come and in due time receive it multiplied So should we do with Worldly goods bestow some of them upon the bowels and backs of the poor members of Christ and in the day of harvest we shall have a great encrease II Amos. 2. 7. That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor The Prophet speaks of cruel oppressors who greedily pursue the poor to extremity depriving them of their very livelihood till they are fain to lye down in the dust III. Duet 24. 5. When a man hath taken a new wife he shall not go out to War One reason my be this because when the mind is strongly set upon any object till the strength of that desire is abated a man will be unfit to deal with an Enemy or attend business The Tenth Meeting A. I. EXod 35. 30. The Skin of his fâ—shone It is to denote the exceeding purity and brightness of the Law which no sinner is able with peace tâ— look upon II. Gen. 25. 22. And the Children struggleâ— together within her Jacob was a man of contention and wrestling from the beginning Contention with his brother in the Birth Contention for the Birth-right Contention with an Angel for the blessing Contention for his Wife and for his wages with Laban He was a Typical man his name was Israel and he was a pattern to the Israel of God We must be all men of Contention contend and wrestle not only with God in strong and importunate prayers for his blessings but with our Elder Brother Esau with the lusts and frowardness if our own hearts III. Lament â— 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain c. Here are Three strong Reasons against murmurers 1. We are Men. and at Gods dispose 2. Sinful men punishment is our due 3. Living and therefore punisht less then we deserve B. I. ISa. 1. 2. Hear O Heavens and give ear O earth Nothing so far from the voice of the Prophet as the Heavens nothing so dul and impenetrable as the Earth and yet the Heavens likeller to hear the Earth likelier to listen and attend then Obdurate sinners II. Gen. 18. 21. I will not curse the ground any more for mans sake for though so Jos 17. 18. though the imagination c. Although men are so wicked that if I would meo jure uti take advantage to pour out my displeasure upon them I might do it every day yet I will spare them III. 2. Cor. 5. 17. Behold all things are become new If a man be Christ's there will be Nova regalia extremely opposite to those of sin a new heart for the throne of the Spirit new members to be servants of righteousness new Counsellors namely the Laws of God a new panoply the whole armour of God new laws the law of the mind thoughts Words Actions all new C. I. ROm. 7. 8 Without the Law sin was dead The Law is said to quicken sin not perse out of the intention of the Law but by accident and antiperistasis exciting and provoking that strength which was in sin before tho undiscern'd and less operative as the presence of an enemy doth actuate and call forth that malice which lay habitually in the heart before II. 1 Cor. 7. 31. The Fashion of this world paseth away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the figure intimating that there is nothing of firmness or solid consistency in the Creature it is but a surface and outside an empty shew all the beauty of it is but skin deep III. Eph. 4. 26. Be angry but sin not It is not a precept but a speech by way of Concession or supposition If through your infirmity you be overtaken with anger do not harden the Passion into an habit let not a spark become a flame The Eleventh Meeting A. I. EPh. 4. 30. Whereby ye are sealed You are said to be sealed by the Spirit because that spiritual holiness which is in the word is fashioned into your hearts as the image of the seal in the wax II. Eph. 2. 2. Ye walked according to the course of this World Such are example custome good intentions mercy taken without conditions pleading frailty of nature we are all men the best have their infirmities distinctions extenuations evasions and such like III. Col. 2. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit Learning it self is an honourable and noble endowment It 's recorded for the glory of Mâ—ses that he was Learned in all the Wisdome of the Egyptians But corruption is apt to turn learning into leaven to infect the heart with pride which being arm'd and seconded with Wit breaks out into perverse disputes B. I. 1. TIm 6. 17. God gives us all things richly to enjoy This importes a delightful sweet orderly use of them which is the fruit of the Gospel promises Wicked men have a lawful interest possession and use of them but all this doth not reach to a fruition II. Hebr. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for Faith gives being and present subsistency to things far distant from us makes those things which in regard of natural causes are very remote in regard of Gods promises to seem nigh at hand III. Hebr. 12. 