Righteous art thou O Lord in the Sentence which thou hast passed in the Judgment which thou hast executed Psal 119.137 Thou hast poured forth thy wrath and indignation on them and given them gall and bitterness to drink for they are worthy You shall then wish that your faculty to consider were gone it will follow you so close and be such a perpetual honour to you or rather that you had never had reason and understanding to consider then you might have both liv'd and died like a beast Whereas now though you have liv'd like a beast that you must die like a man that hath Memory Reason Foresight Judgment and Affections that will all conspire together to overwhelm you with eternal shame Why had I reason will the Soul say then but to prevent this misery Why had I will to choose when Life and Death were set before me and could choose no better Had it not been a wiser course to have troubled my self a little while with some few Thoughts of it then now to feel it for ever Why did God threaten Hell and destruction in his Word and set it forth with so much Terrour to mine apprehensions but that I might consider and escape it Why did he appoint the Ministerial Office but that knowing the Terrours of the Lord they might perswade men 2 Cor. 5.11 What could nothing prevail with one but what I now feel and must forever undergo Think not to say then I had not time to consider neither had I skill to follow such a work as this It 's not so much a knowing Head as an honest Heart that 's required to this work The Truths are but few and plain that thy Heart is to dwell upon and the certainty of them is beyond all doubt and question Whatever difference of Opinion there may be in other things yet here is no controversy all are agreed that man hath an Immortal Soul that there is a Life to come That the Happiness of man lies in these two things 1. In being like to God 2. In loving him and being loved by him that sin hath made us unlike to him and therefore must be repented of That Christ will purge away their guilt and sin and renew them by his Spirit that love him and consent to be ruled by him and will take him for their Physitian That there is a day in which God will summon all the World before him and Judge them Impartially according as they have believed or not believed in Christ to everlasting joy or 〈◊〉 These things are certain in the highest 〈◊〉 and there is none that doubteth 〈…〉 but either an Atheist or an 〈…〉 are the Truths that God hath 〈…〉 in great mercy and compassion 〈…〉 commanded every one 〈…〉 Poer and Rich 〈…〉 think upon when they are 〈…〉 when they are walk 〈…〉 when they lye down and 〈…〉 they rise up and to teach them diligently to their Children and to live as those that do believe and consider them Woe to the man or woman that considers not these things good it had been for him or her if they had never been born Wilt thou not think of those things It is because thou art void of understanding and hast chose the way of destruction If thou wilt not be perswaded now to consider thou wilt forget thy latter end thou wilt forget thine Immortal Soul and God will be forgotten and a little sensual pleasure will weigh more with thee than Eternal Life and Happiness And when the day of thy dishress is come upon thee thou wilt wish that thou hadst rather forgot to eat thy Bread than these things should have been forgotten and to fill up thy measure and make thee perfectly miserable God will forget thee forever Psal 50.22 Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tare you in peices and there be none to aeliver I Have set some of the Motives before you that should stir you up to Consideration and shewed you in part what a mischief it is for this faculty to lie dead which is given us by God to quicken those that are dead to the Life of Grace and Holiness and to make them strong and lively and vigorous Christians that are quickned by the spirit of Christ and have set their affections upon things above and not upon things here on Earth This is the way that God hath prescribed for Rational Creatures to get home to God that are revolted from him and to recover their affections to the right owner that are intangled in the love of Earth and vanity If they would but consider would feed upon Swinish pleasures no longer nor suffer their Souls to be charmed with more delusion nor prefer the imaginary dream of a sluggard before the happiness of a man that is awake and whose eyes are open Consideration would shew such a man the difference between Earth and Heaven rectify his judgment in this great point viz. where mans happiness lies And tell him roundly how the world hath cheated him with more shews and phantastick pleasures and put a picture into his hand instead of real felicity It would clear his Eye-sight and make him quite of another mind than once he was when Inconsideracy had blinded him and the world had befool'd