of the Church done they have been to them the very joy and life of their souls Psal 122.1 I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord our feet shall stand within thy gates O Jerusalem I never was â—â—re affected with joy and gladness in all my life then when I was wont to hear the people encouraging one another to assemble themselves to the publique worship of God in the house of God on Gods day O it did my heart good to hear with what alacrity and rejoycing they did provoke one another come let us go to the house of the Lord notably prophesied of in words at length Isa 2.2 3. verses many people shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem In the loss of Ordinances and Sabbaths they have been dead in the nest like Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not And in the recovery and enjoyment of them they have rejoyced as men rejoyce that divide the spoil see Psal 3. Psal 42. 43. 84. per totum Christians we must write after this copy and count the Sabbath not our Duty only but our Delight and priviledge 2. Affirmative duty The Holy of the Lord. We must call it i. e. ut sup count it keep it as Lichdosh Jehovah sanctum Domini One of the titles of Jesus Christ The Holy one of God we must observe the Sabbath as Holy time Holy yet not by constitution not essentially holy as Christ is holy nor inherently as the Saints are holy but holy by institution by sanction relatively holy the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it i. e. he set it apart for holy uses Deut. 5.12 keep the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it Nothing but holy things must be done in this holy time praying reading hearing singing of Psalms c. as Psal 92. which is both a precept and plat-form for Sabbath-sanctification meditation rejoycing in God and Thanksgiving as you may read at large Thirdly We must call it i. e. count it honourable or the glorious day of God Glorious upon several accounts 1. For Gods glorious resting upon that day Gods rest that is a glorious rest rest of God As things of God in scripture are great and glorious things 2. Glorious or Honourable by a glorious sanction Coyn with the Kings stamp upon it is counted Royal not for the mettal so much though it be of Silver or Gold but for the Image superscription and impression it beareth Every day in the week is Honourable because it is Gods Creation but the Sabbath is glorious for the inscription Jehovah hath set his Image upon it He did sanctifie it It hath Gods sanction upon it and that is glorious 3. It is Honourable for those glorious ends for which it was set apart and they are three 1. That God might sanctifie his people Ezekiel 20.12 moreover I gave them my Sabbaths for a sign between me and them not a ceremonial sign as some would dwindle it that have no more Religion in them than an old rotten Ceremony cometh to but a moral sign i. e. a Testimony Pledge or Covenant whereby it might appear that they were Gods people sanctified to his service and honour So it follows that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them The Sabbath is Gods Medium to raise up to himself an holy people 2. That Gods people might sanctifie him so ver 41. I will be sanctified in you so Levit. 10.3 I will be sanctified in them that draw nigh me God sanctifieth us when he makes us holy we sanctifie God when we acknowledge him to be holy God sanctifieth us when he makes us what we are not we sanctifie him when we acknowledge him to be what he is These be glorious ends but 3. Another glorious end for which God made the Sabbath was that the Sabbath on Earth might be a type and figure of the Sabbath in Heaven That in this initial and imperfect Sabbath on earth we might see though in a glass darkly what the Saints and Angels are doing in Heaven without ceasing that we might peep into Heaven before we come thither and long and wait for that eternal Sabbath A day wherein God bows the Heaven and comes down and offers himself in ways of sweet and friendly Communion with his people Exod. 20. v. 23. Fourth Duty is As we must call and count it glorious so we must actually honour it or him it may be rendred both and indeed when we honour this day we glorifie God and we glorifie God when we make him our end in honouring his day Without both these we do take Gods Name in vain and do but mock God rather in pretending to keep a Sabbath than glorifie him We must set up God in his own day and in his own Institution And thus I have done with the opening of this blessed Model in the Duties of it I should come now to the Priviledges annexed but sufficient to the day is the travel thereof For the Improvement of this doctrinal Exposition I shall do these two Things 1. I shall endeavour the stating of some Cases of Conscience concerning the Sabbath 2. I shall raise some observations instead of more distinct Uses and application Case 1 If it be inquired what Sabbath it is that is here spoken of we shall not need to stick long upon the solution Some indeed of the Antisabbatical Doctors who love neither the Name nor Thing will needs expound it of the yearly Sabbath the day of the strictest rest among the Jews in their solemn convention for Humiliation and Atonement of which we read Levit. 16.31 and 23.27.31 But surely it is an unreasonable straitning of the text to confine it to this especially since the Prophet had sufficiently insisted upon that subject both by way of reproof and Exhortation in the former part of the chapter Here therefore I conceive we are to understand the Weekly Sabbath not only the seventh day Sabbath which was yet in being but the First day Sabbath also which was to succeed the Prophet being an Evangelical Prophet as one calls him the Evangelist Isaiah speaks of the Evangelical Sabbath which was to continue to the end of the world Rules drawn from the Negative part of this model Rules 1. Note in the first place that from the Creation of the world to this day God never suffer'd his Church to be without a Sabbath As soon as ever there was a Church though it was but in its infancy and confin'd within the narrow limits of a single-family and few souls therein God did immediately institute a Sabbath for it Gen. 2.3 And on the seventh day God ended all his works which
come now to the Positive and Affirmative part There we saw what we are forbidden as that whereby the Sabbath is polluted Here we are informed what we are commanded as that whereby the Sabbath is sanctified i. e. kept holy to the Lord as we are enjoined keep the Sabbath-day tâ— sanctifie it c. in these words following And shalt call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour Him c. In this Positive model are contained four great comprehensive branches or Duties wherein the sanctification of the Sabbath doth consist sc 1. We must call it our delight 2. We must call it Holy or the Holy of the Lord. 3. We must call it Honourable or Glorious 4. We must not only call the day an honourable day but we must really and actually honour God or honour the day The Heads are few but they are very comprehensive and such as will afford us in the opening of them much matter for our use and direction in the sanctification of the Sabbath although I intend in this exercise but briefly to touch upon some few particular heads or rules reserving the more full and ample enlargement thereof to some other opportunity The first is we must call the Sabbath a Delight or the pronoun supplied thy Delight Call it so we are not to account the Sabbath as an ordinary and common thing but to put a very high and precious valuation upon it as delightful the holy of the Lord and of honourable renown A delight thy delight we must call it so account it so or make it so The Sabbath must be a delectable thing to us a nest of sweetnesses the delight of our eyes the joy and rejoicing of our hearts a day wherein all our comforts and pleasures do concentre all our fresh springs must be in it And this I humbly conceive the Holy Ghost doth most significantly oppose unto the pleasures forbidden before in this same verse If thou turn away thy foot from doing thy pleasure c. q.d. must we be excluded and shut out from all pleasures and delights upon the Sabbath No saith the Holy Ghost sanctifie the Sabbath of Jehovah and thou shalt not need to fear the want of pleasure neither shalt thou need to be beholden to the flesh or the world for delights The Sabbath it self will be incomparably more sweet and delectable to thee than all the sensual and luscious contentments and satisfactions which this whole sublunary world can afford Make the Sabbath thy delight and thou shalt need to knock at no other door for pleasurable entertainments If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto thee call my Sabbath thy Delight he would make his day unto thee a spring of sweetness that shall alwaies be flowing out to eternal life a day well spent with God will fill the soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory Qu. But what shall we do that we may make the Sabbath our Delight or When may we be said to call it so or make it so 1. We then call the Sabbath our delight Rules or signs of making the Sabbath a delight when we can rejoice in the approach of the Sabbath See how holy David doth solace his soul in the joyful expectation of Communion with God when his banishment from the Ordinances did approach Psal 43.4 Then shall I go unto the altar of God unto God my exceeding joy Heb. the gladness of my joy 2. Our early stirring up of our selves to bid the Sabbath welcom to our hearts and habitations Psal 63.1 So the holy Prophet O God thou art my God early will I seek thee The earliness of his devotions shews the delight that he took in them truly the great indulgence that most Christians allow themselves in their bed on the Lords day is an infallible argument how little delight they take in Gods day or in the Ordinances thereof 3. Then we may be said to call the Sabbath our delight when we are universally careful to sanctifie God in all the institutions of the day both publique private and secret And are sollicitous so to Methodize and time them that they may not justle out or interfere with one another that is to say to be so early in our closet-devotion that the closet may not exclude or streighten the duties of the Family and so to perform the Domestick Duties that they may not trespass upon our attendance on the more solemn publick worship of God An universal respect to all the institutions of a Sabbath is an evident demonstration that we call the Sabbath our delight Psal 119.6 As David evidenceth to his own soul the sincerity of his Obedience Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy commandments 4. When we are angry with or impatient of any diversions from or disturbance in any duty or services of the day To be glad of a diversion argueth little love to or delight in the Sabbath I esteemed saith Job the words of his mouth more than my necessary food Job 23.12 Heb. appointed food 5. And lastly Then we call the Sabbath a Delight when the bare having of a Sabbath without the presence of God in the Sabbath and the Ordinances thereof will not satisfie us Psal 16. ult Delight springs principally from the presence of God In thy presence is fulness of joy This delight is promised as a reward in the verse following Then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord. There is a Delight of Duty and there 's a Delight of dispensation and this is the reward of that that is Our work this is Gods work when a gracious heart sets it self to delight in a Sabbath and in the Ordinances thereof then often God is pleased graciously to come in and to fill the Ordinances and by it the soul with his own presence His Convincing presence Enlightning presence Converting presence Quickning presence Strengthning presence Comforting presence And when the soul cannot be satisfied unless it be in some measure sensible of Gods presence in some of these blessed respects or other then doth it really call the Sabbath a Delight Psal 63.1 Thus doth the holy Psalmist O God thou art my God early will I seek thee why what would he have it follows v. 2. to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in thy sanctuary It is not the sanctuary of God only but Communion with God in the sanctuary which Davids soul thirsted after This is to call the Sabbath a delight I come to the second duty We must call the Sabbath the holy of Jehovah Sanctum Domini Lichdosh Jehovah This title is very significant We must not only count the Sabbath holy but the holy of the Lord. It is as it were one of the Titles ascribed to the Son of God for so he is called thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption Acts 2.27 3.14
c. Ye denied the Holy One c. And well it may for it is the holy day of the holy Son of God yea God the Father and God the Son have put off their own holiness upon it Not essentially for that is incommunicable Nor is it an Inherent holiness which they have Communicated to it 2 Pet. 1.4 as the Saints of God have who are made holy by a supernatural change of their natures But the Sabbath is holy by divine Institution by special dedication and consecration God having hallowed this day above all other days in the week by separating it from common and civil uses and consecrating it to holy and religious ends and purposes viz. to be a Sabbath of holy rest But now The Question Question is How may we thus call the Sabbath holy or When may we be said truly to make it holy 1. When we make Gods hallowing and sanctifying this day our Motive and Argument to sanctifie it by a holy Observation of it Answer when that which God hath called holy by his divine sanction we dare not call it common and profane by prostituting of it to unsuitable actions words or thoughts There is a real calling it unholy as well as vocall He or She that spends the day or any part of it in doing evil or in doing nothing or in doing nothing to the purpose he proclaimeth to the world what he calleth the day although he speak not a word he speaks his heart by interpretation and when all is done our works are more credible Interpreters of our hearts than our words or profession Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the things which I say Then we believe it holy when we keep it holy 2. Then we call the Sabbath holy when we sanctifie our selves for the Sabbath and for the Ordinances of the Sabbath If we have no care what frame of spirit we bring with us into the day nor with what frame we drive thorough it we are far from calling the Sabbath the holy of the Lord. For their sakes saith our Lord I Sanctifie my self John 17.17 I Sanctifie my self i. e. I separate my self wholly for the work of a Redeemer If the Lord Jesus separated himself for our sakes should not we much more separate our selves for his Then we believe Christ to be our holy Redeemer when we labour to be an holy people Holy as he is holy and then we have high venerable thoughts of the holiness of the Sabbath when we labour to be holy as the day is holy an unsuitable spirit is a profanation of the Sabbath The Day holy but we unholy what a reproach is this Holiness becomes thy house for ever q. d. Psal 93.5 Ceremonies were to continue but for a time but holiness is the standing qualification of thy day and of thy worshippers for ever 3. When we make holiness in the beginning and increase of it our design in our sanctifying of the day and of our attendance upon the Ordinances When we make holiness our business It is the great end for which God hath ordained a Sabbath Exod. 31.13 Ezek. 20.12 Verily my Sabbath ye shall keep for it is a sign between me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord that do sanctifie you Not a Ceremonial sign but a Moral sign a Covenant sign a kind of a Sacramental sign a Medium to effect what is promised in the Covenant 1 Cor. 11.23 25. as water in Baptism and bread and wine in the Lords Supper Oh when Gods design and mans design meets when God makes a Sabbath for a Medium to make his people holy and they keep a Sabbath that they may be holy this is excellent this is to call the Sabbath The Holy of the Lord. When we labour to bring as much holiness as we can into a Sabbath and to bring more holiness out of a Sabbath to come out of Gods day more holy than we came into it This is to sanctifie a Sabbath indeed 4. Then we call it holy when the more pure and holy the Sabbath is kept and the more purely and holily the Ordinances are dispensed the more our souls do love them the more beauty and glory we do see in them As David expresseth his affection to the word Thy word is very pure therefore doth thy servant love it It is very sad when the more purely and the more holily the word is dispensed the more people dislike it and pick quarrels with it as that vile people did who cried to their Prophets prophesie not Or if you will be prophesying prophesie smooth things Jer. 30 10 11. Sermons that will go down pleasantly discourses of peace that will not trouble our Consciences nor cross our corruptions but cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us It was the Holy one of Israel c. the title which the prophets used in their Sermons but their ears were so tender they could not bear it if the Prophets would prophesie of the Merciful One of Israel and of the Bountiful One The Omnipotent One c. let them go on but they cared not so much for holiness and strictness as they pressed upon them from day to day this did not please their palate So when it is with a people in reference to other Ordinances Prayer and the Sacraments the more corrupted they be with the mixtures of men and of humane inventions the more acceptance and applause they find this argues that men seek not Jesum propter Jesum Christ for Christ his sake nor Ordinances for their purity nor Sabbaths because they be Holy days of an Holy God When to get holiness and to grow in holiness is our design Sanctifying Sabbaths John 17.17 When we sanctifie Sabbaths that God may sanctifie us by his Sabbaths and by his truth as our Lord prayeth then we do call and account the Sabbath indeed Sanctum Domini The Holy of the Lord. 5. We do truly count the Sabbath the holy of the Lord when we come out of Sabbaths as Moses came down from the Mount With our faces shining When we bring with us the savour of Christ Psal 45.8 his sweet ointments upon our garments When they with whom we converse may take notice that we have been with Jesus Acts 4 13. It is sad when men come out of a Sabbath just such as they came in as vain and loose as proud worldly wanton lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God in a word as fit for sin as they were before They sanctifie the Sabbath indeed who can in truth say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.18 We all with open face beholding as in a Glass or mirrour the glory of the Lord are changed or Metamorphosed into the same image as by the spirit of the Lord. When the Sabbath leaves its Image and Impress upon us in some measure then we do count it and keep it holy Surely the Sabbath