2. Looking unto Jesus We must not alwayes cast our eye to the clog but look unto him that can carry us thorow all difficulties Look what he did what contradiction he endured look what he promises a victory over our lusts and a crown after victory C. I. Gen. 2. 9 17. The Tree of Knowledge of good and evil So called because it signified unto them that as now while they stood upon terms of Obedience with their Creator they knew nothing but good so at what time soever they did trangress his Commandment they should begin to know evil also Not but they had an intellectual knowledge of it before Rectum est index sui obliqui but that till then they had never felt any evil they never had any Experimental knowledge of it II. 1 Cor. 3. 10. As a wise Master-builder I have laid the foundation Great Scholars possibly may think that it standeth not so well with their credit to stoop so low and spend time in teaching the principles of the doctrine of Christ but they should consider these words of the great Apostle That the laying of the foundation skilfully as it is the matter of greatest importance in the whole building so it is the very Master piece of the Builder III. Ezech. 18. 30. Make you a clean heart In another place A new heart will I give you How do these consist He commands us to do what he promises to do himself to teach us that t is the Work of his Grace which we must not resist when t is offer'd Ille facit ut nos faciamus quoe praecepit Augustin The Twelfth Meeting A. I. MAtth. 6. 11. Give us this Day our Daily bread By saying Give us we acknowledge that it is from God but when we call
Evangelicall righteous shall be dealt with and rewarded in and through Christ as if they were perfectly so III. Phil. 2. 13. Work c. For it is God which worketh in you c. The Apostle here reconciles the doctrine of Gods Grace with and shewes the indispensableness of mens endeavours making Gods readiness to work in us to will by his preventing grace and to do by his assisting a motive to us to work out our own salvation The Fourteenth Meeting A. I. HEb 8. 10. I will put my Law into their hearts c. It cannot be I will do all for them they need do nothing at all This would make all the precepts of the Gospel insignificant Neither can this be the sense I will sanctifie their natures and so cause them to keep my Laws without their concurrence in that act But I will afford them my grace and spirit whereby they co-operating therewith and not being wilfully wanting to themselves shall be enabled so to do Or I will do all that reasonable Creatures can reasonably expect from me toward the writing of my Laws in their hearts II. Heb. 8. 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour c. i. e. There shall be no need of such pains in teaching men how they must obey the Lord and what they are to do as under the Law of Moses which consisted in Observations that were only good because commanded but the Precepts now given shall be found written in every mans heart so that none need be ignorant of what is enjoyned for the substance of it that will consult the dictates of their own nature III. Gal. 3. The law was added because of transgression c. The Jewish and Mosaical law in a strict sense was not given as any new condition whereby they were to attain to the promises but they should till they were fulfilled be restrained and kept under discipline backt on by temporal rewards and punishments B. I. ROm. 5. 1. Being justified by Faith Faith put for the doctrine of Faith Justifie as an instrument as the Law condemneth as it contains the Covenant of Grace and holdeth forth pardon to sinners Faith as it signifies the Vertue or duty of Faith justifies as it is the condition of the new Covenant wherein forgiveness of sin is offer'd God the Father is the principle efficient cause Jesus Christ the onely meritorious cause of justification II. Jam. 4. 8. Clense your hands ye sinners The Scripture seems one while to give all to God in the work of regeneration and conversion and another while to make it wholly mens wâ—â— act To reconcile the places Clense you I will Clense we must go in a middle way I mean that where God speaks as if he did all in this great work we are to judge that he supposeth mens endeavours and where he speaks as if men were to do all that he supposeth the concurrence and assistance of his own grace III. Jam. 1. 26. He that seemeth to be Religious and bridleth not his tongue that mans Religion is vain May we not justly fear upon the account of the reviling and censuring even their superiors too not a few of the Godly party so called are guilty of that they are no better than meere pretenders to Religion as great a profession as they make of it C. I. JAm 2. 