that when he hath a suit of cloathes to make would send for a bungling Taylor to make it surely none And why then should not men be as wise for their souls Do not you know that that sort of persons that now I am a speaking of have been the greatest instruments of bringing the greatest calamities and miseries and the sorest desolations and destructions that ever have been brought upon Cities Nations Kingdoms and Countries Compare the Scriptures in the margin together Jer. 26.8 9 11 14 15. Lam. 4.11 12 13. Amos 7.10 11. 1 Kings 22. 2 Chron. 18. and then let conscience speak And who is so ignorant as not to know that it was the High-Priests Scribes and Pharisees that brought the innocent blood of our Lord Jesus Christ upon that once great and glorious Nation of the Jews to their utter destruction and desolation about forty years after Christs Ascension when the Romans came and took their City and practised the greatest severity and cruelty imaginable upon them as Josephus and other Historians shew In the Marian dayes and in the Massacre of the Protestants in France how great a hand this sort of men had that I am now a reasoning with all the world knows And so the Pagan Priests stirred up the Pagan Emperours to be desperate Persecutors of the people of God that were within their Empires which occasioned Tertullian to give that good counsel to Scapula a Pagan persecutor God saith he will surely make inquisition for our blood and therefore if thou wilt not spare us yet spare thy self if not thy self yet spare thy Countrey which must be responsible when God comes to visit for blood Do not you know that his Majestie hath very Christianly Zealously argumentatively and smartly declared against drunkennesse lewdnesse prophansse c. and that he hath declared that his resolution is and shall be to promote the power of godlinesse to encourage the Exercises of Religion both publick and private to take care that the Lords day be applyed to holy Exercises without unnecessary divertisements and that insufficient negligent and scandalous Ministers be not permitted in the Church Do not you know that when the great Shepherd our Lord Jesus Christ shall appear 1 Pet. 5.2 3 4 Ezek. 3.17 18 19. that he will call you to a particular and exact account for every soul that hath miscarried under your charge either by reason of your ignorance insufficiency prophanesse loosnesse or superstition c. and how will you then be able to stand in that day c. Gentlemen if you say you know not these things and that they are Riddles and Mysteries to you how dare you say that you are the Ministers of Jesus Christ But if you shall say that you know very well that these things are certainly true yea that they are such clear and undenyable truths that no Devil can deny and yet shall continue in your ignorance insufficiency prophanesse loosnesse superstition c. what man on earth is there that hath but read the Scriptures and that can but write his own name and that would not be begged for a fool in folio will believe you to be the true faithful Ministers of Jesus Christ Well Gentlemen I have read of Alexander the great how that he had a souldier of his name that was a Coward which when he understood he commanded him either to fight like Alexander or else to lay down the name of Alexander So say I to you Gentlemen either preach as the Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to preach viz. plainly spiritually powerfully fâ—elingly fervently frequently c. and live as the Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to live viz. heavenly graciously holly humbly righteously harmlesly and exemplarily c. Or else lay down your very names of being the Ministers of Jesus Christ and put no longer a cheat upon your selves nor upon the people by making them believe that you are the only Ministers of Jesus Christ when you have nothing of the Spirit of Christ nor of the Anointings of Christ nor of the Grace of Christ nor of the life of Christ in you Gentlemen if this counsel be seriously minded and faithfully followed it will turn more to your accounts in the great day of our Lord Jesus and do you more good then then all the profits preferments and honours of this world can do you good now But if you shall slight and despise this counsel now I shall be found a true Prophet to your wo and misery in that great day c. If this Treatise should fall in the hands of any Ladies and Gentlewomen as I suppose it may that have not yet experienced the sweet and powerful operations of holinesse in their own souls I would then say Ladies and Gentlewomen your souls are as precious and as immortal and as capable of union and communion with Christ here and of an eternal fruition of Christ hereafter as the souls of any men in the world are I have read a sad story of one Bochna a woman which had but two sons in all the world and whilst she was walking with the one towards the River she heard the other crying out and hastening back she found a knife sticking in his side which killed him immediately then she made haste to the other child but he in her absence was fain into the River and drowned and so she lost both her sons at once Now Ladies this is your very case every one of you have two children as I may say a soul and a body a life eternal and a life temporal and O what a dreadful and unspeakable losse would it be to lose both these at once and yet as certain as there is a God in Heaven you will lose them both without Holinesse All know that know any thing of Scripture or History that there have been many great Ladies and Gentlewomen that have been great lovers of holinesse and great delighters in holinesse and great prizers of holinesse and great admirers of holinesse and great countenancers of holinesse and great encouragers of holinesse and great promoters of holinesse and great followers after holinesse and great experiencers of the sweet and powerful operations of holinesse in their own souls And O that this might be all your honour and happinesse to be in all respects as famous for holinesse as any of your sexe hath been before you Christ hath prayed as much for your souls as he hath for the souls of others and he hath paid as much for your souls as he hath for the souls of others and he hath sweat and wept and bled as much for your souls as he hath for the souls of others and he hath suffered and satisfied as much for your souls as he hath for the souls of others and he hath purchased and prepared as great and as glorious things for your souls as he hath for the souls of others if you will be but a holy people to him and what doth all this speak
c. Men void of holinesse are in the Scripture resembled to chaff Psalm 1.4 Isa 41.2 Zeph. 1.17 Ezekiel 2.6 Isa 9.18 Ch. 10.6.17 Chap. 57.27 to dust to dirt to briars and thorns which are things that are good for nothing that are fit for nothing And what should such men do in heaven who are good for nothing on earth The Horse is good to carry the Ox is good to draw the Sheep is good for cloth the Cow is good to give milk the Asse is good to bear and the Dog is good to keep the house but what is a man void of holinesse good for An unholy person is good for nothing but to be destroyed and to make some room for a better person to stand up in that place which he takes up in the world As the Hogg in the Arabick fable tells us that a Butcher carrying three creatures upon his Horse A Sheep a Goat and a Hog the two former lay very quiet and still but the Hog kicked and cried and would never be quiet thereupon the Butcher said Why are thou so impatient when the other two are so quiet the Hog answered Every one knows himself the Sheep knows that he is brought into the City for his wool sake and the Goat knows that he is brought into the City for his milk sake and so they need not fear nor care but alasse I know very well that I have neither wool nor milk but that assoon as I am come into the City I must be killed for that is all I am good for Matth. 7.6 An unholy soul is like a Hog good for nothing but to be killed Certainly heaven-happinesse is too great and too glorious a thing to be possest by them that are good for nothing We look upon such as are fit for nothing to be worthy of banishment from the society of men But oh how much more worthy are they to be banished from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power 2 Thess 1.8 9. Heb. 12.22 23. Romans 2.5 and to be shut out for ever from the society of Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect who are fit for nothing but to dishonour the Lord undo their own souls and to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath And thus I have given you an account of the Reasons of the Point Vse VVEE shall now come to make some improvement of this great truth to our own souls Is it so That real holinesse is the only way to happinesse and that without holinesse here no man shall ever come to a blessed vision or fruition of God hereafter Then the first Use shall be a Use of Conviction This then may serve to convince the world of several things As First That the number of those that shall be eternally happy the number of those that shall attain to a blessed vision and glorious fruition of God in heaven are very few for there are but a few that reach to this holinesse without which there is no happinesse Rev. 3.4 Thou hast a few names A few names that is a few persons â—cts 1.15 who are all known to Christ by name as he said to Moses I know thee by name Ex. 33 12 17. by these Scriptures it is evident that few shall be saved Jer. 5.1 Ezek. 22.30 Ch. 9.4 6 7. Mich. 1.13 Luke 23. Rom. 9.21 Matth. 22.14 1 Cor. 1.20 even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy Among the many in Sardis there were but a few that had holy insides and pure outsides Among the multitude that made a holy profession there were but few that walkt answerable to their holy calling and therefore but a few that should walk with Christ in white White in antient times was the Habit of Nobles to walk with Christ in white is to partake with Christ in his glory they and only they at last shall be cloathed nobly royally gloriously who maintain inward and outward purity The holy seed is a little little flock Luke 12.32 here are two Diminitives in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little little flock to shew the exceeding littleness of it They were little in their own eyes and little in their enemies eyes and little in regard of that world of Wolves among whom they were preserved as a spark of fire in the midst of the wide Ocean When the Syrians came up against Israel in the time of Ahab it is said that the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of Kids but the Syrians filled the countrey 1 Kings 20.27 holy souls are but like two little flocks of kids but the unholy fill the world Gracious souls are like the three hundred men of Gideon but graceless souls are as the Midianites that were like Grashoppers for multitude Judges 7.7.12 Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads unto life and few there be that find it Matth. 7.14 The way of holiness that leads to happiness is a narrow way there is but just room enough for a holy God and a holy soul to walk together And few there be that find it And no wonder for there are but few that minds it that loves it that likes it or that enquires after it The whole world lies in wickedness 1 Joh. 5.19 and will die in their wickedness Amongst the millions in Rome there are but a few Senators and they too none of the best John 8.21 Geographers say that if all the known parts of the world were divided into one and thirty parts there will be found but five parts that do so much as profess the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ For at this day nineteen parts of the world are possest by unholy Turks and Jews which do not nor will not so much as acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the King and Head of his Church And seven parts of the world is possest this day meerly by Heathens who worship stocks and stones And of those five parts that are possest by Christians how many are Papists Atheists Hypocrites Drunkards Swearers Lyars Adulterers Idolaters Oppressors How many are proud covetous carnal formal lukewarm indifferent c Now should all these sorts of sinners be separated as they shall in the great day from those that are gracious and holy would it not quickly appear that the flock of Christ is a little little flock Ah how few among the great ones are found to be gracious How few among the rich are found to be rich in Christ rich in grace rich in good works 1 Cor. 1.16 1 Tim. 6.16 17. Flavus Vopiscus Lips de Constantia lib. 2. cap. 25. how few among those that are high born can you find that are new born It was the saying of One that all the names of good Emperours might be engraven in a little Ring And so saith Lipsius that the names of all good Princes may easily be
as so many rising Suns in the places where they were bred and born Melancthon was called the Phenix of Germany and Luther was the glory of the age wherein he lived And so were many of the antients before them and many since who have been burning and shining lights in the places of their abode Look as an unholy person is a plague and a curse to the very place he lives in and hasteneth down wrath and vengeance upon it as Bias the Philosopher hath long since observed for he being at Sea in a great tempest among many prophane debauched fellows and perceiving them to call upon their gods as the worst of men usually do in such cases he comes to them and desires them to hold their peace lest the gods should take notice that they were in the Ship and so not only themselves but others also should suffer for their sakes It was the wickednesse of the wicked that brought the sweeping flood upon the old world and it was the wickednesse and filthynesse of the Sodomites that caused God to rain hell out of heaven upon the Cities where they lived Let men be never so honourable or never so potent or never so witty or never so wealthy c. yet if they are prophane if they are wicked they will hasten down the wrath and vengeance of God upon the places of their abode So a holy person is an honour and a blessing to the very place he lives in As you may see in Jacob and Joseph who were choice and noble blessings to the very families where they lived O Sirs as ever you would be an honour to your relations to your Countrey and to the places of your abode labour for holiness Some venture life and limb As many of the Romans did and many a better thing to reflect honour upon their relations and upon their Countrey and why then should not you venture far and venture high for holinesse which will be not only an honour to your selves but also an honour and a glory to all persons and places that you have relation to Seventhly Consider that holinesse is the very ear-mark the very livery and badge of Christs servants and subjects Isa 63.8 For he said Surely they are my people children that will not lye so he was their saviour And ver 18. they are called the people of his holiness Gods people are too holy to lye they will not lye for his glory nor for their own worldly good They will rather die then lye Job 13.7 Rom. 3.7 8. Rev. 14.5 with that brave woman that Jerom writes of who being upon the Rack bade her persecutors do their worst for she was resolved rather to die then lye Neither the merry lye nor the jesting lye nor the officious lye nor the pernicious lye will down with those that are the people of Gods holinesse or that are his holy people saith God It is said of golden mouthed Chrysostom that he never lyed answerable to this Isa 63.8 I have been at so much cost and charge about them I have carried it so kindly so bountifully so sweetly so favourably so nobly to them I have been such an all-sufficient Saviour such a mighty preserver and such a glorious deliverer of them that certainly they will not lye they will not deceive my expectation they will not deny me they will not deal disloyally nor unworthily by me they are of Augustines opinion who hath long since told us that we must not tell so much as an officious lye though it were to save all the world So Jer. 2.3 Israel was holiness unto the Lord and the first fruits of his increase all that devour him shall offend evil shall come upon them saith the Lord. Holinesse to the Lord is the mark that God sets upon all his precious ones Psalm 4.3 Know that God hath set apart him that is godly for himself God hath wonderfully gloriously marvelously yea miraculously set apart the pious the holy the merciful the godly man the gracious Saint by some mark of distinction for himself The Hebrew word Chasid imports as much Josh 2. Judg. 11. 2 King 9. Matth. 26. that is for his own honour and glory and service and delight Look as Rahahs house was known by a red thred and the Ephraimites by their lisping and Jehu by his driving and Peter by his speaking so real Christians are known by their holinesse Holinesse is King Jesus his Livery by which all his subjects and servants are known and differenced from all other persons in the world And in the Primitive times a Christian was known from another man only by the holinesse of his conversation as Tertullian witnesses Look as our Lord Jesus Christ by the spirit of holiness raising him up from the dead Rom. 1.4 was declared to be the Son of God so it is the spirit of holinesse it is principles of holinesse it is the life and practice of holinesse 2 Cor. 6.17 18. that declares us to be the sons of God Holinesse is that golden character by which God differences and distinguisheth his people from all others in the world Rev. 13.16 chap. 14.9 10. chap. 19.20 A man were better be a beast then to have the mark of the beast upon him Look as the worshippers of the Beast are known by the mark of the Beast that is upon them so the worshippers of Christ the people of Christ are known by that mark of holinesse that Christ hath set upon them This title this compellation Saints is given fourscore times to the people of God in Scripture as if God took a greater delight to have his children known by this badge and livery then by any other As for such that have the name of Saints upon them The Title of a Saint is but an empty thing without holiness but nothing of the nature of a Saint in them that have a name to be holy and yet are unholy that have a name to be gracious and yet are gracelesse that have a name to live and yet are dead these God will in that day unmask when he shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity An unholy Saint is a white Devil he is a monster among men Christ sweat and prayed and died and was raised to make sinners Saints to make the rebellious religious and the licentious conscientious all he did and suffered was to stamp the seal and impresse of holinesse upon them And therefore as ever you would be owned and honoured by Christ another day look that the holy Spirit sets the seal of holinesse upon you If the impresse of holinesse be upon you in the day that the Lord makes up his Jewels he will declare you to be his before all the world He will say These are my sheep these are my sons I know them by that mark of holiness that I find upon them But Eighthly Consider this that a man of holinesse or a holy man is a common
are none that will be so tender of your salvation as these nor none that will labour so much for your conversion as these nor none that will so spend themselves to prevent your damnation as these 2 Cor. 12.15 Oh Sirs upon tryall you will finde that there are none so able to counsel you nor none so faithfull to reprove you nor none so ready to help you nor none so compassionate to simpathize with you nor none so strong to support you nor none so advantaged to convert you as those that are holy and why then will you not labour to be one of this society Oh Sirs of all fellowships the fellowship of Saints is the most noble the most honorable the most pleasant the most amiable the most desireable the most profitable and the most commendable fellowship and why then will you still live strangers yea enemies to this fellowâ—hip Ah Sirs holy men will still be awakening and alarming of your drowsie spirits they will be still a knocking at the doore of your hearts and asking of you whether it be good going to hell they will still be enquiring of you what provision you have made for another world and how all things stands within they will still be jogging at your elbowes that you may not dye in your sins they will still be whispering in your eare that your souls may live for ever The Jewes have a Proverb That two dry sticks put to a greene one will kindle it Oh there is nothing in all the world that contributes so much to the kindling to the firing and to the inflaming of mens hearts after holiness as the society of those that are holy Algerius an Italian Martyr had rather be in prison with Cato then to live with Caesar in the Senate-house Oh it is ten thousand times better to live with those that are holy though in a dark prison then to live amongst those that are unholy though in a Royal Palace Vrbanus Regius Adam in vita Regii p. 78. having one dayes converse with Luther tells us that it was one of the sweetest dayes that ever he had in all his life Oh sinners did you but experience for one day the sweete and happinesse of the communion of Saints you would then cry out Oh there is no society to the society of Gods holy ones And therefore as ever you would be holy let holy men have more heart-roome and house-roome with you But Fifthly If ever you would be holy then dwell much upon those solemn Vowes and Covenants that you have formerly made in the dayes of your distress Ah how often have you in the dayes of your calamity and misery and in the dayes when sicknesses and weaknesses did hang upon you and when the terrours of death were upon you how frequently in those dayes did you solemnly vow and promise that by the strength and assistance of the Lord you would break off your sins by repentance and that you would make it your greatest care and your greatest business and worke in this world to minde holiness and to press after holiness and to give your souls no rest till you had experienced the power excellency and sweetness of holiness As David by an oath bound himselfe to keep Gods righteous judgements Psal 119.106 I have sworne and I will performe it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments a religious vow is nothing else but a solemn promise or oath whereby a man engages himselfe to the great God that he will decline such wayes means and methods as lead to wickedness and that he will set in good earnest upon the practice of all the wayes and means of holiness by the strength and assistance of divine grace so you have by many vowes and promises engaged your selves to cast off the workes of darkness Rom. 13.12 and to put on the Armour of light sutable to the Apostles exhortation And as the people in Nehemiah's time did enter into a curse and an oath to walk in Gods Law and to observe and doe all his Commandements Neh. 10.29 So you have in the times of your outward and inward distresses vowed to the Lord that you would observe all his Statutes and walke in all his holy wayes and doe all his righteous Commandements Job 31.1 2. Job once made a covenant with his eyes that he would not lustfully look upon a maid but how often have you made a covenant with your thoughts that you would not thinke of vanity and with your eyes that you would not behold vanity and with your eares that you would not heare vanity and with your tongues that you would not speak vanity and with your hearts that you would not contrive vanity and with your hands that you would not act vanity now your vowes and your covenants are upon you Prov. 2.17 oh that you would not with the strange woman in the Proverbs forget the covenant of your God oh 't is better ten thousand times not to vow Eccl. 5.5 then to vow and not to pay God can take no pleasure in such as are off and on with him nor in such who are forward to vow but make no conscience to pay their vowes these are fools in folio and therefore God cannot but detest them and turne his back upon them If good Jacob who is called the father of vowes was so backward to pay his vowes that God was forced not only to round him in the eare againe and againe with a goe up to Bethel and there build me a Chappel but also severcly to punish his delayes both in the rape of his daughter and in the cruelty of his sons c. Gen. 35. Ah how severely then may God deale with such who doe not only delay the paying of their vowes but who live also in the daily breach of their vowes Most men have need of that counsell which the Bishop of Colen gave Sigismund the Emperour that ask't him what he should doe to be happy Live said he as you promised and vowed to doe when you were last sick of the Stone and Gout Ah that all men would make more conscience of living out and of living up to the covenants vowes and promises that they have made to God in the dayes when the hand of the Lord has gone out many wayes against them and when terrours of conscience have been strong upon them O what repentance O what reformation O what amendment have they promised in those dayes and yet no sooner have these outward and inward stormes been over but they have been as vaine and loose and base as ever In the time of the great Sweat in King Edwards dayes as long as the heate of the plague lasted O how did every one cry out peccavi peccavi I have sinned I have sinned mercy Lord O mercy mercy good Lord. Then Lords and Ladies and people of all sorts cryed out to the Ministers for the Lords sake Sirs tell us what shall we doe to avoyd
to poor sinners without their using of the means but he won't being resolved that they shall use the means of hearing reading praying and conference c. and when they have done leave the issue of all their labors and endeavors to his good Will and pleasure I have taken the more pains fully and clearly to answer this objection that it may never more have a resurrection in any of your souls Ninthly If ever you would be holy then when you have done all wait Oh hear and wait and wait and hear pray and wait and wait and pray read and wait and wait and read confer and wait and wait and confer watch and wait and wait and watch Oh sirs shall the husbandman wait for a good harvest Jam. 5.7 8. and the Merchant for good returns and the Watchman for the dawning of the day and the Patient for a happy cure and the poor Client for a day of hearing c and will not you wait for Christ and wait for the spirit and wait for pardon and wait for grace and wait for glory c Oh sinners sinners remember you are at the right doore and therefore wait Oh remember that whilst you are waiting for mercy God is preparing of mercy Oh remember that 't is mercy that you may wait for mercy devils and damned spirits can't wait for mercy wait they must but O 't is for more wrath anger and fiery indignation Oh remember your condition bespeaks waiting for you are poor halt lame blinde and miserable creatures Oh remember that mercy is sweetest when it comes after a patient waiting Deut. 32.13 He made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock That is he made him to suck water that was as sweet as honey out of the rock out of the flinty rock Oh remember that a patient waiting for mercy is the onely way to greaten your mercy The longer said the Emperors son the Cooks are a preparing the meat the better the chear will be his meaning was the longer he staid for the Empire the greater it would be So the longer a soul waits for mercy the greater and the better it will be when it comes as you may see in that famous instance of the poor man that lay eight and thirty years at the Pool of Bethesda Joh. 5.2.16 Famous was the patience of Elijah's servant 1 King 18.8 who in obedience to his Masters command went seven several times up and down steep Carmel which could not be without danger and difficulty and all to bring news of nothing till his last journey which made a recompence for all the rest with the tydings of a cloud arising Oh so do but patiently wait upon the Lord and that grace that favour that mercy will come at last which will fully recompence you for all your waitings remember that the mercies of God are not styled the swift Isa 55.3 but the sure mercies of David mercy may be sure though it be not presently upon the wing flying towards us And the same Prophet saith the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward Isa 58.8 now this we know comes up last to secure and make good all the rest for where Grace leads the Front Glory at last will be in the Rere Oh do but patiently wait Heb. 10.37 and he that shall come will come and will not tarry not a year not a quarter not a month not a week not a day no not an hour beyond the prefixed time that he hath set of shewing mercy to poor sinners O how sad was it that Saul should lose his Kingdom for want of two or three hours patience but O how much more sad will it be if thou shouldst lose all the prayers that thou hast made and all the Sermons that thou hast heard and all the tears that thou hast shed and all other pains that thou hast taken and all for want of a little more patience yea how woful sad would it be if thou shouldst lose thy God and lose thy Christ and lose thy soul and lose an eternity of glory and all for want of a little patience to wait the Lords leisure O therefore resolve to hold on waiting to the death and if thou must perish to perish in a waiting way which if thou shouldst thou wouldst be the first that ever so perished O remember that if God should come and mercy come and pardon come and grace come when thy Sun is near setting when thy glass is almost out and when there is but a short step between thee and eternity it will infinitely recompence thee for all thy waiting and therefore wait still and to keep up thy spirits and to uphold thy soul in a waiting way O! that thou wouldest make these following promises thy daily food thy daily friends thy daily companions Psal 27.14 Waâ—t on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. Prov. 20.22 Wait on the Lord and he shall save thee Isa 30.18 And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of judgement Blessed are all they that wait for him Chap. 40. ult But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Chap. 49.23 They shall not be ashamed that wait for me And Chap. 64.4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him Pro. 8.34 Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my gates waiting at the posts of my doors O how should these precious promises encourage your hearts to wait on the Lord O how should they lengthen and draw out your patience to the utmost But Tenthly and lastly Dwell much upon the memorable judgements of God that even in this life has faln upon unholy persons Remember Lots wife O! remember her sin and punishment that so fearing the one Luk. 17.32 you may learn to take heed of the other Isa 26.9 When thy judgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness that is they should learn righteousness for so the words may be read they should learn to fear thee and learn to turn unto thee and learn to forsake their sins and amend their lives When thy judgements thy memorable judgements are abroad in the world it highly concerns all the sons of men to look after holy dispositions holy affections and holy conversations that so it may go well with them in the day of the Lords wrath others sense the words thus When thy judgements are on the earth the inhabitants of the world that is sinners as well as Saints
