Or Falseness and Hypocrisie In truth no better than profane Madness in real mocking God with a meer outside all this while Or Thy abominable Lukewarmness towards God and Religion but adhesion to the World and to the Pleasures of Sin Those numberless neglects which thou hast been guilty of neglects of Prayer of Self-Examination of Repentance c. Those bold Transgressions In thine Iniquity perhaps more than one c. 3. Petitioning for A serious composed thinking mind Wisdom to consider thy latter end For 4 hearty persuasion of the Being and clearer Conceptions of the Nature of God so that thou may'st together fear him and love him with all thine heart Truth in the inward parts For a sense of true Goods and zeal for them Contempt of the World and all worldly Happiness a deep concernment for thy Duty Impartiality and Diligence therein The perpetual Guard of God's Grace and other things as God shall move thy heart Lastly Resolve by God's help to give thy self to be religious in good Earnest To personate Godliness and to double no more And particularly 1. To give out every day some small part of time to Religious Duties at least to Thought and Prayer in secret This by God's Grace will have a happy effect 2. When thou prayest or when thou hearest or readest c. to keep thy mind close to what thou art about at least to endeavour such attention and servour what thou can'st 3. To submit to Christ and treasure up whatsoever Light and Evidence thou receivest 4. To get serious and religious people about thee or to affect the Company of such And other like helps as God shall direct thee CHAP. III. The Second Duty advised to Making our Peace with God § 1. Seriousness in Religion puts a man immediately upon making his Peace with God § 2. Peace or Reconciliation with God in what sence soever taken effected by Repentance and Faith § 3. The proper Notions of Repentance and Faith both in common Language and Scripture § 4. In Scripture they are often put so as to comprise one another § 5. Yet is the joint Practice of both of them absolutely necessary to make our peace with God § 6. Four Steps to a penitent State § 7. The first of them a sight and sense of our own Guilt called by some Conviction of Sin § 8. The second Contrition The way to work it § 9. The third Confession to God What it is § 10. Confession to Man when necessary § 11. The fourth Forsaking Sin Two Branches thereof § 12. The Necessity of both § 13. The Method of effecting both § 14. Of Faith as more particularly concerned in making our Peace with God § 15. Of Prayer in this Case § 16. Of subsequent Care and Endeavours and of the Lord's Supper as the best Seal § 1. IT was good Counsel though given by one who had more need himself to have taken it than he to whom he gave it Acquaint now thy self with God and be at Peace thereby good shall come unto thee Job 22. 21. And whosoever is once serious in Religion as before urged will very tenderly feel himself concern'd to endeavour such Acquainting himself with God as may be a Method of Peace with him nay he will not be at ease with himself he will scarce give Sleep to his Eyes or Slumber to his Eye-lids till he has made some advance towards God for Mercy and so for Peace Supposing any Man now first to grow serious and so never yet to have been reconciled to God the sense of a vast load of Guilt will soon oppress and almost sink his Soul of no less a load than the whole Mass and Body of all his Omissions and Commissions ever since he came to any memory of his Actions not one of all pardoned for not one of all repented of So that he will be crying out with David Psal 69. 1 2. Save me O God for the waters are come in unto my Soul I sink in deep Mire where there is no standing I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me This will put him upon instant endeavours of Peace and Reconciliation § 2. Now there is say some a double Reconciliation of our selves to God a Reconciliation of the Person to him and a Reconciliation of the Heart and Nature a distinction if at all proper yet most certainly of such things as cannot be separated For without this latter namely the Reconciliation of the Mind at least begun and in a good measure accomplish'd the person can never be reconciled For if the Mind can never be separated from the Man then cannot the person be reconciled except the Mind be so also But let there be as much in the distinction as there can to effect both these kinds of Reconciliation we are to set out and proceed the same way The Practice of Repentance from dead works in its full Latitude and of Faith in Christ Jesus effects both § 3. There are scarce any two Names in the World more frequently in the Mouths of Christians than these two Repentance and Faith and there are perhaps no Duties of like importance less understood For both of them being in several places of Scripture used in several and very different Sences many plain persons are confounded in their Notions or in the understanding of them To make all then as distinct and plain as I am able The Word Repent or Repentance according to its proper import in usual Speech is no more than to be sorry for something which we have done