24. A man is justified by works and not by Faith only As works signifie sincere Obedience to Christs Gospel we cannot account it any seandal to have it said of us that we hold Justification by works Why should any man be more shy of acknowledging this than St. James Nor need we so mince it as to say that Faith justifieth our person and works our Faith for understanding Works for a Working Faith our persons is ever they be must be justified by them We must not give the Papists occasion to think we have a slight opinion of good Works II. Ezeck 18. As I live saith the Lord. Altho God professeth kindness to all men and saith nay sweareth too that he willeth not the death of sinners but had rather they would turn from their wickedness and live yet according to the doctrines of some men this is but a declaration of his Voluntas signi The like to which should one assert concerning any honest man he would think himself not a little reproached III. Joh. 3. 17. God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World If the doctrine of absolute Reprobation be true our Saviours coming was to aggravate the Condemnation of the generality of men which would be far more properly called the World then a very few for not believing in him who never dy'd for them so much as to put them into a possibility of being saved The fifteenth Meeting A. I. HE gave himself for a ransome for mâ—ny for the Vulgus or multitude of the people So the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred many doth among the Greeks most commonly signifie And St. Paul saith He gave himself a ransome for all 1 Tim. 2. and did taste death for every man Heb. 2. 9. and that he is the Saviour of all men though especially of those that believe And he sadly bewailed mens not coming that they might have life and wept over Jerusalem for her obstinate persisting in unbelief and most pathetically with tears wished that she had known in that her day the things that beâ—onged to her peace II. 2 Tim. 3. 2. Men shall be lovers of themselves proud covetous c. In this and other places where mens sins are foretold instead of â—hall we may put will The shalls make those Places look as if they contain'd declarations of desires whereas wills would make them â—t first sight to appear that they contain onely â—redictions and expressions of Gods fâ—re-knowledge that men would commit such and such sins not of his Will and purpose that they should III. Rom. 9. 13. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated This is a quotation out of Malachy 1. 3. Where Esau's person was not spoken of but by Esau his posterity the Edomits are understood He meant no more thaâ— that he less loved them than the Israelites or was not so kind to them as he was to these Or we may conceive that by hating is to be understood very severely punishing which was after their wicked and most unnatural behaviour toward their brethren anâ— upon that account See Obad. 10. Notâ— what was said to Rebecca that two Nationâ— were in her Womb. And Esau in his owâ— person did never serve Jacob. B. I. ROm. 9. 15. I will have mercy on whoâ— I will have mercy i. e. I will bestoâ— my kindness where I please without givinâ— account to any one And therefore God maâ— justly accept Gentiles to his special favour â— idolatrous and wicked as generally they aâ— for he is not obliged to damn all that deferâ— it and cast off his antient people the Jewâ— at his pleasure
8 29. The Devils acknowledge that Christ was to destroy them they understood so much in the Sacred predictions but withal hope it was not yet the time for that execution and in the mean while counted it a kind of destruction and torment to them to be cast out or retrenched of any of their power which they had over the bodies or souls of men III. Rom. 4. 22. It was imputed or counted to him for Righteousness i. e. God took this for such an expression of Abrahams faithfulness and sincerity and true piety that he accepted him as a righteous person tho no doubt he had many infirmities and sins which he was or had been guilty of in his life unreconcilable which perfect righteousness The second Meeting A. I. 2. COr 13. 5. Know ye not that Christ Jesus is in you among you as Ex. 17. 7. except you be reprobates The words may be best resolved into a question and an answer Know you not discern you not your selves by the miracles and preaching the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that Christ Jesus that is the power of the Gospel is come amongst you this by the context appears to be the meaning And then the Answer except ye be reprobates i. e. ye are obdurate insensate creatures unless you do know it II. Rom. 5 3 4 5. Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not a shamed Here the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render experience Signifies being approved upon a tryal and the sense runs thus Tribulation is a season and a means to work patience and that patience to produce approbation as of one that is tryed in the fire and hath past the test and this a means to work an hope or expectation of reward and that hope will keep from being ashamed of those sufferings and make us rather rejoyce in them as in benign auspicious signes that in another world there is a reward for the righteous So Rom. 12. 