without him in the world To keep our selves strangers to him all our days with a purpose only of flying to him at last when all things else that were wont to please us are vanished and gone And if we could suppose his Wisdom and Justice to admit his forgiving so provoking contempt of him and receiving an exiled Soul forced out from its earthly abode that to the last moment of it would never look after him or have to do with him yet can it be supposed that its own habitual aversation to him could allow it to be happy in him Especially being increased and confirmed by its consciousness and sense of guilt How can these but make it banish it self and in a sullen enmity and despair perpâ—tually flâ—e the Divine Presence What can in this case be more natural to it than to give up it self to eternal solitary wandrings as a Fugitive from God to affect to be ever enwrapt in its own darkness and hidden from his sight and be an everlasting tormentor to it self Can we be happy in him whom we do not love or love whom we will not know or be acquainted with What sure ground of hope can we imagine to our selves that our reconciliation and acquaintance with God shall ever be brought about if it be not done while we are here in the body Will we be so vain as to cherish an hope that not only affronts the visible import of God's revelation but the very reason of things and the natural tendency of our own spirits Nor indeed if we would consider better can we possibly hope for what we desire not or whereto our hearts are in an habitual disaffection other ways than in the present case negatively and that our infidelity permits us not to fear the contrary yea and the lively hope of a blessedness in God as it includes desire would certainly infer that Purity the image of his own that could never fail to incline our hearts to him and which would habituate us to a course of walking with him in inward communion And this were comely and agreeable to our pretences If while we profess our selves made for another state we retire our selves from the fading things that put a vanity into this and single out by our own choice the stable good which we expect ever to enjoy How befitting is it to pass by all things with neglect and betake our selves hither with this sense Lord I have viewed the World over in which thou hast set me I have tried how this and that thing will fit my spirit and the design of my Creation and can find nothing in which to rest for nothing here doth it self rest but such things as please me for a while in some degree vanish and flee as shadows from before me Lo I come to Thee the Eternal Being the Spring of Life the Center of rest the Stay of the Creation the Fulness of all things I joyn my self to thee with thee I will lead my life and spâ—nd my days with whom I aim to dwell for ever expecting when my little time is over to be taken up ere long into thy Eternity And since we who live under the Gospel have heard of the Redeemer of the dignity of his Person of his high Office and Power of his merciful design and great Atchievements for the restoring of lapsed and lost souls It is most agreeable to our apprehensions of the vanity of this present state and our expectations for the future that we commit our selves to him That with intire trust and love devotedness and subjection we give our selves up to his happy conduct to be led by him to God and instated into that eternal blessedness which we look for His Kingdom is not of this world as we profess not to be We cannot be innocently ignorant that its constitution and frame its laws and ordinances its aspect and tendency in its self and the whole course of its administration are directed to that other state He hath overcome death and him that had the power of it hath brought life and immortality to light is the first begotten from the dead and the first fruits of them that slept hath opened Heaven to us and is himself ascended and entred as our victorious triumphant Captain and Fore-runner He is adorned with highest Power and hath set up an Universal Kingdom extended to the utmost bounds of this apostate World and the vaster Regions of innocent and constantly loyal Spirits His Proclamations are issued out his Ensigns displayed to invite and call in whosoever are weary of the sin and vanity of this wretched world of their alienation from the life of God of living in the midst of death to joyn themselves to Him the Prince and Lord of Life and be led by Him to the immortal state If the present state of things appear dismal to us if we reckon it a woful spectacle to behold sin and death reigning wickedness and mortality acting their combined parts to waste the world and lay it desolate If we would deliver our selves and escape from the common ruin are seriously designing for Heaven and that World in which Death hath no place nor any shadow of Death Let us betake our selves to Him enroll our Names put our selves under his Banners and Discipline strictly observing the Laws and following the guidance of that our invisible Lord who will be Author of eternal salvation to them that obey him and save to the uttermost all that come to God through him How dear should