had all your dayes laine under a hedge then that you have sit so long upon seats of honor and that you had begg'd your bread from dore to dore then that you have had your full Cups and full Tables and that you had been cloth'd with Raggs then that you have put on costly Robes and that you had rather been a turning of Spits then a tossing of Pots or Pipes for the great things of this world do's but lay men the more open to great Temptations and to great provocations even to commit the greatest abominations O! Sirs Suppose a criminous person who is led to execution should ingrave his Coat of Armes upon the Prison-Gate would he not be accounted vaine and mad and yet such is the madness and vanity of the great ones of this world that they endeavour with the greatest industry to leave monuments of their dignity in the prison of this world Psal 49.10 15. but take no care to make provision for another world and all this is out of the horrid pride and loftiness of their spirits Psal 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts There is nothing that hinders a man from seeking after a holy God and from pursuing after holiness like pride A proud heart is too stout to thinke of holiness or to mind holiness or to prize holiness or to press after holiness Exod. 5.2 Who is the Lord says proud Pharoah that I should serve him so says the proud heart who is holiness and what is holiness that I should seek it and press so hard after it As there is no sin that fortifies the heart against holiness like pride so there is no sin that weakens dis-inables the heart to pursue after holiness like pride O! you proud and lofty ones of the world who look upon holiness as a poor low contemptible thing tell me what are all your noble births and great estates c. but trisles that God bestowes upon the worst and basest of men The whole Turkish Empire says Luther is but a Crust that God casts to a Dogge Tell me whether the Fly and the Worme yea the most contemptible creature if there be any such was not mans elder Brother at his first creation and if so why then should vaine man be proud O tell me whether thou hast ever laid to heart that soul-abasing and soul-humbling text Psal 39.5 The originall runs elegantly Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Selah Verily lets that in and Selah shuts that up verily every man not some man but every man Col Adam Col Hebel all Adam is all vanity or every man is every vanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every man is a comprehensive vanity every rich man is every vanity and every great man is every vanity and every mighty man is every vanity and every Noble man is every vanity yea and that which is yet more every man at his best estate not in his childhood or decrepit age but in his best estate when he is best constituted and under-laid when he is most firmly fixed and setled on his best bottom yet even then he is vanity The Original runs thus every man standing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some carry it standing a Tip-toe in all his Gallantry and bravery in all his beauty and glory and in all his pomp and majesty is vanity yea every vanity Well Sirs remember this that as rotten wood and Glow-worms make a glorious shew in the night but when the day appeares they appeare to be poore despicable base creatures so though now the high the great and mighty ones of the earth shine and gloriously sparkle in the darkness of this world yet in that day when the Sun of righteousness shall arise and manifest the secrets of all hearts to the world and strip the great ones of all their Titles of honor and their noble parentage and their rich and royal Robes and their Troopes and Traines and their crowns and chains then they will appeare to be but base and despicable creatures then their poverty and misery their nakedness and vileness will appeare to all the world then the world shall see that riches without righteousness power without piety and greatness without holiness will doe the Gods of this world no good O that thou hadst now a heart to weep over that pride of heart that keeps thee from pursuing after holiness that so thou mayest not weep to all eternity in utter darkness But Fifthly and lastly I answer That there are no persons under heaven that stand so much obliged to look after holiness and to press with all their might to obtaine holiness as the rich the great the mighty and the honorable of the earth For first why has God made them greater then others but that they should labour to be better then others they are therefore higher then others that they may be holier then others the greatness of their outward glory calls aloud upon them to excell in sanctity and woe to them that are resolv'd to be worse then others because God has done more for them then he has for others Secondly They of all men have more time leasure and advantages to heare much that they be holy and to reade much that they may be holy and to pray much that they may be holy and to confer much with all sorts and ranks of men that they may be holy and therefore it concerns them above all other men in the world to be holy Other men have neither the time nor the advantages to gaine holiness as these men have The poor people in Sweden say that 't is only for Gentlemen to keep the Sabbath But Thirdly Their examples are most powerfull and prevalent with the people either for much good Pro. 29.12 or for much evill If the mountains overflow with waters the vallies are the better and if the head be full of ill humors the whole body fares the worse The Actions of Rulers are most commonly rules for the peoples actions and their examples passeth as currant as their Coine Esth 1.10 11 15 16 17 18. Vide. It s noted in King Alphonsus sayings that a great man cannot commit a small sin If their examples are evill there are none so dangerous as theirs Jeroboam the Son of Nebat is never mentioned in the Scripture nor never read of in the Chronicles of Israel but he draws a Tayle after him like a blazing Star who made Israel to sin A sick head disordereth all the other parts and a dark eye benights the whole body The evill examples of great men corrupts the Aire round about The common people are like tempered wax easily receiving impressions from the Seals of great mens vices If a Peasant meet with Luxury in a scarlet Robe he dares be such having so faire a cloake for it If the vulgar people meet with drunkenness
love is a holy love and his anger is a holy anger and his hatred is a holy hatred c. His nature is holy his attributes are holy and all his actions are holy hee is holy in punishing and holy in sparing hee is holy in justifying of some and hee is holy condemning of others hee is holy in bringing some to Heaven and holy in throwing others to Hell God is holy in all his sayings and God is holy in all his doings God is holy in what ever hee puts his hand to and hee is holy in what ever hee sets his heart to his frowns are holy and his smiles are holy his liftings up are holy and his castings down are holy when hee gives his givings are holy givings and when hee takes away his takings are holy takings c. But Fourthly As God is universally holy so God is eminently holy hee is transcendently holy hee is superlatively holy Exo. 15.11 and therefore hee is said to bee glorious in holiness there is no fathoming there is no measuring there is no comprehending there is no searching of that infinite Sea of holiness that is in God as neither Men nor Angels can set banks or bounds to Gods holiness so neither Men nor Angels can sound to the bottome of Gods holiness all that holiness that is in Angels and Men is but a spark to Gods flame t is but a drop to his sea t is but a beam to his sun t is but a mite to his millions c. O Sirs you shall as soon stop the Sun in his course and change the day into night and raise the dead and make a world and tell the stars of heaven and empty the sea with a Cockle-shell as you shall bee able either to conceive or express that transcendent holiness that is in God This glorious Name or Title the holy one of Israel is ascribed to God about thirty times in the Old Testament and all to shew that hee is most excellent and transcendent in holiness and the Seraphims which stood before the Throne cryed out three times a row Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of hosts Isa 6.3 to shew that God is most eminently and superlatively holy for so thrice holy in some languages is most holy for holiness God is a none-such there are none to bee compared with him neither are there any among Angels or among Men yea or among the Gods that are like unto him who is like to thee among the Gods glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Gods holiness is infinite t is so super-eminent and so super-excellent that it can neither bee limited nor lessened nor augmented if men should blaspheme or reproach the Lord hee would bee never the worse he would be never the lesse holier then hee is and if men should bless him and worship him hee would bee never the better never the holier unto perfection there can be no addition a drop taken out of the sea can no waies add unto the sea Hee is exalted above all blessing and praise Nehe. 9.5 All the Angels in Heaven and all the men on earth cannot add one Ray one Beam of glory to the essence of God to the holiness of God as God is goodness in the very Abstract and justice in the very abstract and mercy in the very abstract and righteousness in the very abstract and lovingkindness in the very abstract so hee is holiness in the very Abstract so that no man can flatter him or add unto him and hence t is that God glories in the Attribute of his Holiness more than in any other Attribute For Isa 57.15 thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy when God would lift up himself in all his Glory hee doth it by declaring that his name is holy and so when God would swear by himself hee swears by his holiness Psal 89.25 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lye unto David and so in that Amos 4.2 The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness that lo the daies shall come upon you that hee will take you with hooks and your posterity with fish-hooks Look as the great men of the World are wont to swear upon their honour when they would give us the greatest assurance of what they will do because such Oath are look't upon as most sacred and inviolable so the great God swears by his holiness because his holiness is his greatest Honour and because hee hath no greater nor no better nor no choicer nor no sweeter nor no preciouser things to swear by let mee saith God bee never owned as a God nor honoured as a God nor trusted as a God nor feared as a God nor valued as a God if I do not Inviolably keep my promises and make good my threatings having sworn thereunto by my Holiness Now you know the Scripture saith when God could swear by no greater hee sware by himself Heb. 6.13 so I may say when God could swear by no greater Attribute by no greater Excellency hee swears by his Holiness that being the top and the glory of all Look as all the wisdome of the creatures compar'd with the wisdome of God is but folly and as all the goodness of the creatures compared with the goodness of God is but naughtiness and as all the fulnesse of the creature compared with the fulnesse of God is but emptiness and as all the power of the creature compared with the power of God is but weaknesse and as all the righteousnesse of the creature compared with the righteousnesse of God is but unrighteousnesse So all the holinesse of the creature compared with the holinesse of God is but unholinesse mans highest purity is but impurity when 't is compared to the purity of God yea the very holinesse of Angels compared with the holinesse of God is chargeable with folly Job 4.18 That fulnesse of holinesse that is in Angels or Saints is only the fulnesse of the Vessel but that fulnesse of holinesse that is in God is the fulnesse of the Fountain that fulnesse of holinesse that is in Angels or Saints is but the fulnesse of the Branches but that fulnesse of holinesse that is in God is the fulnesse of the Root that fulnesse of holinesse that is in Angels or Saints is but the fulnesse of Sufficiency but that fulnesse of holinesse that is in God is the fulnesse of redundancy But Fifthly As God is infinitely holy transcendently holy superlatively holy so God is originally radically and fundamentally holy the Divine Nature is the root original and spring of all holinesse and purity all that holinesse that is in Angels and men flows from God as the streams from the Fountain as the beams from the Sun as the branches from the Root and as the effect from the Cause There is no holinesse to be had but from the Holy One hee is the Author and Original of all the holinesse that
out but an unspeakable readinesse and willingnesse in Jesus Christ to sanctifie you and save you as well as others A man might write volumes on this subject there is so much said in Scripture and History upon this account but in an Epistle a touch must suffice c. All knowing men can tell you that many Ladies and Gentlewomen in all Ages have been very famous for all Natural Moral Spiritual and Acquired excellencies yea more famous then many men that yet have done worthily in their Generation and by their attainments you may easily see what is possible for you to attain unto both in respect of gifts and grace Of all things gracious examples are most awakening convincing and encouraging for in them you may see that both the attainment of holinesse and the exercise of holinesse is possible though difficult in eying of examples it is alwayes best to eye the highest the holiest and the worthiest examples for as he that shooteth at the Sun though he falls short of his mark yet will shoot higher then he that aimeth only at a shrub so those that set up the highest examples of holinesse for their mark for their imitation will certainly attain to greater degrees of holinesse then those that propose to themselves the meanest and the lowest examples of holinesse for their pattern and imitation Well Ladies and Gentlewomen do you think that it is good going to hell Isa 33.14 2 Thes 1.7 8 9 10. that it is good dwelling with the devouring fire that it is good dwelling with everlasting burnings that it is good for ever to be separated from the presence of God Christ Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect that it is good for ever to lie a sweltering under the wrath of an infinite just God and to abide for ever and ever under those pains and torments that are endlesse easelesse hopelesse and remedilesse and that it is good to be associated and fettered with Devils and damned spirits to all eternity O no this cannot be good for the very serious thoughts of these things are enough even to raise a hell a this side hell in our hearts O then Ladies and Gentlewomen pray that you may be holy hear that you may be holy read that you may be holy and with all your might presse after holinesse and pursue hard after holinesse as after the one thing necessary for without holinesse you will as certainly go to hell as holy persons shall certainly go to heaven and this you will find as clearly and fully proved in this following Treatise as heart can wish O that you would for ever remember this that without all peradventure you shall never be saved unlesse you are sanctified you shall never be truly happy unlesse you are really holy except God should do five things that are not possible for him to do viz. 1. Change his purpose 2. Make null and void his decree 3. Make a new Gospel 4. Find out a new way to heaven And 5. ungod himself God must undo himself and ungod himself if ever he make you happy before he hath made you holy and therefore O what infinite cause have you to read this following Treatise and to study this Treatise and to meditate on this Treatise and to pray over this Treatise and to look up to heaven for counsel and strength to make such an improvement of the means helps and directions that are here prescribed for the attaining of holinesse as that you may be made really holy that so you may be everlastingly happy And to quicken and encourage your hearts in this work I could heartily wish that as soon as you have read over the Epistle you would read from page 433. to page 447. for there you will finde many Arguments that are of a particular concernment to your selves and that ought to be no small obligations upon you to work you to pursue after holinesse with all your might c. If this Treatise should fall into the hands of any faithful serious gracious conscientious laboririous Ministers hands as I suppose it may I would then say Reverend Sirs let my weak endeavours be a spur a provocation to you to lay out your choicest and your chiefest gifts parts strength time and opportunities to promote holinesse of life and holinesse in Doctrine Worship Discipline and in all your sacred Communions Certainly had we all eyed holinesse more and preached holinesse more and practised holinesse more and cryed up holinesse more and encouraged holinesse more and countenanced holinesse more the countenance both of God and man might have been set more pleasingly towards us then they are this day When once maintenance comes to be more in Ministers eyes then holinesse and when their studies and endeavours are more to make men Proselytes to this or that way this or that form this or that party then to make men holy it is no wonder if God writes out bitter things against them I doubt not but providential dispensations have bad such a teaching vertue in them as to lead you to lay your fingers upon several such like sores and to mourn over them and to justifie the holy One of Israel who is holy in all his wayes and righteous in all his works Truly Brethren I have alwayes lookt upon the great work of the Ministry to lie in two things First in making unholy men holy and secondly in making them that are already holy to be more and more holy First to beget holinesse and then to nurse up holinesse first to bring souls to Christ and then to build up souls in Christ is without all peradventure the work of works that should be most in every Ministers eye and that should alwayes lie nearest and warmest upon every Ministers heart c. And through grace I have reade this my grand design in the course of my Ministry and throughout all my writings and now it yields me that joy that comfort that content and that satisfaction that I would not be without for all the world Besides I know it will turn most to my account at the great day O that all of you that yet have any opportunities and advantages in your hands to preach the everlasting Gospel would make this your great businesse to promote holinesse and to exalt and lift up holinesse in the world For as this great principle of holinesse shall gain ground upon the hearts consciences and lives of men so all the things of Antichrist and all the Trade of Antichrist and all those grand mischiefs and miseries that threaten the sons of men will fall before it as Dagon fell before the Ark. If this Treatise should fall into the hands of any of Gods sanctified ones of what degree or rank soever they are of as I suppose it may fall into the hands of many such I would then say Dear friends In this Treatise you will find many strong Motives to provoke you to perfect holinesse in the fear of the Lord
and many special Means to enable you to perfect holinesse in the fear of the Lord and many evidences whereby you may certainly and infallibly know whether you have attained to any considerable highth of holinesse or no and in the opening of these things you will find that great Doctrine about degrees of Glory in Heaven to be Asserted and Proved and the Objections against it to be fairly dismissed c. Reader If thou art one that to this very day art in an unsanctified estate and an enemy to holinesse or a scoffer at holinesse or a a secret despiser of holinesse or a desperate opposer of holinesse or a bitter persecutor of holinesse then I would commend this following Treatise before any I know extant in the world to the service of thy soul for I know none that is so calculated and fitted up for that purpose as this is Read and judge This I will assure thee O thou unsanctified soul that the grand design of this book is thy salvation it is to make thee really holy that thou mayest be eternally happy and of this thou mayest be confident viz. that I shall follow these poor labours with my earnest prayers that they may be blessed to the internal and eternal welfare of thy soul and that they may issue in the conviction conversion and salvation of thy soul I shall send this Treatise forth into the world with Jacobs blessing and prayer for his sons Gen. 43.14 God Almighty send thee mercy in the sight of the man c. in the sight of the proud man that he may be humbled and in the sight of the hardened man that he may be softened and in the sight of the carnal man that he may be spiritualized and in the sight of the polluted man that he may be washed and in the sight of the unsanctified man that he may be sanctified and in the sight of the ignorant man that he may be enlightened and in the sight of the stubborn man that he may be bowed and in the sight of the unconverted man that he may be changed and in the sight of the lost man that he may be saved Christian Reader I suppose by this time that I have almost tired thee in reading as I have my self in writing and therefore I shall presently draw to a close only before I take my leave of thee give me leave to say that I am much of Carthagena's his mind who to those three things which the Antients held impossible saith that to find a Book Printed without Errata's should undoubtedly have been added as a fourth impossible if the Art of Printing had been then invented though the Author had Briareus his hands and the Printer Argus his eyes Notwithstanding all the care that hath been taken thou wilt find figures misplaced and some mispointings with some other mistakes of the Printer I hope the ingenuous Reader will cast a mantle of love over the mistakes of the presse and do me that right and himself that curtesie as to correct such errours of the Presse that the second Impression may prevent Seneca I remember is railed upon by slanderous tongues for the faults of Nero his Schollar And the scapes of Quintilians Schollars are imputed to Quintilian himself but I know the Christian Reader that is daily sensible of the Errata's of his life hath not so learned Christ Reader I do not offer thee that which cost me nothing This Treatise that now I put into thy hand is the fruit of much prayer and serious study If thou findest any profit and benefit by it give Christ all the glory the crown of praise becomes no head but his only when thou art in the Mount let me lie near thy heart O pray earnestly pray fervently pray frequently and pray unweariedly that I may have much of the fresh annointings of the holy Spirit that my communion with a holy God may every day rise higher and higher and that all my transactions both before God and man may savour of some highths of holinesse So thou wilt the more strongly oblige me to be Thy souls Servant in all Gospel-Engagements Tho. Brooks The Necessity Excellency Rarity and Beauty of HOLINESSE HEBREWS 12.14 Follow Peace with all men and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. I Remember a saying of golden mouth'd Chrysostom The preamble to the Text. If I were said he the fittest man in the world to preach a Sermon to the whole world gathered together in one Congregation and had some high mountain for my Pulpit from whence I might have a prospect of all the world in my view and were furnished with a voice of Brass a voice as loud as the trumpet of the Arch-Angel that all the world might hear me I would choose to preach on no other text then that in Psalm 4.2 O mortal men how long will ye love vanity and follow after leasing So I say had I Chrysostomes tongue head and heart and were I every way advantaged to preach a Sermon to the whole world I would choose to preach on this Text before any other in the Bible Follow peace with all men and Holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Beloved the salvation of souls is that which should be first and most in a Ministers eye and that which should always lye closest and warmest upon a Ministers heart Isa 63.3 John 17.22 Luke 4 4. 1 Cor. 6.20 1 Pet. 1.18 19 20. Heb. 9.12 13 14 15. O Sirs our dear Lord Jesus was infinitely tender of the souls of men he left his Fathers bosome for souls he trod the Wine-press of his Fathers wrath for souls he prayed for souls he payed for souls he sweated for souls he bled out his heart blood for souls and he made himself an offering for souls and O what an encouragement should this be to all his faithfull Messengers to woe for souls to mourn for souls to pray for souls to study for souls and in preaching to spend and to be spent for the salvation of souls Ah friends there is no work nor wisdom on earth to that of winning souls Prov. 11.30 and He that winneth souls is wise There is no Art no industry to that of winning souls of taking souls as Fowlers take Birds as the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports Now though there is a great deal of Art required to take Birds yet there is ten thousand times more Art required to take souls In a word to convert a soul is a greater work then to sway a Scepter Chrysostom or then it is to pour out ten thousand Talents into the Baskets of the poor My design in chusing this Text is the winning of souls it is the salvation of souls it is the bringing in and building up of souls I have read of Lewis the ninth King of France that he was found instructing his poor kitching-boy in the way to heaven and being asked the reason of it he