12. rejoycing in hope and patient in tribulation are joyn'd togeher III. 1 Joh. 3. 3. Every man that hath this hope in him on him relying on his mercy purifieth himself By this you shall know a Christian hope from all other The Hypocrite or Carnal man hopes and is the wickeder for hoping he fears nothing and so discerns not the necessity of mending The best way to reform such a one is to rob him of his ungrounded hope But this hope of seeing God being grounded on the Conditional promises and the conditions being purity and holiness 2 Cor. 7. 1. sets presently to the performance of the conditions B. I. MAtth. 22. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy Soul with all thy mind and with all thy strength The heart seemeth to signifie the affections the Soul the will or elective faculty the mind the understanding or rational faculty and the strength the powers of the body for action All four together make up the whole man and the word all is affixt to each not to exclude all other things from any inferior part of your love but only from an equal or superior love to exclude a partial or a half-love II. Jam. 5. 16. Confess your faults one to another The context seems very probably to mean the presbyters for they are to be called v. 14. And for the cure of sin it will sure be very profitable to advise with the Physicians of the Soul to which end alone the disclosing of the particular estate is more then profitable And this may tend much to your comfort when the Minister of God upon a strict survey of your former life and your present repentance passes judgment on you better than you can do on your self III. 1. John 3. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin i. e. doth not live in sin as in a trade or course for his seed remaineth in him there is in the regenerate a new principle or seed of life a cognation with God which whilst it continues keeps out sin and he cannot sin in such manner because he is born of God or if he do sin thus he is no longer a child of God or a regenerate person So we say An honest man cannot do this not affirming an impossibility but that his principles of honesty will not suffer him to do it or if he do it he is no longer to be counted an honest man C. I. GAl. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit c. By the spirit it meant the seed of Grace planted in the heart by God as a principle of new life or the mind and upper Soul elevated yet higher by that supernatural principle By the flesh is meant the carnal appetite still remaining in the most regenerate during this life The lusting of one against the other is their contrariety that whatsoever one likes the other dislikes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that you do not the things ye would this contrariety gives you trouble that whatsoever ye do on either side you do it not quietly but with resistance In this opposition we must be sure that the flesh do not carry it against the Spirit i. e. do not get the consent of the will to it For he that fulfils the lust's of the flesh walkes not in the Spirit and consequently is not in a regenerate estate II. Matth. 16. 24. If any man will come after me let him deny himself Self denial is to renounce whatsoever comes at any time in competition with Christ namely all opinion of my own abilities towards the attaining of any supernatural end not depending upon any righteousness of my own for Salvation but only the free mercy of God in Christ not imputing unto me sin All unlawful desires of the flesh and even lawful liberty my reputation my estate and life if selfe when either Christ must be parted with or these By taking up the Cross in the following words is meant bearing of Affliction patiently and chearfully III. Phil. 1 29. To you it is given i. e. It is granted as a grace and Vouchsafement of Gods special favour to suffer far Christ and that grace is designed to reform what is amiss and to punish here that there may be nothing of evil left for another world Wherefore we are bound not only to patience but thankfulness also in our Afflictions The third Meeting A. I. 1. COr 2. 9. Eye haâ—h not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God haâ—h prepared for tbem that love him The true superlative delights even to flesh and blood that are in Sanctity and the practice of Christian Virtues beyond all that any sensual pleasure affords are so great that when they are exprest by the Apostle in these words they are ordinarily mistaken for the description of Heaven II Rom. 7. 23. I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind
