carnal and unsanctified All the Baals and Iupiters and Apolloes and other Idols of the world set together have not so much of the Love and Service due to God as the Flesh alone hath If other things be Idolized by the sensualist it is but as they subserve his flesh and therefore they are made but inferior Idâ—ls He may Idolize his wealth and Idolize men in power and worldly greatness but it is but as they can help or hurt his Flesh This hath his Heart By the interest of the flesh he judgeth of his condition by this he judgeth of his friends By this he chooseth his actions or refuseth them and by this he measureth the words and actions of all others He takes all for Good which pleaseth his Flesh and all for bad that is against his pleasure § 8. 3. The flesh is not only the common Idol but the most devouring Idol in all the world It hath not as subservient flattered Idolâ— have only a knee and complement or now and then a sacrifice or ceremonie but it hath the heart the tongue the body to serve it the whole estate the service of friends the use of wit and utmost diligence in a word it hath All. It is loved and served by the sensualist as God should be loved and served by his own even with all the Heart and Soul and Might They honour it with their substance and the first fruits of their increase It is as faithfully served as Christ requireth to be of his disciples Men will part with Father and Mother and Brother and Sister and nearest friends and all that is against it for the pleasing of their flesh Nay Christ required men to part with no greater matter for him than transitory earthly things which they must shortly part with whether they will or no but they do for the flesh ten thousand thousand fold more than ever they were required to do for Christ They forsake God for it They forsake Christ and Heaven and their Salvation for it They forsake all the solid comforts oâ— this life and all the joys of the life to come for it They sell all that they have and lay down the price at its feet Yea more than all they have even all their Hopes of what they might have to all eternity They suffer a martyrdom in the flames of Hell for ever for their flesh All the pains they take is â—or â—â— All the wrong they do to others and all the stirs and ruines that they make in the world is for it And all the time they spend is for it and had they a thousand years more to live they would spend it all accordingly If any thing seem excepted for God it is but the bones or crums or leavings of the flesh Or rather its nothing For God hath not indeed the hours which he seems to have He hath but a few fair words and complements when the flesh hath their hearts in the midst of their hypocritical worship and on his holy day And they serve him but as the Indians serve the Devil that he may serve their turns and do them no hurt § 9. 4. How base an Idol is the Flesh If all the derision used by Elijah and the Prophets against the Heathenish Idolatry be due is not as much due against the Idolatry of all the sensual Is it so great a madness to serve an Idol of silver or gold or stone or wood What better is it to serve an Idol of flesh and blood A paunch of gutts That 's full of filth and excrements within and the skin it self the cleanest part is ashamed to be uncovered We may say to the Carnal worldling as Elijah to the Baalists and more Call upon your God in the hour of your distress Cry aloud Perhaps he is asleep or he is blowing his nose or vomiting or purging Certainly he will be shortly rotting in the grave more loathsom than the dirt or dung upon the earth And is this a God to sacrifice all that we can get to And to give all our time and care and labour and our souls and all to O judge of this Idolatry â—â— God will make you judge at last § 10. 5. And here next consider how impious and horrid an abasement it is of the eternal God to prefer so vile a thing before him And whether every ungodly sensual man be not a constant practical Blaspheamer What dost thou but say continually by thy practice This dunghil nasty flesh is to be preferred before God to be more loved and obeyed and served It deserveth more of my time than he It is more worthy of my delight and love God will be judge and judge in righteousness ere long whether this be not the daily language of thy life though thy tongue be taught some better manners And whether this be Blasphemy judge thy self Whether thou judge God or the flesh more worthy to be pleased and which thou thinkest it better to please ask thy own heart when Cards and Dice and Eating and Drinking and Gallantry and Idleness and Greatness and Abundance do all seem so sweet unto thee in comparison of thy thoughts of God and his holy word and service And when morning and night and whenever thou art alone those thoughts can run out with unweariedness or pleasure upon these provisions for thy flesh which thou canst hardly force to look up unto God a quarter of an hour though with unwillingness § 11. 6. Think also what a contempt of Heaven it is to prefer the pleasing of the flesh before it There is but two ends which all men aym at the pleasing of the flesh on earth or the enjoying of God in Heaven unless any be deluded to think that he shall have a sensual life hereafter too as well as here And these two stand one against the other And he that sets up one doth renounce or as good as renounce the other If yee sow to the flesh of the flesh ye shall reap corruption But if ye sow to the spirit of the spirit ye shall reap everlasting life Gal. 6. 8. Your wealth and honour and sports and pleasures and appetites are put in the scales against Heaven and all the Joys and Hopes hereafter To say you hope to have them both is the cheat of infidelity that believes not God And is not Heaven most basely esteemed of by those that prefer so base a thing before it § 12. 7. Remember that flesh-pleasing is a great contempt and treacherie against the soul. It is a great contempt of an immortal soul to prefer its corruptible flesh before it and to make its servant to become its master and to ride on horseback while it goes as it were on foot Is the flesh worthy of so much time and cost and care and so much ado as is made for it in the world and is not a never dying soul worth more Nay it is a betraying of the soul You set up its enemy before it and
to your selves And that both in time of Health and Sickness § 31. 1. In Health you must be careful to provide for each other not so much pleasing as wholsome food and to keep each other from that which is hurtful to your health disswading each other from Gluttony and Idleness the two great Murderers of mankind If the bodies of the poor in hunger and cold and nakedness must be relieved much more of those that are become as your own flesh § 32. 2. Also in Sickness you are to be tenderly regardful of each other and not to be sparing of any cost or pains by which the health of each other may be restored or your souls confirmed and Gen. 27. 14. your comforts cherished You must not lothe the Bodies of each other in the most lothsom sickness Eph 5 29 31. Job 19. 17. Job 2. 9. nor shun them through loathing no more than you would do your own Prov. 17. 17. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity Much more those that are so nearly bound for sickness and health till death shall separate them It is an odious sin to be aweary of a sick or suffering friend and desirous that God would take them meerly that you may be eased of the trouble And usually such persons do meet with such measure as they measured to others and those that they look for help and comfort from will perhaps be as weary of them and as glad to be rid of them § 33. Direct 8. Another duty of Husbands and Wives is to be helpful to each other in their worldly Direct 8. business and estates Not for worldly ends nor with a worldly mind but in obedience to God See Prov. 31. Gen. 31. 40. Tit. 2. 5. 1 Tâ—m 5. 14. 5. 8. who will have them Labour as well as pray for their daily bread and hath determined that in the sweat of their brows they shall eat their bread and that six dayes they shall labour and do all that they have to do and that he that will not work must not eat The care of their affairs doth lye upon them both and neither of them must cast it off and live in idleness unless one of them be an Ideot or so witless as to be unfit for care or so sick or lame as to be unfit for labour § 34. Direct 9. Also you must be careful of the lawful honour and good names of one another Direct 9. You must not divulge but conceal the dishonourable failings of each other as Abigail except 1 Sam. 25. 25. Matth. 18 16. Matth. 1. 19. 2 Sam. 11. 7. Prov. 31. 28. Eccles 7 3. Prov. 22. 1. 2 Sam. 6. 20. Gen 9 22 25. in any case compassion or justice require you to open them to any one for a cure or to clear the truth The reputation of each other must be as dear to you as your own It is a sinful and unfaithful practice of many both Husbands and Wives who among their companions are opening the faults and infirmities of each other which they are bound in tenderness to cover As if they perceived not that by dishonouring one another they dishonour themselves Love will cover a multitude of faults 1 Pet. 4. 8. Nay many disaffected pievish persons will aggravate all the faults of one another behind their backs to strangers and sometimes slander them and speak more than is truth Many a man hath been put to clear his good name from the slanders of a jealous or a passionate Wife And an open enemy is not capable of doing one so much wrong as she that is in his bosome because she will be easily be believed as being supposed to know him better than any other § 35. Direct 10. It is also a great part of the duty of Husbands and Wives to be helpful to one Direct 10. another in the education of their Children and in the government of the inferiors of the family Some 〈…〉 m 3. 4 12. Gen. 18. 19. â—â— 35. 2 c. 〈…〉 24 14. 〈…〉 101. men cast all the care of the Children while they are young upon their Wives And many women by their passion and indiscretion do make themselves unfit to help their Husbands in the Government either of their Children or Servants But this is one of the greatest parts of their employment As to the Mans part to govern his house well it is a duty unquestionable And it is not to be denyed of the Wife 1 Tim. 5. 14. I will that the younger Women marry bear Children guide the house Bathshâ—ba taught Solomon Prov. 31. 1. Abigail took better care of Nabal's house than he did himself They that have a joint interest and are one flesh must have a joint part in government although their power be not equal and one may better oversee some business and the other other business yet in their places they must divide the care and help each other And not as it is with many wicked persons who are the most unruly part of the family themselves and the chiefest cause that it is ungoverned and ungodly or one party hindreth the other from keeping order or doing any good § 36. Direct 11. Another part of their Duty is to help each other in works of charity and hospitality Direct 11. While they have opportunity to do good to all but especially to them of the houshold of faith Heb. 13. 2. Gen. 18. 6 c. Rom. 12. 13. 2 Cor. 9. 6. â—uke 1â— 9. 1 Tim 3. 2. 5. 10. Prov. 11. 20 28 Neh. 8. 10. Prov. 19. 17 Job 29. 13. 31. 20. Acts 20. 35. and to sow to the Spirit that of the Spirit they may reap everlasting life yea to sow plentifully that they may reap plentifully Gal. 6. that if they are able their houses may afford relief and entertainment for the needy especially for Christs servants for their Masters sake who hath promised that He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Matth. 10. 41 42. The woman of Sâ—â—â—â—em lost nothing by the entertainment of Elisha when she said to her Husband Behold now I perceive that this is an holy man of God which passeth by us continually Let us make him a little Chamber I pray thee on the wall and let us set for him there a Bed and a Table and a Stool and a Candlestick and it shall be when he cometh to us that he shall turn in thither 2 Kings 4. 10. But now how common is it for the people to think all too little for themselves and if one of them be addicted to
salvation as the ungodly world doth Oh with what scorn and holy indignation would they refuse a world if it were offered them instead of God with what detestation would they reject the motion to any sin § 10. Direct 10. When you would revive in your minds a right apprehension and estimation of all earthly Direct 10. things as Riches and Honours and Greatness and Command and full provisions for the flesh bethink you then how the blessed souls with Christ esteem them How little do they set by all those things that worldlings make so great a stir for and for which they â—ell their God and their salvation How contemptible are Crowns and Kingdoms in their eyes Their judgement is more like to Gods than ours is Luk. 16. 15. That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God All the world would not hire a Saint in Heaven to tell one lie or take the name of God in vain or to forget God or be estranged from him for one hour § 11. Direct 11 When you see the Godly under the contempt of sinners here accounted as the filth of Direct 11. the world and the off-scouring of all things defamed reviled hated and persecuted Look up then to the 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. Saints with Christ and think how they are esteemed and used And when you would truly know what â—am 3. 45. a Believer is think not how they are esteemed and used by men but how they are esteemed and used by Christ. Judge not of them by their short afflictions nor by their meanness in the flesh but by their endless happiness and their glory above Look up to the home and world of Saints if you would know what Saints are and not to the few scattered imperfect passengers in this world that is not Heb 11. 33. worthy of them § 12. Direct 12. When you are tempted to think meanly of the Kingdom of Christ as if his flock were Direct 12. so small and poor and sinful as to be inconsiderable look up to the world of blessed souls which dwell above And there you shall see no such paucity or imperfections or blemishes as are here below The Subjects there are such as dishonour not their King Christs Kingdom is not of this world Joh. 18. 36. If you would know it in its Glory look up to the world where it is Glorious If when you hear men contemn the Kingdom of the Saints of Christ and at the same time did but see as Stephen did a glimpse into that Kingdom and all the Glory of the blessed there what thoughts would you have of the words which did dishonour it § 13. Direct 13. When you hear sinners boast of the Wisdom or Numbers of their party and appealing Direct 13. to the learned or great ones of the world look up to the blessed souls with Christ and ask whether they are not more wise and numerous than all the sinners upon earth The greatest Doctors are ignorant and unlearned in comparison of the meanest soul with Christ The greatest Monarchs are but worms in comparison of the Glorified Spirits with God If they say to you Are you wiser than so many and so wise and Learned men ask them Are you or all the ungodly wiser than all the blessed souls with Christ Let the wiser party carry it § 14. Direct 14. When you are tempted to be weary of a holy life or to think all your labour is vain Direct 14. look up to the blessed souls with Christ and there you will see the end of Holiness There you will see that of all the labour of your lives there is none that you are so sure to gain by and that in due time you shall reap if you faint not and if you sow to the spirit of the spirit you shall reap everlasting life Gal. 6. 8 9. And that when you have done the will of God if you have but patience you shall inherit the promise Heb. 10. 36. Ask your selves whether any of those blessed souls Repent now of the Holiness of their lives on earth or of their mortifying the flesh and denying themselves the delights of sin § 15. Direct 15. When you are tempted to turn back in the day of tryal and to forsake Christ or Direct 15. his cause when persecution ariseth then look to the blessed souls above and see what is the end of suffering for the sake of Christ and righteousness To foresee the great reward in Heaven will convince you that instead of being terrified by sufferings you should rejoyce and be exceeding glad Are you to lie Mat. 5. 11 12. in Prison or to burn in the Flames so did many thousands that are now in Heaven And do you think that they repent it now Ignatius Polycarp Cyprian and many such holy men were once used as hardly as you are now and put to death by cruel men Rogers Bradford Hooper Glover and multitudes with them were once in Prison and burnt in the Flames but where are they now and what is the end of all their pains Now whether do you think the case of Bonner or Bradford to be best Now had you rather be Gardiner or Philpot Now which think you doth most repent the poor Waldenses that were murdered by thousands or the Popes and Persecutors that murdered them § 16. Direct 16. When you are dismayed under the burden of your sins the greatness of your corruptions Direct 16. the weakness of your graces the imperfection of your duties look up to the blessed souls with Christ and remember that all those Glorified spirits were once in flesh as you now are and once they lay at the feet of God in tears and groans and cryes as you do They were once fain to cry out of the burden of their sins and mourn under the weakness of their graces as you now do They were once as much clog'd with flesh as you are and once as low in doubts and fears and bruised under the sense of Gods displeasure They once were as violently assaulted with temptations and had the same corruptions to lament and strive against as you have They were once as much afflicted by God and man But is there any of the smart of this remaining § 17. Direct 17. When you are deterred from the presence of the dreadful God and think he will not Direct 17. accept such worms as you look up to the blessed souls with Christ and remember how many millions of your brethren are there accepted to greater familiarity than that which you here desire Remember that those souls were once as dark and distant from God and unworthy of his acceptance as you now are A fearful Child receiveth boldness to see his Brethren in his Fathers arms § 18. Direct 18. When you are afraid of Satan lest he should prevail against you and devour you Direct 18. look up to the blessed souls with Christ and
clean and delectable and paved with mercies and fortified and secured by Divine protection and where Christ is your Conductor and so many have sped so well before you and the wisest and best in the world are your companions Live then as men that have changed their Master their end their hopes their way and work Religion layeth not men to sleep though it be the only way to Rest. It awakeneth the sleepy soul to higher thoughts and hopes and labours than ever it was well acquainted with before He that is in Christ is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. You never sought that which would pay for all your cost and diligence till now You never were in a way that you might make haste in without repenting of your haste till now How glad should you be that Mercy hath brought you into the right way after the wanderings of such a sinful life And your gladness and thankfulness should now be shewed by your cheerful diligence and zeal As Christ did not raise up Lazarus from the dead to do nothing or live to little purpose though the Scripture giveth us not the history of his life So did he not raise you from the death of sin to live idely or to be unprofitable in the world He that giveth you his Spirit to be a principle of heavenly life within you expecteth that you stir up the gift that he hath given you and live according to that heavenly principle Direction 16. ENgage thy self in the chearful constant use of the means and helps appointed by God Direct 16. for thy confirmation and salvation § 1. He can never expect to attain the end that will not be perswaded to use the means Of your selves you can do nothing God giveth his help by the means which he hath appointed and fitted to your help Of the use of these I shall treat more fully afterwards I am now only to name them to thee that thou maist know what it is that thou hast to do 1. That you must hear or read the Word of God and other good Books which expound it and How Paenitents of old did rise even from a particular sin judge by these words of Pacianus Paâ—â—â—â—â—â— ad Poeâ—â—t Bibl. Pat. To. 3. p. 74. You must not only do that which may be seen of the Priest and praised by the Bishop to weep before the Church to lament a lost or sinful life in a â—ordid garment to fast pray to role on the earth if any invite you to the Bath or such pleasures to refuse to go If any bid you to a Feast to say These things are for the happy I have sinned against God and am in danger to perish for ever What should I do at Banquets who have wronged the Lord Besides these you must take the poor by the hand you must beseech the Widdow lye at the feet of the Presbyters beg of the Church to forgive you and pray for you you must try all means rather than perish apply it I shewed you before The new born Christian doth encline to this as the new born child doth to the breast 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. Laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new born babes that desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby Psal. 1. 2 3. The blessed mans delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night § 2. 2. Another means is the publick worshipping of God in communion with his Church and people Besides the benefit of the word there preached the prayers of the Church are effectual for the members and it raiseth the soul to holy joyes to joyn with well ordered Assemblies of the Saints in the Praises of the Almighty The Assemblies of holy worshippers of God are the places of his delight and must be the places of our delight They are most like to the Celestial Society that sound forth the praises of the glorious Iebovah with purest minds and cheerful voice In his Temple doth every one speak of his glory Psal. 29. 9. In such a Chore what soul will not be rapt up with delight and desire to joyn in the consort and harmony In such a flame of united desires and praises what soul so cold and dull that will not be enflamed and with more than ordinary facility and alacrity fly up to God § 3. 3. Another means is private prayer unto God When God would tell Ananias that Paul was converted he saith of him Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11. Prayer is the breath of the new creature The Spirit of Adoption given to every child of God is a Spirit of prayer and teacheth them to cry Abba Father and helpeth their infirmities when they know not what to pray as they ought and when words are wanting it as it were intercedeth for them with groans which they cannot express in words Gal. 4. 6. Rom. 8. 15 26 27. And God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit in those groans The first workings of grace are in Desires after grace provoking the soul to servent prayer by which more grace is speedily obtained Ask then and ye shall have seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you Luke 11. 9. § 4. 4. Another means to be used is Confession of sin not only to God for so every wicked man may do because he knoweth that God is already acquainted with it all and this is no addition to his shame He so little regardeth the eye of God that he is more ashamed when it is known to men But in three Cases Confession must be made also to Man 1. In case you have wronged man and are thus bound to make him satisfaction As if you have robbed him defrauded him slandered him or born false witness against him 2. In case you are Children or Servants that are under the government of Parents or Masters and are called by them to give an acount of your actions You are bound then to give a true account 3. In case you have need of the Counsel or Prayers of others for the setling of your consciences in peace In this case you must so far open your case to them as is necessary to their effectual help for your recovery For if they know not the disease they will be unfit to apply the remedy In these cases it is true that He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy Prov. 28. 13. § 5. 5. Another Means to be used is the familiar company and holy converse with humble sincere experienced Christians The Spirit that is in them and breatheth and acteth by them will kindle the like holy flames in you Away with the company of idle prating sensual men that can talk of nothing but their worldly wealth or business or their reputations or their appetites and lusts
had not first taken away the sins of the world and reconciled them so far to God as to procure and tender them the pardon and salvation contained in his Covenant there had been no place for your Repentance nor faith nor prayers nor endeavours as to any hope of your salvation Your Believing would not have saved you nor indeed had any justifying object if he had not purchased you the promise and gift of pardon and salvation to all Believers § 2. Objection But perhaps you 'l say That if we had Loved God without a Saviour we should have been saved for God cannot hate and damn those that Love him To which I answer You could not have Loved God as God without a Saviour To have Loved him as the giver of your worldly prosperity with a Love subordinate to the Love of sin and your carnal selves and to Love him as one that you imagine so unholy and unjust as to give you leave to sin against him and prefer every Vanity before him this is not to Love God but to Love an Image of your own fantasie nor will it at all procure your salvation But to Love him as your God and Happiness with a superlative Love you could never have done without a Saviour For 1. Objectively God being not your Reconciled Father but your enemy engaged in Justice to damn you for ever you could not Love him as thus related to you because he could not seem amiable to you and therefore the damned hate him as their destroyer as the Thief or Murderer hates the Judge 2. And as to the Efficiency your blinded minds and depraved wills could never have been restored so far to their rectitude as to have Loved God as God without the teaching of Christ and the renewing sanctifying work of his Spirit And without a Saviour you could never have expected this gift of the Holy Ghost So that your supposition it self is groundless § 3. Indeed Conversion is your implanting into Christ and your uniting to him and marriage with him that he may be your life and help and hope He is the way the truth and the life and no man cometh to the Father but by him John 14. 6. God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5. 11 12. He is the Vine and we are the branches As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine so neither can we except we abide in him He that abideth not in Christ is cast forth as a branch and withered to be burned John 15. 4 5 6. All your life and help is in him and from him Without Christ you cannot Believe in the Father as in one that will shew you any saving Mercy but only as the Devils that believe him Just and tremble at his Justice without Christ you cannot Love God nor have any lively apprehensions of his Love Without Christ you can have no Hope of Heaven and therefore no endeavours for it Without him you cannot come near to God in prayer as having no confidence because no admittance acceptance or hope Without him how terrible are the thoughts of death which in him we may see as a conquered thing and when we remember that he was dead and is now alive and the Lord of life and hath the Keyes of Death and Hell with what boldness may we lay down this flesh and suffer death to undress our souls It is only in Christ that we can comfortably think of the world to come when we remember that he must be our Judge and that in our Nature glorified he is now in the Highest Lord of all and that he is preparing a place for us and will come again to take us to himself that where he is there we may be also John 14. 3. Alas without Christ we know not how to live an hour nor can have hope or peace in any thing we have or do nor look with comfort either upward or downward to God or the Creature nor think without terrors of our sins of God or of the life to come Resolve therefore that as true Converts you are wholly to Live upon Jesus Christ and to do all that you do by his Spirit and strength and to expect all your acceptance with God upon his account when other men are reputed Philosophers or Wise for some unsatisfactory knowledge of these transitory things do you desire to know nothing but a crucified and glorified Christ study him and take him objectively for your Wisdom When other men have confidence in the flesh and in their shew of Wisdom in Will-worship and Humility after the Commandments and Doctrines of men Col. 2. 20 21 22 23. and would establish their own righteousness do you rejoice in Christ your Righteousness And set continually before your eyes his Doctrine and Example as your Rule Look still to Iesus the Author and finisher of you faith who contemned all the Glory of the world and trampled upon its Vanity and subjected himself to a life of suffering and made himself of no reputation but for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and underwent the contradiction of sinners against himself Live so that you may truly say as Paul Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me § 4. HAving given you these Directions I most earnestly beseech you to peruse and practise them that my labour may not rise up as a witness against you which I intend for your Conversion and Salvation Think on it Whether this be an Unreasonable course or an unpleasant life or a thing unnecessary and what is Reasonable necessary and pleasant if this be not And if you meet with any of those distracted sinners that would deride you from Christ and your Every one is not a Thief that a Dog barks at nor an hypocrite◠that hypocrites call so salvation and say this is the way to make men mad or this is more ado than needs I will not stand here to manifest their bruitishness and wickedness having largely done it already in my Book called A Saint or a Bruite and Now or Never and in the third Part of the Saints Rest But only I desire thee as a full defensative against all the pratings of the Enemies of a holy Heavenly life to take good notice but of these three things § 5. 1. Mark well the language of the holy Scriptures and see whether it speak not contrary to these men And bethink thee whether God or they be wiser and whether God or they must be thy Iudge § 6. 2. Mark whether these men do not change their minds and turn their tongues when they come to
that man is made for another life and for such works which he is utterly unfit for till Grace have changed and renewed him as it doth by many before your eyes § 6. Tempt 3. But saith the Tempter if supernatural grace be necessary yet it may be born in you Tempt 3. Infants have no sin Christ saith Of such is the Kingdom of God Abraham is your Father yea God John 8. 39. 41. You are born of Christian Parents § 7. Direct 3. See the full proof of Original Sin in all Infants in my Treatise of the Divine Life Direct 3. Part. 1. Chap. 11. 12. Grace may indeed be put betimes into Nature but comes not by nature Except you be born again you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 3. 3. 5. If any man be in Christ Rom. 8. 9. 16. Rom. 9. 8. Eph. 2. 3. he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. But how vain is it for him to boast that he was born holy who finds himself at the present unholy Shew that you have a holy heavenly heart and life and then you are happy when ever it was wrought § 8. Tempt 4. But saith the Tempter Baptism is the laver of Regeneration You are Baptized and Tempt 4. therefore you are Regenerated The Ancients taught that all sins were washt away in Baptism and Grace conferred § 9. Direct 4. Answ. The Ancients by Baptism meant the Internal and External acts conjunct the Direct 4. souls delivering up it self to God in the Covenant and sealing it by Baptism And so it includeth Conversion and true Repentance and faith And all that are thus baptized are pardoned justified and holy But they that have only Sacramental Regeneration or the external Ordinance are not for Mat. 28. 19 20. that in a state of life For Christ expresly saith that except you are born of the Spirit as well as Water you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven John 3. 5 6. And Peter told Simon Magus after he was baptized that he was yet in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Acts 8. 13. It is not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience 1 Pet. 3. 21. Christ cleanseth his Church by the washing of water by the word Eph. 5. 26. But if you had been cleansed in Baptism if at present you are unclean and unholy can you be saved so § 10. Temp. 5. When this faileth the Tempter would perswade them that Godliness is nothing but Tempt 5. a matter of meer Opinion or belief to believe all the Articles of the faith and to be no Papist nor Heretick but of the true Religion and to be confident of Gods mercy through Christ For he that believeth shall be saved Mar. 16. 16. § 11. Direct 5. To this you must answer that it will not save a man that his Religion is true Direct 5. unless â—â— be true to it Read Iames 2. against such a dead faith Saving faith is the hearty entertainment of Christ as our Lord and Saviour and the delivering up the soul to him to be sanctified and ruled as well as pardoned Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth He that knoweth his Masters will and dâ—th it not shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 12. 47. It 's sad that men should think to be saved â—y that which will condemn them by being of a right opinion and a wrong conversation by believing their duty instead of dâ—ing it and then presuming that Christ forgiveth them and that their state iâ— good Opinion and presumption are not faith § 12. Tempt 6. But saith the Tempter Holiness is the excellency of holy persons but vulgar unlearned Tempt 6. people may be saved without such high matters which are above them § 13. Direct 6. But God telleth you that without Holiness none shall see him Heb. 12. 14. The unlearned 〈◊〉 6. may be saved but the ungodly cannot Psal. 1. 6. Holiness is to the soul as life to the body He that hath it not is dead though all have not the same degree of health Sin is sin and hated of God in learned and unlearned All men have souls that need regenerating at first And as all bodies that live must live on the earth by the Air and Food c. â—o all souls that live do live upon the s 〈…〉 God and Christ and Heaven by the same Word and Spirit and all this may be had by the unlearned § 14. Tempt 7. But saith the Tempter God is not so unmerciful as to damn all that are not holy Tempt 7. This is but talk to keep men in aw and not to be believed § 15. Direct 7. But if Gods threatnings be necessary to keep men in awe then are they necessary Direct 7. to be executed For God needs not awe men by a lye He best knows to whom he will be merciful and how far Did you never read Isa. 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that was made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour And Psal. 59. 5. Be not merciful to any wicked transgressor Is he not just as well as merciful Exod. 34. 6 7. Do you not see that men are sick and pained and dye for all that God is merciful And do not Merciful Iudges condemn Malefactors Are not Angels made Devils by sin for all that God is merciful The Devil knoweth this to his sorrow And if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell 2 Pet. 2. 4. will he be unjust for you § 16. Tempt 8. But Christ dyed for all and God will not punish him and you both for the same Tempt 8. fault § 17. Direct 8. Christ dyed so far for all that have the Gospel as to procure and seal them a free Direct 8. and general pardon of all their sins if they will repent and take him for their Saviour and so to bring salvation to their choice But will this save the ungodly obstinate refusers Christ dyed to sanctifie as well as to forgive Eph. 5. 27. and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2. 14. and to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 8. and to bring all men under his Dominion and Government Rom. 14. 9. Luke 19. 27. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8 9. § 18. Tempt 9. No man can be certain of his salvation but all must hope well and to raise Tempt 9. dâ—ubts in mens hearts whether they shall be saved or no will not help them but puzzle them and cast them into despair § 19. Direct 9. But is there so little difference between a child of God and of the Devil and between Direct 9. the way to Heaven and the way
they are sins § 73. Direct 6. And indeed do you not know that it is a sin to love the world better than God Direct 6. and fleshly pleasure better than Gods service and Riches better than grace and holiness and to do more for the body than for the soul and for earth than for Heaven Are you uncertain whether these are sins And do you not feel that they are your sins You cannot pretend ignorance for these But what causeth your Ignorance Is it because you would fain know and cannot Do you read and hear and study and enquire and pray for knowledge and yet cannot know Or is it not because you would not know or think it not worth the pains to get it or because you love your sin And will such wilful ignorance as this excuse you No it doth make your sin the greater It sheweth the greater dominion of sin when it can use thee as the Philistines did Sampson put out thy eyes and make a â—rudge of thee and conquer thy Reason and make thee believe that evil is good and good is evil Now it hath mastered the principal fortress of thy soul when thy understanding is mastered by it He is reconciled indeed to his enemy who taketh him to be a friend Do you not know that God should have your heart and Heaven should have your chiefest care and diligence and that you should make the Word of God your Rule and your delight and meditation day and night If you know not these things it is because you would not know them And it is a miserable case to be given up to a blinded mind Take heed lest at last you commit the horridst sins and do not know them to be sins For such there are that mock at Godliness and persecute Christians and Ministers of Christ and know not that they do ill but think they do God service John 16. 2. If a man will make himself drunk and then kill and steal and abuse his neighbours and say I knew not that I did ill it shall not excuse him This is your case You are drunken with the love of fleshly pleasure and worldly things and these carry you so away that you have neither heart nor time to study the Scriptures and hear and think what God saith to you and then say that you did not know § 74. Tempt 7. But saith the Tempter it cannot be a mortal reigning sin because it is not committed Tempt 7. with the whole heart nor without some strugling and resistance Dost thou not feel the Spirit striving against the flesh And so it is with the Regenerate Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. 20 21 22 23. The good which thou dost not do thou wouldst do and the evil which thou dost thou wouldst not do so then it is no more thou that dost it but sin that dwelleth in thee In a sensual unregenerate person there is but one party there is nothing but flesh but thou feelest the combat between the Flesh and the Spirit within thee § 75. Direct 7. This is a snare so subtile and dangerous that you have need of eyes in your head Direct 7. to scape it Understand therefore 1. That as to the two Texts of Scripture much abused by the Tempter they speak not at all of mortal reigning sin but of the unwilling infirmities of such as had subdued all such sin and walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit and whose wills were habitually bent to good and fain would have been perfect and not have been guilty of an idle thought or word or of any imperfection in their holiest service but lived up to all that the Law requireth but this they could not do because the flesh did cast many stops before the will in the performance But this is nothing to the case of one that liveth in gross sin and an ungodly life and hath strivings and convictions and uneffectual wishes to be better and to turn but never doth it This is but sinning against Conscience and resisting the Spirit that would convert you and it maketh you worthy of many stripes as being rebellious against the importunities of Grace Sin may be resisted where it is never conquered It may Reign nevertheless for some contradiction Every one that resisteth the King doth not depose him from his Throne It 's a dangerous deceit to think that every good desire that contradicteth sin doth conquer it and is a sign of saving grace It must be a desire after a state of godliness and an effectual desire too There are degrees of Power some may have a less and limited power and yet be Rulers As the evil Spirits that possessed mens bodies were a Legion in one and What Resistance of sin may be in the ungodly but one in others yet both were possessed So is it here Grace is not without resistance in a holy Soul there is some remnants of corruption in the will it self resisting the good and yet it followeth not that Grace doth not Rule So is it in the sin of the unregenerate No man in this life is so good as he will be in Heaven or so bad as he will be in Hell Therefore none is void of all moral good And the least good will resist evil in its degree as Light doth darkness As in these cases § 76. 1. There is in the unregenerate a remnant of natural knowledge and conscience some discoveries of God and his will there are in his works God hath not left himself without witness See Acts 14. 17. 17. 27. Rom. 1. 19 20. 2. 7 8 9. This Light and Law of Nature governed the Heathens And this in its measure resisteth sin and assisteth conscience § 77. 2. When supernatural extrinsick Revelation in the Scripture is added to the Light and Law of Nature and the ungodly have all the same Law as the best it may do more § 78. 3. Moreover an ungodly man may live under a most powerful Preacher that will never let him alone in his sins and may stir up much fear in him and many good purposes and almost perswade him to be a true Christian and not only to have some uneffectual wishings and strivings against sin but to do many things after the Preacher as Herod did after Iohn and to escape the common pollutions of the world 2 Pet. 2. 20. § 79. 4. Some sharp affliction added to the rest may make him seem to others a true penitent when he is stopt in his course of sin as Balaam was by the Angel with a drawn Sword and feeth that he cannot go on but in danger of his life and that God is still meeting him with some cross and hedging up his way with thorns for such mercy he sheweth to some of the ungodly this may not only breed resistance of sin but some reformation When the Babylonians were planted in Samaria they feared not God and he sent Lyons among them and then they feared him and
understood which is the chief the other cannot be referred to it When two things materially good come together and both cannot be done the greater must take place and the lesser is no duty at that time but a sin as preferred before the greater Therefore it is one of the commonest difficulties among Cases of Conscience to know which duty is the greater and to be preferred Upon this ground Christ healed on the Sabbath day and pleaded for his Disciples rubbing the ears of corn and for Davids eating the shew bread and telleth them that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and that God will have mercy and not Sacrifice Divinity is a curious well composed frame As it is not enough that you have all the parts of your Watch or Clock but you must see that every part be in its proper place or else it will not go or answer its end so it is not enough that you know the several parts of Divinity or duty unless you know them in their true order and place You may be confounded before you are aware and led into many dangerous errors by mistaking the Order of several Truths And you may be misguided into heinous sins by mistaking the Degrees and Order of Duties As when duties of Piety and Charity seem to be competitors And when you think that the commands of men contradict the commands of God and when the substance and the circumstances or modes of duty are in question before you as inconsistent or when the means seemeth to cease to be a means by crossing of the end and in abundance of such cases you cannot easily conceive what a snare it may prove to you to be ignorant of the Methods and Ranks of duty § 2. Object If that he so what man can choose but be confounded in his Religion when there be so few that observe any Method at all and few that agree in Method and none that hath published a Scheme or Method so exact and clear as to be commonly approved by Divines themselves What then can ignorant Christians do Answ. Divinity is like a Tree that hath one Trunk and thence a few greater arms or boughs and Stoici dâ—â—unt virtutes sibi invicem ita esse connexas ut qui unam habuerit omnes habâ—at â—â—â—â—â—ius â—n 〈◊〉 thence a thousand smaller branches Or like the veins or nervs or arteries in the body that have first one or few trunks divided into more and those into a few more and those into more till they multiply at last into more than can easily be seen or numbered Now it is easie for any man to begin at the chief trunk and to discern the first divisions and the next though not to comprehend the number and order of all the extream and smaller branches So is it in Divinity It is not very hard to begin at the Unity of the Eternal God-head and see there a Trinity of Persons and of Primary attributes and of Relations and to arise to the principal attributes and works of God as in these Relations and to the Relations of man to God and to the great Duties of these Relations to discern Gods Covenants and chiefest Laws and the duty of man in obedience thereto and the Judgement of God in the execution of his sanctions though yet many particular truths be not understood And he that beginneth and proceedeth as he ought doth know methodically so much as he knoweth And he is in the right way to the knowledge of more And the great Mercy of God hath laid so great a necessity on us to know these few points that are easily known and so much less need of knowing the many small particulars that a mean Christian may live uprightly and holily and comfortably that well understandeth his Catechism or the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandments and may find daily work and consolation in the use of these § 3. A sound and well composed Catechism studied well and kept in memory would be a good measure of knowledge to ordinary Christians and make them solid and orderly in their understanding and in their proceeding to the smaller points and would prevent a great deal of â—rror and miscarriage that many by ill teaching are cast upon to their own and the Churches grief Yea it were to be wished that some Teachers of late had learnt so much and orderly themselves Direct 4. BEgin not too early with Controversies in Religion and when you come to them let them Direct 4. have but their due proportion of your time and zeal But live daily upon these certain great substantials which all Christians are agreed in § 1. I. Plunge not your selves too soon into Controversies For 1. It will be exceedingly to your loss by diverting your souls from greater and more necessary things You may get more encrease of holiness and spend your time more pleasingly to God by drinking in deeper the substantials of Religion and improving them on your hearts and lives 2. It will corrupt your minds and instead of humility charity holiness and heavenly mindedness it will feed your Pride and kindle faction and a dividing zeal and quench your charity and possess you with a wrangling contentious Spirit and you will make a Religion of these sins and lamentable distempers 3. And it is the way to deceive and corrupt your judgements and make you erroneous or heretical to your own perdition and the disturbance of the Church For it 's two to one but either you presently err or else get such an itch after Notions and Opinions that will lead you to error at the last Because you are not yet ripe and able to judge of those things till your minds are prepared by those truths that are first in order to be received When you undertake a work that you cannot do no wonder if it be ill done and must be all undone again or worse Perhaps you will say That you must not take your Religion upon trust but must prove all things and held fast that which is good Answ. Though your Religion must not be taken upon trust there are many controverted smaller Opinions that you must take upon trust till you are capable of discerning them in their proper evidence Till you can reach them your selves you must take them on trust or not at all Though you must believe all things of common necessity to salvation with a Divine faith yet many subservient truths must be received first by a humane faith or not received at all till you are more capable of them Nay there is a humane faith necessarily subservient to the Divine faith about the substance of Religion and the Officers of Christ are to be trusted in their Office as helpers of your faith Nay let me tell you that while you are young and ignorant you are not fit for Controversies about the fundamentals of Religion themselves You may believe that there is a God long before you are fit
