Knowledge If I referr my health to thee as my Physicion thou must not refuse to try my pulse and see my urine and use the means to find out the disease Wouldst thou be my Lawyer and refuse to read my Evidences and study my case And wilt thou needs be judge thy self of the matters of thine own felicity or misery and yet refuse to read and hear and pray and meditate and use the necessary means of understanding Wilt thou lie in bed and work out thy salvation Wilt thou make use of no ones eyes but thy own and yet wilt thou wink or draw the Curtains or shut the windows and cast away thy spectacles and neither come into the sunshine nor use a candle This is but to say I will willfully condemn my soul and none shall hinder me 2. But yet another condition I must propose If thou wilt but as I said before of others a while make Tryal of a holy life and try in thy self what Faith and Hope and Charity are and try what selfdenyal is I will then referr the matter to thy self Go back from God if thou find any Reason for it and turn from Christ and Heaven and Holiness if thou do not like them But if thou wilt needs be the judge and wilt not be perswaded to try the thing thou art a partial self-deceiving judge 3. But it this much cannot be obtained at least be Considerate in thy judging If thou wilt but take thy self aside from the noise of wordly vanities and deceits and commune seriously with thy heart and bethink thee as before the Lord and as one that knows he must shortly dye Whether Heaven or Earth should be sought most carefully and Whether God or thy flesh should be served most resolvedly and diligently and if thou wilt but dwell so long upon these manlike thoughts till they are digested and Truth have time to shew its face I dare then leave the question to thy self The next time that the Sermon or any affliction comes near thee and awakeneth thy Conscience do but withdraw thy self into secret and soberly bethink thee of the matter what hopes thou hast from the world and what thou 〈◊〉 have from God what Time is and what Eternity is and give â—â—â— Conscience leave to speak and then I will venture the issue upon thy Conscience For thee I mean though I must stick to a better judge my self Doth not Conscience sometime tell thee that the Holyest persons are the wisest and that thy labour is liker at last to be lost and repented of than theirs Doth not Conscience sometime make thee wish that thou wert but in as safe a case as they and that thou mightest but die the death of the Righteous and that thy last end might be as theirs 4. But if all this will not serve the turn thou shalt be Judge thy self but it shall be when thou art more capable of judging If God by Grace shall Change thy heart I will stand to thy Judgement If he do not when thy graceless guilty soul shall pass out of thy pampered dirty flesh and appear before the dreadful God I will then leave the case to thy Conscience to judge of To all Eternity it shall be partly left to the judgement of thy Conscience whether sin or Holiness be better and whether Saints or careless sinners were the wiser and whether it had not been be ter sor thee to have spent that life in preparing for thy Endless life which thou spentst in slighting it and caring for the world and flesh Then thou shalt be Judge thy self of these matters but under a more severe and righteous judge And so as shall make thy tearing heart to wish with many a thousand groans that thou hadst judged wiselier in time But because that Judgement will be to desperation and too late for hope or any help let Conscience speak when thou lyest sick and seest that thou art a dying man Then judge thy self whether a Holy or a worldly life be better and whether it had not been thy wiser course to have sowed to the spirit that so thou maist reap everlasting life then to have sowed to the flesh from which thou now lookst to reap no better then corruption Be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Gal. 6. 6 7. But because it will be very late to stay till thy own Death draw so neer thee go but to thy neighbours that lie in sickness looking for the stroak of death Yea to thy companions in sin and folly and ask them then which way is better Ask them then which is the better part Whether now they had rather be the Holyest Saints or such as they have been Whether now they had not rather they had spent their time in the most careful seeking for Everlasting life then in doing as they have done Say to thy old companion now Brother I see you are near your end the mortal stroak of death is coming you are now leaving all the pleasures of this world I pray you tell me now your Judgement whether mirth and sport and feasting and drinking and wealth and honour be more to be sought then life eternal and whether Hearing and Reading the word of God and Praying and meditating and flying from sin be as bad or as needless a thing as we have formerly taken it to be Had you rather appear before the Lord in the case of those that we derided as Puritans and too precise for making such a doe about salvation or in the case that you and I have lived in Ask but this Question to thy old companions and try whether the Consciences of almost all that approach their end do not bear witness against ungodliness and do not justifie the holy diligence of the Saints It is but two days since a poor drunkard of a neighbour Parish being ready to pass out of this world did send hither and to other Parishes in the terrours of his soul to desire our Congregations to take warning by him and to strive with God if possible for some mercy for his soul that was passing in terrours into another world because of the guilt of his odious sin Well sirs I have gone along with you to all the creatures in this world that have any fitness to judge in this case and if all these will not serve we must go to another world for Judgement or stay till you come there 11. And really do you think if we could speak with Angels or departed Souls that they would not consent with God and all Believers in their Testimony O how they would rebuke their madness that make any doubt of so great so plain so sure a truth as this of the necessity and the excellency of a Holy life None are so fully resolved of this question as they that have tasted the End of both and past the righteous judgement of the Lord. They that are feeling the anguish of their
little longer in such impudent calumniations against me and other Ministers of Christ But know that thy day is coming and that for all these things thou shalt come to judgement and if thou justifie the ungodly yet remember that It is not good to have respect of persons in judgement and he that saith to the wicked Thou art Righteous the people shall curse him Nations shall abhorr him Prov. 24. 23 24. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord. Prov. 17. 15. Wo unto them that call Evil Good and Good Evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter which justifie the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottenness and their blossom shall go up as the dust because they have cast away the Law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the word of the holy one of Israel Isa 5. 20 23 24. Let the malicious serpent accuse Job before God in the end it shall turn to his own confusion And if any of the Princes of the earth will by Doegs be provoked to destroy the Priests or by jealousie kindled by malicious whisperers be incited to do by the servants of Christ as they did by the Waldenses Bohemians Protestants in many places c. we will remember the memorable words of David 1 Sam. 26. 18 19. and let the sufferers imitate him in the submissive part Wherefore doth my Lord pursue after his servant for what have I done or what evil is in my hand Now therefore I pray thee let my Lord the King hear the words of his servant If the Lord have stirred thee up against me let him accept an offering but if it be the children of men cursed be they before the Lord for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying Go serve other Gods By going where they are served HAving fully shewed you What Godliness is I now beseech thee Reader to enquire Whether this described case be thine Art thou Devoted to God without reserve as being not thine own but his And hast thou devoted all thou hast to him with thy self to be used according to his Will Art thou mere subjected to his Authority and observant of his Laws and Government then of mans and can his word do more with thee tâ—en the word of any mortal man or then the violence of thy lusts and passions Art thou heartily engaged to him as thy felicity and dost thou give up thy self to him in filial Love dependance and observance as to thy dearest friend and Father Dost thou highlyest esteem him and resolvedly choose him and sincerely seek him preferring nothing in thy Estimation Choice Resolution or Endeavour before him Try by these and the other particulars in the Description whether you are Godly or ungodly and do it faithfully for the day is at hand when the ungodly shall not stand in judgement nor sinners in the Assembly of the just Psal 1. 5. And besides the marks expressed in the description let me offer you some from the plain words of the Textâ— that you may see what God accounteth Godliness and consequently â—…w to judge your selves 1. In John 3. 3 5 6. it is written Verily except a â—…an be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of â—…od That which is born of the flesh is flesh and â—…at which is born of the Spirit is Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 17. 〈…〉 any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things â—…e passed away behold all things are become new â—…om 8. 9. If any man have not the spirit of Christ the â—…me is none of his From these Texts you see that a heart and life made new â—…y the Spirit of Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary to true Godliness 2. Psalm 119. 5. O that my wayes were directed to keep thy Statutes Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with â—…e Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee â—nd there is none on earth c. Isa 26. 8. The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of â—…hee From these and such like texts it is evident that The principal desires of a godly man and the choice of his will is to be what God would have him be 3. Psalm 1. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Luke 10. 42. From these and such like Texts it is manifest That all the Godly do Love the Word of God as the food of their souls and the director of their lives 4. Matth. 6. 20 21 33. Lay up for your selves a treasure in heaven c. For where your treasure is there will your hearts be also Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Matth. 7. 13. Luke 24. Enter in at the strait gate strive to enter in for many shall seek and shall not be able 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure Rom. 12. 11. From these and such texts you may discern that Godliness consisteth in such diligence for salvation as to seek it before any earthly thing and not to think the labour of a holy life too much for it 5. Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 13. Gal. 5. 18 19. Read them and you will see that Godliness consisteth in living after the spirit and not after the flesh and in mortifying the deeds of the body by the spirit living not by sensuality but by Faith 6. John 3. 19 20. And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil For every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved but he that doth truth cometh to the light c. 1 King 21. 7 8 And the King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat there is yet one man Micaiah by whom we may enquire of the Lord but I hate him for he doth not prophesie good concerning me but evil And Jehoshaphat said Let not the King say so From these and such like Texts you see that The Godly love the discovering light and the most searching faithful preacher but the ungodly cannot endure the light which sheweth them their sins nor love the Preachers that tell them of their sin and misery 7. 1 Cor. 13. John 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if you love one another 1 John 3. 14. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the Brethren Psal 15. 4. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that