him and he would see much more reason to live in the love of God looking for the mercies of his Redeemer unto eternal Life Jude the 21. than ever he did to live in carnal love and delights Consideration would bring the world and all its pleasures as much into disgrace as ever Inconsideracy brough◠them into credit And men that snatch'd at the riches and vain glory of the world before as a sweet bit to be purchased upon any terms would after they are enlightened by Consideration suspect all its soberest pleasures and those that come in upon the fairest terms What a Confession should you have from such a man of the foolishness and madness of his former Conversation when he liv'd upon Air and Trash as other Inconsiderate men still do Such a one as Paul's Tit. 3.3 For we our selves saith he describing his state before Consideration undeceived him were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures Then you should hear him bitterly accuse and condemn the soberest course he formerly took when the World had the Supremacy in his mind and heart Strange it would be to see a man so much altered for the better and advanced to such an improvement in knowledge and vertue as by impartial sober and considerate Thoughts might be done He was it may be before a covetous busie worldling that scrap'd and dig'd his happiness out of the dirt and said it up on Earth Whose God was his belly whose glory was his shame that minded Earthly things Phil. 3.19 But now his conversation is in Heaven and there he hath laid up his Treasure And digs for Wisdom as for Silver and searcheth for it as for hid Treasure Prov. 2.4 And his delight
2 Tim. 3.16 and shew how by Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness all the visible Creatures would help on this Remembrance of God and therefore forgetfulness of God hath the greater sin by how much it prevailes against the greater means vouchsafed by God for its cure But least that way shâ—uld not seem so intelligible and convincing I shall chuse rather to nominate four other ways whereby the several Creatures do provoke man to have God highest in their Remembrance 1. They all offer themselves to his sight and by that to his understanding to inform him in the glorious Perfections of God which they palpably discover and therefore are very serviceable in the work of Contemplation No one so sottish as to imagine they could make themselves then they must be made by another that 's God but such infinite variety and such rare and excellent works must suppose and therefore put any one that thinks on them in mind of infinite Wisdom and Skill infinite Goodness and Power in the creating of them 2. They serve for his Food and Rayment and are the means to keep him alive that could not live a day without them Let him that thinks he is least of all beholding to the Creatures consider whether he could live an hour without the Air he sucks in or how many days he could live without Food which one Creature or another serves in every day and then let him think who hath made and doth supply every Creature to him and forget God if he can 3. They serve for his other necessary uses in great delightful variety The Horse to fetch in and carry out both himself and other things and to remove his Luggage from place to place The Wood and Stones to build his Habitation and the Art and Workmanship of Man to adorn it the Dog to keep it and all things conspire together to make him as happy as he can be in the absence of God even a Lord on Earth because God hath appointed him so to be and hath he not yet enough to advance his great Benefactor in his Heart 4. They serve also for his Recreation and sober Pleasure and Refreshment when he hath been tired by his more serious Employments and yet to forget God whose Praise and Service these Creatures do so constantly bespeak by their so beneficial service to us All these steps lead up the sin to a higher guilt In a word to have all the Senses assaulted by the several Objects that God hath furnished to them The Eye to be fed with so many delightful sights of several things The Ear with such various Harmony and Sound The Taste with so many distinct and grateful Relishes of things which the wisdom of the Creator hath provided and offered to that Sense And the Objects of the other Senses are multiplied to as great a variety And is it not monstrous for the mind of man to have so many Monitors and yet to forget God in despight of all 3. Thirdly He hath moreover given us his Son that we might not want an Argument of the greatest force to provoke a remembrance of him When we were like to withstand all other Arguments and to lose the sense of all his other mercies towards us and to perish in a wicked oblivion and forgetfulness of God for ever He hath taken such a course that one would think should create a memory of him where there was none at all of him before and