comprehends both the Vegetative and Sensitive part To love God with the soul is to subject all those works that pertain to an Animal life unto the love of God Plainly and in short it is not enough to love God in our Will but we must not admit any thing contrary to the Love of God in our sensual delights Whatsoever sensualists do for the gratifying of their lusts and desires let those things be drained from the dregs of sin and consecrate them all unto God Whatever use wicked men make of their souls in a way of hatred of God we must make the contrary use in a way of loving of God And then Thou must love God with all thy Soul What it is to love God with all the soul we must be ready to lay down our lives for God d Origen if any one should be ask'd what in all the world was most dear unto him he would answer his life for life-sake tender Mothers have cast off the sence of Nature and fed upon their own children It is Life that affords us being sense motion understanding riches dominions If a man had the Empire of the World he could enjoy it no longer than he hath his soul in his body when that is gone he presently becomes a horrid Carkass or rather a loathsom dunghil Now then if a man love his Life so much why should he not love God more by whom he lives and from whom he expects greater things than this Life God is the soul of our soul and the life of our life he is nearer to us than our very souls e Acts 17.28 in him we live and move and have our being He that doth but indifferently weigh these things will acknowledge that it is no rashness to call that man a Monster that loves not God how then can we think of it without grief that the whole world is full of these Monsters almost all men prefer their Money or Pleasures or their Honours or their lusts before God So oft as you willingly break any Law of God to raise your Credit or Estate you prefer the dirt and dust of the world before God Alas what use do's a wicked man make of his soul but to serve his body whereas both soul and body should be wholly taken up with not only the service but the love of God Then may you be said to love God with all your souls when your whole Life is filled with the love of God when your worldly business truckles under the love of God the love of the dearest Relations should be but hatred when compared with your love to God When you eat and drink to the glory of God sleep no more than may make you serviceable unto God when your solitary musings are about the engaging your souls to God when your social Conference is about the things of God when all acts of Worship endear God to you when all your Duties bring you nearer to God when the love of God is the sweetness of your Mercies and your Cordial under Afflictions when you can love God under amazing Providences as well as under refreshing Deliverances then you may be said to love God with all your Souls What it is to love God with the mind 3. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Mind though Anselm take this for the Memory that we should remember nothing whereby we are hinder'd in our thinking of God yet generally this is taken for the understanding and so the Evangelist Mark expresly interprets it when he renders this Command in these words f Mark 12 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all thy understanding to love God with our Minds is to have the understanding moved and commanded by the love of God to assent unto those things that are to be believed and to admit nothing into the understanding which is contrary to the love of God g Cajetan h Origen nihil cogitantes vel proferentes nisi ea que Dei sunt The Mind should let nothing go in or out but what payes tribute of love to God there 's one interprets the word by the Etymology of the word Mind from Measuring i Mens dicitur a metiendo c. Avendan The Mind must be so full of love to God that love must measure all our works k 1 Cor. 10 31. When we eat we should think how hateful it is to God that we should indulge our Palat and thence shun Gluttony when we drink we should think how abominable Drunkenness is in the sight of God and thence drink temperately l Rom. 14.8 so that whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords our Life and our Death must be measur'd by our Love to God We must love God with all our Mind What it is to love God with all our mind we must alwayes converse with God in our Minds and thoughts our thoughts must kindle our affections of love Love to God makes the hardest Commands easie while our thoughts are immers'd in love to God love to Enemies wlll be an easie Command the keeping under of our Bodies by Mortification will be an easie work Persecution for Righteousness will be a welcome Trial love will change Death it self into Life There 's another word added by Mark which indeed is in Deut. 6.5 whence this is taken Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Strength now because this word doth not express any other species or power of the Soul but only notes the highest and most intense degree of Love that flows from all the Faculties of the Soul I will close this Enquiry with a Word of this We are to love God with all the Powers of our Soul with all the members of our Bodies Our understandings wills inward and outward Senses appetite speech whatever we have whatever we are must be all directed into the Love of God and into Obedience flowing from Love You commonly hear that of Bernard the cause of loving God is God himself and the only measure is to love him without measure We must love God strongly because with all our strength our love to God must get above Interruptions no threatnings calamities or discommodities whatsoever must pull us away from God but that all the Powers of Soul and Body must be taken up into his service that our Eyes beholding the wonderful works of God the Sun Moon and Stars the clear evidences of his Divinity we may be in love with him that our Ears piously hearkning to his Instructions may be in love with him that our Mouth may love to praise him our Hands to act for him that our Feet may be swift to run the way of his Commandments that our Affections may be withdrawn from Earthly things and deliver'd over to the love of God that whatever is within us it may be bound over to
conformity with the will of God which is the highest liberty where the x 2 Cor. 3.17 spirit of the Lord is there is liberty It is a poor liberty that consists in an indifferency Do not the Saints in heaven love God freely yet they cannot but love him As the only Efficient cause of our loving God is God himself so the only procuring cause of our loving God is Jesus Christ that Son of the Father's love who by his Spirit implants and actuates this grace of love which he hath merited for us Christ hath a Col. 1.20 made peace through the blood of his Cross Christ hath as well merited this grace of love for us as he hath merited the reward of glory for us Plead therefore Dear Christians the merit of Christ for the inflaming your hearts with the love of God that when I shall direct to rules and means how you may come to love God you may as well address your selves to Christ for the grace of love as for the pardon of your want of love hitherto Bespeak Christ in some such but far more pressing language Lord thou hast purchased the grace of love for those that want and crave it my love to God is chill do thou warm it my love is divided Lord do thou unite it I cannot love God as he deserves O that thou would'st help me to love him more than I can desire Lord make me sick of love and then cure me Lord make me in this as comfortable to thy self as 't is possible for an adopted Son to be like the Natural that I may be a Son of God's love both actively and passively and both as near as it is possible infinitely Let 's therefore address our selves to the use of all those means and helps whereby love to God is b Fovetur augetur excitatur exeritur nourished encreased excited and exerted I will begin with removing the impediments we must clear away the rubbish e're we can so much as lay the Foundation Impediment 1. Self-love Impediments of our love to God this the Apostle names as Captain general of the Devil's Army whereby titular Christians manage their enmity against God in the dregs of the last dayes this will make the times dangerous Men shall be lovers of their own c 2 Tim. 3.1 2. selves When men over-esteem themselves their own endowments of either body or mind when they have a secret reserve for self in all they do self-applause or self-profit this is like an errour in the first concoction get your hearts discharg'd of it or you can never be spiritually healthful the best of you are too prone to this I would therefore commend it to you to be jealous of your selves in this particular for as conjugal-jealousie is the bane of conjugal love so self-jealousie will be the bane of self-love Be suspicious of every thing that may steal away or divert your love from God Imped 2. Love of the world this is so great an obstruction that the most loving and best beloved Disciple that Christ had said (d) 1 Joh. 2.15 love not the world nor the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him and the Apostle James makes use of a Metaphor (e) Jam. 4.4 calling them Adulterers and Adulteresses that keep not their conjugal love to God tight from leaking out toward the world he chargeth them as if they knew nothing in Religion if they knew not this that the friendship with the world is enmity with God and 't is an universal truth without so much as one exception that whosoever will be a friend of the world must needs upon that very account be God's enemy the Apostle Paul adds more weight to those that are e'en press'd to Hell already (f) 1 Tim. 6.9 10 11. 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 thorow with many sorrows but thou O man of God flee these things c. when men will be some-body in the world they will have Estates and they will have honours and they will have pleasures what variety of vexatious distractions do unavoidably hinder our love to God when our hearts are hurried with hopes and fears about worldly things and the world hath not wherewithall to satisfie us how doth the heart fret under its disappointments and how can it do otherwise we would have happiness here Sirs I 'le offer you fair name me but one man that ever found a compleat happiness in the world and I dare promise you shall be the second but if you will flatter your self with dreams of impossibilities this your way will be your folly though 't is like your posterity will approve your sayings (g) Psal 49.13 and try experiments while they live as you have done but where 's your love to God all this while 't is excluded by what Law by the Law of Sin and Death by the love of the world and destruction for Christ tells us all that hate him love death (h) Prov. 8.36 Imped 3. Spiritual sloath and carelessness of Spirit when men do not trouble themselves about Religion nor any thing that is serious Love is a busie passion a busie grace love among the passions is like Fire among the Elements Love among the Graces is like the Heart among the Members now that which is most contrary to the nature of love must needs most obstruct the highest actings of it the truth is a careless frame of Spirit is fit for nothing a sluggish lazy slothful careless person never attains to any excellency in any kind what is it you would intrust a lazy person about let me say this and pray think on 't twice e're you censure it once Spiritual sloath doth Christians more mischief than scandalous relapses I grant their grosser falls may be worse as to others the grieving of the Godly and the hardning of the wicked and the Reproach to Religion must needs be so great as may make a gracious heart tremble at the thought of falling but yet as to themselves a sloathful temper is far more prejudicial e. g. those gracious persons that fall into any open sin 't is but once or seldom in their whole life and their repentance is ordinarily as notorious as their sin and they walk more humbly and more watchfully ever after whereas Spiritual sloath runs through the whole course of our life to the marring of every duty to the strengthning of every sin and to the weakning of every grace Sloath I may rather call it unspiritual sloath is a soft moth in our spiritual wardrobe a corroding rust in our spiritual Armory an enfeebling consumption in the very vitals of Religion Sloath and
Metaphor being taken from the plethora or excess of any humor in the body And our Lord adds the reason of this caution for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth The sense seems this all these lower things which man 's covetous heart doth so much lust after are not the matter of our fruition and satisfaction but Vse only therefore our life doth not consist in the abundance of them but in an ordinate love to and moderate use of them to use them in that measure and with that mediocrity as becomes them whence they who make them the chief matter of their fruition and satisfaction are possest with a predominant love unto them This is exemplified in the following parable of the rich man specially v. 18. all my fruit and my goods He calls them his goods as they were the main object of his complacence and delight so v. 19. I will say to my soul i. e. I will then recreate and satiate mine heart with mine acquired goods whence it follows take thine ease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recreate refresh thine heart acquiesce in them Poor man he had felt sufficient anxiety sollicitude and vexation in the acquirement of his Goods but now he hopes the fruition will crown all with sweet repose rest and satisfaction Thence he adds eat drink and be merry The last term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be merry seems to refer to all manner of sensual pleasures in which voluptuous luxurious persons take so much complacence and delight this fruition of and complacence in worldly goods our Lord doth express in plain naked terms in the reddition of the Parable v. 21. so is he that layeth up treasure for himself i. e. in worldly goods which he makes the main object of his satisfaction and is not rich towards God i. e. and doth not make God his treasure and chief matter of fruition Complacence and satisfaction And what is this but rank predominant love to the world 7. Prop. To be afflicted and troubled for the loss of any Creature-comfort more than for the loss of God and things spiritual denotes predominant love to the world As our love is such is our sorrow for the loss of what we love Immoderate Affliction for the loss of any worldly thing argues Inordinate Affection to it when enjoyed and if the heart be more afflicted and troubled for the loss of the creature than for the loss of God it is a sure sign that the enjoyment of it did more affect and please the heart than the enjoyment of God This was Israel's case Isa 17.10 11. Where the prophet compares the state of Israel in her Apostasie to a curious Lady that delighteth in beautiful flowers choice fruits and pleasant plants But he concludeth the harvest should be an heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow Now this desperate sorrow or deadly pain as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth for the loss of her pleasant Idols argues predominant love to them This also was the case of the young man Luk. 18.23 And when he heard this i. e. v. 22 that he must part with all his riches for a treasure in heaven he was very sorrowful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was sorrowful in a superlative degree for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here in Composition signifies which is not as some conceive a preposition but Adverb intending the sense And what filled him with this extreme desperate sorrow Why surely thoughts of parting with his goodly treasure which he valued and loved more than treasures in Heaven They that cannot support themselves under the privation of any temporal good God calls for but choose rather to part with Heaven than with their beloved Idol are under predominant love to the world But here to obviate mistakes we must distinguish 1 between a predominant Principle or Habit and a prevalent Act of love to the world as 2 between a Rational and Passionate love or Sorrow 1. One that loves God may under a fit of Temptation be under a prevalent Act though not under a predominant Principle or Habit of love to the world 2. Hence his passionate love to and sorrow for the loss of some temporal good may be greater under some distemper of heart when his rational love to and sorrow for the loss of God and things spiritual is greater at least in the root and habit if not in the Act. 3. Qu. What it is to love God Sect. 4. What it is to love God This Question receives much Evidence and Light from what precedes touching Love to the world For Contraries illustrate each other and love to God moves in the same manner as love to the world moves So that to love God is to transfer the Actions and Passions of our Love from the world to God as our last end and chiefest Good In short the love of God implies a superlative preference of God above all lower Goods Luke 14.26 A Divine Weight or Bent of heart towards God as our Centre Deut. 6.5 It s proper Acts are chiefly two 1 An amorous vehement direct motion towards God 2 a complacential fruition of and Repose in God as its Best Beloved Psal 116.7 As for the Adjuncts of this Divine Love it must be 1. Sincere and Cordial Eph. 6.24 2. Judicious and Rational Psal 16.7 3. Intimate and Passionate 4. Pure and Virgin Cant. 5.3 5. Regular and Uniform 6. Generous and noble 7. Permanent and Abiding 8. Vigorous and Active 9. Infinite and Boundless Divine Love thus qualified brings the soul into 1 An inviolable Adherence unto and amorous union with God Eph. 5 31 32. 2 It works the heart to an amorous Resignation of all concerns unto God 3 It commands the whole Soul into the Obedience of God John 14.21.23 4 It is exceeding submissive unto God's Providential afflictive will Lev. 10 3. 5 It is extreme vigilant chearful and diligent in the service of God Luk. 7.37 47. O how officious is love to God! 6 It useth all things in subordination to God Mat. 6.33.34 7 It winds up the soul to a Divine life It transforms the lover into the Image and imitation of God whom he loves Eph. 5.1 These particulars I intended to have handled more fully but understanding that this case touching the Love of God is the proper task of another I shall refer thee to the Resolution of that Reverend Divine's Case 4. Qu. Wherein the love of the world is inconsistent with the Love of God Sect. 5. Wherein the love of the world is inconsistent with the love of God Having explicated the sundry Parts of our Case we now come to the Connexion of the whole namely to demonstrate the Inconsistence of Love to the world with the Love of God What love it is that is inconsistent with the Love of God we have already fully opened in the second Question touching predominant love to the world Wherefore the only thing at present incumbent
on us is to shew wherein predominant Love to the world is inconsistent with the Love of God 1. Prop. Predominant love to the world is contrary to and therefore inconsistent with the love of God This seems evidently implied in our text If any man love the world c. John brings this as a reason of his prohibition namely that predominant love to the world and love to God are perfectly opposite and therefore by the rule of contraries incoherent and inconsistent The like Mat. 6.24 No man can serve two Masters For either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon These words are a good Comment on our text and clearly demonstrate the Inconsistence of Love to the world with the Love of God I shall therefore a little insist on them The design of our Lord here is the same with that of John in our text namely to take off professors from inordinate predominant love to the world and bring them to a Divine Affection unto and living on God as their portion and treasure as v. 19 20 21 22 23. And v. 24. he shews the inconsistence of love to the world with love to God in that the world and God are contrary Lords who require each the whole heart and man This will more fully appear if we examine the particulars He saith No man can serve It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serve (q) Intelligendum est hoc proveâ—bium de Dâ—minis Solidum quomodo Juris consâ—lri dicunt non posse duos esse Dominos ejusdem rei Grot. Now to serve another according to the laws and customs of those times and Nations was to have no power or right to dispose of himself or any thing that belonged to him but to live and depend merely on the Pleasure of his Master Such a service could not be given to God and the world Why 1 Because they are two Masters i. e. in Solidum each of which require the whole heart and man 1 Because they are two (r) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost contrary Masters which commands us to esteem love and endeavour after worldly treasures more than heavenly God commands us to esteem love and endeavour after heavenly treasures more than earthly The world commands you to engage no farther in matters of Religion than may consist with its Interest But Christ commands you to part with all worldly Interest for himself The world commands you to take your fill of the creature to suck out the sweets thereof and feed your hearts therewith But Christ commands you to use this world as if you used it not 1 Cor. 7.31 to affect an universal privation of these lower goods even whilst you enjoy them to give perishing things perishing thoughts esteem and desires to bid farewell to all things so far as they are a snare to you or a sacrifice that God calls for Again the world commands you to endeavour the greatning of your names and reputation But Christ commands you to glory in nothing but his Cross to account abasement for Christ your greatest Honour Lastly the world commandeth you not to be scrupulous about small sins but to take your liberry and latitude But Christ commandeth you to dread the least sin more than the greatest suffering Now how contrary and Inconsistent are these Masters in their Commands Is it possible then that we should be Masters of such contrary Loves O! how doth love to the world eat out love to God 2 Predominant Love to the world is inconsistent with the Love of God in that it robs God of that Love and Honour which is due to him as the Soveraign Chiefest Good according to what measure the heart turns to the world and its concerns in the same measure it turns from God and his concerns When the heart is full of the world how soon is all sense of and love to God choaked how is the Mind bemisted an Will charmed with the painted heart-bewitching shadows of the World This was Israel's Case Hos 10.1 Israel is an empty vine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expositors have variety of Conceptions on these words but the most simple sense seems this Israel is (Å¿) vitis evacuans an evacuant luxuriant Vine which seems to bring forth such abundance of fruit as if she would empty her self of all her juice and fruits at once so richly laden with fruit doth she seem to be Ay but what fruit is it Surely fruit unto her self rotten corrupt fruit her heart and love is not bestowed on God but on her Idols So it follows v. 2. Their heart is divided i. e. This beloved Idol hath one part that another and thus God is robbed of that esteem and love which is due to him 3 Love to the World breeds Confidence in the World whereby the heart is turned off from its Dependence on God as its first cause And O! how inconsistent is this with the love of God God as he is our Last End in point of Fruition so also our first principle or Cause in point of Dependence Now love to the world turns the heart from God to the World not only as the last end but also as the First Cause They that love the world cast the weight of their souls and chiefest concerns on the World and so bid Adieu to God This Confidence in worldly things is inconsistent with Salvation and so with the Love of God as Mark 10.24 How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God This Rhetorick Interrogation implies a Logick negation namely that it is impossible for one that in a prevalent degree trusteth in his riches to enter into the Kingdom of God So Psal 52.7 Lo this is the man that made not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthned or fortified himself in his wickedness or substance The like Prov. 11.28 Ezek. 16.15 1 Tim. 6.17 4 Love to the world is flat idolatry and herein also inconsistent with the Love of God So Eph. 5.5 nor Covetous man who is an Idolater The same Col. 3.5 and covetousness which is idolatry Covetousness is in a peculiar manner branded with this black mark of Idolatry in that it doth expresly proclaim a love to the world as its last end and confidence in it as its first cause So Paul saith of voluptuous persons that they make their belly their God Phil. 3.19 because they love pleasures more than God 2 Tim. 3.4 And indeed every lover of the world is a God-maker so many lusts as men have so many Gods The lust of the flesh makes pleasures its God the lust of the eye worships Riches as its God and the lust of pride exalts some created excellence in the place of God O! how do worldlings lose the true God in the croud of false Gods 5