he be to us How chearfully should we trust him how dutifully serve him how faithfully adhere to him both for his own sake and that of the design he hath in hand for us and the pleasant savour of Heaven and Immortality which breathes in both But if we neglect Him and disown our relation to him or if we let days and years go over our heads wherein we drowsily slumber roll our selves in the dust of the earth and while we call our selves Christians forget the reason and importance of our own Name and think not of our being under his call and conduct to the eternal Kingdom and Glory This is perversly to reject what we say only we seek to disclaim and renounce our pretences to Immortality to blast and damn our own great hopes Lastly It is congruous to our expectation of so great things after death That we live in a chearful pleasant expectation of it For what must necessarily intervene though not grateful in it self should be reckon'd so for the sake of that which is This only can upon the best terms reconcile us to the grave That our greatest hopes lye beyond it and are not hazarded by it but accomplish't Although indeed nothing were to be expected hereafter yet so little suitable entertainment doth this world afford to a reasonable spirit that the meer weariness of beholding a Scene of vanity and folly might well make a recess acceptable For is it so grateful a thing
Solecism to take out one from a Family long famous for so exemplary mutual love and dispose him into so remote a part not permitting to most of his nearest Relations the enjoyment of him for almost thirty years and therein all the flower of his age and at last when you were expecting the man send you home the breathless frame wherein he lived Yet it was not contemptible that you had that And that dying as Joseph in a strange Land he gave also commandment concerning his bones that though in his life he was mostly separated from his brethren he might in death be gathered to his fathers It was some evidence though you wanted not better that amidst the Traffick of Spain he more esteemed the Religion of England and therefore would rather his dust should assâ—ciate with theirs with whom also he would rather his spirit should But whatever it did evidence it occasion'd so much that you had that so general meeting with one another which otherwise probably you would not have had nor are likely again to have so hath Providence scattered you in this world And that it proved a more serious meeting than otherwise it might for however it might blamelesly have been designed to have met together at a cheerful Table God saw it sitter to order the meeting at a mournful grave and to make the House that received you the native place to many of you the House of mourning rather than of feasting The one would have had more quick relishes of a present pleasure but the other was likely to yeild the more lasting sense of an after-profit Nor was it an ill errand to come together though from afar for divers of you to learn to dye As you might by being so sensibly put in mind of it though you did not see that very part acted it self And accept this indeavour to further you in your preparations for that change as some testimony of the remembrance I retain of your most obliging respects and love and of my still continuing Your affectionate and respectful Kinsman and Servant in our common Lord J. HOWE ANTRIM April 12. 1671. THE Vanity of MAN AS MORTAL PSAL. 89. 47 48. Remember how short my time is wherefore hast thou made all men in vain What man is he that liveth and shall not see death shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave Selah WE are not concerned to be particular and curious in the enquiry touching the special reference or occasion of the foregoing complaints from the 37 verse It is enough to take notice for our presâ—â—◠〈◊〉 that besides the evil which had â—â—â—ady befaln the Plaintiff a further danger nearly threatned him that carried death in the face of it and suggested somewhat frightful apprehensions of his mortal state which drew from him this quick and sensible petition in reference to his own private concern Remember how short my time is and did presently direct his eye with a suddâ—n glance from the view of his own to reflect on the common condition of man whereof he expresses his resentment first in an hasty expâ—â—tulation with God Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain Then secondly in a pathetick discourse with himself representing the reason of that â—ough charge What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Shall he deliver c q. d. When I add to the consideration of my short time that of dying-mankind and behold a dark and deadly shade universally overspreading the World the whole species of humane Creatures vanishing quitting the stage round about me and disappearing almost as soon as they shew themselves Have I not a fair and plausible ground for that seemingly rude challenge Why is there so unaccountable a Phoenomenon Such a Creature made to no purpose The noblest part of this inferior Creation brought forth into being without any imaginable design I know not how to unty the knot upon this