amiss that is which we apprehend done to our own or others harm disgrace or prejudice some way or other which therefore we from our hearts wish undone and would call back or undo were it possible for us And Faith also properly signifies only Belief that is assenting or agreeing to any thing as true This is the natural and full import of both these Words in common Language But in Holy Scripture and with Divines though they retain this their general Notion yet because they are for the most part applied each of them to its certain proper Object as Repentance to Sin called by the Holy Ghost Dead Works and Faith to the Doctrine of the Gospel and so to God and Christ its Authors they receive from thence a determinate and restrained sence and signifie certain Christian Vertues which are partly Gifts of God that is wrought in us by his Grace or by a supernatural Power partly also our Duties because they are at least in the first beginnings of them such Acts which God requires of us and by the Means and Aids which he has provided and affords us has made and makes in our powers to exert or practise and in the progress growth or ripeness of them Habits attained by these former Acts to which he by his Grace hath excited and enabled us Repentance then as it is an Act of Christian Duty is an endeavour of forsaking Sin and of leading
vain Therefore Neither was I endued with the Apprehension Sense and Appetite after another Life in vain but another Life after this there is My Conceptions and Desires of Immortality were no more put into me in vain than my Senses or natural Appetites That is there is an Immortal State that is my Soul is Immortal or capable of Immortality We see now whither we are come meerly by a little thinking § II. Let us then put all this together and see what will be the Result Whether it be tolerable or no to be as vain and formal and as meer Actors in Religion as the World of Professors of it are Or whether we are not most highly concerned to be herein more than in any other practices in the World or in any other part of Life most sincere serious and in good Earnest The Summ is I must die Though I choak and oppress Conscience and put tricks upon my self to gloss over foul Actions at present I shall not be able to do so long at least not at Death Nay even now at present I have much ado to make many things palatable which yet in practice I swallow so that I must account that at my Death if I am then in my Senses they 'll sting me with a witness and in all probability not only in my departing but eternally in that Immortal State For I cannot persuade my self but there is a Life after this I have so many Evidences of it within my self And it is not an outside Demureness or shadow of Religion which will bear me out or stand me in stead at Death and Judgment Then the Vizor will fall off Therefore it is my Concernment above all things to be early serious in Religion For I am sensible none die comfortably but vertuous Men None else when dying have either ease as to what is past or a comfortable prospect of what is to come So that the Conclusion of all is If I will follow what in my own sense of things and herein all good and wise Men all that are not beside themselves mad or vicious agree with me I must set my self to be serious in and most intent upon Religion And this is the first step of Preparation for Death and Judgment in our Stage The Second will be That we immediately go upon the reconciling our selves to God and endeavour to make our Peace with him of which in the next Chapter Matter and a Method for Devotions suitable to the Second Chapter BEing retired seriously First Examine Conscience How thou hast stood affected and concerned hitherto in Matter of Religion 1. Hast thou concerned thy self any more in it or about it than in other Customs and Vsages of thy Countrey 2. In case thou hast with more outward Concernment than the generality of people espoused the Profession of Religion yet as to the Vertue it self Religion in the Soul 1. Is thy heart furnished with sound Knowledge Hast thou reasonable Conceptions of the Doctrine and Precepts of Christianity And 2. Art thou seriously in thy heart persuaded that Christian Religion is true and the alone sure way to Happiness Or else on the contrary Art thou a meer formal external Professor pretending to be zealous in this or that way but designing by such pretence only other ends than those of thy Soul in an unseen World Consider the Matter seriously For a multitude of meer worldly Bigots of zealous outward Professors are there in our World who both with themselves and others pass for religious Men. Or 3. Though thou hast been through the Grace of God enlightened and art in some measure knowing and perswaded in thy Conscience of the Truth of Religion yet is it not thy Case as it is many other religious people's that thou art as to Religion really lukewarm in love with the World and things that are seen So that thou hast been very negligent in an holy heavenly conscientious Practice and by reason of this Indifferency can'st scarce say thou hast been yet religious in good earnest Deal honestly with thy self in sifting out the Truth