should recover those that are the most desperately gone in forgetfulness and force them to say that the love of Christ constraineth them 2 Cor. 5.14 Would not a Malefactor that 's sentenced and condemned to die take it for a favour indeed and place that man high in his Remembrance that should step between him and death and release him with the loss of his own life especially if he were a Person of Honour and Degree And doth it not deserve a Remembrance not a Customary but a substantial Remembrance when the highest and most honourable Person that ever lived in the World hath laid down his life in the room of ours Sure we think we are not so beholding to him as we are when such an obligation as this wiâ—l prevail no more to exalt God in our Hearts If this be not an obligation that doth inforce a gracious Remembrance now I am sure it is such a one that will enforce a tormenting Remembrance hereafter When the thought of such a mercy so wickedly slighted shall be a raging fire in their Bowels and then they shall not be able to forget it What 's the matter that such a motive is put off and not regarded by too many I am sure there 's nothing but flat downright wickedness can make a man so sleepy and forgetful If such a Breath as this will not kindle the love of God in our Hearts if such a spur will not prick us forward to the duty of Remembrance It 's not because we want Arguments but because we want Grace and how we should want Grace if we were apprehensive of the mercy would be very difficult to resolve and how we should not be apprehensive if we did but think frequently of it would be as impossible to determine So that you see the wickedness of this sin is ultimatly resolved into not thinking or bending our selves to think what we have received Well we are left to take our choice the death of Christ will either oblige us to the duty of Remembrance or aggravate the sin of forgetfulness Lastly We have the Spirit Word and all the Ordinances of God to beget and cherish this Remembrance of God I joyn all these together because I would not multiply particulars too much Obj. But you may say Though the Death of Christ and the Gift of the Spirit are Arguments of great strength and may do good service to quicken up a Believer that 's backward to this work yet how can they compel a wicked man or one that forgets God since Christ died for none but the Elect and none can know themselves to be such but such as have true Faith and know they have it and so also for the Spirit and therefore these Arguments are cogent to none but such as these Answer That Christ gave himself intentionally for all men and that God accepted his Sacrifice to that universal end is so plain in Scripture that scarce any truth is plainer 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a ransom for all 1 John 2.2 And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World But because some evade those places by distinguishing of All and World that All is sometimes taken for some and World for part of the World As if the Apostle fore-saw such Quirks and meant to stop every Mouth his words are not liable to evasion Heb. 2.9 That he by the Grace of God should taste of Death for every Man And to make mention
acknowledgeth And therefore Origen Arnob. Tertulian Justin Martyr Athanasius Clemens Alexandrinus Athenagoras Lactantius with the rest that dealt with the Heathens do make the pure Excellency of Christs Doctrine above all other Doctrine whereby it promoteth Holiness and Justice and order in the World and strongly opposeth all impious and unrighteous Practises in which the Devils are delighted whereby their Kingdom is very much weakened and in some places utterly ruined one of the main Arguments for the Christian Faith Would the Devil ever set any seal or give any confirming Testimony to such Precepts as command that which he hateth to such Promises as encourage Men every where to hate and oppose him to such threatening as tend exceedingly to discourage and bring to repentance all his Confederates Would he helpon such a Doctrine that teacheth Men What a filthy malicious Spirit he is and from what a Happiness he fell and what a design he driveth on against God and whatsoever hath the Face of Goodness and how he hateth Mankind and would bring all Men into the same cursed condition with himself Would he have Men know his devices least he should come upon them unawares And would he have them abhor and tremble at the mention of his very Name These are the effects that this Doctrin is like to have upon Mens Minds And therefore it 's past doubt that if the Devil could work Miracles he would never do it in the present case nor give the least Countenance to such writings But if he were Master of such a Seal and had that Faculty he would rather lend it to the Sects that seek to disparage undermine and cry down these Writings in the World He perfectly