merriment to a fool to do wickedly Prov. 14.9 Fools make a mock of sin they make a jear of that which they should fear more then hell it self they make that matter of sport which may prove matter of damnation to them they make a May-game a pastime of that which may make them miserable to all eternity they make a mock and flout of that on earth for which the devil will mock and flout them for ever in hell Justice will at last turn over such fools to Satan who will be sure to return mock for mock jear for jear and flout for flout they that love such kind of pastime shall have enough of it in hell Now all unholy persons are such spiritual fools as that they delight Prov. 1.22 and take pleasure in sin which is the most pernicious and dangerous thing in the world Psal 62.4 They delight in lyes Though every lye deserves a stab from God yet spiritual fools make but a sport of them Such a one was Thespis the Poet who being reproved by Solon for lying answered him That it was not material Plutarch in the life of Solon seeing it was but in sport upon which Solon beating the ground with his staff replied If we commend lying in sport we shall find it afterwards in good earnest in all our bargains and dealings It is said of Epâ—minondas a heathen that he abhorred mendacium jocosum a jesting lye this Heathen in the great day will put such lyars to the blush who delight in lyes Isa 66.3 There was no flesh so sweet as that which the Eagle robbed the Altar of Ther soul delighteth in their abomination 2 Thess 2.12 they take pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.13 They count it pleasure to riot in the day time sporting themselves with their own deceivings Not that there is any real delight in intemperance for if there were then Heliogabalus an exceeding intemperate person should have been more happy then Adam in Paradise * He writ a Book to provoke the Appetite Apicius was the greatest Glutton that ever was at length he hanged himself such shall hang in hell at last who delight to abuse many at once the creatures their Creator and their own souls and bodies Well Sirs Sin is the poyson of the soul the nakedness of the soul the disease of the soul the burden of the soul and if mercy do not prevent will prove the bane of the soul O then how great is their folly that delight in it and that make a sport of it Fifthly Natural fools are taken more with the outward shine lustre beauty and glory of things then they are taken with the intrinsecal vertue value and worth of them they are more taken with the shine and luster of gold jewels and precious stones then they are with the worth and value of them So unholy hearts are taken more with the form of godliness then they are with the power 2 Tim. 2.5 they are taken more with a name to live with a name of being holy then they are taken with holiness it self Rev. 3.1 2. Augustin Multi Christianum nomen ad judicium habent non ad remedium Many have the name of Christians to their condemnation Isa 58.2 3 4 5 6. Mat. 1.9 Za. 7.4 5 6 7. Matth. 23. not to their salvation They are taken more with the outward shine and pomp of duties then they are taken with the spiritualness and holiness of duties they are taken more with what of man is in duty then they are taken with that of God which is in a duty they are taken more with raised notions then they are taken with raised affections they are taken more with some witty rhetorical expressions in duty then they are taken with the holy movings and breathings of the spirit in duty Ezek. 33.30 31 32. All which speaks them out to be spiritual fools and indeed no fools to those who are taken more with the shadow of Religion then they are with the substance of Religion who are taken more with the outside of godliness then they are with the infide of godliness for what is this but to be taken more with the outside of the Cabinet then with the treasure that is within or to be taken more with the purse that holds the gold then with the gold that is in the purse and with Democritus the Philosopher to esteem a Room covered over with green branches of trees above the royal Palace They cry as the Epicure cryed Vtere temporibus praesentibus utere rebus Sixthly Natural fools are all for the present they cry out Spend and God will send they only mind and care for the things of this life As what they shall eat and what they shall drink and what they shall put on they are all for their bodies their bellies their backs they take no care they make no provision for their immortal souls A spruce Roman riding on a lean Jade was asked by the Censor his reason he answered I look to my self but my man to my horse So fools look only to their bodies let who list look to their souls Such fools are all unsanctified persons they look only after their bodies and their outward concerments they look not at the necessities miseries and wants of their souls such were those in John 6.26 27. who crost the Seas and followed after Christ for loaves but never lookt after the meat which endureth to everlasting life And such fools were those in Hos 7.14 who howled upon their beds for corn and wine let them have but provender provant for their bodies and they care not what becomes of their souls and such were they in Phil. 3.19 whose God was their gut And such were the Laodiceans in Rev. 3.14 19. who had well fed bodies but starved souls whose houses were full of goods but their hearts empty and void of Christ and grace who had thred-bare souls under all their purple Robes who were rich in temporals but very poor and beggarly in spirituals And such a one was that rich fool in Luke 12. who only laid up for his body for this life but never took care for another life for a better life he makes many years provision for his body and not a days provision for his soul he talks of living many years when he had not a day nor a night to live in this world And being thus foolish in his reckoning Christ brands him for a fool to all generations Ver. 20 21. Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided So is he that heapeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God Every man in the world is a fool that heaps up treasure to himself that adds land to land and house to house and heap to heap and baggs to baggs and hundreds to hundreds Plato seeing one over indulgent to his body asked him what he meant
I such a one as this is when he sees a man to have a form of godliness but no power he should say Am I such a one as this is when he hears of a man that hath a name to live but is spiritually dead he should say Am I such a one as this is c. and when he hears or reads of one that is really holy he should say am I such a one as this is As you would not put a cheat upon your own souls it highly concerns you to try whether you have real holiness or no. Look as many young children catch many a fall out of a strong conceit of their abilities to go so many a man out of a strong conceit that he hath holiness when he hath none catches many a fall in an eternal fall at last The best way to prevent an everlasting miscarriage is to make a privy search after holiness in thine own heart Fifthly Consider that there is a great deal of counterfeit grace and holiness in the world There is not more counterfeit coin this day in the world then there is counterfeit holiness in the world Look as many Bristows stones and counterfeit Gemms do so shine and sparkle like true Jewels that if a man be not very carefull he may be easily cheated so counterfeit grace counterfeit holiness doth so shine and sparkle they do so neerly resemble real holiness and the sanctifying and saving graces of the Spirit that a man may be easily mistaken if he do not make a narrow search Doth the gracious soul abstain from gross sins Matth. 25.1 2 3 4. Ezra 8. Esther 4. Daniel 9. Mat. 6.16 Luke 18 11. Matth. 27. Hebrews 12. Matthew 6. Acts 10.1 2 3 4 Luke 19.11 Acts 21.8 1 Sam. 15.24 Isaiah 58. 2 Chr. 32.26 1 Kings 22.15 Ionah 3. Mark 6. Ezek 33.30 31 32 33. Luke 18.11 so doth the formalist too Do Saints fast and pray so do Pharisees too Doth Peter shed tears so doth Esau too Doth Peter repent so doth Jâ—das too Doth Cornelius give Alms so do the Pharisees too Doth Zacheus believe so doth Simon Magus too Doth David confess his sin so doth Saul too Doth David delight in approaching to God so doth Isaiahs hypocrites too Doth Hezekiah humble himself so doth Ahab and the King of Nineveh too Doth a gracious soul hear the word with joy so did Herod too Doth a gracious soul receive the word with joy so did the stony ground too Doth a gracious soul delight in his teacher so did Ezekiels worldlings too Is a gracious soul in Closset duties so is the Pharisee too c. When counterfeit coin is abroad you will not take a piece but you will try it you will bring every piece to the touchstone Ah that you would deal so by your holiness there is a great deal of counterfeit holinesse abroad and therefore you had need bring yours to the tryal As all is nor gold that glisters so all is not holinesse that men take for holinesse that men count for holinesse The child is not more like the Father nor one Brother like another Wine in the Bottle is not more like to Wine in the Butt nor water in the Cistern more like to water in the River The difference between these true and counterfeit graces is largely discovered in my Treatise on Assurance nor fire in the forge more like to fire in the chimney nor milk in the sawcer to milk in the breasts then counterfeit grace and holinesse is like to that which is real Counterfeit faith doth so neerly resemble true faith and counterfeit love true love and counterfeit repentance true repentance and counterfeit obedience true obedience and counterfeit knowledge true knowledge and counterfeit holinesse true holinesse that it is not an easie matter to discover the one from the other The Cyprian Diamond saith Pliny looks so like the true Indian Diamond that if a man do not look warily to it he may easily be deceived and cheated O Sirs true grace and counterfeit true holinesse and counterfeit look so like one another that without a divine light to guide you you may be easily cheated and deceived for ever In these dayes of profession there is abundance of false ware put off Satan is a subtile Merchant and where prophanesse will not passe for current coin there he labours to furnish his customers with the shews and resemblances of grace and holinesse that so he may hold them the faster in golden setters and put them off from looking after that real holinesse without which no man can be blessed here or happy hereafter And therefore it neerly concerns every â—an to search and try whether he hath real holinesse or no. Sixthly Consider If upon tryal you shall find in you this real holinesse that paves the way to happiness it will turn exceedingly to your accounts thy happinesse depends upon the real being of holinesse in thee but thy comfort depends upon thy seeing of holinesse Real holinesse will yield thee a heaven hereafter but the seeing of holinesse will yield thee a heaven here he that hath holinesse and knows it shall have two heavens a heaven of joy comfort peace content and assurance here and a heaven of happinesse and blessednesse hereafter but he that hath holiness and doth not know it shall certainly be saved 1 Co. 3.11 16. yet so as by fire he shall have a heaven at last but he must passe to it by the flaming sword When a person is heir to a great estate and knows it when a person is son to a King and knows it when a person is highly in favour knows it when a person is out of all hazard and danger and knows it when a persons pardon is sealed and he knows it then the springs of joy and comfort rises in him So when a man is holy and knows it Ezek. 47.2 3 4 5. 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. then the springs of divine joy and comfort rises in his soul as the waters rise in Ezekiels Sanctuary The knowledge of the goodnesse and holinesse of thy estate will make heavy afflictions light long afflictions short and bitter afflictions sweet the knowledge of the goodnesse and holinesse of thy estate will make thee frequent fervent constant and abundant in the work of the Lord. The knowledge of the goodnesse and holinesse of thy estate wiâ—l strengthen thy faith raise thy hope inflame thy love 1 Cor. 15. ult increase thy patience and brighten thy zeal The knowledge of the goodnesse and holinesse of thy estate will make every mercy sweet every duty sweet every ordinance sweet and every providence sweet The knowledge of the goodnesse and holinesse of thy estate will rid thee of all thy sinfull fears and cares Phil. 1.22 23. 2 Cor. 5.1 10. it will give thee ease under every burden and it will make death more desireable then life The knowledge of the goodnesse and holinesse of thy estate will make thee
strikes the sinner into such a damp as a discourse on the holiness of God it is as the hand-writing upon the wall nothing makes the head and heart of a sinner to ake like a Sermon upon the holy one nothing gaules and gripes nothing stings and terrifies unsanctified ones like a lively setting forth of the holiness of God But now to holy souls there are no discourses that do more suit them and satisfie them that doth more delight and content them that doth more please and profit them then those that do most fully and powerfully discover God to be glorious in holiness Well this is an everlasting truth he that truly affects the holiness of God and affects God for his holiness is certainly made partaker of his holiness if you are really holy you are much affected and taken with the holiness of God Souls what say you to this But Secondly True holiness is diffusive it doth extend diffuse and spread it self all over the soul Psal 119.6 128. Bonum est sui communicativâ—m it spreads it self over head and heart lip and life inside and outside Psal 45.13 The Kings daughter is all glorious within her cloathing is of wrought gold inward holiness is the inward glory of the Kings daughter the Kings daughter is all glorious within her understanding is hang'd with holiness her mind is adornâ—d with holiness her will is bowed to holiness all her affections are sprinkled yea cloathed with holiness her love is holy love her grief is holy grief her joy is holy joy her sorrow is holy sorrow her fear is holy fear her care is holy care her zeal is holy zeal and her cloathing is of wrought gold that is her life and conversation which is as visible to others as the cloathes she weares is very sparkling and shining in grace and holiness True sanctification is throughout it reaches to soul body and spirit 1 Thes 5.23 True holiness is a divine leaven Mat. 13.33 which leavens the whole man Look as leaven diffuses it self through the whole dough so true holiness diffuses it self through the whole man Look as Absoloms beauty was spread all over him even from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot 2 Sam. 14.25 so the beauty of holiness spreads it self over every member of the body and every faculty of the soul Look as Solomons Temple was glorious both within and without so holiness makes all glorious both within and without Look as Adams sin spread it self over the whole man 1 John 16. so that holiness that we have by the second Adam spreads it self over the whole â—â—n so that that man that is not all over holy that is not throughout holy that man was never truly holy Look as that holiness which was in Christ did diffuse and spread it self over all Christ so that his person was holy his natures were holy his heart was holy his language was holy and his life was holy so real holiness spreads it self over head hand 1 Pet. 1.15 heart lip and life The fruit of the spirit is in all goodness Ephes 5.9 he that is truly good is all over good he hath goodness engraven upon his understanding and goodness engraven upon his judgement and goodness engraven upon his will and goodness engraven upon his affections and goodness engraven upon his inclination and goodness engraven upon his disposition and goodness engraven upon his conversation he that is not all over good is not really good there are those that have new heads but old hearts new words but old wills new expressions but old affections new memories but old minds new notions but old conversations and these are as far off from true holiness as the Pope the Turk and the Devil are from real happiness In every holy person there are many divine miracles there is a dead man restored to life a dumb man restored to speech a blind man restored to sight a deaf man restored to hearing a lame man restored to walking a man possest with Devils possest with grace a heart of stone turned into an heart of flesh and a life of wickedness turned into a life of holiness if it be thus with thee I dare write thee and call thee both holy and happy But Thirdly Persons of real holiness do set the highest price and the greatest value and esteem upon those that are holy they do not as the blind world do value persons by their great places names professions arts parts gifts gay cloathes gold chains honours and riches but by their holiness As a holy God Chrysostom called some holy men in his time Aggelous earthy Angels and so Doctor Taylor lookt upon holy Bradford as an Angel so holy souls look not how rational men are but how religious not how notional but how experimental not how great but how gracious not how high but how holy and accordingly they value them Psalm 16.3 But to the Saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight Prov. 12.26 The righteous is more excellent then his neighbour It is holiness that differences one man from another and that exalts one man above another a holy man is a better man then his neighbour in the eye account and esteem of God Angels and Saints there is no man to the holy man The Sun doth not more excell and out-shine the Stars then a righteous man doth excell and out-shine his unrighteous neighbour Prov. 28.6 Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness then he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich A man of holiness prefers an holy Job though upon the dunghill before a wicked Ahab upon the throne he sets an higher price upon an holy Lazarus though cloathed with rags and full of sores then upon a rich and wretched Dives Luke 16. who is cloathed gloriously and fares sumptuously every day As King Ingo valued poor ragged Christians above his Pagan Nobles saying that when his Pagan Nobles in all their pomp and glory should-be cast down to Hell those poor Christians should be his consorts and fellow-Princes in heaven this blind mad world rates and values men according to their worldly interest greatness glory and grandure but men of holiness rate and value men by their holiness by their inward excellencies and by what they are worth for another world the world judgeth him the best man in the Parish that is most rich but a holy man judgeth him the best man in the Parish that is most righteous the world counts him the best man in the Town that is cloathed most gorgeously but a holy man counts him the best man in the Town whose inside and outside whose heart and life whose body and soul is cloathed with sanctity and purity the world reckons him the best man in the City whose bags are fullest and whose estate is largest but a holy man reckons him the best man in the City whose heart is
exercises of Religion But Eleventhly True holinesse is conformable to the holinesse of Christ The holinesse of Christ is that first and noble pattern that real holinesse makes us conformable to 1 John 4.17 1 John 2.6 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldnesse in the day of judgement because as he is so are we in this world there is no grace in Christ which is not in some degree formed in a holy heart and therefore the work of grace and holinesse is called a forming of Christ in the soul Gratiam super gratiam say some Gratiam gratiae accumalatam say others Certainly Christ is a seminary of graces He is clara Epitome virtutum An exact Epitome of graces Gal. 4.19 Holy hearts have the very prints stamps and impressions of the graces of Jesus Christ upon them 1 John 16. Of his fulnesse we have all received grace for grace Look as face answers to face so the graces that are in real Christians answer to the graces that are in Jesus there is such love as answers to the love of Christ and such lowlinesse as answers to the lowlinesse of Christ and such heavenly mindednesse as answers to the heavenly mindednesse of Christ and such meeknesse as answers to the meeknesse of Christ and such patience as answers to the patience of Christ and such faith as answers to the faith of Christ and such zeal as answers to the zeal of Christ and such fear as answers to the fear of Christ in truth and reality though not in degree and quantity Look as in generation the child receives member for member or as the paper from the Presse letter for letter or the glasse from the face image for image or as the wax from the seal stamp for stamp so holy hearts receive from Christ grace for grace Look as wine in the bottle is conformable to that in the Butt and as water in the Cistern is conformable to that in the river and as light in the Air is conformable to that in the Sun and as milk in the sawcer is conformable to milk in the breasts and as money in the pocket is conformable to money in the bagg So the graces that are in a holy Christian are conformable to the graces that are in Christ 2 Cor. 3.17 18. To be a Philosopher saith Plato is to know God to be in love with God and to imitate God So say I to be a holy person is to know a holy Christ to be in love with a holy Christ and to imitate the vertues of a holy Christ It was the height of Caesars glory to walk in the steps of Alexander And of Selymus a Turkish Emperour to walk in the steps of Caesar And of Themistocles to walk in the steps of Miltiades so it is the height of a Christians glory to tread in the vertuous steps of his dearest Lord. And as Scipio accounted it no small disparagement for him to walk one foot awry from that course of life which Cyrus in Xenophon had gone before him in so a holy heart counts it no small disparagement to him in the least to step awry from that holy pattern that Christ hath set him Look as the holy Prophet did lay his mouth to the Shunamites childs mouth 2 Kings 4.34 and his eyes to his eyes and his hands to his hands So a holy Christian layes his mouth to the mouth of Christ and his eys to the eyes of Christ and his hands to the hands of Christ and his breasts to the breasts of Christ and his heart to the heart of Christ that is 1 Pet. 2.9 he doth in all things labour to resemble Christ to be like to Christ especially in those holy vertues which were most shining in the heart and life of Christ Now certainly they are far from being holy who count it a crime to be vertuous and so are they who walk directly contrary to Jesus Christ he was holy but they are prophane he was humble but they are proud he was heavenly but they are earthly he was spiritual but they are carnal he was zealous but they are luke-warm he was meek but they are contentions he was charitable but they are covetous he was courteous but they are malitious Will you call these men holy surely no. But Twelfthly He that is truly holy Joshua 7.9 Psalm 69.9 Ezra 9.3 Nehemiah 9. Daniel 9. Micah 1.8 Ierem. 13.17 is much affected and afflicted with the unholinesse of others Psal 119.53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy Law Ver. 158. I beheld the transgressors and was grieved because they kept not thy Word Ver. 136. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law By this Hyperbolical phrase he sets forth the greatnesse of his sorrows and that not because his enemies had wronged him but because they had dishonoured his God It was a great grief to him ro see others a grieving his God So Jer. 9.1 2 3. O that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night Oh that I had in the wildernesse a lodging place of wayfaring men that I might leave my people and go from them But why doth the holy Prophet thus take on why doth he thus lament why doth he wish himself turned into waters and into a fountain of tears why doth he prefer a habitation amongst the wild beasts before his habitation among his own people Why the cause you have in the following words for they be all Adulterers an Assembly of treacherous men And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth for they proceed from evil to evil and they know not me saith the Lord. So Ezek. 9.4 And the Lord said unto him Go through the midst of the City through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof There were holy hearts in Jerusalem that did sigh and cry and cry and sigh for the wickednesse of the times the abominations of the times did lye in such full weight upon them that they did fetch many a sigh from their hearts and many a tear from their eyes Holy hearts are able to tell you many sad stories of the groans griefs and gripes that other mens sins hath cost them When most were a sinning Gods marked ones were a mourning when others were with a high hand a cursing blaspheming and a rebelling Gods marked ones were deeply sorrowing they mourned cordially they sighed greatly they grieved wonderfully they groaned lamentably and that not for some but for all for all Court sins and Church sins and City sins and family sins And so holy Paul could not with dry eyes make mention of those belly-gods and earth-worms that were in his time Phil. 3.18 So holy Lot was
good a common blessing All fare the better for a holy man all in the family all in the Court all in the City all in the Countrey fare the better for the holy mans sake Gen. 30.27 chap. 19.21 22 23 24. chap. 41 c. All in Labans family did fare the better for Jacobs sake and all in the City of Zoar did fare the better for Lots sake and all Pharoahs Court and the whole Countrey of Egypt did fare the better for Josephs sake Sodom was safe whilest holy Lot was in it 2 Kings 2.12 Psalm 106.23 Holy Elijah was the chariots and horsemen of Israel whilest holy Moses stood in the gap destroying judgements were diverted when holy Phineas took up his Censer and stood between the living and the dead the plague was stayed Numb 26.46 49. Holy persons are publike mercies publike blessings Job 22.30 God will sometimes deliver a whole Countrey for the sake of the inocent c. He shall deliver the Island of the innocent and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands or as some read the words the innocent shall deliver the Island that is the inhabitants of the Island the innocent shall deliver those that are not innocent had there been but ten innocent but ten righteous persons in Sodom Sodom might have been a glorious city to this day had there been but ten righteous souls among them Gen. 18.32 to the end God would never have rained hell out of heaven upon them The guiltless shall deliver the guilty in an Island the guiltless by lifting up pure hands to God in prayer shall stay the hand of God that it destroyes not the guilty It is the holy seed that upholdeth the civil state Isa 6.13 I will seek thy good was holy Davids royal and religious resolution Psalm 122.9 Kings are for Kingdoms not Kingdoms for Kings But yet in it shall be a tenth and it shall return and shall he eaten as a teyl-tree and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof The holy seed were the stay and prop of their Land and this the Lord evidences by a very familiar instance or similitude it is as if he should say You see the way or cawsey leading from the Kings house to the Temple spoken of in 1 Kings 10.5 and 2 Kings 12.21 1 Chron. 26.16 17. and 2 Chron. 9.11 how by reason of the oaks and trees on either side thereof the earth between is stayed and held up firm which otherwise would fall to decay and moulder away So saith God it is the holy seed that bears up the whole state and were it not for them desolation and destruction would come in as a flood upon you Prov. 10.25 The righteous is an everlasting foundation the Hebrew Doctors sense it thus The righteous are the foundation of the world which would soon shatter and fall to ruine but for their sakes The whole world fares the better every day for the righteous sake If it were not for this holy seed the chaff of this world would soon be set on fire if the number of the holy seed were but called and converted God would quickly turn the whole world into flames and ashes it is they that bear up the pillars of the earth Psalm 75.3 I bare up the pillars of the earth holy persons are the true Atlasses both of Church and state they are the pillars on whom all do rest the props on whom all do lean do but overturn these pillars and all will fall about your ears as the house did about the Philistines when Sampson shook it let but Kingdoms and Common-wealths wrack these and they shall quickly be ship-wrackt themselves There is not a sinner in the world but enjoyes his estate his relations his outward accommodations yea his very life upon the account of the Saints and therefore they must needs be bewitcht or fools or mad men that are still a lifting and a thrusting at these very pillars that bear them up Look as Sampsons strength did lie in his locks so the strength and safety of the Nation lies in the holy seed they are the Bullwarks and Ammunition of the Nation the safety and felicity of the whole is bound up in them it is not Armies nor Navies nor walled Cities nor fortified Casiles nor golden Mines nor grave Counsells that will secure a Nation if once the people of Gods holinesse be cast by as broken pitchers Lam. 4.1 2. Est 4. and chap. the last compared it is their piety and prayers that keeps off sweeping judgements from a Nation and that brings down variety of mercies upon a Nation Holy persons are the clouds that water the earth as a common blessing and they are the rising Sun that scatters all clouds and darknesse A holy man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a publke diffusive blessing in the place where he lives look as one sinner destroyes much good Eccles 9.18 so one Saint may save a Land a Countrey Jer. 5.1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if ye can finde a man if there bee any that executeth judgement If among the rabbâ—â— if among the noble if among the rich if among the fearned a man could have been found that loved holiness that was stout for righteousness and that practised uprightness God would have spared Jerusalem that seeketh the truth and I will pardon it Though Jerusalem was far larger and more populous I say not only then Sodom but then all the other Cities that sinned and perished with it yet God makes so large and noble an offer that if there could be found in it but one man divinely qualified but a man of justice a man of faithfulnesse a man of uprightnesse a man of holinesse the Lord would pardon it that is hee would spare it hee would not destroy it not ruine it God once made an offer to Abraham that if there were but ten righteous souls in Sadome he would save it but here he falls so low as to make an offer that if there could bee but one righteous soul found in Jerusalem hee would not destroy it One Saint may save a City yea a world of sinners from confusion and destruction Luther whilest he lived by Faith and Prayer kept off troubles from Germany but soon after he was gone to his grave in Peace O! the wars the miseries and mischiefs the distractions and confusions that came in like a stood upon them Possidonius in the life of Augustine tells us that the famous City of Hippo could never bee spoyled whilest Augustine lived The flood could not drown the old world till holy Methâ—sâ—lah was laid up in peace O Sirs as ever you would be a publick blessing labour to bee holy But Ninthly Consider the antiquity of holinesse holinesse is of the greatest highest and