only view of the case or avoid the absurdity 'T is hard sure to decline the supposal of what it may yet seem hard to suppose that all men were made in vain It appears the expostulation was somewhat passionate and did proceed upon the sudden view of this disconsolate case very abstractly considered and by it self only and that he did not in that instant look beyond it to a better and more comfortable scene of things An eye bleered with present sorrow sees not so far nor comprehends so much at one view as it would at another time or as it doth presently when the tear is wip't out and its own beams have cleard it up We see he did quickly look further and had got a more lightsome prospect when in the next words we find him contemplating Gods sworn loving-kindness unto David The truth and stability whereof he at the same time expresly acknowledges while only the form of his speech doth but seem to import a doubt where are they But yet they were sworn in truth Upon which argument he had more copiously dilated in the former part of the Psalm and it still lay deep in his soul though he were now a little diverted from the present consideration of it Which since it turns the scales with him It will be needful to enquire into the weight and import of it Nor have we any reason to think that David was either so little a Prophet or a Saint as in his own thoughts to refer those magnificent things the instances of that loving-kindness confirm'd by Oath which he recites from the 19 verse of the Psalm to the 38 as spoken from the mouth of God and declared to him by vision to the dignity of his own person and the grandieur and perpetuity of his Kingdom As if it were ultimately meant of himself that God would make him his first-born higher than the Kings of the earth when there were divers greater Kings and in comparison of the little spot over which he reigned a vastly spreading Monarchy that still overtopt him all his time as the same and successive Monarchies did his Successors or that it was intended of the secular glory and stability of his Throne and Family that God would make them to endure for ever and be as the days of Heaven that they should be as the Sun before him and be establisht for ever as the Moon and as a faithful witness in heaven That God himself meant it not so experience and the event of things hath shown and that these predictions cannot otherwise have had their accomplishment than in the succession of the spiritual and everlasting Kingdom of the Messiah whom God raised up out of his loins to sit on his throne unto his temporal Kingdom Wherein 't is therefore ended by perfection rather than corruption These Prophesies being then made good not formally in the kind which they literally imported but with an highly redundant equivalency in another far more noble kind In which sense God's Covenant with him
must be understood which he insists on so much in this Psalm even unto that degree as to challenge God upon it as if in the gloomy dispensation of this juncture so far did it darken his present apprehension of things he did actually vacate and make it void Though he sufficiently express his confidence both before and after that this could never be But 't is plain it hath been vacated long enough ago in the subversion of David's Kingdom and in that we see his Throne and Family have not been establisht for ever have not endured as the days of Heaven if those words had no other than their obvious and literal meaning And if any would imagine a salvo to the truth of God from the wickedness of his posterity first making a breach and disobliging him it is expresly precluded by what we find inserted in reference to this very case If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments c. Then will I visit their iniquity with the rod c. Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulâ—ess to fail My Covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips All which is solemnly sealed up with this Once have I sworn in my holiness that I will not lye unto David So that they that will make a scruple to accuse the Holy God of falshood in that which with so much solemnity he hath promised and sworn must not make any to admit his further intendment in these words And that he had a further even a mystical and spiritual intendment in this Covenant with David is yet more fully evident from that of the Prophet Isaiah He every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters c. Incline your ear and come to me And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David Behold I have given him for a witness to the people a leader and commander c. What means this universal invitation to all thirsty persons with the subjoined encouragement of making with them an everlasting Covenant the same which we have here no doubt as to the principal parts and which we find him mentioning also 2 Sam. 23. 