destroy Natural Liberty Where the Spirit does not find sinners willing by his sweet Methods he makes them willing Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power a day of power yet willing Even the Spirits Drawing is managed with all consistency to the freedom of the will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys he draws but 't is one that he makes willing to follow Hos 2.14 Behold I will allure her ay there 's the Spirits leading This being the constant and avowed Doctrine of the Protestants and †Ductus spiritus non est impulsus violentus quo rapimur inviti ut stipites sed est efficax persuasio quâ ex nolentibus efficimur volentes Par. with many others particularly their Explication of the Spirits leading in the Text how injurious and invidious are the Popish Writers in their traducing and calumniating of them as if they asserted the Spirit in This or any Other Act to work with Compulsion or in a way destructive to mans Essential Liberty 'T is a vile scandal And yet how do Esthius Salmeron Contzen upon the Words charge our Divines with it We perfectly concurr with Blessed St. * Enchirid. Cap. 64. de verbis Apostol Serm. 13. c. 11 12. Austin in that excellent passage of his cited by the Rhemists As many as are led by the Spirit he meaneth not says he that the Children of God are violently compelled against their Wills but that they be sweetly drawn moved or induced to do good But no more of this IV. The Extent of this Leading of the Spirit The Extent of it A threefold account may be given of that 1. In regard of the Subject or person led So it extends to the Whole Man First to the Interior Acts of the Soul in its several Faculties Vnderstanding Will and Affections And then to the Exterior Acts of the Body yea to the whole Conversation For all these are comprehended within and fall under the Spirits Leading For as his Sanctifying Operation extends to all of these the God of Peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ 1 Thes 5.23 So does his Guiding Operation also these two being Commensurate and Coextensive This might be made out in Particulars was I not afraid of too much prolixity 2. In regard of the Object or Matter that the Spirit leads unto So it extends to the whole Duty of a Christian to all that he is to Know Believe and Do. Look as the Word in its External Leading guides us in all things that concern Faith and Practice it being a compleat and perfect Rule 2 Tim. 3.16 17. so 't is with the Spirit in his Internal Leading too Joh. 14.26 For Knowledge and Faith the Promise is But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you John 16.13 And again Howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth see 1 John 2.20 27. And so 't is as to Holiness also this Spirit directs those who have him to and in the Practice of Holiness in its full and utmost Extent and Latitude Tit. 2.12 As the Grace of God the Gospel Without teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly Lusts we should live soberly righteously godly in this present world which is the summe of all Duty towards God towards Men and towards our selves So the Spirit Within teaches guides inclines to all these His Gracious Conduct is not confin'd to does not terminate in this or that particular Duty of Religion no but it extends to every Duty to the whole Obedience of a Christian 3. In regard of the Degree and Measure of it Concerning which 't is clear that this Leading of the Spirit in the Directing Inclining Governing Notions of it is not as to Degree equal in all God's Children All have the Thing in the Necessary and Substantial part of it yet so as that there is a Gradual Difference in their having of it Some having more and some less He being a Free and Arbitrary Agent does proportion this Act of his Grace to different Persons as he pleases And he making Some more ductil to his Leadings than Others accordingly he vouchsafes more of Them to Those than he does to Others But in None does it reach so high as to render them perfect here For although we should grant which I do not that the Spirit should advance his Guidance consider'd in it self and as it comes from Him to such a Degree and Pitch as to lay the Foundation of Perfection in Saints here below yet considering what the Capacity of the Subjects of this Act is here they being Flesh as well as Spirit 't is not imaginable that de Facto and in Eventu they should ever here be perfect upon it Wherefore it must be bounded and limited though not from what the Spirit could do yet from what he is pleased to do in Believers in their present imperfect state He shall guide you into all Truth what so as to make Saints Omniscient or Infallible He guides unto all Holiness what so as to render them sinless and impeccable here on Earth we must by no means carry it thus high It therefore must be qualified thus He shall guide you into all Truth i. e. into the Knowledge of all Necessary and Fundamental Truths And he shall guide you into all Holiness i. e. so far as your present state admits of and so far as is necessary for your future Glory Beyond this Measure we must not extend or heighten the Spirits Leading For the truth is if we take it in this bounded Notion we secure the Thing but if we go higher we totally undermine and nullifie it as all Experience proves And by the way Observe that this Guidance of the Spirit in the General and that Guidance of His in Particular in the Duty of Prayer do much stand upon the same level Insomuch that as the Former the Spirits immediate Guiding of Believers in the Matter and Manner of their Actions does not thereupon render Them or Their Actions perfectly Holy and free from all mixtures of sin So neither does the Latter the Spirits immediate Guidance and Assistance in the Matter and Manner of Prayer render the Prayers of such infallible or of equal Authority with the Scriptures as some Object Because as to Both this Agency of the Spirit is to be limited partly from the Consideration of the present State of the subject in whom it is exerted and partly from the Spirits Aim and End therein 'T is true to obviate a bad Inference that may be drawn from hence the Apostles themselves considered as but Men and as men in the State of Imperfection so they were fallible as we are But as they had in matters of Faith
understandings why all sorts of Persons are hankering after an earthly Happiness And now I shall speak largely in the third to what I little more than hinted in the second Proposition It is onely Serious Godliness that can any whit really abate the Vanity Prop. III that cleaves to every Condition Other things may like Topical Medicines as Playsters to the Wrists repell the Disease but while they do not remove the cause they cannot Cure it We may exchange one Vanity for another and the Novelty may please us for a while but when that is over the Vexation returns 'T is true God alone can cure us but what ever method he takes to do it whether of Indulgence or Severity 't is alwayes by framing the Heart and Life to Serious Godliness to hate Sin and love Holiness to live a Life of Faith in dependance upon God and resignation to him to live above the transports of hopes and fears about things temporal and to grow up in the Graces and Comforts of the Holy Ghost for things Eternal In short to be Blessings to the World while we live and to be Blessed with God when we dye this is the business and fruit of Serious Godliness And this alone is that which at present can effectually abate the vexatious Vanities which every Condition swarms with The wisest man in the World cannot tell what is good for man in this Life No man can tell what worldly Condition is better for him than that which is his present Condition Among the variety of things under the Sun which the Heart of man is apt to be drawn out unto neither he himself nor any other for him is able certainly to inform him which of all those 't is best for him to enjoy and to reap Comfort from Whether it be better for him to be rich or poor high or low in private retirement or in publick service Some mens greatness hath undone them they had never been so wicked had not their Wealth been fuel for their Lusts Achitophel might have lived longer had he not been so wise No man can tell whether that he snatcheth at with most greediness have not a hook under the Bait or be not tempered with Poyson Those that live by Rapine and Violence Prov. 1.18 They lay wait for their own blood they lurk privily for their own lives But you 'l say these are hot-headed Persons live extravagantly walk by no Rule don't take time to consider well turn your Eyes from these to those that are most accomplisht for humane wisdom and knowledge Rom. 1.22 Professing themselves to be Wise they became Fools drowning their some way right thô every way short Notions they had of God in unreasonable Idolatry You 'l say these were but Heathens and therefore no marvel if they did not like to retain God in their Knowledge 't is better with Christians Look next upon Christians and those of the highest Notions and form of Godliness on this side the Power of it 2 Pet. 2.18 19 21. While they speak great swelling words of Vanity about that they call Christian Liberty they themselves are the Servants of Corruption and it had been better for them never to have known the way of Righteousness than not to have walkt in it Well but for all this Job tells us of some of even the worst of men that account themselves so happy as if they needed nothing from God to better their Condition but he tells you withall in the same breath Job 21.15 16. Lo their good is not in their hand thô they think it is they have not their Fortune as they call it in their own power to retain it while they live and dispose of it when they dye God can overturn it when he pleaseth and will do it to their Sorrow whatever Persons may hope or fancy if they fear not God nor obey the Voice of his Servants thô they are not at present in trouble like other men Psal 73.5 c. but can speak loftily setting their mouth against the Heavens and their Tongue walketh through the Earth thô they compass themselves about with some sparks or blaze of Comfort Isa 50.10 11. yet this shall they have of Gods hand they shall lye down in Sorrow Now thus when every one is rummaging among heaps of Vanities that pretend to be good for man upon Earth will you accept of a Guide to direct you to what cannot but be good for you and that in every Condition that shall not only abate the Vanity but discover the Excellency that is in every Condition This will be most distinctly done by an induction of particulars and setting contrary Conditions one against another what may be said for and against each Condition and how Serious Godliness makes every Condition amiable Who knows whether Riches or Poverty be best for man in this Life I. For Riches I need say but little because most Persons are ready to say too much they seem to be the Cause without which there can be not so much as the fancying an earthly Happiness what pleasures or esteem can worldlings have without an Estate to feed them the Riches of the Mind are