Love to the world is spiritual Adultery and thence incoherent with the Love of God The jealousie of God will not admit of any corrival in the bent of the heart but Oh! how doth love to this world run a whoring after other Lovers so Ezek. 16.17 18 38. and 23.5 11. and Aholah played the harlot when she mas mine c. The like James 4.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendsh p of the world is enmity with God Which implies that love to and friendship with this whorish world is spiritual Adultery and so hatred against God O! how soon are those that love the world killed by its adulterous imbraces hence 6 Love to the world is a deliberate contrived lust and so habitual enmity and rebellion against God Acts of lust which arise from suddain passions though violent may consist with the love of God but a deliberate Bent of heart towards the world as our supreme interest cannot The single act of a gross sin arising from some prevalent Temptation speaketh not such an inveterate bitter root of enmity against God as predominant love to the world James 4.4 whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God Oh! how much of contempt rebellion and enmity against God is there in friendship and love to the world 7 Love to the world forms our profession into a subservience unto our worldly interest and so makes Religion to stoop unto yea truckle under lust Now what can be more inconsistent with the Love of God than this This was the case of the carnal Jews Ezech. 33.31 With their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness They shew much love in profession but O how little have they of sincere affection and why because their avaricious hearts made the whole of their profession to conform to their worldly interest Thus also it was with unbelieving Jews in our Lords time John 5.42 But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you I know you There lies a great emphase in that you you who profess so much and yet have so little love in you They had much love to God in their mouth but none in their heart this appeareth by v. 43 44. where our Lord tells them in plain terms that their worldly honour and interest was the only measure of their profession This also was the measure of Judas's Religion John 12.5 6. where he pretends much love to the poor but really intends nothing but the gratifying his avaricious humor The like Hos 10.11 Ephraim loveth to tread out the Corn c. because there was profit liberty and pleasure in that but Ephaim loved not plowing work because that brought her under a yoke and brought in no advantage to her Love to the world brings us under subjection to it and so takes us off from the service of God What we inordinately love and cleave unto we are soon overcome by Now subjection to the world and subjection to God are inconsistent Mat. 6.24 8 Love to the world is the root of all sin and therefore what more inconsistent with the love of God To love God is to hate evil Psal 97.10 therefore to love evil either in the cause or effect is to hate God Now love to the world has not only a love for but also a causal influence on all sin And that 1 As it exposeth men to the violent incursion and assaults of every tentation so 1 Tim. 6.9 But they that will be rich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that have their wills biassed with a violent bent or vehement weight of carnal love towards riches This Solomon expresseth Prov. 28.22 By hasting to be rich What befalls such why saith Paul such fall into tentation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction and then he gives the reason and cause of it v. 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil c. i. e. There is no sin but may call the love of money Father whence Philo calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Metropolis of evil 2 Love to the world is the cause of all sin in that it blinds and darkens the mind which opens the door to all sin It is an observation of the prudent moralist (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch that every lover is blind about that he loves which he himself interprets of love to lower goods And oh how true is this of those that love the world what a black veil of darkness is there on their minds as to what they love hence Paul calls such mens love 1 Tim. 6.9 foolish lusts They are indeed foolish not only eventually but causally as they make men fools and sots 3 Love to the world stifles all convictions breaks all chains and bars of restraining grace and so opens a more effectual door to all sin We find a prodigious example hereof in Balaam Numb 22.22 40. where you see at large how his predominant love to the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.15 stifled all those powerful convictions of and resolutions against sin he lay under 4 Love to the world is the disease and death of the soul and therefore the life of sin 1 Tim. 5.6 she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth 5 Love to the world (u) Amor est quidam ingressus animi in rem amatam quae si fuerit ipso amante ignobilior polluit Dignitatem ejus Jansen August pollutes our whole Being Animal passions defile the soul inordinate lustings after things lawful pollute the most of professors more or less 6 Love to the world puts the whole soul yea world into Wars Confusion and Disorders so James 4.1 From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your Members 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of your pleasures i. e. by a Metonymie from your lusts after pleasures and superfluous things that war in your members Hence note that all extern wars and confusions come from the wars and confusions of intern lust in the heart Now all intern wars and disorders are inconsistent with the love of God which is peaceable and orderly In these regards love to the world impedes and hinders the love of God 9 Love to the world is inconsistent with the love of God in that it causeth Apostasie from God The Conversion of the heart to the Creature always implies its Aversion from God He that cannot part with the World will soon part with God The world draws Men from God at Pleasure because it doth engross your best Time Thoughts Affections and Strength in its service How many professors by being bewitched with love to the World have lost many hopeful blossomes and beginnings of love to God How little do Spiritual Suavities savour with Carnal Hearts Yea do not the Flesh-pleasing sweets of this World make all
the Delices of Heaven seem bitter to a Sensual Worldling What makes the heart poorer as to things Divine than the love of worldly Riches How is the Honour of Christ and Religion degraded in that heart which affects worldly Honours what more powerfully stains the Glory of a Christian Profession than an ambitious affectation of Mundane Glory Where is that professor who has his heart engaged in the world without being defiled by it if not drowned in it The world is filled with such a contagious air as that our love is soon poysoned and infected by it Love to the world is the Devil's Throne where he lords it the Helm of the Ship where he sits and steers the Soul Helwards This was the bitter root of Lot's wife her Apostasie from God So Gen. 19.26 But his wife looked back from behind him She had left her heart in Sodom and thence she looks back after it contrary to God's Command v. 17. And what was the Issue of her Apostasie She became a pillar of Salt i. e. She partaked of Sodom's Plague which was brimstone and and salt Deut. 29.23 the storm which fell on Sodom overtook her and turned her into a Pillar of Salt as a standing Monument of God's Justice on Apostates who love the world more than God Whence saith our Lord Luk. 17.32 Remember Lot's wife What made Judas and Demas Apostatize but love to the world As man at first fell from God by loving the world more than God so he is more and more engaged in this Apostasie by love to the world 10 Love to the world transforms a man into the spirit and humour of the world which is inconsistent with the love of God Love makes us like to and so one with what we love For all love aims at Vnity and if it Comes short thereof yet it leaves Similitude which is imperfect Vnity Whence by love to the World men become like to and one with it (w) si terram amas terra es Aug. He that loves the earth is earthly A worldly Man is called Rom. 8.8 9 a fleshly man because his very soul becomes fleshly His heart is drowned in and incorporated with the world his Spirit becomes incarnate with the flesh 11 Yea Love to the world transforms a Man into a Beast and so makes him altogether incapable of Love to God So Psal 49.20 Man that is in honour and vnderstandeth not is like the Beasts that perish This verse is an Epiphonema to the Psalm with which he concludes that a man though never so great in the world yet if his heart cleave unto it he is no better than a Beast albeit he be a man by Nature yet he is a Beast by Affection and Operation Yea what shall I say Love to the world transforms a man into worse than a Beast For it is better to be a Beast than like to a Beast As love to God the Best Good makes us better than the best on other men so Love to the world which is the worst evil makes men worse than the worst of Beasts Love to the world is extatick as well as love to God and the more the heart cleaves to the the world the less power has it to return to God or it self The Application Sect. 6. The Application of the Subject Having Stated and explicated the Case before us we now descend to the several Improvements that may be made thereof both by Doctrinal Corollaries and practick Vses I. As for the Doctrinal Corollaries 1. Doctrinal Corollaries or Inferences that may be deduced from the precedent Discourse they are various and weighty I shall only mention such as more immediately and naturally flow there from 1. By Comparing the Love of God with the Love of the World in their Universal Ideas and Characters we learn How much the love of God doth Excel and transcend the Love of the world Our love is by so much the more perfect by how much the more noble and spiritual its Object is and by how much the more eminent degree it obtains in the subject The greatness of the Object intendeth the Affection And oh how much doth this raise the value of Love to God above worldly Love Is not God the most absolutely necessary Simple Being very Being yea Being it self and therefore most perfect whence is he not also our Last End our Choicest Good every way desireable for himself Then O! what an excellent thing is love to God who is so amiable But as for this world what a dirty whore what an heart-ensnaring thing is it and thence how much is our Love abased by terminating thereon The Love of God is pure and unspotted But O! how filthy and polluted is love to the World What more cordial and sincere than love to God But alas how artificial painted and hypocritick is love to this deceitful world O! how judicious wise and discreet is love to God what abundance of solid deep and spiritual reason has it in its bowels But oh what a brutish sottish passion is love to the world How foolish are all its lusts 1 Tim. 6.9 What a generous and noble Affection is love to God But what more sordid and base than love to this vile world Love to God is Regular and Uniform But O! what Irregularities and Confusions attend love to the World How Masculine puissant and potent is love to God But alas how Effeminate impotent and feeble is love to the World What more solid and Substantial than love to God and what more vain and empty than love to the World It deserves not the name of Love but Lust Worldly-minded men have a world of Lusts but what have they to fill them save a bag of empty wind and vexatious vanities Love to God is most temperate natural and so beautiful But ah what preternatural excessive and prodigious heats are there in Love to the World How is the Mind clarified and brightned by Love to God But oh how is it bemisted and darkened by Love to the World Divine love is the Best Philosopher and master of Wisdome The love of God amplifies and widens the Heart But the Love of the world doth confine and narrow it By Love to God we become Lords over all things beneath our selves But love to the world brings us into subjection to the most base of persons and things Worldly minded men can neither obey nor command their Lusts they cannot obey them because they are infinite and oft contrary they cannot command them by reason of their own feebleness Love to God is tranquil and serene but love to the world tempestuous and turbulent Love to God gives repose and quiet to the soul but love to the world fills it with perpetual agitations inquietude and restless motions without end Worldly love is a laesive passion but Divine love perfective of him that loves In sum love to God is of the same nature with God and therefore the most express Character of
the Image of God the first-born of Faith the soul of other graces the Rule of our actions a summary of the Law an Angelick life a prelibation of Heaven a lively mark of a child of God for we may read God's Love to us in our love to him But O! how opposite and black are the characters of Love to the world nothing deserves the name of Love but that to God 2. Hence also infer that Love to God and Love to the world divide all mankind There is no middle state between these two opposites neither can they ever consist together in their perfect degrees If thou art a lover of the world in John's sense thou art a hater of God and if thou lovest God thou art an hater of the world Hereby then thou mayest make a judgment of thy state whether thou art a Saint or a sinner a Godly or worldly man And remember this that to love any worldly good more than God is in the Scripture's sense to hate God Mat. 6.24 3. This also instructs us that all natural irregenerate mens Love is but concupiscence or Lust Do not all men in their natural state prefer the creature before the Creator are not the pleasures profits and Honours of this world the worldly man's Trinity which he adoreth and sacrificeth unto Have not all men by nature a violent impetuous bent of heart towards some one or other worldly Idol are not their souls bound up in something below God Do not all men naturally esteem love use and enjoy the creature for it self without referring it to God and what is this but Lust 4. We are hence likewise taught that a regular and ordinate love to and use of this world's goods is very difficult and rare Alas how soon doth our love to creatures grow inordinate either as to its Substance Quantity Quality or Mode yea how oft and how soon doth our love to things lawful grow irregular and unlawful what an excess are most men guilty of in their love to and use of things indifferent how few are there who in using this world do not abuse it as 1 Cor. 7.31 where is that person that can say with Paul Phil. 4.12 Every where and in all things I am instructed both to abound and suffer want 5. This also informs us that where predominant Love to the world is notorious visible and manifest we cannot by any rule of judicious Charity count such a Godly man It was a Canon common among the Jews mentioned by Rabbi Salome that (x) Populus terrae non vocatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hasid the people of the earth are not called Godly i. e. the Lovers of the world may not be called Saints And Oh! how many worldly professors are cut off from the number of visible Saints hereby It is to me a dismal contemplation to consider how many follow Christ in profession and yet have the black mark of worldlings on there foreheads O! how much love to the world lies hid under the mask and vizard of professed love to God It is not the having or possessing of the world's goods but the over-loving of them that bespeaks you worldlings It 's true a Saint may fall under many preternatural heats yea fevers of Love to the world yet in time love to God as a sttonger fire expels such violent heats and noxious humors 6. Hence in like manner we may collect That worldly minded professors are composed of a world of Contradictions and Inconsistences Such Love God in profession but hate him in truth and Affection Their tongues are tipt with Heaven but their hearts are drencht in the Earth They pretend to serve God but they intend nothing but to serve their Lusts They make a shew of confidence in God but place their real confidence in the world They make mention of God in Name but exalt the world in Heart They Conform to the Laws of God in outward shew but Conform to yea are transformed into the world in Spirit Finally they hate sin and love God in appearance but they hate God and love sin in reality Ezech. 33.31 7. This also instructs thus That for professors of love to God to be deeply engaged in the love of this world is a sin of deep Aggravation O! what a peculiar Malignity is there in this sin How much Light and Love do such sin against What a reproach and disparagement is cast on God hereby Are not profane worldlings justified in their earthly-mindedness by the worldly love of Professors Yea do they not hereby take occasion to blaspheme the holy Name of God Lo say they these are your professors who are as covetous as over-reaching in their dealings as much buried in the Earth as any other And is not God hereby greatly dishonoured Do not such worldly professors live below their principles profession convictions covenant-Obligations and the practice of former Professors 8. This gives us the genuine Reason and Cause Why the word of God and all the good things contained therein find so little room in the Hearts of many great Professors It is to me a prodigious thing to consider among the croud of notional Professors and Hearers of God's Word how few entertain the same in an honest heart And where lies the main bitter root of this cursed Infidelity but in love to the world So Mark 4.18 19. And these are they which are sown among thorns Such as hear the Word and the cares of this world and the Deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts of other things entring in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful It deserves a particular remark that the Thorny-ground hearers here characterised are ranked in the highest form of notional Hearers as much surpassing the Highway-ground or Stony-ground Hearers For in these thorny-ground Hearers the word takes some root yea with some depth and so springs up into a blade and green ears and so endures a cold winter yea a scorching summer's heat and yet after all it is choaked How so why by the cares of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the amorous distracting anxious cares and the deceitfulness of Riches O! what Deceitful things are Riches how soon do they choke the word and the Lusts of other things Namely Pleasures which deserve not to be named (y) Solenne fuit Hebraeis uti voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alius quoties cunque rem abominandam tacitè innuunt Horting Thesaur Philolog p. 51. For so the Hebrews were wont to express vile abominable things by other things Thence they termed Swine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 other things 9. Hence also conclude That such as love the world hate God and their own souls That predominant Love to the world in its proper notion includes the hatred of God is evident from the whole of our discourse That it implies also hatred of our selves is manifest because the hatred of God includes love to death and so by Consequence the hatred of our own souls as Prov.