say that this One thing is needless for which thou hast all things Thou mayest then say that God made the world in vain and preserveth and governeth it in vain For all this is but for his service which thou callest vain Quest 11. Doth not Reason tell thee that the place in which thou must live for ever should be more diligently minded and prepared for then this in which thou must continue but for a while Alas it is so short a time that we must be here that it makes all the matters of this world as such to be inconsiderable things as dreams and shadows What great matter is it for so short a time whether we be rich or poor well or sick in credit or in contempt whether we laugh or weep When our part will be so quickly acted and we must go naked out of the world as we came into it For so short a time a poor habitation may serve the turn as well as the most splendid Palace A painful obscure afflicted life may do as well as the most plentiful provisions and the greatest ease and worldly honours The purple and fine linnen the silks and bravery will be soon forgotten and the soul in Hell will be no more the better for them then the rotten carkase in the grave The taste of the delicious meats and drinks will quickly be forgotten and sportful youth will be turned into cold and languid age and the most confirmed health into dolorous sickness and mirth and laughter into mournful groans And is such a transitory life as this more worthy of your care and greatest diligence then life eternal O one would think that the world that you must be ever ever in should never never be forgotten There is the company that you must live with for ever There is the state that you shall never change There is the Joy or Torment that shall have no end and while you forget it you are posting to it and are almost there And can you be too careful for eternity Quest 12. Consider also but the infinite Joyes of Heaven and tell me Whether thou dost think they are not worthy the greatest cost or pains that thou canst be at to get them Dost thou think that Heaven is not worthy of the labour that is bestowed for it by the holyest Saints on earth Will it not requite them to the full Will any that comes thither repent that they obtained it at so dear a rate If now thou couldst speak with one of those Believers mentioned in Heb. 11. that lived as strangers and pilgrims on earth as seeking a better even a heavenly Countrey that preferred the reproach of Christ before the treasure of the world and chose affliction with the people of God before the pleasures of sin for a season that were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better resurrection that had tryal of cruel mâ—â—kings and scourgings and of bonds and imprisonments and were sâ—oned sawn asunder tempted slain with the sword wandred about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented though men of whom the world was not worthy Would any one of these now tell you that they did or suffered too much for Heaven Or that it was not worth ten thousand times more If thy tongue dare say that Heaven is not worth the cost or trouble of a holy life or if thy life say so though thy tongue dare not thou judgest thy self unworthy of it and sentencest thy self unto damnation Quest 13. And are the torments of Hell so small and tolerable that thou thinkest a holy life too dear a means for to prevent them Dost thou believe the threatnings of the Lord that he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 8 9. and yet canst thou say What needs all this ado to scape such endless misery Thou wilt take any medicine to cure but the gowt or stone if once thou have felt them Thou wilt draw out a tooth to prevent the pain of it And is Holiness so hateful or grievous a thing to thee that thou wilt venture on Hell it self to avoid it If so much of Hell be in thy heart already blame none but thy self if thou have thy choice Quest 14. Why wast thou baptized into the Covenant of holiness to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost if thou think it nâ—â—dless to perform thy Covenant A holy life is no more then in Baptism thou wast solemnly engaged too There didst thou renounce the flesh the world and the Devil and tookest God for thy portion and absolute Lord and gavest up thy self to be ruled by him and saved by Christ and sanctified by the holy Spirit and dost thou now say What needs all this ado Are we all by our Baptismal Vow engaged to a needless thing I tell thee there is not the holyest man on earth that doth any more then what he is bound to by the Covenant-Relations which he undertook in Baptism Quest 15. Moreover What an Hypocrite art thou to profess thy self a member of the Holy Catholick Church if Holiness which is the life of the Church seem needless to thee Why dost thou profess to believe and desire the Communion of Saints if the life of Saints seem needless to thee and thou wilt not have Communion with them in their sanctity Dost thou not plainly renounce thy Covenant and faith and duty when thou renouncest a holy life as a thing unnecessary Quest 16. Dost thou think or darest thou say that the bloody death and holy life of Jesus Christ were more then needs in order to thy salvation Unless thou be a prosessed Infidel I know thou darest not say so And if thy soul were worth the sufferings of the Lord of Life is it not worth all the cost and labour of thy duty Christ lived a life of perfect holiness he never sinned he fulfilled all righteousness he prayed all night and with greatest fervency preaching and doing good was his employment Though he hated Pharisaical superstition and the teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men and serving God according to mens traditions yet was there never so holy and pure and precise and strict and heavenly a life as Jesus Christ's And this was for our redemption and our example And darest thou say that this was needless Should we not endeavour to imitate our pattern Are they better that are likest Christ or they that are most unlike him And which dost thou think is liker Christ the holy or the unholy Sure we that fall so short of the example that Christ hath given us are far from being more diligent then needs when Christ went not too far nor was too strict that went so very far beyond us Quest 17. Look upon all the institutions of
greatest misery It is because they would not Choose that Good and refuse the way and cause of Misery But how cometh it to pass that men will make no wiser a choice Is the case so doubtful that they cannot be resolved in it every man would have that which he thinks is Best for him Why do men follow after wealth or pleasure or credit in the world but because they take it to be Best for them Why do they set so light by Holiness and Christ and Heaven bâ—… cause they apprehend them not to be Best for them Wâ—… men refuse and obstinately against all perswasions refuse a Holy life if they took it practically to be Best for them what will they contrive their own destruction do they long to do themselves a Mischief and the greatest Mischief in the world No that 's not the case But the matter is this Their senses draw them another way Their eye their ear their taste their feeling every sense hath a Pleasure of its Own and this sense or flesh is violent and unreasonable and would fain be satisfied and Reason that was given us to Rule it is bribed and blinded and perverted by it and so is ready as a servant to obey it and to take its part and the fleshly mind discerneth not the things of God for they are spiritually discerned the Will also and the Affections are by the byas of a fleshly inclination corrupted and habitually lean to the fleshly part And that which men Love they will easily think well of and are glad of any thing like Reason to defend it and that which is against the Inclination of the Will will hardly be thought well of and any thing like Reason will serve against it This depravation of the mind and will of man enslaved and ruled by the Flesh or sensuality is the very cause that most men will not choose the Better part and so the cause of their perpetual misery And till the Holy Ghost send in a heavenly light of Wisdom into the mind to shew them the true difference between the Good and the Evil and a new Inclination into the Will that shall turn their hearts from the Evil to the Good they will still go on and the matters of God will seem foolishness to them and they will take those men for the veryest fools that follow the Wisdom of the Lord and provide most carefully for eternal life and they will take those for the wisest men that are most contrary to the God of Wisdom and that dare leap most fearlesly into Hell Or if this be not their Opinion but conviction force them to a wiser kind of language yet will it be their Practical estimation and their Hearts as their Choice and Lives will easily declare For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3. 6. The fleshly man will have a fleshly mind and will and openly or secretly will Live after the flesh and such are the heirs of death Rom. 8. 5 7 13. Fleshly generation cannot make a spiritual mind or heart in any but it must be by spiritual Regeneration and therefore except a man be born again of the spirit as well as of water he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3. 3 5. This inward difference of Inclinations is the true cause of the difference of the judgements and the courses of men about the matters of God and their salvation This is it that makes so many to think none wise but those that are more dangerously mad then men in Bedlam and that makes so many others stand in doubt as men unresolved what to choose and what course to follow As if it were really a difficult point for a man to be resolved in Whether it be best and wisest to follow the teachings of God or of the flesh and to seek first the Kingdom and Righteousness of God or to make a pudder for nothing in the world and to claw this itching flesh a while though they must smart for it for ever or to master the flesh and live to God! In a word the world are half unresolved whether it be better to be Holy with Gods promise of Eternal Glory or to take the Pleasures of sin for a season and neglect this Holiness though this course be threatned by the Living God with Everlasting torments This is the true state of the Question which I say one part of the world doth seem to be unresolved in and another part are resolved on the worser side against their souls and a Holy life and only those that the illuminating sanctifying spirit hath resolved do choose the needful better part The reason of this distracted judgement of the most is within themselves It is not because that there is any such difficulty in the case as should put a wise man to a stand Nor it is not because they have not sufficient evidence in the word or that God denyed them Teachers Books or any Necessary Means for their information The Light is among them but they Love it not because their hearts and deeds are evil and their darkness doth not comprehend it and this is their delusion and their condemnation Joh. 1. 6 7 8. 3. 19. When I am preaching to a congregation of many hundred or thousand souls if the salvation of all that people did lie upon any other question no harder then this that we have in hand so it were such as fleshly interest and corrupted minds and wills had no quarrel against how easily how surely should I save the souls of all that heard me Reader let me have thy judgement If the Question were Whether Light or Darkness be the Better Whether a dead corps be better then a Living man Whether a cottage for a day or a Rich habitation for term of life be better Whether as much drink as will make thee drunk or a nights lodging with a whâ—re be better then Lands and Lordships for thy life time or for a thousand years Whether one sweet cup with shame and beggery all thy life after or one bitter draught with perpetual prosperity should be rather chosen Whether a sick man were better take an unpleasing medicine that would cure him or a pleasant poyson that would kill him Whether he were better pay a little to the Physicion or dye to save his money Whether that Prince be wise that will sell his Kingdom for a cup of wine or for childrens rackets Or whether that child â—e vertuous that cannot abide his Fathers sight or house or commands but loveth better to do that which he knows displeaseth him or to tumble in the dirt with swine I say if any of these were the Question to be Resolved and the salvation of all that heard me lay upon the true Resolution I leave it to your own judgements Whether I were not like to save the souls of all that heard me And yet in a case as
so much in doubt of it If thou truly Love it thou hast it for it is only grace that causeth an unfeigned Love of grace And if thou love it not why canst not thou more quietly be without it Why dost thou make so much ado for it But if thou have it in the least degree and so art born again of the spirit thou hast with it an unspeakable treasure of delights The God of Life and Love is thine The Lord Jesus Christ is thine The Spirit is thine The promises are thine and Heaven it self is thine in title and shall be thine in full perpetual possession The God that made and ruleth all things is Reconciled to thee and is thy Father having by grace in Christ adopted thee to be his Son Rom. 5. 1 2 10 11. 8. 1 16 17. Gal. 4. 6. 2 Cor. 6. 18. The Son of God is become thy Head and thou art become a member of his body as flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone which no man ever yet hath hated Ephes 5. 23 27 29 30. Thou art become the Temple and residence of the Holy Ghost Thy title to Heaven is incomparably more sure then any mans humane title to his possessions or inheritance on earth And what rejoycing can be too great for a man in thy condition O what a Life should that man live with what sweet delight should he be transported that hath the Spirit of Christ now living in him to prepare him and seal him up for an endless life with Christ He that shall be shortly so full of joy should not be empty now when he remembreth what he must shortly be Doth it beseem him now to dwell in grief and refuse consolation that must in a few dayes be swallowed up with Joy If thou that fittest here in heaviness wert assured that shortly thou shouldst be with Christ and made a blessed companion of Angels and possessed of thy Masters joy a joy that hath no bounds or end would not thy Conscience then tell thee that thou greatly wrongest such abundant mercy in that thou art no more affected with it and that thy want of joy doth express thy too much want of thankfulness Dost thou sit there like a child of God and like an heir of Heaven and a co-heire with Christ Rom. 8. 