the way of righteousnesse is chaiim lives so the Hebrew hath it in the way of righteousnesse there are many lives in that way there is spiritual life and eternal life and natural life and all the comforts and sweets and blessings and happinesse of that life without which mans life would be but a lingering a languishing death yea a hell rather then a heaven unto him And in the path thereof there is no death There is no spiritual death there is no eternal death yea there is no corporal no temporal death to hurt or harm the them Death is not mors hominis but mors peccati not the death of the man but the death of his sin Phil. 1.23 2 Cor. 5.12.4.7 8. Death is a Christians Quietus est it is his discharge from all trouble and misery to sting or terrifie them to dammage or disadvantage them for death is an out-let and an in-let to a holy man it is an out-let to sin to sorrow to shame to suffering to afflictions to temptations to desertions to oppressions to confusions and to vexations and it is an in-let to a more clear full and constant fruition of God and Christ and an in-let to the sweetest pleasures the purest joys the highest delights the strongest comforts and the most satisfying contentments Death is the funeral of all a holy mans sins and miseries and it is the resurrection of all his joyes and the perfection of all his graces and spirituall excellencies Death to a holy man is nothing but the changing of his grace into glory his faith into vision his hope into fruition and his love into perfect comprehension The Persians had a certain day in the year in which they used to kill all Serpents and venemous creatures such a day as that will the day of death be to a holy man Peccatum erat obstetrix mortis mors sepulchrum peccati Sin was the Midwife that brought death into the world and death shall be the bearers that shall carry sin out of the world When Sampson died the Philistines died together with him so when a holy man dies his sins die with him Death came in by sin and sin goeth out by death As the worm kills the worm that bred it so death kills sin that bred it Vltimus morborum medicus mors Acts Mon. fol. 1733. Death cures all diseases the aking head and the unbelieving heart the diseased body and the defiled soul At Stratford Bow were burned in Queen Maries dayes a lame man and a blind man after the lame man was chained casting away his crutch he bade the blind man be of good comfort for saith he Death will cure us both it will cure thee of thy blindnesse and me of my lamenesse Death will cure the holy man of all natural and spiritual distempers Death is the holy mans Jubilee it is his greatest advantage it puts him into a better estate then ever he had before It is Gods Gentleman Usher to conduct us to heaven it will blow the bud of grace into the flower of glory O! Death is but an entrance into life Miseri infideles mortem appellant fideles vero quid nÃsi pascham Bernard Miserable â—nbelievers call it death but to faithfull believers what is it but a Passeover but a Jubilee who would not go through hell to heaven who would not go through a temporary death to an eternal life who would not willingly march through mortality to immortality and glory O Sirs holinesse will make you look upon death as a welcome guest a happy friend a joyfull messenger it will make you kisse it and embrace it as Favinus the Italian Martyr kissed and embraced his executioner it will make you desire it long after it with tears as holy Bradford did By all this you see that holiness will deliver you from death in death and therefore I shall close up this head as that wise witty man Sr. Francis Bakon closed up a paper of verses What then remains but that we still should cry Not to be born or being born to die Fifthly and lastly by holinesse you shall gain the greatest boldnesse in the day of judgement Job 19.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies boldness of face a lifting up of the face countenance in the sight or face of many beholders It signifies a freedom and liberty of speech nothing will imbolden a man in that great day like holinesse holinesse will then make the face to shine indeed 1 John 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldnesse in the day of judgement because as he is so are we in this world That which will make Christs last appearance delightfull to Christians will be their likenesse to Christ in holinesse in nature and grace likenesse begets the greatest boldnesse As there is no child so bold with the Father as he that is most like the Father so there is no Christian so bold with Christ as he that is most like to Christ A holy Christ is most famiiar with a holy Christian and a holy Christian is most bold with a holy Christ The more a Christian is like to Christ in holinesse of heart and life in holinesse of affecti-and conversation the more divinely bold and familiar will that man be with Christ both in this world and in the great day of account when he that was a brat of Satans is made a Saint when he that was like hell is made like heaven when he that was most ugly and uncomely is made like him that is the holy of holies this is that which gives boldnesse both here and hereafter O Sirs it is not wit nor wealth but holinesse it is not race nor place but holinesse it is not power nor policy but holinesse it is not honour nor riches but holinesse it is not natural excellencies nor acquired abilities but holinesse that will give boldnesse in the day of Christs appearing 1 Pet. 1.5 6 7. A well-tried faith which is but a branch of holinesse shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ At the coming of Christ holiness shall be a mans praise and honour Rev. 6.15 16 17. and glory In that great day when shame and everlasting contempt shall be poured forth upon the great Monarchs of the world who have made the earth to tremble when the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief Captains and the mighty men c. shall cry out to the mountains and rocks to fall upon them and to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb then I say then shall the righteous shine as the Sun in the firmament Dan. 12.1 2 3. Prov. 28.1 In life and death and in the day of account a righteous man will be as bold as a Lion Real holinesse will make a man death proof and hell proof and
to say with those in Ezekiel Behold they of the house of Israel say the vision that he seeth is for many days to come Amos 6.3 Ezek. 12.27 Luk. 12. and he prophesieth of the times that are afar off So the rich man in the Gospel reckoned upon many years when he had not many monthes no not many weeks no not many days no not many hours to live in this world Unholy persons are very apt to say to death as Pharaoh said to Moses Get thee from me Exod. 10.28 and let me see thy face no more When death knocks at the poor mans door he sends it to the rich mans gate and the rich man translates it to the Schollar and the Scholar posts it away to the Citizen and the Citizen to the Courtier and the Courtier to his Lady and his Lady to her Maid so death is posted away as it were from one to another every one crying out to death O let me not see thy face O let me not see thy face 'T was even a death to Queen Elizabeth Sigismund the Emperor Lewes the 11 of France Cardinal Beauford and others to think of death or to hear of death and therefore they strictly charged all their servants about them that when they saw them sick they should never dare to name that bitter word Death in their ears And Pashur can't cast his eye upon death but he is presently a Magor Missabib a terror to himself Jer. 20.3 And Saul though he was a valiant King yet at the news of death he falls on his face 1 Sam. 28.20 And so Belshazzar though he was a mighty Emperor Dan. 5.1 7. yet a letter to him from him whom Bildad calleth the King of terrors Job 18.14 Ah how does it amaze astonish affright and terrifie him and how many are there who with Mecaenas in Seneca had rather live in many diseases then die and with the most famous Heathens prefer the meanest life on earth above all the hopes they have of another world like Achilles who had rather be a servant to a poor country Clown here then to be a King to all the souls departed or like Withipoll a rich and wretched man who when he was in danger of death earnestly desired that he might live five hundred years Vitellius looking for the messenger of death made himself drunk to drown the the thoughts of it though it were but in the shape of a Toad Near Lewes in Sussex a woman being ill one of her neighbors coming to visit her told her that if she died she should go to heaven and be with God and Jesus Christ and with Angels and Saints the sick woman answered that she had no acquaintance there she knew no body there and therefore she had rather live with her and her other neighbors here then to go thither to live amongst strangers And thus you see how apt persons are to shrug at death which is a common lot and to say to it as Ephraim did to his Idols Get you hence what have we more to do with you but this is and must be for a lamentation that men put off the thoughts of their latter end to the latter end of their thoughts Man naturally is a great life-lover and therefore he will bleed sweat vomit purge part with an estate yea with a limb I limbs to preserve his life like him that cryed out O give me any deformity any torment any misery so you spare my life And upon this account 't is that he desires that such a guest as death may not knock at his door but Ah that all such vain men would consider that by putting the day of their death far from them they do but gratifie Satan strengthen their sins provoke the Lord and make the work of faith and holiness more hard and difficult and so lay a deep foundation for their own eternal destruction Well sirs remember this the serious thoughts and meditations of death if any thing will work you to break off your sins to mend your lives and to look to the salvation of your souls there is nothing that will sooner work a man to a holy fear of offending God in any thing and to a holy care of pleasing God in every thing then the serious meditation of death Though that text Remember thy latter end and thou shalt never do amiss be Apocryphal yet the truth asserted is Canonical I have read a story of one that gave a young prodigal a Ring with a Deaths-head on this condition that he should one hour in a day for seven days together think and meditate upon Death which accordingly he did and it bred a great change and alteration in his life and conversation O! man thou doest not know but that the serious thoughts of death may work that desireable thing in thee viz. holiness which yet has not been wrought in thee by all the holy counsels the gracious examples the fervent prayers the sorrowful tears of thy dearest friends thou doest not know but that the serious meditation of Death may do thee more good then all the Sermons that ever thou hast heard or then all the books that ever thou hast read or then all the prayers that ever thou hast made or then all the sighs or groans that ever thou hast poured out and why then shouldest thou put the thoughts of death far from thee Certainly as he is a sinner in grain that dares look death in the face and yet sin that dares cut a purse when the Judge looks on so he is a monster rather then a man that dares look death in the face and yet satisfie himself to live without holiness that dares look death in the face and yet say I 'll drink and be drunk I 'll sware and swagger I 'll roar and whore I 'll cheat and cozen I 'll hate and oppose I 'll quarrel and kill and my hands shall be as bloody as my heart and let death do her worst if such a person be not in the ready way of being miserable for ever I know nothing Well sirs remember these three things First That there is nothing more certain then death That Statute Law of heaven Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Gen. 3.19 will take hold of all the sons of men There is no man that lives and shall not see death Psal 89.48 Gen. 32. Though Jacob wrestled with an Angel and prevailed yet death was too hard for him though Hazael was as light of foot as a wild Roe yet he could not out-run death 2 Sam. 2.18 and Absalom could not out-ride it nor Pharoah out-drive it though Saul and Jonathan were as swift as Eagles and as strong as Lyons yet were they slain among the mighty 'T was not Solomons wisdom that could deliver him nor Sampsons strength that could rescue him nor Hamans honor that could secure him nor Goliahs sword that could defend him nor Dives riches that could
ransom him from the grave and therefore why should men put this day so far from them But Secondly As there is nothing more certain then death so there is nothing more sudden then death When the old world when Sodom when Pharaoh when Hagar when Amalek when Haman when Nebuchadnezzar when Belshazzar when Dives when the Rich fool and when Herod were all in their prime and pride when they were in their most flourishing estate when they were at the very top of their glory Ah how suddenly how sadly how strangely how unexpectedly and how wonderfully were they brought down to the Grave yea to Helâ— O! the thousand thousands of crosses losses diseases sicknesses calamities dangers and deaths which attends the life of man and by the least of which he may be suddenly surprized and carried into another world and therefore why should man cry out cras cras to morrow to morrow when he does not know whether he shall have a to morrow when he does not know but that he may dye before he had begun to live Waldus a rich Merchant of Lyons in France seeing one suddenly drop down dead in the streets went home repented changed his life studied the Scriptures and became a worthy Teacher Father and Founder of the Christians called the Waldenses or poor men of Lyons And O! that the serious thoughts of the suddenness of death might have that happy effect upon your souls as to work you to break your league with sin and to fright you as it were into a love of holiness and into a life of holiness O! swearer what doest thou know but that death may seize on thee whilst the oath is in thy mouth And what doest thou know O drunkard but that death may step in between the cup and the lip as it did to Belshazzar And what dost thou know O adulterer but that a poisoned dart may strike thorough thy liver whilst thou art in the very flagrancy of thy lust as it did thoâ—ough Zimries and Cozbies And what dost thou know O proud Haman but that thou who art thus noblely feasted one day mayest be a feast for the Crows the next day And what dost thou know who art so crafty O Ahitophel but that if thy subtile counsel be rejected one hour thou mayest hang thy self the next hour And what doest thou know O thou opposing and murmuring Corah but that the earth may suddenly open and swallow thee up and therefore why should you put that day so far from you that may so suddenly overtake you Berline in Germany charged Saint Paul with a lye in the Pulpit Scultet Annal. and was suddenly smitten with an Apoplexy and fell down dead in the place And what doest thou know who art so apt to charge the people of God with lying but that God may strike thee both dumb and dead whilst the lye is in thy mouth Bibulus a Roman General riding in Triumph in all his glory a Tyle fell off from a house in the street and knockt out his brains And what doest thou know O vain glorious man but that whilst thou art triumphing in thy world glory by some unexpected blow thou mayest be sent into another world Lepidus and Avsidius stumbled at the very threshold of the Senate and died the blow came in a cloud from heaven God by an invisible blow may send thee out of this visible world Sophocles died suddenly by excessive joy and Homer by immoderate grief excessive joy or excessive grief may suddenly bring thee to thy long home Theater of Gods judgements lib. 1. cap. 9. p. 64. Olympus the Arrian Heretick speaking against the Holy Trinity as he was a Bathing himself was struck dead by a threefold Thunderbolt We may run and read some mens sins in the very face of their punishments Mr. Perkins speaks of One who when it thundered scoffingly said It was nothing but Tom Tumbrel a hooping his Tubs c. and presently he was struck dead with a thunder-bolt from heaven There would be no end of recounting the several judgements that have suddenly surprized all sorts of sinners let these few instances suffice to stir up every unholy heart to take heed of putting far off the day of death But Thirdly As there is nothing more sudden then death so there is nothing more short then life Job 8.9 Psal 102.11 Psal 73.20 90.5 Job 20.8 ch 7.7 and why then should you put the day of your death so far from you If you consider the life of man absolutely 't is but short 't is but as a span a shadow a dream a bubble a blast a puff of wind a pile of dust a fading leaf or a tale that is told c. The life of man is as a dream that vanisheth when one awaketh 't is a wind that goeth away and cometh not again 't is as a cloud that is soon dispersed with the wind 't is as a vapor that appeareth for a time and then vanisheth away 't is as the grass that soon withereth 't is as the flower that soon fadeth 't is as the candle that every light puffe of wind bloweth out The life of man is rather made up of days then years Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom Moses does not say Lord teach us to number our years but Lord teach us to number our dayes fallen man is apt to misreckon and to compute days for years and therefore this holy Prophet desires that God would teach them this Divine Arithmetick of numbering their days it being a lesson that none but a God can teach So Job 14.1 2. Man that is born of a woman is of few days or short of dayes and full of trouble He cometh forth like a flower and is out down he floeth also as a shadow and continueth not He speaks not of an Age nor of years nor of many dayes but of a few days mans days are short in themselves and shorter in respect of the troubles that attends this present life Mans life is so short Aug. l. 1. Confess Austin doubteth whether to call it a dying life or a living death Now these few days of mans life are upon the wing hastning and flying from us as the Eagle hastneth to his prey and therefore man had need set a greater price upon every moment and minute of time then he does upon all the world and accordingly improve it Secondly If you consider the life of man comparatively 't is but short and that will appear briefly thus First If you compare the life of man to what man might have reach't to had he continued in his primitive glory had man stood fast in innocency he had never known what death and misery had mean't death is a fall that came in by a fall had man kept sin out of the world he had kept death out of the world had man kept fast his holiness and purity he had remained a piece of
immortality to this day death could never have carried man out of the world had not man first let sin into the world Rom. 5.12 ult Secondly If you compare the life of man to the long lives of the Patriarchs before the stood then the life of man is but short threescore years and ten is mans age Psal 90.10 And where one man lives to this age how many thousands die before they come to it But what is this age to the age that men lived to in former times Enoch lived as many yeers as there be days in the year and Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years and Methuselah lived nine hundred sixty and nine years Gen. 5. Now what were Platoes eighty years or Thomas Pars 160. years or Johannes de Temporibus John of the times three hundred threescore and one years to the long lives of the Patriarchs and though in Davids time old age and seventy often shook hands yet 't is otherwise in our times for as mens wickedness do more and more increase so their days do more and more decrease the more wicked any generation is the shorter liv'd that generation shall be God will quickly dispatch them out of the world who make quick dispatches in ways of wickedness Thirdly The life of man is but short if you compare it to what it shall be after the morning of the Resurrection O then mans day shall reach to eternity eternity is that unum perpetuum hodie one perpetual day that shall never have end when men after the resurrection begin to live they shall never dye after that day every man shall live in everlasting bliss or in everlasting wo when the last Trumpet has sounded man shall live for ever and ever Fourthly The life of man is but short if you compare it with the days of God Psal 39.5 Mine age is nothing before him all time is nothing to eternity mans life is but a minute 't is but a point of time to the days of eternity what head what heart can conceive or reckon up the duration of God who ever was who still is and who ever will be every child and every fool can tell you their age but what man on earth or what Angel in heaven can tell you the years of the Most High surely none Fifthly and lastly the life of man is but short if you compare it with the lives of other creatures some say that 't is neither age nor sickness that killeth the Eagle she casteth her feathers yearly and so gets new whereby her youth strength is renewed Pliny August Calvin Psal 103.5 by which means she will live till she be an hundred years old she dies not till her upper Bill be so grown over her under that she cannot take in her meat and so at last she is staryed And some Elephants live three hundred years witness Aelian Solinus and Strabo c. by all which you see the brevity of mans life And why then should man be so weak so vain as to put the day of his death so far from him I have read of the Birds of Norway that they flye faster then the fowls of any other Country they knowing by an instinct that God has put into them that the days in that Climate are very short not above three hours long say some do therefore make the more haste to their nests And O! that all that hear me this day would learn by these birds of Norway to make haste to believe and to make haste to repent and to make haste to love God and to make haste to be holy c. seeing their day of life is so short and their night of death is posting towards them And as the life of man is very short so 't is very considerable that a very small matter a very little thing may quickly put an end to mans life When the Emperor threatned the Philosopher with death he replyed Conrad Ves perg Nancler Jo. Boel in Adrian Paulus Jovius Elog. lib. 2. what is that more then a Spanish flie may do An ordinary flye flying casually into the mouth of the proud Pope Adrian stifled him that made the highest state then in the Christian world stoop even to the holding of his stirrop Tamberlain a Scythian Captain the terror of his time died with three fits of an Ague Anacreon the Poet was choaked with the kernel of a Grape Aeschylus was killed by the shell of a Tortoise which fell from an Eagles Talons who as some conceive took his bald head for a white rock The Lord Mountaigne tells us of a Duke of Britany that was stifled to death in such a throng of people as is in some great congregations on the Lords day An Emperor died by the scratch of a Comb and one of the Kings of France died by the chock of an Hogg and one that was brother to a great Lord playing at Tennis received a blow with a ball a little above the right ear which struck him into his grave There is nothing so small but may be a mans bane The paring of a Toe the cutting off a corn the scratch of a nail the prick of a pin a fish-bone a hair a drop of water a crum of bread a bad air or an evil smell may bring a man to his long home yea a little smoak may soon stifle him or his own spittle let down unwarily may suddenly choak him And O! that all that I have spoken upon this account might be so blest as to work you to take heed of putting the day of your death so far from you The evil servant when he thought his Master was gone afar off Luke 12.45 then he layes about him distempers himself Prov. 7.19 20. and beats his fellow-servants And so the leud woman in the Proverbs when the good man was gone a long journey when he was far from home then she grew wanton vain and secure so when men put afar off the day of their death then they grow more loose prophane and unholy whereas a serious and frequent eying and minding of death as at hand as at a mans elbow would alarm a man to break off his sins by repentance and to labor for holiness as a man would labor for life it self I have read of the women in the Isle of Man that the first Web they make is their winding sheet wherwith they usually gird themselves when they go abroad to shew that they are still mindful of their mortality Ah friends a constant minding of your mortality would contribute very much towards the making of you holy He that daily looks upon death will be daily a looking after holiness the oftener any man looks into the grave the oftener that man will be looking up to heaven and a begging that God would make him holy even as he is holy But Sixthly and lastly Take heed of settling your selves under a leud and scandalous Ministry or of having any inwardness with