8.36 All they that hate me Love death i. e. in its Causes Oh! how cursed are such as cry up the world and cry down Christ 10. Lastly this Case as before stated is a good Key to open some dark and hard sayings in Scripture As that Mat. 19.24 It is easier for a camel to go thorow an eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God Which is a proverbial speech denoting how difficult a thing it is for any rich man but how impossible it is for him that has a predominant love to his riches and so confidence in them to enter into the Kingdom of God as Mark 10.24 2. But to close up this discourse with a few Practick Improvements and Vses Practick Uses 1. This Case as before stated serves for the Conviction and Condemnation of such who profess love to God and yet love the world more than God Our Apostle saith Love not the world and yet what do these love but the world where is the Love which these owe to God And what hopes can such have of God's Love to them Alas how poor and narrow is the love of most Professors to God If they have some good liking to him yet how far short do they come of fervent love to him perhaps their Light and Profession is broad but O! how narrow is their Love to Christ And do not such as want love for Christ fall under the most dreadful curse that ever was even an Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 which was the formule of the highest Excommunication among the Jews mentioned in Enoch's prophesie Jud. 14. and imports a binding over to the great day of Judgment at the coming of our Lord. And Oh! how soon will Christ meet such in a way of Judgment who will not now meet him in a way of love Alas what an hungry paradise have they whose love feeds not on Christ but the things of time Is there not a sting in every creature our love dotes on O! what abundance of Ingratitude and Injustice lies wrapped up in this Love to the world Can there be greater ingratitude than this to spend our choicest love on love-tokens conferred on us by God to wind up our hearts to the love of himself Is it not also the greatest Injustice to give that measure of Affection to the creature which is due to none but the creator Having so fair an opportunity I cannot but enter this solemn Protestation against all such as under a Profession of Love to God concele an adulterous Affection to this world O! think how soon this world will hugg you to death in its arms if your hearts attend to its bewitching charms Alas why should sick dreams run away with your hearts What are all those things your hearts lust after but the Scum Froth Dross and Refuse of the Creation Ah poor fools why are your hearts so much bewitched with the night-visions whorish Idols or Cursed nothings of time Remember how dear you pay for your Beloved Idols how much they are salted with the curse of God 2. Here is matter of doleful Lamentation that in days of so much Light and Profession of love to God Men should so much abuse themselves and the world by over loving of it O that painted shadows and dirty clay should run a way with our love is it not a deplorable case that the golden pleasures of this Idol world should find so much room in our hearts yea what matter of humiliation is this that professors of Love to God should lavish away so much time study care and affection on this perishing world Would it not make any serious heart to bleed when it considers how much the professors of this age are conformable to the fashions humors and lusts of this world O! what an abominable thing is it that professors should fall down and worship this great Idol the world that the sons of God should commit folly with this old Whore which the sons of men have lusted after so many thousand years alas what chains and fetters are there in the world's blandishments what real miseries in all her seeming felicities what do all her allurements serve for but to hide Satan's baits who are they that are most in love with the world but those that least know it Alas how little can this world add to or take from out happiness what hath this world to feed our Love but smoak and wind 3. Here is also a word of caution for professors to take heed how they make Religion and the concerns thereof subservient to worldly interest O! what a curse and plague is this to make the highest excellence subserve the vilest lusts and yet how common is it I tremble to think how far many professors will be found guilty hereof at the last day 4. But that which I mostly design as the close of this Discourse is some few words of Exhortation and Direction unto Christians 1 To labour after an holy contempt of this dirty soul-polluting world O! what an essential obligation do we all lye under to contemn the Grandeur and sun-burnt glory of this fading world What is there in this world you can call yours can you be content to have your Heaven made of such base mettal as mire and clay O what a transient thing is all the glory of this perishing world consider the argument which our Apostle useth in the words following our text 1 John 2.17 and the world i. e. all the splendor pomp beauty pleasures and grandeur of the world passeth away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a scene whereon men acted their parts and then passed away as 1 Cor. 7.31 alas were the world guilty of no other defect but this that it passeth away what a strong argument is this for the contempt thereof again remember this world is but your prison and place of pilgrimage and oh how scornful and disdainful is the pilgrims eye with how much scorn doth he behold other Countries and ought not Christians with a more generous disdain cry out fie fie this dirty world is not like my celestial Canaan Alas what have we here to rejoyce in but fetters and chains how soon doth the fashion of this world pass away 1 Cor. 7.31 i. e. the pageant or scene of worldly glory 2 As for you who are rich in this world consider seriously the exhortation of Paul 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. where having closed his Epistle he has this Divine Inspiration injected by the Spirit Charge them that are rich in this world that they he not high-minded nor trust in uncertain tiches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy That they do good that they be rich in good works c. There were many rich Merchants at Ephesus where Timothy was who needed this exhortation as I think many among us 3 Here is a more particular word for Merchants Tradesmen and all such as are much engaged in the affairs of
out of his free good will to shew himself benevolentem hominibus as Grotius expresseth it gracious and favourable to man in that way of accepting him through Christ 2. The season of Grace is called the day of Salvation further to shew the Sect. 10 advantageousness of this season unto the improvers thereof We must not take Salvation here so largely as for deliverance from any evil or danger or the preservation from any trouble or distress nor must we take Salvation here so strictly and narrowly as to import only eternal Salvation in Heaven as it is taken Rom. 13.11 Now is your Salvation nearer than when you believed and heirs of Salvation Heb. 11.14 Nor must you take it so strictly as to import only the means of Salvation as it doth often in the Scripture Act. 28.28 Salvation is of the Gentiles but Salvation in this place comprehends both that happiness which is perfect and compleat in Heaven and also the entrance into it and the beginning of it in this life fitness for Salvation here and the fulness of Salvation hereafter in which sense the Gospel is called the Gospel of Salvation in Eph. 1.13 and the word of Salvation in Act. 13.29 and the Long-suffering of God is to be accounted Salvation in 2 Pet. by Salvation in these places being meant a fitness for Eternal Salvation by receiving the Gospel and improving the Long-suffering of God and the means of Grace and our being brought to the full Fruition of it in Glory So in this place the day of Salvation is that season wherein God bestows an entrance into Salvation here followed with a full perfection of it hereafter And so I have opened the sense of these two arguments whereby the Apostle urgeth us to the present improvement of the season Grace both as this is a season of fitness for working and so called a Time a Day and as 't is a Season of advantageousness to the worker and so called an accepted time wherein God accepts of sinners to be reconciled to them and a day of Salvation by the improving whereof God will certainly bring his People to the Fruition and the perfect Participation of Life and Salvation in Heaven Now having thus explained and opened the Sense of these two Arguments I shall only in the second place 2. Shew you the force and strength of them both distinctly to engage us to a present improvement of the season of Grace 1. And First I shall shew you the force of the first Argument and that is the fitness of this present season of Grace for our working and employment It is saith the Apostle 1. The Time 2. The Day Sect. 11 1. It is the Time I shewed you in the explaining of the sense of the first Argument the meaning of the word Time I told you it did clearly import tempestivity opportunity the flower the cream the lustre the beauty of time But how doth this consideration that the present Season of Grace is the time of opportunity urge and inforce the duty of a present improving of the season of Grace In answer whereunto I offer these following considerations 1. The First is this The time of opportunity is that which we may easily let slip It is tempus labile a time that may easily slip between our fingers especially in Spiritual concernments It is needful therefore now instantly to lay hold upon it Opportunity is hardly embraced The learned Pharisees could not discern their opportunity by discerning the signs of Christ's coming as you have it in Mat. 16. and the beginning Nor could the Jews know their opportunity it was hidden from their eyes Luk. 19.42 Who is as the wise man saith Solomon in Eccl. 8. that is how rarely is the wise man to be found Where is he to be found But why so The wise man saith he discerneth time and judgment that is he is able to judge when things are to be done and therefore 't is rare to find such a wise man Embracing of opportunity is a wisdom that God alone must teach us by considering the shortness of our time to be so wise as to improve it Psal 90.12 And God concealeth the season the nick the juncture of time wherein he will bestow Grace upon us because he would have us always watchful and dependent upon him humble and serious in regarding every season It is easie to know seasons for civil affairs easy to know the season of a trade to sow to reap to buy to sell But in those affairs that concern our Souls it is hard to find out when they are to he performed Opportunity is so very short and sudden and men are so blinded with avocations pleasures prejudices and vain hopes that sometimes these make the season of regarding their Souls appear too soon sometimes they are so blinded with fear and discouragements by dangers and difficulties and seeming impossibilities that they think it too late So that indeed between sinful hope and fear it is hard to pitch upon the right season and nick of time for the saving of our Souls In every business but especially saving business the most difficult part of the work is the due limiting of it In our voyage to Heaven it is hard to save our tide not one of a thousand but lets it slip 2. Secondly Opportunity must be presently embraced and improved because the improving of it is a man's greatest wisdom They are called wise who so consider their latter end as that they pursue the present season of duty Deut. 32.29 They are the wise that discern time and judgment Eccl. 8.5 that is that discern the opportunity so as to have judgment for the embracing of it Therefore in Eccl. 10.2 The wise man's heart is said to be in his right hand that is the wisdom of his heart teacheth him to dispatch his affairs judiciously and dextrously both for manner and season The want of this wisdom discerning the season maketh a man like unto a beast Psal 49.20 It is worse to be like a beast than to be a beast To be a beast is no sin and comparatively no punishment But to be like a beast is both in a high degree Yea the very brute Creatures they are far wiser than is he that neglects his opportunity of Grace The Stork the Turtle the Crane the Swallow observe their seasons of coming into several Countries Jer. 8.7 8. They know their appointed season but my people know not the judgment of the Lord not discern the course or manner of God's dealings so as to embrace duty and avoid danger It is called a fool's property to want a heart when he hath a price that is an opportunity put into his hand to get wisdom Prov. 17.16 And therefore the 5 Virgins even for this piece of folly are called foolish even to a Proverb because they were not so wise as to know their opportunity And let a man be never so prudent for the world if he knoweth not the
green-headed Saints and thou a gray-headed Sinner Julius Caesar as Suetonius reports reading that Alexander had conquered the world in his youthful age profest his shame that he who was so much older than Alexander should come so far behind him in obtaining victorious glory This fired Caesar with noble Emulation to exceed him Envy is ever bad but Emulation may be holy Envy is a trouble for another's Eminency but Emulation is a troubling of our selves for not ariving to another's commendable excellency 4. In this thy day of working and in thy working thou art but a slow worker Thou hast a great journey and art a slow sluggish passenger Thou hast a load of Corruption that presseth thee down Thou Sailest against the tide of corrupt nature Thou hast an encumbring body of death that will hinder thee from doing even what thou art a doing a long garment that hindreth and hampereth thee when thou endeavourest to be speediest in thy course for Heaven The flesh lusteth against the Spirit so that thou canst not do the thing that thou wouldst There are many Thieves in thy Candle of time which daily wast it Sleeping Eating Drinking Visiting being visited and a great many other worldly avocations imployments injoyments that must be regarded together vvith thy Soul These are as so many places at vvhich vve must call in as vve are in our journey and the dispatching of every errand in every one of these places vvill take us up much time Hard it is for our hearts to be preserved from too deep en ingagement in them the world more frequently bewitching from God than admonishing us of God too often proving as birdlime to the vvings of our affections to hinder their slight Heaven-vvard And many also are the retarding discouragements that all the people of God must meet vvith all in their course to Heaven As they have the tide of nature against them so they have the vvind of opposition from men and devils against them Earliness and eagerness in the waies of God are the two things principally opposed by the god and men of this world 'T is the galloping passenger at whom the dogs of the town most bark and whom they most pursue All that travel Heavenward have the wind in their faces though the happiness of their journey's end infinitely more than countervails for the greatest both industry and opposition 5. The longer thou delayest thy working in this day the harder it will be for thee to begin Sin is as deceitful to detain as 't is to draw Every moment thou delayest to leave it it tyeth a knot on the cord wherewith it holdeth thee making thereby thy freedom from it the more difficult Lust and delay know no measure and delay knows no measure because lust knows none The further you go on the harder it is and the more unwilling will you be to go back The deeper the engagement the more difficult is the retreat By delay sin is the more strengthened the Devil the more emboldened and God the more provoked That which in thee to day is Regardlesness tomorrow may be Unwillingness and the next day Obstinateness Dum consuetudini non resistitur sit necessitas Custom in sin will at length turn into necessity of sinning Venenata non patiuntur inducias Antidotes against poisons must not be delay'd The longer a bad Tenant forbears payment of his Rent the harder it will be for him te get it up A nail driven into wood is with more difficulty drawn out when it is driven up to the head than when with a few blows it is weakly fastned The longer the wood lieth soaking in the water with the greater difficulty doth it burn The longer Satan's possession hath been the more difficult will his ejection be Every delay makes thy return to God look more like to an impossibility Goliah must be smitten in the forehead and Satan opposed betimes Old age is aetas indisciplinabilis an indisciplinable age Childhood is the age of Learning Old age is the time wherein men desire more to teach than be taught 6. As to thy working in this day the sooner thou beginnest and the faster thou workest in this day of Grace the sweeter will thy sleep be in the evening when thy day is consummate After thou viewest thy early and thy earnest working for God in the end of thy life thou wilt have a Sabbath in thy thoughts None ever repented them either of early beginnings or constant proceedings in the ways of holiness It was an humbling to Paul that Christ appeared last of all to him 1. Cor. 15. and that Andronicus and Junia were in Christ before him that they were his Seniors in the faith Rom. 16.7 How sweet is it in age to feed upon the comforts of a well spent youth and manhood Never put that off to the last that cannot be done too soon Early beginnings in Godliness make an easy death-bed And acquaintance with God betimes makes thee the more confident to go to him God will never forget thee in the end who remembrest him in the beginning of thy life Should you at length look Heavenward yet how will it grieve you that you did not make a more early beginning The better thou art when thou dyest the more it will trouble thee thou wert holy so late Early Holiness spareth abundance of death-bed trouble That man who puts off his repentance to his end dies at the best with little comfort Incertus moritur qui in fine paenitet If he should repent at last yet he dies uncertainly as to future happiness He rarely knows whither he is going 'T is comfortable for a man to be able to say to God when he dies as one did Paenitentiam egi quando peccare potui Lord thou knowest I then repented of Sin when I had strength and time and ability and opportunities to sin Thus I have shewn you the strength and the force of the first Argument whereby the Apostle engageth us to a present improvement of the season of Grace as 't is for its fitness for working the Time the Day 2. Briefly now in the second place to shew you the force of the second Argument Sect. 14 taken from the Advantageousness of improving the present season of Grace to the Worker and improver of it it being here called 1. The time of acceptation 2. The day of Salvation The first shews the freeness The second the fulness The first shews how cheap the commodity is that we get by working and the second how rich it is The First shews how costless it is the second how costly it is Both contained in this golden expression the accepted time and the day of Salvation 1. It is the accepted time that is the time of God's free Grace and good will in accepting of sinners not so much the accepting of time as the accepting of sinners in such a time This expression of God's free good-will in accepting sinners in the season of Grace doth notably
he had made and rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made This some learned Divines suppose to have been by way of Anticipation only to be a Sabbath in Deck as it were until the Church should have need of it Others as eminent and learned as they do assert it to have been by way of institution a notion of a far more easie understanding than the former and more useful This Sabbath rested it seems sometimes in silence Save only that we may possibly spell it out in some imperfect Characters in their offerings and sacrifices before ever the Law was given which were originally proper Sabbath work until at length we may read of it in words at length Exod. 16.22 23. and Moses spake to the people this is that which the Lord hath said to morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath And this some conceive to be a second and renewed Institution but with little probability Moses rather speaks of it as a thing notoriously known to the Israelites in the Wilderness it being of a more antient Original than the Miracle of the Manna yet it may serve as a testimony unto the Sabbath and of use unto our purpose From thence therefore we must step on as far as Mount Sinai for a new institution and there we may find it standing in the midst of the 10 Moral precepts the fourth whereof it makes in number Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day c. Exod. 20.8 9 10 11. Then was that command which before was given by word of mouth and continued by tradition now written in words at length engraven in stone by the immediate finger of God and there it stands during all the time of Moses and the Prophets on its own basis until the Messiah came who put upon it his own Sanction Mat. 5.17 to the end And under that Sanction did the seventh day Sabbath continue until upon the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that sun of Righteousness and by his Command to his Apostles Acts 1.2 the Sabbath was translated to the First day of the week and that continued by Apostolical practice and by the practice of succeeding ages of the Evangelical Church the Gospel Sabbath or Lords Day even to this present generation Such I say hath been the care and love of God to his Church to this day Lam. 2.6 that it never was without a Sabbath unless it were when the want of a Sabbath was the Punishment of sinful neglect and obstinate violation of the Sabbath And this care God used upon a twofold account 1. Upon the account of his own Soveraignty Sc. that by reserving one day in seven for his own immediate worship he might be actually acknowledged as the great Soveraign Lord of our selves and of our time The Sabbath is as the first fruits among the Jews whereby we do not only intitle God to the whole harvest but whereby the whole lump and mass is sanctified to us 2. A Second Account is Gods pity and compassion to his Creatures Eccles 3.11 God saw the heart of man since the Fall so fixed to the world and immersed in the Pleasures and Profits thereof that had he left man to himself he would not have spared for Divine worship one day in seven weeks not possibly in seven months or in the whole year but he would have even drudg'd himself and the irrational Creature to death in the pursuit of worldly fruitions And therefore God hath injoined him the severe observation of one day in seven that he might lay upon him the necessity of minding and seeking the things of eternity and whilest the rational creature did enjoy a spiritual rest for the soul the irrational creature might have natural rest for self-preservation Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift 2. Observe Rule or N teâ— this day God was pleased to honour with the title of a Sabbath as both here and in the fourth Commandment which signifies rest because on this day both God the Father and God the Son respectively Gen. 2.2 did rest from their own proper work and by their precept and pattern command it and commend it for a stated rest to the Church of God for ever What the reason therefore is why some learned men of our generation should be so exceedingly offended at that name Sabbath that they cannot so much as hear it with patience is to me a wonder even to astonishment And while they are so much offended at the name the vulgar sort of Christians are thereby I am afraid as much offended at the thing As to the first of these I have heard some say they like it not because it is Jewish but to that we reply 1. Not the Jews but the God of the Jews gave it that name here and elsewhere and 2. The notion of a Sabbath signifies no more but Rest and is Rest Jewish Oh that men would look into their hearts to see whether the reason of this disgust is not more latent there 3. And were it a Jewish name indeed is not the Jewish name Sabbath better than the Heathenish-name Sunday The name which Heathenish Idolaters gave it in their Dedication of that day to the Created Sun Notwithstanding consult their Calenders Writings and Languages and you can meet with no other name or notion but Sunday all over At this we have more cause to be offended than they have at the notion of a Sabbath As for the vulgar sort of people it is the thing which offends them more than the name not the Rest so much as the Nature of the Rest is that which they dislike were it a Carding Rest a Gaming Rest a Dancing Rest such an one as the Israelites once celebrated in the wilderness wherein they did eat and drink and rose up to play such an one for all the world as the Popish Devotion celebrates after Mass and Even Song as they call it pipe and dance and then to the Ale-house or Tavern such a Rest would gratifie the sensual world of carnal Christians but for an holy rest a rest to be spent in Publick Domestick and Secret duties of Religion Reading the Scriptures praying singing of Psalms Hearing the word preach't repeating at home what they heard in publique Catechising their families Meditation c. These things do not please the unregenerate part but men are ready to murmur as they did of old what a weariness is it and when will the Sabbath be over Amos 8 5. c. This is a lamentation c. Rule 3 From these words my holy day take a third Rule We must look upon the Sabbath as a day of Divine Institution not of an humane ordination the Sabbath hath a jus divinum written upon it more authentique than theirs that decry it My holy day and the