that greater measure is but his smallest measure and he himself is capable of increase to the last And so great a measure at first is as rare as his greater measure at last in his full growth is rare and scarce to be expected now § 4. And if God should give a great measure of Holiness at first to any now as possibly he may yet their measure of gifts is never great at first unless they had acquired or received them before conversion If Grace find a man of great parts and understanding which by study and other helps he had attained before no wonder if that man when his parts are sanctified be able in knowledge the first day For he had it before though he had not a heart to use it But if Grace find a man ignorant unlearned and of mean abilities he must not expect to be suddenly lifted up to great understanding and high degrees of knowledge by Grace For this knowledge is not given now by sudden infusion as Gifts were extraordinarily in the Primitive Church You need no other proof of this but experience to stop the mouth of any gain-sayer Look about you and observe whether those that are men of knowledge did obtain it by infusion in a moment Or whether they did not obtain it by diligent study by slow degrees Though I know God blesseth some mens studies more than others Name one man that ever was brought to great understanding but by Means and Labour and slow dâ—grees Or that knoweth any Truth in Nature or Divinity but what he read or heard or studied for 〈…〉 e result of what he read or heard The person that is proudest of his knowledge must confess that 〈…〉 me to it in this way himself § 5. But you 'l ask What then is the Illumination of the Spirit and enlightening the mind which the Scripture ascribeth to the Hâ—ly Ghost Hath not our understanding need of the Spirit for light as well as the Heart â—r Will fâ—r Liâ—e Answ. Yes no doubt and it is a great and wonderful mercy and I 'l tell you what it is 1. The Holy Spirit by immediate inspiration revealed to the Apostles the doctrine of Christ and caused them iâ—â—allibly to indite the Scriptures But this is not that way of ordinary illumination now 2. The Holy Spirit assisteth us in our hearing reading and studying the Scriptures that we may come by diligence to the true understanding of it but doth not give us that understanding without hearing reading or study Faith cometh by hearing Rom. 10. It blesseth the use of means to us but blesseth us not in the neglect of means 3. The Holy Spirit doth open the eyes and heart of a sinner who hath heard and notionally understood the substance of the Gospel that he may know that piercingly and effectually and practically which before he knew but notionally and uneffectually so that the knowledge of the same truth is now become powerfull and as it were of another kind And this is the Spirits sanctifying of the mind and principal work of saving illumination Not by causing us to know any thing of God or Christ or Heaven without means But by opening the heart that through the means it may take in that knowledge deeply which others have but notionally and in a dead opinion and by making our knowledge clear and quick and powerful to affect the heart and rule the life 4. The Holy Spirit sanctifieth all that notional knowledge which men had before their renovation All their learning and parts are now made subservient to Christ and to the right End and turned into their proper channell 5. And the Holy Ghost doth by sanctifying the heart possess it with such a Love to God and Heaven and Holiness and Truth as is a wonderful advantage to us in our studies for the attaining of further knowledge Experience telleth us how great a help it is to knowledge to have a constant love delight and desire to the thing which we would know All these wayes the Spirit is the â—nlightner of believers The not observing this Direction will have direful effects which I will name that you may see the necessity of avoiding them § 6. 1. If you imagine that you are presently men of great understanding and abilities and holiness T 〈…〉 r of 〈◊〉 â—â— â—â—ur young 〈◊〉 o◠〈◊〉 while you are young beginners and but new born babes you are entring into the sâ—are and condemnation of the Devil even into the odious sin of Pride yea a Pride of those spiritual gifts which are most câ—ntrâ—ry to Pride yea and a Pride of that which you have not which is most foolish Pride Mark the words of Paul when he forbids to choose a young beginner in Religion to the Ministry 1 Tim. 3. 6. Not a Nâ—vice that is a young raw Christian lest being lifted up or besotted with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil Why are young beginners more in danger of this than Qui dâ—sâ—ipulum â—udem clatum habet 〈◊〉 ventum adverâ—â—â—â—â—mine navigat Seâ—pentem nutrit acoâ—itum â—â—colit hostem doâ—â— Pâ—â— arch Dial. 41. li. 2. other Christians One would think their Infancy should be conscious of its own infirmity But Paul knew what he said It is 1. Partly because the suddenness of their change coming out of darkness into a light which they never saw before doth amaze them and transport them and make them think they are almost in Heaven and that there is not much more to be attained Like the Beggar that had an hundred pound given him having never seen the hundredth part before imagined that he had as much money as the King 2. And it is partly because they have not knowledge enough to know how many things there are that yet they are ignorant of They never heard of the Scripture-difficulties and the knots in School-divinity nor the hard cases of Conscience Whereas one seven years painful studies will tell them of many hundred difficulties which they never saw and forty or fifty years study more will clothe them with shame and humility in the sense of their lamentable darkness 3. And it is also because the Devil doth with greatest industry lay this Net to entrap young Converts it being the way in which he hath the greatest hope 2. Your hasty conceits of your own goodness or ability will make you presumptuous of your own strength and so to venture upon dangerous temptations which is the way to ruine You will think you are not so ignorant but you may venture into the company of Papists or any Hereticks or deceivers or read their Books or be present at their Worship And I confess you may scape but it may be otherwise and God may leave you to shew you all that was in your hearts as it is said of Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32. 31 25 26. 3. And your overvaluing your first grace will make you too secure when your souls have need of holy
more of my observation of which these times have given us too much proof Profane and formal Enemies on the one hand and ignorant self-conceited wranglers on the other hand who think they are champions for the truth when they are venting their passions and fond opinions are the two Thieves between whom the Church hath suffered from the beginning to this day The first are the Persecutors and the other the Dividers and disturbers of the Church Mark what the Holy Ghost saith in this case 2 Tim. 2. 23 24. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strife and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men Phil. 2. 14 15. Do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5 6. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Iesus Christ and the doctrine which is according to godliliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife raylings evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds c. So 1 Tim. 1. 4 5. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which Minister Questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned § 6. Yet I must here profess that if any falsehearted worldly hypocrite that resolveth to be on the saving side and to hold all to be lawful that seemeth necessary to his safety or preferments shall take any encouragement from what I have here said to debauch his conscience and sell his soul and then call all those furious zealots that will not be as false to God as he let that man know that I have given him no cloak for so odious a sin nor will he find a cover for it at the barr of God though he may delude his conscience and bear it out by his carnal advantages before the world Direct 13. KNow that true Godliness is the Best Life upon Earth and the only may to perfect Direct 13. Happiness Still apprehend it therefore and Use it as the best and with great diligence â—â—sist those Temptations which would make it seem to you a confounding grievous or unpleasant thing § 1. There are all things concurrent in a Holy life to make it the most delectable life on earth to a rational purified mind that is not captivated to the flesh and liveth not on Air or Dung The Object of it is the Eternal God himself the Infallible Truth the only satisfactory Good and all these condescending and appearing to us in the mysterious but suitable glass of a Mediator Redeeming Reconciling teaching governing sanctifying justifying and glorifying all that are his own The End of it is the pleasing and glorifying of our Maker Redeemer and Sanctifier and the everlasting happiness of our selves and others The Rule of it is the infallible Revelation of God delivered to the Church by his Prophets and his Son and his Apostles and comprized in the Holy Scriptures and sealed by the Miracles and operations of the Holy Ghost that did indite them The work of Godliness is a living unto God and preparing for everlasting life by foreseeing foretasting seeking and rejoycing in that endless Happiness which we shall have with God and by walking after the Spirit and avoiding the filthiness delusions and vexations of the world and the flesh The nature of man is not capable of a more noble profitable and delectable life than this which God hath called us to by his Son And if we did but rightly know it we should follow it with continual alacrity and delight Be sure therefore to conceive of Godliness as it is and not as it is mis-represented by the Devil and the ungodly Read what I have written of this in my A Saint or a Brute § 2. As long as a man conceiveth of Religion as it is even the most sweet and delectable life so long he will follow it willingly and with his heart and despise the temptations and avocations of flâ—shly gain and pleasure He will be sincere as not being only drawn by other men or outward advantages nor frightned into it by a passion of fearfulness but loving Religion for it self and for its excellent ends And then he will be chearful in all the duties and under all the sufferings and difficulties of it And he will be most likely to persevere unto the end We cannot expect that the Heart or Will should be any more for God and Godliness than the Understanding practically apprehendeth them as Good Nay we must alwayes perceive in them a transcendent Goodness above all that is to be found in a worldly life Or else the appearing Goodness of the Creature will divert us and carry away our minds We may see in the very Brutes what a power apprehension hath upon their actions If your Horse be but going to his home or pasture how freely will he go through thick and thin but if he go unwillingly his travell is troublesome and slow and you have much ado to get him on It will be so with you in your way to Heaven § 2. It is therefore the principal design of the Devil to hide the Goodness and Pleasantness of Religion from you and to make it appear to you as a terrible or tedious life By this means it is that he keeps men from it and by this means he is still endeavouring to draw you back again and frustrate your good beginnings and your hopes If he can thus mis-represent Religion to your understandings he will suddenly alienate your wills and corrupt your lives and make you turn to the world again and seek for pleasure somewhere else and only take up with some heartless lip-service to keep up some deceitful hope of being saved And the means which Satan useth to these ends are such as these § 3. 1. He will do his worst to overwhelm you with appearing doubts and difficulties and bring How Satan would make Religion seem to be a câ—nfounding unpâ—â—aâ—an thing â— By difficulties you to a loss and to make Religion seem to you a confounding and not a satisfying thing This is one of his most dangerous assaults upon the weak and young beginners Difficulties and Passions are the things which he makes use of to confound you and put you out of a regular cheerful seeking of salvation When you read the Scriptures he will mind you of abundance of difficulties in all you read or hear He will shew you seeming contradictions and tell you that you will never be able to understand these things He will cast in thoughts of Unbelief and Blasphemy and cause you if he can to â—owl them in your
Essential Truths by errors of their own nor the doctrine of Godliness by wicked malicious applications 4. Such as drive not on any ambitious tyrannical designs of their own but deny themselves and aim at your salvation 5. Such as are not too hot in proselyting you to any singular opinion of their own it being the prediction of Paul to the Ephesians Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them 6. Such as are judicious with holy zeal and zealous with judgement 7. Such as are of experience in the things of God and not young beginners or Novices in Religion 8. Such as bear reverence to the judgements of the generality of wise and godly men and are tender of the Unity of the Church and not such as would draw you into a Sect or party to the contempt of other Christians no not to a party that hath the favour of Rulers and the people to promote them 9. Such as are gentle peaceable and charitable and not such as burn with hellish malice against their Brethren nor with an ungodly or cruel consuming zeal 10. Such as not live not sensually and wickedly contrary to the doctrine which they preach but shew by their lives that they believe what they say and feel the power of the truths which they preach § 4. And your familiar companions have great advantage to help or hinder your salvation as well Imperat Reâ— ut nostrae religionis illorum mensa nullum communem haberent neque cum Catholicis omino vescerentur Quae res non ipâ—â—s aliquod praestitit beneficium sed nobis maximum conâ—ulit lucrum Nam si sermo â—oâ—â—m sicut cancer consuevit serpere quanto magis communis mensa ciborum potuit inquinare cum dicat Apostolus cum nefariis nec cibum habere communem Victor Utic p. 418. Magnum virtutis praesidium societas bonoâ—um socius exemplo excitat sermone recreat consilio instâ—uiâ— orationibus adjuvat autoritate continet quae omnia so itudini desunt Ios. Acosta l. 4. c. 13. Dicunt Stoici Amicitiam solos inter bonâ—s quos sibi invicem studiorum similitudo conciliet posse consistere Porro amicitiam ipsam societatem quandam esse dicunt omnium quae sunt ad vitam necessaria cum amicis ut nobismet ipsis utamur atque ob id amicum eligendum amicorumque multitudinem â—â—â—â—er expetenda ponunt inter malos non posse constare amicitiam Laert. in Zenone as your Teachers The matter is not so great whom you meet by the way or travell with or trade and buy and sell with as whom you make your intimate or familiar friends For such have both the advantage of their interest in your affections and also the advantage of their nearness and familiarity and if they have but also the advantage of higher abilities than you they may be powerful instruments of your good or hurt If you have a familiar friend that will defend you from error and help you against temptations and lovingly reprove your sin and feelingly speak of God and the life to come inditing his discourse from the inward power of faith and love and holy experience the benefit of such a friend may be more to you than of the learnedst or greatest in the world How sweetly will their speeches relish of the Spirit from which they come How deeply may they pierce a careless heart How powerfully may they kindle in you a love and zeal to God and his Commandments How seasonably may they discover a temptation prevent your fall reprove an error and recover your souls How faithfully will they watch over you How profitably will they provoke and put you on and pray with you fervently when you are cold and mind you of the Truth and duty and mercy which you forget It is a very great mercy to have a judicious solid faithful companion in the way to Heaven § 5. But if your ears are daily filled with froth and folly with ribaldry or idle stories with Oaths and Curses with furious words or scorns and jears against the godly or with the Sophistry of deceivers is it likely this should leave a pleasant or wholsome relish on your minds Is it likely that the effect should not be seen in your lean or leprous hearts and lives as well as the effects of an infected or unwholsome air or diet will be seen upon your diseased bodies He is ungodly that liketh such company best And he is proud and presumptuous that will unnecessarily cast himself upon it in confidence that he shall receive no hurt And he is careless of himself that will not cautelously avoid it And few that long converse with such come off without some notable loss except when we live with such as Lot did in Sodom grieving for their sin and misery or as Christ conversed with publicans and sinners with a holy zeal and diligence to convert and save them or as those that have not liberty who bear that which they have not power to avoid § 6. Among the rest your danger is not least from that are eager to proselite you to some party or unsound opinion that they think they are in the right and that they do it in love and that they think it necessary to your salvation and that Truth or Godliness are the things which they profess all this makes the danger much the greater to you if it be not Truth and Godliness indeed which they propose and plead for And none are in more danger than the ungrounded and unexperienced that yet are so wise in their own esteem as to be confident that they know Truth from Error when they hear it and are not afraid of any deceit nor much suspicious of their own understandings But of this before § 7. The like danger there is of the familiar company of lukewarm ones or the prophane At Non tamen at corporum sic animorum moâ—bi transseunt ad nolentes Imo vero nobilis animus viâ—iorum odro ad amorem vâ—rtutis accâ—nditur Petraâ—â—h Dialog de aâ—iâ— moriâ— first you may be troubled at their sinful or unsavoury discourse and make some resistance against the infection But before you are aware it may so cool and damp your graces as will make your decay discernable to others First You will hear them with less offence and then you will grow indifferent what company you are in and then you will laugh at their sin and folly and then you will begin to speak as they and then you will grow cold and seldomer in prayer and other holy duties and if God prevent it not at last your judgements will grow blind and you will think all this allowable § 8. But of all bad company the nearest is the worst If you choose such into your families or into your nearest conjugal relations you cast water upon the fire you imprison your selves in such â—etters as will gall and grieve
but also that you may Use it And it is fit that we Direct you how to Use it before we direct you how to know that you have it because it is Grace in exercise that you must discern and Habits are not perceived in themselves but by their Acts And the more lively and powerful the exercise is the more easily is Grace perceived So that this is the nearest and surest way to a Certainty of our own sincerity He that Useth Grace most and best hath most Grace And he that hath most and useth it most may most easily be Assured that he hath it in sincerity and truth In these Directions I shall begin with those great internal duties in which the very Life of all Religion doth consist and the General Practice of these Principles and Graces and all these Generals shall be briefly set together for the easiness of Understanding and Remembring them And then I shall give you such Particular Directions as are needful in subordination to those Generals DIRECT I. Labour to understand well the Nature Grounds Reason and Order of Faith and Gr. Dir. 1. Godliness and to Believe upon such grounds so well understood as will not suffer For a well-grounded Faith you to stagger or entertain a contrary belief § 1. IGnorance and ungrounded or ill-grounded perswasions in matters of Religion are the cause that abundance of people delude themselves with the empty name and dead profession of a Faith and Religion which they never were indeed possessors of I know there are low degrees of knowledge comparatively in many that are true believers and that there may be much Love and Holiness where knowledge is very small or narrow as to the objective extent of it And that there is a knowledge that puffeth up while Charity edifieth And that in many that have the narrower knowledge there may be the fastest faith and adherence to the truth which will conquer in the time of tryal But yet I must tell you that the Religion which you profess is not indeed your own Religion if you know not what it is and know not in some measure the true Grounds and Reasons why you should be of that Religion If you have only learnt to say your Creed or repeat the words of Christian Doctrine while you do not truly understand the sense or if you have no better Reasons why you profess the Christian faith than the custom of the Countrey or the command of Princes or Governours or the Opinion of your Teachers or the example of your Parents friends or neighbours you are not Christians indeed You have a humane belief or opinion which objectively is true but subjectively in your selves you have no true divine belief I confess there may be some insufficient yea and erroneous Reasons which a true Believer may mistakingly make use of for the proof of certain fundamental truths But then that same man hath some other Reason for his reception of that truth which is more sound and his faith is sound because of those sound infallible principles though there be a mixture of some other Reasons that are unsound The true Believer buildeth on the Rock and giveth deep rooting to the holy seed Matth. 7. 24. 13. 5 8. Though some deluded men may tell you that Faith and Reason are such enemies that they exclude each other as to the same object and that the less Reason you have to prove the truth of the things believed the stronger and more laudable is your faith yet when it cometh to the tryal you will find that Faith is no unreasonable thing and that God requireth you to believe no more than you have sufficient reason for to warrant you aâ—â— bâ—â—r you out and that your faith can be no more than is your perception of the Reasons why you should believe and that God doth suppose Reason when he infuseth Faith and useth Reason in â—â—e usâ— of faith They that Believe and know not why or know no sufficient Reason to warâ—ant their Belief do take a fansie an Opinion or a dream for faith I know that many honest hearted Christians are unable to dispute for their Religion or to give to others a satisfactory account of the Reasons of their faith or hâ—pe But yet they have the true apprehension of some solid Reasons in themselves and they are not Christians they know not why And though their knowledge be small as to the number oâ— propositions known yet it doth alwayes extend to all that is essential to Christianity and Godliness and they do not believe they know not what And their knowledge is greater intensively and in its value and operation than the knowledge of the learnedst ungodly man in the world § 2. Though I may not here digress or stay so long as largely to open to you the Nature Grounds Reason and Method of Faith and Godliness which I am perswading you to understand yet I shall first â—â—y before you a few Propositions which will be useful to you when you are enquiring into these things and then a little open them unto you Prop. 1. A life of Godliness is our living unto God as God as being absolutely addicted to him 2. A life of Faith is a living upon the unseen everlasting Happiness as purchased for us by Christ with all the necessaries thereto and freely given us by God 3. The contrary life of sense and unbelief is a living in the prevalency of sense or flesh to this present world for want of such believing apprehensions of a better as should elevate the soul thereto and conquer the fleshly inclination to things present 4. Though man in innocency needing no Redeemer might live to God without faith in a Redeemer yet lapsed man is not only unable to Redeem himself but also unable to live to God without the grace of the Redeemer It was not only necessary that he satisfie Gods justice for us that he may pardon and save us without any wrong to his Holiness Wisdom or Government but also that he be our Teacher by his Doctrine and his Life and that he Reveal from Heaven the Fathers will and that Objectively in him we may see the wonderful condescending Love and Goodness of a Reconciled God and Father and that effectually â—e illuminate sanctifie and quicken us by the operations of his Word and Spirit and that he protect and govern justifie and glorifie us and be the Head of Restored Man as Adam was the Root of lapsed man and as the lapsed Spirits had their Head And therefore we must wholly Live upon him as the Mediator between God and man and the only Saviour by Merit and by â—fficacy 5. Faith is a knowledge by certain credible Testimony or Revelation from God by means supernatural or extraordinary 6. The knowledge of things naturally revealed as the cause by the effect c. is in order before the Knowledge or Belief of things revealed supernaturally 7. It is matter of natural Revelation
is here a great encouragement to the soul to think that Jesus our great High Priest doth make all his Children Priests to God They are a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people that they should shew forth the prayses of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvellâ—us light An holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 5 â— Even their broken hearts and contrite Spirits are a sacrifice which God will not despâ—se Psal. 51. 17. He knoweth the meaning of the Spirits groans Rom. 8. 26 27. § 19. 16. The strength of corruptions which molest the soul and are too often strugling with it and too much prevail doth greatly discourage us in our approach to that God that hateth all the workers of iniquity And here faith may find relief in Christ not only as he pardoneth us but as he hath conquered the Devil and the world himself and bid us be of good cheer because he hath conquered and hath all power given him in Heaven and Earth and can give us victorious grace in the season and measure which he seeth meetest for us We can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us Go to him then by faith and prayer and you shall find that his grace is sufficient for you § 20. 17. The thoughts of God are the less delightful to the soul because that Death and the Grave do interpose and we must pass through them before we can enjoy him And it is unpleasing to nature to think of a separation of soul and body and to think that our flesh must rot in darkness But against this faith hath wonderful relieâ— in Iesus Christ. For asmuch as we were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part with us that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death even the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Hâ—b 2. 14 15. O what an encouragement it is to faith to observe that Christ once dyed himself and that he rose from the dead and reigneth with the Father it being impossible that death should hâ—ld him And having conquered that which seemed to conquer him it no more hath dominion over him but he hath the Keyes of Death and Hell we may now entertain death as a disarmed enemy and say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Yea it is sanctified by him to be our friend even an entrance into our Masters joy it being best for us to depart and be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. and therefore death is become our gain v. 21. O what abundance of strength and sweetness may faith perceive from that promise of Christ John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be As he was dead but now liveth for evermore so hath he promised that because he liveth therefore shall we live also John 14. 19. But of this I have written two Treatises of Death already § 21. 18. The terror of the day of Iudgement and of our particular doom at death doth make the thoughts of God less pleasing and delectable to us And here what a relief is it for faith to apprehend that Iesus Christ must be our Judge And will he condemn the members of his body Shall we be afraid to be judged by our dearest friend by him that hath justified us himself already even at the price of his own blood § 22. 19. The very strangeness of the soul to the world unseen and to the inhabitants and employments there doth greatly stop the soul in its desires and in its delightful approaches unto God Had we seen the world where God must be enjoyed the thoughts of it would be more familiar and sweet But faith can look to Christ and say My head is there he seeth it for me he knoweth what he possesseth prepareth and promiseth to me and I will quietly rest in his acquaintance with it § 23. 20. Nay the Godhead it self is so infinitely above us that in it self it is inaccessible and it is ready to amaze and overwhelm us to think of coming to the incomprehensible Majesty But it emboldneth the soul to think of our Glorified Nature in Christ and that even in Heaven God will everlastingly condescend to us in the Mediator For the Mediation of Redemption and acquisition shall be ended and thus he shall deliver up the Kingdom to the Father yet it seems that a Mediation of fruition shall continue For Christ said to his Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory John 17. 24. We shall rejoyce when the marriage of the Lamb is come Rev. 19. 7. They are blessed that are called to his Marriage Supper v. 9. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple and the Light of the New Ierusalem Rev. 21. 22 23. Heaven would not be so familiar or so sweet to my thoughts if it were not that our glorified Lord is there in whose Love and Glory we must live for ever O Christian as ever thou wouldst walk with God in comfortable communion with him study and exercise this Life of faith in the daily use and improvement of Christ who is our Life and Hope and All. DIRECT III. Gr. Dir. 3. Understand well what it is to believe in the Holy Ghost and see that he dwell To believe in the Holy Ghost and live upon his Grace and operate in thee as the Life of thy soul and that thou do not resist or quench the Spirit but thankfully obey him § 1. EAch person in the Trinity is so believed in by Christians as that in Baptism they enter Scrutari temeritas est credere pietas nesse vita Bernard de consid ad Eâ—geâ— l. 5. distinctly into Covenant with them which is to Accept the Mercies of and perform the 〈…〉 each person distinctly As to take God for Our God is more than to believe that there is a God â—nd to take Christ for Our Saviour is more than barely to believe that he is the Messiah so to Believe in the Holy Ghost is to take him for Christs Agent or Advocate with our souls and for our Guide and Sanctifier and Comforter and not only to believe that he is the third person in the Trinity This therefore is a most practical Article of our Belief § 2. If the Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost be the unpardonable sin then all sin against the Holy Ghost must needs have a special aggravation by being such And if the sin against the Holy Ghost be the greatest sin then our duty towards the Holy Ghost is certainly none of our smallest duties Therefore the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit and our duty towards him and sin against him deserve not the least or
his Wisdom Clemency and Justice 3. And effectively on his Subjects and Servants who are by his Laws reduced to a Conformity to his mind As a man may first cut his Arms or Image on his seal and then by that seal imprint it on the wax and though it be perfectly cut on the seal it may be imperfectly printed on the wax so Gods Image is naturally perfect in his Son and Regularly or expressively perfect on the seal of his holy Doctrine and Laws but imperfectly on his subjects according to their reception of it in their several degrees § 6. Therefore it is easie to discern their error that tell men the Light or Spirit within them is their Rule and a perfect Rule yea and that it is thus in all men in the world when Gods Word and experience flatly contradict it telling us that Infidels and enemies of God and all the ungodly are in Darkness and not in the Light and that all that speak not according to this Word the Law and Testimony have No Light in them and therefore no perfect Light to be their Rule Isa. 8. 20. The Ministry is sent to bring them from darkness to Light Therefore they had not a sufficient Light in them before Acts 26. 17 18. Wo to them that put darkness for light and light for darkness Isa. 5. 20. telling the children of darkness and the haters of the Light that they have a perfect Light and Rule within them when God saith They have no Light in them See 1 John 1. 5. 4 6 7 8. He that saith he is in the Light and hateth his brother is in darkness even till now 1 John 2. 9 10 11. The Light within a wicked man is darkness and blindness and therefore not his Rule Matth. 6. 23. Ephes. 5. 8. Even the Light that is in godly men is the knowledge of the Rule and not the Rule it self at all nor ever called so by God Our Rule is perfect our knowledge is imperfect for Paul himself saith We know in part But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Now we see through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. 9 10 12. The Gospel is bid to them that are lost being blinded by Satan 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. § 7. There is an admirable unsearchable concurrence of the Spirit and his appointed means and the will of man in the procreation of the new creature and in all the exercises of grace as there is of Male and Female in natural generation and of the Earth the Sun the Rain the industry of the Gardiner and the seminal vertue of Life and specification in the production of Plants with their flowers and fruits And as wise as it would be to say It is not the Male but the Female or the Female but the Male that generateth or to say It is not the Earth but the Sun or not the Sun but the Rain or not the Rain but the seminal Vertue that causeth Plants with Flowers and Fruits So wise is it to say It is not the Spirit but the Word and Means or it is not the Word and Means but the Spirit or it is not the Reason and Will and industry of man but the Spirit Or if we have not wisdom enough to assign to each cause its proper interest in the effect that therefore we should separate what God hath conjoyned or deny the truth of the causation because we comprehend not the manner and influence this is but to choose to be befooled by Pride rather than confess that God is wiser than we § 8. 2. You may here discern also how the Spirit assureth and comforteth believers and how palpably they err that think the Spirit comforteth or assureth us of our salvation without the use of its Evidencing grace The ten things mentioned § 4. is all that the Spirit doth herein But to expect his Comforts without any measure of discerning his graces which can only rationally prove our right to the blessings of the Promise this is to expect that he should comfort a Rational Creature not as Rational but darkly cause him to rejoyce he knoweth not why and that he should make no use of faith to our comfort For faith resteth understandingly upon the Promise and expecteth the performance of it to those that it is made to and not to others Indeed there is a common encouragement and comfort which all men even the worst may take from the universal conditional Promise and there is much abatement of our fears and troubles that may be fetcht from probabilties and uncertain hopes of our own sincerity and interest in the Promise But to expect any other assurance or comfort from the Spirit without Evidence is but to expect immediate revelations or inspirations to do the work which the Word of promise and faith should do The souls Consent to the Covenant of ☜ Grace and fiducial Acceptance of an offered Christ is justifying saâ—ing faith Every man hath an object in the Promise and offer of the Gospel for this act and therefore may rationally perform it Though all have not hearts to do it This may well be called Faith of adherence and is it self our evidence from which we must conclude that we are true Believers The discerning of this Evidence called by some the Reflex act of faith is no act of faith at all it being no believing of another but the act of Conscience knowing what is in our selves The discerning and concluding that we are the children of God participateth of faith and conscientious knowledge which gave us the premises of such a conclusion § 9. 3. You may hence perceive also how we are said to be sealed by the Spirit Even as a mans Eph. 1. 13. Rom. 8. 9. Ephes. 4 30. seal doth signifie the thing sealed to be his own So the Spirit of holiness in us is Gods seal upon us signifying that we are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. Every one that hath the Spirit is sealed by having it and that is his Evidence which if he discern he may know that he is thus sealed § 10. 4. Hereby also you may see what the earnest and first fruits of the Spirit is The Spirit is 2 Coâ— 1. 22. given to us by God as the earnest of the Glory which he will give us To whomsoever he giveth the Spirit of Faith and Love and Holiness he giveth the seed of life eternal and an inclination thereto which is his earnest of it § 11. 5. Hereby also you may see how the Spirit witnesseth that we are the children of God The word Witness is put here principally for Evidence If any one question our adoption the Witness or Evidence which we must produce to prove it is the Spirit of Iesus sanctifying us and dwelling in us This is the chief part at least of the sense of the Text Rom. 8. 16. Though it is true that the same Spirit witnesseth by 1. Shewing us the
grace which he hath given us 2. And by shewing us the truth of the Promise made to all believers 3. And by helping us from those Promises to conclude with boldness that we are the children of God 4. And by helping us to rejoyce therein § 12. II. I have been the longer though too short in acquainting you with the Office of the Holy Ghost supposing your Belief that he is the third person in the Trinity because it is an Article of grand importance neglected by many that profess it and because there are so many and dangerous errors in the world about it Your great care now must be 1. To find this Spirit in you as the Principle of your operations and 2. To obey it and follow its motions as it leadeth you up to communion with God Of the first I have spoken in the first Chapter For the second observe these few Directions § 13. Direct 1. Be sure you mistake not the Spirit of God and its motions nor receive instead of Direct 1. them the motions of Satan or of your passions pride or fleshly wisdom It is easie to think you are obeying the Spirit when you are obeying Satan and your own corruptions against the Spirit By these fruits the Spirit of God is known 1. The Spirit of God is for Heavenly Wisdom and neither for Foolishness or treacherous craftiness Psal. 19. 7. 94. 8. Jer. 4. 22. 1 Cor. 2. 4 5 6 7. 2. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of Love delighting to do good its doctrine and motions are for Love and tend to Good abhorring both selfishness and hurtfulness to others Gal. 5. 21 22. 3. He is a Spirit of Concord and is ever for the Unity of all believers abhorring both Divisions among the Saints and carnal complyances and â—onfederacies with the wicked 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 4. 3 4 5 6 13. 1 Cor. 1. 10. Nâ—mo magnus sine aâ—iquo afflaâ—â— Dâ—vâ—â—o â—nquam suit â—â—â—â— 2. â—â— Nâ—â— Dâ—o 3. 3. Rom. 16 17 18. 4. He is a Spirit of humility and self-denyal making us and our knowledge and gifts and worth to be very little in our own eyes Abhorring pride ambition self-exalting boasting as also the actual debasing of our selves by earthliness or other sin Matth. 18. 3. Eph. 4. 2. 5. He is a Spirit of meekness and patience and â—orbearance Abhorring stupidity and inordinate passion boisterousness tumult envy contention reviling and revenge Math. 11. 28 29. Ephes. 4. 2. Iames 3. 1 Pet. 2. 20 21 23. Gal. 5. 20. Rom. 12. 18 19 20. Eph. 4. 31. Col. 3. 8. 6. He is a Spirit of zeal for God resolving men against known sin and for known truth and duty Abhorring a furious destroying zeal and also an indifferency in the cause of God and a yielding complyance with that which is against it Gal. 4. 18. Numb 25. 11 13. Titus 2. 14. Iames 3. 15. 17. Luke 9. 55. Rev. 3. 16. 7. He is a Spirit of Mortification crucifying the flesh and still conâ—ending against it and causeing men to live above all the Glory and Riches and Pleasures of the world Abhorring both carnal licentiousness and sensuality and also the destroying and disabling of the Body under preâ—ence of true mortification Rom. 8. 1. 13. Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 13. 13 14. 1 Cor. 9. 27. 2 Pâ—t 2. 19. Col. 2. 18 21 23. 8. The Spirit of Christ contradicteth not the doctrine of Christ in the holy Scripture but moveth us to an exact conformity thereto Isa. 8. 20. This is the sure Rule to try pretences and motions of every Spirit by For we are sure that the Spirit of Christ is the Author of that word and we are sure he is not contrary to himself 9. The motions of the Spirit do all tend to our Good and are neither Ludicrous impertinent or hurtful finally They are all for the perfecting of sanctification obedience and for our salvation Therefore unprofitable trifles or despair and hurtful distractions and disturbances of mind which drive from God unfit for duty and hinder salvation are not the motions of the Spirit of God 2 Tim. 1. 7. Rom. 8. 15. Isa. 11. 2. Gal. 5. 22. Zech. 12. 10. 1 Pet. 4. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 6. 10. Lastly The Spirit of God subjecteth all to God and raiseth the heart to him and maketh us spiritual and divine and is ever for Gods glory 1 Iohn 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 6. 11. 17 20. Ephes. 2. 18 22. Phil. 3. 3 19 20. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 4 6. Examine the Texts here cited and you will find that by all these fruits the Spirit of God is known from all seducing Spirits and from the fancies or passions of self-conceited men § 14. Direct 2. Quench not the Spirit either by wilful sin or by your neglecting of its offered help Direct â— It is as the spring to all your spiritual motions as the Wind to your Sails You can do nothing without it Therefore reverence and regard its help and pray for it and obey it and neglect it not When you are sure it is the Spirit of God indeed that is knocking at the door behave not your selves as if you heard not 1. Obey him speedily Delay is a present unthankful refusal and a kind of a denyal 2. Obey him throughly A half obedience is disobedience Put him not off with Ananias and Saphira's gift the half of that which he requireth of you 3. Obey him constantly not sometime hearkning to him and more frequently neglecting him but attending him in a learning obediential course of life § 15. Direct 3. Neglect not those means which the Spirit hath appointed you to use for the receiving Direct 3. of us help and which be useth in his holy operations If you will meet with him attend him in his own way and expect him not in by-wayes where he useth not to go Pray and meâ—itaâ—e and hear and read and do your best and expect his blessing Though your plowing and sâ—winâ— will not give you a plentiful harvest without the Sun and Rain and the blessing of God yet these will not do â—t neither unless you plow and sow God hath not appointed a course of means in Nature or Morality in vain nor will he use to meet you in any other way § 16. Direct 4. Do most when the Spirit helpeth you most Neglect not the extraordinary measures Direct 4. of his assistance If he extraordinarily help you in prayer or meditation improve that help and break not â—st so soon as at other times without necessity Not that you should omit duty till you seel his help For he useth to come in with help in the performance and not in the neglect of duty But tire not out your self with affected length when you want the life § 17. Direct 5. Be not unthankful for the assistance he hath given you Deny not his grace Direct 5. Ascribe it not to nature Remember it to encourage your future expectations
Unthankfulness and neglect are the way to be denyed further help § 18. Quest. But how shall I know whether good effects be from the Means or from my Reason and Quest. Endeavour and when from the Spirit of God Answ. Answ. It is as if you should ask How shall I know whether my harvest be from the Earth or Sun or Rain or God or from my labour I will tell you how They are all con-causes If the effect be there they all concur If the effect be wanting some of them were wanting It 's foolish to ask which is the cause when the effect is not produced but by the concurrence of them all If you had asked which cause did fail when the effect faileth there were reason in that question But there is none in this The more to blame those foolish Atheists that think God or the Spirit is not the cause if they can but find that Reason and Means are in the effect Your Reason and Conscience and Means would fall short of the effect if the Spirit put not life into all § 19. Obj. But I am exceedingly troubled and confounded with continual doubts about every motion that Object is in my mind whether it be from the Spirit of God or not Answ. The more is your ignorance or the malice of Satan causing your disquiet In one word Answ. you have sufficient Direction to resolve those doubts and end those troubles Is it Good or Evil or Indifferent that you are moved to This question must be resolved from the Word of God which is the Rule of duty If it be good in matter and manner and circumstances it is from the Spirit of God either its common or special operation If it be evil or indifferent you cannot ascribe it to the Spirit Remember that the Spirit cometh not to you to make you new duty which the Scripture never made your duty and so to bring an additional Law but to move and help you in that which was your duty before Only it may give the Matter while Scripture giveth the Obligation by its general command If you know not what is your duty and what not it is your ignorance of Scripture that must be cured Interpret Scripture well and you may interpret the Spirits motions easily If any new duty be motioned to you which Scripture commandeth not take such motions as not from God Unless it were by extraordinary confirmed Revelation DIRECT IV. Gr. Dir. 4. Let it be your chiefest study to attain to a true orderly and practical knowledge of God For the true and orderly impression of Gods Attributes on the heart in his several Attributes and Relations and to find a due impression from each of them upon your hearts and a distinct effectual improvement of them in your lives § 1. BEcause I have written of this point more fully in another Treatise Of the Knowledge of God and Converse with him I shall but briefly touch upon it here as not willing to repeat Laert. in Zeno. saith Dicunt Stoici Deum esse animal immortale rationale perfectum ac beatum à malo omni remotissimum providentia sua mundum quae sunt in mundo administrans omnia Non tamen inesse illi humanae â—ormae lineamenta Caeterum esse opificem immensi hujus operis sicut patrem omnium Eumque multis appellari nominibus juxta proprietates suas Quosdam item esse daemones dicunt quibus insit hominum miseratio inspectores rerum humararum Heroas quoque so utas corporibus sapientum animas Bonos aiunt esse Divinoâ— quod in seipsis quasi habeant Deum Malum vero impium sine Deo esse quod duplici ratione accipitur sive quod Deo contrarius dicatur sive quod aspernetur Deum Id tamen malis omnibus non convenire Pios autem Religiosos esse sapientes peritos divini juris omnes Pâ—â—tatem esse seiâ—â—iam divini cultus Diis item eos sacr ficia sacturos castosque futuros Quippe ea quae in Deos admittuntur peccata detesâ—ari Diisque charos ac gratos fore quo sancti justique in rebus divinis sint that which there is delivered Only let me briefly mind you of these few things 1. That the true knowledge of God is the summ of Godliness and the end of all our other knowledge and of all that we have or do as Christians As Christ is a Teacher that came from God so he came to call and lead us unto God Or else he had not come as a Saviour It is from God that we fell by sin and to God that we must be restored by grace To save us is to restore us to our perfection and our happiness and that is to restore us unto God § 2. 2. That the true knowledge of God is powerful and effectual upon the heart and life And every Attribute and Relation of God is so to be known as to make its proper Impress on us And the measure of this saving knowledge is not to be judged of by Extensiveness or number of Truths concerning God which we know so much as by the Clearness and Intensiveness and the measure of its holy effects upon the heart § 3. 3 This is it that denominateth both our selves and all our Duties HOLY when Gods Image is thus imprinted on us and we are like him by the new birth as Children to their Father and by his knowledge both our Hearts and Lives are made Divine being disposed unto God devoted to him and employed for him he being our Life and Light and Love § 4. This is the summ of the Covenant of God with man I will be thy God and thou shalt be my people And the other parts of the Covenant that Christ be our Saviour and the Holy Ghost our Sanctifier are both subservient unto this there being now no coming unto God but as Reconciled in Christ our Mediator and by the teaching and drawing of the Holy Ghost To be our God is to be to us An Absolute Owner a most Righteous Governour and a most Bountiful Benefactor or Father as having Created us Redeemed and Regenerated us and this according to his most Blessed Nature properties and perfections § 5. 5. It is not only a loose and unconstant effect of your particular thoughts of God that is the necessary Impress of his Attributes as to Fear him when you remember his Greatness and Iustice But it must be an Habit or holy nature in you every Attribute having made it s stated Image upon you and that Habit or Image being in you a constant Principle of holy spiritual operations A Habit of Reverence Belief Trust Love c. should be as it were your Nature § 6. 6. Not that the knowledge of God in his perfections should provoke us to desire his properties and perfections For to have such an aspiring desire to be Gods were the greatest Pride and wickedness But only we must desire 1.