too Spiritual to be seen by carnal Eyes But when you consider these or such like inseparable attendants on a great Estate you will see the desirableness to shrink as the Vanity swells e. g. Some run out the greatest part of their Life before they can reach what they can call an Estate to say nothing of those that dye the Worlds Martyrs in the pursuit of that they never attain those that have got an Estate or have an Estate left 'em have ordinarily as great care and difficulty in keeping as they or others have had in the getting of it O the tiresome Dayes the restless Nights the broken Sleeps the wild Passions the fretting Disquiet of those troublesom occurrences which they cannot possibly prevent And when you come to speak of an Enjoyment to speak strictly they have nothing worth the Name of an Enjoyment which they may not have as well if not better without what they call an Estate Yet thô 't is thus while they have it they are not able to bear the parting with it the very thoughts of losing puts 'em into Heart-convulsions So that an Estate can neither be got nor kept nor lost without manifold Vanity and Vexation of Spirit Alas what remedy Serious Godliness carries a Gracious Person above all Heart-breaking Vexations of getting the World for his Thoughts are fill'd about getting something better about keeping for comparatively he cares for keeping nothing but Faith and a good Conscience about enjoying for he counts nothing on this side God worth the Name of an enjoyment And as for parting with the World he impartially considers that he can't have the possession of his Heavenly Inheritance till the World and he shake hands for ever So that there 's no room without the regret of Grace to edge in so much as
the use of Speech but how do persons please themselves with teaching Birds to speak some few words which they cannot possibly furnish them with Reason to make use of and yet they are delighted to hear them speak what they understand not more than to hear the most edifying Discourse of a serious Christian How have others cryed up some Chymical Extracts to make men immortal when their own being cut off in the midst of their dayes unanswerably confuted their ill-grounded boasting How do others prate of governing the world by Stars as if they would ease God of the trouble of it while they know not one Star of a thousand nor what 's their influence just as the old World would fence themselves against another Deluge when God did nothing to defeat them but let them forget their Mother tongue and so speak gibberish one to another that they run up and down like Persons distracted 'till they could find out any to understand them and run away from the rest as Salvages so true is that of the Psalmist Psal 39.5 6. Verily every man at his best state is altogether Vanity Selah Surely every man walketh in a vain shew We know but very little of the true Nature of things nor of our selves nor of our Temptations nor of our Interests and therefore we cannot find out that good that is possible to be had in the Creature there must be some distinct knowledge of these things or we can never find out what is best for us e. g. Let one that is utterly unacquainted with Materia medica go into a Physick-garden where are all manner of Simples and thence into an Apothecaries Shop where are all manner of Drugs and Compounds with which Medicines are made for all Diseases he knows not what to do with them his Disease may to him be incurable though surrounded with Remedies Job 8.9 We are but of yesterday and know nothing because our dayes upon earth are a shadow That little that we do know of any thing we come so droppingly to the knowledg of it that e're we can lay things together so as to compare them and separate them and sort them and compound them so as to make a judgment either things themselves or our circumstances are altered or upon alteration there is such a mutability both in persons and things and times that it is as if one would undertake to gather at the same time Primroses and Violets and Roses and Gilliflowers to make a Nosegay when some of these are withered e're the others be budded When we call in the help of wiser heads than our own there 's nothing more ordinary than when wise men give good Advice those they give it to want Wisdom to receive it suspecting some over-reaching Design and therefore dare not trust them and who can say how soon Psal 146.4 His breath goeth forth he returneth to his Earth in that very day his thoughts perish the Princes thoughts perish and the thoughts of him that trusted in him perish This is the way utterly to dispirit men from every thing Object and make them fit for nothing whither can such Doctrine as this tend but to put us into a maze and to confound us in our thoughts and endeavours Will nothing but Flatteries and Lies encourage you to the Duties Answ 1 of your several Stations must things be presented better than they are or you will needs be worse than otherwise you would be are you so ridiculously Proud as to delight to dress your selves by a false Glass John 8.45 Because I tell you the truth you believe me not will you only believe those Truths that humour you Answ 2 The true Discovery of the evils and dangers of every Condition is so far from discouraging men from their Duty that 't is the best way to bring them to the best resolutions for the well discharge of their Duty Cowards wink when they fight but the truly Valiant dare face their danger 'T was Christs method in the whole course of his Ministry to tell his hearers the worst they should meet with Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple V. 27. And whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after me cannot be my Disciple And Matth. 24.9 Ye shall be hated of all Nations for my Names sake Answ 3 Religion is best able to manage and master all the evils that are in any Condition and every thing on this side the Power of Godliness is too feeble to grapple with any one inconvenience let but Grace be asleep if I may so speak and how weak is the best How was Peter the forwardest of all the Disciples in a fright foyled by a Servant-maid But to Grace in exercise nothing is impossible Mark 9.23 Prop. II All things on this side Religion whereby men endeavour to get above Vanity encrease it The multiplication of Ciphers amounts to less than nothing Isa 40.17 All Nations the Persons and things of all Nations before him compar'd with God aye and in the esteem of the Godly are as nothing and they are counted to him and so far as they are gracious to them less than nothing and Vanity Happiness is that which every one aims at now that which can make us happy must supply all the Wants satisfie all the Desires fill all the Capacities of the Soul and above all these be of equal duration and continuance with the Soul it self now none of all these are to be found in any thing on this side serious Godliness but the quite contrary and therefore every thing that pretends to it doth but increase Vanity Can any thing of the World supply the Soul with Grace satisfie the desires in so much as any one thing or fill any one Faculty of the Soul to satisfaction can the World fill the mind with heavenly Light or the Will with heavenly Love or the Conscience with that Peace that passeth understanding But you will say this is to begg not prove forbear me a little 'till I have answered a By-question and I will in the Prosecution of the next Proposition prove this by little less than Demonstration Question What makes all sorts of Persons Dote so much upon Vanity and upon adding one vanity to another and upon heaping one Vanity upon another if they can be no better for them We see wise men as eager as others Solomon himself thô he had his extraordinary Wisdom given him in his Youth yet he continued trying Experiments till his old Age and thô he so much decryed the Vanity of all things yet he was scarce able to bear the thoughts of his Sons inability to carry on the search Eccles 2.18 23. To this several things may be said more Plausibly Answ than Satisfactorily if you but throughly consider the Allegations but to avoid Tediousness I 'l mix the pretended and real
causes There 's a Necessity of these things while we are in the World and we need variety of them more than for present use e. g. Childhood and Age are helpless and need greater supplies there 's difference between Sickness and Health and we must provide for both and is not this very plausible Whereas did but Persons consider how many Superfluities shroud themselves under the wing of Necessaries and how Persons love to be at their own finding rather than Gods thô there 's no comparison between them as Israel Numb 11.5 We Remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely the Cucumbers and the Melons and the Leeks and the Onions and the Garlick and now our Soul is dryed away there is nothing at all besides this Manna before our Eyes They preferred the Food which the Egyptians gave their Slaves before Manna which if the Inhabitants of the upper World needed food were fit for them We would not onely have Mercies but we would be humour'd in the Circumstances of 'em Rachel must presently have Children or she 'l be weary of her Life whereas she might have learnt from her own Husband and Grand-father that those Children of patiently believing Parents were the greatest Blessings that came from teeming Prayers and Barren Wombs but she considers not this she must have Children or dye Well God so far gratifies her she shall have Children but that which she reckoned would be the greatest Comfort of her Life proved to be her death The flattery of worldly things prevails with many The Grandeur of the World that pleaseth the Eye the Esteem of the World that pleaseth the Fancy whereas would but these Persons consider all things of the World appear better at a distance than we find them near at hand I dare confidently make this offer and without imposing upon God any thing indecent peremptorily assure you God will make it good That if you can but give any one instance of any one Person made happy satisfyingly happy by any worldly enjoyment you shall be the second I grant many are through Grace contented with a little pittance of the World but where dwelt the man that was ever yet contented meerly with the World The wealth of the World promiseth Satisfaction a Eccl. 10.19 Money answereth all things but b ch 5.10 he that loveth Silver shall not be satisfied with Silver nor he that loveth abundance with increase The pleasures of the World promise refreshment to relieve us of all our cares but instead of it c Eccl. 2.11 they are all Vanity and Vexation of Spirit The Honours of the World promise quiet and contentment but d Psal 73.18 19. surely they are set in slippery places as upon a Pinnacle whence though they do not presently fall yet they are utterly consumed with terrors of falling In short e Psal 49.20 man that is in honour and understandeth not how to honour God with it is like the Beasts that perish degrades himself into a Beast and the time is at hand when he would count it a greater happiness than ever