holy of the Lord twice in this 13. verse and this not in reference only to the seventh day but in reference to the first day of the week which this Evangelical Prophet had then by divine revelation in his eye How much more doth it concern us who are reserved to this glorious Administration under the Gospel to own the Divine right of the Evangelical Sabbath Surely it is the voice of the glorious Trinity that calls it my holy day God the Father by Creation God the Son by Redemption and God the Holy Ghost by Sanctification sending down a rich and plentiful effusion of Gifts and Graces upon the Apostles for the enabling them to go forth and convert the Gentiles by the preaching of the Gospel To deny God his own right is Sacriledge and Atheism We learn from hence that we must give God the whole Entire day my day saith God a few hours or the forenoon vvill not serve Gods turn but he challengeth the whole time as his own peculiar There is a great dispute amongst Divines when the Sabbath begins and when it ends the text determineth the controversie saith God all is mine The vvhole 24 hours is Sabbath look how many hours vve reckon to our days so many hours vve must reckon to Gods days also if vve vvill be ingenuous Obj. But vvho is able to spend the vvhole 24 hours in religious duties without any intermission Answ None neither is it required for neither do we our selves on our days spend the whole 24 hours in the imployments of our particular places and callings but vve allow our selves a sleeping time and a time for preparing our food and a time for eating and drinking and other refreshments of nature both for our selves and our relations and so doth God also provided always 1. That vve be not overlavish and prodigal in our indulgences to the flesh and the concernments of the outward man that vve exceed not our limits of Christian sobriety and moderation 2. Provided that we do not those things with common spirits we must eat and drink and sleep as part of the Sabbath-work with heavenly minds and Sabbath affections The occasional Sabbaths amongst the Jews gave them a greater latitude no more time of those days being counted holy than was spent in the publique service of the day which continued but from nine of the clock in the morning when the morning sacrifice was to be offered and ended at three of the clock in the afternoon at evening sacrifice But the weekly Sabbath was holy in the whole extent of it not indeed by constitution but by institution and consecration God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it i. e. set it apart for divine and holy uses of which more infra In our sanctifying of the Sabbath Rule or Note we must have an equal respect to the negative prohibition as to the affirmative injunction i. e. to what is forbidden as well as what is commanded è contra And this is a rule which holds in the exposition of all the Commandments of the Law and of the Gospel Cease to do evil and learn to do good The negative and affirmative precept have such a mutual relation one to another that one doth infer the other and take away one and you destroy the other It is impossible to do what is commanded without due care of avoiding what is prohibited neither can that man rationally pretend to keep the Sabbath that lieth a bed all day because he doth not work not he that followeth his servile labour because possibly he may perform some religious duties What God hath joined together let no man put asunder Carnal sports and pleasures are as great a profanation of the Sabbath as the most servile labour and drudgery in the world Dicing and carding do as much violate the Law of the Sabbath as digging and carting playing as much as ploughing dancing and morrice-games as much as working in the smiths-forge Bowling and shooting as well as hewing of wood and drawing of water The reasons are clear for 1. Sports and pleasures are as expresly forbidden as bodily labour in our ordinary vocation for he that said thou shalt do no manner of work said also thou shalt not find thine own pleasures c. 2. Sports and pleasures are as inconsistent with a Sabbath frame of spirit as the grossest labour in our calling yea I 'le undertake that a man in his particular calling may more easily get good thoughts of God and of eternal life c. than a person that is drench't and immers't in vain delights and sports In such cases men are usually so intent upon their sports and pastimes that it is not easie to edge in a good serious thought in the midst of sensual delights Tota in toto tota in quâliâ—et parte A man in his carnal pleasures is like the soul in the body All in all and all in every part of their pleasing vanities pleasures do fox and intoxicate the brain when as labour is apt to make them serious and considerate 3. Reason Pleasures are as great diversions from the duty of a Sabbath as labours It is conceived Adam should have had a Sabbath in Paradise had he persisted in innocence why not because his dressing of the garden would have wearied him for weariness is the fruit of sin but his dressing of the garden would have been a diversion from attending his Creator in the Ordinances of a Sabbath 4. Carnal pleasures leave a defilement on the spirits and so do totally unfit the soul for communion with God That Character lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God how fully doth it agree to such kind of profaners of the Sabbath Pleasures draw off the mind from God and justly cause God to withdraw from the soul how totally doth this indispose to Sabbath work In heaven they cease not day and night saying holy holy holy c. Oh Christians never think of reconciling carnal pleasure and Communion with God together it is impossible 7th Obs Not speaking thine own words The Sabbath is polluted by words as well as by works Christ will judge men in the great day for their words and by them will he either justifie thee for sanctifying the Sabbath or condemn thee for profaning of it I am afraid it is the great controversie God hath with this nation not only profane but even professors are all guilty of not sanctifying the name and Day of God in their talk and discourses upon the Sabbath Day If Jesus Christ should join himself to our Tables Luke 24.15 16 17. or lesser companies as he did with the two Disciples going to Emaus and ask us what manner of communications are these which ye have one with another how might the question fill our faces with paleness and strike us speechless Alass who can tell what day it is by mens discourses and conferences one with another how vain foolish unprofitable and unsavory is most
them from their Children shewing to the Generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful work that he hath done Deut. 4 9. 6.7 5. For he established a Testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their children 6. That the Generation to come might know them even the children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their children 7. That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God Thus Hezekiah upon his recovery from death Isa 38.19 The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the Father to the Children shall make known thy truth They that survive they alone can and each of them should praise the Lord this being the principal end to which men should live and for which they should desire life Psal 80.18 The Father to the Children shall make known thy truth i. e. they shall transmit the memory of thy faithfulness in the performance of thy promises to Posterity Psal 145.4 3. Arguments 1. The Souls of Children as well as their Bodies are committed to the care and trust of Parents by the Lord to whom they must give a strict account 'T is a grand mistake to think that the care of Souls belongs only to Ministers True indeed it eminently belongs to our Spiritual Pastors Ezek. 3.18 19. If they warn not the wicked from his wicked way to save his life the same wicked man shall dye in his iniquity but his blood will God require at the negligent Pastor's hand Omnia quae deliquerint filii à parentibus requirentur qui non erudierint filios suos Orig. And no less doth God bespeak Parents in the same language that we find 1 Kings 20.39 Keep this man this child if by any means he be missing then shall thy life be for his life If he be lost and miscarry through thy neglect thy life thy Soul shall go for his As therefore Parents dread the guilt of Soul murther of their children they ought to be careful of their pious Education Psal 51.5 2. The state of poor childrens Souls calls aloud on Parents for the discharge of this duty Alas poor Creatures conceiv'd in sin brought forth in iniquity those whom we fondly miscall Innocent Babes come into the World with an Indictment on their Foreheads with ropes about their necks full of guilt full of filth bloody loathsom Creatures Gen. 8.21 Job 14.4 Prov. 22.15 Eph. 2.3 Children of wrath nothing in them by nature that is good Rom. 7.18 An averseness from all good Psal 58.3 Eph. 4.18 A proneness to all evil These young Lyons prone to cruelty they are Serpents in the very Egg and Cockatrices in the very shell Isa 59.5 And whence comes all this guilt and filth but from the hole of the Pit out of which they are digid from that unhappy Rock out of which they are hewn their unhappy Parents Job 14.1 4. 15.14 Isa 51.5 sinful Parents having utterly lost God's Image like Adam beget children in their own Gen. 5.3 Nay Abraham himself though a circumcised Saint as a Natural Father begets an uncircumcised Isaac The Vine they spring from is a Vine of Sodom and therefore the Children are the Grapes of Gomorrah Bloody Parents are we to our Children Exod. 21.19 how much then doth it concern Parents even in common Justice to endeavour to cure those wounds that they themselves have given and to preserve their Little Ones from perishing by that Leprosie infection poyson which they by Nature conveigh into them And here what Topicks do not offer themselves to convince the judgments of Rational Parents 1. There is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural love and affection in Parents to their Children Nature gives bowels of pity to them that are in misery specially to children Isa 49.15 Psal 103.13 Will Parents then prove unnatural nay worse than beasts for even the Sea-monsters draw out their breasts and give suck to their young ones Lam. 4.3 Charity edifies saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 8.1 1 Cor. 8.1 David's and Bathsheba's tender love to their Solomon put them upon careful instructing of him wherein they shewed their love to his Soul as well as his Body 2. Parents either do or should principally aim at the Spiritual and Eternal good of their poor Children And what more profitable and effectual way to promote this than pious instruction and education The Earth often proves according to the seeds cast into it The Vessel usually retains a smack and tincture of that with which it was first season'd What Blessings might Parents prove to their Children What excellent things might be effected by them if they did but take the advantage of their tender years and then resolvedly set themselves to bring them in to God 3. Parentt cannot but love themselves their own peace their own comforts their own delights and what more probable means to advance these than the pious education of their children which fully appears by this Dilemma either their conscientious endeavours prove successful or not 1. If not If after all care pains prayer faithfulness the Crop should not answer the Seed why this may relieve and support Liberavit animam suam that it is not through the Parents default The Child dyes but not by the Father's hand He hath discharg'd his duty and thereby in the sight of God deliver'd his own Soul from guilt though he could not deliver his Child's Soul from ruine Where God sees such a willing mind backt with sincere utmost constant endeavours 2 Cor. 8.12 God accepts the faithful Parent according to that he hath and not according to that he hath not But 2. If the Lord please to smile on endeavours into what a transport and extasie of joy will it raise the serious Parent to see the corruption of his Child's Nature heal'd to see saving grace wrought in his heart If such a sight be so pleasing to Spiritual Fathers to Paul 1 Thess 2.10 to John John 3. Ep. v 4. how ravishing must it needs be to Natural Parents Prov. 10.1 and 23 24 25. But especially when this is wrought by their own means 4. When this grace is wrought in the hearts of children and that especially by their Parents this cannot but inflame the hearts of children with dearest love of and ingage them to the highest duty to their Parents they must of necessity be far more loving and dutiful than otherwise they could or would be A wise Son maketh a glad Father But how Prov. 15.20 viz. by a dutiful and respectful carriage 5. By this means Parents shall do unspeakable good to their Families and Posterity Hereby even many Ages after they are dead like Abel Deut. 4.9 they shall yet speak and Posterity hearing the voice of their Ancestors coming as it were from the dead they will be more
the pouring out his blood for you now your magnificent feasts were not so fitted for such a Commemoration for they rather would have tended to have clog'd your spirits made them dull and stupid and far less apt to have contemplated such Divine and Heavenly things as those now named are And therefore that this Supper is so mean as it is it is far better than if it were so great and royal as you conceive There are others are well enough satisfied with the wisdom of their Lord and in the nature of the things appointed for the remembrance of him which yet may be and ought to be inquisitive as to the reason of them Which I shall reduce to these 4 Questions 1. Why did the Lord appoint bread rather than any other kind of food 2. Why must it be broken bread 3. Why must it be taken and eaten 4. Why wine as well as bread and why Wine rather than any other drink 1. To the first I say he appointed bread as most apt to signifie the thing thereby to be presented to our Faith and that is himself as he is bread of life to our Souls for so he calleth himself Joh. 6.33 The bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world And 35. Jesus said I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger This is evident that man's natural life doth not more depend on the vertue of the bread that perisheth than the Soul's life of Grace and Glory depends on that vertue that proceedeth from a suffering Jesus I live saith the Apostle Paul yet not I but Christ liveth in me all that life of Faith all the indwellings of Grace in our hearts comes from and is maintained by the vertues and influences of Jesus Christ this bread of life and so likewise doth our eternal life depend on him as he likewise tells us v. 27. Labour for the meat that endureth to eternal life which the Son of man shall give you this meat is the Lord himself who by his sufferings made our peace and purchased the life of grace and glory for us And indeed no other meat as bread could so aptly set forth this Mystery because no food is so suitable to man's nature none for a constancy so pleasant none so strengthning a man can better subsist with bread without other meats than with any other meats without bread thereby the Mystery of conveighing Soul-lâ—fe to the sinner is excellently set forth for as there is other meat for the body besides bread so there is another way of giving life to the Soul besides that of a Saviour and that is an exact obedience to the Law of God but alas the sinner through the weakness of the flesh can never digest that strong meat and so cannot live by it But for a poor weak infirm sinner to be maintained in a life of grace and acceptance with an offended God in and by a Saviour is a way of living so suitable to a sinner that Men and Angels could never have thought of one so suitable and therefore nothing as bread was so fit to set forth this Mystery 2. But why must it be broken bread Christ himself acquaints us with the mystical reason thereof in the verse of the Text it is to set forth the breaking of the body of Christ by breaking his body must be taken to comprehend all the sufferings of his Humane nature as united with the Divine as all his soul-sufferings of which there are 3 Phrases used by the Evangelists very emphatically as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all signifie those dolors of mind he underwent through the dereliction of God and likewise all other sufferings of his body which are by Isaiah set forth with great variety of Phrase speaking of Christ he saith He was despised and rejected of men Isaiah 53. a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and v. 4. He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows and v. 5. He was wounded for our transgressions the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed and v. 7. he was oppressed and he was afflicted Now all these sufferings were consummated in his Crucifixion 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree These are those sufferings that made that one sacrifice of himself by which he put away sin and hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 9.26 Heb. 10.14 Upon this account it is that the bread of this Supper must be broken before it be taken and eaten the broken bread that is the sign and Christ's sufferings that is the mystery signified by it as I have shewed 3. Why must this broken bread be taken and eaten This is not without its Mystery for thereby is meant that these Breakin gs Bruisings Woundings of Christ's Soul and Body was not for any sin of his own for he was a lamb without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 but it was for our sins and for our benefit Our dear Jesus sows in tears and we reap the harvest of his tears in joy he by the meritorious extraction of his bloody sweat and agony in the Garden by his tremendious dolors of Soul and Body on the Cross prepares a Cordial and perfects it by his death which prepared Cordial we by Faith drink up and from a state of sin and death revive he offered himself as good wheat to be ground by the law and justice of God that thereby he might be made bread of life for us by Faith to feed on that we may live for ever So that Christ's breaking and giving the bread in this Sacrament to his Church doth mystically declare that the sole intentions of all his sufferings was for us and therefore he saith this is the bread that was broken for you and likewise taking and eating it doth further signifie that we do profess to believe in him for life and do rely wholly on him for acceptance with God and for the salvation of our souls 4. But why did he add wine also to this supper and commanded us to drink thereof in remembrance of him I Answer this addition was for a very good reason for thereby a further mystery of our Salvation by his bloody death is explained 1. As first if you consider that man's natural life is not maintained by eating only except he drink also for we may dye as well by thirst as by hunger Christ therefore by giving us his blood to drink which is signified by the Cup as well as his body to eat doth thereby declare that his suffering of Death for us is every way compleat and sufficient for the spiritual and eternal life of our souls So that as he that hath bread and drink wants nothing for the sustaining his natural life so he that hath by Faith an interest in a broken bleeding Christ wants nothing to the upholding the Soul in a state of
and willing to receive them Sixthly Once more consider That Prayer is a special means to obtain knowledg from God and a blessing upon the teachings and instructions of the Master of the Family David prayed that God would open his eyes that he may behold wondrous things out of God's Law Psal 119.18 There are wondrous things in the Word of God that fallen man should be recovered is a wondrous thing that a holy God should be reconciled to sinful man is a wondrous thing that the Son of God should take upon him the nature of man and God be manifested in the flesh and a believer justified by the righteousness of another these are WONDROUS things But there is darkness upon our minds and a vail over our eyes and the Scripture a clasped closed Book that we cannot savingly understand these great wonderful things to have our love chiefly upon them and our delight in them except the Spirit of God take away the vail and remove our ignorance and enlighten our minds and this vvisdom is to be sought from God by fervent Prayer You that are Masters of Families would you have your Children and Servants know these things and be affected with them Would you have impressions made upon their minds and hearts of the great concernments of their Souls and therefore you do instruct them but can you reach their hearts Can you awaken their Consciences Can you not and yet doth it not become you to pray to God with them that he would do it While you are a praying jointly with them God may be secretly disposing and powerfully preparing their hearts to receive his Word and your instructions from it From all this I argue thus for Family Prayer Arg. 4. If it be the duty of Families as such to read and hear the Word of God together read then it is the duty of Families as such to pray together this is shewn by the six things last mentioned But it is the duty of Families as such to read the Word of God and to hear it together real this was proved from Scripture before Therefore it is the duty of Families as such to pray together Argument 5. Christian Families are or ought to be as so many domestick Churches Magnificum elogium quum uâ—i familiae nomen Ecclesiae tribuitur tamen sic institutas esse convenit singulas piorum familias ut totidem sint Ecclesiolae quod autem Erasmo congregationis nomen magis placuit alienum est à mente Pauli honorificè de Christiana oeconomia voluit loqui Calv. 1 Cor. 16.19 Erasmus in Annotationibus vertendum potius dicit congregatione qua in re ab eo dissentio apparet enim Apostolorum commendare Aquilae Priscillae familiam quasi sit Ecclesiola quaedam alioquin dixisset 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beza Privatam familiam Ecclesiam vocat Estius Vel de Ecclesiae membris vel de domesticis tantum ipsius Nymphae ad dominum conversis Laudans hunc virum quod oeconomiam suam Christianè admodum rexerit instituerit Pareus Erat igitur tota familia pia bene Christianè instituta sicut solent esse Ecclesiae quia ibi legebatur verbum Dei preces habebantur canebantur Psalmi discamus ità regere familias ut sint verae Ecclesiae Piscator Adjungit etiam familiam ejus quam honorifico nomine vocat Ecclesiam quod ipsum quoque ad Philemonis laudem pertinet ut qui in familia educanda fidelis patris familiâ— efficio fungatur Piscator in Phil. 2. therefore they ought to pray together In a Church conjunct Prayers are made to God but vvhat kind of Church vvould that be in which there is never no joint praying There are three Families in the Scripture renowned with the name of a Church and have this honourable title put upon them by God himself as 1 The Family of Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Church in their house So 1 Cor. 16.19 The 2 Family of Nymphas Col. 4.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Nymphas and the Church in his house 3 The Family of Philemon v. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the Church in thy house Erasmus renders it the Congregation in their house but this is disliked by Calvin and by Beza too Pareus interprets these Texts either for the company of Christians that were wont to assemble in their houses to hear the Word and to worship God or else of their proper Families of vvhich these were the Heads and Governours whose houses were called Churches because of the religious duties there performed as reading of the Scripture praying unto God together and singing of Psalms Aquila and Priscilla by occupation were Tent-makers Act. 18.3 yet though they laboured in this Calling and worked with their hands they found time for Family worship and joint religious duties and were eminent and exemplary therein and stand in Scripture upon record for a pattern worthy of all Christian Families imitation Here is a plain proof So did the godly Families in the primitive times and they are approved by God for what they did in their houses and Families was pleasing unto God having this honourable name of a Church by God's holy Spirit put upon them And they will afford us this Argument Arg. 5. Those Families that are or ought to be houshold-Churches ought to serve God together therein and pray jointly to him for the Worship and Prayers of a Church as such are conjunct and from such religious duties these Families were so called But Christian Families are or ought to be houshold-Churches And they will be such Churches or Synagogues of Satan Therefore Christian Families ought jointly to pray to God Argument 6. That God is to be served and called upon conjunctly in proper Families will appear from the practice of holy men in the first Age of the world Conjunct worship was first performed in Families before it could be given to God from more publick Assemblies the Domestick Society being the first and the foundation and original of all other God's Church was first in Adam's Family and for some time only there therefore God was there worshipped and called upon or else God had a Church from which he had no conjunct worship at all That there was such Religious Worship in the first Families I offer these two things for confirmation thereof God appointed Adam after his Fall to offer Sacrifice to him and declared to him the use and signification thereof and commanded him to teach his children to do the same Which will be manifest by these two things 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deo tributum significat respicere cum gratia favore Par. Q.d. placuit Domino Fag requievit in Abel Oleast Igne de coelo consumpsit sic grata esse probavit Lyra. Pisc Ainsworth Cultus modum mensuram homines ex se ignorant quem à revelatione divina expectare debent neque