hateth that parity that runneth in every vein of the Christian Doctrine which made Aeneas Sylv. say ut Plat. p. 328. Christiana Fides si Miraculis nonesset approbata Honestate suâ recipi debuit And therefore it would be a wonder indeed if he should do a Miracle to confirm it The Miracles therefore that were wrought in Attestation of this Doctrine never came from him He had no more hand in the Miracles than he had in the Doctrine they bore witness to or than he would have in the overthrow of his own Kingdom And therefore Mr. Stillingfleet Orig. Sac. l. 2.10 well makes it a Test or Criterium of Miracles wrought by a Divine Power where they tend to the overthrow of Satans Power in the World And this Argument taken from Miracles conjunct with the Holy Doctrine which they ratifie and attest is such a demonstration of the Truth of the Mosaical Religion before Christ and to the Christian Religion since that to attribute these Miracles to the Devil which could not possibly be wrought by any other Power than the Finger of the Holy-Ghost is now commonly thought by the most learned and judicious Divines to be The Blasphemy against the Holy-Ghost c. The unpardonable Sin Thus Athanasius Episcopus and Dr. Hammond thought and Mr. Baxter hath demonstratively shewed in his Treat of Infidelity The only Exception that can have any shew of Pretence to invalidate this Argument is that the matters of fact seem to be Questionable 1 Some may possibly question whether ever such Miracles were wrought to confirm the Scriptures or whether ever there were such a person as Christ that did such Mighty works that dyed and rose again from the Dead and poured forth a Holy and Miraculous Spirit upon his Followers for the Conviction of Infidels Answer The matter of Fact can be questioned with no more Reason than whether there be such a City as Rome or Constantinople by the Persons that never saw them or whether there ever lived such a Person as Julius or Augustus Caesar For there is the same or greater Evidence for THOSE than these is for These But there is none that will question these And the Reason is because this their Assent is grounded upon Two Principles that will not suffer any dissent The first is It 's impossible that so many Men in so many Ages should meet or combine in a Lye when they get nothing by their Lye Nulla ratam testis debet habere Ovid ubi premia falsi ibidem The second is It 's not possible the sences of so many Men should fail them and that they should all mistake and be deluded that were eye and Earwitnesses of the matter of Fact and both saw and heard the Authors of those Writings and the Miracles which they wrought to confirm them See Pet. Hart. de Mendozâ Phys disp 8. de Animâ Sect. 3. and Sect. 23.4 5. pag. 570. And the same Author to This Question what sort of Evidence is that by which I believe that there is such a place as Rome upon the witness of so many Men asserting it Answereth It is Physical For it is impossible even in a Physical sense that so many Men in so many Ages should so lye so that I have no less Evidence that there is a City called Rome than that all Fire is heating Thus he See Mr. Baxter's Spirits witness to the Truth of Christianity pag. 68. The same or as infallible Physical Evidence have we of the Truth of the Miracles by which the Holy-Ghost did witness to the Truth of the Christian Faith For First It 's naturally impossible that so many Churches in so many Countries of the World at such a distance should combine to lye in telling the world that the Holy-Ghost was given and Tongues spoken and Miracles done amongst them for so many Years if it had not been so Secondly Man hath a Nature as well as a Free-will and the understanding naturally enclines to Truth and the will hath naturally and of Necessity Good as Good for its object And man as well as Brutes hath a Nature that cannot but love it self and desire its own wellfare and abhor death and Misery Temporral and Eternal And therefore tho here and there a Man in some desperate Passion may make away himself yet we are Physically certain that it must be a thing which they do indeed believe that must perswade Cities and Countries of People in their wits to cast their Estates and Lives into the Hands of Bloody Tyrants and utterly ruin their worldly hopes And especially when they do all this in hope of a Blessedness in the Life to come Where it is impossible that so many Men of Reason should expect to be blessed for conspiring in a Lye but rather to be everlastingly cursed and miserable by the justice of that God from whom they expect their Reward I conclude therefore that the Case being resolved into Mans Natural Principles and inclinations so clearly as it is There is natural Evidence of the Truth of these Miracles This infallible Certainty that we have or may have is grounded upon Vniversal Tradition whereby Vniversal is not meant the Consent of all Men in the World no more than all the world is meant by Vniversal Church