he shall obtain if his Soul and Body might die together like a Beast Experience is beyond Speculation we see others grow great they fare better and go finer and are more esteemed in the World every one respects them and if he but grow Rich he must presently be the best in the Parish whereas those that are low and mean in the World they are despised thô never so well qualified This thou speak'st upon thine own Observation thou canst name the Persons and the places whence thou hast this experience Very well thou takest this for a demonstration that there is such a thing as an Earthly happiness Hold a little be but intreated to push the Observation a little further and consider impartially how loth thou wouldst be to take up with that for thy Happiness which thou so much admirest Single out any one of those thou accountest most happy in their outward enjoyments and be sure thou art as thoroughly acquainted with all the circumstances of his Condition as thou art with thine own and then sit down and seriously consider Is this the Person whose happiness thou admirest View him inside and outside and tell me wouldst thou have his Condition and all the Circumstances of it 'T is true he is great in the World but wouldst thou have all his cares and fears his restless Nights and troublesome Dayes wouldst thou have just his qualifications of mind that half-wittedness that makes him ridiculous his peevish Humours which make him a burden to himself and others Wouldst thou have just his temper of Body To be alwayes sickly or conceited to be so He can't eat this nor digest that nor relish any thing as do meaner Persons Those Relations that should be the greatest Comfort of his Life hanker after his Death His Children upon one account or other almost break his Heart his Servants are vexatious his Business distracting or his idleness wearisome Whereas perhaps his next Neighbour that hath scarce bread to eat hath a quieter frame of Mind a better temper of Body a better Stomach better Digestion better Health more Comfort in Relations and longer Life to enjoy all these than him thou countest the Worlds darling think of this before thou concludest for an earthly Happiness The restlesness of the Mind of man upon so many disappointments makes him eager after any thing that promiseth Satisfaction he hath experience of the uneasiness of his present Condition and none of that which flatters him So that he becomes like one that hath been long sick who is willing to try every Medicine that every Visitant commends never considering how he heightens his disease by the use of false Remedies e. g. Shouldst thou take medicines proper for an Erysipelas to cure a Dropsie or Medicines for the Stone to cure a Consumption thô those Medicines would not presently kill thee they would never Cure thee but thou must still complain of disappointments and be worse and worse instead of having any amendment Do not deceive your selves one Vanity will never cure another Satan will not be wanting to set in with all the other cheats the Inclinations of the Flesh the flatteries of the World and the various pleadings of carnal Reason Satan you may be sure will do what 's possible to be done to entangle the Soul in a fools Paradise or plunge it into inextricable difficulties especially when he hath a good second as in this Case thô one might rationally think there should need no more to fright him to his watch then to assure him the hand of Satan is in all this Suspect him in every thing he cannot be thy Friend he cannot make any one motion for thy good where he seems to do so 't is to do thee greater mischief Thus have I jumbled together something of what may be said both with real and seeming weight for empty reasonings weigh most with empty
Atheists viz. The Atheist is inquisitive for Arguments to promote his Atheism the tempted Christian as inquisitive for Arguments and Grace to destroy it those that are seriously godly do not only seek a perfect cure of their own in part mortified Atheism but mournfully bewail the insolent Atheism of the age they live in If it be as it is as a Sword in their Bones for their Enemies to l Psalm 42.10 reproach them while they say daily unto them Where is your God If it as it were break their Bones to have their interest in God and Gods peculiar care of them so much as questioned it must needs be as a Sword to their heart a killing wound to hear the Fear of God ridicul'd and the Being of God denied Certainly as Grace is heightned a gracious Person is next to being overwhelmed Thô God hath an evidence of his Deity lies lieger in the worst of his Enemies yet upon the miracles of Mercy he works for and in his own People God may say to them m Isai 43.12 They are his Witnesses that he is God And the more eminent any one is in Grace the more experimental Witness he is that the Lord is God This may not only be sufficient for the instances already given but be sufficiently instructive what to do in all other Cases that might be named I had thought to have proportionably enlarged upon these which I shall but little more than name and therefore shall not add them to the number Who knows whether a full or a vacant employment be best for him A full employment is that which every one that hath dealings in the World gapes after this leaves no room for Melancholy nor Idleness each of which are unspeakably mischievous But those that live in a Hurry of business do neither enjoy God nor themselves 't is tiresome both to Body and Mind the Truth is the desire of it is ordinarily naught in the rise 't is from covetousness and ambition naught in the progress it neglects God and godliness and naught in the close it ends at best in disappointment But here Religion gives relief for a Heavenly-minded Person to be full of worldly business 't is he alone that minds the main business of his Life to work out his Salvation 't is he alone that both will and can keep the World from justling out what 's better the World in this is like the Gout thô you keep it at your feet 't is troublesome but if it reach the Heart 't is mortal the World thrô Grace may be a good Servant but 't is impossible to be a good Master Is vacancy from Employment better 'T is tedious to be alwayes drudging for we know not who nor what to have no time to spare for Refreshment and Recreation that we may enjoy what we have be it more or less this seems better But yet to have little or nothing to do exposeth us to we can't say what Idleness is an inlet to the most monstrous Abominations Relaxation from business and Recreation after weariness is at best but a banquet no way fit for ordinary food besides this Satan watcheth and never misseth prevailing upon an idle Person What can Serious Godliness do in this Case When one whose Heart is set upon godliness hath but little to do with the World he findes enough to do as a Christian The considerate Christian hath not one hour in his Life wherein he hath nothing to do he alone can make a Virtue of Necessity he alone can redeem time for God he alone can fill his Life with Duty and Comfort in short 't is through Grace alone that a man hath never too much nor too little business 'T is the power of Godliness that is thus powerful Who knows whether many or few Friends be best for him For many Friends man is a sociable Creature and cannot live of himself to be destitute of Friends seems very doleful A Friend is born for Adversity a Friend may be better than an Estate to have many dear Friends and Relations it carries us thrô our lives with Comfort it is a Duty to prize 'em it is a sin to slight 'em and therefore this seems unquestionably best But and there 's no Friends on earth without a but in their Commendation Friends themselves are troublesome apt to take exceptions to mistake to be weary of us if we have long need of 'em and besides this there 's none in the World whose Friendship is not founded on Grace can be so much my Friend now but he may be as much my Enemy hereafter And if you can find any Friend above these exceptions how do the thoughts of parting abate the Comfort of enjoying Alas we dare not think of it Can Serious Godliness stand us in any stead here Much every way if our Friends be Irreligious this necessitates us to do what 's possible to make them Friends to Christ and to Religion and this attempt is alwayes successeful if not to make them Gracious yet to make our selves more gracious and if thy Friends be already Religious thou wilt have a foretast of Heaven in the Communion of Saints thô this is rare and rarely enjoyed Some think 't is best to have few or no Friends We are too apt to flatter our selves and to bear upon our Friends to reckon upon their Interest when we ordinarily find disappointments whereas expecting nothing from them makes us learn to live without them and in some sort above them We need neither flatter nor humour any Body But now to be Friendless that 's very uncomfortable a Friend greatens all the Joyes and lessens all the Sorrows we meet with in this World it argues a crooked and perverse disposition to be without Friends or not to care for ' em Besides this we had need to have every man our Friend for we know not into whose hands our Life may come before we dye that Person must needs be miserable who lives undesir'd and dyes unlamented What can Serious Godliness do in this Case A Serious Holy Person thô he have but few or perhaps no worldly Friends he hath the most and the best Friends he hath God to be his Friend he hath an Interest in the whole houshold of Faith and he can make up in God what he wants in any other Persons or things of the World what thô he hath no Friend to stand by him Innocency and Independency dare do and can suffer any thing Who knows whether Freedom from Affliction or an afflicted Condition be at present best for him Freedom from Afflictions seems most desirable both to Nature and Grace we naturally love our ease and would have nothing befall us that is Grievous to Flesh and Blood and Gracious Persons pray and strive to prevent and remove Afflictions But yet the experiences of all good and bad in all ages of the World proclaims this upon the House-tops that more have got good by Afflictions than by being
