fear the Lord. From these and such like texts it is evident that All that are truly Godly have a special Love to those that are Godly they love and honour Christ in his Image on his Saints 8. Acts 2. 42. 4. 32. You may see that The Godly love the Communion of Saints to joyn with them in holy doctrine fellowship and prayers 9. 1 Thes 5. 17. Pray continually Luke 18. 1. Christ spake a Parable to them to this end that men ought alwayes to pray and not to wax faint Acts 9. 11. Behold he prayeth Zech. 12. 10. I will pour out the spirit of prayer and supplication Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what to pray for as we ought c. From all these and such like it is evident that Prayer is the breath of a Godly man he is a man of Prayer When he wanteth words he hath desires with tears or groans 10. Matth. 15. 8 9. This people draweth near me with their lips but their hearts are far from me John 4. 23 24. God is Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth From such texts it is evident that Every Godly man doth make the inward exercise of his soul the principal part of his worship unto God and doth not stick in bodily exercise or lip service 11. Josh 24. 15. As for me and my houshold we wil serve the Lord. So Deut. 6. 11. 1 Pet. 2. 17 18. 3. 10. Eph. 5. 6. From many such Texts it is evident that Godly men desire the sanctification of others and make conscience of the duties of their relations and would have their housholds or friends to serve the Lord as well as they 12. Luk. 14. 26 33. 18. 22. Matth. 10. 37. Rom. 8. 17 18. From these and other texts it is evident that all things are below Christ and heaven in the practical esteem of a Godly man and that he will forsake them all rather then he will forsake him All these are Scripture Marks of Godliness HAving hastily run over these things to help you in the Tryal I will add some Directions to help you in the practice and therein yet fullyer to acquaint you Wherein true Godliness doth consist Briefly to lay before you first the meer enumeration of the chief points wherein sound Godliness doth consist to help your memories while you see them close together 1. Sound Godliness consisteth in a solid understanding of the substantial points of Religion 2. In a sound belief of the Truth of Gods word and the reality of the unseen things 3. In an adhearing to the holy Scriptures as the Divine Rule of faith and life 4. In the Love of God in Jesus Christ excited by the belief of his Love revealed by Jesus Christ 5. In true humility and low thoughts of our selves and low expectation from others 6. In a heavenly mind that most regardeth the things above and seeketh them as our only felicity at home 7. In self denyal and mortification and temperance and victory over the desires of the flesh When we can deny our own conceits and interests and wills for God and are dead to the world and are not servants to our fleshly appetites or senses or to the things below 8. In thankfulness for received Mercies and Praising the Glorious name of God 9 In the willing and diligent use of the means that God hath appointed us for salvation 10. In charity or Love to all men even our enemies and a special love to true Believers 11. In a love to the holy communion of Saints especially in publike worship 12. In a tender desire of the unity of the Saints and their concord and increase of Charity and a trouble at their discord and divisions 13. In dealing Justly in our places with all men and carefully avoiding all that may be injurious to any 14. In studying to do all the good we can and doing it to our power especially to the houshold of faith 15. In a conscionable discharge of the duties of our relations as Rulers Teachers Parents Masters subjects and inferious 16. In watchfulness against Temptations and avoiding occasions of sin 17. In serious preparations for sufferings and death and patient bearing them when they come These are the things that Godliness doth consist in And now out of all I will draw up ten practical directions which in a special manner I would intreat you to Practice if you would be solidly Godly and not be deceived with names or counterfeits Direct 1. Be sure to live upon the substantials of Religion and let them receive no detriment by a pretence of zeal for lesser points Lay not your Religion in uneffectual opinions and let lower truths and duties keep their places and not be set above the higher Dir. 2. See that your Religion be principally seated in the Heart Understand it as well as you can lest it be taken from you but never think it is savingly your own while it is but in the brain so much you believe indeed as you Love and as hath imprinted the Image of God upon your hearts Ever see that your wills be Resolved for God and holiness and that you be able truly to say I would be perfect and I would fain be better then I am Direct 3. Be sure you take up with God alone as your whole felicity and think not that there is a necessity of the approbation of men or of liberty plenty life or any thing besides God Do not only think that there is a God and a life of Glory for you but Live upon them and be moved and actuated by them Trust to them and take them for your part Live by faith and not by sight Direct 4. Live daily upon Christ as the only Mediator without whom we have no access to God acceptance with him or receivings from him Look for all that you have from God to come by him Live on him for Reconc liation for Teaching for Preservation for Communication for Consolation and for Salvation Let Christ make your thoughts of God more familiar as now Reconciled and Condescending to us Direct 5. Obey the sanctifying motions of the spirit and if you have disobeyed Repent not despairing but returning to obedience but see that you live not in any known sin which a sanctified will can enable you to avoid Resist sins of passion but most carefully take heed of sins of interest deliberately chosen and kept up as necessary or good Direct 6. Make it the principal work of your Religion and your Lives to inflame your hearts with the Love of God as he is presented amiable in his wonderful Grace in Jesus Christ Strive no further to effect your hearts with Fears or Griefs or other troubling passions then as tendeth to the work of Love or is a just expression of it Go daily to promises and mercies and Christ and Heaven of purpose for fewel to kindle Love Be