the wrath of the Lord what shall we doe to be safe in this evill day O take these bags and pay so much to such a one whom I have deceived and restore so much to such a one whom I have in bargaining over-reached O give so much to the poore and so much to other pious uses c. But after the sickness was over they returned with the dog to the vomit and with the sowe to the wallowing in the mire againe and so their latter end was worse then their former There was a very great sinner who in the time of his sickness was so sorely terrified in his conscience for his many hainous sins that he made the very bed to shake upon which he lay and cryed out all night long I am damn'd I am damn'd I am damn'd c. and in this his sickness he made many great protestations of amendment of life if God would but be pleased to recover him and prevent his going downe to the grave at this time Well in a short time after he did recover and being recovered he was as base wretched and wicked as ever he was before This man with those that were cited before him were like that cunning Devill of whom the Epigrammatist thus writeth Aegrota Daemon Monachus tunc esse volebat Convaluit Daemon Monachus tunc esse nolebat Which is thus Englished The Devill was sick the Devill a Monk would be The Devill was well the Devill a Monk was he But those who are now like to Satan in sin may hereafter be like to him in torment such who now out-live their vows shall when they dye have hell enough You count it a very shamefull thing to break promise or covenant with men but is it not farre more shamefull to break with God The Egyptians though Heathens so hated perjury that if any man did but swear by the life of the King and did not performe his oath that man was to dye and no gold was to redeeme his life As Paulus Fagius observes in his Comment on Genesis c. When the Romans made Covenants they took Stones in their hands and said If I make this Covenant seriously and faithfully then let the great Jupiter bless me if not so let me be cast away from the face of the gods as I cast away this Stone Covenant-breaking was a sin greatly detested and abhorred among the very Heathens and shall Christians make nothing of breaking their vows promises and covenants with the great God Well Sirs remember this those sins that you have vowed against must be deserted and that holiness which you have vowed to follow must be pursued or a worse thing then the curse of Meroz must be expected Judg. 5.23 compared with that Joh. 5.14 But Sixthly If ever you would be holy then dwell much upon the worth and preciousness of your souls Christ that only went to the price of souls hath told us that one soul is more worth then all the woâ—ld Math 16.26 Christ left his Fathers bosome and all the glory of heaven for the good of souls he assumed the nature of man for the happiness of the soul of man be trod the wine-press of his Fathers wrath for souls he wept for souls he sweat for souls he prayed for souls he payd for souls and he bled out his heart-blood for souls The soul is the breath of God the beauty of man the wonder of Angells and the envie of Devills 't is of an Angelical nature 't is a heavenly sparke a celestiall plant and of a divine off-spring 't is a spirituall substance capable of the knowledge of God and of union with God and of communion with God and of an eternall fruition of God there is nothing that can suit the soule below God nor nothing that can satisfie the soule without God the soule is so high and so noble a piece that it scornes all the world in point of acceptation justification satisfaction and salvation What are all the riches of the East or West Indies what are rocks of Diamonds or mountaines of gold or the price of Cleopatra's draught to the price that Christ laid downe for souls 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Christ made himself an offering for sin that souls might not be undone by sin the Lord dyed that slaves may live the Son dyes that servants may live the naturall Son dyes that adopted sons may live the only begotten Son dyes that bastards may live yea the Judge dyes that malefactors may live Ah friends as there was never sorrow like Christs sorrow so there was never love like Christs love and of all his love none to that of soule-love In a word the spirituall enemies which daily warre against the soule the glorious Angels which hourely guard the soule and the precious ordinances which God hath appointed as meanes both to convert and to feed the soul doe all speak out the preciousness and excellency of the soule There was once a great contest among some Nations about Homer an excellent Poet they severally pleaded their interest in him and truly so 't is this day about the soule of man many lay claime to it sin lays claime to it and the world lays claime to it and Satan lays claime to it and Christ and holiness lays claime to it and O that Christ and holiness might have it before all others O Sirs there is no wisdome nor policy to that of securing our precious souls for they are Jewels of more worth then all the world all the honours riches greatness and glory of this world are but chips and pibbles to these glorious pearles therefore before all and above all other things make sure worke for your souls if they are safe all is safe but if they are lost all is lost Other things cannot be made sure riches cannot for as they are lying so they are flying vanities they make themselves wings and they fly away Honours cannot Haman is feasted with the King one day and made a feast for Crowes the next Herod is one houre cryed up for a God and the next houre he is eaten of wormes Princes Courts are very slippery a man may quickly get a fall there that may easily break both back and neck as many in all ages have experienced the applause and favour of creatures cannot for many mens favours are got with an Apple and lost with a Nut Math. 27.4 5. Judas his heart was hardly warm'd with the high Priests favour before they shut their doores upon him with a what is that to us look thou to that most mens favours are as light as a feather and so tos't up and downe with every breath of windy vanity the Moone do's not so often vary and change as the respects of most men doe vary and change how many men have had their names written in golden Characters one yeare and in letters of blood the next what is the favour of man but a blast a Sun-shine-houre a puff of winde a magnum
nihil a great nothing and who then would spend an houres time to secure it neare and deare relations cannot for the delight of Ezekiels eyes is taken away with a stroake Ezek. 24.16 Job 1.10 and all Jobs children are snatcht away in a day all our nearest and dearest relations are like a Nose-gay which the oftner we smell to it the sooner it withers But now holiness may be made sure witness the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven Heb. 12.23 and witness the many thousands of Christians this day in the world who doe experience the principles of holiness in their hearts and who doe evidence the power of holiness in their lives O Sirs if the serious consideration of the preciousness and worth of your souls will not draw you out to study holiness to love holiness to prize holiness and to press after holiness what will O Sirs 't is only holiness that is the happiness of the soul the safety and security of the soul the prosperity and felicity of the soul and the lustre and glory of the soul and therefore why should you not labour as for life after this inestimable Jewel holiness O let the remembrance of the preciousness of your souls be an effectuall means to draw you to heare that you may be holy and to pray that you may be holy and to reade that you may be holy and to mourne that you may be holy and to sigh and groane after holiness as after that which is the souls only happiness O Sirs there is nothing below heaven so precious and noble as your souls and therefore doe not play the Courtier with your souls now the Courtier do's all things late he rises late and dines late and sups late and repents late O doe not poyson your precious souls by gross enormities O doe not starve your souls by the omission of religious duties O doe not murther and damne your souls by turning your backs upon holy Ordinances I have read of a Woman who when her house was on fire so minded the saving of her goods that she forgot her only childe and left it burning in the fire at last being minded of it she cryes out Oh my childe oh my poore childe but all too late all too late so there are many men now so mad upon the world and so bewitcht with the world that they never mind they never regard their poor souls till they come to fall under everlasting burnings and then they cry out O our souls O our poor souls O that we had been wise for our souls O that we had got holiness for our souls O that we had made sure worke for our souls but all too late all too late the Lord make you wise to prevent soul-burnings at last If he be rather a monster then a man that feasts his slave but starves his wife what shall we say of those that pamper their bodies but starve their souls and that have thred-bare souls under silke and sattin Cloaths and that please themselves with deformed souls under beautifull faces surely it had been good for these that they had never been born I have read of a Scythian Captain who having for a draught of water yeelded up the City cryed out Quid perdidi quid prodidi What have I lost what have I betrayed So all unholy persons will at last cry out we have betrayed our immortall souls we have lost a precious Father we have lost a deare Redeemer we have lost the company of glorious Angels we have lost the society of the spirits of just men made perfect and we have lost all the pleasures and joyes and delights that be at the right hand of the most High We have lost these we have lost all these and we have lost them for ever and ever surely there is no hell to this hell For a close of this direction remember this that as the soul is the life and excellency of the body so holiness is the life and excellency of the soul and as the body without the soul is dead so the soul without holiness is dead This my Son was dead and is alive if you get holiness into your souls your souls shall live for ever but if you die without holiness your souls shall die for ever and ever I have read that there was a time when the Romans did weare Jewels on their shooes oh that in these dayes most men did not doe worse oh that they did not trample under feete that matchless Jewel their precisouls But Seventhly If ever you would be holy then set in good earnest upon reading of the holy Scripture many a man has been made holy by reading of the holy Word Luther com in Gen. cap. 19. The Bible is the book of books 't is the onely book all other books in the world are but waste paper to it Augustin crys out away with our writings that room may be made for the book of God notwithstanding the greatness and multiplicity of the affairs of Princes yet they were diligently to read the word Deut. 17.19 And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them God looks that the greatest Princes on earth should make use of this Library Though David was a great Prince and had a multitude of weighty businesses upon his hand yet he was so much in reading meditating on the word that he made it his Counsellors the word was Davids Learned Counsel Psal 119.24 to which he reforted for counsel advice and comfort in all his necessities and miseries Alphonsus King of Arragon hath been highly extolled for reading the Scriptures fourteen times over with glosses and expositions notwithstanding his great publike employments And Alphonsus King of Naples read over the Bible forty times notwithstanding many great affairs were upon his hand Theodosius the Emperor and Constantine the Great were much taken up in reading of the Scriptures So Queen Elizabeth when she passed in triumph through the streets of London after her Coronation and had the Bible presented to her at the little Conduit in Cheap-side she received the same with both her hands and kissing it Speeds Hist laid it to her breasts saying That the same had ever been her chiefest delight and should be the rule whereby she meant to frame her Government And 't is very observable that the Eunuch was reading the Scripture when Philip was commanded Acts 8.26.40 by Commission from the Holy Ghost to joyn himself to his Chariot and to instruct him in the knowledge of Christ which proved his conversion and salvation And Junius was converted by the reading of that first of John In the beginning was the Word c. being amazed with the strange majesty of the stile Lib. 8. conf cap. 12. and the profound misteries therein contained And Augustine was
and yet thus much thou doest proclaime upon the house-top when thou cryest out hereafter hereafter will be time enough to seek after holiness But Secondly I answer that 't is thy wisdom and thy work to set one may be against another Eccl. 7.14 thou say'st now that hereafter may be time enough to look after holiness O set another maybe against this may-be Isa 55.6 and say if I now neglect this season of grace it may-be I shall never have another if I now slight the offers of mercy Pro. 1.20 to the 33. Heb. 2.1 2 3. Luke 19 41. 45. Gen. 6.3 it may be I shall never have such offers more if I now despise this day of salvation it may be I shall never have such another day if I now withstand the tenders of Christ it may-be Christ will never make a tender to me more if I now resist the strivings of the Spirit it may be the Spirit will never strive with my soule more and then wo wo to me that ever I was borne O don't put off God don't put off thy soule don't put off the thoughts of holiness don't put off eternity with may-bees Heb. 3.18 least the Lord should sweare in his wrath that thou shalt never enter into his rest and seeing that thou wilt not suffer holiness to enter into thee thou shalt never enter into thy Masters joy O! why shouldest thou put off thy poor soule so as thou wouldest not have God to put it off thou wouldest not have God to put off thy soule with may-bees as with a may-bee I will pardon thee it may-bee I wilt lift up the light of my countenance upon thee it may-bee I will change thy nature and save thy soule it may-bee I will fill thee with my Spirit and adorne thee with my grace it may-bee I will bring thee to my kingdome and glory O thou wouldst not have God to put thee off with such may-bees and why then shouldst thou deale more hardly and cruelly with thine own soule then thou wouldst have God to deale with thee But Thirdly I answer 't is a cleare argument that thou art not truly nor throughly sensible of thy present condition and danger who thus objectest wert thou but truly sensible of thy lost and undone estate out of Christ didst thou but indeed know what 't is to live one houre in a Christ-less and grace-less condition didst thou but see that wrath that hangs over thy head didst thou but reade the curses that are pronounced in the book of God against thee didst thou but behold how hell gapes to devoure thee didst thou but see how farre off thou art from God Christ the Covenant Acts 2.39 Ephe. 2.12 and all the glory and happiness of another world ah how wouldst thou every day cry out give me holiness or I die give me holiness or I eternally die The Patient that is truly sensible of his disease will not say hereafter will be time enough to send for the Physitian nor the wounded man will not say hereafter will be time enough to fetch the Surgeon nor the condemned man will not say hereafter will be time enough to sue for a pardon nor the needy man will not say hereafter will be time enough to look for reliefe nor the fallen man will not say hereafter will be time enough to lift me up nor the drowning man will not say hereafter will be time enough to bring a Boate to save my life now this is the very case of all unsanctified persons in the world and why then should they cry our hereafter hereafter will be time enough to be holy The Boare in the Fable being questioned why he stood wherting his teeth so when no body was neare to hurt him wisely answered that it would then be too late to whet them when he was to use them and therefore he whetted them so before danger that he might have them ready in danger Ah Sirs there is nothing more dangerous then for you to have your holiness to seek when temporal spiritual and eternal dangers are at your heels there is no wisdom to that which leads men forth to a present pursuit after holiness nor no hell to that for a man to have his holiness to seek when he should use it Fourthly I answer that the brevity shortness and preciousness of time Sumptus protiocissimus tempus Theophrastus calls aloud upon thee to pursue after holiness without delay time past is irrecoverable time to come is uncertaine the present time is the only time and on this moment of time depends eternity this very day is a day of grace O that thou hadst but grace to take notice of it this very time is an acceptable time O that thou hadst but a heart to accept of it and to improve it he that hath a great way to goe and a great deale of worke to doe in a little time had not need to trifle away his time and this is the case of every unsanctified soule O the sins that such a soule has to repent of O the graces that such a soule has to seek O the evidences for heaven that such a soule has to secure O the miseries that such a soule has to escape O the mercies that such a soule has to press after c. and therefore of all men in the world it stands unsanctified persons upon well to husband and improve their present time O 't is a dangerous thing to put off that worke to another day which must be done to day or else thou mayest be eternally undone to morrow the old saying was Nunc aut nunquam now or never if not now done it may be never done and if so then thou art undone for ever Many sinners are now in hell who when they were on earth were wont to put off the motions of the Spirit by crying out eras cras to morrow to morrow Time is so precious a thing that mountaines of gold and rocks of pearle cannot redeem one lost moment which that great Lady well understood when on her death-bed she cryed out Queen Elizabeth Call time againe call time againe a world of wealth for an inch of time ah what a precious and gainfull commodity would time be in hell where for one day to repent yea for one hour to seek after holiness a man would give ten thousand worlds were they in his hands to dispose of Time is so costly a Jewel that few know how to value it and prize it at a due rate witness that sad and frequent complaint among many O what shall we doe to drive away the time come let 's goe to Cards to drive away the time or let 's goe to Tables to drive away the time or let 's goe to the Taverne and take a pint and a pipe to drive away the time or le ts goe and take a walke in the fields to drive away the time c. Thus most are lavishly and
and though Legal terrour Evangelical joy are inconsistent Zach. 12.10 1 Pet. 1.8 yet Evangelical sorrow and Evangelical joy are consistent in one and the same soule the same eye of faith that drops tears of sorrow drops also tears of joy A cleare sight of free-grace of pardoning mercy and of a bleeding dying Saviour will at the same time fill the soul both with sorrow and joy as the experiences of a thousand Christians can testifie A Christian alwayes joys most and mourns most Luke 7. when he is most under the sense of divine love the influences and incomes of heaven the hopes of glory the reports of mercy and the precious sealings of the blessed Spirit Look as Physick is the way to health so godly sorrow is the way to holy joy Prov. 14.13 look as a wicked mans joy ends in sorrow so a godly mans sorrow ends in joy Isa 61.3 To appoint unto them that mourne in Zion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness that they may be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified Godly sorrow is the Parent of holy joy a Godly mans mourning time is his most joyfull time I have read of a godly man who lying upon his dying bed and being askt which was the joyfullest time that ever he had in all his life cryed our O give me my mourning dayes againe O give me my mourning dayes againe for they were the joyfullest dayes that ever I had The more a Christian sowes in teares Psal 126.6 the greater even in this world shall be his harvest of joy his merry dayes shall be alwayes answerable to his mourning dayes But Thirdly I anâ—wer that this is a false charge a meere slander an unjust calumny that Satan and his bond-slaves have cast upon holiness and the wayes of holiness on purpose to hinder men from pursuing and following after holiness The language of the objection is quite contrary to the language of the holy Scripture witness that Psal 138.5 Yea they shall sing in the wayes of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. When the Kings of the earth shall be generally converted and sanctified as 't is in ver the 4th Then they shall sing in the wayes of the Lord when they shall come to experience and taste the power excellency and sweetness of holiness then they shall sing in the wayes of the Lord. Conversation and sanctification administer the highest grounds of joy and rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you-wards A holy conversation affords the greatest ground of rejoycing There is no joy to that which springs from the testimony of a sanctified conscience God has given it under his own hand Pro. 3.17 that the wayes of wisdom which are alwayes wayes of holiness are wayes of pleasantness and all her paths are peace There is no pleasure nor felicity to that which flowes from the wayes of sanctity The sweetest Roses the strongest comforts and the greatest pleasantness is to be found in the wayes of holiness O! the joy the peace the tranquillity the serenity that attends the wayes of purity I might call in many millions of Saints who from their own experiences are able to give the lye to this objection and further to tell you that they have met with more comforts sweetness and pleasantness in one houres communion with God in one houres walking with God then ever they have found in all the wayes of ungodliness and wickedness wherein they have wandered O! they are able to tell you Isa 57.20 21. that when they walkt in wayes of impiety they found by experience that God had made a seperation between sin and peace between sin and joy Rom. 6.21 between sin and assurance between sin and the light of his countenance c. and they are able to tell you from what they have found that there is no feare no terror no horror no gripes no grief no stings no hells to those that attend the wayes of ungodliness and this were enough to blow off this objection But Fourthly I answer that the joy of the Saints is chiefly and mainely an inward joy a spiritual joy a joy that lyes remote from a carnal eye the joy of a Christian lyes deep it cannot be expressed it cannot be painted look as no man can paint the sweetness of the Honey-combe nor the sweetness of a Cluster of Grapes nor the fragrancy of the Rose of Sharon so no man can paint out the sweetness and spiritualness of a Christians joy it lyes so deep and low in a gracious heart and look as the life of a Christian is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 so the joy of a Christian is hid with Christ in God as their life is a hidden life so their joy is a hidden joy the joy of a Christian is hidden Manna 't is the new name and white stone Rev. 2.20 that none knoweth but he that has it Pro. 14.10 The heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger doth not intermeddâ—e with his joy The joy of a Saint is a Jewel that falls not under a strangers eye Look as the greatest terrors and torments of the wicked are inward so the greatest joyes and comforts of the Saints are inward and look as the heart of man is deep Jer. 17.9 10. so holy joy is a treasure that lyes deep and 't is not every man that has a golden key to search into this Treasury As a man standing on the Sea-shore sees a great heap of waters one wave riding upon the back of another and making a dreadfull noise but all this while though he sees the water rouling and hears it raging and roaring yet he sees not the wealth the gold the silver the Jewels and incredible Treasures that lye buried there so wicked men they see the wants of the Saints but not their wealth they see their poverty but not their riches their miseries but not their mercies their conflicts but not their comforts their sorrows but not their joyes 1 Cor. 2.14 O the blinde world cannot see the joys and rejoycings the comforts and consolations of the Saints that lye at the bottom of their souls their joys are inward and spiritual and so must the eye be that discernes them the joy of the Saints is like a Garden inclosed Cant. 4.12 a spring shut up a fountaine sealed Psal 45.13 And as the glory of the Church is inward so the joy of the Church is inward Isa 12.3 The waters of consolation lye deep in the wells of salvation The richest veines of Oare lye deepest under ground and so do's the strongest and the choicest
joyes of the Saints lye deep The Moone is often dark to the world when yet that part which faceth the Sun is very lightsome beautifull and glorious so many times if you look upon the outside of a Christian which is his dark side you may see his countenance clouded and his carriage and behaviour as to the world either damped or obscured but if you could but now look upon his inside which is his best side and which faces the Sun of Righteousness O then you should see the light of joy and comfort sweetly and gloriously shining forth O Sirs look as there are many rich men in the world who make no shew of it by their Garbe or Table or Attendance c. so there are many Christians that are rich in divine consolations who yet don't shew it in such or such an outward carnal way as the men of the world doe usually express their joy in And look as many a wicked man has heaviness in his heart when he has laughter in his face as the wisest of Princes has long since observ'd in Pro. 14.13 Even in laughter the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heaviness the heart often weepes when the mouth laughs every laughter is not hearty for laughter being but a signe of joy the signe may be where the substance is not many wicked men are inwardly sad when they are outwardly glad 2 Cor. 5.12 The false Apostles did glory in the face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the face and not in the heart they set a good face on 't and seem'd to be upon a merry pin and yet all their smiles were but counterfeit smiles all their joyes were but skin-deep the joy that was in their faces was nothing to the terrours horrours and torments that were in their hearts so the godly many times rejoyce in heart when sadness and blackness seemes to cover their faces 2 Cor. 6.10 As sorrowfull yet alwayes rejoycing c. 'T is very observable that the Apostle brings in the sorrow of the godly with a quasi as it were sorrow not that it is sorrow indeed but as sorrowfull as if their sorrow had been rather a painted sorrow then a reall sorrow but when he speaks of their joy there is no quasi but true joy he do's not say as rejoycing but alwayes rejoycing their joy was a reall joy but their sorrow was but a seeming sorrow to the weak and childish opinions of vaine men When a Christian is at worst as to the eye of the world he may say of his joy as Christ speaks of his meate c. when he said John 4.33 I have meate to eate that you know not of so he may say I have joy I have great joy that the world knows not of Look as there is life and sap and juice in the roote of the Tree even in the winter season when there is no leaves nor blossomes nor fruit hanging on the Tree so there is joy and comfort and peace in the heart of a Saint when there are no outward visible discoveries of it to others And you may as rationally conclude that there is no life sap and juice in the roote of the Tree because the Tree has no leaves blossoms or fruit on it as you may conclude that the Saints have no joy in their hearts because they doe not express it in such outward visible acts as may convince the world that they have it c. But Fifthly I answer That 't is horrid injustice and dis-ingenuity in thee and in such as thou art to make the hearts of the righteous sad whom God would not have sadded by your pride prophaneness loosnesse wickedness worldliness Ezek. 13.22 23. lukewarmness filthiness carnalness c. and then to cry out against them that they are the saddest and uncomfortablest people in the world What is this but with Nero to set the City of Rome on fire and then to lay it upon the Christians and punish them for it What is this but to deale by the Saints as the Devill deales by them he loads them and follows them with most sad grievous blasphemous horrid and hellish temptations on purpose to make them walk heavily mournfully and uncomfortably and when he has accomplish't his designe then he accuses them sometimes to God sometimes to themselves Rev. 12.10 and sometimes to others for their heavie and uncomfortable walking O what inhumanity cruelty and vanity was it in the Egyptians to double the Israelites tale of bricks Exod. 5.8.17 and to take away their straw and then to cry out that they were Idle they were Idle so O what inhumanity and cruelty is this in unsanctified persons to sad Psal 119.136 158. Jer. 9.1 2. 2 Pet. 2.7 8. grieve and afflict the people of God with their drunkenness wantonness and lewdness and with their cursing swearing and lying and with their scorning and scoffing at Godliness with their slandering of the Lord his people and wayes and with their resisting and quenching of the blessed motions of the Spirit and with their shifting off the glorious offers of grace and mercy Rom. 2.4 5. and with their treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath c. And then to cry out O how sadly O how mournfully doe these men walke O what uncomfortable lives doe these men live O what sorrow and pensiveness do's still attend them But is this just is this faire Suppose a husband should doe all he could to afflict and grieve his wife and a father his child and a Master his servant and a friend his friend c. and when they had done then fall a complaining that there were none so melancholy nor none so sad and sorrowfull as they O what folly what madness and what injustice were this Dan. 4.27 and yet this is the common dealing of unsanctified persons with the people of God Ah sinners sinners if you would but break off your sins by repentance and cease from doing evill and turne to the Lord with all your hearts and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and fall in with the wayes of God and trample upon this wicked world and seek after the things of a better life O how soon would the Saints sighing be turned into singing and their mourning into rejoycing O the musick the mirth the melody that your conversion would make both in their hearts and in their eares It is very observable that Abraham made a Feast at the weaning of his Son Isaac Gen. 21.8 he did not make a Feast on the day of his Nativity nor on the day of his Circumcision but on that day when he was taken from his mothers Breast O Sirs if you were but once weaned from your lusts 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Hosea 6.7 and from the vanities of this world if you were but once weaned from old corrupt customes and from following after your sinfull lovers O how would all Gods faithfull Abraham's