world would be without it and sure this will make you think honourably and delightfully of the Government of God What would a Nation be without Government but like a company of Thieves and lawless Murderers or like the Pikes in a Pond that first eat up the other Fish and then devour one another the greater living upon the less Bears and Wolves would live quietlier together than ungoverned men except those few that are truly subject to the Government of God Government maintaineth every man in his propriety and keepeth lust and madness from breaking out and keepeth peace and order in the world What would a family be without Government Children and Servants are kept by it in their proper place and work Think then how necessary and excellent is the Universal Government of God § 13. Direct 10. Think well â—f the Endless Rewards and Punishments by which God will procure Direct 10. obedience to his Laws or vindicate the honour of his Government on the disobedient That the world may see that he giveth sufficient motives for all that he requireth he will reward the obedient with everlasting blessedness and punish the Rebells with endless misery You shall not say that he bids you work for nothing Though you can give him nothing but his own and therefore can merit nothing of him in point of Commutative Justice yet as he is a Governour and a Father he will put so wide a difference between the obedient and the rebellious that one shall be judged to everlasting joy with a Well done good and faithful servant and the other to everlasting punishment Matth. 25. Is there not enough in Heaven in a life of endless joyes with God to make obedience lovely to you and to make sin loathsome Is there not enough in Hell to deter you from disobedience and drive you unto God God will Rule whether you will or not Consent to be obedient or he will punish you without asking your consent § 14. The Directions for the nearer exciting of your obedience and confirming your full subjection More special Directions for Obedience are these Direct 1. Keep still the face of your souls upon God and in the sense of his Greatness and of Direct 1. his continual presence and of his particular providence And this will keep you in an obediential frame You will easily then perceive that so great a God cannot be disobeyed without great iniquity and guilt And that a God that is continually with you must be continually regarded And that a God that exactly observeth and mindeth the thoughts and words of every man should by every man be exactly minded and observed This will help you to understand the meaning of the Tempter when you perceive that every Temptation is an urging of you to offend for nothing so great a God that is just then observing what you do § 15. Direct 2. Alwayes remember whither you are going that you are preparing for Everlasting Direct 2. Rest and Ioy and must pass through the righteous judgement of the Lord and that Christ is your Guide and Governour but to bring you safely home as the Captain of your salvation and that sin is a rejecting of his help and of your happiness Think not that God doth Rule you as a Tyrant to your hurt or ruine to make his own advantage of you or by needless Laws that have no respect to your good and safety But think of him as one that is conducting you to eternal life and would now guide you by his counsel and afterwards take you to his glory Think that he is leading you to the world of Light and Life and Love and Ioy where there are Rivers of pleasure and fulness of delight for evermore that you may see his face and feel his Love among a world of blessed Spirits and not be weeping and gnashing the teeth with impious impenitent souls And is not such a Government as this desirable It is but like the Government of a Physicion to save his Patients life Or like your Government of your children which is necessary to their good that cannot feed or rule themselves Or like a Pilots governing the Ship which is conveying you to possess a Kingdom If the Marriners obey him they may safely arrive at the desired Port but if they disobey him they are all cast away and perish And should such a Government as this is seem grievous to you or should it not be most acceptable and accurately obeyed § 16. Direct 3. Still think what dangers difficulties and enemies you must pass through to this Rest Direct 3. and that all your safety dependeth upon the conduct and assistance of your Guide And this will bring over self-love to command you strict obedience You are to pass through the Army of your enemies And will you here disobey the Captain of your salvation or would you have him leave you to your selves Your disease is mortal and none but Jesus Christ can cure it and if he cure it not you are lost for ever no pain of Gowt or Stone is comparable to your everlasting pain And yet will you not be obedient to your Physicion Think when a Temptation comes If there were a narrow Bridge over the deepest Gulf or River and all my friends and happiness lay on the further side and I must needs go over whether I will or not if Christ would take me by the hand and lead me over would I be tempted to refuse his help or to lose his hand or if he should offer to lose me and leave me to my self should I not tremble and cry out as Peter Lord save me Matth. 14. 30. Or as the disciples Save Master we perish And should I not then hold him fast and most accurately obey him when he is leading me to Life Eternal that I may escape the Gulf of endless misery § 17. Direct 4. Remember still how bad and blind and backward and deceitful and weak you are Direct 4. your selves and therefore what need you have of the greatest watchfulness lest you should disobey your Pilot and lose your Guide before you are aware O what a heart have we to watch A lazy heart that will be loytering or sitting down when we should be following our Lord. A foolish heart that will let him go while we play with every play-fellow in our way A cowardly heart that will steal away or draw back in danger when it should follow our General A treacherous heart that will give us the slip and deceive us when we seemed surest of it A pur-blind heart that even when it followeth Christ our Guide is hardly kept from missing the Bridge and falling into the Gulf of misery Think well of these and you will obey your Governour § 18. Direct 5. Forget not the fruits of your former obedience and disobedience if you would be Direct 5. kept in an obedient frame Remember that obedience hath been sweetest afterward and that you
above in a Heavenly conversation and then your souls will be alwayes Direct 11. in the light and as in the sight of God and taken up with those businesses and delights which put them out of rellish with the baits of sin § 43. Direct 12. Let Christian watchfulness be your daily work And cherish a preserving though Direct 12. not a distracting and discouraging fear § 44. Direct 13. Take heed of the first approaches and beginnings of sin Oh how great a matter Direct 13. doth a little of this fire kindle And if you fall rise quickly by sound repentance whatever it may cost you § 45. Direct 14. Make Gods Word your only Rule and labour diligently to understand it Direct 14. § 46. Direct 15. In doubtful Cases do not easily depart from the unanimous judgement of the generality of the most wise and godly of all ages § 47. Direct 16. And in doubtful Cases be not passionate or rash but proceed deliberately and Direct 15. prove things well before you fasten on them § 48. Direct 17. Be acquainted with your bodily temperature and what sin it most enclineth you Direct 16. to and what sin also your Calling or converse doth lay you most open to that there your watch may be the stricter Of all which I shall speak more fully under the next Grand Direction § 49. Direct 18. Keep in a life of holy Order such as God hath appointed you to walk in For Direct 18. there is no preservation for straglers that keep not Rank and File but forsake the order which God commandeth them And this order lyeth principally in these points 1. That you keep in Union with the Universal Church Separate not from Christs body upon any pretence whatever With the Church as Regenerate hold spiritual communion in faith love and holiness with the Church as Congregate and Visible hold outward Communion in Profession and Worship 2. If you are not Teachers live under your particular faithful Pastors as obedient Disciples of Christ. 3. Let the most godly if possible be your familiars 4. Be laborious in an outward Calling § 50. Direct 19. Turn all Gods Providences whether of prosperity or adversity against your sins If Direct 19. he give you health and wealth remember he thereby obligeth you to obedience and calls for special service from you If he afflict you remember that it is sin that he is offended at and searcheth after and therefore take it as his Physick and see that you hinder not but help on its work that it may purge away your sin § 51. Direct 20. Wait patiently on Christ till he have finished the cure which will not be till this Direct â—â— trying life be finished Persevere in attendance on his Spirit and Means for he will come in season and will not tarry Hos. 6. 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord His going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the later and former rain upon the earth Though you have oft said There is no healing Jer. 14. 19. He will heal your back-slidings and love you freely Hos. 14. 4. Unto you that fear his name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings Mal. 4. 2. And blessed are all they that wait for him Isa. 30. 18. Thus I have given such Directions as may help for Humiliation under sin or hatred of it and deliverance from it DIRECT IX Spend all your dayes in a skilful vigilant resolute and valiant War against the Flesh Gr. Dir. 9. Our Warfare under Christ against the Tempter the World and the Devil as those that have covenanted to follow Christ the Captain of your Salvation § 1. THe Flesh is the End of Temptation for all is to please it Rom. 13. 14. and therefore is Sâ—e my Trea 〈…〉 the greatest enemy The world is the Matter of Temptation And the Devil is the first mover or efficient of it and this is the Trinity of enemies to Christ and us which we renounce in Baptism and must constantly resist Of the world and flesh I shall speak Chap. 4. Here I shall open the Methods of the Devil And first I shall prepare your understanding by opening some presupposed truths § 2. 1. It is presupposed that there is a Devil He that believeth not this doth prove it to others by shewing how grosly the Devil can befool him Apparitions Witchcrafts and Temptations are full proofs of it to sense besides what Scripture saith § 3. 2. It is supposed that he is the deadly enemy of Christ and us He was once an Angel and â—f the Temptations to hinder Conversion see before Chap. 1. sell from his first estate by sin and a world of evil Spirits with him and it is probable his envy against mankind might be the greater as knowing that we were made to succeed him and his followers in their state of glory For Christ saith that we shall be equal with the Angels Luke 20. 36. He shewed his enmity to man in our innocency and by his temptation caused our fall and misery But aâ—ter the fall God put an enmity into the nature of man against Devils as a merciful preservative against temptation so that as the whole nature of man abhorreth the nature of Serpents so doth the soul abhor and dread the diabolical nature And therefore so far as the Devil is seen in a temptation now so far it is frustrated till the enmity in nature be overcome by his deceits And this help nature hath against temptation which it seems our nature had not before the fall as not knowing the malice of the Devil against us § 3. There is a Natural enmity to the Devil himself put into all the womans natural seed But the moral enmity against his sinful temptations and works is put only into the spiritual seed by the Holy Ghost except what remnants are in the light of Nature I will be brief of all this and the next having spoken of them more largely in my Treatise against Infidelity Part. 3. page 190. § 13 c. § 4. The Devils names do tell us what he is In the Old Testament he is called 1. The Serpent Gen. 3. 2. The Hebrew word translated Devils in Levit. 17. 7. and Isa. 13. 21. signifieth Viâ— Pools Sy 〈…〉 Levit. 1. 77 Iâ—â—hese later 〈…〉 th the 〈◊〉 disposition which Satan as a Tempter causeth and so he is known by it as his Off-spring â—â—iâ—y as Satyrs are described and sometime Hee-goats Because in such shapes he oft appeareth 3. He is called Satan Zech. 3. 1. 4. An evil Spirit 1 Sam. 18. 10. 5. A lying Spirit 1 Kings 22. 22. For he is a lyar and the Father of it John 8. 44. 6. His off-spring is called A Spirit of uncleanness Zech. 13. 2. 7. And he or his Spawn is called A Spirit of fornication Hos. 4. 12. that is
thy most comprehensive odious sin and observe this as the life of all thy particular sins and hate it above all the rest This is the very death and greatest deformity of the soul the absence of Gods Image and Spirit and objectively of himself I never lothe my heart so much as when I observe how little it loveth the Lord. Methinks all the sins that ever I committed are not so lothsome to me as this want of Love to God And it is this that is the venom and malignity of every particular sin I never so much hate my self as when I observe how little of God is within me and how far my heart is estranged from him I never do so fully approve of the Justice of God if he should condemn me and thrust me for ever from his presence as when I observe how far I have thrust him from my heart If there were any sin which proceeded not from a want of Love to God I could easilier pardon it to my self as knowing that God would easilier pardon it But not to Love the God of Love the Fountain of Love the felicity of souls is a sin unfit to be pardoned to any till it be repented of and partly cured Christ will forgive it to none that keep it And when it is uncurable it is the special sin of Hell the badge of Devils and damned souls If God will not give me a heart to Love him I would I had never had a heart If he will give me this he giveth me all Happy are the poor the despised and the persecuted that can but live in the Love of God O miserable Emperours Kings and Lords that are strangers to this Heavenly Love and love their lusts above their Maker Might I but live in the fervent Love of God what matter is it in what Countrey or what Cottage or what Prison I live If I live not in the Love of God my Countrey would be worse than banishment a Palace would be a Prison a Crown would be a miserable comfort to one that hath cast away his comfort and is going to everlasting shame and woe Were we but duly sensible of the worth of Love and the odiousness and malignity that is in the want of it it would keep us from being quiet in the daily neglect of it and would quicken us to seek it and to stir it up § 23. Direct 6. Improve the principle of self-love to the promoting of the Love of God by considering Direct 6. what he hath done for thee and what he is and would be to thee I mean not carnal inordinate self-love which is the chiefest enemy of the Love of God But I mean that rational Love of Happiness and self-preservation which God did put into innocent Adam and hath planted in mans nature as necessary to his Government This natural innocent self-love is that remaining principle in the Heart of man which God himself doth still presuppose in all his Laws and Exhortations and which he taketh advantage of in his works and word for the conversion of the wicked and the perswading of his servants themselves to their obedience This is the common principle in which we are agreed with all the wicked of the world that all men should desire and seek to be happy and choose and do that which is best for themselves or else it were in vain for Ministers to preach to them if we were agreed in nothing and we had not this ground in them to cast our seed into and to work upon And if self-love be but informed and guided by understanding it will compell you to Love God and tell you that nothing should be so much Loved Every one that is a man must Love himself We will not intreat him nor be beholden to him for this And every one that Loveth himself will Love that which he judgeth Best for himself And every wise man must know that he never had nor can have any good at all but what he had from God Why do men Love lust or wealth or honour but because they think that these are good for them And would they not Love God if they practically knew that he is the Best of all for them and instead of all Unnatural unthankful heart Canst thou Love thy self and not Love him that gave thee thy self and gives thee all things Nature teacheth all men to love their most entire and necessary friends Do we deserve a reward by loving those that love us when Publicans will do the like Matth. 5. 46. Art thou not bound to love them that hate thee and curse and persecute thee ver 44 45. What reward then is due to thy unnatural ingratitude that canst not love thy chiefest friend All the friends that ever were kind to thee and did thee good were but his messengers to deliver what he sent thee And canst thou love the bearer and not the giver He made thee a man and not a beast He cast thy lot in his visible Church and not among deluded Infidels or miserable Heathens that never heard unless in scorn of the Redeemers name He brought thee forth in a Land of light In a Reformed Church where Knowledge and Holiness have as great advantage as any where in all the world and not among deluded ignorant Papists where ambition must have been thy Governour and Pride and Tyranny have given thee Laws and a formal Ceremonious Image of Piety must have been thy Religion He gave thee Parents that educated thee in his fear and not such as were prophane and ignorant and would have restrained and persecuted thee from a holy life He spoke to thy Conscience early in thy childhood and prevented the gross abominations which else thou hadst committed He bore with the folly and frailties of thy youth He seasonably gave thee those Books and Teachers and company and helps which were fittest for thee and blest them to the further awakening and instructing of thee when he past by others and left them in their sins He taught thee to pray and heard thy prayer He turned all thy fears and groans to thy spiritual good He pardoned all thy grievous sins and since that how much hath he endured and forgiven He gave thee seasonable and necessary stripes and brought thee up in the School of affliction so moderating them that they might not disable or discourage thee but only correct thee and keep thee from security wantonness stupidity and contempt of holy things and might spoil all temptations to ambition worldliness voluptuousness and fleshly lust By the threatnings of great calamities and death he hath frequently awakened thee to cry to Heaven and by as frequent and wonderful deliverances he hath answered thy prayers and encouraged thee still to wait upon him He hath given thee the hearty prayers of many hundreds of his faithful servants and heard them for thee in many a distress He hath strangely preserved thee in manifold dangers He hath not made thee of the
basest of the people whose poverty might tempt them to discontent nor set thee upon the pinnacle of worldly honour where giddiness might have been thy ruine and where temptations to pride and lust and luxury and enmity to a holy life are so violent that few escape them He hath not set thee out upon a Sea of cares and vexations worldly businesses and encumberances but fed thee with food convenient for thee and given thee leisure to walk with God He hath not chained thee to an unprofitable profession nor used thee as those that live like their beasts to eat and drink and sleep and play or live to live But he hath called thee to the noblest and sweetest work when that hath been thy business which others were glad to taste of as a recreation and repast He hath allowed thee to converse with Books and with the best and wisest men and to spend thy dayes in sucking in delightful knowledge And this not only for thy pleasure but thy use and not only for thy self but many others O how many sweet and precious truths hath he allowed thee to feed on all the day when others are diverted and commonly look at them sometimes a far off O how many precious hours hath he granted me in his holy Assemblies and in his honourable and most pleasant work How oft hath his Day and his holy uncorrupted Ordinances and the communion of his Saints and the mentioning of his Name and Kingdom and the pleading of his cause with sinners and the celebrating of his praise been my delight O how many hundreds that he hath sent have wanted the abundant encouragement which I have had When he hath seen the disease of my despondent mind he hath not tryed me by denying me success nor suffered me with Ionas according to my inclination to overrun his work but hath ticed me on by continued encouragements and strowed all the way with mercies But his mercies to me in the souls of others have been so great that I shall secretly acknowledge them rather than here record them where I must have respect to those usual mercies of believers which lye in the common road to Heaven And how endless would it be to mention all All the good that friends and enemies have done me All the wise and gracious disposals of his providence in every condition and change of life and change of times and in every place whereever he brought me His every dayes renewed merciâ—s His support under all my languishings and weakness his plentiful supplies his gracious helps his daily pardons and the Glorious Hopes of a blessed Immortality which his Son hath purchased and his Covenant and Spirit sealed to me O the mercies that are in One Christ one Holy Spirit one Holy Scripture and in the Blessed God himself These I have mentioned unthankful heart to shame thee for thy want of Love to God And these I will leave upon record to be a witness for God against thy ingratitude and to confound thee with shame if thou deny thy Love to such a God Every one of all these mercies and multitudes more will rise up against thee and shame thee before God and all the world as a monster of unkindness if thou Love not him that hath used thee thus Here also consider what God is for your future good as well as what he hath been hitherto How all sufficient how powerful merciful and good But of this more anon § 24. Direct 7. Improve the vanity and vexation of the Creature and all thy disappointments and Direct 7. injuries and afflictions to the promoting of thy Love to God And this by a double advantage First By observing that there is nothing meet to divert thy Love or rob God of it unless thou wilt Love thy trouble and distress Secondly That thy Love to God is the comfort by which thou must be supported under the injuries and troubles which thou meetest with in the world And therefore to neglect it is but to give up thy self to misery Is it for nothing O my soul that God hath turned loose the world against thee That Devils rage against thee and wicked men do reproach and slander thee and seek thy ruine and friends prove insufficient and as broken Reeds It had been as easie to God to have prospered thee in the world and suited all things to thy own desires and have strawed thy way with the flowers of worldly comforts and delights But he knew thy proneness to undo thy self by carnal loves and how easily thy heart is enticed from thy God And therefore he hath wisely and mercifully ordered it that thy temptations shall not be too strong and no creature shall appear to thee in an over-amiable tempting dress Therefore he hath suffered them to become thy enemies And wilt thou love an enemy better than thy God What! an envious and malicious world A world of cares and grief and pains a weary restless empty world How deep and piercing are its injuries How superficial and deceitful is its friendship How serious are its sorrows What toyish shews and dreams are its delights How constant are its cares and labours How seldome and short are its flattering smiles Its comforts are disgraced by the certain expectation of succeeding sorrows Its sorrows are heightned by the expectations of more In the midst of its flatteries I hear something within me saying Thou must dye This is but the way to rottenness and dust I see a Winding-sheet and a Grave still before me I foresee how I must lye in pains and groans and then become a lothesome corpse And is this a world to be more delighted in than God What have I left me for my support and solace in the midst of all this Vanity and Vexation but to look to him that is the All-sufficient sure never failing good I must love him or I have nothing to love but enmity or deceit And is this the worst of Gods design in permitting and causing my pains and disappointments here Is it but to drive my foolish heart unto himself that I may have the solid delights and happiness of his Love O then let his blessed will be done Come home my soul my wandering tired grieved soul Love where thy love shall not be lost Love him that will not reject thee nor deceive thee nor requite thee as the world doth with injuries and abuse Despair not of entertainment though the world deny it thee The peaceable region is above In the world thou must have trouble that in Christ thou maist have peace Retire to the harbour if thou wouldst be free from storms God will receive thee when the world doth cast thee off if thou heartily cast off the world for him O what a solace is it to the soul to be driven clearly from the world to God and there to be exercised in that sacred Love which will accompany us to the world of Love § 25. Direct 8. Labour for the truest
me Denyal of our grace may seem to be humility but it tendeth to extinguish Love and Gratitude § 57. But you 'l say I must avoid soul-delusion and Pharisaical ostentation on the other side and few reach assurance how then should we keep up the Love of God Answ. 1. Though I am not come to the point of Trying and Discerning Grace I shall give you this much help in the way because it is so useful to the exercises of Love 1. If you have not Enjoying delighting Love yet try whether you have not Desiring seeking Love Love appeareth as truly in deâ—iâ—â—ng and seeking Good as in delighting in it Poor men shew their Love of the world by Desiring and seeking it as much as rich men do in delighting in it What is it that you most desire and seek 2. Or if this be so weak that you scarce discern it do you not find a mourning and lamenting Love You shew that you loved your money by mourning when you lose it and that you loved your friend by grieving for his death as well as by delighting in him while he lived If you heartily lament it as your greatest unhappiness and loss when you think that God doth cast you off and that you are void of Gracâ— and cannot serve and honour him as you would this shews you are not void of Love 3. If you feel not that you Love him do you feel that you would fain Love him and that you Love to Love him If you do so it is a sign that you do Love him When you do not only desire to find such an Evidence of salvation in you but when you desire Love it self and Love to Love God Had you not rather have a heart to Love him perfectly than to have all the riches in the world Had you not rather live in the Love of God if you could reach it than to live in any earthly pleasure If so be sure he hath your hearts The Will is the Love and the Heart If God have your Will he hath your Heart and Love 4. What hath your Hearts if he have them not Is there any thing that you prefer and seek before him and that you had rather have than him Can you be content without him and let him go in exchange for any earthly pleasure If not it is a sign he hath your Hearts You love him saâ—ingly if you set more by nothing else than by him 5. Do you love his holy Image in his word Do you delight and meditate in his Law Psalm 1. 2. Is it in your hearts Psalm 40. 8. Or do you pray Incline my heart unto thy Testimonies Psalm 119. 36. If you love Gods Image in his word the wisdom and holiness of it you love God 6. Do you love his Image on his Children If you Love them for their heavenly wisdom and holiness you so far Love God He that loveth the Candle for its light doth love the light it self and the sun He that loveth the wise and holy for their wisdom and holiness doth love wisdom and holiness it self The word and the saints being more in the reach of our sensible apprehensions than God himself is we ordinarily feel our Love to them more sensibly than our Love to God when indeed it is God in his word and servants that we love 1 Iohn 3. 14. Psalm 15. 4. 7. Though for want of Assurance you feel not the delights of Love have you not a heart that would delight in it more than in all the riches of the world if you could but get assurance of your interest Would it not comfort you more than any thing if you could be sure he Loveth you and could perfectly Love him and obey him If so it is not for want of Love that you delight not in him but for want of Assurance So that if God have thy heart either in a delighting Love or a seeking and desiring or a lamenting mourning Love he will not despise it or reject it He is â—igh to them that be of a broken heart Psalm 34. 18. A broken and contrite heart is his sacrifice which he will not despise Psalm 51. 17. The good Lord will have mercy on every one that prepareth their hearts to seek him though they do it not according to the preparation of the sanctuary 2 Cor. 30. 18 19. By these Evidences you may discern the sincerity of Love in small degrees and so you may make Love the occasion of more Love by discerning that Goodness of God which is manifested to you in the least § 38. 2. But suppose you cannot yet attain assurance Neglect not to improve that Goodness and Mercy of God which he revealeth to you in the state that you are in Love him but as Infinite Goodness should be loved who so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. Love him as the most blessed merciful God who made you and all things and hath given to the world an universal pardon on condition of their penitent acceptance and offereth them everlasting life and all this purchased by the blood of Christ Love him as one that offereth you reconciliation and intreateth you to be saved and as one that delighteth not in the death of the wicked but rather that they turn and live and as one that would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth though he will save none but the penitent that do acknowledge the truth And when you love him sincerely on these accounts you will have the evidence of his special Love to you § 39. Direct 16. Improve thy sense of natural and friendly love to raise thee to the Love of God Direct 16. When thou seest or feelest what Love a parent hath to children and a Husband to a wife or a Wife to a Husband or faithful friends to one another think then What Love do I owe to God O how inconsiderable is the Loveliness of a child a wife a friend the best of Creatures in comparison of the Loveliness of God Unworthy soul Canst thou love a drop of Goodness in thy friend And canst thou not Love the Ocean of Goodness in thy God Is a spark in the creature more amiable than the fire that kindled it Thou canst Love thy friend for all his blemishes his ignorance his passions and manifold imperfections And canst thou not love thy God who hath none of these nor any thing to discourage or damp thy love Thou lovest and deservedly lovest thy friend because he loveth thee and deals friendly with thee But O how much greater is the Love of God Did ever friend Love thee as he hath loved thee Did ever friend do for thee as he hath done He gave thee thy being thy daily safety and all the mercies of thy life He gave thee his Son his Spirit and his Grace He pardoned thy sins and
Gospel Leave out this Gratitude and it is no Evangelical Repentance And what is our saving faith in Christ but the Assent to the truth of the Gospel with a Thankful Acceptance of the good which it offereth us even Christ as our Saviour with the Benefits of his Redemption The Love to God that is there required is the Thankful Love of his Redeemed ones And the Love to our very enemies and the forgiving of wrongs and all the Love to one another and all the works of Charity there required are the exercises of Gratitude and are all to be done on this account because Christ hath loved us and forgiven us and that we may shew our thankful Love to him Preaching and Praying and Sacraments and publick praises and communion of Saints and obedience are all to be animated with Gratitude and they are no further Evangelically performed than Thankfulness is the very life and complexion of them all The dark and defective opening of this by Preachers gave occasion to the Antinomians to run into the contrary extream and to derogate too much from Gods Law and our Obedience But if we obscure the doctrine of Evangelical Gratitude we do as bad or worse than they Obedience to our Ruler and Thankfulness to our Benefactor conjoyned and co-operating as the Head and Heart in the Natural body do make a Christian indeed Understand this well and it will much incline your hearts to Thankfulness § 4. Direct 2. Let the greatness of the manifold mercies of God be continually before your eyes Direct 2. Thankfulness is caused by the due apprehension of the greatness of mercies If you either know them not to be mercies or know not that they are mercies to you or believe not what is said and promised in the Gospel or forget them or think not of them or make light of them through the corruption of your minds you cannot be thankful for them I have before spoken of Mercy in order to the kindling of Love and therefore shall now only recite these following to be alwayes in your memories 1. The Love of God in giving you a Redeemer and the Love of Christ in giving his life for us and in all the parts of our Redemption 2. The Covenant of Grace the pardon of all our sins the justification of our persons our adoption and title to eternal life 3. The aptness of means for calling us to Christ The gracious and wise disposals of providence to that end the gifts and compassion of our instructers the care of Parents and the helps and examples of the servants of Christ. 4. The efficacy of all these means â—he giving us to will and to do and opening of our hearts and giving us repentance unto life and the Spirit of Christ to mortifie our sins and purifie our nature and dwell within us 5. A standing in his Church under the care of faithful Pastors the liberty comfort and frequent benefit of his Word and Sacraments and the publick communion of his Saints 6. The company of those that fear the Lord and their faithful admonitions reproofs and encouragements the kindness they have shewed us for body or for soul. 7. The mercies of our Relations or habitations our estates and the notable alterations and passages of our lives 8. The manifold preservations and deliverances of our souls from errors and seducers from terrors and distress from dangerous temptations and many a soul-wounding sin and that we are not leâ—t to the errors and desires of our hearts to seared Consciences as forsaken of God 9. The manifold deliverances of our bodies from enemies hurts distresses sicknesses and death 10. The mercies of adversity in wholesome necessary chastisements or honourable sufferings for his sake and support or comfort under all 11. The communion which our souls have had with God in the course of our private and publick duties in Prayer Sacraments and Meditation 12. The use which he hath made of us for the good of others that our time hath not been wholly lost and we have not lived as burdens of the world 13. The mercies of all our friends and his servants which were to us as our own and our interest in the mercies and publick welfare of his Church which are more than our own 14. His patience and forbearance with us under our constant unprofitableness and provocations and his renewed mercies notwithstanding our abuse our perseverance untill now 15. Our hopes of everlasting Rest and Glory when this sinsul life is at an end Aggravate these mercies in your more enlarged meditations and they will sure constrain you to cry out Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies Psal. 102. 1 2 3 4. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful to him and bless his name For the Lord is good his Mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations Psal. 100. 4 5. The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy For as the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his mercy to them that fear him Psal. 103. 8 11. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Psal. 136. 1 c. O give thanks unto the Lord call upon his name make known his deeds among the people sing ye unto him sing Psalms unto him talk ye of all his wondrous works glory ye in his holy name Let the heart of them rejoyce that seek him Psal. 105. 1 2 3. § 5. Direct 3. Be well acquainted with the greatness of your sins and sensible of them as they are Direct 3. the aggravation of Gods Mercies to you This is the main end why God will humble those that he will save Not to drive them to despair of mercy nor that he taketh pleasure in their sorrows for themselves But to work the heart to a due esteem of saving mercy and to a serious desire after it that they may thankfully receive it and carefully retain it and faithfully use it An unhumbled soul sets light by Christ and Grace and Glory It relisheth no spiritual mercy It cannot be thankful for that which it findeth no great need of But true humiliation recovereth our appetite and teacheth us to value mercy as it is Think therefore what sin is as I have opened to you Dir. 8. and think of your manifold aggravated sins and then think how great those mercies are that are bestowed on so great unworthy sinners Then mercy will melt your humbled hearts when you confess that you are unworthy to be called Sons Luke 15. and that you are not worthy to look up to Heaven Luke 18. 13. and that you are not worthy of the least
many creatures and comforts for their bodies That live continually upon the plenty of his Love That have received so much and are still receiving Should we not bless him every day with Praise that blesseth us every day with benefits Should we not praise the bridge that we go over The friend that we have tryed so oft And resolve as Psalm 145. 2. Every day will I bless thee I will praise thy name for ever and ever Psalm 63. 3 4. Because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I lâ—â—e I will lift up my hands in thy name Are they not bound to praise him on earth that must reign with Christ for ever in Heaven Rom. 8. 17 33. Rev. 1. 5 6. Col. 1. 12. 1 Pet. 1. 4. 6. The Praises of God do exercise our highest Graces Praise is the very breath of Love and Ioy and Gratitude It tendeth to raise us above our selves and make our hearts to burn within us while the glorious name of God is magnified It hath the most pure and spiritual and elevating effect upon the soul and therefore tendeth most effectually to make us more holy by the encrease of these graces § 19. 7. To be much employed in the Praise of God doth tend exceedingly to the vanquishing of all hurtful doubts and fears and sorrows Ioy and Praise promote each other And this it doth 1. By keeping the soul near to God and within the warmth of his love and goodness Psal. 140. 13. 2. By the exercise of Love and Joy which are the cordial reviving strengthning graces Psal. 94. 19. 116. 1. 3. By dissipating distrustful vexing thoughts and diverting the mind to sweeter things Psal. 104. 34. 4. By keeping off the Tempter who usually is least able to follow us with his molestations when we are highest in the praises of our God 5. By bringing out the Evidences of our sincerity into the light while the chiefest graces are in exercise 2 Cor. 3 18. 6. And by way of Reward from God that loveth the Praises of his meanest servants And here I would commâ—nd this experiment to uncomfortable troubled souls that have not found comfort by long searching after evidence in themselves Exercise your selves much in the Praises of God This is a duty that you ☜ have no pretence against Against Thanksgiving for his grace you pretend that you know not that you have received his grace But to praise him in the excellency of his perfections his power and wisdom and goodness and mercy and truth is the duty of all men in the world While you are doing this you will feel your graces stir and feel that comfort from the face of God which you are not like to meet with in any other way whatsoever Evidences are exceeding useful to our ordinary stated peace and comfort But it is oft long before we confidently discern them and they are oft discerned when yet the soul is not excited to much sense of comfort and delight and we quickly lose the sight of evidences if we be not very wise and careful But a life of praise bringeth ☜ comfort to the soul as standing in the Sunshine bringeth light and warmth Or as labouring doth warm the body or as the sight and converse of our dearest friend or the hearing of glad tydings doth rejoyce the heart without any great reasoning or arguing the case This is the way to have comfort by feeling to be much in the hearty praises of the Lord When we come to Heaven we shall have our Joy by immediate Vision and the delightful exercise of Love and Praise And if you would taste the Heavenly Joyes on earth you must imitate them in Heaven as near as possibly you can And this is your work of nearest imitation § 20. 8. To live a life of praising God will make Religion sweet and easie to us and take off the wearisomness of it and make the work of God a pleasure to us Whereas they that set themselves only to the works of humiliation and leave out these soul-delighting exercises do cast themselves into exceeding danger by making Religion seem to them a grievous and undesirable life This makes men backward to every duty and do it heartlesly and easily yield to temptations of omission and neglect if not at last fall off through weariness whereas the soul that is daily employed in the high and holy Prayses of his God is still drawn on by encouraging experience and doth all with a willing ready mind § 21. 9. No duty is more pleasing to God than the cheerful Praises of his Servants He loveth your prayers tears and groans but your Praises much more And that which pleaseth God most must be most pleasing to his servants For to please him is their End This is the End of all their labour that whether present or absent they may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5 9. So that it is a final enjoying and therefore a delighting duty § 22. 10. To be much employed in the Praises of God will acquaint the world with the nature of true Religion and remove their prejudice and confute their dishonourable thoughts and accusations of it and recover the honour of Christ and his holy wayes and servants Many are averse to a holy life because they think that it consisteth but of melancholly fears or scrupulosity But who dare open his mouth against the joyful praises of his Maker I have heard and read of several enemies and murderers that have broke in upon Christians with an intent to kill them or carry them away that finding them on their knees in prayer and reverencing the work so much as to stay and hear them till they had done have reverenced the persons also and departed and durst not touch the heavenly worshippers of God This life of praise is a continual pleasure to the soul clean contrary to a Melancholly life It is recreating to the Spirits and healthful to the body which is consumed by cares and fears and sorrows It is the way that yieldeth that mirth which doth good like a medicine and is a continual feast Prov. 17. 22. 15. 15. Therefore saith the Apostle Iames 5. 13. Is any merry Let him sing Psalms He cannot better exercise mirth than in singing praises to his God This keeps the soul continually on the wing desiring still to be nearer God that it may have more of these delights And so it overcomes the sense of persecutions and afflictions and the fears of death and is a most excellent cordial and companion in the greatest sufferings Was it not an excellent hearing to have been a witness of the joy of Paul and Silas when in the Prison and Stocks with their backs sore with scourges they sang at midnight the praises of the Lord Acts 16. 25. so that all the doors were opened and all the prisoners bonds were loosed that had been their auditors so great was Gods
therefore good in himself it can hardly be conceived but that in all this there is some kind of secret love to God as better than my self 87. In all this note that it is one thing to Love God under the notion of the Infinite Good better than my self and all things and another thing for the will to Love him more as that notion obligeth 88. And the reason why these are often separated is because besides a slight intellectual apprehension there is necessary to the Wills just determination a clear and deep apprehension with a right disposition of the Will and a suscitation of the Active Power 89. Yea and every slight Volition or Velleity will not conquer opposing Concupiscence and Volitions nor is every Will effectual to command the life and prevail against its contrary 90. Therefore I conceive that in our first believing in Christ even to Justification though our Reason tell us that he is more Amiable than our selves and we are desirous so to Love him for the future and have an obscure weak beginning of Love to God as God or as so conceived yet 1. The strength of sensitive self-love maketh our Love to our selves more passionately strong 2. And that Reason at least in its Degree of Apprehension is too Intense in apprehending our self-interest and too remiss in apprehending the Amiableness of God as God And so far even our Rational Love is yet greater to our selves though as to the Notion God hath the preheminence 3. And that in this whole affair of our Baptismal Covenanting Consent or Christianity our Love to our own felicity as such is more Powerful and effectual in moving the soul and prevailing for our resolution for a new life than is our Love to God as for himself and as God 91. And therefore it is that Fear hath so great a hand in our first Change For all that such Fear doth it doth as moved by self-love I mean the fear of suffering and damnation And yet experience telleth us that Conversion commonly beginneth in Fear And though where self-love and fear are alone without the Love of God as Good in and for himself there is no true grace yet I conceive that there is true grace initial in those weak Christians that have more Fear and self-love in the passionate and powerful part than Love to God so be it they have not more love to sin and to any thing that stands in competition with God 92. Therefore he that hath a Carnal self-love or inordinate inclining him to the creature which is stronger in him than the Love of God is Graceless Because it will turn his heart and life from God But he that hath only a necessary self-love even a love to his own spiritual eternal felicity operating by strong desire and fear conjunct with a weaker degree of Love to God as Good in himself I think hath grace and may so be saved Because here is but an unequal motion to the same End and not a competition 93. If any dislike any of this decision I only desire him to remember that on both hands there are apparent Rocks to be avoided First It is a dangerous thing to say that a man is in a state of grace and salvation who loveth not God as God that is better than himself And on the other hand the experience of most Christians in the world saith that at their first believing if not long after they Loved God more for themselves than for Himself and Loved themselves more than God though they knew that God was better and more amiable and that the fear of misery and the desire of their own salvation was more effectual and prevalent with them than that Love of God for himself And I doubt that not very many have this at all in so high a degree as to be clear and certain of it And if we shall make that necessary to salvation which few of the best Christians find in themselves we either condemn allmost all professed Christians or at least leave them under uncertainty and terrors Therefore Gods Interest speaking so lowd on one hand and mans experience on the other I think we have need to cut by a thred and walk by line with greatest accurateness 94. By this time we may see that as Christ is the way to the Father and the Saviour and recoverer of lapsed man from Himself to God so â—aith in Christ as such is a Mediate and Medicinal Grace and work And that faith is but the bellows of Love And that our first Believing in Christ though it be the regenerating work which generateth Love yet is but a middle state between an unregenerate and a regenerate Not as a third state specifically distinct from both but the initium of the latter or as the embrio or state of Conception in the womb is as to a man and no man Faith containeth Love in fieri 95. As the Love of our selves doth most powerfully though not only move us to close with Christ as our Saviour so while hereby we are united unto Him we have a double assistance or influx from him for the production of the purer Love of God The one is Objective in all the Divine demonstrations of Gods Love in his Incarnation Life Death Resurrection in his Doctrine Example Intercession and in all his benefits given us in our pardon adoption and the promises of future Glory The other is in the secret operations of the Holy Spirit which he giveth us to concur with these means and make them all effectual 96. The true state of sanctification as different from meer vocation and faith consisteth in this pure Love of God and Holiness and that more for himself and his Infinite Goodness than for our selves and as our felicity 97. Therefore when we are Promised the spirit to be given to us if we Believe in Christ and sanctification is promised us with Justification on this condition of faith this is part of the meaning of that promise that if we truly take Christ for our Saviour to bring us to the Love of God though at present we are most moved with the Love of our selves to accept him he will by his word works and spirit bring us to it initially here and perfectly in Heaven even to be perfectly Pleased in God for his own perfect Goodness and so to be fully Pleasant to him And thus besides the extraordinary gifts to a few the spirit of holiness or Love which is the spirit of Adoption is promised by Covenant to all Believers 98. Accordingly this promise is so fulfilled that in the first instant of time we have a Relative Right to Christ as our Head and the sender of the spirit and to the Holy Spirit himself as our sanctifier by undertaking according to the terms of the Covenant But this doth not produce allwaies a sensible or effectual Love of God above our selves in us at the very first but by degrees as we follow the work of faith