may find in Parsons Resolut Part 2. Yet to conclude this Argument Let it be considered how punctually Christ foretold what should befall himself from his own Countrey-Men and some of his Disciples How he should be denyed betrayed and put to death yea the death of the Cross and that he should rise again the third day That the Holy Ghost should be poured forth on his Disciples at the Day of Pentecost and often told those that discoursed with him the Thoughts of their Hearts and what they would do and did exactly predict the Destruction of the Jews their City and Temple which accordingly fell out And then let it be considered what God saith in 41 Esai 22. wherein God provoketh the Idols of the Gentiles to make proof of their Divinity saying Let them shew unto us what shall happen Let them shew the former things what they be that we may consider them and know the latter end of them or declare us things for to come shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods Intimating that it is a sufficient proof of a Deity to foreshew what is to come when the thing is meerly contingent Other Proofs of the Divine Authority of Scripture may be drawn FIrst From the Antiquity of these Books Josephus tells us in his Second Book against Appion That their Law-giver he means Moses was more Antient than all the Law-givers that are mentioned in Antiquity And that Lycurgus and all those that Greece wonders at are but Novices and of much later standing compared unto him and St. Austin De Civit. Dei l. 18. c. 37. In the days of some of our Prophets the Gentile Philosophers were not in being yea the Seven wise Men of Greece and those Secretists of Nature that were of a higher date Anaximander Anaximenes and Anaxagoras neither were they so antient as some of our Prophets They were far more antient than the oldest Historiographers among the Heathen viz. Helanicus Herodotus Pherecydes Thucydides Xenophon And albeit the Gentiles had some Poets before as Orpheus Homer Hesiod yet the eldest of these arrived no higher than the days of King Solomon who was 500 years after Moses the first Pen-Man of the Bible Along time after this most of the Heathen Gods were unborn as the Gentiles themselves in their Genealogies of them do confess And as for Abraham he was Elder than Jupiter Neptune and Plato And yet before Abraham do the Scriptures contain the History of 2000 years The oldest Histories extant beside the Histories of the Bible are about the Theban Wars and the Funerals of Troy as Lucretius intimates in these Verses Cur supra bellum Thebanum Funera Troiae Non alias alii quoque res cecinere Poetae But these are of far later Date than the History of the Creation and Flood Another Argument may be drawn from the particular Men that wrote them who were such as in no reason can be suspected of Deceit or Falsehood They were plain simple honest Men and such as had the Approbation of their Enemies for their innocent Life and Conversation They were never accused of any Fault charged with any Crime except that they taught a Doctrin quite contrary to the Manners and Practices both of Jews and Gentiles And this stirred up their Rage and Malice against them and being so provoked you may be sure they spake the worst they could of them And if they could have found any thing to alledge against them you should have heard it again and again They had Enemies enough that lay at watch to discredit their Testimony if they had been able that so they might have hindred the further growth of that Religion that so much crossed their worldly ends They could not hope to compass any worldly Interest or get any temporal Advantage by such a Course as this Nay rather they were sure to bring all the World about their Ears and to undo themselves thereby And they expected no less but were ready to venture their Lives upon the Credit of this Word which they proclaimed openly to the World and preached boldly to the Faces of their Enemies that threatned them with the greatest Cruelties The Testimony they gave to our Saviour's Divinity and miraculous Acts they stood to and boldly defended to the very Face of the bloody Sanedrim that murthered him whilst they had spight enough in their hearts and power in their hands to put them to death and gnashed upon them with their Teeth Had they intended by Forgery to advance themselves in the World they would have taken a more likely Course and curried Favour with the great Ones of the World that had it in their power to gratifie their desires and they would have invented a lye more to their own advantage It 's the manner of Impostors and those that love lying to contrive nothing sooner than that which they think will be most grateful to their Hearers True some of them were Fishermen and if indeed they had fish'd for themselves they