16 17. Doth that sorrowful heart and that dejected countenance become one that must live with Christ for ever in such resplendent glory as thou must do and that hath but a few more dayes to live till thou take possession of these endless joyes The Lord pardon and heal our unbelief Did Faith more effectually play its part as it is the evidence of things not seen and withdraw the veil and shew us though but in a glass the glory which we must see with open face it would be wine to our hearts and oyl to our countenances and make our poverty sickness and death more comfortable then the wealth and health and life of the ungodly I know you will say still that you could rejoyce if you were sure all this were yours but when you rather think you have no part in it it can be but small comfort to you Answ 1. But who is it long of that you have still such fears Have you not in your souls that Love to Holiness that desire after it that hatred and weariness of sin that Love to the searching discovering use of the Word of God that Love to the Brethren which are the evidences of your title and to which God hath plainly promised salvation If then you have your Title in the Promise and your Evidences in your hearts and yet will be still questioning whether you have them or no and whether the Kingdom shall be yours your weakness and inconsiderateness causeth your own sorrows And when you have sinfully bred your doubts will you insist on them to excuse your following sins 2. Are you not sure that Christ and his benefits are yours I am sure they are yours or may be if you will and nothing but your continued refusal can deprive you of them For this is the very tenor of the promise And if you will not have Christ and his offered benefits why do you so dissemble as to take on you to mourn because you have them not But if you are willing they are yours Object But you will say if we had nothing but cause of comfort we could rejoyce but we have cause of sorrow also How can we live comfortably under so much sin and suffering Answ By this account you will never rejoyce till you come to Heaven for you will never be free from sin and suffering till then Nay it seems you would have no man else rejoyce and so would banish all comfort from the world For there is no man without sin and suffering But what can there be of any weight to prohibit a sincere Believer from seasonable spiritual rejoycing Have you sin It is not gross and reigning sin And sinful infirmities the best of the Saints on earth have had As your sin must be your moderate sorrow so the pardon of it and the degree of mortification which you have attained and the promise you have of full deliverance should be the matter of your greater joy Are your Graces weak Be humbled in the sense of that your weakness but rejoyce more that they are sincere and will be perfect Are your afflictions great Be humbled under them But rejoyce more that they are but Fatherly chastisements proceeding from Love and tending to your greater good and that you are saved from the consuming fire and shall live in everlasting rest where affliction shall be known no more Is it possible for that man that hath the love of God and shall have heaven for ever to have any sufferings that should weigh down these and be matter to him of greater sorrow then this of joy Can you imagine that there is more evil in your infirmities and sufferings then there is good in God and happiness in Heaven Is it reason and equity that you should look at sin only and not at grace and at what you want only and not at what you have received Seeing you have more cause of joy then sorrow should you not distribute your affections proportionably as there is cause I disswade you not from seasonable moderate sorrows But should not your joy be much greater as long as the cause of it is much greater 4. And here I would intreate you to consider well of the tenour of Gods commands concerning this matter in the Gospel and of the examples of the Saints there left on record And then tell me which course it is that God is best pleased with Your chearful or your dejected course of life I find that though I pitty the sad and miserable yet I had rather my self have a chearful then a drooping grieving troubled companion and friend Because I desire one suitable to my self in the state I would
the world and sin no longer and is put off with the leavings of the flesh and hath no more of their hearts their tongues their time their wealth then it can spare They ask their flesh how far they shall be Religious and will go no further then will stand with their prosperity in the world With the first and best they serve the flesh and with the cheapest and the refuse they serve the Lord When they go highest in their out-side carnal Religiousness they go not beyond this hypocritical reserved state and usually as Cain they hate Abel for offering a more acceptable sacrifice God must take up with this from them or â—â— without They alway serve him with this reserve though it 〈…〉 not alwayes explicite and discerned by them Provided that â—â— may go well with me in the world and I may have some competent proportion of honour profit or pleasure and Religion may not â—â—ose me to be undone If God will not take them on these 〈…〉 as most certainly he never will he must go look him â—â—â—er servants and so he will and make them know at last 〈…〉 their sorrow that he needed not their service but it was 〈…〉 that needed him and the benefits of his service I thought meet though I have done it oft before to give â—â—â— this difference between the Hypocrite and the sincere And â—â—w it is my earnest request unto you all that you will presently â—â— your souls to an account and know which of these two â—â—rses you have taken and which of these two is your own â—â—ondition If nature had made you such strangers to your selves as that 〈…〉 were unable to answer such a question I would never trouble 〈…〉 with it but I suppose by faithful enquiry you may know 〈…〉 much of your selves if you are but willing You know where it is that you have dwelt and what it is that you have been â—â—â—ng in the world and you can review the actions of your lives though they have been of smaller consequence Why then may 〈…〉 not quickly know if you will so great a thing as What hath â—â— the very End and Business for which you have lived in the â—â—rld till now Have you been running so long and know not â—â— what is the prize that you have run for Have you forgot the â—â— and that you have been so long going on Have you been â—â—sie all your daies till now and know not about what or why â—ertainly this is a thing that may be known if you are willing and â—igent to know it It is for one of these two that you have â—â—ed for the world or for God To please your flesh or to â—ease God and be saved Either to make provision for Earth or â—raven Which of these is it Deal plainly with your selves â—or your salvation is deeply concerned in the account Perhaps you will say that It was for both for as you have a soul and a body so you must look to both Yea but so as one â—â—at knoweth that One thing is Needful As your body is but â—â—e prison the case the servant of your souls so it must be proâ—â—ded for and used but as a servant and maintained only in a fitâ—ess for its work But the question is Which of them hath had the preheminence Which hath had the life of your affections and endeavours Which of them was your end and about which hath been the chief business that you have most carefully and diligently carryed on This is the great question You cannot have two masters though you may have many instruments and fellow-servants You cannot acceptably serve God if you serve Mammon Every wicked man may do somthing in Religion and every good man may do something that is contrary to Religion A carnal man may do something for God and for his soul and a spiritual man ought to do something subordinately for his body and too often alas doth something for it inordinately But which bears the sway and which is first sought and which comes behind and hath but the leavings of the other Be not deceived God is not mocked Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap If you sow to the flesh of the flesh you shall reap corruption but if you sow to the spirit of the spirit you shall reap everlasting life Gal. 6. 7 8. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world for themselves for if any man love the world with his chiefest Love the Love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2. 15. Is it not a wonder that any reasonable man can be such a stranger to himself as not to know what he lives for and what hath had his heart and what hath been the principal business of his life Some by-matters you may easily forget or over-look but can you do so by your end which hath been your chiefest care and business If indeed you no more know your own minds nor what you have all this while been doing in the world ask those that you have conversed with and judge by the effects and signs Others can tell what you have most seriously talked of They may conjecture by their observation what you have most carefully sought and resolutely adhered to Whether it be God or the flesh this world or Heaven The One thing Needful or the many troubling trifles in your way It is like that wise and godly observers can help you to discern it though sensualists will but deceive you A mans Love at least his chiefest Love cannot be hid but will appear in his behaviour If you Love God above the world you will seek him and his Glory before the world and if you do so it may partly be discerned if you have conversed with discerning men Heaven and earth are not so like nor the way to each of them so like but it may partly be discerned which way men are going and what they drive at in their daily course But I will urge you no further to the tryal I will take it for granted that your Consciences are telling many of you that you have been troubled about many things while the One thing Needful hath been neglected And if indeed this be your case suffer me to tell the guilty plainly what it is that they have done 1. Whatever you have been doing in the world you have lost your Time if you have not been seeking the One thing necessary If you have been gathering riches or growing up in honour as the rush groweth in the mire Job 8. 11. or filling your purses or your barnes or pleasing your fantasies and flesh you have but fooled away your time and done just nothing and much worse Nothing is done if the One thing Necessary be undone Believe it Time is a precious thing and ought not to have been thus cast away When you come to the end of it the worst and proudest of you shall confess it is precious Then O for one year more
children fools or mad men use as long as you mind not and seek not after the One thing necessary What ever they may be to others they are no wiser or better to your selves This is my judgement yea this is the judgement of the Spirit of God Phil. 3. 8. If Paul was not mistaken your gain it self is to be accounted Loss and all but dung in comparison of the knowing and winning of Christ that you might be found in him and have his righteousness Think not the name of dung too base when God himself hath written it here upon your highest endowments and honours by his Spirit And indeed what will they all do more then dung to procure you the favour of God or the pardon of your sins If you offer him gold will it do any more then if you offered him so much dirt Is not the prayer of a beggar heard as soon as of a Lord or Gentleman If they would do any thing to buy you peace of Conscience or everlasting life or if they would but keep you alive on earth I should not marvail at your course But when they will do none of this but make your way to Heaven more difficult yea your salvation a thing impossible while you thus live after the flesh Rom. 8. 13. how then can any easier sentence be past upon your choice Be you the Greatest or the Wisest in your own esteem or in the esteem of others of your mind I believe yea I am sure that you are all this while but laboriously idle and honourably debasing your selves and delightfully tormenting your selves and wisely befooling your selves and thriftily undoing your selves for ever I have reason to say that your rising and honourable and voluptuous imployments are not only like childrens playing in the sand and making them houses with sticks and stones but so much more pitifull as the reason which you abuse exceedeth theirs And could you all attain to be Lords and Ladies I should look upon you but as a King or Queen upon a Chess-board as to any felicity that it bringeth to your selves whatsoever use the over-ruling providence of God may make of you for his Churches The wise Merchant is he that seeking pearls doth find this One of greatest price and selleth all that he hath and buyeth it even all the worldly treasures which you so highly value Mat. 13 45 46. There is more true Riches in this One pearl then in a thousand loads of sand or dirt If you will load your selves with mire and clay conceiting it to be your treasure your backs will be broken before you will have enough to make you rich O Sirs with what eyes with what hearts do you use to read such passages of Christ that speak so plainly to you as if he named you and so piercingly as one would think should make you feel Luke 12. 19 20 21. Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry But God said to him Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God Would you have Christ speak plainer to to you or closelyer apply it that you may perceive he speaks to you You have lost all the Labour of your lives but that 's not all 3. But furthermore consider that if the One thing needfull have been neglected whatever else you have been doing or whatever you have got unless as preparatory to this you have not only lost your labour but you have all this while been busily undoing your selves and labouring for your own perdition If it were but the loss of your Time and Labour you would then die but as brutes and be as if you had never been and to those that have brutified themselves this will seem more tolerable then to live in holiness to God But alas you have done much worse then this You have not only been digging your own graves but barring up against your selves the doors of heaven and kindling the unquenchable fire to torment you Mar. 9. 