without 'em a Prov. 1.32 The Prosperity of Fools destroyes ' em What doth Religion in this Case The Truth is there needs a great exercise of Religion to carry us safe thrô Freedom from Affliction b Job 1.5 Jobs extraordinary devotion upon his Childrens ordinary rejoycing in their prosperous Condition may Convincingly instruct us that there 's more danger in Freedom from Affliction than we are willing to suspect and it is more difficult to love and fear and trust God when we have the world than when we want it so that without Serious Godliness 't is impossible to withstand the insinuating and pleasing Temptation of flattering Prosperity and unless Faith be in Exercise we cannot do it with it What then is an afflicted Condition to be preferr'd Some that have had experience of both say Yes they have been afraid to come from under their Afflictions some sick Persons have been even afraid of Health thô they desir'd it lest what they got in their Sickness they should lose in their Health But yet the continuance of Afflictions breaks the Spirits and hinders that chearful serving and praising of God which is or should be the Life of a Christian thô many are better'd by Afflictions yet none are allowed to pray for Afflictions but against them and use all good means to avoid or remove them 't is one thing makes Heaven desirable the putting an end to all our Afflictions In short c Heb. 12.11 no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous whatever be the after-fruit of it This therefore is clogg'd with Vanity But what doth Religion in this Case Serious Godliness by Afflictions becomes more Serious God makes great use of Afflictions for the working and promoting of Piety and in this I think all experienced Christians are agreed they reckon sanctified Afflictions among the choicest Providences of their lives I commend the enlargement of this by your own Thoughts out of your own experiences And thus including these three Cases as in a large Parenthesis there 's one Case more that I would cautiously speak to which the Church Catholick truly so called may have more cause than ever tremblingly to consider and to seek more satisfying resolution than I can give for it's determination VI. What man upon Earth can peremptorily assert whether Peace or Persecution be just at such a time infallibly best for the Church of Christ 'T is easily granted that we must at all times pray for and endeavour the universal both outward and spiritual Peace of the Church and this that we may at all times do any thing but Sin to avoid or put an end to Persecution but let 's consider each as in the former instances That the Peace of the Church is beyond Expression desirable he is no Christian that denyes it those that are the greatest troublers of the Churches Peace do usually proclaim their Friendship to it calling their Affection to a party Love to the Church and the welfare of their party the Peace of the Church Now thô their Charity is too narrow to contract the Church into a party their Notion of Peace is large enough they would have it commensurate with the Church So that I need not be large to prove what no body denies Outward Prosperity was so much the Blessing of the Old Covenant that some confine it to that but others upon better Grounds expect more under the Gospel for d Luk. 1.74 75. this was no inconsiderable end of Christs coming into the World to deliver us out of the hands of our worldly Enemies to serve him without affrighting fears of men in Holiness before God and Righteousness before men all the dayes of our Life Which Prosperity when the Church hath enjoyed according to Christs purchase and Promise then they have walkt in the filial fear of the Lord and in the encouraging e Acts 9.31 Comforts of the Holy Ghost were multiplyed in number of Converts and increase of their Graces that were formerly converted But here as we use to say of pleasant weather 'T is pity fair weather should do any harm so 't is pity the Churches Prosperity should do any harm But alas the Church of Christian as little bear continual Prosperity as long Adversity a Calm is sometimes as dangerous as a Storm Many are the Temptations and Snares of a Prosperous condition it breeds Hypocrites Errors and Heresies spring up like Weeds in rank ground Professors are apt to grow Remiss and Careless Wanton and Secure to be too fond of the Present and to hanker after more Temporal Happiness than God judges good for them How hardly were the very Apostles awakened from dreaming of Christs temporal Kingdom and the very best of 'em from suing for great Offices at Court O the Divisions among Brethren when Pride makes them quarrelsome When the World favours the Church the Church slides into the World then their worldliness spoils their Christianity and their Christianity palliates their worldliness and so those things are mixt which can never be compounded But now Serious Godliness is the best Preservative against Surfeiting on Prosperity 'T is Grace in the Exercise and Growth that powerfully enables and necessarily provokes to improve the Churches Peace to all Spiritual advantages The Church of the Jews was never in such a flourishing condition as in Solomon's Reign and is it not well worthy our observation that the Posterity of his Servants who became Proselytes to the Jewish Religion were several Ages after his death doubly recorded by a Neh. 7.57.60 the Spirit of God above the Proselytes of former Ages 'T is Serious Godliness that keeps them humble and always upon their Watch against flattering Temptations that keeps them low in their own eyes and from despising others and what on this side great Grace could make David who had a b 1 Chron. 22.14 greater Summe of ready Money than ever any had in the World either before or since preferr that little of Scripture that was penn'd in his time before an innumerable Treasure c Psal 119.72 He had also a List of Worthies d 2 Sam. 23. never the like in the World yet he e Psal 16.3.119.63 preferrs the Communion of Saints before ' em To have our Conversation in Heaven when 't is best with us upon Earth this can only be effected by the Power of Godliness believe it Christians this is no easie matter What then Is a State of Persecution more Eligible Before I dare speak a word to this I must premise this Caution Let not Persecutors take encouragement to be more outragious in their Persecution and then scornfully tell you this is good for 'em their Pastors tell 'em 't is sometimes better for 'em than Peace This is like Julian who in every thing he did with a deep Reach and greater Malice than former Emperors to undermine and worm out the Christian Religion he still twitted the Christians with some advice
will Now where 's that Man in all the World that can do this beside the Christian Serious Godliness will make every change of Condition good for us thô the change shock both Nature and Grace A change of condition is either the hope or fear of every one in this World and 't is not the least part of Heavens happiness that there 's no fear of change In that state of Happiness wherein Men and Angels were created Mutability was their Out-let into Sin and Misery but now through Grace there 's no change formidable Alas we change more or less every day and who is it that meets not with some almost overwhelming changes in his life and doth or should preparingly expect his greatest change at Death And let the Consciences of all that are not worse than dead say whether any thing on this side now-despised Godliness can so much as endure the thoughts of such a Change In the comparatively petty changes of our life when we but change Plenty into Want or Credit into Disgrace or Health into Sickness how do Persons fret and toss like a wild Bull in a Net or lye down sullen under God's hand as if he had done us wrong or were to give us account why he grieves us But now Grace in exercise turns our eyes inward and shews us what we have more cause to lament no evil comparable to the evil of Sin whatever God doth against us on this side Hell 't is less than sin deserves Will God any way prepare us for our unchangeable change glory be to Free Grace Serious Godliness will make Relative Afflictions which of all outward Afflictions are the most grievous good for us and nothing else can do it I confess 't is morally worse for all the Relations of a Family to go the broad way to ruine and thô their Lusts clash one against another yet to be all agreed to be the Devils willing Servants 'T was sad in Egypt n Exod. 12.30 when there was not an house whore there was not one dead but 't is far worse to have whole Families where there is not one Spiritually alive but thô 't is Sinfully worse than Divisions in Families about Religion yet 't is at present more dolefully Afflictive to have those whose Souls welfare we desire as our own to be Devils incarnate For a David a man after Gods own heart when he comes from publick worship o 2. Sam. 6.20 c. to bless his houshold to be so revil'd by Michal as to divert his Zeal to a twitting her with her Fathers rejection and his Blessing of his Houshold into Gods Curse upon her Self On the other hand for a most obliging Abigal p 1 Sam. 25.17 c. to have such a Son of Belial to her Husband that a man cannot speak to him that when by her prudent fore-sight he was preserv'd from sudden death he was so drunk as not to be capable of hearing of his danger Again for Abraham the Father of the faithful to have a seven years Promise of a Son and for God to give that Son his Name and this Son to prove a scoffing Ishmael for Isaac the quietest of all the Patriarchs to pray twenty years for a Son and to have his first-born prove a profane Esau for good Eli to have such Children as †1 Sam. 2.17 made the Offerings of the Lord to be abhorred And on the other hand for Hezekiah of whom 't is said q 2 Kings 18.5 After him was none like him among all the Kings of Judah nor any that were before him to have such a Father as Ahaz that as it were r 2 Kings 16.3 devoted his Children to the Devil and hath this peculiar brand upon him ſ 2 Chron. 28.22 that in the time of his distrests did he trespass yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz How might every one of these complain as Rebekah did t Gen. 27.46 I am weary of my Life because of some wicked Relations and if I should have more such what good shall my Life do me Again for Masters to have such Servants as Mephibosheth had of Ziba * 2 Sam. 16.1 4. who irreparably blasted him in his Reputation and ruin'd him in his Estate For Servants to have such a Master as Laban was to Jacob who gives this account of his twenty years Service †Gen. 31.40 c. In the day the Drought consumed me and the Frost by Night and my sleep departed from mine Eyes and had not God relieved him by little less than Miracle Surely thou hadst sent me away empty And now having mentioned sinful relative Afflictions I 'le mention no other for there 's no Evil comparable to Sin nor any Evil so intolerable to a Gracious Soul that if Serious Godliness can keep from sinking under this burden you need fear no other to be inseparably related to one that is loaded with infamy or even famisht thrô Poverty loathsomely diseased or incurably distracted these are but flea-bitings to the stabbing wounds of wicked Relations But now serious godliness doth not only support but grow under this burden which is a priviledge they are injurious to themselves to overlook Christ takes upon him all those Relations that are impossible to meet in any other that what is grievous in any Relation may be comfortably made up in him and God usually increaseth their Graces thô not alwayes their present Comforts Serious Godliness will make horror of Conscience and divine Desertions good for us These where there is no godliness nor working towards it they are none of the least of Hell torments but where they befall any one that is godly or that God is about to make so they prove healing thô rough Physick When God thorowly awakens the Conscience thô with a fright and drops spiritual influences thô withdraws he makes Convictions more deep and Repentance more sound you may take this for a tryed case Those serious Christians whom God is pleased to exercise with tremblings of Conscience temptations of Satan and apprehensions of Desertion God thereby makes them eminently gracious and compassionately useful they walk most humbly with God justifying and praising him under his most astonishing Providences And thô above all temptations these are so far from joyous that they are most grievous yet these even these u Heb. 12.11 afterwards yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby Serious Godliness will force something good out of the evil of Sin Here it concerns me to speak with more Caution than in any other Case whatsoever for we must not dare to venture upon Sin thrô hopes of extracting good out of it as Chymists extract Spirits out of Soot and Vrine c. No The Apostle tells us * Rom. 3.8 That those that do but say that offer to say we may do Evil that Good may come of it the Damnation of those slanderers is just So that
