Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	apostle_n	faith_n	temperance_n	815	5	10.9534	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08803	Several discourses concerning the actual Providence of God. Divided into three parts. The first, treating concerning the notion of it, establshing the doctrine of it, opening the principal acts of it, preservation and government of created beings. With the particular acts, by which it so preserveth and governeth them. The second, concerning the specialities of it, the unseachable things of it, and several observable things in its motions. The third, concerning the dysnoēta, or hard chapters of it, in which an attempt is made to solve several appearances of difficulty in the motions of Providence, and to vindicate the justice, wisdom, and holiness of God, with the reasonableness of his dealing in such motions. / By John Collinges ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1678 (1678)	Wing C5335; ESTC R233164	689,844	860

1. A silence from passion mourning within our selves fretting vexing c. a man breaketh this silence when he is overborn with fear or grief or anger These three ways the Soul is disturb'd and maketh a noise under the dispensations of God which breaketh this Religious silence 1. By Anger fretting fuming and vexing himself at Gods dispensations This was Moses and Aarons failing at the waters of Meribah and Jonas his error when the Gourd failed him as to its shelter But of this I have spoken fully already when I handled the Negative part of a Christians duty under Gods dispensations of nature 2. Fear Immoderate fear is another passion that spoileth this silence of the Soul fear maketh an Earthquake within us and causeth great unquietness in our Spirits The Soul that is overborn with fears never keepeth silence 3. A third passion is immoderate grief this also breaketh the Souls silence and quiet Psal 42. Why art thou cast down O my soul why art thou disquieted within me So as that Soul that under Gods dispensations of this nature either fumeth vexeth or fretteth at God because of them or is overwhelmed with immoderate or unreasonable fears or is overwhelmed or drowned in immoderate grief that Soul doth not keep silence but that Soul only keepeth a due silence to God which under such Providences abideth in a calm and quiet temper neither shaken with fear nor overcome with immoderate grief or sorrow This is now silentium animae the silence of the Soul before and unto God 2. But there is also a silence of the Tongue this is a piece of this Religious silence this is opposed to murmuring cursing and blaspheming of God to speaking hardly of God as if he were an hard Master and did not deal justly or equally with us to any speaking which is derogatory to the honour and glory of God all this now falleth under the first general duty by which I open a silent waiting for God which I call a free and voluntary submission to the good will and pleasure of God without any disturbance of passion or any sinful expressions of our Tongues 2. A Second thing wherein this duty lyeth is A steady dependance upon God for the fulfilling of his Promises made to his people in such a condition he that hath nothing to depend upon or trust to will not wait so as there can be no patient waiting where there is no secret trust and dependance This is indeed the proper exercise of Faith I have spoken fully to it when I opened the life of Faith in such a time 3. A Third thing in which this duty lies is in the Souls expectation and looking out for God Early in the morning saith David Psal 5.3 I will direct my prayer unto thee and will look up Thus when Habakkuk in the first Chapter of his Prophecy had put up his Prayer to God he saith Chap. 2. that he would go up to his watch-Tower A man goeth up to a Tower or to some high place to see whether a friend or an enemy be coming yea or no It is a piece of our duty in our waiting upon God under his dark dispensations of Providence while we are waiting to be also looking up and living in the expectation of the fulfilling of those promises which we have discerned and fixed our souls by Faith upon and which we have been praying for Our hearts should not be dead we must take heed of saying I look for no good the heart is dead when it comes to that The Soul that waits upon God under dark Providences must be looking for good and confident in its expectations of it from God 4. Lastly This waiting must be in the use of such means as God hath appointed us for the obtaining of the mercy design'd and promised and therefore Psal 37. v. 34. they are put together wait upon the Lord and keep his way Now you have this duty of silent waiting upon God opened to you The Sum of it is this It is the duty of a child of God under these Providences to keep his Soul from being overmuch shaken and overcome with fears or drowned in grief from fretting fuming and vexing at Gods dealings to keep his tongue from all murmuring all foolish and unadvised speaking with his lips to keep his Soul in a quiet dependance upon God for the fulfilling of his word daily looking up for him after the use of such means as he by the Law of Nature or in his revealed will hath appointed for the obtaining of the mercy or good thing which is the matter of our desires and he hath made the Subject of his Promise and consequently the Object of our Faith You have heard your duty Now give me leave to plead with all you that hear me this day for the Practice of it I have in this Discourse been exhorting to several duties of a child of God under dark dispensations of Providence when wicked men have been set up high increased in riches honour every way prospered and the people of God are kept in low despised afflicted