own word for it and plead with them the Arguments which he hath put into our mouths and yet we speak as to posts and stones to men past feeling what a pittiful sight was it to see Christ stand weeping over Ierusalem for the hardness of their hearts and the nearness and greatness of their misery while they themselves were so far from weeping for it that they raged against the life of him that so much pityed them We bless God that it is not thus with all He hath encouraged some of us with the heart-yielding obedient attention of many great Congregations But among the best alas how many of these hardned sinners are mixed and in many places how do they abound Hence it is that such odious abominations are committed such filthiness and lying and perjury and acts of malicious enmity against the servants of the Lord and that so many are haters of God and Godliness If Satan had not first hardned their hearts he could never have brought them to such odious crimes as now with impudency are committed in the Land As Lots daughters were fain to make their Father drunk that he might commit the sin of incest so the Devil doth first deprive men both of reason and feeling that he may bring them to such heinous wickedness as this and make them laugh at their own destruction and abhor those most that fain would save them And they are not only past feeling but so hate any quickning Ministry or Truth or Means which would recover their feeling that they seem to go to Hell as some condemned Malefactors to the Gallows that make themselves drunk before they go as if it were all they had to care for to keep themselves hoodwinkt from knowing or feeling whither they go till they are there § 9. See what a Picture of a hardned people God giveth to Ezekiel 3. 7. But the house of Israel will not hearken to thee for they will not hearken to me for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard hearted Observe but what a case it is that they are so insensible of and then you will see what a hard hearted sinner past feeling is 1. They are the servants of sin Rom. 6. 16. in the power of it corrupted by it and yet they feel it not 2. They have the guilt of many thousand sins upon them all is unpardoned that ever they committed and yet they feel it not 3. They have the threatnings and curses of God in force against them in his Word even words so terrible as you would think might affright them out of their sins or their wits and they take on them to believe this Word of God and yet they feel not 4. They are in the power of the Devil ruled and deceived by him and taken captive by him at his will Acts 26. 18. 2 Tim. 2. 26. 5. They may be certain that if they dye in this condition they shall be damned and they are uncertain whether they shall live another day they are never sure to be one hour longer out of Hell and yet they feel not 6. They know that they must dye and that it is a great change and of the greatest endless Ferâ—emini moriem nâ— sentieti â— an caeci autem an videntes id in vestra manu est Optate igitur bene mori quod ipsum nisi bene vixeritis frustra est Optate inquam initimini quod in vobis est facile reliquum illi committite qui vos in hanc vitam ultro non vocatos intulit egressuris non nisi vocatus rogatus manum dabit Non mori autem nolite optare Petrarch Dial. 107. l. 2. consequence that death will make with them and they know that this is sure and near and are past doubt of it and yet they feel it not 7. They must shortly appear before the Lord and be judged for all that they have done in the body and be doomed to their endless state and yet they feel not 8. They know that life is short and that they have but a little time to prepare for all this terrible change and that it must go with them for ever as they now prepare and yet they feel not 9. They hear and read of the case of hardned wicked men that have gone before them and have resisted grace and lost their time as they now do and they read or hear of the miserable end that such have come to and yet they feel not 10. They have a world of examples continually before them They see the filthy lives of many for their warning and the holy lives of others for their imitation and see how Christ and Satan strive for souls and yet they feel not 11. They are alwayes before the eye of God and do all this before his face He warneth them and calleth them to repentance and yet they feel not 12. They have Christ as it were crucified before their eyes Gal. 3. 1. They hear of his sufferings They may see in him what sin is and what the Love of God is He pleadeth with them his blood and sufferings against their obstinate unkindness and yet they feel not 13. They have everlasting joy and glory offered them and Heaven so opened to them in Gods promises that they may see it as in a glass 1 Cor. 13. 12. They take on them to believe how much the blessed Spirits there abhorr such wickedness as theirs and yet they feel not 14. They have the Torments of Hell opened to them in the Word of God They read what impenitent souls must suffer to all eternity They hear some in despair in this life roaring in the misery of their souls They hear the joyful thanksgivings of believers that Christ delivereth them from those torments and yet they feel not 15. All the promises of Salvation in the Gospel do put in an exception against these men unless they be converted They are made to the penitent and not to the impenitent There is Justification and life but not for them There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. But he that believeth not is condemned already John 3. 18 36. and they that after their hardness and impenitent hearts do treasure up wrath against the day of wrath shall have tribulation and anguish Rom. 2. 5 6 7. Here is comfort for repenting sinners but none but on condition they Repent for them when others are welcomed to Christs marriage feast he saith to these How came you in hither and yet they feel not 16. They still carry about with them the doleful evidences of all this misery One would think the ambitious and covetous and voluptuous might see these death-marks on themselves and the ungodly might feel that God hath not their hearts especially they that hate the godly and shew their wolvish cruelty against them and are the progeny of Cain and yet they feel not any
act Keep your hearts with all diligence for from thence are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good But the viperous generation that are evil cannot speak good for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Math. 12. 33 34. Till the spirit have regenerated the soul all outward Religion will be but a dead and pittiful thing Though there is something which God hath appointed an unregenerate man to do in order to his own conversion yet no such antecedent act will prove that the person is justified or reconciled to God till he be converted To make up a Religion of doing or saying something that is good while the heart is void of the spirit of Christ and sanctifying grace is the Hypocrites Religion Rom. 8. 9. § 8. Direct 3. Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts and the desire and other affections or passions Direct 3. of the mind as well as of the sins of tongue or hand A lustful thought a malicious thought a proud ambitious or covetous thought especially if it proceed to a wish or contrivance or consâ—nt is a sin the more dangerous by how much the more inward and neer the heart as Christ hath shewed you Mat. 5. 6. The Hypocrite who most respecteth the eye of man doth live as if his Thoughts were free § 9. Direct 4. Make conscience of secret sins which are committed out of the sight of men and may Direct 4. be concealed from them as well as of open and notorious sins If he can do it in the dark and secure his reputation the Hypocrite is bold But a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to his conscience and much more to the all-seeing God § 10. Direct 5. Be faithful in secret duties which have no witness but God and Conscience As meditation Direct 5. and self-examination and secret prayer And be not only Religious in the sight of men § 11. Direct 6. In all publick worship be more laborious with the heart than with the tongue or knee Direct 6. and see that your tongue over-run not your heart and leave it not behind Neglect not the due composure of your words and due behaviour of your bodys But take much more pains for the exercise of holy desires from a believing loving fervent soul. § 12. Direct 7. Place nâ—t more in the externals or modes or circumstances or ceremonies of worship Direct 7. than is due and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things than cometh to their share but 〈…〉 ed mâ—â—â—â—ad of hurt fuâ—â—â—â—nes ceremonies be obâ—iteraâ—â—d by ceremoniâ—s Let the Prâ—â—sts perswade the novâ—â—â—â— that holy water Images â—oâ—aâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 and â—oâ—ches and the rest which the Church alloweth and uâ—â—th are very â—it for them and let them exâ—â—l them with many praises in their popular Sermons that instead of the old superstition they may be used to new and religious signs This is to quenth the â—iâ—e with oyl let the great substantials of Religion have the precedencie and be far preferred before them Let the Love of God and man be the sum of your obedience And be sure you learn well what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice And remember that the great thing which God requireth of you is to do Iustice and love mercy and walk humbly with your God Destroy not him with your meat fâ—r whom Christ dyed Call not for fire from Heaven upon dissenters and think not every man intollerable in the Church that is not in every little matter of your mind Remember that the hypocrisie of the Pharisees is described by Christ as consisting in a zeal for their own traditions and the inventions of men and the smallest matters of the Ceremonial Law with a neglect of greatest moral duties and a furious cruelty against the spiritual worshipers of God Math. 15. 2. Why do thy disciples transgress the Tradition of the Elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread v. 7. Ye Hypocrites well did Esaias prophesie of you saying This people draweth niâ—â—â—ntâ— me with their mouth and hâ—â—â—â—ureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me but in vain do they worship me teaching fâ—r doctrines the commandments of men Math. 23. 4 5 6 13 14 c. They bind heavy burdens which they touch not themselves All their works they do to be seen of men They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the burdens of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief sâ—ats in the Synagogues and greetings in publick and to be called Rabbi But they shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men and were the greatest enemies of the entertainment of the Gospel by the people They tythed mint and annise and cummin and omitted the great matters of the Law Iudgement and Mercy and Faith They streined at a gnat and swallowed a Camel They had a great veneration for the dead Prophets and Saints and yet were persecuters and murderers of their successors that were living v. 23 c. By this description you may see which way Hypocrisie doth most ordinarily work even to a blind and bloody zeal for opinions and traditions and ceremonies and other little things to the treading down the interest of Christ and his Gospel and a neglect of the life and power of Godliness and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ whom they are bound to love above their ceremonies I marvel that many Papists tremble not when they read the Character of the Pharisees But that hypocrisie is a hidden sin and is an enemy to the light which would discover it § 13. Direct 8. Make conscience of the duties of obedience to superiors and of justice and mercy Direct 8. towards men as well as of acts of piety to God Say not a long mass in order to devour a widows house or a Christians life or reputation Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are in prayers And labour as much to exceed common men in the one as in the other Set your selves to do all the good you can to all and do hurt to none And do to all men as you would they should do to you § 14. Direct 9. Be much more busie about your selves than about others and more censorious of Direct 9. your selves than of other men and more strict in the Reforming of your selves than of any others For this is the character of the sincere When the Hypocrite is little at home and much abroad and is a sharp reprehender of others and perniciously tender and indulgent to himself Mark his discourse in all companies and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures and bitter reproach of others How such men and such men that differ from him or have opposed him or that he hates are thus and thus faulty and bad and hateful Yea he is as great an accuser of his
any more than Spirit or any thing else If it were only in respect of their object they should be called the World also because that is their object It is a certain Rule that That faculty is most predominant in man whose Object is made his chiefest End Sensitive delights being made the felicity and end of the unsanctified it followeth that the sensitive faculties are predominant which being called Flesh by a nearer Trope the Mind from it receives the denomination The Scriptures also shew this plainly I remember not any one place in the Old Testament where there is any probability that the word flesh should signifie only the Rational soul as unrenewed Matth. 16. 17. Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee that is mortal man hath not revealed it Matth. 26. 41. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak that is your Bodies are weak and resist the willingness of your souls For sinful habits are not here called weak John 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh that is Man by natural Generation can beget but natural man called Flesh from the visible part and not the spiritual life which nature is now destitute of Rom 7. 25. With my flesh I serve the Law of sin that is with my sensitive powers and my mind so far as captivated thereto Rom. 8. 1 5. Flesh and Spirit are oft opposed They that are of the flesh mind the things of the flesh c. that is They in whom the sensitive interest and appetite are predominant For it is called the Body here as well as the flesh v. 10 11 13. The mind is here included but it is as serving the flesh and its interest Gal. 5. 16 17 19. Flesh and Spirit are in the same manner opposed And 2 Pet. 2. 18. the Lusts of the flesh are in this sense mentioned And Ephes. 2. 3. Rom. 7. 18. Rom. 13. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Pet. 2. 11. in which there is mention of fleshly lusts which fight against the Spirit and fleshly wisdom making provision for the flesh c. And Col. 2. 18. there is indeed the name of a fleshly mind which is but a mind deceived and subservient to the flesh so that the flesh it self or sensitive interest and appetite are first signified in all or most places and in some the Mind as subservient thereto § 4. It is of the greater consequence that this be rightly understood lest you be tempted to imitate the Libertines who think the flesh or sensitive part is capable of no moral good or evil and therefore all its actions being indifferent we may be indifferent about them and look only to the superiour powers And others that think that the Scripture by flesh meaneth only the Rational soul ☜ as unâ—enewed do thereupon cherish the Flesh it self and pamper it and feed its unruly lusts and never do any thing to tame the body but pray daily that God would destroy the flesh within them that is their sinful habits of Reason and Will while they cherish the cause or neglect a chief part of the cure And on the contrary some Papists that look only at the Body as their enemy are much in fastings and bodily exercises while they neglect the mortifying of their carnal minds § 5. II. How far flesh-pleasing is a sin I shall distinctly open to you in these propositions What Flesh-pleasing is a sin 1. The Pleasing or displeasing of the sensitive appetite in it self considered is neither sin nor duty good or evil but as commanded or forbidden by some Law of God which is not absolutely done 2. To please the flesh by things forbidden is undoubtedly a sin and so it is to displease it too Therefore this is not all that is here meant that the Matter that pleaseth it must not be things forbidden 3. To overvalue the Pleasing of the Flesh is a sin And to prefer it before the Pleasing of God and the holy preparations for Heaven is the state of carnality and ungodliness and the common cause of the Damnation of souls The Delight of the Flesh or Senses is a Natural Good and the natural desire of it in it self as is said is neither vice nor vertue But when this little natural Good is preferred before the Greater Spiritual Moral or Eternal Good this is the sin of Carnal minds which is threatned with death Rom. 8. 1 5 6 7 8 13. 4. To buy the pleasing of the flesh at too dear a rate as the loss of time or with care and trouble above its worth and to be too much set on making provisions to please it doth shew that it is overvalued and is the sin forbidden Rom. 13. 14. 5. When any desire of the Flesh is inordinate immoderate or irregular for matter or manner quantity quality or season it is a sin to please that inordinate desire 6. When Pleasing the flesh doth too much pamper it and cherish filthy lusts or any other sin and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aâ—â—â—â—o sufficiâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â— satâ—s est â—â—â—â—um â—â—â—â—pus namque propter animi servitium seciffe naturam nemo tam corporis servus est qui nesciat Id si proprio munere fungitur quid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quid ampâ—ius requiras Petraâ—ch li. 2 Dial. 2 Vires corporis sunt vires carceris ut Petrarch li. 1. Dial. 5. What mean you to make your prison so strong said Plato to one that over-pampered his flesh Mars Ficin iâ— Vita Plat. is not necessary on some other account as doing greater good it is a sin But if Life require it lust must be subdued by other means 7. When pleasing the flesh doth hurt it by impairing health and so making the body less fit for duty it is a sin And so almost all intemperance tendeth to breed diseases And God commandeth Temperance even for the Bodies good 8. When unnecessary Flesh-pleasing hindereth any duty of Piety Justice Charity or self-preservation in thought affection word or deed it is sinful 9. It any Pleasing of the Flesh can be imagined to have no tendency directly or indirectly to any moral Good or Evil it is not the Object of a moral Choosing or Refusing but like the winking of the eye which falls not under deliberation it is not within the compass of morality 10. Every Pleasing of the flesh which is capable of being referred to a higher end and is not so referred and used is a sin And there is scarce any thing which is eligible which a vacant waking man should deliberate on but should be referred to a higher end even to the glory of God and our salvation by cheering us up to Love and Thankfulness and strengthening or fitting us some way for some duty This is apparently a sin 1. Because else Flesh-pleasing is made our ultimate end and the Flesh an Idol if ever we desire it only for it self when it may be referred to a higher end For though the sensitive Appetite of it self hath no intended end yet
you of such a crazed wit If you say Yea Then believe and trust that person and resolve to follow his Direction And I would ask you were you not once of another judgement concerning your self If so then were you not as sound and able to judge and liker to be in the right than you are now § 25. Direct 21. My last advise is to look out for the cure of your disease and commit your Direct 21. self to the care of your Physicion and obey him And do not as most melancholy persons do that will not believe that Physick will do them good but that it is only their soul that is afflicted For it is the spirits imagination and passions that are diseased and so the soul is like an eye that looketh through a coloured glass and thinks all things are of the same colour as the glass is I have seen abundance cured by Physick and till the body be cured the mind will hardly ever be cured but the clearest Reasons will be all in vain Tit. 6. Directions for young Students for the most profitable ordering of their studying Thoughts § 1. Direct 1. LET it be your first and most serious study to make sure that you are Regenerate Direct 1. and sanctified by the Holy Ghost and justified by faith in Christ and Love God above all as your reconciled Father and so have right to the Heavenly inheritance § 2. For 1. You are nearest to your selves and your everlasting happiness is your nearest and your highest interest what will it profit you to know all the world and to lose your own souls To know as much as Devils and be for ever miserable with Devils § 3. 2. It is a most doleful employment to be all day at work in Satans Chains To sit studying God and the Holy Scriptures while you are in the power of the Devil and have hearts that are at enmity to the Holiness of that God and that Scripture which you are studying It is a most preposterous and incongruous course of study if you first study not your own deliverance And if you knew your case and saw your chains your trembling would disturb your studies § 4. 3. Till you are renewed you study in the dark and without that internal sight and sense Act. 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18 19. Col. 1. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 9. Rom. 8. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. by which the life and spirit and kernel of all that you study must be known All that the Scripture saith of the darkness of a state of sin and of the illumination of the spirit and of the marvellous light of regenerate souls and of the natural man 's not receiving the things of the spirit and of the carnal mind that is enmity against God and is not subject to his Law nor can be all these and such other passages are not insignificant but most considerable truths from the spirit of truth You have only that Light that will shew you the shell and the dead letter but not the soul and quickening sense of any practical holy truth As the eye knoweth meat which we never tasted or as a meer Grammarian or Logician readeth a Law book or Physick book who gather nothing out of them that will save a mans estate or life so will you prosecute all your studies § 5. 4. You are like to have but ill success in your studies when the Devil is your Master who hateth both you and the holy things which you are studying He will blind you and pervert you and possess your minds with false conceits and put diverting sensual thoughts into you and will keep your own souls from being ever the better for it all § 6. 5. You will want the true end of all right studies and set up wrong ends and therefore whatever be the matter of your studies you are still out of your way and know nothing rightly because you know it not as a Means to the true end But of this anon § 7. Direct 2. When you have first laid this foundation and have the true Principle and End of Direct 2. all right Studies be sure that you intend this End in all even the Everlasting Sight and Love of God and the promoting his Glory and pleasing his holy will And that you never meddle with any studies seperated from this end but as a means thereto and as animated thereby § 8. If every step in your journey is but loss of time and labour which is not directed to your journeys end and if all that you have to mind or do in the world be only about your End or the Means and all creatures and actions can have no other moral Goodness than to be the means to God your ultimate end then you may easily see that when ever you leave out God as the End of any of your studies your are but sinning or doting for in those Studies there can be no Moral Good though they may tend to your knowledge of Natural Good and Evil. And when you think you grow wise and learned men and can dispute and talk of many things which make to your renown while your wills consent not to the wholsom words of our Lord Iesus Christ and the doctrine which is according 1 Tim. 6 3 4 5 6. to Godliness you are proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railing evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds supposing that gain is Godliness from such turn away As there is no knowledge but from God so it is not knowledge but dotage if it lead not unto God § 9. Direct 3. See therefore that you choose all your studies according to their tendency to God Direct 3. your end and use them still under the notion of means and that you estimate your knowledge by this End and judge your selves to know no more indeed than you know of God and for God And so let practical Divinity be the soul of all your Studies Therefore when Life is too short for the Studies of all things which we desire to know make sure of the chief things and prefer those studies which make most to your End spend not your time on things unprofitable to this end And spend not your first and chiefest time on things unnecessary to it Noâ— aâ—â—em nec subâ—to câ—â—imus philosoâ—hari nec mediocrem a primo tempore aetatis in co studio operam curamque consumpsimus cum minime videbamur tum maxime philosophebamur Cicero 〈…〉 r. pag. 5. For the near connexion to God the end is it that enobleth the matter of your studies All true knowledge leads to God but not all alike the nearest to him is the best § 10. Direct 4. Remember that the chief part of your growth in knowledge is not in knowing Direct 4. many smaller things of no necessity but in a growing downwards in a clearer insight into the foundation of
that toucheth not the heart neither Is it loss of children or friends or is it pain and sickness I confess these are sore but yet they do not touch the heart If they come thither it is your doing and though thither they should come moderately if they are immoderate it is your own sinful doing It is you that grieve and make the heart ake God and man did but make the flesh ake If others hurt your bodys will you therefore vex your minds Will you pierce through your hearts because they touch your name or goods If so remember which part of your sorrow is of their making and which is of your own And can you for shame go beg of Gâ—d or man to ease the grief which you your selves are causing and willfully continue it while you pray against it And why lament you that which you cause and choose It is a shame to be willfully your own tormentâ—r◠§ 20. Direct 14. Abhor all that tendeth to take down the power and government of Reason that is Direct 14. all fâ—â—bleness and câ—wardize of mind and a melancholy a piâ—vish passionate disposition and labour to keep up the authâ—rity of Reason and to keep all your passions subject to your wills which must be done by Christian faith and fortitude If you come once to that childish or distracted pass as to grieve and say I cannot help it I know it is sinful and immoderate but I cannot choose if you say true you are out of the reach of counsel advice or comfort You are not to be preacht to nor talkt to nor to be written for we do not write Directions to teach men how to touch the Stars or explain the Asperites or inequalities of the Moon or the Opacous parts of Saturn or to govern the Orbs or rule the Chariot of the Sun If it be become a natural impossibility to you Doctrine can give you no remedy But if the impossibility be but Moral in the weakness of your Reason and want of consideration it may by Doctrine Consideration and Resolution be overcome You can do more if you will than you think you can How come you to lose the command of your Passions Did not God make you a rational creature that hath an understanding and will to rule all Passions How come you to have lost the Ruling power of Reason and will You would take it for a disparagement to be told that you have lâ—st the use of your Reason And is it not a principal use of it to Rule the passions and all other inferior subject powers You say you cannot choose but grieve But if one could give you that creature which you want or desire then you could choose You could rejoyce if one could restore you that Child that Friend that Estate which you have lost But God and Christ and Heaven it seems are not enough to cure you if you must have but theâ— you cannot choose but grieve And what hearts have you then that are thus affected Should not those hearts be rather grieved for God will sometime make you see that you had more power than you used § 21. Direct 15. Observe the mischiefs of excessive sorrow that you may feel what reason you have Direct 15. to avoid it While you know not what hurt is in it you will be the more remiss in your resisting it I shall briefly name you some of its unhappy fruits § 22. 1. It is a continual pain and sickness of the mind This you know by feeling 2. It is a The ill effects of sinful grieâ— destroyer of bodily health and life For worldly sorrow worketh death 2 Cor. 7. 10. Prov. 17. 22. A merry heart doth good like a medicine but a broken spirit dryeth the the bones 3. It putteth the soul out of relish with its mercies and so causeth us to undervalue them and consequently to be unthankful for them and not to improve them 4. It destroyeth the sense of the Love of God and lamentably undisposeth the soul to Love them And therefore should be abhorred by us were it but for that Even Anaâ—agoâ—as a Philosopher could say â—o one that asked him Nullâ—m tibi paâ—riae â—ura est Mihi quidem pâ—â—â—â—iae cura est quidem summa digitum 〈…〉 lum intendâ—ns Laâ—rt p 85. one effect 5. It destroyeth the joy in the Holy Ghost and unfitteth us to obey that command of God Rejoyce continually 6. It contradicteth a Heavenly mind and conversation and hindereth us from all foreâ—asts of the everlasting joys 7. It undisposeth us to the excellent work of Praise Who can ascend in the Praises of God while Grief doth oppress and captivate the soul 8. It destroyeth the sweetness of all Gods Ordinances Hearing Reading Prayer Sacraments we may force our selves to use them but shall have no delight in them 9. It hindreth the exercise of Faith and raiseth distrust and sinful doubts and fears within us 10. It causeth sinful discontents and murmurings at God and man 11. It maketh us impatient pievish froward angry and hard to be pleased 12. It weakneth the soul to all that 's good and destroyeth its fortitude and strength For it is the Ioy of the Lord that is our strength Neh. 8. 10. 13. It hindreth us in the duties of our callings who can do them as they should be done under the clog of a disquiet mind 14. It maketh us a grief and burden to our friends and robs them of the comfort which they should have in and by us 15. It maketh us unprofitable to others and hindreth us from doing the good we might when we should be instructing exhorting and praying for poor sinners or minding the Church of God we are all taken up at home about our own afflictions 16. It maketh us a stumbling block and scandal to the ungodly and hindreth their conversiion while the Devil setteth us before the Church doors to keep away the ungodly from a holy life as men set scar-crows in their fields and gardens to frighten away the birds 17. It dishonoureth Religion by making men believe that it is a melancholy vexatious self-tormenting life 18. It obscureth the Glory of the Gospel and crosseth the work of Christ his Spirit and Ministers who all come upon a message of Great joy to all Nations and proclaim Glad tidings to the worst of sinners much more to the sons of God and heirs of life 19. It misrepresenteth God himself as if we would perswade men that he is a hard and cruel master that none can please though they do all through a Mediator upon a covenant of grace and that it is worse with us since we served him than before and that he delighteth in our grief and misery and is against our peace and joy and as if there were no joy nor pleasure in his service Such hideous doctrine do our lives preach of God when those that profess to fear and seek him do live in such immoderate
well as their bodies Prov. 10. 7. The memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot So much of the Greatness of the sin Boniface Arch-Bishop of Mentz writing to Ethilbald an English King that was a fornicator Epist. 19 saith Fornication is a reproach not only anong Christians but Pagans For in old Saxonie if a virgin had thus stained her Fathers house or a marryed woman breaking the marriage covenant had committed adultery sometime they force her to hang her self with her own hand and over her ashes when she is burnt they hang the fornicator Sometimes they gather a band of women they lead her about scourging her with rods and cutting off her cloaths at the girdle and with small knives cutting and pricking all her body they send her from Village to Village thus bloody and mangled with little wounds And so more and more incited by a zeal for chastity do meet her and scourge her again till they leave her either dead or scarce alive that others may fear adultery and luxury And the Wineds which is the filthiest and worst sort of men do keep the love of Matrimony with so great a zeal that the woman will refuse to live when her husband is dead And after some reproofs of the fornicating King he addeth these further stories Ceolred your Highness predecessor as they witness who were present he being splendidly banquetting with his Earles was by the evil spirit that drew him to violate Gods Law suddenly distracted in his sin so that without repentance and confession being raging mad and talking with the Devil and abhominating Gods Priests he departed out of this life no doubt to the torments of Hell And Osred King of the Deiri and Bernicii the spirit of luxury carried in fornication and defiling the sacred virgins in the Monasteries till such time as by a vile and base kind of death he lost his glorious Kingdom together with his youthful and luxurious life Wherefore most dear son take heed of the ditch into which thou hast seen others fall before thee Vid. Auct Bib. Pat. To. 2. pag. 55. 56. And how great sufferings was laid on Priests Monks and Nuns that had committed fornication by several years imprisonment and scourging see ib. pag. 84. in an edict of Carloman by the advice of a Council of Bishops And Epist. 85. p. 87. Bonific writeth to Lullo that he was fain to suffer a Priest to officiate Baptize Pray c. that had long ago committed fornication because there was none but he alone to be had in all the country and he thought it better to venture that one mans soul than let all the people perish and desireth Lullo's counsel in it By all which we may see how heynous a sin fornication was then judged Object But say the filthy ones did not David commit the sin of Adultery Did not God permit Object them many Wives among the Iews How many had Solomon Therefore this is no such great sin as you pretend Thus every filthiness a little while will plead for it self Answ. David did sin And is the sin ever the less for that It 's easier forbear it than undergo the Answ. tears and sorrows which David did endure for his sin Besides the bitterness of his soul for it his son Absalom rebelleth and driveth him out of his Kingdom and his own wives are openly defiled And yet God leaveth it as a perpetual blot upon his name Solomons sin was so great that it almost ruined him and his Kingdom Though experience caused him to say more against it than is said in the Old-Testament by any other yet it is a controversie among Divines whether he was ever recovered and saved And ten tribes of the twelve were therefore taken from his line and given to Ieroboam And is this any encouragement to you to imitate him Christ telleth you in the case of divorcement that God permitted not allowed but forbore some such sins in the Jews because of the Hardness of their hearts Mar. 10. 5. but from the beginning it was not so but one man and one woman were conjoyned in the primitive institution And the special reason why plurality was connived at among the Jews was for the fuller peopling of the Nation they being the only covenanted people of God and being few among encompassing enemies and being separated from the people of the earth their strength and safety and glory lay much on their increased number and therefore some inordinacie was connived at for their multiplication but never absolutely allowed and approved of And yet fornication is punished severely and Adultery with Death II. The Directions against fornication § 18. Direct 1. If you would avoid uncleanness avoid the things that dispose you to it as Gluttony or Direct 1. fullness of dyet and pampering the flesh Idleness and other things mentioned under the next Title of subduing lust The abating of the filthy Desires is the surest way to prevent the filthy act which may be done if you are but willing § 19. Direct 2. Avoid the present Temptations Go not where the snare lieth without necessity Direct 2. Abhor the Devils bellows that blow up the fire of lust such as entising apparel filthy talk and fights of which more also under the next Title § 20. Direct 3. Carefully avoid all opportunity of sinning Come not near the door of her house saith Direct 3. Solomon Prov. 5. 8. Avoid the company of the person thou art in danger of Come not where she is This thou canst do if thou art willing None will force thee If thou wilt go seek for a thief no wonder if thou be rob'd If thou wilt go seek fire to put in the thatch no wonder if thy house be burnt The Devil will sufficiently play the Tempter Thou needest not help him that 's his part leave it to himself It 's thy part to watch against him And he will find thee work If thou watch as narrowly and constantly as thou canst it 's well if thou escape As thou lovest thy soul avoid all opportunities of sinning Make it impossible to thy self Much of thy safety lieth in this point Never be in secret company with her thou art in danger of but either not at all or only in the sight of others Especially contrive not such opportunities as to be together in the night in the dark or on the Lords-day when others are at Church one of the Devils seasons for such works or any such opportunity leisure and secresie For opportunity it self is a strong temptation As it is the way to make a Thief to set money in his way or so to trust him as that he can easily deceive or rob you and never be discovered so it is the way to make your self unclean to get such an opportunity of sinning that you may easily do it without any probability of impediment or discovery from men The chief point in all the art or watch is
those places where I have opened the difference between Mortal reigning sins and Infirmities At present take this brief solution 1. It is a thing of too great difficulty to determine just how many acts of a great sin may consist with a present state of grace that is of right by Covenant to Heaven 2. All sin which consisteth with an habitual predominant Love of God and Holiness consisteth with a state of Life and no other 3. He that seldom or never committeth such external crimes and yet Loveth not God and Heaven and Holiness above all the pleasures and interests of the flesh is in a state of death 4. It is certain that his Love to God and Holiness is not predominant whose carnal Interest and Iust hath ordinarily in the drift and tenor Rom 6. 16. of his life more power to draw him to the wilfull committing of known sin than the said Love of God and Heaven and Holiness have to keep him from it For his servants men are whom they obey whether it be sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness 5. Therefore the way to know whether sin be mortified or mortal is 1. By feeling the true bent of the will whether we Love or hate it 2. By observing the true bent and tenor of our lives whether Gods Interest in us or the contrary be predominant when we are our selves and are tempted to such sins 6 He that will sin thus as oft as will stand with saving grâ—ce shall never have the assurance of his sincerity or the peace or comfort of a sound believer till he repent and lead a better life 7. He that in his sin retaineth the spirit of Adoption or the Image of God or habitual divine Love hath also Habitual and Virtual Repentance for that very sin before he actually Repenteth Because he hath that Habitual Hatred of it which will cause actual Repentance when he is composed to act according to his predominant habits 8. In the mean time the state of such a sinner is neither to be unregenerate Carnal unholy as he was before Conversion and so to lose all his Right to Life nor yet to have so full a Right as if he had not sinned But a bar is put in against his claim which must be removed before his Right be full and such as is ripe for present possession 9. There are some sins which all men continue in while they live As defect in the degrees of faith hope love c. vain thoughts words disorder passions c. And these sins are not totally involuntary Otherwise they were no sins Yea the Evil is prevalent in the will against the Good so far as to commit those sins though not so far as to vitiate the bent of heart or life 10. There are some sins which none on earth do actually Repent of viz. Those that they know not to be sins and those that they utterly forget and those faults which they are guilty of just at the time of dying 11. In these cases Virtual or Implicite or Habitual Rom 7. 20 21 22 23. Repentance doth suffice to the preventing of damnation As also a Will to have lived perfectly sufficeth in the case of continued imperfections 12. Things work not on the Will as they are in themselves but as they are apprehended by the understanding And that which is apprehended to be either of doubtful evil or but a little sin and of little danger will be much less resisted and ofter committed than sins that are clearly apprehended to be great Therefore where any sort of Lye is apprehended thus as of small or doubtful evil it will be the oftner committed 13. If this apprehension be wrong and come from the predominancy of a carnal or ungodly heart which will not suffer the understanding to do its office nor to take that to be evil which he would not leave then both the Iudgement and the Lye are mortal and not mortified pardoned sins 14. But if this misapprehension of the understanding do come from natural impotency or unavoidable want of better information or only from the fault of a vicious inclination which yet is not predominant but is the remnant of a vice which is mortified in the main then neither the errour nor the often lying is a mortal but a mortified sin As for instance If false Teachers as the Jesuits should perswade a justified person that a lye that hurteth no man but is officious is but a venial or no sin it is possible for such a person often to commit it though he err not altogether innocently 15. Though it is true that all good Christians should not indulge the smallest sin and that true Grace will make a man willing to forsake the least yet certain experience telleth us that some constant sinning aforenamed doth consist with grace in all that have it upon earth And therefore that Lesser sins as thoughts passions are not resisted so much as greater be and therefore that they are more indulged and favoured or else they would not be committed No good men rise up with so great and constant watchfulness against an idle thought or word or a disorder in prayer c. as they do against a heynous sin He that would have this and and all such Cases resolved in a word and not be put on trying the Case by all these distinctions must take another Casuist or rather a Deceiver instead of a Resolver For I cannot otherwise resolve him Quest. 2. Is it not contrary to the light of Nature to suffer e. g. a Parent a King my Self my Quest. 2. Country rather to be destroyed than to save them by a harmless lie Answ. No Because 1. Particular good must give place to common And if once a Lie may pass Answ. for Lawful in cases where it seemeth to be good it will overthrow humane converse and debauch mans nature and the world 2. And if one evil may be made a means for good it will infer that other may be so too and so will confound good and evil and leave vitious man to take all for good which he thinks will do good That is not to be called a harmless Lie which is simply evil being against the Law of God against the order of nature the use of humane faculties and the interest and converse of the sociable world 3. The error of the objectors chiefly consisteth in thinking that nothing is further hurtful and morally evil than as it doth hurt to some men in corporal respects Whereas that is evil which is against the universal Rule of Rectitude against the will of God and against the nature and perfection of the agent much more if it also tend to the hurt of other mens souls by giving them an example of sinning 4. And though there may sometimes be some humane probability of such a thing yet there is no certainty that ever it will so fall out that a Lie shall save the Life of â—ing Parent or
Gods own Image and the clearest image of God that is under Heaven even that which Christ came down from Heaven to give us the Luk. 19 27. first draught of even that copy of the holy life of Christ which by the spirit of God is drawn upon the heart And he that scorneth at this image of God doth scorn at the Holy-Ghost that made it and scorn at Christ who gave us the first pattern and scorn at God himself whose image it is Saith Chrysostom God is loved and hated in his servants as a King is honoured or despised in his image And he that dare scorn God and scorn Iesus Christ and scorn the Holy-Ghost in the Image of God upon his children methinks should never have the face once to expect to be saved by the God that he doth scorn § 43. 18. Thou art the shame of humane nature and makest man so like a Devil that it is hard Quid hâ—mâ—ni 〈…〉 issimum Hoâ—â—â—â— inquit Martiâ— Dâ—mieâ—â— de Moâ—iâ— to prove that Devils can do much worse than thou Can there be a greater sin than for a creature to scorn and deride the Image and Laws of his Creator And hate and oppose or persecute men for obeying him and seeking to please him and to save their souls What couldst thou do worse if thou wouldst study to be as bad as thou canst What a shame is it to thy understanding to be so blind And to thy heart to be so wicked It were not half so great a shame to scorn the Sun for shining or the earth for bearing fruit For though these are Gods creatures yet they bear not the Image of his Holiness as his children do When he will condemn men at last it will be upon this account Matth. 25. 40. 45. Verily I say unto you in as much as you did it not or did it to one of the least of these my brethren ye did it not or did it unto me O wonderful that the nature of man can ever come to this to hate and oppose and scorn the Image and obedience of his Maker and make a mock of the Holiness of God! It is a great question whether the very tempting men to such sins as these be not the Devils greatest sin And to commit it is worse than to tempt thee to commit it caeteris paribus And for a man that hath a Saviour offered him thus to scorn his Saviours Grace and mock his servants must needs be far worse than for the Devil to do it who hath no Saviour no pardon offered and no hope but is shut up under endless desperation As it is worse for a child to curse his Father or scorn him than for an enemy to do it Think and tremble how near this deriding or opposing the Mat. 12. work of the Holy-Ghost doth come to the unpardonable Blasphemy against him § 44. 19. What villany may not be expected from thee that canst commit such a sin as this May not thy neighbour look for any mischief that thy carnal interest shall lead thee to do against him Is it any wrong to thee to think that thou art a thief a murderer a whoremonger a deceiver unless it be for want of a temptation to commit them Or that thou wouldst be a Trayâ—or against thy King and Psal. 123. 4. Country Or perfidious to thy truest friend if thou wert tempted to it When thou scornest men for obeying God himself Can that man stick at any wickedness that he is equally tempted to who daâ—e scorn his Maker the Redeemer and the Sanctifier And spit contempt upon Holiness it self the Image of his Judge For my part if ever I trust thee or any such man as thou with life or liberty or with the worth of a groat it shall be thy Interest and not thy honesty and conscience that I 'le trust I 'le trust thee little further than I would trust the Devil himself that governs thee § 45. 20. Lastly consider what thou wilt think of thy self for this at death and judgement Will Read well Jud. 14. 1â— Psal. 1. it comfort thee when thou art going to be judged of God to think that thou art now going into the presence of that God whom thou wast wont to scorn When thou seest Christ come with thousands of his holy Angels to judge the world will it comfort thee to think This is he whose holy life and precepts and servants I mockt or persecuted on earth Now I must be judged by him that I derided O dreadful case For a scorner or persecutor of Godliness to go to be judged by that holy God whose waies he scorned and persecuted If you say It was not Christ but a man that you derided see Mat. Prov. 9. 12. Prov. â—9 8. Isa. 28. 14. 25. 40 45. Luk. 19. 27. Act. 9. 4. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me If thou scorn a child for that in which he resembleth imitâ—â—eth or obeyeth his Father thou wilt find in the day of judgement to thy woe that it was the Father himself that was the utmost and principal object of thy scorn Then I had rather be the vilest Toad than such a Man Then wilt thou stand to what thou saidst Wilt thou then maintain thy slanders and reproach Wilt thou then condemn or scorn the godly when thou seest them justified at Christs right hand or glorified with him in Heaven No! as Mâ—l 3. 18. When God makes up his jewels Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Then how gladly would you eat all the words of reproach and scorn that ever you uttered against a saint And wish that you had never spoken them I tell you it is an unseemly thing for the same man now to scorn at godliness who will so speedily tremble before the righteous God in the remembrance of it § 46. I have thought these discoveries of the horridness of this sin to be the best Directions against it For as it is a sin that thou gettest nothing by so it is a sin that thou maist easily leave if thou be willing But for those that are yet but in the way to it or in danger of it I shall add these further Directions to keep them from so desperate a wickedness § 47. Direct 1. Avoid the company of those distracted men that dare revile the servants and ways of Direct 1. God There is that in your corrupted natures which will incline you to imitate the most horrid blasphemies if you often hear them We have seen it in our days that in imitation of others men have been drawn to sins not to be named To drink healths to the Devil to make God dâ—mn me an ordinary by-word Be not therefore companions of them § 48. Direct 2. Take heed of sinning your selves into blindness of mind and hardness of heart Forsake Direct 2 not God lest you be forsaken