5. with characters exactly corresponding to these of the Prophet even the sure mercies of David The meaning sure could not be that they should be all Secular Kings and Princes and their posterity after them for ever which we see is the verbal sound and tenor of this Covenant And now since it is evident God intended a mystery in this Covenant we may be as well assured he intended no deceit and that he designed not a delusion to David by the vision in which he gave it Can we think he went about to gratifie him with a solemn fiction and draw him into a false and fanciful faith or so to hide his meaning from him as to tempt him into the belief of what he never meant And to what purpose was this so special Revelation by vision if it were not to be understood truly at least if not yet perfectly and fully It is left us therefore to collect that David was not wholly uninstructed how to refer all this to the Kingdom of the Messiah And he hath given sufficient testimony in that part of Sacred Writ wherâ—of God used him as Pen-man that he was of another temper than to place the sum and chief of his expectations and consolations in his own and his posterities worldly greatness And to put us out of doubt our Saviour who well knew his Spirit expresly enough tells us that he in spirit called him Lord when he said The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy foot-stool A plain discovery how he understood God's revelation touching the future-concernments of his Kingdom and the Covenant relating thereto viz. as a figure and type of Christs who must reign till all his enemies be subdued Nor was he in that ignorance about the nature and design of Christs Kingdom but that he understood its reference to another world and state of things even beyond all the successions of time and the mortal race of men so as to have his eye fixed upon the happy eternity which a joyful resurrection must introduce and whereof Christs resurrection should be the great and most assuring Pledg And of this we need no fuller evidence than the express words of the Apostle St. Peter who after he had cited those lofty triumphant strains of David Psal. 16. 8 9 10 11 I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth my flâ—sh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell or in the state of darkness neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption Thou 〈◊〉 shew me the path of life In thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore All which he tells us was spoken concerning Christ he more expresly subjoins that David being a Prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ it appears he spake not at random but as knowing and seeing before what he spake That his soul was not left in hell c. nor can we think he thus rejoyces in another's resurrection forgetting his own And yet we have a further evidence from the Apostle St. Paul who affirms that the promise made to the fathers God had fulfilled to their children in that he had raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and as concerning that he raised him up from the dead now no more to return to corruption he said on this wise I will give you the sure mercies of David Which it is now apparent must be understood of eternal mercies such as Christ's resurrection and triumph over the grave doth ensure to us He therefore look't upon what was spoken concerning his Kingdom here as spoken ultimately of Christs the Kingdom whereby he governs and conducts his faithâ—ul Subjects through all the troubles of Life and terrors of Death through both whereof he himself as their King and Leader hath shown the way unto eternal blessedness and upon the Covenant made with him as the Covenant of God in Christ concerning that blessedness and the requisites thereto And to say no more in this argument how otherwise can we conceive he should have that fulness of consolation in this Covenant when he lay a dying as we find him expressing 2 Sam. 23 5. for these were some
to observe the confused scramble and hurry of the world How almost every one makes it his business to catch from another what is worth nothing With what toil and art and violence men pursue what when they embrace they find a shadow To see deluded Mortals each one intent upon his own particular design most commonly interfering with anothers some impos'd upon by others over-reaching Wit and all by their own folly Some lamenting their losses others their short and unsatisfying acquisitions Many pleasing themselves with being mock't and contentedly hugging the empty Cloud till Death comes and ends the story and ceases the busie agitation that is with so many particular persons not with the World A new succretion still springing up that continue the Interludâ— and still act over the same parts ad taedium usque What serious person who that is not in love with impertinency and foolery would much regret it to close his eyes to have the Curtains drawn and bid good-night to the world without ever wishing to see the morning of such another day And even they that have the world most in their power and can command what they please for the gratifying of their appetites without the contradiction and controll of others What can they enjoy more to morrow than they did yesterday or the next year than this Is it so much worth the while to live to see a few more persons bow the knee To extend power a little further To make another essay what pleasure sense can tast in some or other hitherto