states and conditions I remember the Apostle calls to us to add to our faith knowledg to both vertue to vertue temperance c. Do you also add to your not fretting not being angry and envious a steady exercise of Faith and dependance on God to your dependance on God and trusting in him an universal departing from evil and doing that which is good and to that a patient quiet waiting for God I shall in order to your better performance of this offer some counsel and then press it with some arguments and so shut up this Discourse 1. In the first place There are three things which in order to your fulfilling this point of duty I shall commend to you to get a through acquaintance with 1. Be acquainted with Gods name It is David's expression Psal 52.9 I will wait upon thy name for it is good before thy Saints It is the Name of God which we wait upon now it is reasonable in order to our waiting upon his name that we should know his name for as the Psalmist saith They that know thy name will put their trust in thee and truly they that do not know the Lords name will never wait upon him Well you will say What is his name I answer whatsoever he hath revealed and made himself known by or to be that is his name I might instance in many particulars His name is God allsufficient Gen. 17.1 I am the Almighty God His name is I am the unchangeable God His name is Jehovah the soveraign Lord God and therefore we ought to wait upon him His name is The Lord the Lord Gracious Merciful c. they that know the Lords name that are throughly acquainted with the nature of God as he hath in his word made himself known to us they will wait upon God they will see it a reasonable thing that they should wait upon God 2. In the

is a divine stamp too though of a different nature what means are proper must be used how mean soever they appear in our eyes What proportion was there betwixt Jonathan and his Armour-bearer and the whole Garrison of the Philistines between Jeroboams Army and Abijahs This but four hundred the other eight hundred thousand between the Army of Asia and that of the Ethiopians and Lubims 2 Chron. 14. God often works yea he ordinarily worketh by small means and Providence brings forth its great work in the day of mans small things If we be sure that we are in Gods way and about his work let the means be what they will if lawful and rational it is our duty to use them God must be honoured in his own Institutions and sought in his own way though the means be small and our humane hopes small yet if we expect Gods blessing this mercy must be sought in the use of those means which the Providence of God layeth before us 2. But secondly The duty of a Christian will lye much in the exercise of his Faith in God beyond the probability of the means This is the great duty of a Christian and the very end which God aimeth at in cutting us short of means many times I think we may say Vbi media deficiunt ibi fides incipit where means begin to fail there faith begins to work Where we are out of sight as to means there 's a room for faith For it is saith the Apostle the evidence of things not seen By faith here I mean a trusting and relying upon God as a God able and faithful But to open this a little more clearly to you I will shew you 1. In what cases we may warrantably exercise a faith in God beyond the vertue and probability of means 2. What means we may use for the help of our faith in this case 3. What encouragements we may take to our selves in such a case to set our faith on work 1 Quest In what cases may a Christian exercise faith in God for the accomplishment beyond the vertue efficacy and probability of humane means to be used in order to it 1. To this I answer The object of faith must be a Promise It is ridiculous to talk of an exercise of faith in God for an accomplishment for which we have no word to warrant us in the expectation of it But now a Promise may be either particular or General of old many had particular persons and the Nation of the Jews had particular promises made to them by God immediately or mediately by his Prophets we have no such God hath left us unto his written Word There are many general promises which shall be made good still to particular Churches and persons Hence is our difficulty to conclude what it is we may exercise a faith in God for bringing to pass To direct you a little 1. Where you have a particular promise the case is plain Some such there are as for the destruction of Antichrist c. 2. In the want of a special particular Promise a general promise is a sufficient object for our faith General promises made to the Church and people of God are applicable to particular Churches and particular Saints 3. Every Precept doth imply a Promise God hath certainly promised a blessing upon the doing of that which he hath commanded us to do no man serveth God for nothing 4 Whatsoever issue certainly conduceth to the glory of God is under a Promise God hath resolved to glorifie himself and he ordereth all his actions in order to that end The substance of all this amounts to thus much We may exercise a faith in God and trust in him for accomplishing by his Providence whatsoever in his Word he hath either more particularly or generally promised or whatsoever he hath commanded us to act in tendency unto or whatsoever doth certainly tend to the glorifying of his great and holy Name Now if any thing of this nature be upon the wheel although we see the present visible means in order to the accomplishment of it be small and in all appearance disproportioned to the greatness of the event yet a Christian using what lawful means the Providence of God lays before him may warrantably trust in God for the exerting a further power for the accomplishment of it than is