wisdom and Religion worth calling so in the world in that so few blessed be God some there are are good in their Relations Where are Magistrates to be found that are God's Vicegerents in their places Where are the Masters that command and direct in wisdom so as their service is rather a priviledg than a toil a pleasure than a vassalage Where are the Servants that obey in singleness of heart as unto Christ Isa 3.5 What a strange disorder and confusion is there in the world in Kingdoms Corporations Jam. 4.1 and Families and who may be thanked for it but mens lusts and their not faithfully filling up that Relation God hath set them in Most are governed by the Law of corrupt nature and hell but few too few have that respect to the Law of God which should be Ar. Epict. 1.13 How excellently doth that Imperial Philosopher declaim against those that are unfaithful in their places and do not willingly submit to and order their lives according to the direction of the most good wise and just Law-giver of the world Hear his words Antoninus ◠4. n. 24. l. ◠n. 38. He is an Aposteme of the world who being unfaithful in his place doth as it were apostatize and separate himself from God's rational administration O that men were wise and understood their true interest and were faithful to it O that every one would labour to rectifie that ataxy and disorder that is in himself and then in his Family Then O then how happy would our Kingdom Cities Families be It was no small commendation of the Grecian Commander Plutarch in vita Them that he reckon'd it none of the best qualifications of a man to be able to play well upon a Harp but to be able to govern himself and others well and if a City were put into his hands poor dis-mantled un-disciplined to be able quickly to make it rich strong orderly To fill up our Relations with Religion is the divine precept our true wisdom our peace profit it 's honest I had almost said it 's one of the fairest fruits of real Christianity Would we could all as one man engage to do our best for the putting this in execution and then holiness to the Lord might quickly be written upon our Door our City might be called Jehovah Shammah the Lord dwells there and our Land Hephsibah and Beulah For this let every honest soul pray for this let Ministers preach And in the prosecution of this design I shall in my poor way give you advice by resolving of this Question which I have made way to by this Preface What are the Duties of Masters and Servants and how must both eye their great Master in Heaven In the answering of this Question the more fully I shall do these things First Show you what is meant by Master and Servant Secondly Show you how both are to eye their great Master in Heaven Thirdly I shall show you what is the Master's duty exhort him to it and give him helps for the performance of it Fourthly I shall show what is the duty of Servants press them to it and give them some helps for the performance of it First I shall show what is meant by Master and Servant By Master here is meant either Master or Mistress such a one as hath the power of himself and upon whose government and command another dependeth Now in an absolute and most proper sense there is none may be called Master but God he only hath an absolute independent unlimited power of himself and hath all others at his command and direction and he alone is fit for this despotick Monarchy being infinite in wisdom goodness and justice And this clears the meaning of those words of our Saviour Call no man Father Master Mat. 23.8 but God that is look upon none as absolute infallible Lords of the Conscience but him But in a more limited sense there are Masters to which respect and honour must be paid by their Servants and that with all readiness and chearfulness so far as they command nothing that is contrary to God's command By Servant I mean one that is not at his own disposal but at the command of another so far as his commands thwart not the commands of God Remember whatever is spoken of Servants is spoken to Maid-Servants as well as Men-Servants Now this Relation seems in a word to rise from Nature Law or Contract From Nature in that some are of a more strong body and weaker understanding others of weaker bodies but of more judgment and experience and so one is by nature fit to rule and the other to be ruled That Relation that riseth from Law is when any one by some flagitious act hath justly forfeited his liberty and is condemned to servility either for a time or during his life The last and usual foundation of this Relation is by Contract and that is where one that is by nature free subjects himself to another's command for a certain time upon such and such just considerations Now this is that Relation that I am principally concerned to shew you the Duties of Secondly I come now to shew you how both Master and Servants are to eye their great Master in Heaven First they are both to have an eye to the presence of their great Master which is in Heaven God in his Nature is a Spirit that is infinitely immense filling Heaven and Earth and yet not included in either If man did indeed lye under the lively impressions of God's omnisciency and omnipresence what an awe would it put upon their spirits how honest would it make them in the dark This this would make the Master reasonable just and merciful this would make the Servant faithful diligent and constant in his obedience to his Master What makes men to act like Devils but this a hope that God doth not see Gen 17.1 Psal 16.8 What made Abraham so upright but his walking before God What kept David so unmoved but his setting the Lord always before his eyes I am perswaded the greatest failures in either Master or Servant have their spring here a secret root of atheism and disbelief of God's eye and observation What truth in all the Bible more clear than this and yet what almost less believed O what do men make of God How do they rob him of his glory and themselves of the truest motives of fidelity activity and chearfulness Sirs Is the hundred thirty ninth Psalm canonical Scripture or no Can any hide any thing from God's eye Jer. 23.24 Prov. 15.3 Prov. 5.21 Psal 94.7 9. Ar. Epict. 2. c. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar. Ep. l. 1. c. 14. 1 Cor. 10.31 Rom. 6.16 Do not his eyes behold the good and evil Doth not he ponder the ways of men Do you indeed believe this What then is the meaning of falseness on all hands It was no unjust complaint of the Moralist when he said that
mind be tired with sucking one object it can with the bee presently fasten upon another Senses are weary till they have a new recruit of spirits as the poor horse may sink under his burden when the rider is as violent as ever Thus old men may change their outward profaneness into mental wickedness and as the Psalmist remembred his old songs * Psal 77.5 6. so they their calcin'd sins in the night with an equal pleasure So that you see there may be a thousand thoughts as ushers and lacqueys to one act as numerous as the sparks of a new lighted fire 2. In regard of the Objects the mind is conversant about Such thoughts there are and attended with a heavy guilt which cannot probably no nor possibly descend into outward acts A man may in a complacent thought commit fornication with a woman in Spain in a covetous thought rob another in the Indies and in a revengeful thought stab a third in America and that while he is in this Congregation An unclean person may commit a mental folly with every beauty he meets A covetous man cannot plunder a whole Kingdom but in one twinkling of a thought he may wish himself the possessor of all the estates in it A Timon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot cut the throats of all the world but like Nero with one glance of his heart he may chop off the heads of all mankind at a blow Ambitious men's practices are confined to a small spot of land but with a cast of his mind he may grasp an Empire as large as the four Monarchies A beggar cannot ascend a throne but in his thoughts he may pass the Guards murder his Prince and usurp the Government Nay further an Atheist may think there is no God Psal 14.1 i. e. as some interpret it wish there were no God and thus in thought undeifie God himself though he may sooner dash heaven and earth in pieces than accomplish it The body is confined to one object and that narrow and proportionable to its nature but the mind can wing it self to various objects in all parts of the earth Where it finds none it can make one for phancy can compact several objects together coyn an image colour a picture and commit folly with it when it hath done It can nestle it self in cobwebs spun out of its own bowels 3. In respect of Strength Imaginations of the heart are only i. e. purely evil The nearer any thing is in union with the root the more radical strength it hath The first ebullitions of light and heat from the Sun are more vigorous than the remoter beams and the steams of a dunghil more noysom next that putrified body than when they are dilated in the air Grace is stronger in the heart-operations than in the outward streams and sin more soul in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart than in the act In the Text the outward wickedness of the world is passed over with a short expression but the Holy Ghost dwells upon the description of the wicked imagination because there lay the mass Mans * Psal 5 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inward part is very wickednesses a whole nest of vipers Thoughts are the immediate spawn of the original corruption and therefote partake more of the strength and nature of it Acts are more distant being the children of our thoughts but the Grand-children of our natural pravity Besides they lye nearest to that wickedness in the inward part sucking the breast of that poysonous dam that bred them The strength of our thoughts is also reinforced by being kept in for want of opportunity to act them as liquors in close glasses ferment and encrease their spriteliness Musing either carnal or spiritual makes the †Psal 39.3 fire burn the hotter as the fury of fire is doubled by being pent in a furnace Outward acts are but the sprouts the sap and juice lies in the wicked imagination or contrivance which hath a strength in it to produce a thousand fruits as poysonous as the former The members are the instruments or * Rom. 6.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weapons of unrighteousness now the whole strength which doth manage the weapon lyes in the arm that wields it the weapon of it self could do no hurt without a force imprest Let me add this too that sin in thoughts is more simply sin In acts there may be some occasional good to others for a good man will make use of the sight of sin committed by others to encrease his hatred of it but in our sinful thoughts there it no occasion of good to others they lying lock'd up from the view of man 4. In respect of Alliance In these we have the nearest communion with the Devil The understanding of man is so tainted that his †Jam. 3.15 wisdom the chiefest flower in it is not only earthly and sensual it were well if it were no worse but devillish too If the flower be so rank what are the weeds 1 Cor. 2.11 2 Cor. 10.5 Satan's devices and our thoughts are of the same nature and sometimes in Scripture exprest by the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As he hath his devices so have we against the authority of God's law the power of the Gospel and the Kingdom of Christ The Devils are call'd spiritual wickednesses because they are not capable of carnal sins Ephes 6.12 Prophaneness is an Uniformity with the world and intellectual sins are an Uniformity with the God of it 1 Ephes 2.2.3 v. 3. There is a double walking answerable to a double pattern in v. 2. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh is a walking according to the course of this world or making the world our copy and fulfilling the desires of the mind is a walking according to the Prince of the power of the air or a making the Devil our pattern In carnal sins Satan is a tempter in mental an actor Therefore in the one we are conformed to his will in the other we are transformed into his likeness In outward we evidence more of obedience to his laws in inward more of affection to his person as all imitations of others are Therefore there is more of enmity to God because more of similitude and love to the Devil a nearer approach to the Diabolical nature implying a greater distance from the Divine Christ never gave so black a character as that of the Devil's children to the prophane world but to the Pharisees who had left the sins of men to take up those of Devils and were most guilty of those high imaginations which ought to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 5. In respect of contrariety and odiousness to God Imaginations were only evil and so most directly contrary to God who is only good Rom. 8.7 Our natural enmity against God is seated in the mind The sensitive part aims at its own gratification and in mens serving their
weighty matters And I note eminently three occasions where there may seem needful some more than ordinary strain of Speech or use of Salt in it 1. If what we say be for Food or Physick to a Sick or weak stomacked Person that may otherwise nauseate it this Salt may be useful to give it a relish and get it the easier down for which purpose the plain way of speaking was waved by Nathan 2 Sam. 12.1 c. And again by another Prophet 1 Kings 20.38 c. And almost generally by our Saviour without a Parable he scarce spake any thing there was no coming upon those kind of Persons without circumventing of them On the like necessity we should endeavour to shew like ingenuity that we may catch Persons with guile that will not otherwise come to hand 2. If our words be intended for Swords this kind of Speech doth set a keenness upon them for which purpose it is most frequently used in Scripture as you may see notable instances 1 Kings 18.27 2 Kings 17.32 33. The proud Fool will not be convinced often by plain Reason that there is almost a necessity of irrision we must make him ridiculous that his Folly may be conspicuous when he is throughly exposed he may chance be humbled I take the wise man as directing us to this method with this sort of men Prov. 26.5 Answer a Fool according to his Folly lest he be wise in his own Conceit according to his Folly that is according as his Folly does deserve answer him sharply smartly utterly silence him that he may take care to speak wiser another time repone illi verbera virgam as one says answer him with words as smart as Rods the Fool 's back requires them Prov. 26.3 3. Eccl. 12.11 If as Nails we would drive our words to which also they are compared there is a tendency in this pleasantness of Speech to fasten them and fix them more firmly in the memory whence I conceive old dying Jacob gave his last Blessing in such harmonious words as some of them are bearing allusion to his Sons names such as Jehudah Jodudah Dan Jadin Gad Gedud c. The Mother 's imposed their names for one Reason but something in their future condition the Father sees that agrees well enough to their names whereon he chooseth to read their destinies as it were by them for the more easie remembrance of them I would not these Examples should be abused to prevent which let me only caution That we gravely sparingly and for like necessary ends do imitate them or pretend no Patronage from them To proceed 6. Naturalize this Discourse if possible and as far as possible to you then and not till then you will speak with ease and speak with a grace and this facility is chiefly got by frequency We must in a manner confine our selves to this dialect that we may get this Excellency in it for which purpose let your converse be most with those that speak this Language and converse with all that are any way capable in this Language provoke them to it use them to it necessitate them to it if they will converse with you be as one that could hardly speak any thing but it from your youths accustom your selves to it in your Houses and among your familiars initiate your selves herein they will bear with your stammerings which you might be ashamed of before Strangers and having once got take heed you do not forget the Language but inure your selves daily to it you may travel through the World with it it is one of the Learned Languages that all Scholars 〈◊〉 have been bred in Christ's School understand you herein have conâ—â—se with them and it is no great matter if you are a Barbarian to others if it quits you of their Company it does you a kindness if this way you can be quit of vile and vain Companions it is the honourablest way you can be rid of them and so far as separated from them you have Heaven's happiness on Earth better a great deal they should be angred and estranged from you upon the holiness of your Discourse than you grieved or defiled by the commonness or Profaneness of theirs Though I must also tell you if once this Discourse was habitual to you it might be better born in you and no body would expect other from you but as they had occasions of dealing with you might probably be awed into a Conformity to you Further to engage you so far as may be in this holy strain of Speech take these Motives 1. No Discourse is so proper for you as Christians Motives it being the Language of the Countrey to which you do belong further your concerns generally lye in the word all that are worth speaking of why should you in a manner talk of any thing else It is almost an impertinency for a Christian to talk of this World wherein he is a Stranger and whereof he can call little his own but a burying place This was the utmost I find great Abraham to have grasped after or reckoned of in this World that he made sure of Gen. 23.4 20. I am a Stranger and Sojourner with you give me a possession of a burying place And the Field and the Cave was made sure to Abraham for a Burial place Truly this is all we are sure of here below that if we talk of any thing in this World it is most proper to talk of our Graves and our daily readiness to drop into them into which Discourse David Naturally fell when his Company would not bear higher Psal 39.4 c. Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am But turn him to the Word he has something there God Christ Men Angels Life Death things present things to come all things are his Confine then to your own matters especially since you have so large a Field Every one talks of their proper concerns Navita de ponto Have you nothing of your own to talk of or is it not to compare with what others so much please themselves to prattle about For shame Christians that you alone should rove and ramble at this rate holy heavenly Discourse is that one would expect from you and that alone seems pertinent to you 2. No Discourse is so profitable One may hear a deal of other chat and be neither the better nor wiser or at least we are instructed unto some little mean designs but when we talk out of the Word we are in the way of Learning or Teaching what will be for our universal accomplishment for as he says 2 Tim. 3.16 The Scripture is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works Yea such Discourse does not only fit us for the work of this World the best the noblest Atchievements in it