their happiness to live idly and take that for the best Service where they have least work But have you nothing to do for your selves for soul nor body If you have leisure from your Masters service you should thankfully improve it in Gods service and your own § 31. Direct 3. Settle your selves in a lawful Calling which will keep you under a necessity of ordinary Direct 3. and orderly employment As we cannot so easily bring our minds to a close attendance upon God in the Week days when we have our common businesses to divert us as we can do on the Lords Day which is purposely set apart for it and in which we have the use of his stated Ordinances to assist us even so a man that is out of a stated course of labour cannot avoid idleness so well as he that hath his ordinary time and course of business to keep him still at work It is a dangerous life to live out of a Calling § 32. Direct 4. Take heed of excess of meat and drink and sleep For these drown the senses and Direct 4. dull the spirits and load you with a burden of flesh or humours and greatly undispose the body to all diligent useful labours A full Belly and drowsie Brain are unfit for work It will seem work enough to such to carry the load of flesh or flegm which they have gathered A pampered body is more disposed to lust and wantonness than to work § 33. Direct 5. A man-like Resolution is an effectual course against sloth Resolve and it will be Direct 5. done Give not way to a slothful disposition Be up and doing you can do it if you will but resolve To this end be never without Gods quickning motives before-mentioned on your minds Think what a sin and shame it is to waste your Time to live like the dead to bury a rational soul in flesh to be a slave to so base a thing as sloth to neglect all Gods work while he supporteth and maintaineth you and looketh on to live in sloth with such miserable souls so neer to judgement and Eternity Such thoughts well set home will make you stir when a drowsie soul makes an idle body § 34. Direct 6. Take pleasure in your work and then you will not be slothful in it Your very Direct 6. Horse will go heavily where he goeth unwillingly and will go freely when he goeth thither where he would be Either your work is Good or bad If it be bad avoid it If it be good why should you not take pleasure in it It should be pleasant to do good § 35. Direct 7. To this end be sure to do all your work as that which God requireth of you Direct 7. and that which he hath promised to reward and believe his acceptance of your meanest labours which are done in obedience to his will Is it not a delightful thing to serve so great and good a master and to do that which God accepteth and promiseth to reward This interest of God in your lowest and hardest and servilest labour doth make it honourable and should make it sweet § 36. Direct 8. Suffer not your fancies to run after sensual vain delights for these will make you Direct 8. weary of your callings No wonder if foolish youths be idle whose minds are set upon their sports nor is it wonder that sensual Gentlemen live idly who glut themselves with corrupting pleasures The idleness of such sensualists is more unexcusable than other mens because it is not the labour it self that they are against but only such labour as is honest and profitable For they can bestow more labour in playing or dancing or running or hunting or any vanity than their work required And it is the folly and sickness of their minds that is the cause and not any disability in their bodies The busiest in evil are slothfullest to good § 37. Direct 9. Mortifie the flesh and keep it in an obedient dependance on the soul and you will Direct 9. not be captivated by sloth For idleness is but one way of Flesh-pleasing He that is a sensual slave to his flesh will please it in the way that it most desireth One man in Fornication and another in ambition and another in Ease But he that hath overcome and mortified the flesh hath mastered this with the rest of its Concupiscence § 38. Direct 10. Remember still that Time is short and Death makes haste and judgement will be just Direct 10. and that all must be judged according to what they have done in the body and that your souls are pretious and Heaven is Glorious and Hell is terrible and work is various and great and hinderances are many and that it is not idleness but labour that is comfortable in the reviews of time and this will powerfully expell your sloth § 39. Direct 11. Call your selves daily or frequently to account how you spend your time and what Direct 11. work you do and how you do it Suffer not one hour or moment so to pass as you cannot give your Consciences a just account of it § 40. Direct 12. Lastly Watch against the slothfulness of those that are under your charges as well Direct 12. as against your own Some persons of honour and greatness are diligent themselves and bestow their time for the Service of God their King and Countrey and their souls and Families and I would we had more such But if in the mean time their Wives and Children and many of their Servants spend most of the day and year in idleness and they are guilty of it for want of a through endeavour to reform it their burden will be found greater at last than they imagined In a word though the labour and diligence of a believing Saint and not that of a Covetous Worldling is it that tends to save the soul and diligence in doing evil is but a making haste to Hell yet sloth in it self is so great a nourisher of vice and deadly an enemy to all that 's good and idleness is such a course and swarm of sin that all your understandings resolution and authority should be used to cure it in your selves and others Tit. 3. Directions against Sloth and Laziness in things spiritual and for zeal and Diligence § 1. ZEal in things spiritual is contrary to sloth and coldness and remissness and Diligence is contrary to Idleness Zeal is the fervour or earnestness of the soul Its first subject is the will Rev. 3. 15 â—9 and affections excited by the judgement and thence it appeareth in the Practice It is not a distinct Grace or Affection but the vigor and livelyness of every grace and their fervent operations § 2. Direct 1. Be sure that you understand the nature and use of zeal and diligence and mistake Direct 1. The kinds of false zeal not a carnal degenerate sort of zeal for that which is spiritual and
all their labour and suffering To think of the blessed end of all their pains and patience and how far they are now from repenting of it methinks should stir us up to zeal and diligence § 24. 8. To foresee what thoughts all the world will have of holy diligence at last how the best will wish they had been better and had done much more for God and their salvation and how the worst will wish when it is too late that they had been as zealous and diligent as the best How earnestly they will then knock and cry Lord open to us when it is all in vain and say to the watchful diligent souls Give us of your Oyle for our Lamps are gone out Matth. 25. To think how glad the most ungodly would then be if they might but have dyed the death of the righteous and their latter end might be Num. 23. 10. as his And what heart-tearing grief will seize upon them for ever to think how madly they lost their souls and sluggishly went to Hell to spare their pains of that sweet and holy work that should have prevented it Will not such forethoughts awaken the most sluggish stupid souls that will but follow them till they can do their work § 25. 9. Remember that thou must be zealous and diligent in this or nothing For there is nothing else that is worth thy seriousness in comparison of this To be earnest and laborious for perishing vanities is the disgrace of thy mind and will prove thy disappointment and leave thee at last in shame and sorrow when holy diligence will recompence all thy pains § 26. 10. Remember also that thou hast been slothful and negligent too long And how dost thou repent of thy former sloth if thou wilt be as slothful still Art thou grieved to think how many duties slothfulness hath put by and how many it hath murdered and frustrated and made nothing of and how much Grace and Mercy and Comfort it hath already deprived thee of and how much better thy case were if thou hadst lived in as much holy diligence as the best thou knowest And yet wilt thou be slothful still § 27. 11. Remember that thou hast thy Life and health and wit and parts for nothing else but by thy present duty to prepare for everlasting joyes that all Gods mercies bind thee to be diligent and every Ordinance and all his helps and means of grace are given to further thee in the work and Sun and Moon and Air and Earth and all attend thee with their help And yet wilt thou be cold and slothful and frustrate all these means and mercies § 28. 12. Remember how diligent thy Enemy is Satan goeth about even night and day like a 1 Pet. 5. ◠roaring Lyon seeking to devour And wilt thou be less diligent to resist him § 29. 13. Think what an example of diligence Christ himself hath left thee And how laboriously blessed Paul and all the holy Servants of Christ did follow their Masters work Did they Pray and watch and work as slothfully as thou dost § 30. 14. Remember how hot and earnest thou wast formerly in thy sin And wilt thou now be cold and negligent in thy duty when God hath set thee in a better way § 31. 15. Observe how eager and diligent worldlings are for the world and flesh-pleasers for their sports and pleasures and proud persons for their greatness and honour and malignant persons to oppose the Gospel of Christ and their own and other mens salvations Look on them and think what a shame it is to thee to be more cold and remiss for God § 32. 16. Observe how an awakening pang of Conscience or the sight of death when it seems to be at hand can waken the very wicked to some kind of serious diligence at the present so that by their confessions and cryes and promises and amendments while the fit was on them they seemed more zealous than many that were sincere And shall not saving grace do more with you than a fit of fear can do with the ungodly § 33. 17. Remember of how sad importance it is and what it signifieth to be cold and slothful If it be predominant so as to keep thee from a holy life it is damnable The spirit of slumber is a most dreadful judgement But if it do not so prevail yet though thou be a Child of God it signifieth a great debility of soul and foretelleth some sharp affliction to befall thee if God mean to do thee good by a recovery The decay of natural heat is a sign of old age and is accompanied with the decay of all the powers And sicknesses and pains do follow such decays of life And as you will make your Horse feel the rod or spur when he grows dull and heavy expect when you grow cold and dull to feel the spur of some affliction to make you stir and mend your pace § 34. 18. Remember that thy sloth is a sinning against thy knowledge and against thy experience and against thy own Covenants promises and profession and therefore an aggravated sin These and such like serious thoughts will do much to stir up a slothful soul to Zeal and Diligence § 35. Direct 4. Drown not your hearts in worldly business or delights for these breed a Direct 4. loathing and aversness and weariness of holy things They are so contrary one to the other that Luk. 8. 14. the mind will not be eagerly set on both at once but as it relisheth the one it more and more disrelisheth the other There is no heart left for God when other things have carryed it away § 36. Direct 5. Do all you can to raise your hearts to the Love of God and a delight in holy things Direct 6. and then you will not be slothful nor weary nor negligent Love and Delight are the most excellent remedy against a slow unwilling kind of duty Know but how good it is to walk with God and do his work and thou wilt do it chearfully § 37. Direct 6. A secret root of unbelief is the mortal enemy of zeal and diligence Labour for a Direct 7. well-grounded belief of the word of God and the world to come and stir up that belief into exercise when you would have your slothful hearts stird up When there is a secret questioning in the heart What if there should be no life to come What if the grounds of Religion are unsound This blasteth the vigor of all endeavors and inclineth men to serve God only with hypocritical halving and reserves and maketh men resolve to be no further Religious than stands with present fleshly happiness § 38. Direct 7. Take heed of debauching Conscience by venturing upon doubtful things much more Direct 7. by known and willful sin For when once Conscience is taught to comply with sin and is mastered in Rom. 14 21. 22. 1 Cor. 5. 6. Eph. 4. 29 30. one thing
and temperature of your children which is a great advantage for the choosing and applying of the best remedy 8. You have opportunity of watching over them and discerning all their faults in time But if a Minister speak to them he can know no more what fault to reprehend than others tell him or the party will confess You may also discern what success your former exhortations had and whether they amend or still go on in sin and whether you should proceed to more severe remedies 9. You have opportunity of speaking to them in the most familiar manner which is better understood than the set speech of a Minister in the Pulpit which few of them mark or understand You can quicken their attention by questions which put them upon answering you and so awaken them to a serious regard of what you say 10. You are so frequently with them that you can repeat your instructions and drive them home that what is not done at one time may be done at another Whereas other men can seldom speak to them and what is so seldome spoken is easily neglected or forgotten 11. You have power to place them under the best means and to remove many impediments out of their way which usually frustrate other mens endeavours 12. Your example is near them and continually in their sight which is a continual and powerful Sermon By all these advantages God hath enabled you above all others to be instruments of your Childrens good and the first and greatest promoters of their salvation § 6. Motive 6. Consider how great a Comfort it would be to you to have your children such as you Motive 6. may confidently hope are the children of God being brought to know him and love and serve him through your own endeavours in a pious education of them 1. You may love your children upon an higher account than as they are yours even as they are Gods adorned with his Image and quickned with a divine celestial life And this is is to love them with a higher kind of Love than meer Natural affection is It would rejoyce you to see your children advanced to be Lords or Princes But O how much greater cause of joy is it to see them made the members of Christ and quickned by his Spirit and sealed up for life eternal 2. When once your children are made the children of God by the Regeneration of the Spirit you may be much more free from care and trouble for them than before Now you may boldly trust them on the care of their heavenly Father who is able to do more for them than you are able to desire He loveth them better than you can love them He is bound by promise to protect them and provide for them and to see that all things work together for their good He that clotheth the Lillies of the fields and suffereth not the young Lions or Ravens to be unprovided for will provide convenient food for his own children though he will have you also do your duty for them as they are your children While they are the children of Satan and the servants of sin you have cause to fear not only lest they be exposed to miseries in this world but much more lest they be snatched away in their sin to Hell Your children while they are ungodly are worse than among Wolves and Tygâ—rs But when once they are renewed by the Spirit of Christ they are the charge of all the blessed Trinity and under God the charge of Angels Living or dying they are safe For the Eternal God is their portion and defence 3. It may be a continual comfort to you to think what a deal of drudgery and calamity your child is freed from To think how many Oaths he would have sworn and how many lyes and curses he would have uttered and how bâ—aftly and fleshly a life he would have lived how much wrong he would have done to God and men and how much he would have pleased the Devil and what torments in Hâ—ll he must have endured as the reward of aâ—â—â—â— and then to think how mercifully God hath prevented all this and what service he may do God in the world and finally live with Christ in glory What a joy is this to a considering believing Parent that taketh the mercies of his children as his own 4. Religion will teach your children to be more dutiful to your selves than Nature can teach them It will teach them to Love you even when you have no more to give them as well as if you had the wealth of all the world It will teach them to honour you though you are poor and contemptible in the eyes of others It will teach them to obey you and if you â—all into want to relieve you according to their power It will â—it them to comfort you i st the time of your sickness and distress when ungodly children will be as thorns in your feet or eyes and cut your hearts and prove a greater grief than any enemies to you A gracious child will bear with your weaknesses when a Châ—m will not cover his Fathers nakedness A gracious Child can pray for you and pray with you and be a blessing to your house when an ungodly Child is fitter to curse and prove a curse to those he liveâ— with 5. And is it not an exceeding joy to think of the everlasting happiness of your Child and that you may live togâ—ther in Heaven for ever When the foresâ—en misâ—ry of a gracâ—lâ—ss Child may grieve you when ever you look him in the face 6. Lastly It will be a great addition to your joy to think that God blessed your diligent instructions and made you the instrument of all that good that is done upon your children and of all that good that is done by them and of all the happiness they have for ever To think that this was conveyed to them by your means will give you a larger share in the delights of it § 7. Motive 7. Remember that your Childrens Original sin and misery is by you and therefore in Motive 7. juâ—â—ice you that have undone them are bound to do your best to save them If you had but conveyed a leprosiâ— or some hereditary Disease to their bodies would you not have done your best to cure them O that you could do them but as much good as you do them hurt It is more than Adamâ— sin that runneth down into the natures of your Children yea and that bringeth judgements on them And even Adams sin cometh not to them but by you § 8. Motive 8. Lastly Consider what exceeding great need they have of the utmost help you can afford Motive 8. them It is not a corporal disease an easie enemy a tolerable that we call unto you for their helpâ—â— But it is against Sin and Satan and Hell fire It is against a body of sin not one but many â—oâ— small but pernicious having seized upon the heart
sin and misery of Cain and take warning by him Give place to others and in honour prefer others and seek not to be preferred before them Rom. 12. 10 16. God delighteth to exalt the humble that abase themselves and to cast down those that exalt themselves When the interest of your flesh can make you hate or fall out with each other what a fearful sign is it of a fleshly mind Rom. 8. 6 13. § 2. Direct 2. Take heed of using provoking words against each other For these are the bellows Direct 3. to blow up that which the Apostle calleth the fire of Hell Jam. 3. 6. A foul tongue setteth on fire the course of nature and therefore it may set a family on fire Jam. 3. 5 6. Where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work V. 15 16. If ye be angry refrain your tongues and sin not and let not the Sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the Devil Ephes. 4. 26 27. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Ephes. 4. 31 32. Revilers shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. § 3. Direct 3. Help one another with love and willingness in your labours and do not grudge at Direct 4. one another and say such a one doth less than I but be as ready to help another as you would be helpt your selves It is very amiable to see a family of such children and servants that all take one anothers concernments as their own and are not selfish against each other Psal. 133. 1. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity c. § 4. Direct 4. Take heed that you prove not Tempters to draw each other to sin and misery Either Direct 5. by joyning together in ryotousness or wronging your Masters or secret revelling and then in lying to conceal it Or lest immodest familiarity draw those of different sexes into a snare Abundance of sin and misery hath followed such tempting familiarity of men and maids that were fellow servants Their nearness giveth them opportunity and the Devil provoketh them to take their opportunity and from immodest wanton dalliance and unchaste words they proceed at last to more lasciviousness to their own undoing Bring not the straw to the fire if you would not have it burn § 5. Direct 5. Watch over one another for mutual preservation against the sin and temptations which Direct 6. you are most in danger of Agree to tell each other of your faults not proudly or passionately but in love and resolve to take it thankfully from each other If any one talk foolishly and idly or wantonly and immodestly or tell a lye or take Gods name in vain or neglect their duty to God or man or deal unfaithfully in their trust or labour let the other seriously tell him of his sin and call him to repentance And let not him that is guilty take it ill and angrily snap at the reprover or justifie or excuse the fault or hit him presently in the teeth with his own but humbly thank him and promise amendment O how happy might servants be if they would faithfully watch over one another § 6. Direct 6. When you are together and your work will allow it let your discourse be such as Direct 7. tendeth to edification and to the spiritual good of the speaker or the hearers Some work there is that must be thought on and talked of while it is doing and will not allow you leisure to think or speak of other things till it is done But very much of the work of most servants may be as well done though they think and speak together of heavenly things besides all other times when their work is over O take this time to be speaking of good to one another It is like that some one of you hath more knowledge than the rest Let the rest be asking his counsel and instructions and let him bend himself to do them good Or if you are equal in knowledge yet stir up the grace that is in you if you have any or stir up your desires after it if you have none Waste not your pretious time in vanity Multiply not the sin of idle words O what a load doth lye on many a soul that feeleth it not in the guilt of these two sins Lâ—ss of time and idle words To be guilty of the same sins over and over every day and make a constant practice of them and this against your own knowledge and conscience is a more grievous case than many think of Whereas if you would live together as the heirs of Heaven and provoke one another to the Love of God and holy duty and delightfully talk of the Word of God and the life to come what blessings might you be to one another and your service and labour would be a sanctified and comfortable life to you all Ephes. 4. 29 30. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace to the hearers and grieve not the holy Spirit of God 5. 3 4. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness or rather inordinate fleshly desire let it not be once named among you as becometh Saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jeasting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks Of this more anon § 7. Direct 7. Patiently bear with the failings of one another towards your selves and hide those Direct 7. faults the opening of which will do no good but stir up strife But conceal not those faults which will be cherished by concealment or whose concealment tendeth to the wrong of your Master or any other For it is in your power to forgive a fault against your selves but not against God or another And to know when you should reveal it and when not you must wisely fore-know which way is like to do more good or harm And if yet you be in doubt open it first to some secret friend that is wise to advise you whether it should be further opened or not § 8. Direct 8. If weakness or sickness or want afflict a Brother or Sister or fellow-servant be Direct 8. kind and helpful to them according to your power Love not in word only but in dead and truth 1 John 3. 18. Jam 2. CHAP. XVI Directions for holy Conference of Fellow-servants or others BEcause this is a duty so frequently to be performed and therefore the peace and edification of Christians is very much concerned in it I shall give a few brief Directions about it § 1. Direct 1. Labour most for a full and lively heart which hath the feeling of those things Direct 1. which your tongues should
the most behind 2. Another may remember more than you 3. All is not lost when the words are forgotten For it may breed a habit of understanding and promote resolution affection and practice § 8. Direct 8. Writing is an easie help for memory to those that can use it Some question whether they should use it because it hindereth their affection But that must be differently determined according to the difference of subjects and of hearers Some Sermons are all to work upon the affections at present and the present advantage is to be preferred before the after perusal But some must more profit us in after-digestion and review And some hearers can write much with ease and little hinder their affection and some write so little and are hindered so much that it recompenseth not their loss Some know so fully all that is said that they need no notes and some that are ignorant need them for perusal § 9. Direct 9. Peruse what you remember or write down when you come home and fix it speedily before it 's lost And hear others that can repeat it better Pray it over and confer of it with others § 10. Direct 10. If you forget the very words yet remember the main drift of all and get those Direct 10. Resolutions and affections which they drive at And then you have not lost the Sermon though you have lost the words As he hath not lost his food that hath digested it and turned it into flesh and blood Tit. 3. Directions for holy Resolutions and Affections in hearing THE understanding and memory are but the passage to the Heart and the Practice is but the expression of the Heart therefore how to work upon the Heart is the principal business § 1. Direct 1. Live under the most convincing lively serious Preacher that possibly you can It is Direct 1. a matter of great concernment to all but especially to dull and sensless hearts Hearken not to that earthly generation that tell you because God can bless the weakest and because it is your own fault if you profit not by the weakest that therefore you should make no difference but sit down under an ignorant dumb or sensless man Try first whether they had as willingly have a bad servant or a bad Physicion as a good one because God can bless the labours of the weakest Try whether they would not have their Children duly reproved or corrected because it is their own faults that they need it And whether they would not take physick after a surfet though it be their own fault that made them sick It 's true that all our sin is our own fault but the question is what is the most effectual cure what man that is alive and awake doth not feel a very great difference between a dead and a lively Preacher § 2. Direct 2. Remember that Ministers are the Messengers of Christ and come to you on his business Direct 2. and in his name Hear them therefore as his officers and as men that have more to do with God 2 Cor. 6. 1. himself than with the speaker It is the phrase of the holy Ghost Heb. 4. 13. All things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do It is God with whom you have to do and therefore accordingly behave your selves See Luk. 10. 16. 1 Thes. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 4. 1. § 3. Direct 3. Remember that this God is instructing you and warning you and treating with Direct 3. yâ—u about no less than the saving of your souls Come therefore to hear as for your salvation Can that heart be dull that well considereth that it is Heaven and Hell that is the matter that God is treating with him about § 4. Direct 4. Remember that you have but a little time to hear in and you know not whether Direct 4. ever you shall hear again Hear therefore as if it were your last Think when you hear the Calls of God and the offers of Grace I know not but this may be my last How would I hear if I were sure to dye to morrow I am sure it will be ere long and may be to day for ought I know § 5. Direct 5. Remember that all these dayes and Sermons must be reviewed and you must answer for Direct 5. all that you have heard whether you heard it with Love or with unwillingness and weariness with diligent attention or with carelesness and the word which you hear shall judge you at the last day Hear therefore as those that are going to judgement to give account of their hearing and obeying Joh. 12. 48. § 6. Direct 6. Make it your work with diligence to apply the Word as you are hearing it and to Direct 6. work your own hearts to those suitable resolutions and affections which it bespeaketh Cast not all upon the Minister as those that will go no further than they are carryed as by force This is fitter for the dead than the living You have work to do as well as the Preachers and should all the while be as busie as he As helpless as the infant is he must suck when the Mother offereth him the breast If you must be fed yet you must open your mouths and digest it For another cannot digest it for you nor can the holiest wisest powerful Minister convert or save you without your selves nor deliver a people from sin and hell that will not stir for their own deliverance Therefore be all the while at work and abhor an idle heart in hearing as well as an idle Minister § 7. Direct 7. Chew the Cud and call up all when you come home in secret and by Meditation Direct 7. Preach it over to your selves If it were coldly delivered by the Preacher do you consider of the great weight of the matter and Preach it more earnestly over to your own hearts You should love your selves best and best be acquainted with your own condition and necessities § 8. Direct 8. Pray it over all to God and there lament a stupid heart and put up your complaints Direct 8. to Heaven against it The name and presence of God hath a quickening and awaking power § 9. Direct 9. Go to Christ by faith for the quickenings of his spirit Your life is hid in him Direct 9. your root and head and from him all must be conveyed He that hath the Son hath life and because he liveth we shall live also Intreat him to glorifie the power of his Resurrection by raising the dead and to open your hearts and speak to you by his spirit that you may be taught of God and your hearts may be his Epistles and the tables where the everlasting Law is written Col. 3. 3 4. Ioh. 15. 1 2 3 4 5. Ioh. 11. 25. 14. 19. Phil. 3. 7 8. Act. 16. 14. Ioh. 6. 45. 2 Cor. 3. 3 6 17 18. Heb. 8. 10. 10. 16. Ier. 31. 33.
with the holy Praise of God from day to day As he that is acquainted with all that is in any Book can copiously discourse of it when he that knoweth not what is in it hath little to say of it so he that knoweth God and his works and himself and his sins and wants is acquainted with the best Prayer Book and hath alwayes a full heap of matter before him when ever he cometh to speak to God 3. Let him study the mysterie of mans Redemption and the Person and Office and Covenant and Grace of Christ and he need not want matter for prayer or praise A very Child if he see but a Pedlars pack opened where there are abundance of things which he desireth will learn Rev 3. 17 18. without-book to say O Father buy me this and give me that c. So will the soul that seeth the treasuries and riches of Christ. 4. Let him know the extent of the Law of God and the meaning of the ten Commandments If he know but what sins are forbidden in each Commandment and what duties are required he may find matter enough for Confession and Petition And therefore the view of such a brief Exposition of the Commandments as you may find in Mr. Brinsley's True-Watch and in Dr. Downams and Mr. Whateleys Tables will be a present furniture for such a use especially in dayes of humiliation So it will also to have a particular understanding of the Creed and the Lords Prayer which will furnish you with much matter 5. Study well the Temptations which you carry about you in your flesh and meet with in the world and are suggested by the Tempter and think of the many duties you have to do and the many dangers and sufferings to undergo and you will never be unfurnished for matter for your prayers 6. Observe the daily passages of Providence to your selves and others Mark how things go with your souls every day and hearken how it goeth with the Church of God and mark also how it goeth with your neighbours and sure you will find matter enough for prayer 7. Think of the Heavenly Joyes that you are going to and the Streets of the New Ierusalem will be large enough for faith to walk in 8. For words be acquainted with the phrase of Scripture and you will find provisions for all occasions Read Dr. Wilkins Book called The Gift of Prayer or Mr. Brinsleyes Watch or Mr. El. Par's Abba Father 9. Keep up the heart in a reverend serious lively frame and it will be a continual spring to furnish you with Matter When a dead and barren heart hath a dry and sleepy tongue 10. Ioyn as oft as you can with those that are full and copious in prayer For example and use will be very great helps 11. Quench not the Spirit of God that must assist you 12. In case of necessity use those Books or Forms which are more full than you can be your selves till you come to ability to do better without them Read further the Directions Tom. 1. Chap. 6. Tit. 2. for more § 31. Quest. 31. How should a Christian keep up an ordinary fervency in prayer Quest. 31. How to keep up fervency in prayer Answ. 1. See that knowledge and faith provide you Matter For as the fire will go out if there be not fewell so fervency will decay when you are dry and scarce know what to say or do not well believe what you understand 2. Clog not the body either with overmuch eating and drinking or over-tiring labours For an active body helpeth much the activity of the mind And the holiest person will be able but poorly to exercise his fervency under a dull or languishing body 3. Rush not suddenly upon prayer out of a crowd of other businesses or before your last worldly cares or discourses be washed clean out of your minds In Study and Prayer how certain a truth is it that Non bene fit quod occupato animo fit Hieron Epist. 143. ad Paulin. That work is not well done which is done with a mind that is prepossessed or busied about other matters That mind must be wholly free from all other present thoughts or business that will either Pray or Study well 4. Keep a tender heart and conscience that is not senseless of your own concernments For all your prayers must needs be sleepy if the heart and conscience be once hardned seared or fallen asleep 5. Take more pains with your hearts than with your tongues Remember that the success of your work lyeth most on them Bear not with their sluggishness Do by them as you would do by your Child or Servant that sleepeth by you at prayer You will not let them snort on but jog them till you have awakened them So do by your hearts when you find them dull 6. Live as in the continual presence of God but labour to apprehend his special presence when you are about to speak to him Ask your hearts how they would behave themselves if they saw the Lord or but the lowest of his holy Angels 7. Let faith be called up to see Heaven and Hell as open all the while before you and such a fight will surely keep you serious 8. Keep death and judgement in your continual remembrance and expectation Remember how all your prayers will be lookt back upon Look not for long life Remember that this prayer for ought you know may be your last but certainly you have not long to pray Pray therefore as a dying man should do 9. Study well the unspeakable iâ—cessity of your souls If you prevail not for pardon and grace and preservation you are undone and lost for ever Remember that necessity is upon you and Heaven or Hell are at the end and you are praying for more than a thousand lives 10. Study well the unspeakable excellency of those mercies which you pray for O think how blessed a life it would be if you could know God more and love him more and live a blameless heavenly life and then live with Christ in Heaven for ever Study these mercies till the flames of Love put life into your prayers 11. Study well the exceeding encouragements that you have to Pray and Hope If your Hope decay your fervour will decay Think of the unconceivable Love of God the astonishing mercy shewed to you in your Redeemer and in the helps of the Holy Spirit and how Christ is now interceding for you Think of these till faith make glad your heart And in this gladness let Praise and thanksgiving have ordinarily no small share in your prayers for it will tire out the heart to be alwayes poreing on its own distempers and discourage it to look on nothing but its infirmities And then a sad discouraged temper will not be so lively a temper as a thankful praiseful joyful temper is For Laetitia loquax res est atque ostentatrix sui Gladness is a very expressive thing and apt to shew
among those that cannot pray Iohn and Christ taught their Disciples Mat. 6. Luk. 11. to pray Tit. 4. Special Directions for secret Prayer § 1. Direct 1. LET it be in as secret a place as conveniently you can that you may not be Direct 1. disturbed Let it be done so that others may not be witnesses of it if you can avoid it and yet take it not for your duty to keep it unknown that you pray secretly at all for that will be a snare and scandal to them § 2. Direct 2. Let your voice be suited to your own help and benefit if none else hear you If it be Direct 2. needful to the orderly proceeding of your own thoughts or to the warming of your own affections you may use a voice But if others be within hearing it is very unfit § 3. Direct 3. In secret let the matter of your prayers be that which is most peculiarly your own Direct 3. concernment or those secret things that are not fit for publick prayer or are there passed by Yet never forgetting the highest interest of Christ and the Gospel and the World and Church § 4. Direct 4. Be less sollicitous about words in secret than with others and lay out your care about Direct 4. the heart For that 's it that God most esteemeth in your prayers § 5. Direct 5. Do not through carnal unwillingness grow into a neglect of secret prayer when you Direct 5. have time Nor yet do not superstitiously tye your selves to just so long time whether you are fit or at leisure from greater duties or not But be the longer when you are most fit and vacant and the shorter when you are not To give way to every carnal backwardness is the sin on one side and to resolve to spend so long time when you do but tire your selves and sleep or business or distemper maketh it a lifeless thing is a sin on the other side Avoid them both § 6 Direct 6. A melancholy person who is unfit for much solitariness and heart-searchings must be much Direct 6. short if not also seldomer in secret prayers than other Christians that are capable of bearing it And they must instead of that which they cannot do be the more in that which they can do As in joyning with others and in short ejaculations besides other duties but not abatâ—ing their piety in the main upon any pretence of curing melancholy CHAP. XXIV Brief Directions for Families about the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. OMitting those things which concern the publick administration of this Sacrament for the Reasons before intimated Tom 2. I shall here only give you some brief Directions for your private duty herein § 1. Direct 1. Understand well the proper ends to which this Sacrament was instituted by Direct 1. Christ and take heed that you use it not to ends for which it never was appointed The true ends Q. What are the Ends of the Sacramâ—nâ— Matth. 26. 28. Mar. 14. â—4 Luâ— â—2 â—0 1 Cor. 11. 25. Heb. 9. 15 16 â—â— 1â— 1 Cor. 10. 16 24. Joh. 6. 32 35 51 58. are these 1. To be a solemn commemoration of the Death and Passion of Jesus Christ to keep it as it were in the eye of the Church in his bodily absence till he come 1 Cor. 11. 24 25 26. 2. To be a solemn renewing of the holy Covenant which was first entred in Baptism between Christ and the Receiver And in that Covenant it is on Christs part a solemn delivery of Himself first and with Himself the Benefits of Pardon Reconciliation Adoption and right to life eternal And on mans part it is our solemn acceptance of Christ with his Benefits upon his terms and a Delivering up our selves to Him as his Redeemed ones even to the Father as our Reconciled Father and to the Son as our Lord and Saviour and to the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier with Professed Thankfulness for so great a benefit 3. It is appointed to be a lively objective means by which the spirit of Christ should work to stir up and exercise and increase the Repentance Faith Desire Love Hope Ioy Thankfulness and new-obedience of Believers by a lively Representation of the evil of sin the infinite Love of God in Christ the firmness of the Covenant or promise the greatness and sureness of the mercy given and the blessedness purchased and promised to us and the great obligations that are laid upon us And that herein Believers might be solemnly called out to the most serious exercise of all these 1 Cor. 11. 27 28 29 31. 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 â—1 1 Cor. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 6. 14. Act 2 42 46. 20. 7. graces and might be provoked and assisted to stir up themselves to this Communion with God in Christ and to pray for more as through a sacrificed Christ. 4. It is appointed to be the solemn profession of Believers of their Faith and Love and Gratitude and obedience to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of continuing firm in the Christian Religion And a badge of the Church before the world 5. And it is appointed to be a signe and means of the Unity Love and Communion of Saints and their readiness to communicate to each other § 2. The false mistaken ends which you must avoid are these 1. You must not with the Papists think that the end of it is to turn Bread into no bread and Wine into no wine and to make them Really the true Body and blood of Jesus Christ. For if sense which telleth all men that it is still Bread and wine be not to be believed then we cannot believe that ever there was a Gospel or an Apostle or a Pope or a man or any thing in the world And the Apostle expresly calleth it Bread three times in three verses together after the consecration 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28. And he telleth us that the use of it is not to make the Lords Body really present but to shew the Lords death till be come that is As a visible representing and commemorating sign to be instead of his bodily presence till he come § 3. 2. Nor must you with the Papists use this Sacrament to sacrifice Christ again really unto the Father to propitiate him for the quick and dead and ease souls in Purgatory and deliver them out Rom. 6. 9. 1 Cor. 15. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. Heb. 9. 26. 10. 12 26. Heb. 9. 24. of it For Christ having dyed once dyeth no more and without killing him there is no sacrificing him By once offering up himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and now there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin Having finished the sacrificing work on earth he is now passed into the Heavens to appear before God for his Redeemed ones § 4. 3. Nor is it any better than odious impiety to receive the Sacrament to
words of the Institution are read and the Bread and Wine are solemnly Consecrated by separating them to that sacred use and the acceptance and blessing of God is desired admire the mercy that prepared us a Redeemer and say O God how wonderful is thy Wisdom and thy Love How strangely dost thou glorifie thy mercy over those sins that gave thee advantage to glorifie thy justice Even thou our God whom we have offended hast out of thy own treasury satisfied thy own justice and given us a Saviour by such a Miracle of Wisdom Love and Condescension as men or Angels shall never be able fully to comprehend so didst thou love the sinful world as to give thy Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life O thou that hast prepared us so full a remedy and so pretious a gift sanctifie these creatures to be the Representative Body and Blood of Christ and prepare my heart for so great a gift and so high and holy and honourable a work § 53. 5. When you behold the Consecrated Bread and Wine discern the Lords Body and reverence it as the Representative Body and Blood of Iesus Christ and take heed of prophaning it by looking on it as common Bread and Wine Though it be not Transubstantiate but still is very Bread and Wine in its Natural Being yet it is Christs Body and Blood in representation and effect Look on it as the consecrated Bread of life which with the quickning Spirit must nourish you to life eternal § 54. 6. When you see the Breaking of the Bread and the Pouring out of the Wine let Repentance and Love and Desire and Thankfulness thus work within you O wondrous Love O hateful sin How merciful Lord hast thou been to sinners and how cruel have we been to our selves and thee Could Love stoop lower Could God be merciful at a dearer rate Could my sin have done a more horrid deed than put to death the Son of God How small a matter hath tempted me to that which must cost so dear before it was forgiven How dear payed my Saviour for that which I might have avoided at a very cheap rate At how low a price have I valued his blood when I have sinned and sinned again for nothing This is my doing My sins were the thorns the nails the spear Can a murderer of Christ be a a small offendor O dreadful justice It was I and such other sinners that deserved to bear the punishment who were guilty of the sin and to have been fewel for the unquenchable flames for ever O pretious Sacrifice O hateful sin O gracious Saviour How can mans dull and narrow heart be duly affected with such transcendent things or Heaven make its due impression upon an inch of flesh Shall I ever again have a dull apprehension of such Love Or ever have a favourable thought of sin Or ever have a fearless thought of Iustice O break or melt this hardned heart that it may be somewhat conformed to my crucified Lord The tears of Love and true Repentance are easier than the flames from which I am redeemed O hide me in these wounds and wash me in this pretious blood This is the Sacrifice in which I trust This is the Righteousness by which I must be justified and saved from the Curse of thy violated Law As thou hast accepted this O Father for the world upon the Cross Behold it still on the behalf of sinners and hear his blood that cryeth unto thee for mercy to the miserable and pardon us and accept us as thy Reconciled Children for the sake of this Crucified Christ alone We can offer thee no other Sacrifice for sin and we need no other § 55. 7. When the Minister applyeth himself to God by Prayer for the efficacy of this Sacrament that in iâ— he will give us Christ and his Benefits and pardon and justifie us and accept us as his reconciled Children joyn heartily and earnestly in these requests as one that knoweth the need and worth of such a mercy § 56. 8. When the Minister delivereth you the consecrated Bread and Wine look upon him as the messenger of Christ and hear him as if Christ by him said to you Take this my broken body and blood and feed on it to everlasting life and take with it my sealed Covenant and therein the sealed testimony of my Love and the sealed pardon of your sins and a sealed gift of life eternal so be it you unfeignedly consent unto my Covenant and give up your selves to me as my Redeemed ones Even as in delivering the possession of House or Lands the deliverer giveth a Key and a twig and a turfe and saith I deliver you this house and I deliver you this land so doth the Minister by Christs authority deliver you Christ and pardon and title to eternal life Here is an Image of a sacrificed Christ of Gods own appointing which you may lawfully use And more than an Image even an Investing instrument by which these highest mercies are solemnly delivered to you in the name of Christ. Let your hearts therefore say with Ioy and Thankfulness with faith and Love O matchless bounty of the eternal God! what a gift is this and unto what unworthy sinners And will God stoop so low to man and come so neer him and thus reconcile his worthless enemies Will he freely pardon all that I have done and take me into his family and love and feed me with the flesh and blood of Christ I believe Lord help mine unbelief I humbly and thankfully accept thy gifts Open thou my heart that I may yet more joyfully and thankfully accept them Seeing God will glorifie his Love and mercy by such incomprehensible gifts as these behold Lord a wretch that needeth all this mercy And seeing it is the offer of thy Grace and Covenant my soul doth gladly take thee for my God and Father for my saviour and my sanctifier And here I give up my self unto thee as thy Created Redeemed and I hope Regenerate one as thy Own thy Subject and thy Child to be saved and sanctified by thee to be beloved by thee and to Love thee to everlasting O seal up this Covenant and pardon by thy Spirit which thou sealest and deliverest to me in thy Sacrament that without reserve I may be entirely and for ever thine § 57. 9. When you see the Communicants receiving with you let your very hearts be united to the Saints in love and say How goodly are thy tents O Jacob How amiable is the family of the Nâ—â—b 24. 5. Psal 13. 15. 4. 16. 2 3. Iuk 19 8. Psal. 84. 10. Lord How good and pleasant is the unity of brethren How dear to me are the pretious members of my Lord though they have yet all their spots and weaknesses which he pardoneth and so must we My goodness O Lord extendeth not unto thee but unto thy Saints the excellent ones on earth in
â—ordidst garb of a cold and careless heart and life 10. When you grow hottest about some Controverted smaller matters in Religion or studious of the interest of some private opinion and party which you have chosen more than of the interest of the common Truths and Cause of Christ. 11. When in joyning with others you rellish more the fineness of the speech than the Spirit and weight and excellency of the matter and are impatient of hearing of the wholsomest truths if the speaker manifest any personal infirmity in the delivery of them And are weary and tired if you be not drawn on with novelty variety or elegancy of speech 12. When you grow more indifferent for your company and set less by the company of serious godly Christians than you did and are almost as well pleased with common company and discourse 13. When you grow more impatient of reproof for sin and love not to be told of any thing in you that is amiss but love those best that highliest applaud you 14. When the renewing of your Repentance is grown a lifeless cursory work When in preparation for the Lords Day or Sacrament or other occasions you call your selves to no considerable account or make no greater a matter of the sins which you find on your account than if you were almost reconciled to them 15. When you grow more uncharitable and censorious to brethren that differ from you in tolerable points and less tender of the names or welfare of others and love not your neighbour as your selves and do not as you would be done by 16. When you grow less compassionate to the ungodly world and less regardful of the common interest of the Universal Church and of Jesus Christ throughout the earth and grow more narrow private-spirited and confine your care to your selves or to your party 17. When the hopes of Heaven and the Love of God cannot content you but you are thirsty after some worldly contentment and grow eager in your desires and the world groweth more sweet to you and more amiable in your eyes 18 When sense and appetite 1 Cor. 7. 31. and fleshly pleasure is grown more powerful with you and you make a great matter of them and cannot deny them without a great deal of striving and regret as if you had done some great exploit if you live not like a beast 19. When you are more proud and impatient and are less able to bear disesteem and slighting and injuries from men or poverty or sufferings for Christ and make a greater matter of your losses or crosses or wrongs than beseemeth one that is dead to the flesh and to the world 20. Lastly When you had rather dwell on Earth than be in Heaven and are more unwilling to think of death or to prepare for it and expect it and are less in love with the coming of Christ and are ready to say of this sinful life in flesh It is good to be here All these are signs of a declining state though yet you are not come to apostacy § 15. But the signs of a mortal damnable state indeed are found in these following degrees 1. When a man had rather have worldly prosperity than the â—avour and fruition of God in Heaven Signs of a graceless state 2. When the interest of the flesh can do more with him than the interest of God and his soul and do more rule and dispose of his heart and life 3. When he had rather live in sensuality than in Holiness And had rather have leave to live as he list than have a Christ and Holy Spirit to sanctifie and cure him or at least will not be cured on the terms proposed in the Gospel 4. When he loveth not the means that would recover him as such The nearer you come to this the more dangerous is your case § 16. And these following signs are therefore of a very dangerous signification 1. When the Dangerous signs of impenitency pleasure of sinful prosperity and delights doth so far over-top the pleasures of holiness that you are under trouble and weariness in holy duties and at ease and merry when you have your sinful delights 2. When no perswasion of a Minister or friend can bring you so throughly to repent of your open scandalous sins as to take shame to your selves in a free confession of them even in the open Assembly if you are justly called to it to condemn your selves and give warning to others and glorifie the most Holy God But you will not believe that any such disgraceful confession is your duty because you will not do it 3. When you cannot bring your hearts to a full Resolution to let go your sin but though Conscience worry and condemn you for it you do but sleightly purpose hereafter to amend but will not presently resolve 4. When you will not be perswaded to consent to the necessary effectual means of your recovery as to abstain from the bait and temptation and occasion of sin Many a Drunkard hath told me he was willing to be reformed but when I have desired them then to consent to drink no Wine or Ale for so many months and to keep out of the place and to commit the Government of themselves for so many months to their Wives or some other friend that liveth with them and to drink nothing but what they give them they would not Consent to any of this and so shewed the hypocrisie of their professed willingness to amend 5. When sin becometh easie and the Conscience groweth patient with it and quiet under it 6. When the judgement taketh part with it and the tongue will plead for it and justifie or extenuate it insteâ—d of repenting of it These are dangerous signs of an impenitent unpardoned miserable soul. And the man is in a dangerous way to this 1. When he hath plunged himself into such engagements to sin that he cannot leave it but it will cost him very dear as it will be his shame to confess it or his undoing in the world to forsake it or a great deal of cost and labour must be lost which his ambitious or Covetous projects have cost him It will be hard breaking over so great difficulties 2. When God letteth him alone in sin and prospereth him in it or doth not much disturb him or afflict him This also is a dangerous case § 17. By all this you may perceive that those are no signes of a backsliding state which some False signs of declining poor Christians are afraid are such As 1. When poverty necessitateth them to lay out more of their time and thoughts and words about the labours of their callings than some richer persons do 2. When age or sickness causeth their memories to decay so that they cannot remember a Sermon so well as heretofore 3. When age or sickness taketh off the quickness and vigor of their spirits so that they have not the lively affections in prayer or holy