in the means which at present are apportioned to it But this is now an hard thing to us Let me therefore secondly direct you what you should do in a day of small things for the advantaging of your faith in this noble Exercise I shall offer but two things in the Case 1. Keep your Eye as much off the means and as much upon God as you can We have so much of sense and reason in us that we are very prone from one or other of them to take all our measures about future events If we would keep our hearts steady in a time of such exigencies as these we must shut the Eyes both of our sense and reason Faith credits a Proposition neither upon the demonstrations of the one of these nor the conclusions of the other but the meer authority of God Men count it wisdom when they are upon precipices never to look downward but upward if they look downward their weak heads are apt to be giddy Christians in such stresses of Providence as these are have nothing else to do if they look downward their sense their reason saith how can these things be If God would make windows in heaven saith that Nobleman these things could not be Our poring upon means in the day of our small things hindereth the exercise of our faith in God If the foundations be destroyed saith the Psalmist Psal 11.3 what can the righteous do Means are the foundations of our natural hopes now if these be destroyed if there be little or nothing of these what can we do Wicked men are indeed at their wits-ends they despond and despair but saith the Psalmist v. 4 The Lord is in his holy temple the Lords throne is in heaven his eyes see his eye-lids try the children of men God is still where he was and hath the same power the same knowledg of things the same rule and dominion Twice in Scripture Abraham is propounded to us as a noble Example and a father of the faithful in this thing Rom. 4. God had promised him a Son a Son of his Wife Sarah he grew to be an hundred years old his Wife many years past child bearing here was no means yet Abraham believeth for a Child and he was not weak in the faith saith the Apostle Rom. 4.18 19 20. How doth he behave himself The Apostle telleth you That he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarahs womb he staggered not at the Promise but was strong in faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had promised

upon you to honour God more than others God hath done infinitely more for you than for Heathens Now what a shame it is that an Heathen should out-doe you in any thing yet give me leave to tell you that while you only do some actions that are materially good not formally and truly many Heathens have done as much as you An Heathen may do and many of them have done and that with some good intention actions materially good that is such things as God commanded Many of them have been eminent instances of moral vertue Justice charity temperance liberality c. many of them have professed to love vertue for the sake of vertue Wherein can you excel them but by doing actions which are formally good designing Gods glory acting in obedience to Gods will regulating your selves as to the manner by Gods word you have the word the Gospel of God oh how reasonable it is that our conversation should be as becomes the Gospel of Christ The Heathen else that lives up to his light of nature out-does us and it will as our Saviour tells us be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of Judgment than for us 3. But Lastly Let the Saints of God see what an obligation to all manner of duty and holiness lies upon their souls they are the most special objects of special Providence God takes more care for all men than for Oxen or for the grass of the field he exerciseth a more special Providence for that body of people which make up his visible Church than for all the earth besides but yet what is that special Providence which God exerciseth for meer formal professors or for any other men in the world in comparison of what they have experienced Any thing of more special distinguishing Grace is a great Specialty of Providence and that in the best and highest sort of good things viz. those which concern the salvation of the Soul Oh what doth God expect what doth God require from you what should you do more than others More particularly This Doctrine of special Providence calls to you 1. For more extraordinary degrees of Love 2. For more special acts of Faith 1. For more eminent degrees of Love Psal 31.23 O Love you the Lord all you his Saints for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer Reason argueth thus with us that the reciprocations of our love ought to bear proportion to love received If saith our Saviour you love them that love you what reward have you the law of nature commandeth us to love and by actions of kindness and duty to express our love to them who have expressed their kindness to us and the same reason requires the reciprocations of love to be proportionable God therefore declaring especial love to you you are bounden in a special duty to him Let our Saviours question be often in your thoughts What do you do more than others If you for whom God hath sent his Son to dye and into whose hearts he hath sent his Spirit the Spirit of Adoption Supplication Consolation and whom the Lord hath from the womb watched over and preserved by a more special peculiar Providence bearing you as upon Eagles Wings and gathering you as an Hen gathereth her Chickens under her Wings I say If you do no more for God than others do not under such influences nor such Providences you must certainly act beneath and short of your duty This dependeth upon what I told you before of the reasonableness of the reciprocations of love in some commensurate proportions 2. It