44. I beseech you give me a considerate hearing you ambitious Gentlemen you covetous worldlings and you that serve your lusts and pleasures Do you think you had been doing the the work of wisemen if you had all this while been burning your own fingers or cutting your own flesh or setting your own or your neighbours houses on fire What would you have us call that man that would live in such imployments as these and yet would be accounted wise or honourable Do I need to tell thee as Nathan did David that Thou art the man Do I need in so plain a case to tell you that you have been doing worse I speak not rashly a thousand times worse against your souls then this would have been which is supposed to be only against your bodies Alas self-destroyers what do you mean Did God send you hither on no better an errand than to kindle and blow the fire of his wrath and fall into it when you have kindled it Have you no better work in the world to do then to prepare your selves a place in hell and with a great deal of care and cost and stir to labour for damnation as if you were afraid of losing it I know you will say God forbid we hope better we intend no such thing But alas the question is not What you intend but what you are doing Not whether it be your desire that everlasting death should be the wages of sin but whether it be the Law and unchangeable will of God Rom. 6. 23. If you seek not first Gods Kingdom and his righteousness and look not after the One thing needful with your chiefest Estimation Resolution and Endeavours as sure as Christ is true this will prove your case at last though now you wink and wilfully go on and will not believe it As sure as the Gospel is true this is true There are but two Ends Heaven and Hell and if you miss the former you fall into the latter If you live after the flesh you shall die whatever you imagine and you must mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the spirit if you will live Rom. 8. 13. If you see a man cutting his own threat and you ask him What are you doing man will you kill your self and he answereth you No God forbid I have no such meaning I will hope better Would you think that this would save his life or that his hopes and meanings would prove him ever the wiser man I tell you from the Word of God it is one of the plainest truths that is there contained that if you value not choose not and seek not the One thing Needful above all other things whatsoever you are all this while but sowing the seeds of endless misery whose fruit you must reap in outer darkness where will be weeping and
is there yet remaining then that you quarrel with as too much preciseness Is it the strictness of mens lives in forbearing sin and not doing as their neighbours do in rioting and vain recreations and delights For this I need not stand to justifie them with any impartial sober man If sin be evil and displease God and deserve damnation he that most fully and carefully avoideth it is the honestest and the wisest man You will not blame your child or servant for being loth to offend and disobey you even in the smallest matter You like not him that offereth you the least abuse so well as him that offereth you none You had rather be well then have the least disease You will not take a little poyson nor would you feel a little of hell Why then should we not avoid the least sin so far as we are able If sinning be good then Devils are the best creatures and Angels and Christ in his manhood the worst But if sin be the greatest evil What will you call those men that do not only wilfully commit it but plead for it and reproach those that would fain avoid it Or what if some of those that you reproach are mistaken in some point and 〈◊〉 that to be a sin that is none Or what if you think it to be no sin which they scruple Will you blame a man that loves God to be afraid of that which he suspecteth may offend him Or will you blame him that cares for his salvation to make as sure of it as he can and to keep as far from the brink of hell as he able How is it that you observe not that your very reproaches do confute themselves What is it that you are offended at in the servants of the Lord Is it Good or Evil Surely it is some fault or other of theirs that you will pretend to be the cause For scarce any but the Devil himself will openly and professedly oppose Goodness under the name of Goodness And if it be a real or supposed fault that you speak against them for doth it not intimate that they should avoid all faults as far as they are able And yet will you at the same time reproach them for being too strict and fearful to offend as if it were their fault that they are unwilling to be faulty But let us hear what God saith of this Prov. 14. 9. Fools make a mock at sin vers 34. Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is a reproach to any people And yet you would make the avoiding it a reproach Gen. 4. 7. If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou dost not well sin lyeth at the door Numb 32. 23. Be sure your sin will find you out Jam. 1. 15. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death 1 Thes 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil Matth. 12. 36 37. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Matth. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of the least of these Commandements and shall teach men so shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven but whosoever shall do and â—eâ—â—h them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven vers 22. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement but whosoever shall say Thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire vers 28. I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart Vers 34 35 36 37. I say unto you swear not at all Neither by heaven for it is Gods throne nor by the earth for it is his footstool But let your communication be Yea Yea Nay Nay for whatsoever is more then these cometh of evil Jam. 4. 12. But above all things my Brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth nor by any other oath but let your Yea be Yea and your Nay Nay lest you faell into condemnation Epes 5. 3 4. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness let it not once be named amongst you as becometh Saints Neither filthyness nor foolish talking nor jeasting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks An hundred such passages of Scripture I might recite that might quickly satisfie you what God expecteth and whether it be too much preciseness to fear the smallest sin 8. But perhaps it is the rigor of their Church discipline that maketh you offended with those that you count too pure and precise because they will not let other men alone but are reproving them and bringing them to open penitence and confession of their open sins and casting those out of the Communion of the Church which do refuse it Answ But do they do this of themselves or doth God command it them Do you think that the Communion of Saints is to be turned into a rabble of impiety and the Church into a swine-stye Do you not know that the Canons of the antient Churches for many hundred years after Christ are stricter in this Discipline by far then those that now offend you by their strictness And hear what he Holy-Ghost â—aith Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy 〈…〉 thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and 〈…〉 Matth. 18. 15. 16 17. If thy brothâ—◠〈…〉 tâ—ll him his fault between thee and 〈…〉 gained thy brother But if 〈…〉 thee one or two more that 〈…〉 every word may be established And if 〈…〉 unto the Church but if he neglect 〈…〉 the Church let 〈…〉 be unto thee as an Heathen mar or a 〈…〉 â— Cor. 5. For I verily at absent in body but present in â—â—irit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed that in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump Purge out therefore the old leaven Now I have written to you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such a one no â—ot to eat therefore put away from among your selves the wicked person 2 Thes 3. 6 14. Now we command you Brethren in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received of us And if any man obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be
world grew to no more experience and Arts and Sciences were ripened no more when now they have ripened in a shorter time How is it that Printing and Writing were not found out and that all Sciences and Arts are of so late invention and as it were but in their youth Certainly Knowledge is the daughter of Experience and Experience the daughter of Time and therefore if the world had been from eternity it must needs have been many a hundred thousand years ago at â— far higher state of Knowledge then is yet attained in the world For every age receiveth the experiences and writings of the former and hath opportunity still to make improvement of them At least the world could not have been ignorant so long of Printing Writing and a hundred things that are certainly of late invention It is therefore an incredible thing that an Eternal world should lose all the memorials and monuments of its Antiquity before the Scripture-time of the Creation And therefore doubtless it began but then Qu. 2. And if God were not the Author of the Scripture how come so many clear and notable Prophesies of it to be fulfilled How punctually doth David and Isaiah 53 describe the sufferings of Christ and Daniel foretell the very year and so of many others Qu. 3. And how comes it all to contain but one entire frame conspiring to reveal the same doctrine of grace and life at first more darkly and in types and promises and afterwards more clearly in performance when the writers lived at hundreds and thousands years distance from each other Qu. 4. And if thou hadst not a blinded prejudiced mind thou wouldst perceive an unimitable Majesty and spirituality in the Scripture and wouldst savour the spirit of God in it as its author and wouldst know by the image and superscription that it is the Word of God It beareth unimitably the Image of his Power and Wisdom and Goodness so that the blessed Author may to a faithful soul be known by the work Qu. 5. If the Scripture came not from the Spirit it could not give or cause the spirit and if it bore not Gods Image it self how could it print his Image upon the souls of so many thousands as it doth The Image of God is first engraven on the seal of his holy Doctrine and thereby imprinted on the heart There is no part of that holy change on man but what that holy Doctrine wrought If therefore the change be of God the Doctrine that wrought it is of God For both of them are the same Image answering each other as that on the seal and on the wax But it is most certain that the Holy change on the soul is of God The nature of it sheweth this For it consisteth in the destruction of our sin and the denyal of our selves and the raising the heart above this world and the total Devoting of our selves and all that we have to God and conforming our selves to his will and resting in it and seeking and serving him with all our power against all temptations and living in the fervent Love of God and of our Brethren and desires after everlasting life and a taking Christ for our Lord and Saviour to reconcile us to God and do all this in us by his Spirit And surely such a work as this must needs be of God If it be Good it must needs be Originally from him that is most Good this is undenyable And he that will say this is Evil is so much of the Devils nature and mind that it is no wonder if he follow him and be Brutified And you cannot say that the Work is good and the Doctrine bad For the Work is nothing but the Impress of the Doctrine And God doth not use to appoint or use a frame of falshoods and deceits as his ordinary means to renew mens souls and work them to his Will Perhaps you will say that you see no such change made by the Word nor any such spirit given by it unto men but only the effects of their own Imaginations But 1. The Question is Whether they are True or false Imaginations Gods truth causeth that Impress on the mind of man which you call his Imaginations For where should Truth be received but in the mind and how should it work but by cogitation They are cogitations above and contrary to those of flesh and blood that are wrought by this holy Doctrine It is nevertheless os the spirit because it moveth man by consideration 2. And if you see not a work on the hearts of the regenerate appearing in their lives which raiseth them to a far better state then others it can be no better then strangeness or malice that can so far blind you 3. But if it be so with you give leave yet to the persons that know this holy change in themselves to believe the more confidently the Word that wrought it We know that we are renewed and passed from our former spiritual death to life and therefore that it was the Truth of God that did the Work of God upon us Nothing but Truth can sanctifie But the Word doth sanctifie therefore the Word is Truth Indeed the Holy Church of Christ throughout all ages of the world hath been his living Image and so a living Witness of his Word as shewing by their lives the transcript of it in their hearts It is easie for any that know them except the maliciously blind to perceive that the true servants of Christ are a more purified refined honest conscionable holy heavenly people then the rest of the world For my part I am fully convinced of it I see it there is no comparison for all their imperfections which they and I lament I am fully satisfied that there is much more of God on them then on others And therefore there is much more of God in the Doctrine that renewed them then in any other The Church is the living Scripture the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. the Law is written in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. better then it was in the Tables of stone 2 Cor. 3. 3. And by their holy Love and Works the world may know that Jesus Christ was sent of the Father and may be brought to believe in him by their Unity John 17. 21 22 23. Matth. 5. 16. God would not concurr so apparently and powerfully with a false doctrine to make so great a change in man nor so far own it as to use it for the doing of the most excellent work in all this world even the gathering him such a Church and sanctifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. If you say that some of the Heathens have been as good I answer 1. The Goodness found in them is but in temperance fidelity and such like and not a holy spirituality or heavenliness no nor a through-conscienciousness in what they knew 2. That good was rare in comparison of that