be subject not only for wrath temporal punishment is meant by wrath which if it were all then how can it be true that we must be subject not only for that He that resists shall receive more then mans punishment if he prevent it not by repentance it wounds his conscience and binds him over to Gods punishment likewise II. 1 Pet 4. 17. Judgment must begin at the house of God Here are specified two parts of Judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first part and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the end or as the word sounds the tail of it So that onely the tolerable easie part of the Judgment belongs unto the godly but the end the dregs the unsupportable part to those that obey not the Gospel The first part is Gods retribution to sin here wherein the Godly have their part the other his rendring to the wicked hereafter Prov 11. 31. III. Joh. 2. 15. He drove them all out of the Temple This fact of Christ was done jure Zelotarum by a power that belonged to the Zelots for whom the Law allowed such liberty Whereupon the disciples remembred how it was written of him The zeal of thine house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath fed on me Not all things that were done by the Jews under pretence of this right were well done but only such as were done by men truly incired by God like Phinehas and Elias The Eight Meeting A. I. MAtth 16. 24. And take up his Cross This extends to the voluntary embracing of shame and contumely for the Cross was a contumelious death Heb. 12. 2. and consequently all other loss of goods liberty c. and beyond that pain of Body and death it self Which are said to be taken up not when we bring them unnecessarily upon our own shoulders but whenby the providence of God they are laid or permitted to lye in our way to Christ or Christian Obedience so that we cannot serve Christ perfectly but that it must be some detriment or dammage to us then voluntary to undergo that detriment whatever it is is to take uâ— the Cross II. Heb. 2. 10. To make the captain of our salvation perfect thrâ—ugh sufferings God bringing or being about that gracious work of bringing many sons unto glory consecrated or inaugurated so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the word used at the consecration of Priests Christ by sufferings Who being so consecrated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became the Author of Eternal salvation 5 9. Thus are we Christians to exspect our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether consecration to our dignity of being Kings and Priests i. e. Christians here or consummation and crowning hereafter by the same method by sufferings III. Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth c. Not only if you be not prepared to bear but if you be without Chastisement then are ye not sons Which when it is set down as an Aphorism of divine Observation in the Kingdome of Christ there will be no safety in labouring to avoid the literal importance of it B. I. ROm. 8. 20. All things work together for good Those all things are specified v. 35. Tribulation Distress Persecution c. These are the things to which the Lovers of God are foreappointed and predestinate to those they are called to be conformable to Christ So S. Peter also speaks 1. 2. 21. II. Mark 10. 30. With persecutions The hundred fold which Disciples are promised to recieve now in this time though they be secular blessings houses and brethren c. yet must they be with persecution Which words though neither St. Matthew nor St. Luke records yet St. Peter who dictated this Gosple remembred them as he had most reason being an Answer directed to a question of his proposing Those Duties which are promised the greatest reward on this earth must not expect payment without a mixture III. Isa 2. 4. They shall beaâ— their swords into plow shares 'T is a phrase to express the duty and obligation of Christians Charity is the only Precept Peace the only despositum that Christ took care to leave among them They i. e. These subjects of Christs Kingdome that are his disciples indeed effectually changed by his Spirit and made new Creatures they will certainly do so C. I. MAtth 11. 30. My yoke is easie and my burthen is light Some think there is no need of duty Obedience is unnecessary Christ hath a yoke and a burthen Some confessing a necessity of Christian Obedience conceive it impossible Christ's yoke is easie his burthen light Some yeilding both the necessity and possibility say it is an unpleasant task Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for them which signifies more than easie a gracious joyou and gainful yoke II. 2 Pet. 1. 20. No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their own incitation or motion but the Prophets were moved by the Holy Ghost as it follows in the next verse III. 1. Cor. 3. 21. All things are yours not absolutely but subordinately Serviceable according to the exigence of your condition and furtherance of your salvation The Ninth Meeting A. I. PSal 37. 