calleth to them who fear God for special exercises of faith you have reason more to trust and depend upon God than others because God hath declared a more special care and Providence for you The ground of all faith is the word and promise of God Now special promises call for a more special and peculiar faith What though another man cannot trust God contrary to a sensible or reasonable appearance yet you have reason to do it because God hath declared more his care for you and the workings of his Providence for your preservation and deliverance than for others God hath promised to save defend and deliver you not after the workings of his ordinary Providence You may therefore say with David The Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear He is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid Psalm 27.1.3 Though an Host should encamp against me my heart should not fear though war should rise against me in this I will be confident But thus much shall serve to have discoursed concerning the Specialties of Divine Providence SERMONS XII XIII Rom XI 33. O the depth both of the wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out I Have finished my Discourse concerning the principal Acts of Divine Providence both generally and specially I have discoursed concerning Gods general Acts in preserving and governing all his creatures and concerning God's more special preserving and governing of some creatures I am now come to discourse concerning the Methods of it concerning which we must cry out with this great Apostle O the depth both of the wisdom and knowledg of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out My Text is the conclusion of an exceeding deep discourse which the Apostle had made concerning the Rejection of the Jews which he proves to be neither Total nor final In the ten first verses he proveth that it is not Total V. 2 God did not cast off his people whom he did foreknow V. 5 There is a remnant according to Election As it was in Elias's time he thought and complain'd that he was left alone and they sought his life also but he was mistaken God at that time had seven thousand in Israel that had not bowed the knee to Baal V. 7 He saith The Election had obtained though some though the most of them were rejected yet the Elect amongst them were not rejected and this he proveth to have been but according to what was prophesied V. 11 He proveth that this Rejection should not be final There should be a fulness of them V. 12. Receiving of them V. 15. They should be again grafted in V. 23 24. It is but V. 25. till the fulness of the Gentiles should come and then all ●srael should be saved This Discourse is mixed with several arguments to prove the assertion and with several reflections upon the Gentiles whose present state was better than theirs shewing them their duty negatively and positively not to be high-minded but humble To fear c. Now look as a man wading in deep waters when he finds the water go over his head and trip up his heels he cries out O I shall be drowned and endeavours to get back again So doth the blessed Apostle he had been wading into the great deeps of Gods counsels and ways

little good to be hoped for unless God by his Providence makes some particular persons amongst them highly serviceable or instrumental in the state where they live either discovering some plots or treasons which was the case in Mordecai's time or brings some of them to some great favour which was the cause of the Israelites first in Egypt then in Babylon and Esther afterwards upon their return from Babylon or else God by his Providence secureth his little flock by suffering some intestine factions to rise amongst the men of the world or stirring up other enemies against that part of the world that they have something else to do and cannot attend the execution of their malice upon the servants of God or blesseth a particular state with a good-natured Prince that is not enclined to rigour and severity but naturally abhorreth the blood and ruin of people though usually if the latter be the case it is but an incertain time with the Church for good natures are ordinarily with ease enclined this way or that according to the mutability of prevailing Counsels But now if the People of God in any nation be a considerable number and you see the Providence of God hath raised them up to be men of interest many of them either with respect to their Wisdom or Estates or Imployments though their Enemies be many and boisterous yet there is no great fear unless of particular persons suffering God seems to have subordinated the world to their peace For though some few imprudent men that are rash and malicious and some hot-spur'd Church-men who understand little of politicks may in such a juncture be for nothing but fire and faggot yet God who in his Providence hath ordered civil affairs so that it should be the interest of the men of the world to give them liberty and peace will seldom suffer those whom he hath betrusted with the government of the affairs of the world unless he designeth to bring a period to the state so far to overlook their interests as to gratifie the lusts of malicious and rash men Again If you see in any place God suffering men calling themselves Ministers to degenerate into such sots in their Conversation or to run into such heighths of superstitious vanities and fooleries as all men condemn and see the vanity of or to be so insufficient for any part of their work that they can do nothing of it but are contemptible unto all and make the offering of God to be abhorred This is another juncture of affairs when you may either fear the ruin of the place or hope for a reformation or more quiet abode for Gods People in it And by the