final ruine of the persons is from their enmity and rebellion against the Lord and because they will not be his Kingdoms but hate and quarrel with his wayes and persecute his servants And Godliness preserveth Princes and Magistrates from this sin and ruine 4. Holiness will cause the Rulers to hate sin in themselves and others and to remove the abominable thing from before the eyes of Gods jealousie and to drive away the froward and not to know the wicked and the proud and to cut off the slanderer and the wicked doers and to set no wicked thing before their eyes Psalm 101. In their eyes a vile person will be contemned but they will honour them that fear the Lord. By this means their Kingdoms may be Holy and God will delight in them and dwell among them and it shall be said of them as Jer. 31. 23. The Lord bless thee Oâ—habitation of Justice and mountain of Holiness And when Israel is Holiness to the Lord all that devoure him shall offend evil shall come upon them saith the Lord. Jer. 2. 3. The holy examples and holy Government of Godly Kings and Magistrates will draw the hearts of the people to Holiness and cause it to flourish in the Lands Whereas the wicked examples and government of the ungodly tendeth to make all about them wicked For as Solomon saith Prov. 29. 12. If a Ruler hearken to liâ—s all his servants are wicked And then they are fuell for the wrath of God both as offenders and as enemies For they will be still rebelling and opposing him and carnal interest and enmity will pervert them to use the reprovers as Asa and Amaziah and Jeroboam and Jezebel and Joash did and to think with Saul that Doeg was the best subject that would kill the Priests at his command and those the worst that would not betray them or destroy them and to say to false accusers as he did to the Ziphites 1 Sam. 23. 21. Blessed be yee of the Lord for yee have compassion on me And saith the Lord Isa 27. 4. Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together 5. Holiness will save Princes and Rulers from the great and dangerous temptations of their Riches and Honours and Power and Pleasures and will teach them to mortifie the flesh and live after the spirit Rom. 8. 1 6 13. and will keep them hereby from those sins that would subject them to the consuming wrath of the impartial God and will bring them to Heaven notwithstanding all the impediments of the world even as a Camel through a needles eye by the power to which all things are possible And doubtless that which maketh men most acceptable to God and tendeth to the everlasting happiness of the persons must needs be better for all societies then that which prepareth them for damnation and keepeth them here under the indignation of the Lord. See 2 Sam. 23 3. Lev. 25. 46 53 43. Isa 32. 1. Rom. 3. 4 5 6. 12. 8. 11. And as Holiness thus maketh the most excellent Princes and happy Governours so it maketh the most Loyal and obedient Subjects and is the most powerful preserver of peace in all Societies If any shall say that the people that are accounted Holy have caused as great contentions and rebellions in the world as any other witness the wars in France Savoy Bohemia Scotland England c. I shall first prove undenyably from the nature of the thing that true Godliness must needs make the best Subjects and tend to the happiness of Common-wealths and then I shall more nearly answer the Objection 1. Holiness effectually teacheth subjects to know themselves To know their weakness and meaness and unworthiness and to know their places and their proper work It kills that pride that makes men think that none are so fit to Rule as they and it makes them so humble as to think themselves unworthy of protection in the meanest station And also it so takes them up with a higher ambition and sets their heart on the greater things that they are dead to the Ambition of the world and can easily leave these things to others Their Kingdom is not of this world They are taught to expect affliction and persecution and not to aspire after crowns No man can deny that this is the lesson set them by their Lord and the Covenant which they make with him when they become his Servants Whereas the ungodly having their portion in this life and relishing and minding most the things of the world will snatch and scramble and turn every stone and do any thing within their reach for worldly honours 2. Holiness teacheth subjects to see God in their Rulers and honour and obey them as his officers even with an honour and obedience participatively Divine And no men can give them a higher honour then they that thus honour them on Gods account and no men can give them so full and firm and constant obedience as they that obey God in their Governours No man can give them higher titles then they that take them to be the Officers of God Carnal men obey their Governours meerly as men that are able to do them good or hurt If they were sure to receive no dammage by contemning them they cared not to trample them in the dirt Though that people sinned in desiring a King yet when they had chosen that kind of Government and Saul was set over them those that went with him were such whose hearts God had touched but the Children of Belial said How shall this man save us and they despised him and brought him no presents 1 Sam. 10. 27. 3. Holiness causeth subjects to obey and submit for conscience sake They do it because God himself hath commanded them to do it They pay tribute and give honour and obedience because it is part of their Obedience to God required of them in the fifth Commandment which is the first with promise Outward prosperity is especially promised to them that honour their Parents and superiours And the commands and promises of God with the bonds of Conscience do tie men faster to their duty and restraine more effectually from disobedience then the words of men alone can do Conscience holdeth strongly and constantly and it holdeth as well in secret as in publike so that if a man were sure to do a mischief and never be discovered he would never the less abhor it as being not unknown to God and conscience A man that feareth not God â—nd conscience will never stick to do a mischief if he may escape the eye and revenging hand of man Faux will set fire to the train to blow up King and Parliament if he see but a probability of escape But he that feeleth the bonds of God upon him dare not rebel 4. Holiness destroyeth Self-love which is the Spring of all discontents and disobedience and teacheth a man to own no Ends or interests but
these is certainly the case of the sanctified and the other of the unsanctified Gal. 3. 10 13. As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God And Mark 4. 12. shews that the unconverted have not their sins forgiven them Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already And Act. 26. 18. To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me Rom. 8. 1. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Abundance more such passages of holy Scripture do assure us that all the unsanctified are unpardoned and all the sanctified are Justified and delivered from the Curse And which of these are in the safer state Did one of you owe ten thousand pounds more then he were worth or had you committed twenty known selonies or murders would you think your selves safe without a pardon Would you not be looking behind you and afraid of allmost every man you see lest he came to apprehend you O what a case is that man in that hath so many thousands sins to answer for and hath such a load of guilt upon his soul and so many terrible threatnings of the Law in force against him Do you not fear every hour lest death arrest you and bring you to the prison of the bottomless pit But the sanctified is delivered from this danger A thousand sins indeed were against us but we have a pardon of them all to shew In Christ we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. The law hath nothing now against us and therefore we are safe 4. Those are safer that are dearly beloved of the Lord and reconciled to him and taken for his Children then those that are his Enemies and hated by him and under his displeasure But most Certainly the former is the state of all the sanctified and the later is the state of the ungodly You shall see both in the words of God Psal 5. 4 5. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity Psal 7. 10 11. My Defence is of God which saveth the upright in heart God judgeth the Righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day Psal 45. 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness Luk. 19. 27. Those mine enemies that would not I should raign over them bring them hither and stay them before me Ephes 2. 3. We were by nature the children of wrath A hundred more such places shew you the state of the unsanctified But how different is the case of the renewed upright soul 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Yee are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Job 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God Rom. 8. 16 17. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Mal. 3. 17. And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Col. 1. 21 22. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight Psal 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Judge now by these plain expressions form the Lord who it is that is in the safer state the godly or the ungodly Is he the safer that is hated by the God of heaven or he that is most dearly loved by him He that is under his displeasure or he that is his delight Why man if God be against thee thou art no where safe not in the strongest Castle not in the greatest Army not in the highest dignity not in the merryest company Thou knowest not but a Commission is gone out for death to strike thee in thy next recreation or fit of mirth How knowest thou but death is ready to strike while thou art eating or drinking or talking or sleeping Thou hast no security from an angry God Till he be reconciled thou art nowhere safe This may be thy fatal day or night for ought thou knowest And if once the mortal blow be struck and thy soul be taken from thy body unrenewed O man where then wilt thou appear O wonderful stupidity that thou dost not eat thy bread in fear and do thy work in fear and sleep in fear and live in fear till thou be sanctified But to the soul that hath God for his security what can be dangerous or what condition while he keeps close to God can be unsafe The Father that gave us unto Christ is greater then all and no man can take us out of his hands Joh. 10. 28 29. Conquer Heaven and conquer the Saints There is their City their garrison their conversation Phil. 1. 20. Heb. 11. 10 16. what enemy what policie what power can endanger him that God will save and hath undertaken for We were never safe one day or hour till we were friends with God Deut. 33. 27. The Eternel God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms Psal 46. 1 2 5 7. God is our refuge and strength a very present helâ— in trouble therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carryed into the midst of the sea God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is
in their hearts Ephes 3. 17. Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 3. 16. God himself doth dwell in them and converse with them and write his Law in their hearts and teach them himself by this his Spirit 2 Cor. 6. 16. Heb. 8. 10. â—â— 1â— Hereby we know that he dwelleth in us by the Spirit which â—e 〈…〉 given us 1 John 3. 24. Yea he that is joyned to the Lord is One spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. For the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3. 17. We are an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes. 2. 22. Because we are sons God hath sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. By this Spirit the Saints have access unto the Father Ephes 2. 18. and by this it is that they are quickened to prayer and holy worship and their infirmities are helpt Ephes 6 18. Rom. 8. 11 26. By this they fight against the flesh and overcome it Gal. 5. 17 18. Rom. 8. 13. In this they live and walk and work Rom. 8. 1 5. Gal. 5. 16 25. This Spirit is the Testimony of their Adoption Rom. 8. 16. and the seal and earnest of their heavenly inheritance 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Ephes 4. 30. By this they are new born John 3. 5 6. And put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and being renewed in the spirit of their minds do put on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4. 22 23 24. By the illumination of this spirit they have a new understanding and are brought out of darkness into the marvellous Light of Christ 1 Pet. 2. 9. that they may know what is the hope of the Christian Vocation and what is the Riches of the glory of Christs inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1. 18. In a word by this Spirit their sins are mortified their souls renewed and made like to God and they become a holy Priest-hood a peculiar people unto Christ and in this Spirit have Communion with him Rom. 8. 13. Tit. 3. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Tit. 2. 14. 2 Cor. 13. 