as near as able It will be thine own another day Secondly After this Search if thou findest thy Condition to be any of these three pause a while and consider particularly the guilt and sinfulness of it whichsoever of the three it prove As to the First supposing that to be thy Case Thou hast taken up thy Religion just as thou hast done thy cloths All civilized people wear some Cloths English people this particular Fashion and so thou wearest Cloths of this Fashion rather than of that of the Turks and Persians c. because thou art amongst the English and an English Man In like sort all Nations have some Religion Thy Countrey or thy Friends this and therefore thou art of it Thou hast been bred to it as they say Good God! what a monstrous profane thing is this That one who has the use of Reason should make no more matter of Religion than of the fashion of a Suit of Cloths And perhaps not so much as some vain wretches do who are more concerned about their garb than the state of their Souls O dreadful As to the Second To pretend Zeal for God and Heaven meerly for the driving on a poor worldly or carnal Interest when really I neither believe God or Heaven or care for either what abominable Hypocrisie is this What incarnate Devils white Devils as the people speak are such Men As to the Third To be persuaded that there is no true Happiness but in God that this World is but a Dream in comparison of that to come at the utmost that this Life is a state of Trial according to my behaviour wherein I am to be everlastingly happy or miserable and yet to be indifferent and cool in my Affections and pursuit of heavenly Goods to be intent on and ever busied about the things that are seen all which perhaps I may part with tomorrow and to be negligent of my Life and Actions according to which I shall one day be justified or condemned Matth. 12. 37. and so eternally happy or miserable What an inconsistent and an unreasonable thing is it Am I not while thus guilty condemn'd and unexcuseable even in the sense of my own mind Thirdly According to thy Condition now betake thy self to God by Prayer 1. Lifting up thine heart to him and conceiving of him as a God that searcheth and knows thee that possesseth thy Reins and discerneth the thoughts and intents of the heart who therefore most intimately sees whether thou dissemblest or no That will be sanctified of all who draw near unto him and has accursed all Hypocrites and double-hearted Men who therefore will be content with nothing less than all thy heart and mind and soul In the beginning of thy Prayers set God before thee as such 2. Confessing to him according as thou hast found the Summ of thy Guilt Either Thy regardlessness of him and of thy Soul
provided against what he may fear there Thirdly He is to disentangle himself from this World and all secular Concerns that he may be able easily to part hence whensoever the appointed hour shall come For it is certainly a great misery to be torn hence instead of quietly and willingly yielding up all These three Intentions whoso has obtained is as well provided sor Death as at a distance a Man can be well conceived to be nor is it easie to comprehend at least I must confess I do not see what can be in those of this Order required more But for attaining these there are sundry Counsels to be taken and much Work to be done § 6. And first above all things such persons are to bend their minds to Religion in good Earnest and really to make that their Business Religion of all Doctrines in the World alone can pretend to bring a Man to the knowledge of his true Happiness And of all Religions none does that but the Christian Our Lord Jesus has pronounc'd it I am the Way the Truth and the Light that is I alone have effectually brought to Light the true way to Life 2 Tim. 1. 10. He hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel Whosoever therefore thou art that wouldst provide to thy self a Happiness in another World which indeed is the only true Happiness all else is but Spectres meer Ghosts and Apparitions of Happiness resolve on being Religious in good Earnest and give thy mind thereto § 7. This the generality even of them which profess Religion do not do Religion God help us is taken up by most of us as other Fashions of the Countrey are meerly of course and in compliance with the multitude and if Men perform some outward Exercises thereof in the mean time not living very extravagantly bad they are look'd upon by their Neighbours as Religious Men. And as long as they do not believe contrary to the Doctrines of Christianity but look upon them as things which perhaps may be true and have been taken for Truths never doubted of time out of mind they themselves esteem themselves to have a very tolerable Faith and then a few customary Formalities observed will easily pass in their savourable Judgment of themselves for a Christian Practice And thus alas we have many a current Christian without real Christianity a religious Multitude without a grain of true Religion For Christianity or True Religion consists in a changed heart and a changed life But the generality of people rise not hereto much less contents them