wherein you will be as careful to fulfill the Conditions as you would have God faithful in fulfilling the Promises Look out so sharp to the Progress of your Sanctification that Sin may not expire but be mortified and that Grace may be so lively as to confute the reproach of Enemies and exceed the Commendation of Friends Bear Afflictions not as a Malefactor goes to Execution because he can't help it but as chary not to miss the Fruit of Affliction the Participation of Gods Holiness Thô you look first to your selves be not only selfish though in the most Gracious manner but endeavour to be Blessings as far as your Name is heard of In short perform all your duties to God your selves and others in the Name of Christ thrô his Strength according to his Command relying upon his Promises that you may feel what it is to be accepted in Gods and your beloved This is to be Serious in Religion Learn to be more than barely contented with your present Condition Vse 2 't is that which God in Wisdom chooseth for you preferring it before any other Condition Every Condition hath some lessons peculiar to it which are better learnt in that Condition than in any other and those things that may be best learnt in thy Condition are the things you most need learning which when you have learnt then God will put thee into other circumstances to teach thee something else Every Condition hath something grievous in it by reason of the Sin and Vanity that cleaves to it but that which is most grievous if it be used as Physick will help to cure thee We all grant 't is best to take Physick when we need it a 1 Pet. 1.6 Now for a season if need be you are in heaviness thrô manifold Trials and when we take Physick we imprison our selves in our Chamber as much as others in a Gaol we abstain from riot as much as they that want bread we tend our Physick and need no Arguments to do so Christians let God be your Physician and prescribe what Physick he pleaseth we have nothing else to do but observe his Instructions for it's beneficial operation Apply this to any Condition that is uneasie to you and you 'l see cause not only to justifie but to praise your wise Physitian but if this arguing be not cogent I will commend one that is I confess I love those Directions that will apply themselves that will work their way for Application That you may so far like your present Condition as to perform the duties of it before you desire an Alteration of it take this course Sit down and consider should God so far humour thee as to let thee frame thine own Condition to thine own mind to give thee thy choice for a worldly Happiness Suppose he allowed thee time to think to consult Friends to alter and add upon second and third yea upon your twentieth Thought whatever the Wit of man could suggest or the Heart of man desire and all this for a whole Moneth together before you fixt your choice I suppose when you chose it should be Wealth without Care Pleasure without Weariness Honour without Hazard Health without Sickness Friends without Mistake Relations without Crosses Old Age without Infirmities and if God should thus alter the course of his Providence unto what would your own Pride and the Worlds Envy expose you O! but you 'l say all this with Grace will do well Do you think so but would not Grace without all this do better Can you think that such a Condition would Wean you from the World and fit you for Heaven or is Earth the place where you would live for ever and have no more Happiness than that can afford you Return Poor Soul return to thy Self and to thy God acknowledge that God is Wise and thou art a Fool And 't is better be employed in the present Duty of thy present Condition than to doze out thy Life in wilde Imaginations Vse 3 Make Conscience of both sorts of Duties Religious and Worldly and allot fit and distinct times for Heavenly and Worldly Business but with this difference let Religion mix it self with worldly business and spare not but let not the World break in upon Religion lest it spoil it Religion will perfume the World but the World will taint Religion Though every thing in the World be clogg'd with Vanity yet there 's something of Duty about every thing we meddle with and we must not call neglect of Duty contempt of the World Use the World as you do your Servants to whom you give due liberty as the best way to prevent their taking more than is due so to take a due care about the World is the best way to prevent Religion's being justled out by worldly cares Count not any Sin or Duty about the least matters so small as to venture upon the one or neglect the other but proportion your carefulness according to the business before you I see more cause every day than other to commend both the Truth and Weight of the Observation that all Over-doing is undoing You can't bestow too much diligence about one thing but you rob something else of what diligence is necessary and marr that about which you are over-solicitous I 'le close this with that of the Apostle b 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. This I say Brethren the time is short we have none to spare It remaineth for the future that both they that have Wives be as though they bad none let 'em not be Uxorious and they that weep as if they wept not if God bring them under sorrrow let them but water their Plants not drown 'em and they that rejoyce as if they rejoyced not we must at best rejoyce with trembling and they that buy as if they possessed not there 's nothing we can purchase worth the name of a Possession and they that use this world as not abusing it to any other use than what God hath appointed for the fashion of this World passeth away the Pageantry of this World will soon be over but I would have you without carefulness without distracting carefulness about worldly things Whatever you do for the bettering of your Condition follow God but Vse 4 do not go before him This is a direction of great moment being a necessary Caution against that Sin that doth always beset us Every man is an Orator to aggravate his own grievances and thinks himself a Politician for fitting them with Remedies yea hath the confidence of a Prophet that they shall certainly be effectual if God will but take his Time and Method for their operation c Job 11.12 Vain man would be wise thô he be born like a wild Asses Colt to kick up his heels against Gods unsearchable Wisdom You may at once see both your proness to the Sin and Christ directing to this Remedy in one and the same instance viz. When Peter had made such a
is a matter of great Consequence to you For 1. If you cannot give your selves an account of your Religion you will never enjoy the Comforts of it never take comfort in its Comforts The Comforts of true Religion are too Great too Sweet â—oo Precious to be vainly lost or but coldly sought after Joy unspeakable and full of Glory is well worth having but alas how shall you come by this Joy these strong Consolations if you are not satisfied in the reality of that Principle in your hearts upon which they depend You have no Joy or Peace but in Believing a Rom. 15.13 and Hoping b 12.12 and walking Holily c Psal 119 65 and if you know not but your Faith and Hope may be a meer Fancy and so your diligence in Holiness which is the Effect of Faith but the Effect of Fancy what Comfort can you have in one or other what pleasure can you have in reflecting upon your Sincerity when you question your Sincerity Or upon your Interest in Christ and the benefits of His Blood and priviledges of the Gospel when for ought you know the Faith upon which that Interest immediately stands is not a Grace of Gods Spirit but a Fancy of your own Heads 2. You will never be able to give an account of it to others What you understand not your selves you will not be able to make out to others that ask you a reason of it If you cannot tell why you believe how can you Evidence to others that you do believe And if you cannot tell why you Practise thus or thus how can you satisfie others that your Practice is reasonable If you would be able to answer them first see you be able to answer your selves when you can satisfie your own Conscience you may the better answer their Cavils or Check their Revilings or bear their Censures 3. You will never be able to suffer for your Religion if you cannot give at least your selves an account of it nor suffer for that the Reality of which is Doubtfull to you You will soon make shipwrack of a good Conscience if you be at uncertainties about that Faith which should help you to keep it Get well settled or you will be easily shaken you will very scarcely venture your All in the World in Expectation of Eternal Life when you are not sure there is such a thing or that you have a Title to it but rather fear that the hopes you had of it were no better than waking mens Dreams or pleasing Visions of an imaginary Happiness which had no Subsistence but in your own Fancies You are like enough to come into sufferings you had need see upon what Ground you stand that you may be able to hold out If you once come to Question the reality of your Faith you will soon come to forsake it And if you know not but your Practice hitherto hath been unreasonable you will think when troubles come upon you you have reason to alter it If your former Strictness and Zeal in Religion seem Folly to you you will count it your Wisdom to grow loose and cold and careless in it especially rather than hazard Estate or Liberty or Life for it What man of Sence would Hang or Burn rather than forgoe that which he himself took to be but a Fancy at least had no assurance that it was not 4. You shall not need to fear the Scorns or Censures of Enemies if you be fully satisfied in your selves that your Faith is really a Grace of Gods Spirit in you and not a Deceit of your own Heart and the Holiness of youâ— Conversation a well grounded Scriptural Practice not an unwarrantable Irrational Niceness Let the Prophane World Scoff its fill and call you Deceivers or count you Fools it is no shame to be called