way my enlargement upon this Observation may mind the People of God of the Policy as well as Piety of a threefold duty 1. The first is All just homage and serviceableness unto such rulers as God hath set over the places wherein their lot is cast I say just homage for it is better to obey God than Man and we cannot obey Man where Obedience to him is disobedience to God But the more any of our consciences towards God straitens us as to some points of Obedience the more we should be serviceable in what we may If it at any time falls in our way to secure their lives by discovering dangerous plots and conspiracies Mordecay by such a service made himself the Protector of all the people of the Jews If we be called to it and can assist them with our arms with our wisdom counsel with our service and industry remember what great instruments for the good of Gods People Joseph Daniel the three Children Nehemiah c. were made 2. Observe here also the Policy as well as Piety of the practice of all moral virtue Justice to all charity and liberality to the poor temperance sobriety all manner of loveliness in Conversation there must be something more than these things to commend you to God but these are the things that must commend you to the world Moral vertue hath a great cognation with humane Nature though mens lusts and passions sometimes run them out to acts of injustice and oppression and debauchery yet no body would willingly himself be oppressed or dealt unjustly with or have his own wife and daughters debauched It is very rare but the highest and maddest Enemies of the People of God are malicious and debauched persons few of them persons of moral vertue and honesty make but your selves great Examples of these things and you will certainly at one time or other be too hard for your adversaries the world so loatheth their injustice cruelty oppression hard-heartedness their drunkenness and uncleanness their lying cheating and defrauding that it will vomit them out 3. It lets you also see the Policy as well as Piety of keeping close to God in the matters of his worship The sottishness and superstition of Priests signifieth good not hurt to you unless you approve of their savings and doings But when the prophets prophecy falsly and the priests bear rule by their means and the people love to have it so what will you do in the end thereof Jer. 5.32 If the ministry in any nation be sottish in their lives corrupt in their Doctrines superstitious in their Worship dumb dogs that can neither pray nor preach let not the people love to have it so and comply with them and own them God will not long suffer his flock to be rent in pieces with such wolves nor be at the will of such idol-shepherds But I have enlarged far enough upon this first branch of Application I shall be shorter in the other 2. Observe from hence both the felicity and duty of the people of God 1. Their felicity and dignity Their dignity I remember the Psalmist admiring the mercy of God towards man and expressing his Dignity Psal 8.6 7. Thou madest him to have dominion over the work of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feet all sheep and oxen yea and the beasts of the field the fouls of the air and the fish of the sea and whatsoever passeth through the seas This is a great dignity of man that God hath subordinated all the works of Creation all the orders of Creatures beneath him unto him But what a dignity is this to which God hath advanced his Church that all the affairs of the world should be as it were put under their feet that they should not only have a dominion over the works of the Lords hands in Creation as sheep and neat cattel and fouls and fishes but also all the Lords works of Providence that the Kingdoms of the Earth and the great affairs of states should be ruled with reference to the good of this little flock What a felicity it is to be within this hedg to be a member of this body of people I mean a true member of the Church of God I know the whole visible Church as I have before shewed you is under

the first place it will appear to be but a reasonable motion of Providence there to distribute sensible blessings where men either in their single capacities or in their political societies live in the exactest square and conformity to the Divine Rule in matters of distributive and commutative justice and brotherly love and amity if you but consider the natural tendency of these things to promove the felicity of any persons or societies together with the direct tendency of a contrary converse to the ruin and undoing of them Justice and Vnity or amicable living each with other are the two pillars of humane society as the Scripture saith of Rachel and Leah Ruth 4.11 They two did build up the house of Israel so it must be said of these two Justice and brotherly love they are the two things which build up humane society and the Nation which keepeth not up these two pillars and preserveth them not in those due repairs which the lusts and corruptions of men will make them to stand in a daily need of will quickly fall under the ruins of them it must necessarily be a Kingdom divided against it self which as our Saviour hath told us cannot stand Where the first viz. Justice faileth no man knoweth what to call his own every mans estate is exposed to the fraud violence and rapines of his wicked neighbour Where Amity and Vnity which is the other fails men are continually biting and devouring rending and tearing one another none are willing to trade or traffique or to have any commerce with any such people or if they have it is so sparingly and with so much caution as is no way consistent with that liberty and freedom and that mutual confidence each in another which such a state requireth