As to the getting into their hearts a solid and rational Persuasion of the being of a God and of a World to come as to affecting themselves with a sense of Sin and putting themselves into a state of Pardon through the Blood of Christ and then settling and maintaining in themselves a Love and Fear of God Resolutions and Endeavours of Justice Charity Purity and Humility and finally keeping to this Temper these are things which either they never thought of or have put off the concerning themselves with them till they have done what they account the business of Life that is gotten a fair Estate and in the end of their days may as they hope time enough have leisure and ease to consider of these Matters and settle them to their hearts desire This as far as can be judged by ordinary Fruits is the state and pitch of Religion with the Multitude Nay there are many touching whom it is a high degree of Charity to think even thus much Now he who will be prepared for Death and Judgment must be religious at another rate § 8. He must first look upon Religion not meerly as a thing probable or which perhaps may be so as it is pretended a possible Truth but as indeed it is actually the greatest Truth and Matter of most pressing Concernment in the World Whether this Imployment Trade and Way of Life or whether that be the surest and speediest Method for me to get an Estate is uncertain They are both probable and perhaps there may be a third or fourth way as probable And whether I ever be rich or no the Matter is not of the greatest moment Man's Life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he doth possess many Men live happily who have but from hand to mouth But whether I be saved or damned whether I be everlastingly blessed or everlastingly tormented with the Devil and his Angels this is a Matter of Concernment indeed And then that there is not Salvation in any other but in the Crucified Jesus nor any other name given under Heaven amongst men whereby we must be saved No Blessedness to be had but by true Religion is a thing most certainly true and 't is most vain to think of any other course but this which the Gospel has laid down Now to the end that a Man may be truly convinced of thus much he must give his mind first to understand the Doctrine of Christian Religion that is in plain Terms the Articles of our Christian Faith he must read if he be able honest and easie Expositions of them having before treasured up in his memory the Articles of Belief and Rules of Life and if he be not able to read he must diligently hear enquire particularly of his Minister and Friends touching any thing he understands not which he conceives necessary to Salvation He must not rest till he has satisfied himself in some plain Notion or Conception of that whereof he is ignorant This being done in the next place he must attend unto the Reasons and Evidences which there are of the Truth of such Doctrines Why should I believe there is a God and he Almighty and the Maker of all things seen and unseen My Reason if I will but take the pains to think tells me it must necessarily be so For no Man nor all Men together could ever make this World the visible Heaven and Earth the Sun and Moon and Stars and put them all into that orderly motion in which they circle rising moving setting then hidden to us but enlightening and chearing others Nor can any stop the Heavens from moving nor stir the Earth or make it bring forth otherwise than in season All the Powers we know cannot alter Spring or Harvest Summer or Winter They cannot make the Sun rise sooner or set later Theresore some Being of greater and indeed of infinite Power there must be that is the Almighty God must have made and doth uphold and govern Heaven and Earth and all therein Again Holy Scripture gives Account and farther Proof of all these things There I read or thence I may hear the whole History of the Creation how all and every of these things were made and how they have been governed ever since and what God made them for and what he will do with them These and the like Evidences of the Truths of Religion must such
himself Thirdly Pause now a while for Meditation and due thought that thy Resolutions in the end may be the riper more considerate and durable And especially think with thy self Is there not more solid joy and comfort in a few moments of such Address to God as this thou hast now made and in such converse with him in well grounded hopes and a reasonable prospect that thou shalt hereafter have the perfect sight and eternal enjoyment of the glorious God than in all the Contentments and pleasures thou ever yet tastedst in the World Wherefore resolve 1. To quit all other Happiness but the Almighty God and to take God alone for thy Portion thy Shield and thy great Reward Worldly Goods indeed thou maist use in thy journey but thou maist not make them thine End nor solace thy self without looking up to God in them Psal 73. 25 26 24 28. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Thou Lord shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory It is good for me to draw near to God I have put my trust in the Lord GOD that I may declare all his works in Heaven everlastingly before him Having thus resolved in thy heart proceed and resolve further 2. By all means possible to endeavour the securing God as thy Portion for ever 1. By good works in the general sense of the term that is by Vniversal and Impartial Obedience 2. By good works in a more particular sence answerable to thy condition as set down By Liberality to the poor By other works of Bodily mercy By Charity to Men's Souls or the like 3. By faith with Humility daily to make and maintain claim to God as thy portion And whatsoever else God shall direct thee And may God direct thee and be thy portion for ever So prays the Author for thee whoever readest this and so do thou pray for him while he lives CHAP. V. Of a Composed Estate both of Affairs and Mind § 1. DIsentangling our selves from this World a necessary Christian Duty § 2. The means thereto chiefly Two putting our Affairs in Order and Composing our Minds § 3. Particular Directions hereto Setting bounds to our desires and designs of getting § 4. Putting and keeping our Estates or Accounts in such order as to be just to all § 5. Of Restitution § 6. Of Settling Children and Relations § 7. Care in making and keeping a Will § 8. Reconciliation to Mankind § 9. Advice to Relations Secrets c. § 10. Resigning them all to God and laying aside Solicitude § 11. The Conclusion of this Part. § 1 THose who have practised the former Advices or Prescriptions may be presumed to have secured to themselves a Happiness in the other World wherefore being that it is most sure they must shortly and they know not how soon depart hence it now is both just and seasonable to move them to Disentangle themselves from this World For the proving this to be all Christian Peoples both Duty and Interest let it but be granted what is above set forth and has been proved that it is our Duty and Interest to be always ready and this inavoidably follows that it is our Duty to be disentangled For is a Man ready for a Journey who has Fetters and Bolts on or who is loaden with Chains and Irons which it is not possible in a short time to knock off or rid him from No more is the Man who is involved in the cares and business but especially in the Love of this World fit or ready for his passage into that heavenly Country a Country or State wherein we are to live at another rate than we do here and for the Purity and Liberty whereof we must be somewhat prepared by a holy and abstract Life before we can be capable of being blessed therein Nor does it seem needful to inlarge in shewing how sinful as well as how unreasonable it is for a Man to incumber himself or to remain incumbred more than by his Duty necessitated in worldly Affairs There is nothing more commonly known than our Lord's reprimand or check to that busy good Woman Luke 10. 41. Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things The original terms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aptly express the Course and Nature of many of our Lives They are nothing but a State of distraction and tumult Nor can any thing be more plain than that the cares of this Life and love of this World and busy ploding about it do put the Mind and Affections at as great a distance from God as do most of those Sins which are reputed the most scandalous St. John affirms thus much commanding 1 John 2. 15. that we Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him And we have above had occasion to consider the sad truth of the Apostle St. Paul's observation touching Men that are resolved to be rich 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown Men in Destruction and Perdition For the love of Money is the Root of all Evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the Faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows In a word no wise Man will no Christian Man can look upon the best Condition or most plentiful and firm settlement in this World any otherwise than as a Good Inn to a Traveller If we can get but convenient Refreshments and Necessaries to pass on with comfort it is as much as we should look after The way-faring Man who turneth in to stay for a Night would be esteemed a Mad Man if he should spend the time wherein he should eat rest and sleep in furnishing his Room and laying in Stores of Provisions and Superfluities as if he were to abide there for term of Life And just so wise a Course is it for us who have here no abiding place but are only to pass on towards Heaven to spend those Days and Years which God has allotted us for Life and furnishing our Souls with Knowledge Grace and Vertue to qualify us for Heaven meerly in Earthly Cares and Labours and in endless Perplexities about compassing Wealth which we must leave behind us for ought we know before to morrow morning to him that comes next and which will be our loss rather than advantage when we come unto our true Home and Country Good Works may follow us but Money or Great Estates cannot except it be to appear in Judgment against us for coming unjustly by them or setting our hearts too much upon them and so enslaving our selves to them and making meer Earth-worms of our Souls § 2. But it is much more