Fools for believing Christs Truth or doing Christs Will it hath been the Lot of others before you And so long as you Feel the Power of Faith in your own Souls you are sure it Purifies your Hearts makes you fearfull of Sin Conscientious and painfull in Duty Strong against Temptations Patient in Afflictions and so long too as you find Holiness growing and thriving in you your Spiritual Strength encreasing your Fruit abounding so long you may be sure you are not Fools and the Worlds Flouts or Scorns cannot make you so You would not be much concerned if those that bore you an ill will should make themselves sport with you and attempt to perswade you that you were Blind or Lame or Sick or asleep when in the mean while your Eyes were open and you saw all things about you as at other times you could walk and Excercise your Limbs discourse and Exercise your Reason perform all the Actions of men that are awake or in health If you experience the workings of an holy Principle in your Hearts and the Effects of it in your Lives neither the Sophistry nor Censures nor Jeers of those that are otherwise minded will be able to beat you out of the Conviction of your Spirtual Senses any more than of your Reason and Understanding or Bodily motions 2. Labour to Evidence the same to others and to be able to give a reason of your Faith and Hope and holy Obedience to them that demand it of you and if possible to satisfie them as well as your selves 1. This may be much for the Glory of God and Credit of the Gospel when it is seen that you are Men as well as Christians and act Reasonably as well as Religiously and never more reasonably than when most Religiously that that Divine Nature d 2 Pet. 1.4 you are made partakers of is a perfection and Elevation not the destruction of your Humane that you have great reason for that good way that Holy course in which you have been walking and that the greatest strictness in Religion is really your greatest Wisdom How may your Confession when joyned with a Godly Conversation which is a speaking Practice and the most forcible Conviction stop the mouths of Cavillers falsifie their Slanders make them know themselves to be Liars and own themselves to have had too hard thoughts of you and that they and not you have been in the wrong And if you come into sufferings it will be for the Honour of the Gospel so to demean your selves as to make it appear that you suffer not only not as Evil Doers d 1 Pet. 4.15 but not as Fools that there is enough in your Religion to justifie you before men not only in your greatest Preciseness but in your deepest sufferings and though you pass for Fools with the unbelieving World for exposing your selves to a thousand miseries and apparent present ruin in Expectation of an Invisible and only future Happiness yet your Faith is so well grounded your Hope so sure that you need not be ashamed of undergoing evil any more than of doing good 2. It may be a means to encourage the Hearts
addes the admiration and acknowledgment of Gods forbearing goodness towards them Yet saith he vers 30. didst thou forbear them or as 't is in the Hebrew protract defer Memusbeka Ezek. 12.15 prolong over them yea many years didst thou forbear them and vers 31. when the Jewes were in their Enemies hands for their sins yet nevertheless saith he for thy great mercies sake thou didst not utterly consume nor forsake them When we mourn for the sins of our Places we should much admire Gods forbearing Goodness that he defers to punish those Sins and Sinners which we must not defer to mourn for We should lay Man low but at the same time set up God high and in nothing more than in his Patience towards Sinners Patience I say infinitely exceeding any ever exercised by Man 1. All the Sins we mourn for are most clearly seen by God and known to him He sees sin wherever 't is and infinitely more plainly understands all the odious Circumstances and aggravations of sin than we can do that mourn for them or than they can that did commit them And 2. As he sees sin in all its odiousness so he infinitely more hates it than all the Saints and Angels in Heaven can do as being the only object of his hatred all the Streams whereof are collected in this one Channel Sin being also against his very nature and being a destroying him in the desire of the Sinner and that which should he in the least measure love or less than infinitely hate he would cease to be God Further admire his Patience 3. In sparing those that are perfectly in his power to destroy Rebels that are under his feet Yea lastly whom in all their Rebellions he invites to repentance yea feeds supplies maintains daily and richly Say then in thy Mourning for the Abominations of others How patient art thou in forbearing to punish those sins which it is my duty with an holy impatience to see and hear 2. In mourning for the sins of the Wicked advance God in the acknowledgment of his Justice and spotless Righteousness should he with utmost severity take vengeance upon Offenders This we shall find also to be the temper of holy Nehemiah in the forementioned Chapter the 9th and the 33d verse where mourning for the sins of the People he clears and acquits God from any injustice in executing his heavyest severities upon sinners So Ezra 9.15 Psal 15. Howbeit saith he thou art just in all that is brought upon us for thou hast done right but we have done wickedly Say Lord I wonder not at the evils that doe but those that do not befall us Were the fire of thy wrath proportion'd to the fewel of our sins we should be utterly consumed 'T is thy Mercy Lord we are not so Thou wouldst be infinitely just and to be justifi'd if we were so And 3. In spreading before God the wickednesses of great Sinners admire his infinite Power that can not only stop the worst of men in but turn them from their course of opposing God by their Rebellions We are not so to mourn for as to despair of the Conversion of the worst They are as much within the Converting reach as the Destructive reach of Gods hand Say 1. This great Sinner whose Impieties I bewail can easily by thy irresistible Grace which no hard heart can reject as was Saul be made not only of a Wolf a Sheep but even a Shepherd too I censure his way but I dare not determ ine his end Thou hast made white Paper of as black and filthy dunghil raggs What cannot the infinite Power of God accomplish for the Conversion of the greatest Sinner I now bewail him Lord but thou canst also make him more to bewail himself and make him as zealous in setting up as now he is in destroying thy People It should more comfort thee that thou sinnest not with them than trouble thee that thou sufferest from them God can make strait timber of a crooked piece God can take his Garden out of Satan's Waste Oh! how glorious would pardoning Grace and converting Power appear in causing such a change 4. In mourning admire that Grace and Power that hath kept thee from their Excesses and Extravagancies 2. The second Branch of the Manner how we must bewail the Sins § 5 of others is as it respects those for whom and for whose Sins we lament and mourn You may take up this in several particulars 1. We must bewail the Sins of our bitterest Enemies as well as of our most beloved Relations A rare and seldom practised duty I fear that this will be found I suppose there 's no godly man but bitterly mourns for the Impieties of his dear Yoke-fellow or Child but to mourn because a cruel Enemy either dishonours God or damns his own Soul I doubt there are very few that are conscientious therein Nothing is more common than to rail at our Enemies for their Impieties and to expose them to Obloquy and publick Hatred but I fear there 's nothing more unusual than to bewail their Soul their self-destroying Sins before God in secret The former Pride and Self-love will easily put us upon the latter only flows from Christian Charity and holy sanctified Zeal and Compassion Jer. 13.17 To embrace the former and neglect the latter is to exchange a Duty for a Sin A miserable exchange The holy temper of Christ Luk. 19.41 and Paul acted by his Spirit discovered their bewailings and shedding tears for those that desired to shed their blood Doubtless such a mourning as this would if not prevail for the Conversion of Enemies yet be a comfortable evidence to our Consciences of the truth yea the strength of Grace in us and of pardoning Grace bestow'd upon us who discover so high a degree of forgiving our Enemies 'T is a thousand times more eligible that mine Enemies Sins should suffer Shipwrack in a Sea of my tears than their Persons should be born down by the stream of my Power 2. We ought to bewail the Sins of our near and dear Relations § 6 in a greater measure than those of meer Strangers Natural Affection sanctified is the strongest As Nature puts forth it self to nearest Relations in strong affection so Grace engageth to a proportionable degree of spiritualizing that Affection How earnest and desirous was holy Paul for his Kinsmen in the flesh that they should be saved Rom. 10.1 Never did a godly man in the World never durst he neglect the Duty of bewailing the Sins of his Children Job offered Sacrifices Job 1.5 and Prayers and Tears too no doubt for very fear his Children might offend God There is in the Saints a spiritual Storge a natural affection Spiritualized No Godly man knows how to spare any one Child of his for the Devil it must needs trouble him to fear that they who are so near in this should be so distant in the next Life His Soul desires especiasly