as is capable of those kind of blessings or in a rational or probable way to receive them You cannot but observe how every one is willing to be acquainted and to deal with persons that have a reputation for moral honesty and matters of justice in bargains and barters in buyings and sellings and exchange Now the outward blessing of riches and prosperity as to business depending much upon society good understandings betwixt each of other and good opinions of persons engaged in the same societies which may dispose men to just and mutual confidences each in other it is not at all to be wondred at if those places and persons thrive best amongst whom these are found which are the rational means agreeing to such an end The like might be said of other moral vertues such as are temperance and sobriety being rational means tending to the preservation of mens lives and health which are other sensible blessings It is not at all to be wondred that these blessings which are the end do naturally follow the proper means even as the thred followeth the needle in the hands of the sempstress God hath so ordered it that ends shall be ordinarily obtained in the use of means always supposing the ordinary Providence of God which must give the blessing upon any means used in order to any end 2. But secondly There is more than this in it God in the pursuance of his many promises doth there command the blessing I am speaking of ordinary cases for Gods particular design to chasten any persons or to try them makes an exception to these however general rules God hath promised his sensible things Matth. 6.32 To those who first seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof he hath told them that these things shall be added to them Godliness hath the promise as of that life which is to come so of this life as the Apostle tells us the promise to brethren living together in unity Psal 133. you heard before there God commandeth the blessing saith the Psalmist and mark what blessing it is it is like the oyl poured upon the head of Aaron which ran down to the skirts of his garment like the dew upon the hill of Hermon which made the Earth fruitful the blessing of plenty and prosperity And for promises to the doing justice and judgm●nt they are so many in Scripture that it were almost infinite to repeat them I shall only commend this observation to you That you shall quite through the Scripture find the execution of justice and judgment made one term that God puts upon people in order to the receiving of any mercy from him and injustice violence and oppression constantly enumerated as those sins to which are annexed all the threatnings of taking away those temporal blessings which a Nation doth enjoy Indeed unless prophaneness and irreligion or idolatrous and undue worship of God almost all the sins for which you find threatnings of the deprival of temporal sensible blessings are reducible to one of these heads either being failers in matters of civil justice or of that brotherly love and amity which God hath required So that this is as a very ordinary so a most reasonable motion of Divine Providence and what we cannot but in reason expect from its hand But I come to the Application of this discourse Vse 1. As my other Observations so this also is of great use to us to increase in us spiritual wisdom and to make us understand the loving-kindness of the Lord. 1. To increase in us spiritual wisdom Wisdom is a practical habit disposing us to order our affairs in the best manner in order to our own good Good is that which every man desires who will shew us any good is the general language of the world There be many saith the Psalmist that say Who will shew us any good And though the hearts of Gods People be after spiritual good Lord saith David lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon me yet this is not that good which the many look after but the increase of their corn and wine and oyl We will take men at that advantage and suppose the question to be what course a man should take to be blessed with corn wine and oyl with the good things of this life long life riches trade success in worldly affairs if this observation be true the best course is for Nations Cities Persons to govern themselves by the Divine Rule to set up and promove the profession and practice of Religion to execute justice and judgement to live in brotherly love unity and amity one with another Whoso therefore would be wise for himself according to the worlds measures of wisdom is obliged to this hence it is that in Scripture and especially in the book of Proverbs the sinner is called a fool the godly man is counted a wise man and the truth is whether persons consider themselves as beings ordained to an eternity or meerly as flesh and blood and bodily compositions who as is natural to all creatures have a natural desire to live as long as they can and as free from pain and misery as they can and with as many sweetnesses and advantage of