experiences thou wilt be very hardly kept from desperation Thou wilt read such passages as Heb. 6 4 5 6. and Heb. 10. 26 27 28 29. with so much horrour that thou wilt hardly be perswaded that there is any hope Thou wilt be ready to think that thou hast sinned against the Holy Ghost and that thou hast trampled underfoot the blood of the Covenant and done despite to the spirit of grace And thou wilt think that there is no being twice born again Or if thou be restored to Life thou wilt hardly ever be restored to thy comforts here if thy backsliding should be very great But indeed the danger is exceeding great lest thou never be recovered at all if once thou be twice dead and pluckt up by the roots Jud. 6. and lest God do finally forsake thee And then how desperate will be thy case § 35. 16. Is it not the example of Backsliders very terrible which God hath set up for the warning of his servants as monuments of his wrath Luk. 17. 32. Remember Lot's Wife saith Christ to them that are about to lose their estates or goods or lives by saving them How frightful is the remembrance of a Cain a Iudas a Saul a Ioas 2 Chron. 24. 2. a Iulian How sad is it to hear but such a one as Spira especially at his death crying out of his backsliding in the horrour of his soul and to see such ready to make away themselves § 36. 17. Consider that there is none that so much dishonoureth God as a Backslider Others are supposed to sin in ignorance But you do by your lives as bad as speak such blaspheamy as this against the Lord As if you should say I thought once that God had been the best Master and his servants the wisest and happiest men and Godliness the best and safest life but now I have tryed both and I find by experience that the Devil is a better master and his servants are the happiest men and the world and the flesh do give the truest contentment to the mind This is the plain blaspheamy of your lives And bethink thee how God should bear with this § 37. 18. There is none that so much hardeneth the wicked in his sin and furthereth the damnation of souls as the Backslider If you would but drive your Sheep or Cattle into a house those that go in first do draw the rest after them but those that run out again make all the rest afraid and run away One apostate that hath been noted for Religion and afterwards turneth off again doth discourage many that would come in For he doth as it were say to them by his practice Keep off and meddle not with a Religious life for I have tryed it and found that a life of worldliness and fleshliness is better And people will think with themselves Such a man hath tryed a Religious life and he hath forsaken it again and therefore he had some reason for it and knew what he did Woe to the world because of offences and woe to him by whom the offence shall come â—â—k 17. 1. Mat. 18. 7. How dreadful a thing is it think that mens souls should lie in Hell and you be the cause of it It were good for that man that a milstone were hanged about his neck and be were drowned in the depth of the Sea Matth. 18. 6 7. Luk. 17. 2. § 38. 19. There is none that are so great a terrour to weak Christians as these Backsliders For they are thinking how far such went before they fell away And those that think that true grace may be lâ—st are saying Alas how shall I stand when such that were better and stronger than I have faln away And those that think true grace cannot be lost are as much perplexed and say How far may an Hypocrite go that after falleth away How piously did this man live how sorrowfully did he repâ—nt how blamelesly did he walk how fervently and constantly did he pray how savourily did he speak how charitably and usefully did he live And I that come far short of him as far as I can discern can have no assurance that I am sincere till I am sure that I go further than ever he did Woe to thee that thus perplexest the consciences of the weak and hinderest the comforts of believers § 39. 20. Thou art the greatest grief to the faithful Ministers of Christ Thou canst not conceive what a wound it giveth to the heart and comforts of a Minister when he hath taken a great deal of pains for thy Conversion and after that rejoyced when he saw thee come to the flock of Christ and after that laboured many a year to build thee up and suffered many a frown from the ungodly for thy sake to see all his labour at last come to nought and all his glorying of thee turned to his shame and all his hopes of thee disappointed I tell thee this is more doleful to his heart than any outward loss or cross that could have befaln him It is not persecution that is his greatest grief as long as it hindereth not the good of souls It is such as thou that are his â—orest persecutors that frustrate his labours and rob him of his joyes And his sorrows shall one day cost thee dear The life and comforts of your faithful Pastors is much in your hands 2 Cor. 7. 3. 1 Thes. 3. 8. Now we Live if ye stand fast in the Lord. § 40. 21. Thou art more treacherous to Christ than thou wouldst be to a common friend Wouldst thou forsake thy friend without a cause especially an old and tryed friend And especially when in forsaking him thou dost forsake thy self Prov. 27. 10. Thy own friend and thy fathers friend forsake not Prâ—v 17. 17. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity If thy friend were in distress wouldst thou forsake him And wilt thou forsake thy God that needs thee not but supplyeth thy needs Ruth was more faithful to Naomi Ruth 1. 16 17. that resolved Whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge where thou dyest I will dye And hath God deserved worse of thee § 41. 22. Nay thou dealest worse with God than the Devils servants do with him Alas they are too constant to him Reason will not change them nor the Commands of God nor the offers of everlasting life nor the fears of Hell nothing will change them till the spirit of God do it And wilt thou be less constant to thy God § 42. 23. Consider also that thy end is so near that thou hadst but a little while longer to have held out And thou mightest have known that thou couldst keep thy worldly pleasures but a little while And it is a pitiful thing to see a man that hath born the forest brunt of the battle and run till he is almost at the end of the race to lose all for want of a
still reason enough to review and Repent of all that is past and still pray for the pardon of all the sins that ever you committed which were forgiven you before So many years sinning should have a very serious Repentance and lay you low before the Lord. § 3. Direct 3. Cleave closer now to Christ than ever Remembering that you have a life of sin for Direct 3. him to answer for and save you from And that the time is near when you shall have more sensible need of him than ever you have had You must shortly be cast upon him as your Saviour Advocate and Judge to determine the question what shall become of you unto all eternity and to perfect all that ever he hath done for you and accomplish all that you have sought and hoped for And now your natural life decayeth it is time to retire to him that is your Root and to look to the life that is hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 4. and to him that is preparing you a mansion with himself and whose office it is to receive the departing souls of true believers Live therefore in the daily thoughts of Christ and comfort your souls in the belief of that full supply and safety which you have in him § 4. Direct 4. Let the ancient mercies and experiences of Gods Love through all your lives be still Direct 4. before you and fresh upon your minds that they may kindle your Love and Thankfulness to God and may feed your own delight and comfort and help you the easier to submit to future weaknesses and death Eaten bread must not be forgotten A thankful remembrance preserveth all your former mercies still fresh and green The sweetness and benefit may remain though the thing it self be past and gone This is the great priviledge of an aged Christian that he hath many years mercy more to think on than others have Every one of those mercies was sweet to you by it self at the time of your receiving it except afflictions and misunderstood and unobserved mercies And then how sweet should all together be If unthankfulness have buried any of them let thankfulness give them now a Resurrection What delightful work is it for your thoughts to look back to your Childhood and remember how mercy brought you up and conducted you to every place that you have lived in and provided for you and preserved you and heard your prayers and disposed of all things for your good How it brought you under the means of grace and blest them to you and how the spirit of God began and carryed on the work of grace upon your hearts I hope you have recorded the wonders of mercy ever upon your hearts with which God hath filled up all your lives And is it not a pleasant work in old age to ruminate upon them If a Traveller delight to talk of his travels and a Souldier or Seaman upon his adventures how sweet should it be to a Christian to peruse all the conduct of mercy through his life and all the operations of the spirit upon his heart Thankfulness taught men heretofore to make their mercies as it were attributes of their God As the God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt was the name of the God of Israel And Gen. 48. 15. Iacob delighteth himself in his old age in such reviews of mercy The God which fed me all my life long unto this day The Angel which Redeemed me from all evil bless the lads Yea such thankful reviews of ancient mercies will force an ingenuous soul to a quieter submission to infirmities sufferings and death and make us say as Iob Shall we receive good at the hands of God and not evil and as old Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace It is a powerful rebuke of all discontents and maketh death it self more welcome to think how large a share of mercy we have had already in the world § 5. Direct 5. Draw forth the treasure of wisdom and experience which you have been so long in laying Direct 5. up to instruct the ignorant and warn the unexperienced and ungodly that are about you Job 32. 7. Dayes should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom The aged women must teach the young women to be sober to love their husbands and children to be discreet chaste keepers at home good obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blaspheamed Tit. 2. 3 4 5. It is supposed that Time and experience hath taught you more than is known to raw and ignorant youth Tell them what you have suffered by the deceits of sin Tell them the method and danger of temptations Tell them what you lost by delaying your Repentance and how God recovered you and how the spirit wrought upon your souls Tell them what comforts you have found in God what safety and sweetness in a holy life how sweet the holy Scriptures have been to you how prayers have prevailed how the promises of God have been fulfilled and what mercies and great deliverances you have had Tell them how Good you have found God and how bad you have found si◠and how vain you have found the world Warn them to resist their fleshly lusts and to take heed of the ensnaring Joel 1. 3. Deut. 11. 19 20. Deut. 29. 22. flatteries of sin Acquaint them truly with the History of publick sins and judgements and mercies in the times which you have lived in God hath made this the duty of the aged that the Fathers should tell the wonders of his works and mercies to their children that the ages to come may praise the Lord Deut. 4. 10. Psal. 78. 4 5 6. § 6. Direct 6. The Aged must be examples of wisdom gravity and holiness unto the younger Where Direct 6. should they find any virtues in eminence if not in you that have so much time and helps and experiences It may well be expected that nothing but savoury wise and holy come from your mouths and nothing unbeseeming wisdom and godliness be seen in your lives Such as you would have your Children after you to be such shew your selves to them in all your Conversation § 7. Direct 7. Especially it belongeth to you to repress the heats and dividing contentious and Direct 7. censorious disposition of the younger sort of professours of Godliness They are in the heat of their blood and want the knowledge and experience of the aged to guide their zeal They have not their senses yet exercised in discerning good and evil Heb. 5. 12. They are able to try the spirits They are yet but as children apt to be tossed to and fro and carryed up and down with every wind of doctrine after the craft and subtilty of deceivers Eph. 4. 14. The Novices are apt to be puffed up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. They never saw the issue of errours and
advantage of a Tempt 1. Christians bodily weakness to shake his faith and question his foundations and call him to dispute Hic labor extremus longaâ—um haec meta viarum est Virgil. over his principles again Whether the soul be immortal and there be a Heaven and a Hell and whether Christ be the Son of God and the Scriptures be Gods Word c. As if this had never been questioned and scanned and resolved before It is a great deal of advantage that Satan expecteth by this malitious course If he could he would draw you from Christ to infidelity But Christ prayeth for you that your faith may not fail If he cannot do this he would at least weaken your faith and hereby weaken every grace And he would hereby divert you from the more needful thoughts which are suitable to your present state and he would hereby distract you and destroy your comforts and draw you in your perplexities to dishonour God Away therefore with these blasphemous and unseasonable motions Cast them from you with abhorrence and disdain It is no time now to be questioning your foundations You have done this more seasonably when you were in a fitter case A paiâ—ed languishing body and a disturbed discomposed mind is unfit upon a surprize to go back and dispute over all our principles Tell Satan you owe him not so much service nor will you so cast away those few hours and thoughts for which you have so much better work You have the witness in your selves even the Spirit and Image and Seal of God You have been converted and renewed by the power of that word which he would have you question and you have found it to be owned by the Spirit of grace who hath made it mighty to pull down the strongest holds of sin Tell Satan you will not gratifie him so much as to turn your holy heavenly desires into a wrangling with him about those truths which you have so often proved You will not question now the being of that God who hath maintained you so long and witnessed his being and goodness to you by a life of mercies nor will you now question the being or truth of him that hath Redeemed you or of the Spirit or Word that hath sanctified guided comforted and confirmed you If he tell you that you must prove all things tell him that this is not now to do you have long proved the truth and goodness of your God the mercy of your Saviour and the power of his Holy Spirit and Word It is now your work to live upon that Word and fetch your hopes and comforts from it and not to question it § 10. Tempt 2. Another dangerous Temptation of Satan is when he would perswade you to Tempâ— â— Despair by causing you to mis-understand the tenour of the Gospel or by thinking too narrowly and unworthily of Gods mercy or of the satisfaction of Christ. But because this Temptation doth usually tend more to discomfort the soul than to damn it I shall speak more to it under Tit. 3. § 11. Tempt 3. Another dangerous Temptation is when Satan would draw you to overlook your Tempt 3. sins and overvalue your graces and be proud of your good works and so lay too much of your comfort upon your selves and lose the sense of your need of Christ or usurp any part of his office or hiâ— honour I shall afterward shew you how far you must look at any thing in your selves But certainly that which lifteth you up in pride or incroacheth on Christs Office or would draw you to undervalue him is not of God Therefore keep humble in the sense of your sinfulness and unworthiness and cast away every motion which would carry you away from Christ and make your selves and your works and righteousness as a Saviour to your selves § 12. Tempt 4. Another perillous Temptation is by causing the thoughts of death and the grave Tempt 4. and your doubts and fears about the world to come to overcome the Love of God and not only the comforts but also the desires and willingness of your hearts to be with Christ. It will abate your Love to God and Heaven to think on them with too much estrangedness and terror The Directions under Tit. 3. will help you against this Temptation § 13. Tempt 5. Another dangerous Temptation is fetcht from the remnants of your worldly Tempt 5. mindedness when your dignity or honor your house or lands your relations and friends or your pleasures and contentments are so sweet to you that you are loth to leave them and the thoughts of death are grievous to you because it taketh you from that which you over-love and God and Heaven are the less desired because you are loth to leave the world Watch carefully against this great Temptation Observe how it seeketh the very destruction of your grace and souls and how it fighteth against your Love to God and Heaven and would undo all that Christ and his Spirit have been doing so long Observe what a root of matter it findeth in your selves and therefore be the more humbled under it Learn now what the world is and how little the accommodations of the flesh are worth when you perceive what the end of all must be Would you never dye Would you enjoy your worldly things for ever Had you rather have them than to live with Christ in the Heavenly glory of the New Ierusalem If you had it is your grievous sin and folly And yet you know that it is a desire that you can never hope to attain Dye you must whether you will or not What is it then that you would stay for Is it till the world be grown less pleasant to you and your Love and minds be weaned from it When should that rather be than now And what should more effectually do it than this dying condition that you are in It is time for you to spit out these unwholsome pleasures and now to look up to the true the holy the unmeasurable everlasting pleasures Tit. 2. Directions how to Profit by our Sickness WHether it shall please God to recover you or not it is no small Benefit which you may get by his Visitation if you do your part and faithfully improve it according to these Directions following § 1. Direct 1. If you hear Gods call to a closer tryal of your hearts concerning the sincerity of your Direct 1. conversion and thereby are brought to a more exact examination and come to a truer acquaintance with your state be it good or bad the benefit may be exceeding great For if it be good you may be much comforted and confirmed and fitted to give thanks and praise to God And if it be bad you may be awakened speedily to look about you and seek for a recovery § 2. Direct 2. If in the review of your lives you find out those sins which before you overlookâ— or Direct 2. perceive
when the next sickness cometh to remember that they were unthankful for their last recovery and how falsly they dealt with God in the breaking of their promises Foresee this that you may prevent it Tit. 3. Directions for a Comfortable or Peaceable Death COmfort is not desirable only as it Pleaseth us but also as it strengtheneth us and helpeth us in our greatest duties And when is it more needful than in sickness and the approach of death I shall therefore add such Directions as are necessary to make our departure comfortable or peaceful at the least as well as safe Direct 1. Because I would make this Treatise no longer than I needs must in order to overcome Direct 1. the fears of Death and get a chearful willingness to dye I desire the sick to read over those twenty Considerations and the following Directions which I have laid down in my Book of Self-denyal And when the fears of death are overcome the great impediment of their comfort is removed § 2. Direct 2. Misunderstand not sickness as if it were a greater evil than it is but observe how Direct 2. great a mercy it is that Death hath so suitable a harbinger or fore-runner That God should do so much before he taketh us hence to wean us from the world and make us willing to be gone that the unwilling flesh hath the help of pain and that the senses and appetite languish and decay which did draw the mind to earthly things and that we have so lowd a call and so great a help to true Mr. Vinâ—s Mr. Capell Mr. Holli gâ—orth Mr Aâ—hhâ—ost Mr A bâ—osâ— M 〈…〉 Bâ—raell c. repentance and serious preparation I know to those that have walked very close with God and are alwayes ready a sudden death may be a mercy as we have lately known divers holy Ministers and others that have dyed either after a Sacrament or in the Evening of the Lords Day or in the midst of some holy exercise with so little pain that none about them perecived when they dyed But ordinarily it is a mercy to have the flesh brought down and weakned by painful sickness to help to conquer our natural unwillingness to dye § 3. Direct 3. Remember whose Messenger sickness is and who it is that calleth you to dye It is Direct 3. he that is the Lord of all the world and gave us the Lives which he taketh from us And it is he that must dispose of Angels and Men of Princes and Kingdoms of Heaven and Earth and therefore there is no reason that such Worms as we should desire to be excepted You cannot deny him to be the Disposer of all things without denying him to be God It is he that Loveth us and never meant us harm in any thing that he hath done to us that gave the life of his Son to Redeem us and therefore thinketh not Life too good for us Our sickness and death are sent by the same Love that sent us a Saviour and sent us the powerful Preachers of his Word and sent us his Spirit and secretly and sweetly changed our hearts and knit them to himself in Love which gave us a life of pretious mercies for our souls and bodies and hath promised to give us life eternal And shall we think that he now intendeth us any harm Cannot he turn this also to our good as he hath done many an affliction which we have repined at § 4. Direct 4. Look by faith to your dying buryed risen ascended glorified Lord. Nothing will Direct 4. more powerfully overcome both the poyson and the fears of Death than the believing thoughts of him that hath triumphed over it Is it terrible as it separateth the soul from the body So it did by our Lord who yet overcame it Is it terrible as it layeth the body in the grave So it did by our Saviour though he saw not corruption but quickly rose by the power of his Godhead He dyed to teach us believingly and boldly to submit to death He was buried to teach us not overmuch to fear a grave He rose again to conquer death for us and to assure those that rise to newness of life that they shall be raised at last by his power unto glory and being made partakers of the first resurrection the second death shall have no power over them He liveth as our Head that we might live by him and that he might assure all those that are here risen with him and seek first the things that are above that though in themselves they are dead yet their life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 1 2 4 5. What a comfortable word is that John 14. 19. Because I live ye shall live also Death could not hold the Lord of life Nor can it hold us against his will who hath the keyes of death and Hell Rev. 1. 18. He loveth every one of his sanctified ones much better than you love an eye or a hand or any other member of your body which you will not lose if you are able to save it When he ascended he left us that message full of comfort for his followers John 20. 17. Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God which with these two following I would have written before me on my sick-bed John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there also shall my servant be And Luke 23. 43. Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise O what a joyful thought should it be to a Believer to think when he is dying that he is going to his Saviour and that our Lord is risen and gone before us to prepare a place for us and take us in season to himself Iohn 14. 2 3 4. As you believe in God believe thus in Christ and then your hearts will be less troubled Ver. 1. It is not a stranger that we talk of to you but your Head and Saviour that loveth you better than you love your selves whose office it is there to appear continually for you before God and at last to receive your departing souls and into his hand it is that you must then commend them as Stephen did Acts 7. 59. § 5. Direct 5. Choose out some Promises most suitable to your condition and roll them over and over Direct 5. in your mind and feed and live on them by faith A sick man is not usually fit to think of very many things and therefore two or three comfortable promises to be still before his eyes may be the most profitable matter of his thoughts such as those three which I named before If he be most troubled with the greatness of his sin let it be such as these Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world
we are here on earth They were compassed with temptations and clog'd with flesh and burdened with sin and persecuted by the world and they went out of the world by sickness and death as we must do and yet now their tears are wiped away their pains and groans and sears are turned into unexpressible blessedness and joy And would we not be with them Is not their company desirable and their felicity more desirable The glory of the new Ierusalem is not described to us in vain Rev. 21. 22. God will be all in all there to us as the only sun and Glory of that world and yet we shall have pleasure not only to see our Glorified Redeemer but also to converse with the Heavenly society and to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of God and to Love and Praise him in consort and harmony with all those holy blessed spirits And shall we be afraid to follow where the Saints of all Generations have gone before us And shall the company of our best and most and happiest friends be no inducement to us Though it must be our highest joy to think that we shall dwell with God and next that we shall see the Glory of Christ yet is it no small part of my comfort to consider that I shall follow all those holy persons whom I once conversed with that are gone before me and that I shall dwell with such as Henoch and Elias and Abraham and Moses and Iob and David and Peter and Iohn â—nd Paul and Timothy and Ignatius and Polycarpe and Cyprian and Reader bear with this mixture For God will own his image when piâ—vish contenders do deny it or blaspheam it and will receive those whom faction and proud domination would cast ouâ— and vilifie with scorn and slanders Naziaâ—zene and Augustine and Chrysostome and Bernard and Gerson and Savonarola and Miraâ—dula and Taulerus and Kempisius and Melancthon and Alasco and Calvin and Bucholâ—zer and Bullinger and Musculus and Zanchy and Bâ—cer and Paraeus and Grynaeus and Chemnitius and Gerhard and Chamier and Capellus and Blondel and Rivet and Rogers and Bradford and Hooper and Latimer and Hildersham and Amâ—sius and Langley and Nicolls and Whitaker and Cartwright and Hooker and Bayne and Preston and Sibbes and Perkins and Dod and Parker and Ball and Usher and Hall and Gataker and Bradshaw and Vines and Ash and millions more of the family of God I name these for my own delight and comfort it being pleasant to me to remember what companions I shall have in the heavenly joyes and praises of my Lord. How few are all the Saints on earth in comparison of those that are now with Christ And alas how weak and ignorant and corrupt how selfish and contentious and froward are Gods poor infants here in flesh when above there is nothing but Holiness and Perfection If Knowledge or Goodness or any excellency do make the creatures truly amiable all this is there in the highest degree but here alas how little have we If the Love of God or the Love of us do make others Lovely to us it is there and not here that these and all perfections flourish O how much now do I find the company of the wise and learned the godly and sincere to differ from the company of the ignorant bruitish the proud and malitious the false-hearted and ungodly rabble How sweet is the converse of a holy wise experienced Christian O then what a place is the new Ierusalem and how pleasant will it be with Saints and Angels to See and Love and Praise the Lord. § 8. Direct 8. That sickness and death may be comfortable to you as your passage to Eternity Direct 8. take notice of the seal and earnest of God even the spirit of grace which he hath put into your hearts That which emboldened Paul and such others to groan after immortality and to be most willing to be absent from the body and present with the Lord was because God himself had wrought or made them for it and given them the earnest or pledge of his spirit 2 Cor. 5. 4 5 8. For this is Gods mark upon his chosen and justified ones by which they are sealed up to the day of their redemption Ephes. 4. 30. Ephes. 1. 13. In whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise 2 Cor. 1. 21 22. God hath annointed us and sealed us and given us the pledge or earnest of his spirit into our hearts This is the pledge or earnest of our inheritance Ephes. 1. 14. And what a comfort should it be to us when we look towards Heaven to find such a pledge of God within us If you say I fear I have not this earnest of the spirit Whence then did your desires of holiness arise what weaned you from the world and made you place your hopes and happiness above whence came your enmity to sin and opposition to it and your earnest desires after the Glory of God the prosperity of the Gospel and the good of souls The very Love of Holiness and holy persons and your desires to know God and perfectly Love him do shew that heavenly nature or spirit within you which is your surest evidence for eternal life For that spirit was sent from heaven to draw up your hearts and fit you for it And God doth not give you such natures and desires and preparations in vain This also is called The witness of the spirit with or to our spirit that we are the children of God and if Children then heirs heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 15 16 17. It witnesseth our adoption by evidencing it as a seal or pledge doth witness our title to that which is so confirmed to us The nature of every thing is suited to its use and end God would not have given us a heavenly nature or desire if he had not intended us for Heaven § 9. Direct 9. Look also to the testimony of a holy life since grace hath imployed you in seeking after Direct 9. the heavenly inheritance It is unlawful and perillous to look after any works or righteousness of So Hezektah your own so as to set it in whole or in part instead of Christ or to ascribe to it any honour that is proper to him As to imagine that you are innocent or have fulfilled the Law or have made God a compensation by your merits or sufferings for the sin you have committed But yet you must judge your selves on your sick beds as near as you can as God will judge you And he will judge every man according to his work and will recompense and reward men according to their works Matth. 25 39 40 c. Well done good and faithful servant Thou hast been faithful over a little I will make thee ruler over much Come ye blessed of my father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry
united your Heart unto himself and turned it from sin to Holiness from the world to God and from Earth to Heaven and made you a new creature to live for Heaven as you did for earth Surely this is not so small and indiscernable a work or change but he that hath felt it on himself may know it It is a great work to bring a sinner to feel his unrighteousness and misery and to apply himself to Christ for Righteousness and life It is a great work to take off the heart from all the felicity of this world and to set it unfeignedly upon God and to cause him to place and seek his happiness in another world what ever become of all the prosperity or pleasure of the flesh It is thus with every true Believer for all the remnant of his sins and weaknesses And may you not know whether it be thus or not with you One of these is your case And it 's now time to know which of them it is when God is ready to tell you by his judgement If indeed you are in Christ and his Spirit be in you and hath renewed you and sanctified you and turned your heart and life to God I have then nothing more than Peace and Comfort to speak to you as in the following Exhortation But if it be otherwise and you are yet in a carnal state and were never renewed by the spirit of Christ Will you give me leave to deal faithfully with you as is necessary with one in your condition and to set before you at once your sin and your Remedy and to tell you what yet you must do if you will be saved IV. And first will you here lay to heart your folly and unfeignedly lament your sinful life before the Lord Not only this or that particular sin but principally your fleshly heart and life that in the main you have lived to this corruptible flesh and loved and sought and served the world before your God and the happiness of your soul. Alas friend did you not know that you had an immortal soul that must live in joy or misery for ever Did you not know that you were made to Love and serve and honour your maker and that you had the little time of this life given you to try and prepare you for your endless life and that as you lived here it must go with you in heaven or hell for ever If you did not believe these things why did you not come and give your Reasons against them to some judicious Divine that was able to have shewed you the Evidence of their truth If you did believe them alas how was it possible that you could forget them Could you believe a Heaven and a Hell and not regard them or suffer any transitory worldly vanity to be more regarded by you Did you know what you had to do in the world and yet is it all undone till now Were you never warned of this day Did never Preacher nor Scripture nor book nor friend nor conscience tell you of your end and tell you what would be the fruit of sin and of your contempt and slighting of Christ and of his grace Did you know that you must Love God above the world if ever you would be saved and that you must to that end be partaker of Christ and renewed by his spirit and yet would you let out your heart upon the world and follow the bruitish pleasures of the flesh and never earnestly seek after that Christ and spirit that should thus renew and sanctifie you Do you not think now that it had been wiser to have sought Christ and grace and set your affections first on the things above and to have made sure work for your soul against such a day as this than to have hardened your heart against Gods grace and despised Christ and Heaven and your salvation for a thing of nought You see now what it was that you preferred before Heaven what have you now got by all your sinful Love of the world where now is all your fleshly pleasure Will it all now serve turn to save you from death or the wrath of God and everlasting misery will it now go with you to another world Or do you think it will comfort a soul in Hell to remember the wealth which he gathered and left behind him upon earth would it not now have been much more comfortable to you if you could say My dayes were spent in Holiness in the Love of my dear Redeemer and in the hearty service of my God in praising him and praying to him in learning and obeying his holy word and will My business in the world was to please God and seek a better world and while I followed my lawful trade or calling my eye was chiefly on eternal life Instead of pleasing the flesh I delighted my soul in the Love and praise and service of my Redeemer and in the hopes of my eternal blessedness and now I am going to enjoy that God and happiness which I believ'd and sought Would not this be more comfortable to you now than to look back on your time as spent in a worldly fleshly life which you preferred before your God and your salvation Christ would not have forsaken you in the time of your extremity as the world doth if you had cleaved faithfully to him You little know what peace and comfort you might have found even on earth in a holy life How sweet would the word of God have been to you How sweet would prayer and meditation and holy conference have been Do you think it is not more pleasant to a true Believer to read the promises of eternal life and to think and talk of that blessed state when they shall dwell with God in Ioy for ever than it was to you to think and talk of worldly trash and vanity If you had used the world as a traveller doth the necessaries of his journey the thought of heaven would have offorded you solid rational comfort all the way O little do you know the sweetness of the Love of God in Christ and how good a Christian findeth it when he can but exercise and increase his knowledge and faith and Love to God and thankfulness for mercy and hopes of Heaven and walk with God in a heavenly conversation Do you not wish now that this had been your course But that which is done cannot be undone and time that is past can never be called back But yet there is a sure Remedy for your soul if you have but a heart to entertain and use it God so loved the world Joh. 3. 16 18. that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever Believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Iesus Christ being God and Man is the Mediator between God and man His death is a sufficient Sacrifice for our sins It is his Office to save all those that come to God by him Do but unfeignedly
Repent of your sinful life and yet set your Heart upon the life to come and Love God and Holiness better than the world and fleshly pleasure and trust your soul on Christ as your Redeemer and he will certainly forgive you and reconcile you unto God and present you justified and spotless in his sight Think of your sin till you abhor your self and think of your sin and misery till you feel that you are undone if you have not a Saviour and then think what Love God hath shewed you in Christ in giving him to be incarnate and die for sinners and offering you freely to pardon all that ever you have done and to justifie and save you and bring you to endless Glory with himself if yet as last you will but give up your self to Christ and accept his mercy and return to God What joyful tidings is here now for a sinful miserable soul Yet this is the certain truth of God This is his very Covenant of grace which is founded in the blood of Christ and which he is now ready to make with you and seal to you by his spirit within and his Sacrament without if you do but Heartily and unfeignedly Consent Believe in Christ and Turn to God from the world and the flesh and resolve upon a Holy life if you should recover and then I can assure you from the word of God that he will freely pardon you and take you for his Child and save your soul in endless Glory As late as it is he will certainly receive you if you return to him by Christ with all your heart And doth not your heart now rejoice in this unspeakable mercy which is willing to save you after all the sin that you have committed and after all the time that you have lost Do you not Love that God that is so abundant in Goodness and in Love and that Saviour who hath purchased you this pardon and salvation Is it not better think you to Love and praise and serve him than to live in fleshly lusts and pleasures And is it not better to dwell in Heaven with him in endless Ioys than to live awhile in the vain delights of sinners and thence to pasâ— to endless misery O beg of God now to give you a New Heart to Believe in Christ and Repent of sin and Love him that is most Holy Good and gracious And take heed that you sleight his grace no longer and that you do not now take on you in a fear to be that which you are not or to do that which you would not hold to if you should recover And to make all sure will you now sincerely enter into a Covenant with Christ I mean but the same Covenant which you made in Baptism and the Sacrament of the Lords supper and which would have saved you if you had sincerely made and kept it Let me therefore help you both to understand it and to do it by these questions which I intreat you to answer sincerely as one that is going to the presence of God Quest. 1. Do you truly Believe that you are a Rational creature differing from bruits being made to Love and serve your Maker and have an immortal soul which must live in Heaven or Hell for ever And that there is indeed a Heaven of Ioyes and a Hell of punishments when this life is ended Quest. 2. Do you believe that in Heaven the souls of the Iustified at death and the Body also at the Resurrection shall be joined with the Angels and shall dwell with Christ and see the Glory of God and be perfected in Holiness and filled with the sense of the Love of God and with the greatest Ioyes that our nature can receive and shall live in the most delightful Love and Praise of God for ever Quest. 3. Seeing you are certain that all the pleasures of this life are short and will end in death and leave the flesh which desired them in corruption do you not firmly believe that the Ioyes of Heaven are infinitely better and more to be desired and sought than all the pleasures and profits of this life And that it is most reasonable that we should Love God above all Creatures even with all our heart and soul and might Quest. 4. Seeing then that the Love of God is both our Duty and our Happiness is it not reason that we should be kept from the Love of any thing in the world which would steal away our hearts from God and hinder us from Loving him and desiring and seeking him and that we should mortifie the love of worldly riches honours and delights so far as they are against the Love of God Quest. 5. Seeing God is the absolute Lord and Ruler of the world is it not reason that we obey him whatsoever he commandeth us though we did not see the Reason why he doth command it And yet is it not plainly Reasonable that he command us to Love and honour and worship him and to Love one another and to deal Iustly with all and do as we would be done by and toâ—â—e careful of our souls and temperate for our bodies and not to neglect or dishonour our maker nor to neglect our own salvation nor abuse our bodies by beastly filthiness or excess nor to wrong our neighbours nor deny to do them any good that is in our power This is the sum of all Gods laws and this is the nature of Holiness and obedience And do you not from your heart believe that all this is very reasonable and good Quest. 6. When the sinful world was faln from Happiness into misery by turning away from God and Holiness to sensuality and God sent his Son to be their Redeemer and Saviour to be a Sacrifice for sin and a Teacher and Pattern of a Holy and Obedient life and to make a new Covenant with them in which he giveth them the pardon of all sin and everlasting happiness if they will but give up themselves to him as their Saviour and Sanctifier and by true Repentance turn to God do you not verily Believe that miserable sinners should gladly and thankfully accept of such an offer and abundantly Love that God and Saviour that hath so tenderly loved them and so freely Redeemed them from the flames of Hell and so freely offered them everlasting life And do you not Believe that he who after all this shall slight all this mercy and refuse to be renewed by sanctifying grace and shall neglect his God and soul and this salvation and rather choose to keep his sins doth not deserve to be utterly forsaken and to be punished more than if a Saviour and Salvation had never been offered to him Quest. 7. Hath not this been your own case Have you not lived a fleshly worldly life neglecting God and your salvation and minding more these lower things and have you not refused the word and spirit of Christ which would have brought you to Repentance and a holy
Jer. 31. 34. Eph. 1. 7. Act. 5. 31. Eph. 5. 26. Rev. 1. 5. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Mal. 3. 17. Joh. 1. 12. 3. 16. Eph. 2. 14. Rom. 8. 1 17. Luk. 4. 18. Rom. 5. 1 5. Luk. 1. 74. Joh. 10. 28. Luk. 23. 43. 1 Cor. 15. 8. Tit. 3. 3 4. Act. 4. 4 5 6. 1 Tim. 1. 13 14 15 16. A Form of Exhortation to the Godly in their Sickness DEar Friend Though Nature teacheth us to have compassion on your flesh which lyeth in pain yet Faith teacheth us to see the nearness of your Happiness and to Rejoyce with you in hope of your endless Joyes which seem to be at hand We must Rejoyce with you as your friends that Love you and therefore are partakers of your welfare And we must Rejoyce with you as your fellow-travellers and fellow-souldiers that are going along with you to the same felicity and if we are left behind for a little while yet hope ere long to overtake you and never to be separated from you more This is the day for which Christ hath been so long preparing you And which you have so long foreseen and have been so long preparing for your self This is the day which you thought on in all your prayers and patience in all your labours and sufferings your self-denyal and mortification since God did bring you to your self and him Now you are going to see the things which you have believed and to possess the things which you have sought and hoped for To see the final difference between the Righteous and the wicked between a Holy and a worldly life between the vessels of mercy and of wrath Your Time is hasting to an end and Endless Blessedness must succeed it O now what a mercy is it to have a Christ That you are not to encounter an unconquered Death nor to go to God without a Mediator But that Death is by Christ disarmed of its sting and that you may boldly resign your soul into the hands of your Redeemer and commend it to him as a member of himself Now what a case had your soul been in if you had no Intercessor If you had been to answer for your sins your self only and had not a Saviour to be your Advocate and answer for you Now you may better perceive than ever you have done what God did for you when he opened your eyes and humbled and changed and renewed your heart and how great a mercy it is to be a penitent Believer You may now see more fully than ever heretofore what God intended for you when he converted you When he forgave all your sins and justified you by his Grace and adopted you for his child and an heir of life and sealed you with his Spirit and sanctified and separated you to himself Now what a case were you in if you were yet in your sins and in the bondage of Satan and had not this evidence of your title to eternal life If you had your heart now to soften and to humble and to convert and your faith and justification all to seek and all your preparations for Heaven to make If you had all this to do with a pained body and a distracted mind in so short a time with God and Eternity and Death before you ready with terror to overwhelm your souls If now you were to seek for an interest in Christ and for the pardon of all your sins and your peace with God were yet to make If you had all your life past to look back upon as consumed in sin and when Time is at an end must cry out of all that is past as lost This is the case that God in justice might have left you to But what an unspeakable mercy is it that you have already been Reconciled to that God that you are going to and that the sins which now would have been your terror are all forgiven through the blood of Christ That you can look back upon your Time since the day of your Conversion as spent in faithful Devotedness to God and in a believing preparation for your endless life and in godly sincerity notwithstanding your manifold sinful imperfections which Christ hath undertaken to answer for himself Though you have nothing of your own to boast of and no works that will justifie you according to the Law at the Barr of God but you need a Saviour and a Pardon for the failings even of the best that ever you did Yet must you with thankfulness remember that Grace which hath begun eternal life within you and prepared and sealed you to the full possession of it For all the mercy that is in God and for all the Glory that is in Heaven and for all the Merits and satisfaction of Christ and for all the fulness and freeness of the Gal. 4. 4 6. Rom. 8. 16 17. Rom. 8. 9. 1 Pet. 3. 7. Promise if God had not given you a believing penitent heart and sanctified and sealed you by the Spirit of his Son all this could have afforded you little comfort but would have aggravated your misery as it did your sin Seeing then that many of the wicked would be glad to dye the death of the Righteous and when it is too late they would all be glad if their latter end might be like his how glad should you be that God by such a life hath prepared you for such an end And though a humble soul hath still an eye upon its own unworthiness and Satan is ready to aggravate our Rom. 5. 2. 17. Rom. 5. 20 21. sins in order to our discouragement and fear yet must you remember what an honourable victory grace hath had over them And look on them as Christ did as the advantage of his grace that where sin abounded there grace hath superabounded You have had something to humble you and to Rom. 8. 35 36. Ephes. 1. 6 7. 2. 5 7 8 Tit. 3. 3 5 6 7. Rom. 3. 24. 2 Cor. 12. 9. Luke 15. 4 6 24. Matth. 18. 11. 2 Pet. 3. 9. shew you that you were a child of Adam And you have had something for grace to contend with and to conquer and for Christ to pardon Bless him through whom you have had the victory Had you not deserved Hell Christ could not have saved you from a deserved Hell and the Song of the Lamb would not have been so sweet to you in the everlasting remembrance and experience of his grace You have sinned as a Man and he hath pardoned as God You have been weak and nothing but his grace hath been sufficient for you and by his strength you can do all things He hath as dear a Love to you now in his exaltation as he had upon the Cross when he was bleeding for your sins And will he suffer a chosen soul to perish for whom he hath paid so dear a price A Christ in Heaven John 3. 15 16. Matth. 18. 14. Luke 21. 18. John 18. 9.