14. And what is all the Riches of this world to this Heavenly Treasure the Spirit of the Lord They that have this Spirit are taught by it to set light by all your Riches and to esteem one dayes Communion with Christ above all the Gold and Glory of this world And that which sets the soul of man so far above Riches is better then those Riches As your Lands and honours do set you above the pins and points that children take for their treasure and set as much by as you do by yours so the Spirit of Christ and the Life of Faith doth set the souls of true Believers a thousandâ—old more above your Riches then you are above your childrens â—oyes If yet you see not the Riches of Saints consider but the wonderful expression â— Pet. 1. 4. that they have exceeding great 〈…〉 precious promises given them that by these they may be partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust And can there be more on earth bestowed on man then to be made partakers of the Divine nature As it would be a greater gift to a bruit to be made a man and have manly Riches then to have store of Provender suited to his brutishness so is it greater Riches to the ungodly to be sanctified and made partakers of that nature that is called Divine by God himself then to have provision for unmortified lusts and to have all the contentments of a fleshly mind It were a greater gift to an Ideot to be made a wise and learned man then to be furnished with feathers or sticks to play with So is it here 4. Every truly sanctified man is restored from the misery that he was brought into by sin He hath all his sins forgiven him and is freed from the curse of the Law by the merits of Christ and the promise of the Gospel For in him we have Redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 39. When we were dead in our sins we were quickened with Christ and had all our trespasses forgiven us Col. 2. 13. Ask a wounded Conscience that groaneth under the weight of sin and under the sense of Gods indignation Whether forgiveness of sin be a Treasure or not I am sure they that now are past forgiveness and feel what sin is in the bitter fruits would give ten thousand worlds if they had them for the pardon of their sins and would account forgiveness a greater mercy then all the Riches and Kingdoms of the world What a heavy curse did the Spirit of God pass upon Simon Magus for thinking that money was a valuable thing to purchase the Holy Ghost with Acts 8. 20 21. Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased by money Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God repent therefore of this thy wickedness c. The name of Simon Magus is odious to us all and yet I doubt that most among us exceed him in the sin for which he is thus cursed For he thought the gift of the holy-Ghost to be better then his money or else he would not have offered his money for it But most men take their money to be better then the gift of the Holy-Ghost If he that would have purchased the Holy-Ghost yea a lower and less necessary gift of the spirit was pronounced wicked and cursed with such a heavy curse What are they that set more by their money then by the special gift of the Holy-Ghost yea that hate and deride it and plead against its Sanctifying work The time is near when your Riches will fail you and your prosperity die and your sins will live and then there is none of you all but will say that Pardon and Grace are greater Riches then all the world 5. Moreover the godly have Angels to attend them and be their guard as I have proved to you before And are horses and kine and oxen think you greater Riches then the Guard and Ministration of the Angels of God Heb. 1. 14. Psalm 91. 11 12. 6. And surely the very Communion of Saints and Ordinances of God which in the Church we here enjoy are greater Riches then all the world We are now no more strangers and forreigners but fellow-Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes 2. 19. We are members of that well-tempered body where all the members are obliged and disposed to have the same care one for another that if one suffer all suffer and if one be
own words Do we devise these sayings Or do we not shew them you in the Scripture And dare you charge God with errour or encouraging Pride Do you think he knew not what he said when he spake such Honourable things of his servants Did he need you to have taught him to have endited his word and to have warned him that he make not his servants proud As if he hated not pride as much as you 6. Yea God will do more then this for his servants he will advance them to Salvation and yet he will not make them proud There is no Pride in Heaven though there be the greatest Glory The Angels are most glorious and yet least proud If you would not wish God to keep men out of Heaven lest it make them proud you should not grudge at his Honouring them on earth with the mention of their Heavenly titles upon that account 7. The Exaltation of the Saints is a spiritual exaltation which is not so apt to make men Proud as carnal exaltation is Charity puffeth not up as â—ery knowledge doth It is selfishness that is the Life of Pride which consisteth in excessive self-esteem and desire of an excessive esteem with others and to be magnified by them And nothing but Grace can subdue this selfishness and therefore nothing else candestroy Pride 8. Moreover the Honour of the Saints is the less like to make them Proud because Humility is part of the Grace that â—â— bestowed on them To be Proud and Holy is to be sick and Holy to be Light and Dark they are plain contraries No man is proud but for want of Holiness and therefore that Holiness should efficiently make men proud is impossible any more thâ—n Health can make men sick or Darkness can be caused by Light And if objectively any be Proud of his Holiness 〈…〉 but in such a measure as he is noholy Holiness doth ever 〈…〉 Pride and contain Humility and self-denyal as an essential part All Christs Disciples learn of him in their measure to be meek and lowly 9. Let experience tell you whether it be not some worldly Honour or parts and gifts that are the much commoner object of Pride then Holiness I have oft heard talk of mens being proud of their Humility and Holiness but the Temptations of my own soul have comparatively layn but little that way nor have I observed it the common case of others in any proportion with other kinds of Pride Riches and Honours and Beauty and Dignity I see people ordinarily proud of And I see many Proud of Counterfeit Graces that have none that is sincere as far as may be perceived by others to be proud of And I see many Proud of their Learning and Knowledge and nimble tâ—ngnes a hundred fold more then ever I found true Christians Proud of the Love of God and a Heavenly mind Alas we have much a doe for the most part to discern that we have any of this at all and to find so much of it in our selves as is necessary to our support and thankfulness 10. Lastly consider what abundance of Means the Lord hath adjoyned as Antidotes with his servants Honours to keep them from being puffed up with Pride and then tell me whether you dare charge God with errour or want of wisdom in this thing 1. The nature and life of Holiness consisteth in the souls retiring home to God and adhering to him and walking as before him And there is not a more powerful means in the world to keep Humble the soul then the Knowledge of God O when a poor sinner hath but any lively apprehensions of the Greatness and Glory of the Lord it amazeth him and levelleth him with the dust and abaseth him in his own esteem and maketh him say with Job 40. 4 5. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth 4 5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes One glympse of God were enough to humble any soul that truly knoweth him A Godly man hath still to do with that Majesty that continually aweth him His 〈…〉 is with him His thoughts are on him his work is with him 〈…〉 his word that he readeth and heareth and discourseth of and therefore aâ— his word with reverence and Godly fear as knowing that our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. It is God that he prayeth to that he meditateth on and he praiseth and hath still to do with And therefore no wonder if he walk hambly with so holy and great a God 2. The sin and misery that once they were in while they knew not God will do much to keep humble a gracious soul as long as they live Though God so forget our sins as to forgive them yet we can scarce forgive our selves or at least can never forget them Though he see no fin in his servants as he seeth it in the world nor so as to hate and condemn them for it yet they see that once they were as bad as the world and were children of wrath as well as others They condemn themselves when God doth justifie them and set their sins before their faces which God doth cast behind his back O those dark those ungrateful and those perilous dayes will never be forgotten by the renewed soul The thoughts of them shall ever keep us humble When we look on the wicked miserable world to think that such were many of us though mercy have washed and sanctified and justified us 3. Moreover God hath so contrived the way of their salvation that they shall have all by a Redeemer and by freest Grace and none shall be justified by the works of the Law nor by any merit of his own but Boasting is excluded by the Law of faith Rom. 3. 19 27 28. and we shall have nothing but what we receive besides and contrary to our desert 4. And alas too much corruption still remaineth in us We have flesh that fighteth against the spirit Rom. 7. 24. Gal. 5. 17. We know but in part and Love God but in part and serve him with such constant weakness that these things are usually such humbling matters to a gracious soul that were it not for the Comforter they would be unable to look up O to feel how dark we are how far from God! how strange to heaven how little we believe and know and love these are humbling thought indeed to a soul that is acquainted withit self 〈…〉 â—â—verty beggery or the reproach in the world would be so humbling to them To find such remnants of that odious sin that cost them dear and had cost them dearer if it had not cost their Lord so dear this is constant matter of humiliation 5. And too often do their corruptions get advantage of them and produce some actual sin of thought word or 〈…〉 and this also must
more certainly of the Invisible things then any Saints or Angels can tell them Why should not this I say be sweeter to them then all the fleshly pleasures in the world O that I could know more of God and more of the mystery of Redemption even of an obedient crucified glorified Christ and more of the invisible world and of the blessed state of souls on condition I left all the Pleasures of this world to sensual men O that I had more clear and firm apprehensions of these transcendent glorious things How easily could I spare the Pleasures of the flesh and leave those husks to swine to feed on O could my Soul get nearer God and be more irradiated with his heavenly beams my mind would need no other recreation and I should as little relish carnal Pleasures as carnal minds do relish the heavenly delights As earthly things are poor and low so is the knowledge of them As things spiritual and heavenly are High and Glorious mysterious and profound the knowledge of them is accordingly Delighful And without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. It is far pleasanter by faith to see the Lord thâ—… to see any Creature by the eye of flesh and sweeter â—y faith to see Heaven opened and there behold our Glorified Lord then to see a horse-race or stage-play or any of the folleries of the world 2. The knowledge of things to Come is specially desired and Godliness containeth that Faith which knoweth things to come How glad would men be to be told what shall besall them to the last hour of their lives The woman of Samaria Joh. 4. called out her neighbours with admiration to see Christ as one that had told her all that shee had done But if he had told her all that ever she would do for the time to come and all that ever should befall her it might have astonished her much more Believers know what hath been even before the world was made and how it was made and what hath been since then and they know what will be to all eternity A true Believer knows from Scripture whither mens Souls go after death and how their Bodies shall be raised again and how Christ will come to Judge the world and who shall then be justified and who shall be condemned and what shall be the case of the godly and the ungodly to all eternity And is it not more pleasant to know these things then to possess all the vain delights of the earth Can the flesh afford you any thing so delightful 3. Especially it is desireable and Pleasant to Know those things that most concern us Needless speculations and curiosities we can spare There is a Knowledge that brings more pain then pleasure Yea there is a Knowledge that will torment But to know our own affairs our greatest and most necessary affairs to know our threatened misery to prevent it and to know our offered Happiness to obtain it to know our Portion our Honour our God what can be more Pleasant to the mind of man Other mens matters we can pass by But to Know such things concerning our own souls as what we must be and do for ever and what course we must take to be everlastingly happy must needs be a feast to the mind of a wise man Ask but a soul that is haunted with temptations to unbelif whether any thing would be more welcome to him then the clear and satisfying apprehensions of a lively faith Ask one that lyeth in tears or groans through the feeling of their sin and the fears of the wrath of God and doubtings of his love whether the satisfying Knowledge of pardon and reconciliation and divine acceptance would not be more pleasant to them then any of your merriments can be to you Ask that poor soul that hath lost the apprehension of his Evidences of grace and walks in darkness and hath no light that