would have baited their Hooks with such things as they knew the Fishes lik'd and not with such things as would drive the Fish away They would have accommodated their Words to the tickling of their Ears and the satisfying of their Lusts But they knew it was not their own Word which they preached but the Word of God and therefore it must not be falsified for any Mens pleasure And therefore they despised Pleasures and contemned both the Hatred and Kindness of Men and exposed themselves to the bitterest Sufferings rather than conceal it from the World What place is here for the least suspition of untruth Now in Matter of Fact as Grotius tells us we ought verily to stand to unsuspected Testimonies And if as Ovid affirms Vbi praemia Falsi Nulla ratam Testis debet habere fidem How much more authentick is the Testimony when it hath no Reward but the bitterest usage that enraged Malice can bring about Another Argument may be taken from the Harmony Consent and perpetual unison Agreement of all the Writers of these Sacred Doctrins The witness of Lyers would vary and never come up to a perfect unison and Agreement But now there is one even Thread runs thorough all the Parts of Scripture not at all divided or entangled or rather one and the same Spirit animates the whole and quickens every the least part thereof Though to unstudied Men that have not made exact and diligent search into them there may seem to be some Contradiction yet Men that have div'd into them and have made the deepest search have fairly reconciled all these seeming Repugnancies and have put to silence all Gain-sayers and it is no more than all Writings are liable to though they be never so conform and agreeable to themselves yet they may seem to clash to an injudicious Reader Another Argument may be taken from the Duration and Continuance of these Writings in despight of all that have
unto God all ye lands Psal 5.11 But let those that put their trust in thoe rejoyce let them shout for joy because thou defendest them let them also that love thy Name rejoyce in thee Secondly Scriptures that command Praise Psal 35.28 My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long Psal 118.28 Thou art my God and I will praise thee Thou art my God and I will exalt thee Psal 34.1 I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth Psal 66.2 Sing forth the honour of his Name make his praise glorious Psal 66.8 O bless our God ye people and make the voice of his praise to be heard Psal 48.1 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the City of our God in the Mountain of his Holiness Psal 135.3 Praise ye the Lord for the Lord is good sing praises unto his Name for it is pleasant Psal 147.1 Praise ye the Lord for it is good to sing praises unto our God for it is pleasant and praise is comely Verse 12. Praise the Lord O Jerusalem praise thy God O Sion In the 148 Psalm all Creatures are called upon and excited to the praises of God which must be meant but objectively of all irrational Creatures And rational Creatures are implied when others that have not reason are spoken to Psal 148.13 Praise the Name of the Lord for his Name only is excellent and his Glory is above the Earth and Heaven Psal 149.1 Praise ye the Lord sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of the saints Psal 149.6 Let the high praises of God be in their Mouth 1 of the saints Psal 150.1 2 3. Praise ye the Lord praise God in his sanctuary praise him in the firmament of his power Thirdly Scriptures provoking to Thankfulness Psal 109.4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name 1 Thess 5.18 In every thing we ought to give thanks Col. 3.17 Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him Psal 69.30 I will praise the name of God with a song and magnifie him with thanksgiving Psal 118.1 O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his Mercy endureth for ever Vers 29. The same Reason is insisted on 36 times Psal 136.1 2 3. And the Reasons largely insisted on in the rest of the Psalm Psal 26.6 7. I will wash mine hands in innocency and so will I compass thine altar O Lord that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wonderful works Psal 30.4 Sing unto the Lord ye saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness THere 's nothing that more becomes a Believer nor so well suits his Spiritual Heavenly Nature nor is a better Indication of a Child of God and one that hath attained to a perfect Man to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ than to delight and be skilful in this Noble Work And without all dispute There 's nothing that a corrupt Heart is more averse and backward to and hath less skill in There is indeed a joyful merry Heart pre-requisite to this Exercise but such a one as the World intermedleth not with but is the greatest stranger to of all things you can imagine Though there 's none love Mirth