required of us a song and they that wasted us required of us mirth saying Sing us one of the songs of Zion How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange Land And 't is as unreasonable to expect or look that the people of God should sing and be merry rejoyce and be glad when they are under soul-distresses and under the sore rebuks of God poured from vessel to vessel c. Musick in times of mourning is as unreasonable as 't is unseasonable and unsavory Jer. 48.11 Prov. 25.20 As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather and as vinegar upon nitre so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart Musick and mourning singing and sorrow agree like Harpe and Harrow there is such a contrariety between singing and sorrow that he that sings does but add weight to his sorrow that cannot sing O sirs As there is a time for rejoycing so there is a time for mourning Eccles 3.4 as there is a time to laugh so there is a time to weep and as we must rejoyce with them that rejoyce so we must mourn with them that mourn Rom. 12.15 and weep with them that weep The condition of Gods people in this life is a mixt condition in this life they have their rejoycing times and their mourning times their laughing times and their weeping times their singing times and their sorrowing times c. 'T is true in heaven there is all joy and no sorrow all gladness and no sadness and in hell there is all sorrow and no joy all grief and no gladness all howling and no singing all madness and no mirth but in this life 't is otherwise for if there should be nothing but joy many would look for no other heaven and if there should be nothing but sorrow most would look for no other hell if men should have nothing but joy how sadly would they be puffed up And if they should have nothing but sorrow how easily would they be cast down but now by a divine hand our sorrows being mixt with our joys our hearts come to be the more effectually weaned from the vanities of this life and to long more earnestly after the pure and unmixed joys of a better life c. But Eighthly I answer that 't is possible that the sadness sorrow The cure of Melancholy belongs rather to the Physitian then to the Divine to Galen then to Paul and grief of those particular Saints that thou hast thine eye upon may arise from the natural temper and constitution of their bodies many Saints are often cast into a melancholy mould for though grace changes the disposition of the soul yet it alters not the constitution of the body Now there is no greater enemy to holy joy and gladness then melancholy for this pestilent humor will raise such strange passions and imaginations 't will raise such groundless griefs and fears and frights and such senceless surmises and jealousies as will easily damp a Christians joy and mightily vex perplex trouble and turmoyle daunt and discourage a Christians spirit A Melancholy constitution is Satans Anvil upon which he formes many black It is an old saying That Melancholia est vehiculum Daemonum dark and dismall temptations which do exceedingly tend to the keeping down of Divine consolation from rising high in the soul this black dark dusky humor disturbs both soul and body it tempts Satan to tempt the soul and it unables the soul to resist the temptation yea it prepares the soul to hearken to the temptation and to close and fall in with the temptation as the experiences of all Melancholy Christians can testifie Look as coloured glass makes the very beams of the Sun seem to be all of the same colour with it self if the glass be blew the beams of the Sun seems to be blew if the glass be red the beams of the Sun seems to be red or if the glass be green the beams of the Sun seems to be green So this black Melancholy humor represents all things to the eye of the soul as duskish and dark and as full of horror and terror yea many times it represents the bright beams of Divine love and the shinings of the Sun of righteousness and the gracious whispers of the blessed Spirit as delusions and as slights of Satan to cousen the soul I have read of a foolish Melancholy bird that stands always but upon one legg for fear her own weight though she be very small should sink her into the center of the earth and holding her other legg over her head lest the Heavens should fall upon her and crush her I shall not dispute the credibleness of the relation but certainly there is nothing that fills a Christian so full of fears and frights as a Melancholy humor does and all know that know any thing that there are no greater adversaries to joy and gladness then such fears and frights Now how absurd and unreasonable is it to father that upon holiness or upon all holy persons that proceeds from the special constitution of some particular Saints and yet this is the trade that unsanctified souls drive And let thus much suffice for answer to this grand objection and O that this objection may never have a resurrection in any of your hearts more But Fourthly some may further object and say We see that no persons Object 4 on earth are exposed to such troubles dangers afflictions and persecutions as those are exposed to who mind holiness who follow after holiness these are days wherein men labor to frown holiness out of the world and to scorn and kick holiness out of the World and do you think that we are mad now to pursue after holiness Now to this great and sore objection I shall give these following answers First It must be granted that afflictions and persecutions has been the common lot and portion of the people of God in this world Abel was persecuted by Cain Witness the sufferings of the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Saints in all ages Act. 7.52 Rev. 12.13 Act. 9.16 Lam. 5.5 The common cry of persecutors have bin Christianos ad Leones 1 Joh. 3.12 and Isaac by Ishmael Gal. 9.29 That seems to be a standing Law All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 A man may have many faint wishes and cold desires after Godliness and yet escape persecution yea he may make some assays and attempts as if he would be godly and yet escape persecution but when a man is thorowly resolved to be godly and sets himself in good earnest upon pursuing after holiness and living a life of godliness then he must expect to meet with afflictions and persecutions 'T is neither a Christians gifts nor his graces 't is neither his duties nor his services that can secure him whoever escapes the godly man shall not escape persecution in one kind or another in one degree or another he that will live
the Roman Emperour with his incestuous Herodias the suggester of that murder they were banished and fell into such misery and penury that they ended their wretched lives with much shame and misery Herod Agrippa was a great persecutor of the Saints Acts 12. Joseph Antiq. l. 19. ch 7. and he was eaten up of wormes In the third yeare of his Reigne as Josephus observes he went to Caesarea to keep certain Playes in the honor of Caesar the Gowne he was in as the same Author relates was a Gowne of silver wonderfully wrought and the beames of the Sun reflecting upon it made it so glister that it dazled the eyes of the beholders and when he had made an end of his starched Oration in this his bravery his flatterers extolled him as a God crying out 'T is the voice of a God Acts 12.21 22 23. Joseph Antiq lib. 18. ch 13. Thales Milesius the prime wise man of Greece being demanded what he had observed to be of most difficulty in the world Answered Tyrannum senem To see a Tyrant live to be an old man and not of a man whereupon he was presently smitten by the Angel of the Lord and so dyed with wormes that eate up his very intrailes the blow the Angel gave him was an inward blow and so not visible to others and his torments more and more increasing upon him the people put on sackcloth and made supplication for him but all in vaine for his paines and torments growing stronger and stronger every day upon him they seperated his wretched soule from his loathsome body within the compass of five dayes And 't is very probable that the prayers of the persecuted Church did helpe to speed this persecutor out of the world * Euseb Caiaphas the high Priest who gathered the Councel and suborned false witnesses against the Lord Christ was shortly after put out of his Office and one Jonathan substituted in his roome whereupon he killed himself †Euseb Hist li. 2. c. 7. Not long after Pontius Pilate had condemned our Lord Christ he lost his Deputiship and Caesars favour and being fallen into disgrace with the Roman Emperour and banished by him he fell into such misery that he hanged himselfe Nero that Monster of men who raised the first bloody persecution to pick a quarrel with the Christians set the City of Rome on fire and then charged it upon them under which pretence he exposes them to the fury of the people who cruelly tormented them as if they had been common burners and destroyers of Cities and the deadly enemies of mankinde yea Nero himself caused them to be apprehended and clad in wild Beasts skins and torne in pieces with Doggs others were crucified some he made Bonfires of to light him in his night-sports to be short such horrid cruelty he used towards them as caused many of their enemies to pitty them but God found out this wretched persecutor at last for being adjudged by the Senate an enemy to mankinde he was condemned to be whipt to death for the prevention whereof he cut his own throat Domitian the Author of the second persecution against the Christians was by the consent of his wife slaine by his own houshold servants with daggers in his privy chamber his body was buried without honour his memory cursed to posterity and his Armes and Ensignes were thrown downe and defaced Trajan raised the third persecution against the Church and the vengeance of God followed him for first he fell into a Palsie then lost the use of his senses afterwards he fell into a Dropsie and dyed in great anguish There was not one of those persecuting Emperours that carried on the Ten bloody persecutions against the Saints but came to miserable ends yea Histories tell us of three and forty persecuting Emperours who fell under the revenging hand of God and came to untimely ends Among the many thousand thousands of instances that might be given of the Judgements of God that have fallen upon the persecutors of the people of God in these latter dayes I shall only give you a few Faelix Earle of Wartenburge was a great persecutor of the Saints and swore that ere he dyed he would ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans but the very same night wherein he had thus sworne and vowed he was choaked with his own blood nothing would serve him but the blood of Gods people and God makes him drunk with his own blood Sir Thomas More once Lord Chancelour of England was a sworn enemy to the Gospel and persecuted the Saints with fire and faggot and amongst all his praises he reckons this the chiefest that he had been a persecutor of the Lutherans i. e. the Saints but what became of him he was first accused of Treason and then condemned and at last beheaded Judge Morgan was a great persecutor of the people of God but shortly after he had passed the sentence of condemnation upon that vertuous Lady the Lady Jane Grey he fell mad and in his mad raving fits he would continually cry out Take away the Lady Jane take away the Lady Jane from me and in that horror he ended his wretched life Drahomira after the death of her husband usurped the Government of Bohemia and was a cruell persecutor of the people of God but by a righteous hand of God it so fell out that on that very place where the Ministers bones lay unburied the earth opened of it self and swallowed her up alive with her Chariot and those that were in it which place is now to be seen before the Castle of Prague Acts and Mon. 1911. The Arch-Bishop of Toures was an earnest Sutor for the erection of a Court called Chamber Ardent for the condemning of the French Protestants to the fire but before he dyed he had fire enough for he was stricken with a disease called The Fire of God which began at his feete and so ascended upward which occasioned one member to be cut off after another and so he ended his miserable dayes Thomas Arundell Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was a grievous persecutor of the people of God and a great suspender and silencer of good Ministers he made use of his tongue braines and power to stop the mouthes and tye up the tongues of Gods faithfull Ministers but God in his righteous Judgement so struck him in his tongue that it swel'd so big that he could neither swallow nor speak for some dayes before his death and so he was starved choked and killed by this strange tumour of his tongue Mr. Groves Gleanings p. 155 156. I have read of one Mr. W. who was very busie in prosecuting an Indictment against his Minister at a Quarter Sessions for omitting the Cross in Baptisme and being a man in high favour with the Justices he made no question of prevailing at night according to his usual manner he falls to drinking till he was so extream drunk that he was faine
under a black Cassock they dare be such they make no bones on 't to sin by prescription and to damn themselves with Authority Austin brings in some excusing their compliances with the sinfull customes of those times in drinking healths thus Great personages urged it and it was at the Kings Banquet where they judged of Loyalty by Luxury and put us upon this election drink or die they thought it a sufficient excuse to plead the examples of great men And if their examples are vertuous there are none so winning and drawing as theirs Carus the Romane Emperour us'd to say Bonus duae bonus comes A good leader makes a good follower It is observable in the very course of nature that the highest Spheres are alwayes the swiftest in their motion and carry about with them the inferior Orbes by their celerity so men that are high and eminent in Authority power and dignity and eminent also in grace and holiness they carry the inferior people by their examples to a liking of holiness and to a love of holiness and to a pursuit after holiness As the biggest Stars in the Firmament are alwayes the brightest and gives the greatest lustre to those of a lesser magnitude so those that in respect both of Greatness and grace are as so many shining Stars they give the greatest light and lustre to others by their shining conversations O! what a world of good will the gracious example of a good Prince provoke unto 'T was the saying of Trajanus a Spaniard Qualis Rex Talis Grex Subjects prove good by a good Kings example Stories tells us of some that could not sleep when they thought of the Trophies of other Worthies that went before them the gracious examples of great men are very awakening quickning and provoking to that which is good as is most evident in all those Kingdomes Countries Cities and villages where such men live And therefore great men are the more obliged to be good men and honorable men to be holy men But Fourthly Of all men under heaven you will have the greatest accounts to make up with God and therefore you have the more cause to seek after holiness Where God gives much Luke 12.48 It was excellent counsell that the Heathen Oratour gave his hearers Ita vi vamus ut â—ationem nobis reddendam arbitremur Let us so live as those that must give an account of all at last there he looks for much O Sirs God will bring you to an account for that Talent of honor and that Talent of wealth and that Talent of birth and that Talent of power and that Talent of Authority and that Talent of interest and that Talent of Time c. that he has intrusted you with and how will you be able to stand in the day of account without holiness in your hearts King Philip the third of Spaine whose life was free from gross evills professing that he would rather lose all his Kingdoms then offend God willingly yet being in the Agony of death and considering more thorowly of his account that he was to give to God feare struck into him and these words brake from him Oh would to God I had never reigned oh that those years I have spent in my kingdome I had lived a private life in the Wilderness oh that I had lived a solitary life with God! how much more securely should I have now dyed how much more confidently should I have gone to the Throne of God What do's all my glory profit me but that I have so much the more torment in my death Well Gentlemen there is a day a coming wherein the Lord will call you to a strict account both for the principall and also for the interest of all those Talents of honor riches and greatness c. that he has put into your hands and how will you be ever able to hold up your heads in this day of account without you experience principles of holiness in your hearts and hold forth the power of godliness in your lives If Saul was astonished when he heard Jesus of Nazareth but calling upon him Acts 22.7 8. Mark 6.16 1 Sam. 21.9 Num. 7.10 If Herod was affrighted when he thought that John Baptist was risen from the dead If the Philistians were afraid when they saw Davids Sword If the Israelites were appalled when they saw Aarons Rod Den. 38.2 If Judah was ashamed when he saw Thamars Signet and Staffe And if Belshazzar was amazed when he saw the hand writing on the wall Dan. 5.9 O! how astonished how affrighted how ashamed and how amazed will the great ones of the world be who live and die without holiness when God shall bring them to the Barr and command them to give an account of all the Talents that he has put into their hands If the Carthagenians were troubled when they saw Scipio's Sepulchre If the Saxons were terrified when they saw Cadwallon's Image And if the Romans were dashed when they saw Caesars bloody Robe Ah how will all the Great unholy ones of the earth be troubled terrified and dashed in the great day of their accounts there are none that will have such large accounts to give up as the great ones of the world and therefore there are none that stand so strongly engaged to look after holiness as they doe But Fifthly The greater any men are on earth if they live and die without holiness the greater will be their torments in hell all their Greatness Glory and Gallantry will but sink them the lower in hell The Scribes and Pharisees were the rich the high and the great ones of the times Math. 23.14 and these Christ lays under the greater damnation The Germans have this proverb The pavement of hell say they is made of the bare sculs of the Priests and the glorious Crests of Gallants Their meaning is that the more eminent any are in Church or State and doe not employ their eminency power and Authority in wayes of piety and sanctity the lower they shall lye in hell yea these men of all others shall lye lowest in hell Rev. 18.7 Isa 47.8 How much or in as much as she hath glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her for she saith in her heart I sit a Queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow Babylons torment and sorrow must be sutable to her sin Babylon excell'd all others in pride haughtiness luxury and blasphemy c. and her punishments must be answerable So the Great the rich the high and the mighty men of the world they usually exceed all others in pride drunkenness uncleanness filthiness oppression vaine-glory Gluttony and Tyranny c. and answerable to their sins will be their torments and their punishments in hell Isa 30.33 For Tophet is ordained of old I it may be for the poore meane and beggarly of the world yea for the King it is prepared he hath made it deep
as you would not have a hand in the damnation of sinners take heed of scandalous sins O! Sirs 1 Kings 11.9 as you would not provoke the great God as you would not crucifie afresh the Lord of glory and put him to an open shame as you would not set the Comforter a mourning that alone can comfort you as you would not raise a hell in your own consciences and as you would not darken the Churches Glory fly from scandalous sins as you would fly from hell it selfe I have read of holy Polycarp that religious Martyr and Bishop of Smyrna how that in the time of the fourth persecution under Marcus Antonius Verres when he was commanded to sweare but one Oath made this Answer Euseb Hist lib. 2. cap. 15. Fourscore and six years have I endeavoured to doo God service and all this while he never hurt me and how then shall I speak evill of so good a Lord and Master who hath thus long preserved me And being further urged to sweare by the Proconsul he answered I am a Christian and cannot doe it let Heathens and Infidels sweare if they will I cannot doe it were it to the saving of my life This holy man would rather sacrifice his life then fall into a scandalous sin O Christians pray and watch and watch and pray that you may never be left to staine your own honor or the honor of your profession by falling into scandalous sins Well friends remember this 't is not infirmities but enormities 't is not weaknesses but wickednesses that will cast the crowne from off your heads and that will strip you of all your glory and therefore as you would hold fast your crowne keep at an everlasting distance from scandalous sins c. But Secondly Declare and evidence the reality and power of holiness by your cordial thankfulness for so rare a Jewel Psal 103.1 2 3 4 5. or as the originall will bare bow the knee O my soul and for so great a mercy O Sirs one drop one spark of holiness is more worth then heaven and earth and how then can you but be thankful for it Wilt thou be thankful to that God that made thee a man and wilt thou not be thankful to the same God that made thee a Saint Wilt thou bless him that made thee a creature and wilt thou not bless the same God that has made thee a new creature Wilt thou praise him for the heavens that are but the workmanship of his hands Psal 8. and wilt thou not praise him for holiness Augustin writ his 49. Ep. to one called Deo gratias which is the workmanship of his heart Tell me O Christian is not holiness a soul-mercy and what mercies wilt thou be thankful for if not for soul-mercies Tell me O Christian is not holiness of all mercies the most necessary mercy the want of other mercies might have troubled thee I but the want of holiness would have damned thee and wilt thou not be thankful for holiness which is the one thing necessary Tell me O Christian is not holiness an incomparable mercy what 's thy health thy wealth thy wit to holiness darest thou mention thy birth thy breeding thy arts thy parts thy honor thy greatness or thy advancement in the world in that day wherein holiness is spoken of surely no and wilt thou not then be thankful for such an incomparable mercy as holiness is Tell me O Christian is not holiness a peculiar mercy a peculiar treasure that God intrusts but few men with 1 John 5.19 Don't the world lye in wickedness are not the multitude in all places strangers yea enemies to holiness and how then canst thou but be thankful for holiness Yea once more tell me O Christian is not holiness a mercy sweetning mercy is it not the beauty of holiness that puts a beauty upon all thy mercies is it not holiness that bespangles all thy comforts and contentments O how sower would all thy mercies tast and how pale and wan would all thy mercies look were it not for holiness 'T is the want of holiness that makes all a mans mercies look as ill-favoured as Pharaoh's leane kine Gen. 41.2 3 4. and 't is the fruition of holiness that makes all a mans mercies look as well-favour'd as Pharaoh's fat-kine 't is holiness that both puts a colour upon all our mercies and that gives a tast and a rellish to them All our mercies without holiness will be but as the waters of Marah Exod. 15.23 24 25. bitter 't is only holiness that is the Tree that will make every bitter sweet and every sweet more sweet and how then canst thou but be thankful for holiness O remember how far off thou wert from God Eph. 2.12 and Christ and the promise and heaven and happiness when thou wast without holiness in this world O remember what a child of wrath what a bond-slave to Satan what an enemy to God and what an apparent heire to hell thou wert when thou wert an opposer of holiness and a secret despiser of holiness and then be unthankful for holiness if thou canst O remember that now by holiness of a slave thou art made a Son and of an heire of wrath Rev. 8.16 17. thou art made an heire of heaven and in stead of being Satans bond-man thou art now made Christs free-man John 8.36 thy Iron-chains are now knockt off as sometimes Joseph's were and the Golden chaine of holiness is now put upon thee Gen. 41.14.42 and what do's all this call aloud for but thankfulness This saying is also fathered on Socrates c. Thales a Heathen gave thanks to God for three things 1. That he had made him a man and not a beast 2. That he had made him a man and not a woman 3. That he was borne a Greek and not a Barbarian And O then what cause of thankfulness hast thou for thy supernatural being and for all those noble principles of holiness that the Lord has stampt upon thy soul c Shall the husbandman be thankful for a plentiful Harvest and the Merchant for quick returnes and the Shop-keeper for a full Trade and the Marriner for a good voyage and wilt not thou be much more thankful for holiness Shall the beggar be thankful for a crust to feed him and shall the blind be thankful for a dogge to lead him and shall the naked be thankful for raggs to cover him Ingratum dixeris omnia dixeris and shall the Aged be thankful for a Staffe to support him and shall the diseased be thankful for a cordial to raise him and wilt not thou be thankful for holiness yea for that holiness that is bread to strengthen thee and a Guide to lead thee and rayment to cloath thee and a Staffe to support thee and a cordial to comfort thee O remember that ingratitude is a monster in nature a solecisme in manners and a paradox in