seeks and cryes and perceives no hearing whether the discovery of his Evidences the assurance that his Prayers are accepted and the light of Gods countenance shining on him would not be Better to him then any Recreation or any Pleasure the earth affords Ask any man at the hour of death that is not a block Whether now the Knowledge of his salvation would not be Better and more Pleasnt to him then all the lust or sport or honours of the world 4. The Knowledge of the Best and Joyfullest matters must be the Best and Pleasantest Knowledge And nothing can be Better then God and Glory Nothing can be sweeter then salvation and therefore this must be the sweetest Knowledge I had rather have the pleasure of one hours clear and lively Knowledge of my salvation and of the special Love of God then to be exalted above the greatest Prince and to have all the Pleasures that my senses can desire The Delights of the flesh are base and brutish and nothing to the spiritual Heavenly Delights of the renewed mind 5. The manner of our Holy Knowledge maketh it more Delightful 1 It is a Certain and Infallible Knowledge It is not a may be or bare possibility It is not It is possible there may be a Heaven and Happiness hereafter But it is as true as the Word of God is true We have his own hand and seal and earnest for it Even his precious promises and oath confirmed by miracles and fulfilled-prophecy and bearing his own image and superscription and shining to us by its own light We have in our hearts the spirit which is Gods earnest by which we are sealed up to the day of our final full redemption And if the soul yet stagger at the promise of God through the remnants of unbelief that shall not make the promise of God of none effect but his foundation shall still stand sure His word shall not pass till all be fulfilled though heaven and earth shall pass away A message by one that were sent to us from the dead were not more credible then the Word of God And this Certainty of Holy Faith and Knowledge is a very great contentment to the soul When the Glory of the Saints is a thing as sure as if we saw it with our eyes and as sure as these things which we daily see it is a great pleasure to the soul when it can but apprehend this joyful Certainty 2. And that there is a certain easiness and plainness in the great and necessary points of faith as to the manner of Revelation doth add much to Faith's Satisfaction and Delight The points that life and death lie on are not left so obscure as might perplex us lest we did not know the meaning of them But they are so plain that he that runs may read them and the simple
their bones they must endure the pain of setting them again 2. And doth not Christ command his servants also to Rejoyce and again Rejoyce and always to rejoyce Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. 1 Thes 5. 16. Doth he not command them to live in the most delightful works of Love and Joy and thankful mention of his mercies I tell you if Christians did but live as God requireth them and by his plenteous mercies doth encourage them to live they would be the wonder of the world for their exceeding joy they would triumph as men that are entering into rest and make the miserable ungodly Princes and great ones of the world observe their low contemptible condition and see by the comforts of believers that there are far higher joys then theirs to be attained Did Christians live as God would have them according to their dignity and selicity they would make the world admire the spirit and hopes and comforts that do so transport them They would be so taken up in the Love and praise of their Redeemer that they would scarce have leisure to observe whether they be rich or poor or to regard the honours or dishonours of the world These little things would scarce find room in their affection they would be taken up so much with God If they were sore with scourging and their feet were in the stocks they would there sing forth the praise of him that hath assured them of deliverance and everlasting joy as Paul and Silas did Act. 16. They would rejoyce in poverty in disgrace in pain and nothing would be able to overcome their joy They would pitty the tyrants and sensual Epicures that have no sweeter pleasures then those that the flesh and this deceitful world affords O the joy that believers would have in their secret prayers in their heavenly meditations in their holy conference in their reading of the promises and much more in their publike praises and Communion if they did but follow more fully the conduct of that spirit that hath undertaken to be their Comforter What makes believers slight this world and take all your pleasures to be unworthy of their entertainment or regard but that they have had a taste of sweeter things and by faith are overgrown these childish vanities If God and his favour be better then such worms as we and the heavenly Glory be better then these transitory toyes you may well conceive that the believers joy that is fed by these must be greater at least in worth and weight then all the pleasures of this sublunary world If therefore you love a life of pleasure come over to Christ and live a holy heavenly life and believe one that hath made some tryal yea believe the Lord himself that Holiness is the only Pleasant life ANd now as we have seen it plainly proved that the life of Holiness is the most Pleasant life so from hence we may see two sorts reproved that in different measures are found to be trangressors The first is Those blind ungodly wretches that can find no pleasure in a holy life when they can find pleasure in their worldly drudgery and in their sensual uncleanness and their childish vanities They have the God of infinite Goodness to delight in but to their impious hearts he seemeth not delightful They have his Power and wisdom and holiness and truth to love and admire and trust upon and his excellent works to behold him in and his holy laws and gracious promises to meditate on but they have small delight in any such imployment They have leave as well as any others to open their hearts to God in secret and in prayer and praise to recreate their souls and to hold communion with the Saints of God and to be exercised both in publike and private in his worship and to order their families in his fear and to mannage their affairs according to his word but they find no pleasure in such a life as this but are as backward to it as if it were a toilesome and unprofitable business and are weary of that little outside worship which they do perform They have Heaven set before them to seek after and to make their portion and delight but they have small delight to think or speak of it Their hearts are unsutable to these high holy and spiritual things They are matters that they are strange to and have no firm and confident belief of but an uncertain wavering weak opinion and therefore they are too far off to be their delight They say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy way What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Job 21. 14 15. If they do come to the publike Assemblies and joyn there in the outward part of worship they find little life and pleasure in it because they are strangers to the reward and spiritual part which is the kernel They look more at the Preachers gifts and the manner of his doctrine and delivery then at the spiritual necessary matter that is delivered They have some pleasure in a neat composed speech that seemeth not to accuse them any more then others and grateth not on their tender ears with plain and necessary truth but suffers them to go home as quietly as they came thither But if the Preacher touch them to the quick and endeavoureth faithfully to acquaint them with themselves or if he have no eloquence or accurateness of speech to please them with but be guilty of any unhansomness of expression or mâ—dâ—â—â— imperfections they are weary of hearing him and think it long till the glass be run and perhaps instead of tasting the sweetness of wholsom truth they make it the matter of their dension and contempt But let them be at Cards or Dice at Hawking or Hunting at any idle sports and vanities and they can hold out longer with delight At drinking or feasting or idle talking they are not so weary Yea in the labours of their calling when their bodies are weary their minds are more unwearyed and in their fields and shops they have more delight then in the spiritual holy service of the Lord. They are never so merry as when there is least of God upon their hearts and in their wayes And it is one of the reasons that hindreth their Conversion lest it should deprive them of their mirth and cause them to spend the remainder of their dayes in uncomfortable heavyness If sin were not sweet to them conversion would be more easie The Pleasure which they find in creatures by their sin is the prison and fetters of their souls captivity If this be thy case that readest these lines I beseech thee lay to heart these following aggravations of thy sin 1. How blind and wicked is the heart that can find more pleasure in sin than holiness Is the creature pleasant to thee and God unpleasant What a shame is this to thy Understanding
by the outward behaviour of our assemblies The shell is not sweet but serves to hide the sweeter part from those that will not storm those walls that they may possess it as their prize The kernel of Religion is covered with a shell so hard that flesh and blood cannot break it Hard sayings and hard providences to the Church and to particular believers are such as many cannot break through and therefore never taste the sweetness The most admired feature and beauty of any of your bodies which fools think to be the most excellent part of the body is indeed but the handsome well-adorned case that God by nature doth cover his more excellent inward works with Were you but able to see within that skin and 〈…〉 once to observe the wonderful motions of Heart and Braine and the course of the blood in the veins and arteries and the several fermentations and the causes and nature of chylifications and sanguifications and the spirits and senses and all their works and if you saw the reason of every part and vessel in this wonderous frame and the causes and nature of every disease much more if you saw the excellent nature and operations of that rational soul that is the glory of all you would then say that you had seen a more excellent sight then the smooth and beauteous skin that covers it The invisible soul is of greater excellencie then all the visible beauties in the world So also if you would know the excellencies of Religion you must not stand without the doors or judge of it by the skin and shell but you must come neer and look into the inward Reasons of it and think of the difference between the high imployments of a Saint and the poor and for did drungery of the ungodly between walking with God in desire and love and in the spiritual use of his Ordinances and creatures and conversing only with sinful men and transitory vanities between the life of faith and hope which is daily maintained by the foresight of Everlasting Glory and a life of meer nature and worldliness and sensuality and idle complement and pompe which are but the progenitors of sorrow and end in endless desperation Come neer and try the power of Gods Laws and of the workings of his spirit and think in good sadness of the place where you must live forever and the glory you shall see and the sweet enjoyment and employment you shall have in the presence of the eternal Majesty and think well of all the sweet contrivances and discoveries of his love in Christ and how freely all these are offered to you and how certainly they may be your own peruse the promises and sweet expressions of Love and Grace and exercise your souls in serious meditation prayer thanksgiving and praise and withall remember that none but these will be durable delights and then tell me whether a life of sport and pride and worldliness and flesh-pleasing or a life of faith and Holiness be the better the sweeter and more pleasant life Direct 3. If you would taste the Pleasures of a Holy life you must apply your self to Christ in the use of his appointed means for the renewing of your natures that his Spirit may give you a new understanding and a new heart to discern and rellish spiritual things For your old corrupted minds and hearts will never do it They are unsuitable to the things of God and therefore cannot Receive them nor savour them nor be subject to the holy laws 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. Rom. 8. 5 6 7 8. The appetite and rellish of every living creature is agreeable to its nature A fish hath small pleasure in the dry land nor a bird in the deeps of water grass and water is sweeter to an Ox then our most delicate meats and drinks Corruption and Custom have made you so vitious that your natures are not such as God made them at the first when he himself was mans desire and delight but they are now inclined to sensual things being captivated by the fleshly part and have contracted a strangeness and enmity to God And therefore those Hearts will never rellish the sweetnesses of a life of Faith and Holiness till Faith and Holiness be planted in them and they be born again by regenerating grace For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and but flesh and therefore doth reach no higher then a fleshly inclination can move it and that which is born of the spirit is spirit and therefore will rellish and love things Spiritual Direct 4. Lastly if you would taste the pleasures of a Holy life you must forbear those sinful fleshly pleasures which now you are so taken up with For these are they that infatuate your understandings and corrupt your appetites and make the sweetest things seem loathsom to you As the using of vain sports and filthy lust abroad doth make such persons a weary of their own relations and families and business at home so also the glutting of the mind with vanity and using your selves to sinful pleasures is it that turns your hearts from God and maketh his Word and Wayes unsavoury to you You must first with the Prodigal Luke 15. be brought into a famine of your former pleasures and be denyed the very husk and then you will remember that the meanest servant in your Fathers house is in a far better case then you having bread enough while you perish through hunger And hence it is that God doth so often promote the work of Conversion by Affliction and by the same means carryeth on the work of Grace in most that he will save Cannot you tell how to leave your sensual pleasures What will you do when sickness makes you weary of them Weary of your meat and drink and bed weary to hear talk of that which now doth seem so sweet and to say I have no pleasure in them Cannot you spare your friends your sports your bravery your wealth and other carnal accommodations What will you say of them when pain disgraceth them and convinceth you of their insufficiency to stand you in any stead These things that you are now so loth to leave may shortly become such a load to your souls as undigested meat to the stomack that is sick that you can have no ease till you have cast them off Away therefore with these luscious Vanities betime which vitiate your appetites and put them out of rellish with the things that are truly pleasant O what a shame it is to hear a man say I shall never endure so godly and spiritual and strict a life when he can endure and take pleasure in a life of sin You may wiselyer lie down in the dunghill or the ditch and say I shall never endure a cleaner place or feed on carrion and say I shall never endure a cleaner dyet or accompany only with enemies and wild beasts and say I shall never endure the company of my friends What! is God