called my Neighbour with whom I have any business And the Scribe of whom we read Luke 10. knowing the mistakes of many of his Brethren asks our Saviour this Question Verse 29. Who is my Neighbour And our Saviour gives him an Answer the sum whereof is this that even the Samaritan was to be looked upon as his Neighbour 2. What is a Reproach I answer in general it is nothing else but an evil Report or an evil Speech unduly uttered concerning another Now a Report is evil two wayes 1. When it is evil in it self a false Report when a man belyes his Neighbour and bears false Witness against him either in judicial proceedings or in common Conversation These kind of evil Reports David was Exercised with Psal 35.11 False witness did rise up they laid to my charge things that I knew not 2. When it is evil to a man's Neighbour when your Speech tends to your Neighbour's disparagement and defamation And here I must inform you that a man may be guilty of Reproaching men by Commendations as David speaks of his Enemy Psal 55.21 His words were smoother than Oyl yet were they drawn Swords It is the usual Practice of some men to smooth the way to a reproach by a Commendation and to raise a man's reputation that he may tumble it down with more advantage 2. When a man publisheth a Neighbour's secret Infirmities or sins This all casuists allow to be a kind of Detraction and good Reason for though the matter may be true and good yet the principle from whence this proceeds is evil It proceeds from want of Love to my Neighbour and of the just care that I ought to have of his Credit And the Ends either of Speaker or of the Speech in its own Nature or of both are evil even to bring his Neighbour into contempt or disgrace 3. When a man aggravates the real or supposed faults of his Neighbour either in Opinion or in practice Certainly the Professors of this Age and this City are deeply guilty in both these respects 1. In aggravating other men's real or supposed Errours and mistakes Often-times men call that an Errour through their own Ignorance or prejudicate Opinion which in the judgment of far wiser and better men than themselves and in reality is a precious Truth of God And the pardonable mistakes of their Neighbour they decry as fundamental and damnable Errours or at least as Errours dangerous to Salvation I am far from pleading for Errours that are really damnable or highly dangerous such as those of the Papists Socinians Quakers and the like But there are other and lesser differences among Protestants who holding the Head as the Apostle speaks differ in Doctrines of less moment or in the methods and modes of Worship in Rites and Ceremonies which possibly one man thinks to be necessary another to be Lawful and indifferent another sinful and by these differing Opinions it is lamentable to consider and I confess I cannot think of it without horror and loathing how Protestants traduce and defame one another The one is Superstitious Idolatrous a Formalist a Profane Person and one that hath no sense of Religion The other is an Heretick a Schismatick a Fanatick a licentious lawless Person that follows his own sensuality and hath not the fear of God before his Eyes Thus they mutually rail at one another as if they had neither sense nor Conscience Nay the Disease is grown to that height that not content to censure men's Opinions they will also judg of their Consciences and secret intentions as if they maintained such Doctrines against the light of their own Consciences A Censure which proceeds from deep Ignorance of the merits of the Cause It were I confess a very desirable thing that all men were of one mind and Christians indeed are to labour for it and to pray for it 1 Cor. 1.10 I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same things that there be no Divisions among you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment But if a man consider the great weakness of most men's understandings the Infinite variety of their parts and apprehensions Educations Inclinations Interests or what the Scripture hath fore-told There must be Heresies that they that are approved may be made manifest I think he will conclude that he who shall expect this absolute harmony and uniformity in this World must either dream or dote And therefore the Holy Ghost hath directed us what to do in case of such differences of judgment to wit to talk charitably toward those that differ from us Rom. 14.15 If thy Brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably And to agree with others as far as we can Phil. 3.15 16. Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus indeed and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Notwithstanding whereto you have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same things But for those mutual reproaches and censures one against another I must take the boldness to charge you all as you tender your Salvation to have a care of them for though these points wherein you differ be disputable yet this is out of all dispute that you ought to love your Neighbour as your self and that you ought not to take up a Reproach against your Neighbour And therefore take heed lest while you condemn another man for disputable and lesser Errors you do not run into an indisputable Crime and fundamental Miscarriage 2. Men are guilty of reproaching their Neighbours by aggravating their Errors in practice and conversation When men censure and reproach others for things indifferent and of small moment As for Example In their Habits and Garbs I am not Ignorant that there are great miscarriages in men's Habits and that the Bush that hangs at the door doth frequently discover what is within and tell the pride of men's hearts and there are certain bounds and limits to be observed that men's Habits be agreeable to their Quality Estate Calling and Condition in the World but yet there is a just Latitude in these things the Lawfulness of them doth not consist in a Mathematical point these are to be regulated by the Customs of times and places Now if a man see another that doth a little vary from his fancy or practice whose Garb is a little more Ornamental than his though not much extravagant if now he judgeth the state of this man and concludes him to be a profane or carnal Person this is a Reproach So again when a man commits some miscarriage towards his Neighbour through carelessness or forgetfulness or mistake it is a common thing for men to charge it as a malicious design intended for their hurt this is a Reproach And you may easily multiply Instances in your own thoughts 3. Question What is it
requires more from Christians than he doth from other men Mat. 5.47 What do ye more than others Christians must be free from the Vices of other men Eph. 4.17 This I say therefore and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles walk So Luke 22.25 26. The Kings of the Gentiles Exercise Lordship they are Proud Ambitious Imperious But it shall not be so among you Christians must be in the World like Lights shining in a dark place They must have all the Vertues that others have and they must be clean from all the Vices and Lusts in which others Live Now the very Heathens have condemned this Practice of Reproaching and traducing others Detractors were infamous amongst them and therefore it is a shame this should be practised by Christians 3. This is a sin against the whole design and scope of the Scriptures These are as I may say the two Poles upon which the Heavenly Globe of the Scripture turns the Love of God and the Love of our Neighbour Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Mat. 22.37 c. Rom. 13.10 Love is the fulfilling of the Law and the Law is enforced by Christ Joh. 13.34 A new Commandment give I unto you that ye love one another So then all the Scripture hath but one Neck and this the Detractor cuts off and so makes himself the greatest Anti-Scripturist in the World 3. This is a great injury to God because it is a Confederacy with God's greatest Enemy the Devil God judgeth of men's Relations by their Works and not by their talks John 8.39 If ye were Abraham 's Children you would do the Works of Abraham And verse 44. Ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father ye will do Now this among others is the Devil 's great Work and Office who is hence called the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 And from whence he hath his Name Diabolus which is a Calumniator a Slanderer a Reproacher And these Men as they do the Devil's Work so they are called by the Devil's name 1 Tim. 3.12 Not Slanderers in the Greek not Devils And as they do the Devil's Work so they serve the Devil 's great Design God is Love and therefore his design is to promote Love in the World The Devil is a malignant and hateful Spirit and his work is to promote hatred contention and strife among men And that is effectually done by this way 2. This is an injury to thy self in these particulars 1. Hereby thou dost contract guilt the worst of all evils A man's sin may injure another Man but the greatest and the worst part of it falls upon his own head Wickedness saith Seneca drinketh up the greatest part of it 's own poyson Prov. 8.36 He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own Soul Thou woundest another Man's Fame but thou woundest thy own Conscience which of these is the worst He whom thou reproachest gets a blot before men and thou dost procure to thy self a blot before God Thou accusest him before other Men and thy Conscience will accuse thee for it before God 2. Hereby thou dost expell or weaken that excellent Grace of Love that necessary and fundamental Grace that sweet and amiable Grace As all Virtue is a reward to it self so is this in a more special manner Infinite is the pleasure of the Holy Soul in loving God and loving all Men and loving Enemies O this is a most delightful Work And on the contrary Hatred and Malice and Envy as they are most sinful so are they very miserable works and a great Torment to him that hath them while the mind of a wicked malicious man is like the raging Sea continually casting up mire and dirt and is its own Tormentor The mind of a good Man exercising it self in love is as it were a Sea of Glass like unto Crystal calm and serene it enjoys God and it self and other men yea even a man's Enemies By this Holy Art a Man may get comfort out of his Enemies whether they will or no. 3. Hereby thou dost lay a Foundation for thy own Reproach Mat. 7.1 2. Judge not that ye be not judged for with what Judgment ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again Methinks this Text should strike a terrour into all Persons who are guilty of this sin The Law of Retaliation prescribed by God is frequently inflicted by him also James 2.13 He shall have Judgment without Mercy that hath shewed no mercy So that thou dost ingage the great God against thee to pour contempt upon thy Name and to make thee a Reproach in the World 3. It is a great injury to the Person whom thou dost censure and reproach and that in these particulars 1. Thou dost rob him of the best Treasure which he hath in the World Prov. 22.1 A good Name is rather to be chosen than Riches and consequently thou art more Criminal than he that dyeth by the hands of Justice for taking away another Man's Goods Thou robbest him of that which thou art not able to give him thou robbest him of the most lasting good which he hath and that which alone will abide after Death So that thy cruelty extends beyond the Grave and tends to this to make his Name rot above ground while his Body rots in it And this injury is the greater because it cannot be prevented there is no Fence against this Vice it is the Arrow that flyes by Night which no man can either observe or avoid and it is an Injury which can hardly be repaired Breaches in mens Estates may be made up Liberty lost may be recovered a Conscience wounded may be healed but a Reputation can hardly ever be restored Calumnia re fortiter aliquid adhaerebit Slander a man resolutely and something to be sure will stick 2. Hereby thou dost disenable him from getting good both as to his outward and as to his inward man As to his outward Man Who knows not the necessity of a good fame for the successful management of a man's Worldly concernments By one Act of this sin thou mayst possibly undo a man and all his Family It hinders him also from receiving inward good as to the state of his Soul At least he is not likely to get any good from thee Whereas it is thy duty to rebuke thy Neighbour and not to suffer sin to rest upon him Levit. 19.17 This is the way to make that work altogether unsuccessful it stops his Ear against thy Counsels it hardens his heart against thy admonitions and many times such Reproaches make men careless and by degrees impudent and when once they have lost their Reputation by thy Calumnies they are not careful to regain it and it may be judge it impossible 3. Hereby thou dost hinder him from doing of good in the World It is certain a
Christians How many are there that are full of rage one against another for being either for a Form of Prayer or against it either for the Ceremonies or against them that never searched into the state of the Controversie and never took pains to examine the Arguments on both sides which in all reason they ought to have done or else at least to have restrained their Tongues from such unreasonable and sinful censures and reproaches These I say are the Persons that are most guilty nay upon the matter the only guilty Persons except such whom base Lust and Interest doth corrupt and work to these animosities 5. Converse much with your selves It is want of business at home in mens own hearts that makes them ramble so much abroad and rake into the Lives of others Study your selves more and other men less Did you search your own hearts and lives you would find so much cause of self-judging and self-abhorring that you would have little cause to despise others and much cause of compassion towards others 6. Judg of others as you would do of your selves and your own Actions It is worth our consideration what a great difference there is between the Judgment men pass upon themselves and other men As for themselves all their Errors are but small mistakes and all their sins against God however attended with ugly circumstances of light of consent of the will custom and allowance yet they are but sins of Infirmity if themselves may be Judges in their own Cause Their injuries to men are but small and trivial offences and they do indeed expect both from God and Man a Pardon of course which if they have not they judg God tobe harsh and severe Men to be cruel and implacable But when they come to pass Judgment upon other Men the Tables are turned some mistakes are damnable delusions and all their sins against God which they can observe are evidences of a naughty heart and inconsistent with Grace and the Offences of others against them are inexcusable and intolerable great affronts and Indignities whereas on the contrary thou shouldest as it was said of a great Man Be severe to thy self and Candid to others Because thou knowest more wickedness by thy self and more aggravation of thy own sins than of all the sins that are in the World But at least all the reason and Justice in the World requires this that thou shouldest weigh thy self and others in the same Balance that thou shouldest try thy own and their Actions by the same Touch-stone and more need not be done Thou who art so prone to flatter thy self wouldest certainly be more indulgent to other men and pass a more favourable construction upon their Actions What Light must shine in our Works Serm. XXII Matth. 5.16 Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven THE Work designed for this time is to resolve this practical Case What is that Light which must shine before Men in the Works of Christ's Disciples for the Glorifying of God But the Explication of the Text is therein included The Son of Righteousness Jesus Christ who giveth Light to every one that cometh into the World or coming into the World giveth Light to all from his fulness hath bespangled the Inferiour Heavens his Church with many fulgent Stars appointed freely to communicate the Heavenly light which they had freely received In his corporal presence he prepared them and his Spirit having moved on the darkned World he unresistably said at the descent of the Holy Ghost Let there be Light and there was Light beginning at Jerusalem but not fixed to any determinate place But what he gave them necessarily and antecedently they were to Exercise as Free Agents by a command more resistable which here he gives them Having told them their Office and given them their Names v. 14. Ye are the Lights of the World he next tells them how they must be useful They must be conspicuous 1. Because the Church where they are placed is like a City on a Hill which cannot be hid 2. Because it 's the end of him that lighteth them and sets them up not to put them under a Bushel but on a Candlestick to give light to all his House And therefore no men's silencing or prohibitions no difficulties or sufferings will excuse them from their Duty Lights they are and Shine they must But lest they should think that it is Preaching only which he meaneth he here commanding them their Duty lets them know that the splendour of Christianity is in Works as well as Words And thereby giveth us cause to think that it is all his Disciples or Christians that he speaketh to though first and eminently to the Apostles and Teachers of the World 1. By Light he meaneth both the Illuminating knowledg which must be uttered by Words and the Splendour or Glory of Holiness which must be refulgent in their Lives 2. He calls it Your Light as being their own in his Graces as the Subjects and their own in Exercise as the Actors though both under him 3. It must Shine that is Appear in its splendour for the Illumination and conviction of the World 4. It must So shine as is fittest to attain these ends It is not every twinkling that will answer their great obligations 5. It must be Before men that is both those within and especially those without the Church that are but Men. 6. It must be a Light shining in Good Works and their Own Works For that is the grand difference between the Disciples of Christ and others He teacheth them not only to know and talk well but to Do well And he maketh men such as he Teacheth them to be Non magna loquimur sed vivimus said Tertullian 7. That Men may see doth signifie both the necessary refulgent quality of their Works and also the end of God and them 8. But it is not Hypocritical ostentation of what they are not nor of what they are and have as for their own Glory to be honoured and praised of Men but for the Glorifying of God Who is called their Father to shew their obligation to him and to encourage them by the honour and comfort of their Relation and to shew why their Works will tend to the glorifying of God even because they are so nearly related to him And he is said to be in Heaven because there he appeareth operatively in his Glory to the beautifying of Holy Spirits As the Soul is said to be in the Head and we look a man in the face when we talk to him as if there principally we saw the Man because it is in the Head that it operateth by Reason So much of the meaning of the Words Many Doctrines the Text affordeth us as 1. Christ's Disciples are the Lights of the World both in the splendour of Wisdom and Holiness 2. Their most eminent and convincing splendour is in
their good Works 3. Their Light and good works are their own though by the grace of Christ And it is no injury to Christ or his Righteousness or Grace to say that they are their own 4. The splendour of Christians in their good Works must be such as may be seen of Men. 5. The Glorifying of God must be the end of our Good Works and of their appearance unto men 6. As bad as corrupted Nature is there is yet something in mankind which tendeth to the approving of the good works of Christians and to their glorifying God thereupon 7. God is glorified even by common men when they approve of the Glory of Holiness in Believers It is not only by Saints that God is glorified 8. As contrary as Holiness is to corrupted Nature there is such resplendent goodness in true Christians works which common men may glorifie God for And so somewhat in them and in Christianity which hath such agreeableness as may tend to further good 9. The Excellency and Splendour of the good works of Christians especially Teachers is a grand means ordained by God himself for the Conviction of the World and the glorifying of God But the resolving the Question What the splendour of these works must be is my present undertaken task God is not glorified by our adding to him but by our receiving from him not by our making him greater or better or happier than he is but by owning him loving him and declaring him as he is that we and others may thereby be wise and good and happy He is his own glory and ours And by his own light only we must know both him and all things We are not called to bring our Candle to shew the World that there is a Sun but to perswade them into its light to open the Windows and Curtains to disperse the Clouds and to open the eyes of blinded sinners I. The way of doing this and glorifying God is in the order following 1. The first thing that our works must shew is their own goodness They can never prove the Cause good till it is clear that they are good themselves Therefore doubtless Christ here intendeth that we must abound especially in those good works which the world is capable of knowing to be good and not only in those which none but Christians themselves approve If believers and unbelievers agreed in no common principles we were not capable of preaching to unbelievers nor convincing them nor of conversing with them There are many excellent things which Nature doth approve and which both parties are agreed to be good By the advantage of these as granted principles we must convince them of the conclusions which they yet deny and not as the scandalous Christian so absurdly affect singularity as to make light of all good which is taken for good by unbelievers and to seek for eminency in nothing but what the World thinks evil There is a glory in some good works which all do honour and which manifesteth it self 2. And then the goodness of the work doth manifest the goodness of the doer Every man's work is so far his own that he is related to it and by it either as laudable or as culpable as it is Gal. 6.4 5. Let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another for every man shall bear his own burthen God himself will judge men according to their works and so will men and so must we much do by our selves for it is the rightest judging which is likest God's This subordinate honour God grants to his servants If their works were not an honour to them as the next Agents they could be none to him in their Morality as man's acts though they might as acts in general ordered to good by his own goodness If God's Natural Works of Creation Sun and Moon and Earth c. were not praise-worthy in themselves God would not be praised for them as their Maker There are works that God is said to be dishonoured by Rom. 2.23 24. And what are they but such as are really bad and a dishonour to the Authors It is so far from being true that no praise or honour or comfort from good works is to be given to man that God himself is not like else to be honoured by them as morall good if the Actors be not honoured by them The World must first be convinced that Christians are far better than other men and the righteous more excellent than his Neighbour before they will glorifie God as the Author of their goodness In God's own Judgment Well done is the first word and Good and Faithful Servant is the second and Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord is the third Two sorts of Scandalous persons rob God of his honour in his Saints 1. Those that professing Christianity live wickedly or at least no better than other men whose lives tell the World that Christians are but such as they 2. Those that slander and belye true Believers and would hide their goodness and make them odious to the World As for them that say only that we have no righteousness in our selvet by which we can be justified I shall not differ with them if they do but grant that all shall be judged according to their works and that he that is accused as an Infidel Impenitent an Hypocrite or an Unregenerate Ungodly Person must against that accusation be justified by his own Faith Repentance Sincerity and Holiness or be unjustified for ever 3. The next thing to the Work and the Person that is hereby honoured is the Christian Religion it self with the Spirit 's operations on the Souls of Christians The outward Doctrine and Example Of Christ who teacheth his Servants to be better than the World and the inward Sanctification of the Spirit which maketh them better The Air and Food are commended which make men healthy and the Medicines are praised which cure the disease That is accounted good as a means and cause which doth good and which maketh men good If Christians were more commonly and notoriously much better than all other men the World would believe that the Gospel and the Christian Religion were the best But when scandalous Christians appear as bad or worse than Infidels the World thinks that their Religion is as bad or worse than theirs 4. The next ascent of Honour is to the Maker or Author of our Religion the World will see that he is good that maketh so good a Law and Gospel and that maketh all his true Disciples so much to excel all other men And here the first honour will be to the Holy Spirit which reneweth Souls and maketh them holy And the next will be to the Son our Saviour who giveth us both the Word and Spirit And the highest or ultimate Glory will be to God the Father who giveth us both his Son and his Spirit And thus Honour ascendeth to the Highest by these