unexperimented Rarity What more peculiar gusto this or that thing will afford and try the other Dish or to renew the same relishes over again He whose creative fancy could make him golden Mountains in a dream create him a Prince of Nations give him to enjoy the most delicious pleasures of the world in Idea might with some plausible shew of reason be deem'd the happier man than he that hath and is all this indeed for his toil is less and his victories unbloody his pleasures not so impure However one would think that to such whose utmost attainments end only in the pleasure of their sense and have but this Epiphonema Now let us sit down eat drink and be merry A little time might suffice for business of no more weight and that no man after he hath once seen the course of the world and tasted of its best delicacies should greatly wish for a renewal or long-continued repetition of so fulsome vanities But the most find not the world so kind and are not so much exercised in the innovating of pleasures as miseries changes being their only remedies as the Moralist speaks or in bearing more sadly the same every day's burden and drawing out the series of their calamities in the same kind through the whole course of their time And surely these things considered there wants not what might perswade a Sceptick or even a perfect Infidel as to another world not much to be in love with this For upon the whole let but the case be thus put Is it not as good to do nothing as to be busie to no purpose And again Is it not as good to be nothing as to be and do nothing Sober reason would judg at least there were but little odds But now If such considerations as have been mentioned would suffice to state the matter in aequilibrio to make the 〈◊〉 even Ought the raâ—iâ—nâ—l sober belief of a blessed immortality do nothing to turn the ballance Ought the love of God to do nothing The desire and hope of a state perfectly good and happy quiet and peaceful of living in the Region of undefiled innocent love and pleasure in the communion of holy and blessed spirits all highly pleased not in their own only but one another's happiness and all concenâ—â—ing in the admiration and praise of their common Parent and Lord Ought all this nothing to alter the case with us or signifie nothing to the inclining our mindâ— to the so unspeakably better part Methinks since we acknowledg such an order of intelligent and already happy Creatures we should even bâ—ush to think they should be spectators of our daily course and too plainly discovered inclinations so disform and unagreeable to all the Laws and dictates of reasonable nature What censures may we think do they pass upon our follies Are those things great in their eyes that are so in ours In lesser matters as some interpret that passage indecencies are to be avoided because of those blessed spirits May we not then be ashamed that they should discern our terrene dispositions and see us come so unwillingly into their conâ—ort and happy state Although our present depressing circumstances will not suffer us to be in all things as yet conformable to their high condition we should however carry it as Candidates thereto studying to approve our selves waiting and longing to be transum'd and taken up into it And since we have so high and great an expectation and 't is understood and known That the very perfection and end of our Beings is no otherwise attainable than by putting off our sordid slâ—sh and laying aside this earthly Appurtenancâ— that yet there should be so fixed and prevailing an aversion to it is a most unaccountable thing and one of the greatest Problems in Nature I say prevailing For admit what is like to be alledg'd that an addictedness to the body is by natural inclination ought not the Laws of a Supâ—rior to prevail over those of the inferior nature And is not the love of God a higher natural Law than that of the body to whom here our service is little yea our disservice much and from whose most desirable commerce we sâ—ffer so uncomfortable a disclusion by the sad circumstances of our bodily sâ—ate Are we more nearly 〈◊〉 to a piece of Câ—â—y 〈◊〉 to the Father of our spirits And 〈◊〉 Is not every thing 〈…〉 and obliged to 〈…〉 there rather than 〈…〉 inâ—â—rior thing at least â—ow nâ—â—rly soever united since there can be no pretence of any such 〈◊〉 union than oâ— a thing with it self And â—re not our souls and our bodies though united yet distinct things Why then should not our souls that are capable of understanding their own interest mind that first intend most their own perfection and improvement and begin their charity at home It is nor strange that what is weaker and more ignoble should affect union with what is above it and a spring of life to it But when it is found burdensome nothing forbids but that the superior Being may be well content upon fair and allowable terms to be rid of the burden Therefore though flesh and blood may reluctate and shrink at it when we think of laying it down yet it becomes immortal spirits to consider their own affairs and be more principally intent upon what will be their own advantage If so mean a Creature as a sorry Flea finding it can draw a