nature be dissolved then God will violate his Covenant of Grace Jer. 33. 20 21. Thus saith the Lord If you can break my Covenant of the day and my Covenant of the night and that there should not be day and night in their season then may also my Covenant be broken c. Isa 54. 4. 5 c. Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed c. For thy Maker is thy Husband the Lord of Hosts is his name and thy Redeemer the Holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when when thou wast refused saith thy God For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer For this is as the waters of Noah unto me For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth So have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee And though yet we have our troublesom imperfections it belongeth to our God through the blood of the everlasting Covenant to make us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ that to him may be the glory for ever Heb. 13. 20 21. It is his work to comfort all that mourn to appoint to them that mourn in Zion and to give them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they mighâ— be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified They shall be named The Priests of the Lord men shall call them The ministers of our God Everlasting joy shall be unto them For the Lord will direct their work in truth and make an everlasting Covenant with them All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed whom the Lord hath blessed Therefore should we greatly rejoyce in the Lord and our souls should be joyful in our God For he hath cloathed us with the garments of salvation he hath covered us with the robes of righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels Isa 61. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put into you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them and I will save you from all your uncleanness c. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27 29. And they shall be my people and I will be their God And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and of their children after them and I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Yea I will rejoyce over them to do them good c. Jer. 32. 38 39 40 41. Happy are the people that are in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord Psal 144. 15. Nature doth not give you such security that the Sun shall shine and that the streams shall run that the earth shall be fruitful as the covenant of the Lord doth give you of all that is necessary to you Happiness Study therefore the mercies and riches of the Covenant Dir. 2. Understand and remember that it is your Covenant consent that it is the condition of your title to all the following blessings of the Covenant I add this as supposing you will say What are all these benefits to me unless I were sure that I were indeed in the Covenant It is not your merit but your consent that is required God offereth himself to be your Reconciled Father and Christ to be your saviour and the Holy Spirit to be your sanctifier Do you consent to this or not All the question is whether you are willing and whether your sin be not so sweet to you that you will rather venture your souls on the wrath of God then you will be saved from it If you heartily consent assuredly you are in the Covenant and the benefits are yours and therefore the Joy and comfort should be yours If you do not consent instead of despairing presently consent and refuse not your happiness while you lament your misery Object But it is not only Covenant-making but Covenant-keeping that must save us and I have broak my Covenant and therefore have no title to the benefits Answ What Covenant have you broken This Covenant in question that engageth you to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost If you have broken this you have withdrawn your Consent For while you heartily consent you break it not in any essential part As it is not every breach of the Laws that makes a man a traytor or rebel nor every fault or falling out between husband and wife that dissolveth their relation so is it not every sin nor any that is consistent with true consent to the terms of the Covenant that is a Covenant-breaking forfeiture of the benefits If you would not have God to be your Portion your Father your Saviour and your Sanctifier you are then Covenant-breakers And if you be so Consent yet and return to your fideliâ—y and the comforts of the Covenant may yet be yours for all your former violation Dir. 3. Moreover if you would find the Pleasure of a Holy life see that the flesh be fool you not into an over high estimation of any worldly thing that so your appetites may not be corrupted with such contrary unwholsome Pleasures nor your hearts be overwhelmed with worldly cares or griefs or troubles If you will glut your selves with other kind of pleasures you cannot expect that Holiness should be your pleasure You cannot find your delight in God when you turn from him to seek it in the creature If you â—ought for less in friends and health and prosperity in the world you might have more in God How should you find content in God when you set so light by him that the promise of beholding him in endless glory will not please you unless you may also have your fleshly desires or selfish inclinations pleased here This is it that perverteth your judgements and affections and causeth you to injure God and your selves You first
fancie that it is an excellent thing to be Rich and Renowned and to rule over others or to have plenty of all accommodations for your flesh and then because God satisfieth not these carnal fancies you think he neglecteth you oâ— deals hardly with you As if every person in the Town should murmur because they are not Bâ—yliffs or Justices when if they had the wit to know it they are but kept from a double encumberance and from a burden which perhaps would break their backs When the people are thus befooled by the flesh into brutish conceits of the nature of felicity and into an over-valuing of these worldly things they are then always eitheir tickled by deluding pleasures or troubled for the crossing of their carnal wills so that they grow out of relish and liking with the true and durable delights Take heed therefore of this carnality Dir. 4. Study the greatness of the mercy which you have received You abound with mercies and yet undervalue them and over look them and sweeten not your souls with the serious observation and remembrance of them you study principally your afflictions and your wants And thus when you live in a land that floweth with milke and honey you will not feed on the prepared feast but keep still the gall and wormwood in your mouths and how then should you be acquainted with the pleasures of a holy life Yea you must use to look more to the spiritual part of all your mercies and see the love of God that appeareth in them and taste the blood of Christ in them and lose not the kernel and take not up with the common carnal part which every wicked man can value and enjoy Consider in all your mercies what there is in them for the benefit of your souls much rather then how they accommodate your flesh Could you do thus you would find the benefit of afflictions and that the denyal of what you have accounted your necessary mercies is not the smallest of your mercies And thus judging truly by the spirit and not by the flesh there is no condition except that of sin in which you might not find cause of joy Dir. 5. Take heed of sinning Keep still upon your watch against temptation sin is the cause of all your sufferings when it promiseth you delight it is preparing for your sorrow when it flattereth you into presumption it is preparing for despair when it promiseth you secresie and security it prepareth for your shame and be sure your sin will find you out Numb 32. 23. If therefore you have offended delay not your Repentance and spare not the flesh in your return but unless the honour of God forbid it take shame to your selves by free confession and make the fullest reparation of the injury that you can to God and man If you would thus get out the thorn that vexeth you the ways of God would be more pleasant Dir. 6. Daily live in the exercise of faith upon the everlasting pleasures Dwell as at the gates of Heaven as men that are waiting every hour when they are called in and when death will draw aside the vaile and shew them the blessed face of God And take heed that the enmity of interposing Death prevail not against the Joys of faith But look to Christ that hath conquered it and will conquer it for you And if thus you could live as strangers here and as the Citizens of Heaven that are ready to step into the immortal pleasures you would then taste the Pleasures of a holy life in the first fruits and foretasts thereof It is your Treasure that must Delight you As your Heart must be there so your pleasure must be derived thence Strangers to Heaven will be strangers to the Believers Joys As the pleasure of the Carnal world consisteth in the sense of what they have in hand so the pleasure of Believers consisteth in the fore-apprehensions of what they shall enjoy with God for ever If therefore you exercise not those apprehensions if you look not frequently seriously and believingly into the world that you must live in for ever how can the comforts of that world illustrate and refresh you in this present world The Light and Heat which is the Beauty and Life of this lower world proceedeth not from any thing in this world but from the Sun which is so far above us and sends down hither its quickning influence and rays They are not the genuine comforts of Christianity which are not fetcht from the world above Dir. 7. If you would have the experience of the Pleasures of a life of Faith and Holiness neither desire nor cherish any fears or sorrows but such as as are subservient to Faith and Hope and Love and preparatory to Thankfulness and Joy Think not Religion consisteth in any other kind of sorrows Nay if any other should assault you be so far from taking them for your duty or religion as to resist them and lament them as your sin That is true and saving Humiliation 1. which makes you vile in your own eyes and loath your selves for sin 2. And maketh you more desirous to be delivered and cleansed from your sin than to live in it how sweet or gainful soever it may seem and 3. which maketh you set more by a Saviour to deliver you than by all the pleasures riches and honours of the world What ever want of Grief or tears you find if you have these signs your Repentance and humiliation is sincere Do not therefore refuse your Peace because you have not greater sorrows nor disturb your souls by strugling for excessive sorrow Take not part with them but do your best to cast them out if they are such as would destroy your Love and Joy and drive you from Christ and hinder your Thansgivings Know that the Life of your Religion consisteth in the Holy Love of God and of his Image and servants and holy ways Love is your duty and your felicity and reward Therefore let all tend to the exercise of Love and value most those means which most promote it and think your selves best when you abound most in Love and not when you are overwhelmed with those Fears and Griefs which hinder Love Study therefore above all the Love of God revealed in Christ which is the best attractive of your Love to him and hate all suggestions which would represent God unlovely and undesirable to you Dir. 8. Use cheerful company Not carnal but holy not such as waste their time in unprofitable frothy speeches or filthy or prophane or scornful jeastings But such as have most of the sense of Love and mercy on their hearts and are best acquainted with a Life of Faith and whose speeches and cheerful conversations do most lively manifest their sense of the Love of God and of the Grace of Christ and the eternal happiness of the Saints There is a delightful and encouraging virtue in the converse of joyful thankful heavenly believers Use