and Joy so passionately as the worldling yet his Mirth is quite of another stamp It 's the meer distortion of the Countenance or at best but the dilatation of the Blood and Spirits It is not the delectation and contentment of the Mind and Spirit It 's the laughter of a Fool a meer brutish sensual delight that they are so fond of Not the solid serious pleasure of a Saint and one that is perfectly in his right mind And thus to be merry after their Fashion is no hard nor difficult Task 'T is but be Mad and let go the Reigns of all good Government of a Mans self It is but to gratifie every desire and live at Randome and prosper in Folly and this will screw up a Carnal Mind to very profuse Laughter and Merriment All the Town shall quickly hear of it and perceive it too plainly in the Vanity Pride and Insolency of their Carriage And there 's no surer way to damp and dead the Spirit of these Men and to drive them into a melancholy dumpish vein than to spring some Heavenly Discourse that savoureth of Heavenly Wisdom and tendeth to the Divine Praises It 's easie to vent a little Froth and Mirth at a Feast or in a Jovial Meeting or when the Spirits are cheared with Wine and Carnal Pleasure But to be glad in the Lord to rejoyce in the meditation of his Excellent Greatness and Perfection even when the Flocks are cut off from the Fold and there is no Herd in the Stall and the Vine yieldeth not her Encrease and the labour of the Olive doth fail and all Earthly Comforts are wanting Then to rejoyce in the most High and to vent forth freely in Thanks and Praises unto him is the Top and Perfection of Piety But this is a strain that the merriest Worldling can never reach while he continues to be such Other Mirth needs great Restraint but this hath need of all Encouragement and Promotion it being so much above the Sphaere of corrupted Nature to do it to purpose And as some slight Praise I doubt not may come from the Mouth of one not yet ingrafted into Christ by a lively Faith from the sense of Common Mercies and General Grace So on the other side even a Believer through the weakness of his Grace and the distemper of his Body and the want of Exercise in this Duty may make but little Musick and be a very Bungler in this Work And so lose the Comfort and Strength that a Heart fervent and frequent in this Duty would daily get But before I say any thing to stir up to this Exercise I will first shew what 's requisite to or implied in this Joy and Delight in God and true Gratitude and Praise I put them all together because there is much Affinity and Correspondence between them And therefore As to the Subject of these Acts or the Person that must exert them he must be thus qualified and prepared 1. He must be of an open cheerful Temper There 's none more unfit for this Duty than the lumpish sad and heavy Heart Though I deny not but sadness and heaviness of Spirit is sometimes a Duty after the Commission of sin especially great and wilful sin till by renewed Sorrow Confession and a more cautelous Heed to prevent it for the future and the application of Christ's Blood by Faith the Cause of such Sadness be removed But a constant habitual sadness and despondency that neither Faith nor
other ways in which God hath expressed his Bounty and Munificence to this Watry Element It would take up a Volumn to descend to particulars and to shew you the Bounty of God to the Four Elements as they are called of which all other Creatures that have their general Rendezvouz either in the Earth Water or Air are compounded whether they be Lifeless Vegetative Sensitive or Rational and to tell you the Glory that God hath put upon them And then to proceed to the several Creatures in their order This would be to write the whole History of Nature A little of this knowledge was that which the Philosophers and Wise-men of the World so much gloried in But yet though it was so much beyond their reach to bring in a compleat Inventory of all those costly Utensils wherewith God hath so richly furnished and adorned thiâ— his great Family of Heaven and Earth and much more would it pr zzle them to shew you the â—ost that is expended and laid out upon â—â—ch of these and to discover their worth and 〈…〉 yet let but a vulgar eye go forth and look about him and view the Fields and therein the Trees the Grass the various Herbage so verdant to the eye so fragrant to the smell and every one so useful to the Ends of Food and Physick even such a one if he have any Spiritual Life or Sense in him shall not want Arguments for number or weight able to convince him and to enforce a Confession of God's Bounty to these Creatures But let him behold the various Fruits and Flowers that every Orchard or Garden almost will present him with let him but consider the beautiful Rose and Tulip or rather to take the Scripture-Instance let him look upon the fair Lilly and he must needs say if he understand any thing That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these Matth. 