and endeavours do contain the seed of life eternal and are such a preparation for it as cannot be in vain Would God concurr thus with any word which is not true and holy and good to make it effectual for the renovation of so many millions of souls Have you not found that his work of Grace is earryed on by heavenly Wisdom Love and Power and is a witness of his special providence and containeth his own Image upon the soul And shall we then question the Author of the seal when we see that the Image and superscription which it imprinteth is Divine And have you not had such experiences your 5. self of the fulfilling of this word in the answer of prayers manifest both on mens souls and bodies which are enough to confute the Tempter that would shake your faith when he seeth you in your weakness unfit to call up all those Evidences which at another time you have discerned For my own part I must bear this witness to the truth that I have known and felt and seen and heard such wonders wrought upon servent prayer as have many a time convinced me of the truth of the promises and the special providence of God to his poor petitioners I have oft known the Acute and Chronical Diseases of afflicted ones relieved by prayer without any natural means Some of the most violent cured in an hour and some by more slow degrees Besides the effects upon mens souls and estates and publick affairs which plainly demonstrated the means and cause And shall a promise thus sealed to us be ever questioned again Nay have you not the Witness in your self 6. 1 John 5. 10 11 12. Even the Spirit of Christ which is the pledge and earnest of your inheritance and the seal and mark of God upon you In a word it is an unquestionable truth that the rational 7. world neither is nor ever was nor can be governed agreeably to its nature without an End to move and rule them which is beyond this life and without the Hopes and fears of a Reward and Punishment hereafter Were this but taken out of the world man would no longer live like man but as the most odious noxious creature upon earth And it is as sure that it agreeth not with the Omnipotence Wisdom and Goodness of God to Govern so noble a Creature by a lye and to make a Nature that must be so governed And it is as certain that all other Revelation is defective and that Life and Immortality the end and the way were never so brought to light as they are in the Gospel by 2 Tim. 1. 10. Christ and by his Spirit Say then to the malitious Tempter The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke theâ— Zech. 3. 2. O full of all subtilty and mischief thou enemy of God and righteousness Wilt thou not cease to be a lying Spirit and to pervert the truth and right wayes of the Lord Act 13. 10. Lift up your soul to God and say I believe Lord help mine unbelief Though Satan stand to resist me at my right hand am I not a brand pluckt out of the fire Am I not thine and have I not resigned this soul to thee and didst thou not accept it in thy holy Covenant O then defend it as thine own Plead thou my Cause and confirm thy work and justifie both thy truth and me against the malitious enemy of both O let the intercession of my Saviour prevail that my faith fail not And take away the filthy garments from me Zech. 3. 3 4. and cause mine iniquities to pass away And though my soul be troubled what shall I say Father save me from this hour But then what passage shall I have into thy presence I was born a mortal wight John 12. 23 27 28. John 17. 1. and go but the way as all Generations have gone before me and follow my Lord and all his Saints Father receive and glorifie thy servant that thy servant may glorifie thy name for ever Receive O Father the soul which thou hast made Receive O Saviour the soul which thou hast so dearly bought and loved to the death Acts 7. 59. and washed in thy blood Receive the soul which thou hast regenerated by thy Spirit and in some measure quickned Psal. 39. 5 7 8 11. Psal. 32. 1 2 3. Rom. 4. 7 8. 24. Psal. 25. 7. Psal. 19. 12 13. 1 Pet. 2. 22. Matth. 3. 15. Heb. 9. 26. Isa. 53. 10. 3 4 6 7 8 9. Matth. 3 17. 17. 5. 12. 18. Rom. 5. 1 2 3 5 10. Ephes. 2. 14. Heb. 10. 10 12 14 18. Heb 7. 26 2â— Ephes. 1. 6 7 11 13. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Phil. 3. 9 10 11. Eph. 5. 26 27. Psal. 139. 16 17 18. Psal. 16. 6 7. Psal. 6â— 9. Psal. 46. 4. Psal. 42. 3 4. Psal. 89. 15. Psal. 36. 8. John 4. 10 13 14. Psal. 42. 4. Psal. 107. 6. 13. Psal. 107. 17 14. by the immortal seed Behold thou hast made my dayes as an hand breadth my age before thee is as nothing and every man at his best estate is vanity When thy rebukes correct us for iniquity thou makest our beauty to câ—nsume as a nâ—oth And now O Lord what wait I for Is not my hope alone in thee Deliver me from my transgressions and impute not to me the sins which I have done Remember not against me the sins of my youth and forgive the iniquities of my riper years Charge not upon me my grieving of thy Spirit and neglects and resistances of thy grace Forgive my sins of ignorance and of knowledge my sins of slâ—thfulness rashness and presumption especially those which I have wilfully committed against thy warnings and the warnings of my Conscience Who can understand his errors Cleanse thou me from secret sins O pardon my unprofitableness and abuse of thy mercies and my sluggish loss of pretious time that I have served thee no better and loved thee no more and improved no better the day of grace Though folâ—y and sin have darknâ—d my light and blemished my most holy services and my transgressions have been multiplyed in thy sight yet is the Sacrifice sufficient which thou hast accepted from our great High Priest who made his soul an offering for sin In him thou art well pleased He is our peace In him I trust He was holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners He did no iniquity He fulfilled all Righteousness and by once offering of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified He is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Accept me O Father in him thy well beloved Let my sinful soul be healed by his stripes who bare our sins in his body on the Cross. Let me be found in him not having any Legal righteousness of my own but that which
and dead formality and offer God a Carrion for a Sacrifice and yet their Consciences are so far from checking them for this heynous sin that they are much pleased and quieted by it as if they had deserved well of God and proved themselves very godly people and by this sin had made him amends for the common sins of their lives Is it God himself and his sanctifying grace that those men seek after in his Worship who hate his grace and scorn sanctification and can leave God to be enjoyed by others if they may but enjoy their fleshly pleasures and riches and honours in the world Even the Haters of God and Holiness are so blinded as to perswade themselves that in his Worship they are truly seeking that God and Holiness which they hate And O what a deal of pains is many a formal Hypocrite at to little purpose in spending many 2 Tim. 3. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 7. hours in outside heartless lifeless worship while they never thirsted after God nor after a holy conformity to him communion with him or fruition of him in all their lives O what a deal of labour do these Pharisees lose in bodily exercise which profiteth nothing for want of a right end in all that they do because it is not God that they seek when Goliness is profitable to all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. And what is Godliness but the souls devotedness to God and seeking after him We have much adoe to bring some men from their diversions to Gods outward worship But O how much harder is it to bring the soul to seek God unfeignedly in that Worship where the Body is present When David in the Wilderness was driven from the Sanctuary he cryeth out in the bitterness of his soul As the Hart panteth after the water Brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God My tears have been my meat day and night while they continually sâ—y unto me where is thy God You see here that it was God himself that David thirsted after in his Worship Alas what is all the outward pomp of Worship if God be not the end and life of all Without him how vain a thing would the words of prayer and preaching and the administration of the Sacraments be It is not the dead letter but the quickening spirit that maketh the dead in sin to live that convinceth or comforteth the soul or maketh the worshipper holy or happy Nay it is some aggravation of your misery to be destitute of true Communion with God Isa. 29. 13. Matth. 15. 8. Matth. 11. â—3 Matth. 10. 15. Matth. 11. 23 24. 2 Sam. 15. 25 28 29. while you seem to worship him and to be far from him in the Heart while you draw so near him with the lips To boast of the Temple of the Lord and be forsaken by the Lord of the Temple That Capernaum shall be cast down to Hell that is but thus lift up to Heaven And it will be easier for Sodom in the day of judgement than for such as had the publick ordinances without God David left the Ark with Absalom at Hierusalem but God was not with Absalom but with David No marvel if such Hypocrites grudge at all that is costly in Gods service even the necessary maintenance of the Ministers For if they have only the shell of Ordinances without God it will scarce requite them for their cost No marvel if they think all their pains too much when they take up with the chaff which is scarcely worth their pains No wonder if they find small pleasure in Gods Service For what pleasure is there in the husks or chaff or in a deaf nut No wonder if they grow no better no holier or stronger by it For what strength will chaff and shadows breed No marvel if they are quickly weary and if a little of such Religion seem enough when the life and spirits and strength and sweetness is neglected O sinners remember that God desireth not yours but you and all your wealth and service is as nothing to him if he have not your selves when yet you are so little worth the having Nay how earnestly doth he sue to have you How dearly hath he bought you he may challenge you as his own Answer this kindness of God aright Let no ordinance nor no common mercy satisfie you if you have not God himself And to encourage you let me further tell you § 24. 10. If it be God himself that thou seekest in his worship sincerely thou shalt find him Because thou hast chosen the better part it shall not be taken from thee Because thou hungrest and Luk. 10. 42. thirsteth after him thou shalt be satisfied What joyful news is this to the thirsty soul 2. Thou art most welcome to God with these high desires This holy ambition and aspiring of Love is only acceptable to him If all ordinances be nothing to thee without God he will see that thou understandest the true use of ordinances and put down thy name among his Lovers whom he cannot despise He loveth not to see men debase their souls to feed on husks and chaff with hypocrites no more than to feed on filth and dirt with sensualists and worldlings As he accepted Solomons prayer â— Chron. 1. 11 12 13. because he asked not for little things but for great so he is very much pleased with the soul that is unsatisfied with all the world and can be content with nothing lower or worse than God himself 3. Nay because thou seekest God himself thou shalt have all things with him that are worth the having Matth. 6. 33. Rom. 8. 28. When hypocrites have but the carkass and shadow it 's thou that shâ—lt have the substantial food and joy As they that were with Paul when he was Converted did hear the voice but saw no man Act. 9. 7. so others shall hear the sound of the word and the name of God but it is thou that shall see him by faith that is invisible and feel the power and efficacy of all Thou shalt hear God speak to thee when he that sitteth in the same seat with thee shall hear no more than the voice of man It is he that seeketh after God in his Ordinances that is Religious in good sadness and is employed in a work that is worthy of an immortal rational soul. The delights of Ordinances as they are performed by man will savour of his imperfections and taste of the instrument and have a bitterness often mixed with the sweet when the delight that cometh from God himself will be more pure Ordinances are uncertain You may have them to day and lose them to morrow when God is everlasting and everlastingly to be enjoyed O therefore take not up short of God in any of his worship but before you set upon it call up your souls to mind the end and tell them
nothing home at last but repentance and shame Truth which is the means of the good of souls must not be betrayed as for the good of souls § 37. Direct 26. Doubt not of well proved Truths for every difficulty that appeareth against them Direct 26. There is scarce any truth in the World so plain but in your own thoughts or in the câ—vâ—ls of a wrangling wit there may such difficulties be raised as as you can hardly answer And there is scarce any thing so evident that some will not dispute against You see that even the learnedst Jesuits and all the Clergy of the Roman Kingdom will not stick to dispute all the World if they could out of the belief of all their senses while they maintain that Bread is not Bread and wine is not wine And yet how many Princes Lords and Rulers follow them and many millions of the people because they be not able to confute them If they had said that a man is no man but a warm Psal. 22. 6. they might in reason have expected as much belief § 38. Direct 27. Abuse not your own knowledge by subjecting it to your carnal interest or sensuality Direct 27. He that will sin against his Conscience and will not obey the Knowledge which he hath doth Maâ—â—5 29. Rom. 14. 22. deserve to be given over to blindness and deceit and to lose even that which he hath and to be forsaken till he believe and defend a lye that all they might be damned who obeyed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. God will not hold him guiltless who debaseth his sacred truth so far as to make it stoop to his commodity and â—ust where he is a Teacher he will be a King and sendeth his Truth as the instrument of his Government and not as a slave or pandor to the flesh He that will do Gods will shall know it Joh. 7. 17. But the carnal mind that cannot be subject to Gods Law is unfit to receive it because it is spiritually discerned Rom. 8. 7. 1 Cor. 2. 14. CHAP. VIII Directions for the Union and Communion of Saints and the avoiding unpeaceableness and Schism THE PEACE and CONCORD of Believers is a thing that almost all those plead Of this subjâ—ct I have written already 1. My Univâ—â—sal Concord 2. My Catholiâ—k Unity 3. Of the True Catholick Châ—râ—h 4. My Châ—istiaâ— Coâ—â—ord for who call themselves Believers and yet a thing that almost all men hinder and resist while they commend it The Discord and DIVISIONS of believers are as commonly spoken against and by the same men as commonly fomented The few that are sincere both Rulers and private men desire Concord and hate Divisions in Love to Holiness which is promoted by it and in Love to the Church and good of souls and the honour of Religion and the Glâ—ry of God And the few of those few that are experienced wise judicious persons do choose the means that is fittest to attain these ends and do prudently and constantly prosecute them accordingly But these being in the World as a spoonful of fresh water cast into the Sea or a spoonful of water cast into the flames of a house on fire no wonder if the brinish Sea be not sweetened by them nor the consuming raging fire quenched by them The other Rulers of the world and of the Churches are for Concord and against Division because this tendeth to the quieting of the people under them Read over Sr. Fr. Bacoâ—s third Essaâ— and Hales of Schism and the making of men submissive and obedient to their wills and so to confirm their dignities dominions and interests And all men that are not Hâ—ly being predominantly SELFISH they would all be themselves the Center of that Union and bond of that concord which they desire And they would have it accomplished upon such terms â—â—d by such means as are most agreeable to their principles and Ends In which there are almost a many minds as Men so that among all the Commenders of UNITY and concord there are none that take the way to attain it but those that would center it all in GOD and seek it upon his terms and in his way The rest are all tearing Unity and Peace in pieces while they commend it and they fight against it while they seek it every man seeking it for Himself and upon his own terms and in his own way which are so various and inconsistent that East and West may sooner meet than they § 2. Yet must the sons of God be still the sons of Peace and continue their prayers and endeavours for UNITY how small soever be the hopes of their success If it be possible as much as in us lyeth Rom. 12 18. we must live peaceably with all men So far must they be from being guilty of any Schismes or unlawful Divisions of the Church that they must make it a great part of their care and work to preserve the Unity and peace of Christians In this therefore I shall next Direct them § 3. Direct 1. Understand first wherein the Unity of Christians and Churches doth consist Or else Direct 1. you will neither know how to preserve it nor when you violate it Christians are said to be United In vâ—ste Christi varietas siâ— sâ—issura non sit They be two things Unity and Uniformity â— Bacoâ— Essay 3. to Christ when they are entered into Covenant with him and are become his Disciples his Subjects and the members of his Political Body They are united to one another when they are united to Christ their common head and when they have that spirit that faith that Love which is communicated to every living member of the body This Union is not the making of many to be One Christian but of many Christians to be one Church which is considerable either as to its Internal Life or its external order and profession In the former respect the bonds of our Union are 1. The heart-Covenant or faith 2. And the spirit The Consent of Christ and of our selves concurring doth make the match or marriage between us and the spirit communicated from him to us is as the nerves or ligaments of the body or rather as the spirits which pass through all The Union of the Church considered Visibly in its outward Policy is either that of the whole Church or of the Particular Churches within themselves or of divers particular Churches accidentally united 1. The Union of the whâ—le is Essential integral or accidental The essential Union is that Relation of a Head and members which is between Christ and all the visible members of his Church The foundation of it is the mutual Covenant between Christ and them considered on their part as made Externally whether sincerely or not This is usually done in Baptism and is the chiefest act of their Profession of the faith Thus the Baptismal Covenant doth constitute us
Tim. 1. 4. James 3. 1 Cor. 3. 3. For ye are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying zeal and strife and divisions or parties or factions are ye not carnal and walk as men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos are ye not carnal Phil. 2. 1 2 3 4. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same Love of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves Rom. 16 17 18. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions or parties and offences or scandals contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Abundance more such Texts may be recited § 49. II. The great Benefits of the Concord of Christians are these following 1. It is necessary The Benefits of Concord to the very Life of the Church and its several members that they be all One Body As their Union with Christ the Head and Principle of their life is principally necessary so Unity among themselves is secondarily necessary for the conveyance and reception of that Life which floweth to all from Christ. For though the Head be the Fountain of Life yet the nerves and other parts must convey that life unto the members And if any member be cut off or separated from the Body it is separated also from the Head and perisheth Mark well those words of the Apostle Ephes. 4. 3. to 16. Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace There is one Body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one Hope of your calling One Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all But unto every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And be gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangeliâ—ts and some Pastors and Teachers For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the Edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the Unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ that speaking the truth in Love we may grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ From whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by every joynt of supply according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying of it self in Love See here how the Churches Unity is necessary to its life and increase and to the due nutrition of all the parts § 50. 2. The Unity of the Church and the Concord of Believers is necessary to its strength and safety for Christ also strengtheneth as well as quickneth them by suitable means Wo to him that is alone But in the Army of the Lord of Hosts we may safely march on when straglers are catcht up or killed by the weakest enemy A threefold cord is not easily broken Enemies both spiritual and corporal are deterred from assaulting the Church or any of its members while they see us walk in our Military Unity and Order In this posture every man is a blessing and defence unto his neighbour As every Souldier hath the Benefit of all the conduct wisdom and valour of the whole Army while he keepeth in his place so every weak Christian hath the use and benefit of all the Learning the Wisdom and Gifts of the Church while he keepeth his station and walketh orderly in the Church The hand the eye the ear the foot and every member of the Body is as ready to help or serve the whole and every other particular member as it self But if it be cut off it is neither helpful nor to be helped O what a mercy is it for every Christian that is unable to help himself to have the help of all the Church of God their directions their exhortations their Love their prayers their liberality and compassion according to their several abilities and opportunities As infants and sick persons have the help of all the rest of the family that are in health § 51. 3. Unity and Concord as it proceedeth from Love so it greatly cherisheth and increaseth Peace containeth infinite blessings I strengtheneth faith It kindleth Charity The outward peace of the Church distilleth into peace of conscience and it turneth the writing and reading of Controversies into treatises of Mortification and Devotion Id. ibid. Against procuring Unity by sanguinaâ—y persecutions see Lord Bacon Essay 3. Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of new Sects and Schisms than to reform abuses to compound the smaller differences to proceed mildly and not with sanguinaâ—y persecutions and rather to take off the principal authors by winning and advancing them than to â—nrage them by violence and bitterness Lord Bacon in his Essay 58. Ita hominis non implet justitiam Dei And it was a notable observation of a wise Father that those which held and persuaded pressure of Consciences were commonly interessed there in themselves for their own ends Id. Ess. 3. p. 19. Love even as the laying of the Wood or Coals together is necessary to the making of the fire which the separating of them will put out Holy Concord cherisheth holy converse and communion And holy communion powerfully kindleth holy Love When the servants of Christ do see in each other the lustre of his Graces and hear from each other the heavenly language which floweth from a Divine and heavenly mind this potently kindleth their affections to each other and maketh them close with those as the sons of God in whom they find so much of God Yea it causeth them to Love God himself in others with a reverent admiring and transcendent Love when others at the best can Love them but as men Concord is the womb and soil of Love although it be first its progeny In quietness and peace the voice of peace is most regarded § 52. 4. Unity and Concord is the Churches Beauty It maketh us amiable even to the eye of nature and venerable and terrible even to the eye of malice A concord in sin is no more honour than it is for conquered men to go together in multitudes to prison or captivity or for beasts to go by droves unto the slaughter But to see the Churches of Christ with one heart and soul acknowledging their Maker and Redeemer and singing his Praise as with one voice and living together in Love and Concord as those that have one Principle one Rule one nature one work one Interest and Hope and End this is the truly beauteous symmetry and delectable harmony Psal. 133. Behold how good
in a state of salvation that are not inherently sanctified And whether any fall from this Infant state of salvation Answ. OF all these great difficulties I have said what I know in my Appendix to Infant Baptism to Mr. Bedford and Dr. Ward and of Bishop Davenants judgement And I confess that my judgement agreeth more in this with Davenants than any others saving that he doth not so much appropriate the benefits of baptism to the children of sincere believers as I do And though by a Letter in pleading Davenants cause I was the occasion of good Mr. Gatakers printing of his answer to him yet I am still most inclined to his judgement Not that all the baptized but that all the baptized seed of true Christians are pardoned justified adopted and have a title to the Spirit and salvation But the difficulties in this case are so great as driveth away most who do not equally perceive the greater inconveniencies which we must choose if this opinion be forsaken that is that all Infants must be taken to be out of the Covenant of God and to have no promise of salvation Whereas surely the Law of Grace as well as the Covenant of Works included all the seed in their capacity 1. To the first of these Questions I answer 1. As all true believers so all their Infants do receive initially by the promise and by way of obsignation and Sacramental Investiture in Baptism a Ius Relationis a right of peculiar Relation to all the three persons in the blessed Trinity As to God as Matth. 28. 19 20. their reconciled Adopting Father and to Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and actual Head and Justifier so also to the Holy Ghost as their Regenerater and Sanctifier This Right and Relation 1 Cor. 12. 12 13. adhereth to them and is given them in order to future actual operation and communion As a Marriage Covenant giveth the Relation and Right to one another in order to the subsequent Communion Eph. 4. 4 5. and duties of a married life And as he that sweareth allegiance to a King or is listed into an Army or is entred into a School receiveth the Right and Relation and is so correlated as obligeth to the mutual subsequent Offices of each and giveth right to many particular benefits By this Right and Relation God is his own God and Father Christ is his own Head and Saviour and the Holy Spirit is his own Sanctifier without asserting what operations are already wrought on his soul but only to what future ends and uses these Relations are Now as these Rights and Relations are given immediately so those Benefits which are Relative and the Infant immediately capable of them are presently given by way of communion He hath presently the pardon of Original sin by virtue of the Sacrifice Merit and Intercession of Christ. He hath a state of Adoption and Right to Divine Protection Provision and Church-communion according to his natural Capacity and Right to everlasting life 2. It must be carefully noted that the Relative Union between Christ the Mediator and the baptized persons is that which in Baptism is first given in order of nature and that the rest do flow from this The Covenant and Baptism deliver the Covenanter 1. From Divine Displicency by Reconciliation with the Father 2. From Legal Penalties by Justification by the Son 3. From sin it self by the operations of the Holy Ghost But it is Christ as our Mediator-Head that is first given us in Relative Union And then 1. The Father Loveth us with Complacency as in the Son and for the sake of his first beloved 2. And the Spirit which is given us in Relation is first the Spirit of Christ our The Spirit is not given radically or immediately to any Christian but to Christ our Head alone and from Him to us Head and not first inherent in us So that by Union with our Head that Spirit is next united to us both Relatively and as Radically Inherent in the Humane Nature of our Lord to whom we are united As the Nerves and Animal Spirits which are to operate in all the body are Radically only in the Head from whence they flow into and operate on the members as there is need though there may be obstructions So the Spirit dwelleth in the Humane Nature of our Head and there it can never be lost And it is not necessary that it dwell in us by way of Radication but by way of Influence and Operation These things are distinctly and clearly understood but by very few and we are all much in the dark about them But I think however doctrinally we may speak better that most Christians are habituated to this perilous misapprehension which is partly against Christianity it self that the Spirit floweth immediatly from the Divine Nature of the Father and the Son as to the Authoritative or Potestative conveyance unto our souls And we forget that it is first given to Christ in his Glorified Humanity as our Head and radicated in Him and that it is the Office of this Glorified Head to send or communicate to all his members from Himself that Spirit which must operate in them as they have need This is plain in many Texts of Scripture Rom. 8. 32. He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall be not also with him freely give us all things when he giveth him particularly to us 1 John 5. 11 12. And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath the life and he that hath not the Son hath not the life Rom. 8. 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Eph. 1. 22 23. And gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all John 15. 26. The Advocate or Comforter whom I will send unto you from the Father c. John 16. 7. If I depart I will send him unto you John 14. 26. The Comforter whom the Father will send in my Name Gal. 4. 6. And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I know that is true of his Living in us Objectively and Finally but that seemeth not to be all Col. 3. 3 4. For ye are dead and your life is bid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in Glory I know that in verse 3. by Life is meant Felicity or Glory But not only as appeareth by verse 4. where Christ is called Our Life Matth. 28. 19. All power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth ver 20. I am with you allwayes Joh. 13. 3. The Father hath given all things into his hands Joh. 17. 2
3. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him And this is life eternal to know thee c. Joh. 5. 21. The Son quickeneth whom he will v. 26. For as the Father hath life in Himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself Joh. 6. 27. Labour for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the son of man shall give unto you For him â—ath God the Father sealed V. 32. 33. He giveth Life unto the World V. 53 54 55 56. Whosâ— eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life dwelleth in me and I in him my flesh is meat indeed At the Living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me V. 63. It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 7. 39. This spake he of the spirit which they that believe in him should receive Joh. 3. 34. God giveth not the spirit to him by measure 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. The Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Phil. 1. 19. Through the supply of the spirit of Iesus Christ. Joh. 15. 4. Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me V. 5. I am the Vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit For without me or out of me or severed from me ye can do nothing I will add no more All this is proof enough that the spirit is not given radically or Immediately from God to any believer but to Christ and so derivatively from him to us Not that the Divine nature in the third person is subject to the humane nature in Christ But that God hath made it the office of our Mediators Glorified Humanity to be the Cistern that shall first receive the Waters of life and convey them by the pipes of his appointed means to all the offices of his house Or to be the Head of the Animal spirits and by nerves to convey them to all the members 3. We are much in the dark concerning the degree of Infants Glory And therefore we can as little know what degree of grace is necessary to prepare them for their Glory 4. It is certain that Infants before they are Glorified shall have all that Grace that is prerequisite to their preparation and fruition 5. No sanctified person on earth is in an Immediate capacity for Glory Because their sin and imperfection must be done away which is done at the dissolution of soul and body The very accession of the soul to God doth perfect it 6. Infants have no actual faith or hope or Love to God to exercise And therefore need not the influence of the spirit of Christ to exercise them 7. We are all so very much in the dark as to the clear and distinct apprehension of the true nature of Original inherent pravity or sin that we must needs be as much ignorant of the true nature of that Inherent sanctity or Righteousness which is its contrary or curâ— Learned Illirious thought it was a Substance which he hath in his Clavis pleaded for at large Others call it a Habit Others a nature or natural Inclination and a privation of a Natural Inclination to God Others call it an Indisposition of the mind and will to holy Truth and Goodness and an Ill disposition of them to errour and evil Others call it only the Inordinate Lust of the sensitive faculties with a debility of Reason and Will to resist it And whilest the nature of the soul it self and its faculties are so much unknown to it self the nature of Original pravity and Righteousness must needs be very much unknown 8. Though an Infant be a distinct natural person from his Parents yet is he not actually a distinct person Morally as being not a moral Agent and so not capable of moral Actions good or evil Therefore his Parents Will goeth for his 9. His first acceptance into the Complacencial Love of God as distinct from his Love of Benevolence is not for any inherent Holiness in himself but 1. As the Child of a believing Parent who hath Dedicated him to Christ and 2. As a member of Christ in whom he is well pleased 10. Therefore God can complacencially as well as benevolently Love an Infant in Christ who only believeth and Repenteth by the Parents and not by himself nor is not yet supposed to have the spirit of sanctification 11. For the spirit of sanctification is not the presupposed Condition of his acceptance into Covenant with God but a gift of the Covenant of God it self following both the Condition on our part and our right to be Covenanters or to Gods promise upon that condition 12. So the adult themselves have the operation of the spirit by which they Believe and Repent by which they come to have their Right to Gods part in the Covenant of Baptism for this is antecedent to their baptism But they have not that gift of the spirit which is called in Scripture the spirit Act. 26 8. 2 Tâ—m 4. 7. Rom. 8 30. Gal. 4. 6. of sanctification and of Power Love and a sound mind and is the benefit given by the Covenant of Baptism till afterward Because they must be in that Covenant before it can be made good to them And their Faith or Consent is their Infants right also antecedent to the Covenant gift 13. There is therefore some notable difference between that work of the spirit by which we first Repent and believe and so have our title to the promise of the spirit and that gift of the spirit which is promised to believers which is not only the spirit of Miracles given in the first times but some notable degree of Love to our Reconciled Father suitable to the Grace and Gospel of Redemption and Rom. 8 9. Rom. 8. 16. â—5 Reconciliation and is called the spirit of Christ and the spirit of Adoption which the Apostles themselves seem not to have received till Christs ascension And this seemeth to be not only different from the Gifts of the spirit common to Hypocrites and the unbelievers but also from the special gift of the spirit which maketh men believers So that Mr. Tho. Hooker saith trulyer than once I understood that Vâ—cation is a special Grace of the spirit distinct from Common Grace on one side and from sanctification on the other side Whether it be the same degree of the spirit which the faithful had before Christs Incarnation which causeth men first to believe distinct from the higher following degree I leave to enquiry But the certainest distinction is from the different effects 14. Though an Infant cannot be either disposed
hold their own mercies upon the condition of their own continued fidelity And let their Apostasie be on other reasons never so impossible or not future yet the promise of continuance and consummation of the personal felicity of the greatest Saint on earth is still conditional upon the condition of â—his persevering sidelity 6. Even before Children are capable of Instruction there are certain duties imposed by God on the Parents for their sanctification viz. 1. That the Parents pray earnestly and believingly for them Second Commandment Prov. 20. 7. 2. That they themselves so live towards God as may invite him still to bless their Children for their sakes as he did Abrahams and usually did to the faithful's seed 7. It is certain that the Church ever required Parents not only to enter their Children into the Covenant and so to leave them but to do their after duty for their good and to pray for them and educate them according to their Covenant 8. It is plain that if there were none to promise so to educate them the Church would not baptize them And God himself who allowed the Israelites and still alloweth us to bring our Children into his Covenant doth it on this supposition that we promise also to go on to do our duty for them and that we actually do it 9. All this set together maketh it plain 1. That God never promiseth the adult in Baptism though true believers that he will work in them all graces further by his sanctifying spirit let them never so much neglect or resist him or that he will absolutely see that they never shall resist him nor that the spirit shall still help them though they neglect all his means or that he will keep them from neglecting the means Election may secure this to the Elect as such but the Baptismal Covenant as such secureth it not to the baptized nor to believers as such 2. And consequently that Infants are in Covenant with the Holy Ghost still conditionally as their Parents are And that the meaning of it The Holy Ghost is promised in Baptism to give the Child grace in his Parents and his own faithful use of the appointed means is that the Holy Ghost as your sanctifier will afford you all necessary help in the use of those means which he hath appointed you to receive his help in Obj. Infants have no means to use Answ. While Infants stand on their Parents account or Wills the Parents have means to use for the continuance of their grace as well as for the beginning of it 10. Therefore I cannot see but that if a believer should apostatize whether any do so is not the question and his Infant not be made anothers Child he forfeiteth the benefits of the Covenant to his Infant But if the propriety in the Infant be transferred to another it may alter the case 11. And how dangerously Parents may make partial forfeitures of the spirits assistance to their Children and operations on them by their own sinful lives and neglect of prayer and of prudent and holy education even in particular acts I fear many believing Parents never well considered 12. Yet is not this forfeiture such as obligeth God to deny his spirit For he may do with his own as a free benefactor as he list And may have mercy freely beyond his promise though not against his word on whom he will have mercy But I say that he that considereth the woful unfaithfulness and neglect of most Parents even the Religious in the Great work of holy educating their Children may take the blame of their ungodliness on themselves and not lay it on Christ or the spirit who was in Covenant with them as their sanctifier seeing he promised but conditionally M. â—â—istoâ— pag. â—3 As Abraham as a single person in Covenant was to accept of and perform the conditions of the Covenant so as a Parent he had something of duty incumbent on him with reference to his immediate seed And as his faithful performance of that duty incumbent on him in his single capacity so his performing that duty incumbent on him as a Parent in reference to his seed was absolutely necessary in order to his enjoying the good promised with reference to himself and his seed Proved Gen. 17 1. 18. 19. He proveth that the promise is conditional and that as to the continuance of the Covenant state the conditions are 1. The Parents upright life 2. His duty to his Children well done 3. The Childrens own duty as they are capable to give them the sanctifying Heavenly influences of his Life Light and Love in their just use of his appointed means according to their abilities 13. Also as soon as Children come to a little use of Reason they stand conjunctly on their Parents Wills and on their own As their Parents are bound to teach and rule them so they are bound to learn of them and be ruled by them for their good And though every sin of a Parent or a Child be not a total forfeiture of grace yet both their notable actual sins may justly be punished with a denyal of some further help of the spirit which they grieve and quench 11. And now I may seasonably answer the former question whether Infants Baptismal saving grace may be lost of which I must for the most that is to be said referr the Reader to Davenant in Mr. Bedfords Book on this subject and to Dr. Sam. Ward joyned with it Though Mr. Gatakers answers are very Learned and considerable And to my small Book called My Iudgement of Perseverance Augustine who first rose up for the doctrine of perseverance against its Adversaries carried it no higher than to all the Elect as such and not at all to all the Sanctified but oft affirmeth that some that were justified sanctified and Love God and are in a state of salvation are not elect and fall away But since the Reformation great reasons have been brought to carry it further to all the truly sanctified of which cause Zanchius was one of the first Learned and zealous Patrons that with great diligence in long disputations maintained it All that I have now to say is that I had rather with Davenant believe that the fore-described Infant state of salvation which came by the Parents may be lost by the Parents and the Children though such a sanctified renewed nature in holy Habits of Love as the adult have be never lost than believe that no Infants are in the Covenant of Grace and to be baptized Obj. But the Child once in possession shall not be punished for the Parents sin Answ. 1. This point is not commonly well understood I have by me a large Disputation proving from the current of Scripture a secondary original sin besides that from Adam and a secondary punishment ordinarily inflicted on Children for their Parents sins besides the common punishment of the World for the first sin 2. But the thing in question is
and instruction 3. If they may do so in the Psalms in Metre there can no reason be given but they may lawfully do so in the Psalms in prose For saying them and singing them are but modes of utterance both are the speaking of Prayer and praise to God And the ancient singing was liker our saying than to our tunes as most judge 4. The primitive Christians were so full of the zeal and Love of Christ that they would have taken it for an injury and a quenching of the spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the praises of the Church 5. The use of the tongue keepeth awake the mind and stirreth up Gods graces in his servants 6. It was the decay of zeal in the people that first shut out Responses while they kept up the ancient zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the pride and usurpation of some Priests thereupon who thought the people of God too prophane to speak in the assemblies and meddle so much with holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessours even when they lost the Life and spirit which should animate them And so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their ancestors had used in the fervour of their souls 6. And if it were not that a dead hearted formal people by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of seriousness I think few good people would be against them now If all the serious zealous Christians in the assembly speak the same words in a serious manner there will appear nothing in them that should give offence If in the fulness of their hearts the people should breakout into such words of prayer or confession or praise it would be taken for an extraordinary pang of zeal and were it unusual it would take exceedingly But the better any thing is the more loathsome it appeareth when it is mortified by hypocrisie and dead formality and turned into a mockery or an affected scenical act But it is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the Life and spirit to the words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore 7. Those that would have private men pray and prophesie in publick as warranted by 1 Cor. 14. Ye may all speak c. do much contradict themselves if they say also that Lay man may say nothing but Amen 8. The people were all to say Amen in Deut. 27. 15 16 18 19 20 c. And yet they oftentimes said more As Exod. 19. 8. in as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God himself gave Moses a Sermon in a form of words to Preach to the people and Moses had repeated it as from the Lord it being the Narrative of his mercies the command of obedience and the promises of his great blessings upon that condition all the people answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do The like was done again Exod. 24. 3. And Deut. 5. 27. And lest you should think either that the Assembly was not as solemn as ours or that it was not well done of the people to say more than Amen God himself who was present declared his approbation even of the words when the speakers hearts were not so sincere in speaking them as they ought vers 28 29. And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me and the Lord said unto me I have heard the voice of the words of this people They have well said all that they have spoken O that there were such a heart in them Obj. But this is but a speech to Moses and not to God Answ. I will reciâ—e to you a form of prayer which the people themselves were to make publickly to God Deut. 26 13 14 15. Then shalt thou say before the Lord thy God I have brought away the ☞ hallowed things out of my house and also have given them to the Levite and to the stranger to the fatherless and the Widow according to all thy Commandments which thou hast commanded me I have not transgressed thy Commandments neither have I forgotten them I have not eaten thereof in my mourning neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use nor given ought thereof for the dead but I have â—earkened to the voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me Look down from thy holy habitation from Heaven and bless thy people Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swarest unto our Fathers a Land that floweth with milk and honey Is not here a full form of Prayer to be used by all the people And remember that Ioseph and Mary and Christ himself were under this Law and that you never read that Christ found fault with the peoples speech nor spake a word to restrain it in his Churches In Lev. 9. 24. When all the people saw the Glory of the Lord and the fire that came out from it and consumed the burnt Offering they shouted and fell on their faces which was an acclamation more than bare Amen 2 King 23. 2 3. King Iosiah went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah c. And the Priests and the Prophets and all the people both small and great and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the Covenant And the King stood by a pillar and made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments c with all their heart and all their soul c. and all the people stood to the Covenant Where as a King is the speaker it 's like that the people used some words to express their consent 1 Chron. 16. 35 36. When David delivered a Psalm for a form of praise in which it is said to the people v. 35. And say ye save us O God of our salvation and gather us together and deliver us from the Heathen that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory in thy praise blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever All the people said Amen and praised the Lord. Where it is like that their praising the Lord was more than their Amen And it is a command Psal. 67. 3 5. Let all the people praise thee O God let all the people praise thee And he that will limit this to single persons or say that it must not be Vocally in the Church or it must be only in metre and never in prose or only in tunes and not without must prove it lest he be proved an adder to Gods word But it would be tedious to recite all the repeated sentences in the Psalms