25. I have not seen the righteous forsaken Nor his seed begging their bread i. e. Never so wholly forsaken if they were inheriters of their Fathers hope and profession as to make a constant trade of begging Or thus never forsaken though they begg'd their bread but even in that extremity God was present with them II. Ps 66. 3. Through the greatness of thy power shall thy Enemies submit themselvs unto thee In the Original it is they shall lye unto thee and so 't is translated by some menâ—ientur A forced submission to God is seldome in truth III. Ps 37. 16. A little that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly The righteous live and eat and are clothed they have comfort more less anguish of heart less vexation and contention of mind And to them it is all one whether they go to Heaven through the gate or through the wicket B. I. 1. COr 6. 7. A fault because you go to Law The words are not positive but comparative That a man should rather chuse to leave his name life estate unvindicated then by defending them unavoidably bring a Scandal upon Christ II. Jude 8. They speak evil of Dignities The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glories Men in eminent place are or should be the glory of the places where they live III. Act. 7. 20. Moses was exceeding fair The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies fine and neat so as Citizens are wont to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fair to God divinely beautiful By addition of which word is fignified excellency Jon. 3. Nineveh a very great city Heb-magna Deo C. I. ECcles 11. 1. Cast thy bread upon the Waters Husbandmen to perpetuate the fruits of the earth cast some of their corn back again into a fruitful soil where the Waters
Idleness is called the sin of Sodom and her daughters and indeed is the burial of a living man an idle person being so useless to any purposes of God man that he is like one that is dead unconcerned in the changes and necessities of the world and he only lives to spend his time and eat the fruits of the earth III. Jer. 48. 10. Do not the work of God negligently and idly Let not thy heart be upon the World when thy hand is lift up in prayer and be sure to prefer an action of religion in its place and proper season before all worldly pleasure In honouring God and doing his work put forth all thy strength for of that time onely thou maist be most confident that it is gained which is prudently and zealously spent in God's service C. I. EPh. 5. 16. Be sure by a timely deligence to redeem the time i. e. to be pious and religious in such instances in which formerly you have sinned and to bestow your time especially upon such graces the contrary whereof you have formerly practiced and then by all arts to watch against your present and future dangers from day to day securing your standing This is properly to redeem your time i. e. to buy your security of it at the rate of any labour and honest arts II. 1 Cor. 7. 5. Let him that is most busied set a part some solemn time every year in which for the time quitting his worldly business he may attend wholly to fasting and praying and the dressing of his soul by confessions meditations and attendances upon God that he may make up his accounts and renew his vows III. 1 Cor. 10. 21. That we should intend and design Gods glory in every action we do whether it be natural or chosen is expressed by S. Paul Whether ye eat or drink do all to the glory of God Which rule when we observe every action of nature becomes religious and every meal is an act of worship and shall have its reward in its proportion as well as an act of prayer The eight and Thirtieth Meeting A. I. LUk 1. 18. Whereby shall I know this Zacharias question'd with the Angel about his message and was made speechless for his incredulity but the blessed Virgin question'd too and was blameless for she did it to enquire after the manner of the thing but he did not belielieve the thing it self he doubted of Gods power or the truth of the messenger but she only of her own incapacity II. Matth. 10. 42. The poor Farmer that gave a dish of cold water to Artaxerxes was rewarded with a golden goblet and he that gives the same to a Disciple in the name of a disciplo shall have a Crown III. Psal 115. 1. Let every action of concernment be begun with prayer and Sanctifie your purpose and in the prosecution of it renew and reinkindle your purpose by short ejaculations as this Not unto us O Lord c. For then be sure as the glory is his so the reward shall be thine B. I. 1 SAm 1. 8. What Helkanah said to the mother of Samuel Am I not better to thee than ten sons is most certainly verified concerning God that he who is to be our judge is better than ten thousand witnesses And indeed that man hath a strange covetousness or folly that is not contented with this reward that he hath pleased God II. Matth. 6. 