pretend to believe the Gospel it would help to the recovery of the understandings of the Ambitious and make the proud ashamed of their glory and settle the drunken aspiring minds of those that think it worth more than their salvation to sit upon the highest pearch It would call off the covetous worldling from his immoderate seeking provisions for the flesh and save them that are drowned in the cares of this life by shewing them the true and necessary treasure It would spare them many a vexatious thought and a great deal of unnecessary labour and prevent the shame and horrour that must befall them when in the end they find their labour lost and all their expectations frustrate It would quickly stop the mouthes which prejudice ignorance malignant enmity and deliration have opened against a life of faith and serious Godliness and cause them that scorn it as a Needless thing to make it their daily business and delight It would tell the sluggish sensless sinner that he hath work of everlasting confequence upon his hand and that it is no time to dream or loyter And it would tell the brutish sensualist that there are more sweet and durable delights and the time-wasting fool that time is precious and he hath none to spare and cast away having so great a work to do It would set men on seeking with greatest diligence the Kingdom which before they did but dream of and would turn the very stream of their hearts and lives on that which before they minded but as on the by In a word it would make the earthly to become heavenly and the fleshly spiritual and the sloathful to be diligent and rotten-hearted sinners to become renewed SAINTS as all must do that ever will be saved And if these words of Christ be not thus received by you and work not such wonders on mens hearts it is not because there is any want of fitness in the Text but because mens hearts are hardned into a wilful contempt of the most precious truths which in themselves are apt to change and save them Of all waies of Teaching History is accounted One of the most effectual because it hath the greatest advantage on our apprehensions as setting our lesson before our eyes in the great character of Example and not only in the smaller letter of a naked precept And of all History What can be more powerful then I Where one of the actors is the eternal son of God and that not above our reach in Heaven but here in our flesh on the stage of this sublunary world 2. And the other actors are such as most â—itly represent the different actions of all the world at least that live within the sound of the Gospel and lay open the great question about which the world is so much divided 3. And when the matter it self is of the greatest consequence that can be imagined even concerning the present choice and resolution of our hearts and that expending of our Time and that business and employment of our lives on which our Endless life dependeth All this you have here set out even to the life before your eyes in the glass of this example in my Text And the Lord of Life doth call you all to see your faces in it and here plainly sheweth you what will be expected from you and what you must be and do and trust â—o and this not in any long and â—edioâ—â— discourse that might overcharge your memories or weary your attentions but in very brief though full expressions As Jesus entred into Bethany Martha who it seems was the Owner of the house received and entertained him No doubt but a great company followed Jesus or his Disciples that ordinarily accompanyed him at the least Martha thinks that having entertained such a guest it were a great neglect if she should not provide for him and for his followers and therefore she is busie in doing what she can but the number is so great that she is oppressed with the care and trouble and findeth that she hath more to do then she is able Her sister that she thought should have helped her in such a case is sitting with the Disciples at the feet of Christ to hear his Word Martha seeing this is offended at her sister and seems to think that Christ himself is too neglective of her or partial for her sister and therefore thus â—â—eâ—â—s her cause with Christ Lord dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone bid her therefore that she help me As if she had said Is it a fit thing that both thy self and all this company should be unprovided for and have neither meat noâ— drink Oâ— is it fit that all should be laid on me even more then I can do while she sits hearing with the Disciples Deal equally and mercifully and bid her help me And indeed most people would think that this was but a reasonable motion and that when Christ was made the Judge between them he should have decided the case on Martha's side But he did not so But 1. instead of commending Martha for her care and diligence he sheweth her errour by a gentle but yet a close reproof Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things 2. Instead of reproving Mary for negligence of her duty in the house he highly commendeth her for the seasonable doing of a greater work Mary hath chosen the good part 3. He groundeth the Reason of his Judgement on the different Nature and Use of their employments One thing is Needful in comparison of which the rest were all unnecessary things and such as then might have been neglected 4. And so he passeth sentence on Marie's side that the good part which she hath chosen shall not be taken away from her In which â—e not only answereth Martha with an express denyal as if he should say I will not take off Mary from the work which she hath chosen but also on that occasion doth point out the durable nature of the Good which she had chosen and promise the continuance of it Concerning Martha some expositors run into two extreams â—…e think that she was an unregenerate worldling and savourâ—… only fleshly things and that these words of Christ describe 〈…〉 state as one that had not yet made choice of the one thing â—…edful and the better part But it is only her present action that Christ doth reprehend and censure and not her state Her entertainment of Christ and speeches to him and other passages â—…we us great probability that she was a true disciple as after it is â—aid that Jesus loved her John 11. 5. On the other side One Learned Annotator thus Paraphraseth â—…e words of Christ to Martha Thou takest a great deal of unnecessary though not culpable pains as if Christs words were â—o reprehension of her nor her course blame-worthy But the plain truth lieth between these two extreams Martha though most probably a true Disciple was