our own flesh Isa 58.7 Humanity in respect of common nature should cause Humanity in regard of Affection To see Mans Nature so depraved that was once so beautiful so like the Devil that once so much resembled God so swiftly running to Hell that was once an Heir of Heaven should draw forth Pity unless our hearts be Flint and Marble A mans Beast deserves thy Pity much more his Soul 2. The Righteous are the same with the Wicked in respect of § 23 corrupt depraved Nature born in Sin as much as they Eph. 2.3 with a Principle of inclination to all their Impieties Saints by nature grew upon the same Root flow'd from the same Fountain were Stones digg'd out of the same Quarry Should it not then make thee mourn to consider by the wickedness of others thine own inbred depravation What thou hadst done thy self if God had not either renewed or restrained thee yea what thou wouldst do if God should leave thee and withdraw his Grace from thee What are all the visible Impieties in the World but Comments and Expositions upon thy depraved Nature This Drunkard Adulterer Sodomite Murderer and I say Lord were both cut off from the same piece and only Free Grace came between us If it have made thee white Paper thou wert by Nature as very a Dunghil rag as the filthiest Sinner 3. Perhaps the Holiest men have been some way or other Furtherers § 24 of the Sins of the Wicked among whom they live perhaps by their former Sinful Example when they lived in the same Sins themselves which now the Wicked wallow in 'T is very possible that one that shall be saved may have been the cause of anothers Damnation shouldst not thou then mourn for killing that Soul which God so severely punisheth thô Free-Grace hath pardon'd thee Should we not quench that Fire with our Tears which we have blown up with our Bellowes of encouragement Saints that are to mourn for others Sins possibly have suffered Sin in others when they might have restrained them We destroy all those whom we suffer to sin and perish when we can prevent it May there not be some Elies among Godly men who have too negligently reproved and animadverted upon the Sins of those under their charge 'T is possible to be a good man and yet a bad Magistrate Minister Parent by not restraining the Sins of those committed to us Cold Reprovers cause bold Sinners An idle silence may sometimes be more pernicious than Idle yea profane Words 4. In this Relation of Saints to Sinners that should put them upon § 25 Mourning for them 't is very considerable that the Godly and the Wicked make up one Community or political Body in the places where they live in which respect the Sins of some particular offender or offenders may pull down Judgments upon the whole body or lump of persons that abide where those offenders live So that every one had need do his utmost by mourning and in whatever other way he can to redress the Sins and so to prevent the Plagues of the place where he lives 'T is very evident Deut. 21.1 2 3. c. the Blood of one man murdered defiles the whole bordering Land and provokes the Lords displeasure against a people even all the place where one notorious Wickedness is committed The Sin of making the Golden Calf thô 't was not the Sin of all yet it endangered all The Altar built by the two Tribes and an half which the rest of the Tribes thought had been built for Sacrifice was thought by Phineas to be so great a provocation as that Josh 22.18 for it the Lord would be wroth with the whole Congregation of Israel For the villany by some of the Inhabitants of Gibeah committed in abusing the Levites Concubine Judg. 20.46 the Vengeance came not only upon the City where it was committed Josh 7.12 2 Sam. 21.1 but upon all the Tribe of Benjamin Achans Sin troubled all Israel There came a Famine upon Israel for three years together for the Sin of Saul in killing the Gibeonites contrary to his Fidelity This was the chief Cause of the custom which was at the publick Fasts in Israel for the finding out of notorious Offenders and offences to have Vengeance taken on them openly Hence was the pretence of Jezabel for the killing of Naboth 1 King 21.9 10. under a shew of Execution of Justice against a Blasphemer to pacifie Gods anger By all this 't is evident what just cause the Godly have to mourn for all the Abominations committed among them which else may pull down Divine Vengeance upon them § 26 IV. APPLICATION 1. Use of Information in sundry Branches 1. Godliness is Vniform in all times places and companies Saints in the worst of these keep up their Integrity and are so far from joining with Sinners in their Sins that they by lamenting their Sins before the Lord enter their Protestation against them A Righteous man is not as the Swine in a Meadow clean only in clean places he will maintain opposition to Sin in the midst of Inducements to Sin Lot did so in Sodom His goodness may justly be suspected that only shews it self in good Places Companies and Times § 27 2. The greatest Sinners cannot Constrain us to sin They cannot extort our consent to Sin Sodom could not thô never so filthy make Lot so No external inducement can take from a Godly man either his Peace or Purity Men may constrain thee to be poor not impure The worst Creatures either among Men or Devils cannot take away what is best The greatest temptation is no plea for committing the least Sin if we give not away none can take away our Holiness 3. One Cause may produce contrary Effects Others sins draw the Wicked § 28 to follow them but they put the Saints upon bewailing them The coming of the Angels into Sodom stirrs up in Lot a desire to exercise Hospitality in the entertaining them but it stirres up in the impure Sodomites the heat of Lust and the most horrid Uncleanness That which sets the Graces of Saints on work puts the Wicked upon Acts of Impiety A Godly man is drawn nearer to God by that very thing that drives the Wicked farther from God 'T is the Disposition of the Person that makes what befalls him good or bad Davids beautiful House of Cedar puts him upon setting up Gods House Nebuchadnezzar's Palace puts him upon thoughts of haughtiness and proud self-admiration 4. 'T is our Duty to rejoyce in the Holiness if to mourn for the Sins § 29 of others Love to Gods house in others was Davids gladness Psal 122.1 'T was the greatest joy of holy John that his spiritual Children walk'd in the truth 3 Epist 4. Holy ones were Paul's Joy Crown and Glory 1 Thes 2.19 20. This rejoycing in the Grace of others must be thô their Grace out-shines and eclipseth ours They who have but a little Grace themselves must rejoyce
2. But now more particularly I. He that will keep himself in the Love of God must he himself love God for Love deserveth Love and Love begetteth Love Gods Love worketh thus towards us and therefore our Love must work towards God Prov. 4.6 Prov. 8.17 Our Love to God is but the Reflection of the Beams of Gods Love upon us Love Wisdom and she shall love thee I love them that love me And thus the Beams are doubled and the Love of God to the Soul and the Souls love to God encreaseth the heat betwen both as it is with the Sun shining on the Earth II. He that loves God loving him Magnes amoris amor is drawn to God by the attractive Beams of Divine Love these are called the Bands of Love Hos 11.4 He that loves God loving him is inflamed with Gods Love as it is in a Burning Glass This is a Heavenly Fire kindled from Heaven and not easily quenched Cant. 8.7 He that loves God loving him finds the strongest Obligation upon him to Love God as constrained to it 2 Cor. 5.14 and God endears him to love God from his Heart for Love ravisheth the Heart beyond all things in the World The Lord and his Spouse ravish one another Cant. 4.9 III. He that will keep himself in the Love of God must mind and meditate on four Attributes and Properties of Gods Love which will have great influence upon his Heart and Love 1. On the Eternity of Gods Love to him which hath been ever of old time out of Mind yea before all Time he hath been thy Friend and thy Fathers friend therefore forget him not Prov. 27.10 Because Election which is the effect of Gods Eternal Love is Eternal Ephes 1.4 And because he is Love essentially 1 John 4.8 therefore his Love is Eternal as himself Hos 14.4 2. On the Freeness of Gods Love All the Arguments of his Love are drawn out of his own Breast therefore this free Love of God is called Grace 2 Tim. 1.9 which is no Grace unless it be gratuitous and free Not according to works saith the Apostle the great Champion of Free Grace which Bradwardin calls the Cause of God but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus Rom. 11.5 6. before the world began And again There is a remnant according to the election of grace and if by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace O meditate on this How should the consideration of this keep us in the Love of God! ¶ Mark and mind this well Free Grace and Love sent Jesus Christ into the World and all the train of Spiritual Blessings Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 1. The free Love of God was the Cause of Election Rom. 11.5 2. The free Love of God is the cause of our effectual Vocation Gal. 1.6.15 3. The free Grace and Love of God is the cause of our Adoption Eph. 1.5 6. 4. The free Love and Grace of God is the cause of our Justification Rom. 3.24 5. The free Love and Grace of God is the cause of the Pardon of Sin Rom. 5.20 6. The free Grace and Love of God is the cause of true and thorough Conversion 1 Cor. 15.10 7. The free Grace and Love of God is the Cause of true Faith Act. 18.27 8. The free Grace and Love of God is the cause of Christs suffering for us Heb. 2.9 9. The Free Grace and Love of God is the Cause of that inestimable Jewel and Blessing the Word of God Act. 14.3 10. The free Grace and Love of God is the cause of our Salvation Eph. 2.5 8. ¶ O meditate and mind the infinite free Love of God in all the sweet Streams of it and dwell upon the meditation of it and be ravished with it and give the God of Grace and Love the Glory of it for ever 3. Mind the Immensity of Gods Love This is so vast an Ocean that thou wilt find neither Bounds nor Bottom in it Hear the Apostle upon it Eph. 3.18 That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the Breadth and Length and Depth and Height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge To know it to pass all knowledge The Consideration of this alone hath so amaz'd some devout Souls that they have been in an Extasie above and besides themselves with it 4. Mind and meditate on the Unchangeableness of Gods Love This is grounded upon two immutable things by which it is impossible for God to lie This O! Heb. 6.17 18. this gives sure Anchor-hold and comfort to a true Believer in a Storm v. 19. This Assurance God hath given his People of old Jer. 31.3 I have loved thee with an everlasting love Rom. 8. ult Joh. 13.1 It is an Inseparable Love It is a final Love but not finite Love It is to the end and without end It is Invincible Love Cant. 8.6 It is an Vnquenchable Love Cant. 8.7 Obj. If this be so what need then of the Apostles Exhortation to keep our selves in the Love of God Answ 1. Because Gods Promises and Believers Priviledges do not exclude but include the use of Means For instance Phil. 2.12 13. Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure Eph. 1.5 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundaon of the World that we should be holy and without blame before him in love 2 Pet. 1.4 to verse 10. He tells them God hath given them exceeding great and precious Promises yet bids them to give all diligence to make their Calling and Election sure by adding Grace to Grace Ephes 2.3 He saith we are saved by Grace through Faith which is the Gift of God without Works and yet he saith we are created to good Works that we should walk in them and this God hath ordained v. 9 10. 1 Thes 5. After he had Exhorted them to many Dutyes he adds this Faithful is he that hath called you who also will do it Mark our Text and compare it with the Context after when he bids us keep our selves in the love of God he saith Vers 24. God is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy 2. God who prevents us with his Grace and works upon us and in us unto Conversion and Regeneration hereby puts into us an Active Principle and helps and recruits it continually by auxiliary Grace Our habits of Grace cease acting if God suspends the influence of Grace as we see in Peters ease both upon the Waters when he began to Sink till the Lord gave him a Hand and went on denying his Master till the Lord looked upon him and melted him into Tears God will ever have us beholding to him and lean upon him h. 15.4 5.