service of God and to detract from the excellency and glory of it The Kings and Princes of this world have most severely punisht such who by their base mixtures have imbased their coyne and there is a day a coming wherein the King of Kings will most severely punish all such who have imbased his worship and service by mixing their Romish traditions with his holy institutions Rev. 22.18 Rev. 22.18 For I testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the prophesie of this booke if any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this booke And no wonder for what horrible pride presumption stoutness and baseness of spirit is it in foolish man to be so bold with the great God as to dare to mix any thing of his own with his worship and service which according to divine institution is so perfect and compleat God will never bare it to see men lay their dirt upon his gold and to put their Raggs upon his Royal Robes Ah Christians Christians evidence your holiness by standing up for holy ordinances and pure worship in opposition to all mixtures whatsoever oh don 't you touch a poluted worship don't you plead and contend for a poluted worship but let Baal plead for Baal and though all the world should wander after the Beast yet don't you wander and though every fore-head should have the mark of the Beast upon it yet doe you abhor his mark and what ever else it be that do's but smell and savour of the Beast It is observable that in Kings and Princes Courts children fools and the rude Rabble are much taken with fine pictures and rich shews and glistering gaudy cloaths c. but such as are wise serious grave Statesmen they mind not they regard not such poor things they look upon those things as things that are much below the nobleness and the greatness of their spirits who have honorable objects and the great and weighty affaires of the State to busie themselves about so my Brethren though the children the fools and the Rabble of the world are much affected and taken with such polutions and mixtures as makes up a glorious pompious worship yet you that have a spirit of holiness and principles of holiness in you O how should you slight such things and pass by such things as things below you as things not worthy of you who have a holy God a holy Christ a holy Gospel and a holy worship to busie your thoughts your minds your heads and your hearts about But Fifthly Evidence the truth and reality of your holiness by bewailing and lamenting the loss of holiness Ah how is this crowne of holiness fallen from our heads Lam. 5.16 O the leanness of souls O the spiritual witherings and decayes in grace and holiness It s very uncomfortable to see the dayes grow shorter and to see friends grow behind-hand in the world that is to be found among many Christians this day Some complaine of the loss of Trade and others complaine of the loss of estate some complaine of the loss of câ—edit and others complaine of the loss of friends but what are all these losses to the loss of holiness and yet how few be there that complaine of the loss of holiness holiness is fallen in our hearts in our families in our streets and in our Churches and yet how few are there to be found that laments the fall of holiness O Sirs will you lament such as are fallen from riches to poverty from honor into disgrace and from the highest pitch of prosperity to the lowest step of beggary and misery and will you not lament such who are fallen from the highest round to the lowest round in Jacobs Ladder O Sirs will you mourne over a decayed estate will you weep over decayed friends and will you sigh and sob over a decayed body and will you not much more lament and mourne over decayed souls c Ah how many have lost that love Rev. 2.4 5. that life that heat that zeale that readiness that forwardness and that resoluteness that once they had for God and godliness Some are fallen from their holiness by giving themselves elbow-roome to sin against the checks and lashes of conscience Psal 51. others are decayed in holiness by their secret resisting and smothering the gracious motions of the Spirit Acts 7.51 Some are fallen frpm holiness either by their neglect of precious means 1 Thes 5.20 or else by their heartless using of the meanes others are fallen from their holiness either by the allurements and enticements of a tempting world 2 Tim. 4.10 or else by the frownes and threatnings of a persecuting world Some are fallen from holiness by their non-exercise of grace and others are fallen from holiness by not discerning their first decayes in grace So that upon one account or another multitudes in these dayes are fallen from that holiness which was once their glory If you look into families there you shall finde Masters complaining that their servants are so careless foolish frothy light slight slothfull unfaithfull proud and lofty that they are not to be spoken to nor trusted and if you look againe into the same Families there you shall finde servants complaining that their Masters and Mistrisses are so exceeding froward pevish passionate worldly neglective of duties and careless of their souls that 't is even a hell to servants to live with them Now what speaks all these sad complaints but either a total want of holiness or else a very great decay of holiness And if you look among all other relations as husbands and wives parents and children Magistrates and people Ministers and Christians oh what sad divisions what fiery contentions and what feareful Jars are there to be found oh what slightings what revilings what under-valuings what heart-risings what heart-swellings and what heart-burnings are to be found amongst them and what doe all these things declare but that the Glory of God is departed from Israel and that holiness is fallen to a very low ebbe ah friends were there but more holiness among you there would be more union among you and more love among you and more sweetness and tenderness among you and more forbearance and patience among you Oh then you would never be snarling one at another nor biting one of another nor plotting one against another nor devouring one of another any more Again if you look among men whose parts are great whose gifts are high whose profession is glorious and whose expressions and notions are very seraphical ah what a little holiness will you finde O Sirs shall the men of this world vex and fret shall they weep and waile and shall their lamentation and mourning be like that of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo 2 Chron. 35.24 25. and that for the loss of a little wealth or for a punctilio of honor or a day of pleasure or
providing for eternity mind nothing Luke 12.16 21. nor talke of nothing but pullin◠down their Barns building of greater What strugling is there for places of honour what desperate ventures for rich commodities and what high attempts are there for large possessions O the time the strength the spirits Psal 4.6 that many spend in an eager pursuit after earthly things O how sad is it to consider that Satan shall have more service of a worldling for an ounce of gold then God shall have for the kingdome of heaven though the world in all its bravey is no better then the Cities which Solomon gave to Hiram which he called Cabul that is 1 Kings 9.13 displeasing or dirty yet O how mad are men upon it though all the great the gay and the glorious things of the world Gen. 3. may fitly be resembled to the fruit that undid us all which was faire to the sight smooth in handling sweet in tast but deadly in operation yet O how fond are men of these things Multi amando res noxias sunt miseri habendo miseriores August in Psal 16. and how do most long to be touching and tasting of them though a touch a tast may exclude them out of Paradise for ever O Sirs what fools in Folio are they who dare hazard the loss of a Paradise for a wilderness of a crowne for a crum of a kingdome for a Cottage and of Pearls for trifles and yet such fools are all those who spend themselves in multiplying and encreasing of their earthly enjoyments In that 13 Gen. 2. 'T is said that Abraham was very rich in Cattel in silver and in gold but according to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it runs thus Abraham was very heavie in Cattel in silver and in gold to shew that riches that gold and silver which is the great god of the world are but heavie burdens and rather a hinderance then a help to heaven and happiness Gold and silver which are but the white and yellow guts and garbage of the earth is fitly called by the Prophet Hab. 2.6 thick clay which will sooner break a mans back then satisfie his heart and O what folly and madness is it for a man to be still a loading of himself with the clay of this world though the Sumpter horse be loaden with rich treasure all the day long yet when night comes he is turn'd into the dark stinking Stable with an empty belly and with his back full of gauls sores and bruises so though vaine men may be loaded with the treasures of this world during the day of their life yet when the night of death comes then they shall be turned into a dark stinking hell with consciences full of guilt and gauls and with souls full of sores and bruises and then what good will all their treasures do them Luke 16. Though the rich man in the Gospel lived like a Gentleman a Gallant yet when he died he went to hell Though Mammon as Aretius and many others observe is a Syriack word and signifies wealth riches yet Irenaeus derives Mammon of Mum that signifies a spot and Hon that signifies riches to shew that riches have their spots and yet O how unwearied are men in their adding of spots to spots men in their pursuit after the things of this world seeme to act by an untired power they are never weary of heaping up bags upon bags nor of enlarging their Tents nor of encreasing their revenues c. Now O how should this provoke every gracious soul to be adding of grace to grace and holiness to holiness O let not the men of the world out-doe you let them not out-act you O let not nature excell grace O let the muck-wormes of this world know that divine principles are too high and noble to be matcht or to be out-acted by any thing that they can doe O Sirs shall children grow in your families and oxen grow in your stalls and fish grow in your ponds grass grow in your fields and flowers grow in your gardens c. and shall not holiness grow in your hearts well friends remember this 't is infinitely better to be poore men and rich Christians then to be rich men and poore Christians But Sixteenthly To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of holiness consider that the more holiness you attaine to in this world the more weighty and heavy the more bright and glorious will be your faithfull Ministers crowne O Sirs as you rise higher and higher in holiness 2 Epist of John 4. so the springs of joy rises higher and higher in your Ministers souls O Christians 't is neither your seraphical notions nor your pompous profession 't is neither your good words nor your sweet looks 't is neither your civilities nor your courtesies that raises joy in your Ministers hearts or that will adde to your Ministers crowne Rom. 15.14 but an encrease of holiness will do both The Thessalonians were rare Christians they were very eminent high in holiness as you may see in that 1 Thes 1.5 6 7 8. And they were the Apostles joy and crowne of rejoycing as you may see in Ch. 2.19 20. For what is our hope or joy or crowne of rejoycing are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming For ye are our glory and joy The Apostle tells these raised these renowned Thessalonians that as they were now his hope his glory and joy so at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ they should be his joy and crowne of rejoycing Look as Christ has his thousand Shekels of silver Shekels of silver were their common money and a name both for weight and coyne being in value answerable to our English half-crowns so his faithful laborious Ministers have their two hundred Shekels of silver and that indeed is a great reward Cant. 8.12 My vineyard which is mine is before me thou O Solomon must have a thousand and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred O what an honor is it for faithful Ministers to have a fift part of that Reward that Christ has himself in this 12 v. Christ opposeth his vineyard his Church to that of Solomons which is mentioned in v. 11. and though doubtless Solomons vineyard was one of the rarest choicest and fruitfullest vineyards in all Judaea yet it was wonderful inferiour to Christs vineyard and that partly because Christs vineyard cost him a dearer and a greater price even the price of his blood then ever Solomons cost him 1 Pet. 1.18 19 partly bécause his vineyard serves to more spiritual high honorable and noble ends 1 Tim. 3.15 then ever Solomons did viz. the glory exaltation of God the propagating of truth the bringing forth of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 23. viz. love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance the bringing in of sinners and the
Secondly There are degrees of Torments in Hell and therefore by the Rule of Contraries there shall bee degrees of Glory in Heaven Now that there are degrees of torments in Hell is most evident from several plain Scriptures as from that 10th of Matth. v. 14 15. And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when yee depart out of that house or City shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you Contempt of Christ and his Gospel is worse than Sodomy it shall be more tollerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than for that City Sodom and Gomorrah shall have an easier and cooler Hell than such Cities shall have that have contemned the tenders of Grace and the offers of Mercy 'T is very observable that the punishments that God in this life hath inflicted upon the Jews for their contempt of Christ and his everlasting Gospel have been more terrible than his raining Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah for on a sudden and in a moment God consumed them and burnt them up but God hath for above this sixteen hundred years been a raining Hell out of Heaven upon the Jews hee hath for a long time vext them with all manner of adversity and to this very day hee hath made them all the world over a spectacle of his dreadful severity but all those plagues and punishments that the Jews have been and still are under are but flea-bitings and scratches on the hand to those dreadful and amazing judgements that God in the great day of account will inflict upon all Christs refusers and Gospel-despisers And so chap. 11.20 21 22 23. Then began hee to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Chorazin wee unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you it shall bee more tollerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgement than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted up to Heaven shalt bee brought down to Hell for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day The more mercy hath been upon the bare knee intreating sinners to repent the more earnest the Lord Jesus hath been in wooing sinners to beleeve on him and to resign up themselves wholly and only to him the more clearly and sweetly the everlasting Gospel hath sounded in sinners ears and the more neer and the more often Heaven hath been brought to sinners doors and yet they have bid defiance to all and hardened themselves in their sins with the greater violence and with the more dreadful vengeance shall such be plunged into the lowest Hell And so in that Mat. 23.14 Woe unto you Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites for yee devour Widdows houses and for a pretence make long prayer therefore yee shall receive the greater damnation Hypocrites shall bee double-damned the hottest and the darkest place in Hell is reserved for them Give him his portion with hypocrites for number and weight there are no torments in Hell to the torments of hypocrites Counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and therefore 't is but justice that the hypocrite should have double torment And so in that Luke 12.47 48. That servant that knows his Masters will and doth it not shall be beaten with many stripes and hee that knew it not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall bee beaten with few stripes Sins against light and knowledge are sins against the noblest remedy they waste and wound the conscience most they most open sinners mouths to blaspheme God and they most harden sinners hearts in sinning against God and every way they dare God most and provoke God most to strike with an Iron-Rod and to whip the knowing transgressor not with Rods but with Scorpions 'T is very observable that the more light and knowledge men sin against in this world Rom. 1.21 22 23. the greater judgements God gives them up to even in this life take a remarkable instance in the most refined and civil Heathens who are presumed to have most light and knowledge who were given up to the most beastly errours about the nature of God as the Romans and Grecians who worshipped Feavers and humane passions yea every paltry thing c. whereas the Scythians and more barbarous Nations worshipped the Sun and the Thunder c. things terrible in themselves Oh how much more then will God in the great day give them up to the greatest judgements who have given themselves up to the greatest sins Certainly the Professors of this age yea of this City whether they go to Heaven or Hell will be the greatest debtors that shall be in either place the one to the Free-grace of God and the other to his Justice that they that have most of Hell in their mouths and most of Hell in their hearts and most of Hell in their lives should have most of Hell in their souls at last is but justice I shall conclude this second Argument with a saying of one of the Antients Augustin Look saith hee as in Heaven one is more glorious than another so in Hell one shall be more miserable than another Now if there be degrees of torments in Hell which I suppose the Scriptures but now cited doth undeniably prove then doubtless there will be degrees of glory in Heaven Thirdly God in this life dispenses the gifts and graces of his Spirit unequally among his Saints to some hee gives two Talents to others five and to others ten Hence 't is you read both of a weak Faith and of a strong Faith Matth. 25. and ch 8.10 26. ch 15.28 Why are yee afraid O yee of little Faith And O woman great is thy Faith And Verily I have not found so great Faith no not in Israel And hence it is that you read both of weak Christians and of strong Christians Hee that is weak in the Faith receive Rom. 14.1 2. 1 Cor. 9.22 2 Cor. 12.10 Heb. 5.13 14 1 Pet. 2.2 v. 1. Another who is weak eateth herbs And to the weak I became as weak that I might win the weak Wee then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves When I am weak then am I strong And hence 't is that you read of Babes and of Children and of young Men and of old Men in the Scripture Saints are of different growths Some are but babes in gifts and grace others are children others young men and others old men That God that distributes the good things of this world unequally among the Sons of men as to some more to others less to some great things to others little things to some high things to others low things that God unequally distributes
ever was or that is this day in the world all the seeds of holiness and all the roots of holiness that are to be found in Angels or men Phil. 1.11 are of the Lords sowing and planting All that holiness that the Angels had in Heaven and all that holiness that Adam had in Paradise and all that holiness that Christ had in his humane nature and all that holiness that ever any Saints have had was from God and all that holiness that any Saints now have is from God The Divine Nature is the first root and original fountain of all sanctity and purity James 1.17 Ministers may pray that their people may be holy and Parents may pray that their children may be holy and Masters may pray that their servants may be holy and husbands may pray that their wives may be holy and Wives may pray that their husbands may be holy but none of these can give holinesse none of these can communicate holinesse to their nearest and dearest relations t is only God that is the giver and the Author of all holinesse If holy persons could convey holinesse into others souls they would never suffer them to go to Hell for want of holiness to hand out holiness to others is a work too high for Angels and too hard for all mortals 't is only the Holy One that can cause holiness to flow into sinners hearts 't is only hee that can form and frame and infuse holiness into the souls of men A man shall sooner make a man yea make a world and unmake himself than hee shall make another holy t is only a holy God that can enlighten the mind and bow the will and melt the heart and raise the affections and purge the conscience and reform the life and put the whole man into a holy gracious frame and temper But Sixthly As God is originally radically and fundamentally holy Isa 44.24 Rev. 1.18 so God is independently holy the Holiness of God depends upon nothing below God God is the Alpha the fountain from â—â—ence all holinesse springs and hee is the Omega the Sea to which all glory runs As all our holiness is from God so all our holiness must terminate in the honour and glory of God 'T is God alone that is independently holy All that holiness that is in Angels and men is a dependent holiness it depends upon the Holiness of God as the streams depend upon the Fountain the beams upon the Sun the branches upon the Root and the members upon the Head God is Unum principium ex quo cuncta dependent one beginning upon whom all things depend God hath his Being only of himself and 't is hee alone that gives Being unto all other things God is the first cause and without all causes himself the very Beings that Angels and men have they have by participation from God And 't is the first cause that giveth unto all causes their proper operations Isa 44.6 I am the first and I am the last and besides mee there is no God God never had a cause of his Being as all other creatures have He is a glorious being a holy being without all causes either efficient or formal or material or final and therefore hee must needs be independently holy Look as the power of God is an independent power and the wisdome of God an independent wisdome and the goodness of God an independent goodness and the righteousness of God an independent righteousness so the holiness of God is an independent holiness And as it is the glory of his power that his power is an independent power and the glory of his goodnesse that his goodnesse is an independent goodnesse so 't is the glory of his holinesse that his holinesse is an independent holinesse And look as all that power that Angels and men have depends upon the power of God and as all that wisdome that Angels and men have depends upon the wisdome of God and as all that goodnesse that Angels and men have depends upon the goodnesse of God so all that holinesse that Angels and men have depends upon the holinesse of God c. Philo could say that God is such a fountain that hee breaks forth with the streams of his goodnesse upon all things but receives nothing back again from any to better himself therewith There are none in Heaven nor none on Earth that are absolutely independent but God alone Seventhly As God is independently holy so God is constantly holy hee is unchangeably holy hee was holy yesterday and hee is holy to day and hee will be holy for ever What is natural is constant and lasting Now Gods holinesse is natural to him 't is as natural for God to be holy as 't is for us to breathe yea as 't is for us to bee unholy God can as well and as soon cease to bee as hee can cease to be holy Holinesse is his nature as well as his name and therefore his holinesse cannot decay though ours may whatever wee may lose of our holinesse yet 't is certain that God can never lose one grain of that holinesse that is in him Here our holinesse ebbs and flows but the Holinesse of God never ebbs but is alwaies a flowing and over-flowing there is still a full tyde of Holinesse in God Though the Saints cannot fall from that seed of holinesse that is sown in their hearts 1 Joh. 3.9 yet they may fall from some degrees of holinesse that they have formerly attained to they that have been old men in holinesse may fall from being old men to be but young men in holinesse and they that have been young men in holinesse 1 Joh. 2.12 13 14. 2 Pet. 2.1 2 3. may fall from being young men to be but children in holinesse and they that have been children in holiness may fall from being children to be but babes in holiness but now that holiness that is in God is never subject to any decayings abatings or languishing that spring that Sea of holiness that is in God is no waies capable of diminution nor of Augmentation Plato could say that God is one and the same Pierius and alwaies like himself And it was a custome among the Turks to cry out every morning from a high Tower God alwaies was and alwaies will bee and so salute their Mahomet O Sirs God hath been alwaies holy and God will bee alwaies holy whatever men may lose yet God is resolved that hee will never lose his honour nor his holiness But Eighthly and lastly As God is continually holy so God is exemplarily holy Levit. 20.26 Remember this you and I must answer for examples as well as precepts Hee is the Rule Pattern and Example of holiness 1 Pet. 1.15 Bee yee holy as I am holy Gods Holiness is the great example and pattern of all that holiness which is in the creatures Gods holiness is the Copy that we must alwaies have in our eye and indeavour most
Sons and stand by them as Sons and lay up for them as Sons and lay out himself for them as Sons that they that have not deserved a smile from God a good word from God a bit of bread from God or a good look from God should be made the Sons of God What manner of love is this that they that have so highly provoked God that they that have walkt so cross and contrary to God that they that were so exceeding unlike to God that they that have preferred every lust and every toy and vanity before God that they that have fought many years under Satans Banner against God that they that have refused all the offers of mercy that hath been made by God that they that have deserved to be reprobated by God to be damned by God and to be thrown to Hell by God that these should be made the Sons of God O stand and wonder O stand and admire at the freeness of Grace and at the riches of Grace But Seventhly If thou art a holy person if thou art one that hast that real holiness without which there is no happiness then know for thy comfort that thou art an undoubted heir of everlasting Glory Rom. 8.16 17 18. James 2.5 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Rom. 8.29 30. For whom hee did foreknow hee also did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son that is in holinesse that hee might bee the first born among many Brethren Moreover whom hee did predestinate them hee also called and whom hee called them hee also justified and whom hee justified them hee also glorified Holiness is a most sure earnest and pawn of glory 2 Thes 2.13 God hath chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 1 Joh. 3.2 3. When hee shall appear wee shall be like him that is in glory for wee shall see him as hee is And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as hee is pure Hee that hath a real hope a lively hope of being like to Christ in Glory and of reigning with Christ in Heaven will set roundly upon the work of self-purifying there is no hope to that hope that runs out into holiness and that leads the soul on to the highest degrees of purification and that inables a man to set up Christs purity as the most perfect Pattern and exact Coppy for his Imitation Titus 3.4 5 6 7. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of Righteousness which wee have done but according to his mercy hee saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which hee shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour That being justified by his Grace wee should bee made heirs according to the hope of eternal Life Holiness is an infallible forerunner of glory 't is the first-fruits of that eternal happiness and blessedness that God hath laid up for his children in the highest Heavens And O what cause of joy and gladness should this be to every holy heart what though thou shouldest never have a good day more on Earth what though all the springs of comfort should be dried upon thy right hand and on thy left hand what though God should never smile on thee more in this world what though the remaining part of thy life should bee filled up with crosses losses troubles and trials what though God should let Satan loose to tempt thee and wicked men grow strong to oppress thee and friends turn enemies to grieve thee Yea what if thou shouldest go to thy grave with tears in thy eyes and with sorrow in thy heart yet as long as thou art sure that thou art an heir of Glory and that all the happiness of Heaven is thine and that thy Crown is safe Psal 16. ult and that thou shalt be for ever filled and satisfied with those everlasting pleasures and delights that be at Gods right hand thou hast cause to joy and rejoyce in the midst of all thy sorrows and sufferings Heb. 12.28 1 Pet. 1.3 4. See my String of Pearls on that very Text. yea to glory and triumph in the hopes and expectations of a Kingdome that shakes not of a Crown that withers not of Riches that corrupt not and of an Inheritance that fadeth not away O Sirs 't is not all the Silks of Persia nor all the Spices of Egypt nor all the Gold of Ophir nor all the Treasures of both Indies nor all the Crowns and Scepters in the world no nor yet the worth of ten thousand worlds that are to be compared with that Glory that is treasured up for all Gods holy ones they have an Inheritance reserved in Heaven for them that cannot be moth-eaten nor spoiled by hostile invasion nor wrung from them by power nor won from them by Law nor mortgaged for debt nor impaired by publick calamity nor plundered by Theeves and Robbers nor changed by Kings or Parliaments no nor violated by death it self and therefore what infinite cause of joy and rejoycing have all such that are interested in such an Inheritance and in such a perfect happiness and compleat blessedness that is reserved in Heaven for all Gods holy ones O what a singular comfort must this be to a Christian in the midst of all his miseries and distresses Psal 73.24 when hee is able to look upon God and say This God is my God for ever and ever and hee shall be my Guide to Glory and when hee is able to look up to Heaven and say This is my Inheritance yea when hee is able to look upon all the Glory and Happiness of another world and to say All this Glory and Happiness is mine for I have that Holiness that is the earnest of it Qui spirituali exultationis oleo uncti sunt c. Macar Hom. 17. the pawn of it and the first-fruits of it in my own soul 'T was an observable saying of Macarius They that are anointed with the spiritual Oil of gladness saith hee have received a sign of that incorruptible Kingdome to wit Gods Spirit for an earnest they are the Secretaries of the Heavenly King and relying confidently upon the Almighty they enter into his Palace where the Angels and the Spirits of holy men are although they be yet in this world for although they be not yet come to the intire Inheritance which is prepared for them in that world yet they are most sure of it by that pledge which they have newly received as sure as if they were already crowned and had the key of the Kingdome in their own possession 'T was a very sweet and comfortable speech which the Emperour used to Galba in his childehood and minority when hee took him by the chin and said Tu Galba c. Thou Galba shalt one day sit upon a Throne so 't is very sweet and