and grant that those things which the craft and subtilty of the Devil or Man worketh against us may be brought to nought and by the providence of his goodness may be dispersed that we his Servants being hindred by no persecution may give thanks to him in his holy Church and serve him in holiness and pureness of life to his Glory through Jesus Christ Vse 3 You may see hence how much those men are mistaken who talk of the Good Works or Lives of Christians as that which must have no honour lest it dishonour God As if all the honour were taken from Christ which is given to Good Works and the Patients health were the dishonour of the Physitian When we are Redeemed and Purified to be zealous of good works and created for them in Christ Jesus as Tit. 2.14 Eph. 2.10 Yea and shall be judged according to our Works This Informeth you that the Good Works or Lives of Christians is a Vse 4 Great means ordained by Christ for the Convincing of Sinners and the Glorifying of God in the World Preaching doth much but it is not appointed to do all The Lives of Preachers must also be a convincing Light And all true Christians Men and Women are called to Preach to the World by their Good Works And a Holy Righteous and Sober Life is the great Ordinance of God appointed for the saving of your selves and others O that the Lord would bring this close to all our hearts Christians if you abhor dumb Teachers because they starve and betray Souls take heed lest you condemn your selves you owe Men the convincing helps of a holy fruitful life as well as the Preacher owes them his Ministry Preach by well-doing shine out in good works or else you are no Lights of Christ but betrayers of Mens souls you rob all about you of a great Ordinance of God a great means appointed by him for mens Salvation The world will judge of the Scriptures by your Lives and of Religion by your Lives and of Christ himself by your Lives If your Lives are such as tend to perswade men that Christians are but like other Men yea that they are but self-conceited Sinners as Carnal Sensual Uncharitable Proud Self-seeking Worldly Envious as others and so that Christianity is but such This is a horrid blaspheming of Christ how highly soever your Tongues may speak of him and how low soever your Knees may bow to him O that you knew how much of God's great Work of Salvation in the world is to be done by Christians Lives Your Lives must teach men to believe that there is a Heaven to be won and a Hell to be escaped Your Lives must help Men to believe that Christ and his Word are true Your Lives must tell Men what Holiness is and convince them of the need of Regeneration and that the Spirit of Sanctification is no fancy but the witness of Jesus Christ in the world Your Lives must tell Men by Repentance and Obedience that sin is the greatest Evil and must shew them the difference between the Righteous and the Wicked Yea the Holiness of God must be Glorified by Your Lives Father Son and Holy Ghost the Scripture the Church and Heaven it self must be known much by our Lives And may not I say then with the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.11 What manner of Persons then ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness when the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us to deny ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.11 12. Vse 5 But alas What suitable and plentiful matter doth this offer us for our Humiliation and Lamentation on such a day as this A floud of Tears is not too much to lament the scandals of the Christian world With what wounded Hearts should we think of the State of the Churches in Armenia Syria Egypt Abassia and all the oppressed Greeks and all the poor deceived and oppressed Papists and all the ignorant Carnal Protestants O how unlike are your Lives to your Christian Faith and to the Pattern left them by their Lord Doth a worldly proud and fleshly and contentious Clergy Glorifie God Doth an ignorant Ministry Glorifie him who understand not the Message which they should deliver Will the world turn Christians by seeing Christians seek the blood and ruine of each other And hearing even Preachers Reproach each other Or seeing them silence or persecute each other Or by seeing the People run into many Sects and separate from one another as unworthy of Christian Communion Will Proud Ignorant Censorious Fleshly Worldly Professors of Religion ever draw the World to love Religion Or will peevish self-willed impatient discontented Souls that are still wrangling crying and repining make men believe that their Religion rejoyceth blesseth and satisfieth the Soul and maketh men far happier than all others in the world Alas what wonder that so small a part of the world are Christians and so few converted to the love of Holiness when the Great Means is denied them by you which God hath appointed for their Conversion and the world hath not one Helper for a hundred or thousand that it should have You cry out of those that put out the Church-lights under pretence of snuffing them while your selves are Darkness or as a stinking Snuff O Brethren and Christians all I beseech you let us now and often closely ask our selves What do we more than an Antonine a Seneca or a Cicero or a Socrates did beyond opinions words and formalities What do you which is like to convert the world to convince an Infidel or glorifie God Nay do not some among us think that it is the height or part of their Religion to live so contrary to the world as to be singular from others even in lawful or indifferent things and to do little or nothing which the world thinks well of As if crossing and displeasing men needlesly were their winning conversation O when once we go as far beyond them in love humility meekness patience fruitfulness mortification self-denial and heavenliness as we do in opinions profession and self-esteem then we shall win Souls and glorifie God and he will also glorifie us And here we see the wonderful mercy of God to the World who Vse 6 hath appointed them so much means for their Conviction and Salvation So many Christians as there be in the World so many Practical Preachers and helps to mens Conversion are there appointed by God And let the blame and shame lye on us where it is due and not on God if yet the World remain in darkness It is God's Will that every Christian in the World should be as a Star to shine to sinners in their darkness and O then how gloriously would the World be bespangled and enlightned If you say Why then doth not God make Christians better That is a question which cannot be well answered without a
larger opening of the Methods of Grace than we can now have leasure for and therefore must be don◠its proper season Those that honour God he will honour and therefore let us also give Vse 7 them that honour which is their due The barren Professors who honour themselves by over-valuing their poor knowledge gifts and grace and affecting too great a distance from their Brethren and censuring others as unworthy of their Communion without proof are not the men that honour God and can lay claim to no great honour from men But God hath among us a prudent holy humble laborious patient Ministry that glorifie him by their works and patience and he hath among us a meek and humble a blameless and a loving and fruitful sort of Christians who imitate the Purity Charity and Simplicity yea and Concord of the Primitive Church These tell the World to their sight and experience that Religion is better than Ignorance and Carnality These tell the World that Christ and his Holy Word are true while he doth that in renewing and sanctifying Souls which none else in the World can do These shew the World that Faith and Holiness and Self-denial and the hopes of Immortality are no deceits These glorifie God and are the great Benefactors of the World I must solemnly profess that did I not know such a people in the world who notwithstanding their infirmities do manifest a holy and heavenly disposition in their lives I should want my self so great a help to my Faith in Christ and the promise of Life Eternal that I fear without it my Faith would fail And had I never known a holier Ministry and People than those that live but a common life and excel Heathens in nothing but their Belief or Opinions and Church orders and Formalities I should find my Faith assaulted with so great temptations as I doubt I should not well withstand No talk will perswade men that he is the best Physitian that healeth no more nor worse diseases than others do Nor would Christ be taken for the Saviour of the World if he did not save men And he saveth them not if he make them not holier and better than other men O then how much do we owe to Christ for sending his Spirit into his Saints and for exemplifying his holy Word on holy Souls and for giving us as many visible proofs of his Holiness Power and Truth as there are Holy Christians in the world we must not flatter them nor excuse their faults nor puff them up But because the Righteous is more excellent than his Neighbour we must accordingly love and honour them and Christ in them For Christ telleth us that he is glorified in them here Joh. 17.10 And that what is done to them his Brethren even the least is taken as done to him Mat. 25. And he will be glorified and admired in them when he cometh in his Glory at the last 2 Thes 1.8 9 10. And he will glorifie their very works before all the world with a Well done good and faithful Servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. What is it to do all we do in the Name of Christ and how may we do so Serm. XXIII Colos 3.17 And whatsoever ye do in word and deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him THERE have been and still are many great and famous Names in the World into which men have been Baptized according to which they have been call'd and also walked in the world Rev. 11.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men of great Name or men of Renown Gen. 6.4 What a Renowned Name had the Beast in the Earth Rev. 13.3 4. that the world wondered after the Beast and worshipped the Dragon that gave power to the Beast and they worshipped the Beast saying Who is like to the Beast Pharaoh was a great Name amongst the Kings of Egypt which were so call'd from their famous Predecessors So the Kings of the Amalakites were called Agag and of Tyre Hyram and of Lycia Antiochus of Pontus Mithridates of the Emperours of Rome Caesars and in the Church Professors have affected to be call'd by the Name of some Eminent persons 1 Cor. 3.4 5. Some cryed up Paul others Peter and this was a growing evil in the Church 1 Cor. 1.12 13 14. They ambitiously affected to be denominated from some Eminent Persons among them As the Lutherans and Calvinists and many others at this day have been call'd and denominated from some great persons that have been famous in their Generation But here is a Name in my Text is above all Names in Heaven and Earth and all Christians are call'd by this Name and call on this Name Jer. 14.9 Amos 9.12 This Name you must trust in and boast in beyond and above all Names whatsoever Isa 45.24 25. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength and in the Lord shall all the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory See what a Name is given to Christ Isa 6.7 And bow to it his Name shall be call'd Wonderful Councellour and consider every Letter of his Name and adore it The Apostle according to his usual manner in this Epistle having spoken of the Doctrine of the Gospel and how they received it and the influence it had on them v. 12 13. And concerning Christ in whom they had Redemption v. 14 15 16 17 18 19. And of the Excellency of his Person and of the riches of the glory of his Grace revealed in it v. 27. Then Chap. 2. he stirs them up to live such lives as becometh the Gospel and to beware of Seducers v. 16. to the end Then Chap. 3. he puts them in mind of several duties throughout the Chap. He lays down some general Exhortations with reference to the Gospel and their living suitably to it from v. 1. to 17. Then he proceeds to particular duties in our place and Relations and in this v. 17. having laid down something he gathers up all into one sum how to carry themselves in the whole course of their lives in their thoughts words and works We may observe from the general Scope Doct. That the Doctrine of the Gospel carrieth the highest and strictest obligations upon all such to whom it reveal'd to duty and service in their places and relations to God and Man In the words we have 1. A Rule laid down 2. The things that are under the Rule words works and thoughts and secret motions of the heart which works also are well known to God and so they come under Rule 3. Here is the Universality of the Rule in its extent and full compass it fetcheth in all words and works without exception and all persons for this You takes in all persons of what rank or degree soever 4. Here is the manner how they must be done so as to answer the Mind of God in the Name of Christ 5. Here is a further
consider your selves out of Christ 't is necessary for believers to do so sometimes I do not say you should put off Christ that must never be done but it may be convenient as the case stands to let the wedding garment hang loose about you that you may see your own poverty and nakedness and then cover all again and admire the free grace of God who hath provided thee a better righteousness than any thou canst see in thy self to trust in and to ground thy hope upon This is the way to correct the exorbitancy of thy immoderate hope and to keep it within its proper sphere We never have more lively heart-ravishing thoughts and apprehensions of free grace than after fresh and warm apprehensions of our own vileness and wretchedness by nature Ephes 2.3 by nature the children of wrath and then he breaks out into a great admiration of the mercy of God verse 4. 2. Directions against that kind of Presumption that is of God and his mercy which I call'd a fond credulous presumption 1. Study the doctrine of Election that tells us that God is the Soveraign Lord of the whole world hath put a vast difference between man and man there are some that he hates as well as some that he loves of the same lump of clay some made vessels unto honour and some unto dishonour some vessels of wrath fitted to destruction some vessels of mercy prepared unto glory Rom. 9.20 21 22 23. That God is a free voluntary Agent not necessarily bound to chuse thee or me rather than others No he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth verse 18. Whence is it then that men are so confident of the favour of God you may be in the number of the many that are called and yet not in the number of those few that are chosen for all your confidence hath Electing Redeeming Love set any peculiar mark upon thee by which thou maist be known and distinguished from the reprobate world at the last day if not 't is strange presumption in thee to nourish such vain hopes 2. Consider the strict limitations and provisoes of the Covenant of Grace by which all obstinate impenitent sinners remaining such are shut out from mercy and art not thou such an one examine thy self hath grace taught thee to deny ungodliness till then it will never save thee 3. Consider the difficulty of Salvation 't is not so easie a matter to get to Heaven as you imagine narrow is the way strait is the gate and few there be that find it The righteous are scarcely saved 1 Pet. 4.18 Things that are arduous and difficult are not easily swallowed will not in reason admit of a rash credulous hope but call for serious counsel and debate There are in such cases many agitations in the mind accessus recessus Aquin. the soul goes and comes backward and forward off and on cannot presently fix and settle it self in an even stedfast constant hope Most Christians do pass through such fluctuations and perplexities to a quiet comfortable hope of Salvation 4. Consider this also have the promises thou boastest so much of begot fear in thee as well as hope A Christian's hope is a heedful careful sollicitous hope 2 Cor. 7.1 Heb. 4.1 Hope without fear is presumption 5. Let thy hope be grounded upon some inward experience of the mighty saving power of Christ put forth upon thy soul experience worketh hope Rom. 5.4 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it Phil. 1.6 To him that hath shall be given Mat. 13.12 What pledges then of divine favour what love-tokens hast thou by thee what taste and sight of the goodness and grace of God we hope for the complement and perfection of that which in some measure we have already attain'd when we see God pursuing us with his kindness in any particular expression of his love this begets hope that we shall have all at last those greater things that are promised God's end in bestowing lesser mercies upon us is to quicken and strengthen our hope of greater 't is strange presumption for persons who never received the least token of special grace from God to expect such great things as heaven and glory God gives many things before he gives heaven don't think at first dash to have heaven there are many preparatory mercies alwayes antecedent to that the Saints are compassed about with mercy and Songs of deliverance Psal 32.7 10. And from those experiences they argue as David did 1 Sam. 17.32 He will do this and that for us and not destroy us after he hath done us so much good But if thou hast nothing to shew as a convincing evidence of Gods love and good will to thee it looks too much like presumption to hope for pounds for the whole sum before we have received the earnest-penny Hope is not the first work of the Spirit upon the heart 't is a secondary grace the natural result of faith which gives very satisfactory intimations of God's love to us and so begets hope in us Consult therefore the experiences of God's goodness to you in some measure before you soar too high in the actings of your hope Secondly Directions against Despair 1. To those in Christ who are sometimes liable to these fainting fits and find their hope shaken are to seek of it being suddenly struck with an amazing sight and sense of sin and wrath they conclude their case desperate and cry out as Job did Job 44.19 c. The devil hath two wayes or methods by which he seeks to undermine and overthrow the hope of a Christian I shall discover both to you and endeavour to secure you against both 1. If thy Hope be strong and lively he will slander it with the name of presumption that he may shake thy confidence and discourage thee from those eminent actings of thy hope wherein thou hast had so much comfort he does envy thy happiness he would fain clip the wings of thy faith and hope that he may rob thee of the joy of thy Salvation and keep thee at a low ebb all thy dayes he would take off thy helmet that he may knock thee down at one blow Groundless fears of presumption do exceedingly bauk and check our hope bring it into suspence which is negative despair In such conflicts and fierce assaults gird up thy self stand fast and hope to the end hold fast thy confidence and that you may do this Call in thy faith to maintain and justifie thy hope as rightly grounded upon Gospel-promises and consequently capable of no excess Let it run in the right Channel never so swiftly and rise never so high 't is so much the better true grace is not confined to such a scantling or degree it can never be overgrown its beauty and comeliness do increase with its stature the greater the larger the fuller the higher it is
are in a better state than Adam was in his first Creation None will deny who read and believe the Scriptures that Adam was Blessed before he sinned there was no Curse of the Law upon man until the Law was broken by him and as God made all other things good so man as he came out of God's hand was made both Good and Happy The primitive Blessedness of Adam consisted chiefly in two things First In the Innocency which was in him Secondly In the Image of God which was upon him whereby he was capacitated for and had a nearness of Communion and fellowship with God In both respects pardoned Persons are in a better estate than Adam 1. In respect of Innocency although they cannot so properly be called Innocent in themselves doubtless they are not so Innocent as Adam before his fall yet upon their pardon they are guiltless they are reputed Innocent in the sight of God and however God may chastise them for sin here they shall no more be punished for any sin in the other World than if they had never offended than if they had never committed any the least sin from their Birth unto their Death but had been as white and clean as pure and Innocent as the first Adam before his fall or the second Adam who never fell and herein their condition is better than that of Adam in Innocency because no guilt shall be charged upon them unto their Condemnation whereas Adam had no such security against Condemnation for afterward he falling into sin would certainly have fallen into Hell had not pardoning mercy prevented it 2. In regard of the Image of God that is repaired in all those that are pardoned when God forgiveth their sin he changeth their nature and that Faith which justifieth the Person doth also purifie the heart Acts 15.9 Indeed pardoned Persons are renewed but in part and the inherent Righteousness and Holiness which they attain unto in this life is but imperfect yet in this they are in a better condition than Adam was at first because although Adam's inherent Righteousness were perfect yet it was left to his own keeping and he quickly lost it and fell quite off from God putting himself out of God's favour and out of Covenant together and there was no Salvation attainable by him until God had promised Christ and made a New Covenant of Grace with him But the inherent Righteousness of pardoned Persons although it be far short many degrees of absolute perfection yet it is committed to the keeping of Christ by the Spirit in them who is both able and hath promised to bring it unto perfection so that they shall never totally fall from Grace but grow up from one degree of Grace unto another until they arrive unto Heaven where they shall be absolutely perfect both in Holiness and happiness and in the mean time they are accepted as compleat and perfect in their head the Lord Jesus Christ whose perfect Righteousness is through Faith imputed unto them whereby the defects of their righteousness are supplyed and they adopted to eternal Life Pardoned persons are in a better state than Adam therefore they are blessed Reas 5. Such whose iniquities are forgiven are blessed because they shall be blessed the blessedness of pardoned persons is chiefly in hope of future blessedness without which hope in some circumstance of time they would be as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15.19 of all Men most miserable and therefore I shall chiefly speak of the future blessedness of the pardoned and here 1. Shew what the future blessedness is which pardoned persons shall have 2. Prove that pardoned persons shall most assuredly attain this blessedness 3. Shew how this future blessedness doth render them blessed at the present and this will be a full proof that pardoned persons are blessed 1. The first thing is to shew what the future blessedness is which pardoned persons shall have and here I must premise that there is but little of this future blessedness revealed in comparison of what it really is and what pardoned persons will find it to be Ministers have preached and written much concerning it but they have not told one half no nor the thousand part of the Glory and excellency thereof and it must be but little then that I have time or room to speak of it in this discourse yet something I must say and it is no difficult thing to set it forth by Scripture-light and in a few words as far exceeding all outward happiness and earthly felicity The blessedness which pardoned persons shall have doth lye in three things 1. In the blessed and glorious place where they shall live 2. In the blessed and glorious company which they shall converse withal 3. In the blessed and glorious state which they shall attain to 1. Pardoned persons shall live and take up their eternal abode in a most blessed and glorious place Here they have no continuing City but they seek one to come Heb. 13.14 The most strong and flourishing Cities in the World may be demolished by the hands of Men or overthrown by Earthquakes or consumed and turned into ashes by the devouring flames of fire but the City they shall dwell in cannot be demolished overthrown or consumed that City will abide and continue so long as God shall abide the Maker of it They look for a City which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Heb. 11.10 The Foundations of this City are sure and strong such as shall never be moved the Cities and Houses they now dwell in are made by man and therefore are but mean but the City they shall dwell in is of God's Building and Making and therefore is very glorious It is the New Jerusalem which they shall hereafter inhabit the Jerusalem which is above the Walls and Gates thereof are Pearls and the Streets thereof pure Gold as it is described Rev. 21. at the latter end of that Chapter But the place is beyond all comparison and doth exceed in glory whatever description may be made of it 2. Pardoned persons shall have most blessed and glorious company to converse withal in Heaven 1. In Heaven pardoned persons vvill have the company of all the Saints there they vvill find all their godly friends and acquaintance and that both such as die before them and those that die after them in vvhose Society they vvill have a mutual sweet complacency and their joy one in another vvill exceed vvhat tongues can express There they shall have the company of all those Godly Ministers either vvhom they have known and heard or vvhose Writings only they have seen and read and how vvill the spiritual children delight to see the glory and live always in the company of their spiritual Fathers vvhom God hath made instrumental for their conversion then they vvill rejoyce indeed that ever they saw their face that ever they heard their voice that ever they believed their report that ever they vvere perswaded by them to