life and peace A carnal mind doth not onely bring a Soul to eternal death in the last issue of it but it puts a great death upon his Life and Peace I mean his Spiritual Life and Peace It is impossible that the Soul that is intangled in the businesses of the World in a more than ordinary manner should find his Soul either so free for or so strong in the performances of spiritual duty as that Soul who hath less of the cares and business or concerns of the world upon it The Soul of a Man is not infinite in its powers and cannot be with equal degrees of intention employed upon two different much less contrary things While we are in the world we must be conversing with the men of the world and handling the things of the world we must else as the Apostle speaks in the case of converse with sinners Go out of the world but the less the Soul is ingaged in them the less the Heart is set upon them and its intention and affections taken up with them therefore it will be more free as to its spiritual business and stronger in the performance of it Let every one therefore learn that excellent lesson of the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 30. Let those that have Wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as they that possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it 3. Thirdly Be diligent in waiting upon God in the institutions of his publick worship and consciencious in such attendance The Preaching of the Word of God is the great Ordinance of God for perfecting the Saints both as to their number by the work of Conversion and as to their graces by giving out further measures and manifestations of himself to his peoples Souls he createth the fruit of the Lips peace Christians therefore who wait for these influences are concerned to wait upon the Lord in his own way It was Gods ancient promise That wheresoever he recorded his name to dwell there be would meet his people and bless them And considering that although the blessing of Grace doth not depend upon the Instrument let Paul plant and Apollos Water God must give the increase and he that planteth is nothing nor he that watereth any thing yet God dealing with reasonable Souls useth to deal with them in reasonable wayes I do not think it enough for Christians to go to Church and hear Discourses out of Pulpits but to wait upon God under such Preaching of his Word as may appear and approve it self to them as having a rational tendency to the improvements of their Soul in Grace There are kinds of Preaching under which a Christian may sit long enough before he find his Soul quickened or strengthened or improved by them You may remember I gave you that as one reason why some receive more gradual manifestations of Divine Love than others because they have better means than others have or make a better use of means than others do I take a consciencious use of the more external means to lie much in three things 1. In a good election of them 2. In a sincere and diligent attendance upon them 3. In an after repetition of them to our selves and a more private application of them to our own hearts 1. I say first in a good election of them Though Preaching of the Word be the general means yet the Preacher and way of Preaching makes a vast difference in this means and the concurrence of God to all the purposes of Grace is upon experience found to be evidently more where the means appear in the eye of reason more proper If the Preacher ordinarily preacheth not to the understanding and capacity of the hearer or not to the conscience and hearts of hearers but fills up his time with other things impertinent to the Souls Spiritual Duty or wraps up his Duty in such Parables and Mysteries of Phraise and Abstruseness of Notions that the hearer can make nothing of it he can have little hope to profit by it and he will shew little conscience in attendance upon them Our Saviour you know gives this account why he spake to the Scribes and Pharisees and ordinary Jews in Parables but to his Disciples opened those Parables and spake more plainly and intelligibly Mat. 13.13 14. Therefore speak I to them in Parables because they in seeing see not and in hearing bear not neither do they understand and in them is fulfilled the Prophecy of the Prophet Isaias c. but v. 16. Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear 2. Secondly In a sincere and diligent attendance upon them That Soul which will meet God in his Ordinances must in hearing hear he must go out with a design to meet God and he must hoc agere while he is waiting upon God Our Saviour asks his Disciples when they had been hearing John the Baptist What they went out for to to see It is a question we should all propound to our selves when we go to wait upon God in his Ordinances Now what doth my Soul go out for to do what is its end in this motion God ordinarily meeteth his People according to the sincerity of their designs which indeed maketh their attendances upon God seekings or not seekings of Gods Face 3. It lies in a practical application and whetting the Word hard upon our hearts and consciences This is the digesting of the Word this now is a piece of Holiness of great import to those that seek after the further manifestations of God and higher measures of Grace any growing whether it be in Faith or Love Nor is the Reading andPreaching of the Word onely to be attended but the Holy Sacraments also Baptism which we have generally received in our Infancy to be improved And the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be conscienciously attended There is a great improvement to be made of Baptism in order to our Spiritual Strength and Vigour I have handled that in a particular Discourse in some of your hearing and must not now enlarge upon it it is our great error that we make no more use of our Baptism than we do The Apostle Rom. 6. draweth great arguments from it to strengthen us unto Holiness The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is called by the Apostle The Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ The meaning of that I do not understand if it doth not signifie That it is an Ordinance wherein if it be duly and conscienciously attended upon Christ doth communicate the vertue of his death Now I am sure all Christs manifestations to the Souls of his People are a part of that purchase It is true it doth not necessarily work these effects nor is God bound necessarily in this manner to concurre with it he is a free agent in all his effluxes of Divine