6.29 or if he will believe the Word of God These Vegetables have such a natural Grace and Beauty that all the Art and Wit of Man cannot imitate much less out-do To say nothing of the dead and inanimate Creatures both above and under Ground of which such Essences Spirits and Magisteries and other Extracts are prepared by the Still and other ways that Art and Industry hath discovered No nor to mention any of the sensitive or more noble Creatures No nor of those intermediate bordering and amphibious Creatures that come between these several kinds that lay claim to both and belong to neither such as are the Minerals that grow like the Vegetables And the Plantanimals that partake partly of the Vegetative and partly of the Sensitive Nature c. Upon every one of which God hath bestowed various Vertues and Perfections But I have touched only upon Generals and left the Particulars to be the Subject of your more distinct Meditations as you shall occasionally light on them 3. The omnipotency and infinite power of God is no less conspicuous in these several Creatures than the other two Attributes of his Wisdom and Goodness to a seeing eye and as fit to assist in the Praises of God as the other Power is the thing that all Men adore and aspire to and would purchase at any rate Even those that can contemn Riches and Sensual Pleasures which most Men follow after and are led by like Beasts yet are very ambitious of Power As being the best Instrument to compass any thing that the Will can desire Well then here is Power to be seen in its highest glory and its utmost perfection Alas that Idol we so much adore in Men is but a shadow and faint resemblance of that infinite and unlimitted power that God was eternally invested with that 's guided by as immense a Wisdom and as perfect a Goodness and therefore cannot possibly be mischievous and oppressive Power in Man and other Creatures is oft times pernicious both to themselves and others for want of equal Wisdom and Goodness to guide and ballance it And yet take all their Power together in the widest and wildest Notion the greatest Lord and Emperour of the World hath but a silly weak and contemptible power in respect of that which God is possessed of and the Attribute of his Almightiness doth import and which he hath displayed in the eye sight of all intelligent Creatures And this may be seen without any great pains or labour in the Make or Fabrick of every Creature and the production of so many Beings as the World abounds with out of meer nothing Let Paracelsus and the Rose-Crucians boast that they can produce Man or any other Creature by their Chymical Skill and Artifice These are but Boasts and if they can do any thing that way which will deserve some admiration It will come as far short of God's Workmanship as Art is from Nature or rather finite from infinite They must have Matter to work upon and several Tools to work with But the infinite Power hath brought to pass these mighty and wonderful Effects that are every where so visible without the help of either Matter or Tool or any the least Assistance O what a Power is that must make an invisible Vapour that fumes out of the Earth to grow into the visible Bulk of Plant or Herb and to aspire into a Tree spreading forth it self into so many Shoots and Branches And that the same Vapour should secretly convey it self through every Bough and Leaf of this Tree for its continual Growth and Nourishment That this subtil Spirit should produce so many various Shapes and such different Vertues in the several Plants and die them with such various and almost infinite Colours That a Vapour that seems so contemptible should set forth the Lilly in white and cloth the Violet in such a purple dress But what do I speak of these What a Power is that that hath hung such a vast Body as the Earth upon nothing in the midst of the Air That hath made it so immovable though it hath no Pillars to support it nor any Basis whereon to rest That hath shut up the vast Ocean in the deep as in a Store-house Psalm 33.7 And gathered the Waters of the Sea together in a heap That hath stinted the proud Waves thereof and bounded their swelling rage and fury Job 38.11 What a Power is it that ballanceth the Clouds and useth them as a Swadling-band to wrap up and hold in the Waters over our Heads that they are not rent under such a mighty Load Job 38.9 It would amaze and even confound the understanding of Man seriously to think how such a vast Body as the Sun that 's 166 times bigger than the Earth should go over the whole Circle of the Heavens in the space of 24 Hours The Sun is said to move every Hour 1038442 of Miles that is one Million of Miles every Hour which being so incredible to Mans understanding late Philosophers have found out a new way and would have the