2. When thou doest alms c. Good actions degenerate without purity of intention Thus alms are for charity fasting for temperance prayer for Religion humiliation is for humility austerity or sufferance is in order to the Virtue of patience And when these actions fail of their several ends or are not directed to their own purposes alms are mispent fasting is an impertinent trouble prayer is but lip-labour humiliation is but hypocrisie sufferance is but vexation III. Matth. 6. 22. When there is both truth in election and Charity in the intention when we go to God in wayes of his own chusing or approving then our eye is single and our hands are clean and our hearts are pure C. I. JEr 23. 24. That God is present in all places that he sees every action hears all discourses and understands every thought we are taught not onely by right reason and the consent of all the wise men in the world but also by God himself in holy Scripture Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord c. All things are naked and open to his eyes Heb. 4. 13. II. Matth. 6. 9. Which art in heaven God is more specially present in some places by the several and more special manifestations of hmself Thus his seat is in heaven because there he sits encircled with all the outward demonstrations of his glory which he is pleas'd to shew to all the inhabitants of those his inward and secret Courts III. Matth. 18. 20. Where two or three are gathered together c. God is by Grace and benediction specially present in the assemblies of his servants God will go out of his way to meet his Saints when themselves are forced out of their way of order by a sad necessity but else Gods usual way is to be present in those places where his servants are appointed ordinarily to meet and by publick authority But his presence there signifies nothing but a readiness to hear their prayers to bless their persons to accept their offices and to like even this circumstance of orderly and publick Meeting The nine and Thirtieth Meeting A. I. 1 COr 3. 16. The spirit of God dwelleth in you God is especially â—resent in the hearts of his people by his holy Spirit For God reigns in the hearts of his servants there is his Kingdome The power of grace hath subdued all his enemies there is his power They serve him day and night and give him thanks and praise That is his glory II. Psal 139. 6. Whither shall I flee from thy presence This thought by being frequent will make an habitual dread and reverence toward God and fear in all thy actions For it is a great necessity and engagement to do unblamably when we act before the judge who is infallible in his sentence and intolerable in his wrath and indignation III. Psalmist Seven times a day do I praise thee and in the night c. In your retirement make frequent colloquies or short discoursings between God and thy own soul so did David And this is called a building to God a chappel in our hearts Thus in the midst of your works you retire into your Chappel and converse with God by frequent addresse and returns B. I. 1 COr 9. 25. The life of a Christian is a perpetual exercise a wrestling and warfare to which sensual pleasure disables him by yielding to that enemy with whom he must strive if ever he will be crowned And this argument the Apostle intimated He that striveth for masteries is
temperate in all things c. Iâ— Revel 2. 17. In the same degree in which we relish and are in love with spiritual delights the hidden Manna with the sweetnesses of devotion with the joys of thanksgiving with rejoycings in the Lord with the comforts of hope with the deliciousness of Charity and alms deeds with the sweetness of a good conscience with the peace of meekness and the felicities of a contented spirit in the same degree we disrelish and loath the husks of swinish lusts and the parings of the apples of Sodom and the taste of sinful pleasures III. 1 Cor. 10. 25. Whatsoever is set before you eat If it be provided for you you may eat it be it never so delicate and be it plain and common so it be wholsome and fit for you it must not be refused upon curiosity for every degree of that is a degree of intemperance C. I. LUk 21. 34. Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged c. Christ forbids both the actual and the habitual intemperance not onely the effect of it but the affection to it for in both there is sin It is a sin inordinately to love or use the drink tho the surfeiting or violence do not follow II. 1 Thes 5. 8. Let us who are of the day be sober The Faith of the Mahometans forbids them to drink wine and they abstain religiously as the Sons of Rechab And the Faith of Christ forbids drunkenness to us and therefore is infinitely more powerful to suppress this vice when we remember that we are Christians and to abstain from drunkenness gluttony is part of the Faith and discipline of Jesus and that with these vices neither our love to God nor our hopes of heaven can consist III. 1 Cor. 6. 