and wait and wait and pray look and long and long and look for the breaking forth of this day of glory upon the world The seventh and last Proposition is this That though the people of God ought to bee holy at all times yet there are some special times and seasons wherein God calls aloud for holiness more than hee doth at other times and wherein hee looks and expects that his people should be eminently holy as well as really holy Quest But what are those special times and seasons wherein God calls loudest for Holiness and most for Holiness I answer they are these First After great and sore falls O now God calls aloud for holiness Jer. 3. â—sal 51. Job 3. ch 12.4 5. Isa 38.14 Mat. 26. ult David after his great falls greatly humbles himself before the Lord. And Job after his bitter cursing and heavy complaining abhorrs himself in dust and ashes And Hezekiah after his great miscarriage did chatter like a Crane and mourn as a Dove And Peter after his hellish cursing hiâ— desperate swearing and his hideous lying goes forth and weeps bitterly So Origen after hee had denied the Truth and sacrificed to an Idol hee â—ame to Jerusalem and being desired to preach and having opened his Bible the first Scripture that his eye was fixt upon was that Psal 50.16 17. verses What hast thou to do to take my Word into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to bee reformed whereupon hee shut his Book sate down and fell into a passion of weeping and so came out of the Pulpit as not being able to speak to the people After great falls God expects and looks that his people should bee more fearful of sin than ever and more careful of pleasing and honouring of him than ever and more resolute in resisting of temptations than ever and more constant and abundant in a way of duty than ever and more thankful and fruitful under mercies than ever and more quiet and silent under afflictions than ever and more stout and couragious in the face of all opposition than ever more wise and circumspect in their walkings than ever and more vigilant and diligent to prevent avoid future falls than ever how else will the honour of God bee repaired and the glory of Religion bee vindicated and the Credit of the Gospel be raised and the grieved Saints bee rejoyced and young beginners in Religion be afresh incouraged and secure sinners bee awakened convinced and converted But Secondly When God shews singular mercy to his people and when hee doth great things for his people then hee expects and looks that his people should bee a holy people and then hee calls loudest for Holiness Exod. 19.3 4 5. And Moses went up unto God and the Lord called unto him out of the Mountain saying Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel Yee have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bare you upon Eagles wings and brought you unto my self Now therefore of yee will obey my voice indeed and keep my Covenant then yee shall bee a peculiar treasure unto mee above all people for all the Earth is mine Here Moses makes use of a very elegant expression to shew the singular love Vide Aristotle l. 9. de Historia Animalium care kindness and goodness of God towards his people Hee bare you upon Eagles wings the Eagle is a very Princely Noble Bird shee fears no Birds from above to hurt her young ones and because shee fears the Arrow from beneath therefore shee carries her young ones upon her wings so that there is no hurting nor harming nor no killing of them but by shooting through the body of the old one other Birds carry their young ones in their talons and so expose them to danger but the Eagle carries hers upon her wings that they may bee safe and secure Moses to shew how choice and chary God was of Israel and how much hee stood upon their safety and security tells them that he carried them upon Eagles wings that so none of their enemies might ruine or destroy them yea that they might not so much as in the least hurt or harm them hee carried them out of Egypt and hee carried them through the Red-Sea sweetly swiftly strongly and tenderly as the Eagle carried her young ones when danger is at hand Now God having exprest such love such care such bowels such tenderness such sweetness and such kindness to his people hee looks and expects that they should bee a holy people and therefore hee strongly urges them to obey Gods voice indeed and to keep his Covenant now what is it for a man to obey Gods voice indeed and to keep his Covenant out to bee really holy yea to be eminently holy So in that 10th of Deut. where Moses had made a large Narrative of the singular favours and mercies of God to Israel in the eleven first verses of that chapter hee falls in the 12 and 13. verses upon pressing of them to bee a holy people And now Israel what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his waies and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul To keep the Commandements of the Lord and his statutes which I command thee this day The word in the 12th vers rendred require is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shoel from Shaal which signifies to ask to request or petition a person Now here â—â—ses brings in God asking requesting and petitioning of Isrâ— l that they would fear him and walk in his waies c. and what is that but that they would bee a holy people to him that had done such great and glorious things for them the word in the 13. vers rendred keep is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shamar which signifies to keep carefully diligently Job 7.12 1 King 20.39 faithfully to keep as watch-men keep the City or as Souldiers keep their Garrisons or as Jaylors keep their Prisoners Now God would have his people thus to keep his Commandements and his Statutes and this God would have them to do upon the account of those high acts of favour and grace that hee had shewed unto them and thus to keep his Commandements and his Statutes what is it but to be a holy people yea to be a very holy people unto the Lord And so in that Ezra 9.13 14. Seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve and hast given us such deliverance as this should wee again break thy Commandements and joyn in affinity with the people of these abominations wouldest thou not bee angry with us till thou hast consumed us so that there should bee no remnant nor escaping Free and rich mercy calls hardest and loudest for duty the more merciful God hath been to his people the more fearful they should be of offending of him
except there be sound repentance on their sides and pardoning mercy on Gods they are so abominable debauched and wicked But Eightly When God hath separated and severed his people from the corrupt and sinful customes and manners of the world and brought them into fellowship with himself and into Gospel-Communion with one another O then in a special manner hee calls aloud upon them to be holy Levit. 20.23 24 26. And yee shall not walk in the manners of the Nation which I cast out before you for they committed all these things and therefore I abhorred them But I have said unto you ye shall inherit their Land and I will give it unto you to possess it a Land that floweth with milk and hony I am the Lord your God which have separated you from other people And yee shall be holy unto mee for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that yee should bee mine Distinguishing mercies should breed and nourish distinguishing qualities O Sirs 't is not for you who are separated and severed from the world by God to be proud and carnal and formal and distrustful and hypocritical and earthly and froward c. as the world is 't is not for you to deny your principles to debauch your consciences to change your notes to turn your coats to defile your souls to blot your names and to scandalize your profession O Sirs if God hath separated you and severed you from the world by a call from Heaven it highly concerns you not to think as the world thinks nor to speak as the world speaks nor to judge as the world judges nor to walk as the world walks nor to worship as the world worships but so to think speak judge walk and worship as may make most for the honour of God the glory of the Gospel and as best becomes those that have had the honour and the happiness of being separated and severed by God from the world But Ninthly When the day of the Lord draws neer and when wee look for the accomplishment of great things O then God calls aloud upon his people to bee holy 2 Pet. 3.10 11 12 13 14. But the day of the Lord will come as a Theif in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Element shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall bee burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall bee desolved what manner of persons ought yee to bee in all holy conversation and godliness Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall bee desolved and the Element shall melt with fervent heat Never-the-less wee according to his promise look for a new Heaven and new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Wherefore Beloved seeing that yee look for such things bee diligent that yee may bee found of him in peace without spot and blameless The neerer the day of Christ is to us and the more great and glorious things wee expect from God Isa 65.17 18 19 20. the more holy the more spotless and the more blameless wee must labour to bee I know there are many that look for new heavens and a new earth that is for a glorious Church-state here on earrh wherein shall dwell righteousness 't is certain that the highest Heavens where God keeps his Royal Court was never without righteousness righteousness hath been alwaies the habitation of his Throne righteousness hath alwaies dwelt in the highest Heavens and indeed Heaven would bee no Heaven yea it would rather hee a Hell than a Heaven if righteousness did not alwaies dwell there neither can the highest Heaven ever wax old neither were they ever made of Earth or Brittle mouldering matter the Pallace of the great King will bee alwaies new fresh shining and gloriousness but indeed the Earth in all Ages have been full of injustice unrighteousness wickedness tyranny cruelty and oppression so that righteousness seems to have been banished out of the world ever since Adam fell from his primitive righteousness and holiness O! but there is a glorious day a coming wherein the Earth shall bee full of righteousness and holiness as I have formerly proved at large from other Scriptures Now Christians the more great and glorious things you expect from God as the downfall of Antichrist the conversion of the Jews the conquest of the nations to Christ the breaking off of all yoâ—ks the new Jerusalems coming down from above the extraordinary pouring out of the spirit and a more general union among all Saints the more holy yea the more eminently holy in all your waies and actings it becomes you to bee many there bee that will talke high and speak big words and tell you stories of great things that they expect and look for in these daies which are the last of the last times and yet if you look into their lives you shall finde them loose and vain and what not O! that these would for ever remember that the more great and glorious things wee expect and look for from God the more holiness God expects and looks for from us and therefore as wee would not have God fail our expectation let not us frustrate his and the higher your expectation rises the higher alwaies let your holiness rise Eccle. 12 2 3 4 5. for there is nothing that will hasten that desirable day of glory upon the world like this But Tenthly and lastly When you draw neer your end when there are but a few steps between you and the Grave between you and Eternity when you have but a little time to live when death stands at your backs and treads on your heels and knocks at your doors when the eyes begin to grow dark when the grinders begin to cease when the keepers of the house the hands and the arms begin to tremble and when the strong men the legs and thighs begin to bow and stagger and totter as being too weak to bear the bodies burden O then what a holy people should you bee this very consideration had a very great influence upon that great Apostles spirit in that 2 Pet. 1.12 13 14 15. Wherefore I will not bee negligent to put you alwaies in remembrance of these things though yee know them and bee established in the present truth Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To rouse you up The Greek word signifies to awaken rouse and raise such as are a sleep There is a sinful slugishness and drousiness that often hangs upon the best of men and therefore they stand in much need of being awakned and roused up to look after their spiritual and eternal concernments to stir you up by putting you in remembrance knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ shewed me Moreover I will endeavour that you
shall learn righteousness that is they shall learn to fear thee upon the account of thy righteous judgement suitable to that Job 37.23 24. Touching the Almighty we cannot finde him out he is excellent in power and in judgement and in plenty of justice Men do therefore fear him he respecteth not any that are wise of heart and to that Rev. 15.4 Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name for thou onely art holy for all nations shall come and worship before thee for thy judgements are made manifest The judgements of God upon Antichrist shall so awaken alarm and affect the nations that they shall cast off all false ways of worship and worship the Lord in a more pure spiritual high and noble way then ever yet they have done God is a free Agent and he can make sinners Saints as well by judgements as by mercies Waldus from whom the Waldenses had their name when many were met together to be merry seeing one among them suddenly fall down dead it struck so to his heart that he went home a penitent and proved a very precious holy man Rabbi Salomon on Prov. 9.25 Pharaoh was not a pin the better for all the plagues that came upon him but Jethro taking notice of Gods heavy judgements upon Pharaoh and likewise upon the Amalekites was thereby converted and became a Proselyte as some observe O sirs who can tell but that a fixed eye upon the remarkable judgements of God that has been inflicted upon notorious sinners may be a means to change you and turn you to the Lord forget not the plagues that came upon bloody Pharaoh Remember how crafty Achitophel and proud Haman and covetous Judas came all to the halter forget not how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up Corah and his companions forget not the Angel that drew upon Balaam nor Samuels sword that cut Agag in pieces nor the Royal Oake on which Absalom was hanged nor the Javlin by which Phinehas in his zeal for God thrust through Zimri and Cozbi remember how Ananias and Saphira were struck dead with a lye in their mouthes remember how God rained hell out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah remember how suddenly how unexpectedly and how inevitably the flood came upon the old world and remember how the Angels that kept not their first station of holiness See the Theatre of Gods Judgments by Dr. Beard and Dr. Taylor and see Mr. Clarks Looking-glass both for Saints and sinners are now in chains under everlasting darkness O who can seriously dwell upon the severe judgements of God upon these persons and not resolve upon breaking off his sins and pursuing after that holiness without which there is no happiness O! remember that God is as holy a God as ever and as just a God as ever and as jealous of his glory as ever and therefore turn from the evil of your doings that your souls may live O! that the dreadful judgements of God that has been executed upon others might so alarm all unholy hearts that they may with all their might cast off the works of darkness and put on the Armor of light that so they may be children of the light and their souls may live for ever And thus much for the means whereby men may reach to that holiness without which there is no happiness I come now in the third place to answer those objections which usually are made against mens pursuing after holiness As Object First We have no power to make our selves holy we are as well able to make a world to command the winds and to raise the dead as we are able to cleanse our own hearts or change our own natures or sanctifie our own souls and therefore to what purpose should we be so strongly prest to do that which we have no power to do Now to this objection I shall give these following answers First That thou hast no power to perform any supernatural act as to believe or love God or repent or to change thine own heart or to sanctifie or make thy self holy must be granted that by nature thou art dead in trespasses and sins and hast lost all thy spiritual senses of seeing hearing tasting Eph. 2.1 and feeling can't be denyed 't is certain that thy nature is so corrupted that thou canst not think a good thought 2 Cor. 3.5 Mat. 12.34 Joh. 6.44 1 Cor. 2.14 nor speak a good word nor do a good work thou art not sick but dead God-wards and Christ-wards and heaven-wards and holiness-wards c. I have read of the Lyoness how that she brings forth her whelps dead and so they remain till after some time by her roaring aloud over them they come to live certainly all unholy hearts are spiritually dead and till Christ the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah comes to roar over them by uttering his voice in the Gospel they cannot live John 5.25 't is Christ onely that can quicken the dead 't was never known since the creation of the world that ever a dead man could make himself alive 1 King 8.38 Sin in Dominion is the plague of the heart now as there is no disease so deadly as the plague so there is no plague so deadly as the plague of the heart O this is a disease that none can cure but he who is the Physitian of souls an unsanctified person is not half dead as the Pelagians Arminians and Papists say but as to spirituals he is stark dead Col. 2.13 An unsanctified soul is dead 1. Respectu operis In respect of working and therefore his works are called dead works Heb. 9.14 There is death written upon all he does 2. Respectu honoris He is dead in respect of honor he is dead to all priviledges he is not fit to inherit mercy who will set the crown of life upon a deads man head the crown of life is for the holy Christian and the holy Christian is for the crown of life Rev. 2.10 2 Tim. 4.8 When he in Plutarch had tried all manner of ways to raise a dead man and to make him stand upon his feet and saw he could not do it then he cryed out there must be something within there must be something within So when men have said and done all they can there must be something within there must be something of the power and Spirit of Christ within that must raise up spiritual life in those that are spiritually dead But Secondly I answer That God gave thee ability and power in Adam to obey him in all his commands Gen. 1.26 Eccles 7.29 Psal 8.4 ult and though by Adams fall thou hast lost thy power to obey yet God has not lost his right and power to command thee to obey Suppose a father should furnish a Child with moneys and all other necessaries to go a journey and he should be drawn in by some stronge temptation to spend his money his time and his strength
comfortable for the Saints to consider that how mean and contemptible soever they may be in the eyes of the world that yet there is a day a coming when they shall sit upon a Throne and be crowned with Glory and reign with Christ to all Eternity But Eighthly If thou art a holy person if thou hast that real holiness without which there is no happiness then know for thy comfort that all things shall be sanctified unto thee Tit. 1.15 Unto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbeleeving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled When a mans heart is once sanctified then all things are sanctified to him when a mans Spirit and way is clean and pure then all things are clean and pure to him O Sirs this is so great and so glorious a priviledge to have all things sanctified to us that 't is more worth than a world yea than many worlds Next to a mans interest in Christ hee cannot begge a greater mercy than this that all things may be sanctified to him that is that all things may so work as to make him more and more holy that every cross may make him more holy and that every comfort may make him more holy that every mercy may make him more holy and that every misery may make him more holy that every Ordinance may make him more holy and that every Providence may make him more holy that every Affliction at home may make him more holy and that every Judgement abroad may make him more holy every condition is sweet when it is sanctified to us sickness is as sweet as health when 't is sanctified to us and weakness is as sweet as strength when 't is sanctified to us and poverty is as sweet as liberty when 't is sanctified to us and disgrace is as sweet as honour when 't is sanctified to us and bonds are as sweet as liberty when they are sanctified to us and death is as sweet as life when it is sanctified to us Look as no condition can be a happy condition that is not a sanctified condition so no condition can bee a miserable condition that is a sanctified condition now this is only the holy man priviledge the holy mans mercy to have every estate and every condition sanctified unto him and this indeed is the Cream and Crown of all our mercies to have them sanctified unto us I and every bitter will bee sweet yea very sweet when 't is sanctified unto us what though thy mercies O Christian are fewer than others and lesser than others and leaner than others and shorter than others yet thou hast no reason to complain as long as thy mercies are sanctified mercies and what though thy tryals are greater than others and thy burden is heavier than others and thy sorrows are deeper than others and thy crosses comes thicker than others yet thou hast no cause to complain as long as they are sanctified Art thou a Holy person O then remember for thy comfort that every bit of bread thou eatest is sanctified and every draught of beer thou drinkeh is sanctified and every suit of cloaths thou wearest is sanctified the beds thou liest on are sanctified and the stooles thou sitest on are sanctified the very aire thou breathest in is sanctified and the very ground thou treadest on is sanctified every penny in thy purse is sanctified and every pound in thy shop is sanctified whatsoever thou hast at home is sanctified and what-ever thou hast abroad is sanctified And O! how should the sense of these things sweeten all thy bitters and turn thy Hell into Heaven and wipe all tears from thy eyes and turn thy sighing into singing and thy mourning into rejoycing c. But As those Heathens that have no hope 1 Thes 4.13 Ninthly If thou art a Holy Person if thou hast that real holiness without which there is no happiness then know for thy comfort that thou art a person very high in favour with God thou art one of his peculiar ones Dan. 14.1 Yee are the Children of the Lord your God yee shall not cut your selves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God and 〈…〉 the Lord hath chosen thee to bee a peculiar people to himself above all the Nations that are upon the Earth All Gods holy ones are his peculiar ones God hath a peculiar respect for their persons Dan. 9.23 O Daniel thou art greatly beloved or as the Hebrew word Chamudoth signifies thou art a man of desires Now Daniel is called a man of desires because the desires of God run out strongly after him as one that was singularly beloved of him and as one that was highly in favour with him and as God hath a peculiar respect for their persons so hee hath a peculiar respect for their duties and services Prov. 15.8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight God takes more delight to hear the prayers of the upright and to grant the prayers of the upright than the upright takes delight to pray how burdensome and troublesome soever their prayers may bee to others yet they are still delightfull to God but more of this in the next Particular And as God hath a peculiar respect for their services so hee hath a peculiar respect for their tears for hee puts them into his Bottle Psal 56.8 and as hee hath a peculiar respect for their tears so hee hath a peculiar respect for their names for hee writes them in his Book Luke 10.20 And as hee hath a peculiar respect for their names so hee hath a peculiar respect for their blood Psa 116.15 and this Cain found by wofull experience from the cry of his Brothers Blood O Sirs God by making of you holy hath made you like himself like his Son like his Spirit and like his most glorious Angels which excel in strength and what doth this speak out but Gods peculiar favour God makes many rich and many great and many honourable and many mighty and many wise and many noble and many beautifull and many successful whom hee will never make holy Ephes 1.3 in making of you holy God hath made you spiritually great rich honourable wise and beautiful c. and this speaks you out to bee highly in the favour of God Holiness is a singular fruit of Gods special favour and love God hath a common favour and love for all men yea for the worst of men Ephes 2.4 5. witnesse that common preservation and common protection and common provision that hee vouchsafeth to them and God hath a special love and favour and this runs out only to his holy ones holiness is a divine beam a heavenly drop a choice pledge of Gods special favour and love O Sirs though the world may slight you and enemies revile you and friends dis-favour