life of our Soul and that suitable to the degree that our Souls have attained unto Heb 5.13 14 Milk for Babes Meat for strong Men. Food that endures to Eternal life Joh. 6.27 Such Food as is a Feast whereupon the Soul may feed and fare deliciously every day Isa 25.6 a Feast of fat things a Feast of Wine on the Lees c. This is a matter we are much concerned in That we know both our Priviledge and our Duty herein something must be said to each of these four Particulars 1. What that Food is which God hath provided for the health and prosperity of our Souls 2. What those Means are whereby that Food is conveyed unto us 3. Something by way of argument to quicken our Spiritual Appetite after it 4. Something by way of Direction how to feed upon it so as to receive that nourishment from it which our Souls stand in need of 1. For the first of these That Food which God hath provided for us is Jesus Christ himself but Jesus Christ especially as Crucified 1. This Food is Jesus Christ himself For the proof of this consider that Jesus Christ is said to be The tree of life Revel 2.7 And the Hidden Manna vers 17. Both which were Types of Christ 1. He is said to be The tree of life in
be so exercised as to bear all such changes so as to avoid the snares and temptations accompanying them To this height St. Paul attained that he could thus manage all conditions Phil. 4.12 I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound c. Want or no want having nothing or possessing all things make no change of the frame of my heart So he saith I am instructed in every thing This is the excellency of the principles of godliness That though truths and falshood things morally good or morally evil are at such a distance that the same principles cannot turn to either side yet Poverty and Riches a full Estate and a poor and mean Estate liberty or restraint are not at such a distance but that the same gracious principle can apply it self to both the one and the other and may be exercised so as the Soul may prosper and may be spiritually a gainer both by the one and by the other And as we desire our Souls should prosper these principles ought to be exercised that we may find it so For so far as corruption mingles with the Providences we are under so far if there be any grace in the heart it will be so far from thriving that it will wither and decay It is observed that when things go well with a Man in his outward condition if corruption be not kept at a distance from it the Man will grow proud and passionate high and self conceited Earthy and Selfish impatient of being crossed in any thing having as he finds wit enough for every thing else and that therefore every one must stoop to him And so when things go cross and as the usual phrase is The World frowns upon him if his corruptions be not kept at a distance from his condition the Man will grow fretful discontented unthankful for what he hath envious at those with whom it is better then with himself And to speak all in a word sin will sit light when crosses fit heavy Therefore it is of absolute necessity that as ever we desire our Souls should prosper this with the uttermost of our care should be looked unto 1. That when the good hand of God is for us so as all our Goings out and Comings-in the beginning and ending of every thing we undertake succeeds well according to our desires that then these principles of grace ought to be exercised that nothing come betwixt Jesus Christ and our hearts but that the more we have of the World the more our hearts may be in Heaven As Jacob was then desirous to be in Heaven when God had given in the unexpected sight of his lost Son his best Son and that as great as he was good Gen. 46.30 And Israel said unto Joseph Now let me dye since I have seen thy face Jam. 1.10 Let the rich Man rejoice in that he is made low because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away when he is made low i. e. When his heart is low and meek humble and patient when his condition is full and high though perhaps not so in it self but as compared with others who had the same opportunities for the World that he had reckoning of all that he hath but as food that perisheth but as a flower that fadeth accounting this as the chiefest excellency of the plentifulness of his Estate that he hath a larger opportunity of doing good and of doing more for God then he could have had if his portion had been as little as once it was Thus to exercise grace To bear such full a cup without spilling argues not only the truth but also the strength of grace and is the way to make the Soul prosper as fast as the Estate 2. In all our civil converse with Men principles of godliness must be exercised with righteousness and sobriety Tit. 2.12 Yea with all courtesie and kindness 3 Epist of John v. 6. Gaius is exhorted in his kindness to the Brethren that travelled up and down about the affairs of the Gospel when he brought them onwards on their Journey to do it after a godly sort That which the Apostle presseth on aged Women is the duty of all both old and young Tit. 2.2 That the aged women be sober grave temperate Zech. 14.20 21 In that day shall be written upon the Bells of the horses Holiness to the Lord And every Pot in Jerusalem shall be holiness to the Lord. This was written upon the High-Priests Mitre as he was a type of the great High-Priest the Lord Jesus who was holy and undefiled That which Men are thereby taught is this That the meanest things of common use should be holily used In all we do we should act as persons consecrated to God that are not our own and therefore we ought to glorifie God with our Bodies and with our Spirits which are God's 1 Cor. 6.20 Even in our natural actions Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do we should do all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10.31 Now I have told you already and I told you the truth that God is not glorified it will appear so one day but when the principles of godliness are exercised Neglect hereof even in these natural actions is charged upon Men as their sin Jude ver 12. That they did feed without fear 3. In all companys So as where ever we are we always keep our hearts under the awe of God Eph. 4.29 Let no corrupt Communication proceed out of your mouth Col. 4.6 Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with Salt But of this more under another head in the next use of this Point SERMON XI I Come now to the third Particular The reasons why these principles of godliness ought to be stirred up So as to be set about and kept close to their proper work that they may bring forth their proper and peculiar fruit in due season and that in order to Soul-prosperity 1. This is that which specially falls under the authority of Command Observe it and you will find that when the Scripture speaks to professing Christians the principles are supposed to be infused and the exercise is specially required as Eph. 4.24 Put on the new Man saith the Apostle Not by Conversion that is supposed for he owns them as faithful Brethren in Christ Ch. 1. vers 1. But put them on for operation for exercise The new Creature the first day of its birth is a new Man It is born at once though it grows up by degrees and every particular principle of godliness is a member of this new Man Put them on so as ye may have them ready and nothing may be wanting when Providence calls for their exercise so that Your loins be girded about and your lights burning Luk. 12.35 Thus also Eph. 6.10 Put on the whole armour of God Be ready furnished to break through whatever snares and temptations ye may meet withal in running that race which God hath set