12. All things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any In all cases be careful that you be not brought under power of such things which otherwise are lawful enough in the use To be perpetually longing and impatiently desirous of any thing so that a man cannot abstain from it is to loose a mans liberty and to become a servant of meat and drink or smoke The Fortieth Meeting A. I. 1 THes 4. 4. to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour Chastity is that grace which forbids and restrains all irregular desires in the matter of carnal pleasures keeping the body and soul pure in that state in which it is placed by God whether of the single or of the married life II. Revel 14. 4. Single life is more excellent then the married in that degree in which it hath greater religion and a greater mortification a less satisfaction of natural desires and a greater fulness of the spiritual and just so is to expect that little Coronet or special reward which God hath prepared extraordinary and besides the great Crown of all Faithful souls for those Who have not defiled themselves with women but follow the Virgin Lamb for ever III. Hos 2. 6. The Appetites of uncleanness are full of cares and trouble and its fruition is sorrow and repentance The way of the adulterer is hedged with thorns full of fears and jealousies burning desires and impatient waitings tediousness of delay and sufferance of affronts and amazements of discovery B. I. MAtth. 5 Blessed are the pure in heart A pure mind in a chast body is the mother of Wisdome and Sober counsel Love of God and self-denial peace and confidence holy prayer and spiritual comfort and a pleasure of spirit infinitely greater than the scottish and beastly pleasures of unchastity For to overcome pleasure is the greatest pleasure and no victory is greater then that which is gotten over our lusts and filthy inclinations Cyprian II. Gen. 26. 11. Abimelech to the men of Gerar made it death to meddle with the wife of Isaac and Judah condemned Thamar to be burnt for her adulterous conception and God besides the law made to put the adulterous person to death did constitute a settled and constant miracle to discover the adultery of a suspected woman that her bowels should burst with drinking the waters of jealousie Num. 5. 14. III. Matth. 5. If a man lets his eye loose and enjoys the lust of that he is an adulterer Look not upon a woman to lust after her And supposing all the other members restrained yet if the eye be permitted to lust the man can no otherwise be called chast than he can be called severe and mortified that sits all day long seeing plays and revellings and out of greediness to fill his eye neglects his belly C. I. 1 PEt. 1. 22. Seeing ye have purified your souls see that ye love one another c. A Virgin that consecrates her body to God and pollutes her spirit with rage or impatience or inordinate anger gives him what he most hates a most foul and defiled foul II. 1 Cor. 7. 5. It is S. Pauls rule that by consent for a time they should abstain that they give themselves to fasting and prayer And tho when Christians did receive the holy communion every day it is â—ertain they did not abstain but had children yet when the Communion was more seldome they did with Religion abstain from the marriage bed during the time of their solemn preparatory devotions as antiently they did from eating and drinking til the solemnity of the day was past III. Eph. 5. 32. Marriage is by Christ hallowed into a mystery to signifie the Sacramental and mystical union of Christ and his Church He therefore that breaks this knot which the Church and their mutual Faith has tyed and Christ hath knit up into a mystery dishonours a great rite of Christianity of high spiritual and excellent signification The one and Fortieth Meeting A. I. MAtth. 11. 29. Humility is the great ornament and jewel of Christian Religion having been first put in a discipline and made part of a religion by our Lord Jesus Christ who propounded himself imitable by his Disciples so signally in nothing as in the twin sisters o Meekness and humility Learn of me for I am Meek and humble c. II. Dan. 4. 27. Entertain no fancies of vanity and private whispers of this Divel of pride such as was that of Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the honour of my name Some phantastick spirits will walk alone and dream waking of greatnesses of Palaces of excellent Orations loud applauses nothing but the fumes of pride III. Jam. 4. 6. God resisteth the proud professing open defiance and hostility against such persons but giveth grace to the humble Grace and pardon content in all conditions tranquility of spirit patience in afflictions love abroad peace at home and freedome from contention and the sin of censuring others and the trouble of being censured themselves B. I. MAtth. 7. 3. The humble man will not judge his brother for the mote in his eye being more troubled at