their bones they must endure the pain of setting them again 2. And doth not Christ command his servants also to Rejoyce and again Rejoyce and always to rejoyce Phil. 3. 1. 4. 4. 1 Thes 5. 16. Doth he not command them to live in the most delightful works of Love and Joy and thankful mention of his mercies I tell you if Christians did but live as God requireth them and by his plenteous mercies doth encourage them to live they would be the wonder of the world for their exceeding joy they would triumph as men that are entering into rest and make the miserable ungodly Princes and great ones of the world observe their low contemptible condition and see by the comforts of believers that there are far higher joys then theirs to be attained Did Christians live as God would have them according to their dignity and selicity they would make the world admire the spirit and hopes and comforts that do so transport them They would be so taken up in the Love and praise of their Redeemer that they would scarce have leisure to observe whether they be rich or poor or to regard the honours or dishonours of the world These little things would scarce find room in their affection they would be taken up so much with God If they were sore with scourging and their feet were in the stocks they would there sing forth the praise of him that hath assured them of deliverance and everlasting joy as Paul and Silas did Act. 16. They would rejoyce in poverty in disgrace in pain and nothing would be able to overcome their joy They would pitty the tyrants and sensual Epicures that have no sweeter pleasures then those that the flesh and this deceitful world affords O the joy that believers would have in their secret prayers in their heavenly meditations in their holy conference in their reading of the promises and much more in their publike praises and Communion if they did but follow more fully the conduct of that spirit that hath undertaken to be their Comforter What makes believers slight this world and take all your pleasures to be unworthy of their entertainment or regard but that they have had a taste of sweeter things and by faith are overgrown these childish vanities If God and his favour be better then such worms as we and the heavenly Glory be better then these transitory toyes you may well conceive that the believers joy that is fed by these must be greater at least in worth and weight then all the pleasures of this sublunary world If therefore you love a life of pleasure come over to Christ and live a holy heavenly life and believe one that hath made some tryal yea believe the Lord himself that Holiness is the only Pleasant life ANd now as we have seen it plainly proved that the life of Holiness is the most Pleasant life so from hence we may see two sorts reproved that in different measures are found to be trangressors The first is Those blind ungodly wretches that can find no pleasure in a holy life when they can find pleasure in their worldly drudgery and in their sensual uncleanness and their childish vanities They have the God of infinite Goodness to delight in but to their impious hearts he seemeth not delightful They have his Power and wisdom and holiness and truth to love and admire and trust upon and his excellent works to behold him in and his holy laws and gracious promises to meditate on but they have small delight in any such imployment They have leave as well as any others to open their hearts to God in secret and in prayer and praise to recreate their souls and to hold communion with the Saints of God and to be exercised both in publike and private in his worship and to order their families in his fear and to mannage their affairs according to his word but they find no pleasure in such a life as this but are as backward to it as if it were a toilesome and unprofitable business and are weary of that little outside worship which they do perform They have Heaven set before them to seek after and to make their portion and delight but they have small delight to think or speak of it Their hearts are unsutable to these high holy and spiritual things They are matters that they are strange to and have no firm and confident belief of but an uncertain wavering weak opinion and therefore they are too far off to be their delight They say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy way What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him Job 21. 14 15. If they do come to the publike Assemblies and joyn there in the outward part of worship they find little life and pleasure in it because they are strangers to the reward and spiritual part which is the kernel They look more at the Preachers gifts and the manner of his doctrine and delivery then at the spiritual necessary matter that is delivered They have some pleasure in a neat composed speech that seemeth not to accuse them any more then others and grateth not on their tender ears with plain and necessary truth but suffers them to go home as quietly as they came thither But if the Preacher touch them to the quick and endeavoureth faithfully to acquaint them with themselves or if he have no eloquence or accurateness of speech to please them with but be guilty of any unhansomness of expression or mâ—dâ—â—â— imperfections they are weary of hearing him and think it long till the glass be run and perhaps instead of tasting the sweetness of wholsom truth they make it the matter of their dension and contempt But let them be at Cards or Dice at Hawking or Hunting at any idle sports and vanities and they can hold out longer with delight At drinking or feasting or idle talking they are not so weary Yea in the labours of their calling when their bodies are weary their minds are more unwearyed and in their fields and shops they have more delight then in the spiritual holy service of the Lord. They are never so merry as when there is least of God upon their hearts and in their wayes And it is one of the reasons that hindreth their Conversion lest it should deprive them of their mirth and cause them to spend the remainder of their dayes in uncomfortable heavyness If sin were not sweet to them conversion would be more easie The Pleasure which they find in creatures by their sin is the prison and fetters of their souls captivity If this be thy case that readest these lines I beseech thee lay to heart these following aggravations of thy sin 1. How blind and wicked is the heart that can find more pleasure in sin than holiness Is the creature pleasant to thee and God unpleasant What a shame is this to thy Understanding