more congruously and it seems with less offence than we Saith the Geographia Nubiensis aptly There is a certain King dwelling at Rome called the Pope c. when he goeth to describe him Nothing well suites with our function but the pure Doctrine of Salvation Let States-men and Lawyers mind the rest Two things I must apologize for in this Part 1. That it 's maimed by defect of those Directions to Princes Nobles Parliament-men and other Magistrates on whose duty the happiness of Kingdoms Churches and the World dependeth To which I answer that those must teach them whom they will hear while my Reason and experience forbid me as an unacceptable person to speak to them without a special invitation I can bear the Censures of Strangers who knew not them or me I am not so proud as to expect that men so much above me should stoop to read any Directions of mine much less to think me fit to teach them Every one may reprove a poor servant or a beggar It 's part of their priviledge But Great men must not be so much as admonished by any but themselves and such as they will hear At least nothing is a duty which a man hath reason to think is like to do much more harm than good And my own judgement is much against pragmatical presumptuous Preachers who are over-forward to meddle with their Governours or their affairs and think that God sendeth them to reprove persons and things that are strange to them and above them and vent their distastes upon uncertain reports or without a Call 2. And I expect to be both blamed and mis-understood for what I hear say in the Confutation of Mr. Richard Hooker his Political Principles and my Citation of B. Bilson and such others But they must observe 1. That it is not all in Mr. Hookers first and eighth Book which I gainsay but the principle of the Peoples being the fountain of Authority or that Kings receive their Office it self from them with the consequents hereof How far the people have in any Countrys the power of Electing the Persons Families or Forms of Government or how far nature giveth them propriety and the consequents of this I meddle not with at all 2. Nor do I choose Mr. Hooker out of any envy to his name and honour but I confess I do it to let men know truly whose Principles these are And if any causelesly question whether the eighth imperfect Book be in those passages his own let them remember that the sum of all that I confute is in his first Book which is old and highly honoured by you know whom And I will do him the honour and my self the dishonour to confess that I think the far greater number of Casuists and Authors of Politicks Papists and Protestants are on his side and fewest on mine But truth is truth On the subjects duty I am larger because if they will not hear at least I may boldly and freely instruct them If in the later part there be any useful Cases of Conscience left out it is because I could not remember them Farewell A Christian Directory TOM IV. Christian Politicks CHAP. I. General Rules for an Upright Conversation § 1. SOLOMON saith Prov. 10. 9. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely And Perfection and Uprightness are the characters of Iob Chap. 1. 1 8. 2. 3. And in the Scripture to be Upright or Righteous and to walk uprightly and to do righteously are the titles of those that are acceptable to God And by Uprightness is meant not only sincerity as opposed to Hypocrisie but also Rectitude of Heart and Life as opposed to crookedness or sin and this as it is found in various Degrees of which we use to call the lowest degree that is saving by the name of sincerity and the highest by the name of Perfection § 2. Concerning Uprightness of life I shall I. Briefly tell you some of those blessings that should make us all in love with it and II. Give you some necessary Rules of practice § 3. I. Uprightness of heart and life is a certain fruit of the Spirit of Grace and consequently a mark of our Union with Christ and a proof of our acceptableness with God Psal. 7. 10. My defence is of God who saveth the upright in heart Psal. 11. 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness and his countenance doth behold the upright It is a title that God himself assumeth Psal. 25. 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Psal. 92. 15. To shew that the Lord is upright He is my rock and no unrighteousness is in him And God-calleth himself the Maker the Director the Protector and the Lover of the upright Eccl. 7. 29. God made man upright Psal. 1. 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous Psal. 25. 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord him will he teach in the way that he shall choose Prov. 2. 7. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly 2. The Upright are the Pillars of humane society that keep up Truth and Iustice in the world without whom it would be but a company of lyers deceivers robbers and enemies that live in constant rapine or â—ostility There were no Trust to be put in one another further than self-interest did oblige men Psal. 15. 1 2. Lord who shall abide in thy Tabernacle Who shall dwell in thy holy hill He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart Therefore the wicked and the enemies of Peace and destroyers of Societies are still described as Enemies to the upright Psal. 11. 2 3. For lo the wicked bend their bow they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart If the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do Job 12. 4. The just and upright man is laughed to scorn Psal. 37. 14. The wicked have drawn out the sword to slay such as be of upright conversation And indeed it is for the uprights sake that societies are preserved by God as Sodom might have been for ten Lots At least they are under the protection of Omnipotency themselves Isa. 33. 15 16. He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despiseth the gain of oppression that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes that stoppeth his ear from hearing of blood that shutteth his eyes from seeing evil He shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks bread shall be given him his waters shall be sure Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty they shall behold the Land that is very far off Prov. â—8 10. The upright shall have good things in possession Prov. 14. 11. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish 3. Uprightness affordeth Peace of Conscience and quietness and holy security to the soul. This was Pauls rejoycing the testimony
Quest. 7. Answ. No not by private assault or violence But if the crime be so great that the Law of the Land doth punish it with death if that Law be just you may in some cases seek to bring the offendor to publick justice But that is rare and otherwise you may not do it For 1. It belongeth only to the Magistrate and not to you to be the avenger 2. And killing a man can be no meet defence against calumny or slander For if you will kill a man for prevention you kill the innocent If you kill him afterward it is no Defence but an unprofitable revenge which vindicateth not your honour but dishonoureth you more Your patience is your honour and your bloody revenge doth shew you to be so like the Devil the destroyer that it is your greatest shame 3. It is odious Pride which maketh men over-value their reputation among men and think that a mans life is a just compensation to them for their dishonour Such bloody Sacrifices are fit to appâ—ase only the blood-thirsty Spirit But what is it that Pride will not do and justifie CHAP. XI Special Directions to escape the guilt of persecuting Determining also the case about Liberty in matters of Religion THough this be a subject which the guilty cannot endure to hear of yet the misery of persecutors the blood and grones and ruines of the Church and the lamentable divisions of profâ—ssed Christians do all command me not to pass it by in silence but to tell them the truth whether they will hear or whether they will forbear though they were such as Ezek. 3. 7 8 9 11. § 1. Direct 1. If you would escape this dreadful guilt Understand well what Persecution is Else Direct 1. you may either run into it ignorantly or oppose a duty as if it were persecution § 2. The Verb Persequor is often taken in a good sence for no more than continuato motu vel ad extremum sequor and sometime for the blameless prosecution of a delinquent But we take it here as the English word Persecute is most commonly taken for inimico affectu insequor for a malicious or injurious hurting or prosecuting another and that for the sake of Religion or Righteousness For it is not common injuries which we here intend to speak of Three things then go to make up Persecution 1. That it be the Hurting of another in his Body liberty relations estate or reputation 2. That it be done injuriously to one who deserveth it not in the particular which is the cause 3. That it be for the cause of Religion or of Righteousness that is for the Truth of God which we hold or utter or for the worship of God which we perform or for obedience to the will of God revealed in his Laws This is the cause on the sufferers part what ever is intended by the Persecuter § 3. There are divers sorts of Persecution As to the Principles of the Persecutors 1. There is a Persecution which is openly professed to be for the cause of Religion As Heathens and Mahometans persecute Christians as Christians And there is an Hypocritical Persecution when the pretended cause is some odious crime but the real cause is mens Religion or obedience to God This is the common Persecution which nominal Christians exercise on serious Christians or on one another They will not say that they Persecute them because they are Godly or serious Christians but that is the true cause For if they will but set them above God and obey them against God they will abate their Persecution Many of the Heathens thus persecuted the Christians too under the name of Ungodly and evil doers But the true cause was because they obeyed not their commands in the Worshipping of their Idol Gods So do the Papists persecute and murder men not as Professours of the truth which is the true cause but under the name of Hereticks and Schâ—smaticks or Rebels against the Pope or what ever their malice pleaseth to accuse them of And prophane nominal Christians seldome persecute the serious and sincere directly by that name but under some Nickname which they set upon them or under the name of Hypocrites or self-conceited or factious persons or such like And if they live in a place and Age where there are many Civil Wars or differences they are sure to fetch some odious name or accusation thence Which side soever it be that they are on or if they meddle not on any side they are sure by every party whom they please not to hear Religion loaded with such reproaches as the times will allow them to vent against it Even the Papists who take this course with Protestants it seems by Acosta are so used themselves not by the Heathens but by one another yea by the multitude yea by their Priests For so saith he speaking of the Parish Priests Priests among the Indians having reproved their Diceing Carding Hunting Idleness Lib. 4 c. 15. pag. 404 405. Itaque is cui Pastoralis Indorum cura committitur non solum contra diaboli machinas naturae incentiva pugnare debet sed jam etiam confirmatae hominum consuetudini tempore turba praepotenti sese objicere ad excipienda invidorum ac malevolorum tela forte pectus opponere qui siquid à profano suo instituto abhorrentem viderint proditorem hypocritam hostem clamaâ—t that is He therefore to whom the Pastoral care of the Indians is committed must not only fight against the Engines of the Devil and the incentives of nature but also now must object or set himself against the confirmed custome of men which is grown very powerful both by time and by the multitude and must valiantly oppose his breast to receive the darts of the envious and malevolent who if they see any thing contrary to their profane fashion or breeding cry out A Traitor An Hypocrite an Enemy It seems then that this is a common course § 4. 2. Persecution is either done in Ignorance or Knowledge The commonest persecution is that which is done in Ignorance and errour when men think a Good cause to be bad or a bad cause to be good and so persecute Truth while they take it to be falshood or good while they take it to be evil or obtrude by violence their Errours for Truths and their evils as good and necessary things Thus Peter testifieth of the Jews who killed the Prince of life Act. 3. 13 14 17. I know that through Ignorance you did it as did also your Rulers And Paul 1 Cor. 2. 8. which none of the Princes of this world knâ—w for had they known it they would not have Crucified the Lord of glory And Christ himself saith Joh. 16. 3. These things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father or me And Paul saith of himself Act. 26. 9. I thought verily with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the name
rend us Much more if it be some potent enemy of the Church who will not only rend us but the Church it self if he be so provoked Reproving him then is not our duty 3. Particularly When a man is in a passion or drunk usually it is no season to reprove him 4. Nor when you are among others who should not be witnesses of the fault or the reproof or whose presence will shame him and offend him except it be only the shaming of an incorrigible or malicious sinner which you intend 5. Nor when you are uncertain of the fact which you would reprove or uncertain whether it be a sin 6. Or when you have no witness of it though you are privately certain with some that will take advantage against you as slanderers a reproof may be omitted 7. And when the offenders are so much your superiours that you are like to have no better success than to be accounted arrogant A groan or tears is then the best reproof 8. When you are so utterly unable to manage a reproof that imprudence or want of convincing reason is like to make it a means of greater hurt than good 9. When you foresee a more advantageous season if you delay 10. When another may be procured to do it with much more advantage which your doing it may rather hinder In all these cases that may be a sin which at another time may be a duty § 18. But still remember 1. That pride and passion and slothfulness is wont to pretend such reasons falsly upon some sleight conjectures to put by a duty 2. That no man must account another Gen. 20. 36. a Dog or Swine to excuse him from this duty without cogent evidence And it is not every wrangling opposition nor reproach and scorn which will warrant us to give a man up as remediless Job 31. 13. Heb. 13. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 13. 2 Tâ—m 2. 25 26. and speak to him no more but only such 1. As sheweth a heart utterly obdurate after long means 2. Or will procure more suffering to the reprover than good to the offender 3. That when the thing is ordinarily a duty the reasons of our omission must be clear and sure before they will excuse us § 19. Quest. Must we reprove Infidels or Heathens What have we to do to judge them that are without Answ. Not to the ends of excommunication because they are not capable of it which is meant Deut. 22. 1. 1 Cor. 5. But we must reprove them 1. In common compassion to their souls What were the Apostles and other Preachers sent for but to call all men from their sins to God 2. And for the defence of truth and godliness against their words or ill examples CHAP. XVII Directions for keeping Peace with all men § 1. PEace is so amiable to Nature it self that the greatest destroyers of it do commend it and those persons in all times and places who are the cause that the world cannot enjoy it will yet speak well of it and exclaim against others as the enemies of peace as if there were no other name but their Own sufficient to make their adversaries odious As they desire salvation so do the ungodly desire Peace which is with a double error one about the Nature of it and another about the Conditions and other Means By Peace they mean the quiet undisturbed enjoyment of their honours wealth and pleasures that they may have their lusts and will without any contradiction And the Conditions on which they would have it are the complyance of all others with their opinions and wills and humble submission to their domination passions or desires But Peace is another thing and otherwise to be desired and sought Peace in the mind is the delightful effect of its internal harmony as Peace in the body is nothing but its pleasant health in the natural position state action and concord of all the parts the humours and spirits And Peace in Families Neighbourhoods Churches Kingdoms or other Societies is the quietness and pleasure of their order and harmony and must be attained and preserved by these following means § 2. Direct 1. Get your own hearts into a humble frame and abhor all the motions of Pride and Direct 1. self exalting A humble man hath no high expectations from another and therefore is easily pleased or quieted He can bow and yield to the pride and violence of others as the Willow to the impetuous winds His language will be submissive his patience great he is content that others go before him He is not offended that another is preferred A low mind is pleased in a low condition But Pride is the Gun-powder of the mind the family the Church and State It maketh men ambitious and setteth them on striving who shall be the greatest A proud mans Opinion must alwayes go for truth and his will must be a Law to others and to be sleighted or crossed seemeth to him an unsufferable wrong And he must be a man of wonderful complyance or an excellent artificer in man-pleasing and flâ—ttery that shall not be taken as an injurious undervaluer of him He that overvalueth himself will take it ill of all that do not also overvalue him If you forgetfully go before him or overlook him or neglect a complement or deny him something which he expected or speak not honourably of him much more if you reprove him and tell him of his faults you have put fire to the Gun-powder you have broke his peace and he will break yours if he can Pride broke the Peace between God and the apostate Angels but nothing unpeaceable must be in Heaven and therefore by self-exâ—lting they descended into darkness And Christ by self-humbling ascended unto Glory It is a matter of very great difficulty to live peaceably in family Church or any society with any one that is very Proud They expect so much of you that you can never answer all their expectations but will displease them by your omissions though you never speak or do any thing to displease them What is it but the lust of Pride which causeth most of the wars and bloodshed throughout the World The Pride of two or three men must cost many thousands of their subjects the loss of their Peace Estates and Lives Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi What were the Conquests of those Emperours Alexander Caesar Tamerlane Machumet c. but the pernicious effects of their infamous Pride Which like Gun-powder taking fire in their breasts did blow up so many Cities and Kingdoms and call their Villanies by the name of Valour and their Murders and Robberies by the name of War If one mans Pride do swell so big that his own Kingdom cannot contain it the Peace of as much of the World as he can conquer is taken to be but a reasonable sacrifice to this infernal vice The lives of thousands both Subjects and Neighbours called enemies by this malignant spirit must be cast
visit or relieve them Tit. 2. Directions for Loving the Children of God Direct 1. ONce get the Love of God and you cannot choose but love his Children Therefore first set Direct 1. your hearts to that and study the Directions for it Tom. 1. God must be first loved as God before the Godly can be loved as such Though perhaps this effect may sometime be more manifest than the cause Fortifie the cause and the effect will follow Direct 2. Get Christ to dwell in your hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. and then you will love his members Direct 2. for his sake The study of the love of God in Christ and the belief of all the benefits of his love and sufferings will be the bellows continually to kindle your love to your Redeemer and to all those that are like him and beloved by him Direct 3. Cherish the motions of Gods spirit in your selves For he is a spirit of Love And it is Direct 3. the same spirit which is in all the Saints Therefore the more you have of the spirit the more Unity and the more Love you will have to all that are truly spiritual The decays of your own holiness containeth a decay of your love to the holy Direct 4. Observe their Graces more than their infirmities You cannot love them unless you take Direct 4. notice of that goodness which is their loveliness Overlooking and extenuating the good that is in others doth shew your want of love to goodness and then no wonder if you want love to those that are good Direct 5. Be not tempters and provokers of them to any sin For that is but to stir up the worser Direct 5. part which is in them and to make it more apparent and so to hide their amiableness and hinder your own love They that will be abusing them and stirring up their passions or oppressing wise men to try if they can make them mad or increasing their burdens and persecutions to see whether there be any impatiency left in them are but like the Horseman who was still spurring his Horse and then sold him because he was skittish and unquiet or like the Gentleman that must needs come as a Suitor to a beautiful Lady just when she had taken a Vomit and Purge and then disdained her as being unsavoury and lothsome Direct 6. Stir up their Graces and converse much with them in the exercises of grace If Aristotle Direct 6. or Socrates Demosthenes or Cicero stood silent by you among other persons you will perceive no difference between them and a fool or a vulgar wit But when once they open their lips and pour out the streams of wisdom and eloquence you will quickly perceive how far they excell the common world and will admire love and honour them So when you converse with Godly men about matters of trading or common employments only you will see no more but their blamelesness and justice But if you will joyn with them in holy Conference or Prayer or observe them in good works you will see that the spirit of Christ is in them When you hear the longings of their souls after God and their Heavenly desires and hopes and joys and their love to piety charity and justice express themselves in their holy discourse and prayers and see the fruits of them in their lives you will see that they are more than common men Direct 7. Foresee the perfection of their Graces in their beginnings No man will Love a seed or Direct 7. stock of those plants or trees which bear the sweetest and most beautiful flowers and fruits unless in the seed he foresee the fruit or flower which it tendeth to No man loveth the egg aright who doth not foreknow what a â—iâ—d it will bring forth Aristotle or Cicero were no more amiable in their infancy than others except to him that could foretell what men they were like to prove Think oft of Heaven and what a thing a Saint will be in Glory when he shall shine as the Stars and be equal to the Angels and then you will quickly see cause to love them Direct 8. Frequently think of the Everlasting union and sweet agreement which you must have with Direct 8. them in Heaven for ever How perfectly you will love each other in the Love of God How joyfully you will consent in the Love and Praises of your Creator and Redeemer The more believingly you foresee that state and the more you contemplate thereon and the more your Conversation is in Heaven the more will you love your fellow Souldiers and Travellers with whom you must live in blessedness for ever Tit. 3. Motives or Meditative helps to love the Godly Mot. 1. COnsider what Relation all the Regenerate have to God They are not only his Creatures Motive 1. but his Adopted Children And are they not honourable and amiable who Gal. 4. 6. are so near to God Mot. 2. Think of their near Relation to Jesus Christ They are his Members and his Brethren Motive 2. and the purchase of his sufferings and coheirs of everlasting life Rom. 8. 16 17. Ephes. 5. 26 27. Mot. 3. Think of the excellency of that spirit and holy Nature which is in them Regeneration Motive 3. hath made them partakers of the Divine nature and hath indued them with the spirit of Christ and hath by the incorruptible seed made them new Creatures of a Holy and Heavenly mind and life and hath renewed them after the Image of God And what besides God himself can be so amiable as his Image Mot. 4. Think of the precious price which was paid for their Redemption If you will estimate Motive 4. things by their price if the purchaser be wise how highly must you value them Mot. 5. Remember how dearly they are beloved of God their Creator and Redeemer Read and Motive 5. observe Gods tender language towards them and his tender dealings with them He calleth them his Children his beloved yea dearly-beloved his jewels the apple of his eye Deut. 33. 12. Psal. 60. 5. 127. 2. Col. 3. 12. Ier. 12. 7. Mal. 3. 17. Zech. 2. 8. Deut. 32. 10. Christ calleth the least of them his Brethren Matth. 25. Judge of his love to them by his incarnation life and sufferings Judge of it by that one heart melting message after his resurrection Joh. 20. 17. Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God And should we not love them dearly who are so dearly beloved of God Mot. 6. They are our Brethren begotten by the same father and Spirit of the same holy seed the word Motive 6. of God and have the same nature and disposition And this Unity of nature and neerness of relation is such a suitableness as must needs cause love Mot. 7. They are our companions in labour and tribulation in our duty and sufferings They
decent and editying determination of the outward circumstances of Religion and the right ordering of Worship is a needless thing or sinful or that a form of prayer in it self or when imposed is unlawful But let the Soul and Body of Religion go together and the alterable adjuncts be used as things alterable while the life of Holiness is still kept up Direct 19. PRomise not your selves long life or prosperity and great matters in the world lest it entangle Direct 19. your hearts with transitory things and engage you in ambitious or covetous designs and steal away your hearts from God and destroy all your serious apprehensions of Eternity § 1. Our own experience and the alterations which the approach of death makes upon the most doth sensibly prove that the expectation of a speedy change and reckoning upon a short life doth greatly help us in all our preparation and in all the work of Holiness through our lives Come to a man that lyeth on his death-bed or a prisoner that is to dye to morrow and try him with Nemini exploratum potest esse quomodo seâ—e habiturum sit corpus non dico ad annum sed ad vesperum Câ—ceâ—o 2. de fit Dii boni quid est in hominis vita diu Mihi ne diuturnum quidem quicquam videtur in quo est aliquid extremum Cum enim id advenit tum illud praeterâ—it eâ—fluxit tan tum remanet quod virtute recte factis fit consecutus hoâ—ae quidem â—edunt diâ—â— meâ—ses anni nec praeteritum tempus unquam revertitur nec quid sequatur sciri potest Cic. in Cat. Maj. Quem saepe transit casus aliquando invenâ— discourse of riches or honours or temptations to lust or drunkenness or excess and he will think you are mad or very impertinent to tell him of such things If he be but a man of Common Reason you shall see that he will more easily vilifie such temptations than many religious persons will do in their prosperity and health O how serious are we in repenting and perusing our former lives and casting up our accounts and asking What we shall do to be saved when we see that death is indeed at hand and time is at an end and we must away Every sentence of Scripture hath then some life and power in it Every word of Exhortation is savoury to us Every reproof of our negligence and sin is then well taken Every thought of sin or Christ or Grace or Eternity goes then to the quick Then time seems precious and if you ask a man whether it be better spent in Cards and Dice and Playes and Feastings and needless recreations and idleness or in prayer and holy conference and reading and meditating on the Word of God and the life to come and the holy use of our lawful labours How easily will he be satisfied of the truth and confute the Cavils of voluptuous time-wasters Then his judgement will easilier be in the right than Learning or Arguments before could make it In a word the expectation of the speedy approach of the soul into the presence of the Eternal God and of our entring into an unchangeable endless life of joy or torment hath so much in it to awaken all the powers of the soul that if ever we will be serious it will make us serious in every thought and speech and duty And therefore as it is a great mercy of God that this life which is so short should be as uncertain and that frequent dangers and sicknesses call to us to look about us and be ready for our change so usually the sickly that look for death are most considerate and it is a great part of the duty of those that are in youth and health to consider their frailty and the shortness and uncertainty of their lives and alwayes live as those that wait for the coming of their Lord. And we have great reason for it when we are certain it will be ere long and when we have so many perils and weaknesses to warn us and when we are never sure to see another hour and when time is so swift so quickly gone so unrecoverable and Nothing when it is past Common reason requireth such to live in a constant readiness to dye § 2. But if youth or health do once make you reckon of living long and make you put away the Nihil tam sirmum câ—â— periculum 〈◊〉 sâ—â— etiam â—â—â—â—vilido day of your departure as if it were far off this will do much to deceive and dull the best and take away the power of every truth and the life of every good thought and duty and all will be apt to dwindle into customariness and form You will hardly keep the faculties of the soul awake if you do not still think of death and judgement as near at hand The greatest Certainty of the greatest Change and the greatest Joy or Misery for ever will not keep our stupid hearts awake unless we look at all as near as well as certain This is plain in the common difference that we find among all men between their thoughts of death in health and when they see indeed that they must presently dye They that in health could think and talk of death with laughter or lightly without any awakening of soul when they come to dye are oftentimes as much altered as if they had never heard before that they are mortal By which it is plain that to live in the house of mirth is more dangerous than to live in the house of mourning and that the expectation of long life is a grievous enemy to the operations of grace and the safety of the soul. § 3. And it is one of the greatest strengtheners of your temptations to luxury ambition worldliness and almost every sin When men think that they shall have many years leisure to repent they are apt the more boldly to transgress when they think that they have yet many years to live it tempteth them to pass away Time in idleness and to loiter in their race and trifle in all their work and to over-value all the pleasures and honours and shadows of felicity that are here below He that hath his life in his House or Land or hath it for inheritance will set more by it and bestow more upon it than if he thought he must go out of it the next year To a man that thinks of liveing many years the favour of great ones the raising of his estate and name and family and the accommodations and pleasing of his flesh will seem great matters to him and will do much with him and will make self-denyal a very hard work § 4. Therefore though Health be a wonderful great mercy as Enabling him to duty that hath a heart to use it to that end yet it is by accident a very great danger and snare to the heart it self to turn it from the way of duty The best life
for the soul is that which least endangereth it by being over-pleasing to the Body and in which the flesh hath the smallest interest to set up and plead against the Spirit Not but that the largest stock must be accepted and used for God when he trusteth us with it for when he setteth us the hardest work we may expect his greatest help But a dwelling as in Tents in a constant unsetledness in a moveable condition having little and needing little never feeling any thing in the creature to tempt us to say Soul take thy Rest this is to most the safest life which giveth us the freâ—st advantages for Heaven § 5. Take heed therefore as you love your souls of falling into the snare of worldly Hopes and laying designs for rising and riâ—hâ—s and pleasing your selves in the thoughts and prosecution of these things â—â—r then you are in the readiest way to perdition even to idolatrous worldliness and apostacy of heart from God and opening a door to every sin that seems but necessary to your worldly ends and to odious Hypocrisie for a cloke to all this and to quiet your guilty minds with something that is like Religion When once you are saying with worldly security as he Luke 12. 17 18. 19. I will pull down my barn and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and goods and I will say to my soul Soul thou hast much goâ—ds laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and â—e mercy you are then befooling your selves and near being called away as fools by dâ—â—th â— 20 21. And when without a sense of the uncertainty of your lives you are saying as those in â—ames 4. 13 14. To day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas you know not what will be on the morrow You forget what your lives are that they are a vapour appearing a little while and then vanishing away Ver. 14. Boast not thy self therefore of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Prov. 27. 1. Direct 20. SEe that your Religion be purely Divine and animated all by God as the Beginning the Direct 20. D 〈…〉 ma 〈…〉 dâ—â—â—â—â—â—bat â—iaâ—◠〈…〉 nem 〈◊〉 â—e◠〈◊〉 â—eâ—i 〈◊〉 sufficere quâ—dem ad bene beateque vivendum â—aeâ—erum instrumentis indigere corporis bonis robore sanitate integritate 〈◊〉 c. Exterioribus etiam opiâ—â—â—â— genâ—ris claâ—itate gloria c. Ea si non affluerint nihilominus tamen beatum foâ—â—â—apiâ—â—tem Arbitratur Deos humana câ—rnere atque curare daemones esse Porro in dialogâ—â— justitiam Divinâ—m legem â—â—bitratus est ut ad juâ—e agendum poâ—entius persuâ—deret nè post mortem poenas improbi luerent Laert. in Plaâ— .. Way and the End and that first upon thy Soul and then upon all that thou hast or dost there be written HOLINESS TO THE LORD and that thou corrupt not all with an inordinate hypâ—critical respect to man § 1. To be Holy is to be Divine or devoted to God and appropriated to Him and his Will and Use and that our Hearts and Lives be not Common and Unclean To be Godly is to Live to God as those that from their hearts believe that he is God indeed and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him that he is our God All-sufficient our shield and exceeding great reward Heb. 11. 6. Gen. 15. 1. 17. 1. And that Of Him and Through Him and To Him are all things that all may give the Glory for ever unto him Rom. 11. 36. As God is infinitely above all Creatures so Living upon God and unto God must needs advance us above the highest sensual life And therefore Religion is transcendently above all Sciences or Arts so much of God as is in you and upon you so much you are more excellent than the highest worldly perfection can advance you to GOD should be the First and Last and All in the mind and mouth and life of a believer God must be the Principal Matter of your Religion The Understanding and Will must be exercised upon him When you awake you should be still with him Psal. 139. 8. Your Meditatiâ—ns of him should be sweet and you should be glad in the Lord Psal. 104. 34 Yet creatures under Him may be the frequent less principal matter of your Religion but still as referred unto Him God must be the Author of your Religion God must institute it if you expect he should accept it and reward it God must be the Rule of your Religion as Revealing his Will concerning it in his Word God must be the Ultimate End of your Religion It must be intended to Please and Glorifie Him God must be the continual Motive and Reason of your Religion and of all you do you must be able truly to fetch your Reason from Heaven and to say I do it because it is his will I do it to please and glorifie and enjoy him God must be taken as the Soveraign Iudge of your Religion and of you and of all you do And you must wholly look to his Justification and approbation and avoid what ever he condemneth Can you take God for your Owner your Soveraign your Saviour your sufficient Protector your Portion your All If not you cannot be godly nor be saved If his Authority have not more Power upon you than the authority of the Greatest upon earth you are Atheistical Hypocrites and not truly Religious whatever you pretend If HOLINESS TO THE LORD be written upon you and all that 's yours you are devoted to him as his Own peculiar ones If your Names be set upon your Sheep or Plate or Clothes you will say if another should take them They are mine Do you not see my mark upon them Slavery to the Flesh the World and the Devil is the mark that is written upon the ungodly upon the foreheads of the prophane and upon the Hearts of Hypocrites and all and Satan the world and the flesh have their service If you are Conseerated to God and bear his Name and Mark upon you tell every one that would lay claim to you that you are His and resolved to live to Him to Love Him to Trust Him and to stand or fall to him alone Let God be the very Life and Sense and End of all you do § 2. When once Man hath too much of your regard and observation that you set too much by his favour and esteem or eye him too much in your profession and practice when mans approbation too much comforteth you and manâ— displeasure or dispraise doth too much trouble you when your fear and love and care and obedience are too much taken up for Man You so far withdraw your selves from God and are becoming the servants of men and friends of the world and turning back to bondage and forsaking your Rock and Portion and
â—3 Rom. 8. 9. 1 John 3. 24. John 3. 5 6. Many Romish Priests and others do so without the Ministry of man to preserve deliver translate expound and preach it to the people 5. And those that think it sufficient to sanctifie men without the concourse of the Spirits illumination vivification and inward operation to that end 6. And they that say that no man can be saved by the knowledge belief love and practice of all the substantial parts of Christianity brought to him by Tradition Parents or Preachers who tell him nothing of the Scriptures but deliver him the Doctrines as attested by Miracles and the Spirit without any notice of the Book 7. And those that say that Scripture alone must be made use of as to all the History of Scripture Times and that it is unlawful to make use of any other Historians as Iosephus and such others 8. And they that say no other Books of Divinity but Scripture are useful yea or lawful to be read of Christians or at least in the Church 9. And they that say that the Scriptures are so Divine not only in Matter but in Method and Style as that there is nothing of humane inculpable imperfection or weakness in them 10. And those that say that the Logical Method and the phrase is as perfect as God was able to make them 11. And they that say that all passages in Scripture historically related are Moral Truths And so make the Devils words to Eve of Iob to Christ c. to be all true 12. And they that say that all passages in the Scripture were equally obligatory to all other places and ages as to those that first received them As the kiss of peace the Vails of women washing feet anointing the sick Deaconesses c. 13. And they that make Scripture so perfect a Rule to our belief that nothing is to be taken for certain that cometh to us any other way As natural knowledge or historical 14. And those that think men may not translate the Scripture turn the Psalms into Metre tune them divide the Scripture into Chapters and Verses c. as being derogatory alterations of the perfect Word 15. And those that think it so perfect a particular rule of all the Circumstances Mâ—des Adjuncts and external expressions of and in Gods Worship as that no such may be invented or added by man 1 Cor. 14. 33 40. 26. that is not there prescribed As Time Place Vesture Gesture Utensils Methods Words and many other things mentioned before 16. And those that Jewishly feign a multitude of unproved mysteries to lye in the Letters Orders Numbers and proper Names in Scriptures though I deny not that there is much mysterie which we little observe 17. They that say that the Scripture is all so plain that there is no obscure or difficult passages in them which men are in danger of wresting to their own destruction 18. And they that say that All in the Scripture is so necessary to salvation even the darkest Prophecies Heb. 5. 10 11 12. that they cannot be saved that understand them not all or at least endeavour not studiously and particularly to understand them 19. And they that say that every Book and Text must of necessity to salvation be believed to be Canonical and true 20. And those that say that God hath so preserved the Scripture as that there are no various readings Of which see Lud. Capellus Crit. Saâ—â— and doubtful Texts thereupon and that no written or printed Copies have been corrupted when Dr. Heylin tells us that the Kings Printer printed the seventh Commandment Thou shalt commit adultery All these err in over-doing III. The dangers of the former detracting from the Scripture are these 1. It injureth the Spirit who is the author of the Scriptures 2 It striketh at the foundation of our faith by weakning the Records which are left us to believe And emboldneth men to sin by diminishing the authority of Gods Law And weakneth our Hopes by weakning the promises 3. It shaketh the universal Government of Christ by shaking the anthority or perfection of the Laws by which he governeth 4. It maketh way for humane Usurpations and Traditions as supplements to the holy Scriptures And leaveth men to contrive to amend Gods Word and Worship and make Co-ordinate Laws and Doctrines of their own 5. It hindereth the Conviction and Conversion of sinners and hardneth them in unbelief by questioning or weakning the means that should convince and turn them 6. It is a tempting men to the Cursed adding to Gods Word IV. The dangers of over-doing here are these 1. It leadeth to downright Infidelity For when men find that the Scripture is imperfect or wanting in that which they fansie to be part of its perfection and to be really insufficient e. g. to teach men Physicks Logick Medicine Languages c. they will be apt to say It is not of God because it hath not that which it pretends to have 2. God is made the Author of defects and imperfections 3. The Scripture is exposed to the scorn and confutation of Infidels 4. Papists are assisted in proving its imperfection But I must stop having spoke to this point before in Quest. 35. and partly Quest. 30. 31. 33. more at large Quest. 167. How far do good men now Preach and Pray by the Spirit Answ. 1. NOt by such Inspiration of new matter from God as the Prophets and Apostles had which indited the Scriptures 2. Not so as to exclude the exercise of Reason Memory or Diligence which must be as much and more than about any common things 3. Not so as to exclude the use and need of Scripture Ministry Sermons Books Conference Examples Use or other means and helps But 1. The Spirit indited that Doctrine and Scripture which is our Rule for prayer and for preaching 2. The Spirits Miracles and works in and by the Apostles seal that doctrine to us and confirm Heb. 2. 3 4. 1 Peâ— 1. 2 22. 2 Thess. 1. 13. John 3. 5 6. Rom. 8. 9. Rom. 8. 15 16 26 27. 2 Tim. 1. 7. Nehem. 9. 20. Isa. 11 â— Ezek. 36. 26. 37. 14. Gal. 4. 6. Zech. 12. 10. Ezek. 18. 31. 11. 19. Rom. 7. 6. John 4. 23 24. 7. 38 39. 1 Cor. 2 10 11. 1 Cor. 6. 11 17. 2 Cor. 4. 13. Gal. 5. 5 16 17 18 25. Ephes. 3. 16. 5. 9 18. 6. 18. 1 Thess. 5. 19. our faith in it 3. The Spirit in our faithful Pastors and Teachers teacheth us by them to pray and preach 4. The Spirit by Illumination Quickning and Sanctification giveth us an habitual acquaintance with our sins our wants with the word of precept and promise with God with Christ with Grace with Heaven And it giveth us a Habit of holy Love to God and Goodness and Thankfulness for mercy and faith in Christ and the life to come and desires of perfection and hatred of sin And he
that hath all these hath a constant Habit of prayer in him For prayer is nothing but the expression with the tongue of these Graces in the heart So that the Spirit of Sanctification is thereby a Spirit of Adoption and of Supplication And he that hath freedom of utterance can speak that which Gods Spirit hath put into his very heart and made him esteem his greatest and nearest concernment and the most necessary and excellent thing in all the world This is the Spirits principal help 5. The same Spirit doth incline our hearts to the diligent use of all those means by which our abilities may be increased As to read and hear and confer and to use our selves to prayer and to meditation self-examination c. 6. The same Spirit helpeth us in the use of all these means to profit by them and to make them all effectual on our hearts 7. The same Spirit concurreth with Means Habits Reason and our own endeavours to help us in the very act of praying and preaching 1. By illuminating our minds to know what to desire and say 2. By actuating our Wills to Love and holy desire and other affections 3. By quickning and exciting us to a liveliness and â—ervency in all And so bringing our former habits into acts the Grace of prayer is the heart and soul of gifts And thus the Spirit teacheth us to pray Yea the same Spirit thus by common helps assisteth even bad men in praying and preaching giving them common habits and acts that are short of special saving grace Whereas men left to themselves without Gods Spirit have none of all these forementioned helps And so the Spirit is said to intercede for us by exciting our unexpressible groans and to help our infirmities when we know what Rom. 8. 26. to ask as we ought Quest. 168. Are not our own Reasons Studies Memory Strivings Books Forms Methods and Ministry needless yea a hurtful quenching or preventing of the Spirit and setting up our own instead of the Spirits operations Answ. 1. YEs if we do it in a conceit of the sufficiency of our selves our reason memory John 15 1 3 4 5 7. studies books forms c. without the Spirit Or if we ascribe any thing to any of these which is proper to Christ or to his Spirit For such proud self-sufficient despisers of the Spirit cannot reasonably expect his help I doubt among men counted Learned and Rational there are too many such * Even among them that in their Ordination heard Receive yâ— the Holy Ghost and Oveâ— which the Holy Gâ—â—â—â—â—ath made you 〈…〉 that know not mans insufficiency or corruption nor the necessity and use of that Holy Ghost into whose name they were baptized and in whom they take on them to believe But think that all that pretend to the Spirit are but Phanaticks and Enthusiasts and self-conceited people when yet the Spirit himself saith Rom. 8 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his And Gal. 4. 6. Because we are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father 2. But if we give to Reason Memory Study Books Methods Forms c. but their proper place in subordination to Christ and to his Spirit they are so far from being quenchers of the Spirit that they are necessary in their places and such means as we must use if ever we will expect the Spirits help For the Spirit is not given to a Bruit to make him a man or rational nor to a proud despiser or idle neglecter of Gods appointed means to be instead of means nor to be a Patron to the vice of pride or idleness which he cometh chiefly to destroy But to bless men in the laborious use of the means which God appointeth him Read but Prov. 1. 20 c. 2. 3. 5. 6. 8. and you will see that knowledge must be laboured for and instruction heard And he that will lye idle till the Isa. 64. 7. Mat. 7. 13 14. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Spirit move him and will not stir up himself to seek God nor strive to enter in at the streight gâ—â—e nor give all diligence to make his Calling and Election sure may find that the Spirit of sloth hath destroyed him when he thought the Spirit of Christ â—ad been saving him He that hath but two Articles in his Creed must make this the second For he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. Quest. 169. How doth the Holy Ghost set Bishops over the Churches Answ. 1. BY making the Office it self so far as the Apostles had any hand in it Christ himself Acts 20. 28. having made their Office 2. The Holy Ghost in the Electors and Ordainers directeth them to discern the fitness of the persons Acts 1. 24. Act. 13. 2. 15. 28 c. 14. â—3 elected and ordained and so to call such as God approveth of and calleth by the Holy Ghost in them Which was done 1. By the extraordinary gift of discerning in the Apostles 2. By the ordinary help of Gods Spirit in the wise and faithful Electors and Ordainers ever since 3. The Holy Ghost doth qualifie them for the work by due Life Light and Love Knowledge Willingness and Active ability and so both enâ—lining them to it and marking out the persons by his gifts whom he would have elected and ordained to it Which was done 1. At first by extraordinary gifts 2. And ever since by ordinary 1. Special and saving in some 2. Common and only fitted to the Churches instruction in others So that who ever is not competently qualified is not called by the Holy Ghost When Christ ascended he gave gifts to men some Apostles Prophets and Evangelists 1 Cor. 12. 12 13 28 29. some Pastors and Teachers for the edifying of his body c. Eph. 4. 7 8 9 10. Quest. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more the Ministers holy And what reverence is due to them as holy Answ. THe question is either de nomine whether it be fit to call them holy or de re whether they have that which is called Holiness I. The word Holy signifieth in God essential transcendent Perfection and so it cometh not into our question In creatures it signifieth 1. A Divine nature in the Rational Creature Angels and Men by which it is made like God and disposed to him and his service by Knowledge Love and holy Vivacity which is commonly called Real saving Holiness as distinct from meer Relative 2. It is taken for the Relation of any thing to God as his own peculiar appropriated to him so Mar. 6. 20. Col. 1. 22. Tit. 1. 8. 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. 3. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 11. Exod. 22. 31. 1 Cor. 1. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. Heb. 12.