thereunto such as the Illumination of our Minds and the Renovation of our Natures the Justification of our Persons the Life of God in holy Worship and Obedience all leading unto our eternal enjoyment of him These are the Ends whereunto the Gospel is designed in the wisdom of God whereunto its efficacy is confined 3. There is an Experience to be obtained of the power and efficacy of the Word In that place of the Apostle it is expressed by tasting But there is something antecedent unto their tasting specially so called and something consequent unto it both inseparable from it and therefore belonging unto the Experience whereof we speak 1. Wherefore The first thing required hereunto is Light that is a spiritual supernatural Light enabling us to discern the Wisdom Will and Mind of God in the Word in a spiritual manner without which we can have no experience of its Power Hence the Gospel is hid unto them that perish though it be outwardly declared unto them 2 Cor. 3.4 This is the only Means which lets into the Mind and Conscience a sence of this efficacy This in the increases of it the Apostle prays for on the behalf of Believers that they may have this experience Eph. 1.16 17 18 19. Chap. 3.16 17 18 19. and declares the Nature of it 2 Cor. 4.6 2. The Taste intended follows hereon wherein consists the Life and Substance of the Experience pleaded And this Taste is a spiritual sense of the Goodness Power and Efficacy of the Word and the things contained in it in the conveyance of the Grace of God unto our Souls in the Instances mentioned and others of a like nature for in a Taste there is a sweetness unto the Palat and a satisfaction unto the Appetite By the one in this Taste our Minds are refreshed and by the other our Souls are nourished Of both Believers have an experience And this is let into the Mind by Spiritual Light without which nothing of it is attainable God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness shine into your hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 3. To compleat the Experience intended there follows hereon a Conformity in the whole Soul and Conversation unto the Truth of the Word or the Mind of God in it wrought in us by its power and efficacy So the Apostle expresses it Eph. 4.20 21 22 23 24. If so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning the former Conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind and that you put on the new man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Hereupon follows our last Principle which is the immediate foundation of the ensuing Discourse or that which is to be confirmed and it is this The Loss of an Experience of the Power of Religion hath been the Cause of the loss of the Truth of Religion or it hath been the Cause of rejecting its Substance and setting up a Shadow or Image in the room of it This Transformation of all things in Religion began and proceeded on these Grounds Those who had the Conduct of it were always possessed of the General Notions of Truth which they could not forget without a total Renunciation of the Gospel it self But having lost all Experience of this power in themselves they wrested them unto things quite of another nature destructive to the Truth as well as devoid of its Power Hereon it came to pass that there was a dead Image made and set up of Religion in all the parts of it called by the Name of that which was true and living but utterly lost All Experience I say of the power and efficacy of the Mystery of the Gospel and the Truths of it in communicating the Grace of God unto the Souls of men being lost retaining the general Notion of it they contrived and framed an outward Image or Representation of them suited unto their Ignorance and Superstition Thus was the truth of Religion once almost totally lost in the world as we shall see neither will it ever be lost any other way or by any other means When Churches or Nations are possessed of the Truth and the Profession of it it is not Laws nor Fines nor Imprisonments nor Gibbets nor Fires that shall ever dispossess them or deprive them of it Whilst an Experience of the Power of Religion continued in the Primitive Times all the bloody Rage and Cruelty of the world all the Craft of Satan and the Subtilty of Seducers who abounded did utterly fail in attempting to deprive Christians of the Truth and the Profession of it But when this began to decay and be lost amongst them they were quickly deceived and drawn off from the Simplicity of the Gospel Upon the Reformation of Religion in these parts of the world when the Truth was received in the Love and Power of it and multitudes had experience of the spiritual benefit and advantage which they received thereby in Liberty Holiness and Peace all the Prisons Tortures Swords and Fires that were applied unto its extirpation did nothing but diffuse the Profession of it and root it more firmly in the minds of men It cannot be lost but by another way and other means The Jesuites and their Associates have been for an hundred years contriving Methods and Arts for the dispossessing Nations and Churches of the Truth which they have received and the introducing the Romish Superstition They have written Books about it and practised according to their Principles in every Kingdom and State of Europe who own the Protestant Religion But the folly of most of their pretended Arts and Devices unto this end hath been ridiculous and unsuccessless and what they have added hereunto of Force hath been divinely defeated There is but one way one effectual Engine to deprive any People of the Profession of the Truth which they have once received and that is by leading them into such Prophaneness and Ignorance as whereby they may lose all Experience of its Power and Efficacy in communicating the Grace of God unto their Souls and therein of all sense of the advantage which they might have had by it When this is done men will as easily lay aside the Profession of Religion as burdensom Cloaths in Summer There is much talk of a Plot and Conspiracy to destroy the Protestant Religion and introduce Popery again amongst us they may do well to take care thereof who are concern'd in publick Affairs but as unto the Event there is but one Conspiracy that is greatly to be feared in this matter and that is between Satan and the Lusts of men if they can prevail to deprive the Generality of men of an Experience in their own minds of the Power and Efficacy of the Truth with the spiritual Advantage which
glorious and that in an eminent manner above all the outward Worship of the Old Testament in the Tabernacle and Temple whose Glory was great and as unto external Pomp inimitable To this purpose the Apostle disputes at large 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8 9 10. This therefore is agreed that there ought to be Beauty and Glory in divine Worship and that they are most eminently in that which is directed and required in the Gospel But withal the Apostle declares in the same place that this Glory is Spiritual and not Carnal so did our Lord Jesus Christ foretel that it should be and that unto that end all distinction of places with all outward advantages and Ornaments belonging unto them should be taken away John 4 20 21 22 23 24. It belongs therefore unto our present Design to give a brief Account of its Glory and wherein it excels all other ways of divine Worship that ever were in the world even that under the Old Testament which was of divine Institution wherein all things were ordered for Beauty and Glory And it may be given in the Instances that ensue 1. The express Object of it is God not as absolutely considered but as existing in three Persons of Father Son and Holy Spirit This is the principal Glory of Christian Religion and its Worship Under the Old Testament the Conceptions of the Church about the Existence of the Divine Nature in distinct Persons were very dark and obscure for the full Revelation of it was not to be made but in the distinct actings of each Person in the works of Redemption and Salvation of the Church that is in the Incarnation of the Son and Mission of the Spirit after he was glorified John 7.39 And in all the ways of Natural Worship there was never the least shadow of any respect hereunto But this is the foundation of all the Glory of Evangelical Worship The Object of it in the Faith of the Worshipper is the Holy Trinity and it consists in an Ascription of Divine Glory unto each Person in the same individual Nature by the same Act of the Mind where this is not there is no Glory in Religious Worship 2. It s Glory consists in that constant respect which it hath unto each Divine Person as unto their peculiar work and actings for the salvation of the Church so it is described Eph. 2.18 Through him that is the Son as Mediator we have our access by one Spirit unto the Father This is the immediate Glory of Evangelical Worship comprehensive of all the Graces and Priviledges of the Gospel And to suppose that the Glory of it doth consist in any thing but the Light Graces and Privileges which it doth it self exhibit is a vain Imagination It will not borrow Glory from the Invention of men we shall therefore a little consider it as it is here represented by the Apostle 1. The Vltimate Object of it under this consideration is God as the Father we have an access therein unto the Father And this Consideration in our worship of God as a Father relating unto the whole dispensation of his Love and Grace by Christ Jesus as he is God and our God his Father and our Father is peculiar unto Gospel-worship and contains a signal part of its glory We do not only worship God as a Father so the very Heathens had a Notion that he was a Father of all things but we worship him who is the Father and as he is so both in relation to the eternal Generation of the Son and the communication of Grace by him unto us as our Father so no man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him John 1.18 This Access in our worship unto the Person of the Father as in Heaven the holy Place above as on a Throne of Grace is the glory of the Gospel See Mat. 6.9 Heb. 4.16 châ—p 10.19 20 21. 2. The Son is here considered as Mediator through him we have this access unto the Father This is the Glory that was hidden from former Ages but brought to light and display'd by the Gospel So speaks our blessed Saviour himself unto his Disciples Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name he will give it you Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my Name ask and ye shall receive Iohn 16.23 24. To ask God expresly in the Name of the Son as Mediator belongs unto the Glory of the Gospel-worship The chief of them may be reduced to these three Heads 1. It is he who makes both the persons of the Worshippers and their Duties accepted of God See Heb. 2.17 18. chap. 4.16 chap. 10.19 2. He is the Administrator of all the worship of the Church in the holy place above as its great High Priest over the House of God Heb. 8.2 Rev. 8.3 3. His Presence with and among Gospel-worshippers in their worship gives it Glory This he declares and promises Mat. 18.19 20. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them All Success of the Prayers of the Church dependeth on and ariseth from the presence of Christ amongst them He is so present for their assistance and for their consoâ—ation This presence of a Living Christ and not a dead Crucifix gives Glory to Divine worship He who sees not the Glory of this Worship from its relation unto Christ is a stranger unto the Gospel with all the Light Graces and Privileges of it 3. It is in one Spirit that we have Access unto God in his Worship and in his Administration doth the Apostle place the glory of it in opposition unto all the glory of the Old Testament as doth our Lord Jesus Christ also in the place before referred unto for 1. The whole Ability for the observance and performance of it according to the Mind of God is from him alone His communication of Grace and Gifts unto the Church is that alone which makes it to give glory to God in his Divine Service If this should cease all acceptable Worship would cease in the world To think to observe the Worship of the Gospel without the Aid and Assistance of the Spirit of the Gospel is a lewd imagination But where he is there is Liberty and Glory 2 Cor. 3.17 18. 2. By him the sanctified Minds of Believers are made Temples of God and so the principal Seal of Evangelical worship 1 Cor. 3.16 chap. 6.8 This Temple being of God's own framing and of his own adorning by his Spirit is a much more glorious Fabrick than any that the hands of men can erect 3. By him is the Church led into internal Communion and Converse with God in Christ in Light Love and Delight with holy boldness the glory whereof is expressed by the Apostle
Heb. 10.19 21 22. In these things I say doth the true Glory of Evangelical Worship consist and if it doth not it hath no Glory in comparison of that which did excel in the Old Legal Worship For the wit of man was never yet able to set it off with half the outward Beauty and Glory that was in the Worship of the Temple But herein it is that it not only leaves no Glory thereunto in comparison but doth unspeakably excel whatever the wit and wealth of men can extend unto But there is a Spiritual Light required that we may discern the Glory of this Worship and have thereby an Experience of its Power and Efficacy in reference unto the Ends of its appointment This the Church of Believers hath They see it as it is a blessed Means of giving Glory unto God and of receiving gracious Communications from him which are the Ends of all the Divine Institutions of worship and they have therein such an Experience of its efficacy as gives Rest and Peace and Satisfaction unto their Souls For they find that as their worship directs them unto a blessed view by Faith of God in his ineffable Existence with the glorious actings of each Person in the dispensation of Grace which fills their hearts with Joy unspeakable so also that all Graces are exercised increased and strengthned in the observance of it with Love and Delight But all Light into all Perceptions of this Glory all Experience of its Power was amongst the most lost in the world I intend in all these Instances the time of the Papal Apostacy Those who had the conduct of Religion could discern no Glory in tâ—â—â—e things nor obtain any experience of their Power Be the Worship what it will they can see no Glory in it nor did it give any satisfaction to their minds for having no light to discern its glory they could have no Experience of its power and efficacy What then shall they do The Notion must be retained that Divine Worship is to be beautiful and glorious But in the Spiritual Worship of the Gospel they could see nothing thereof wherefore they thought necessary to make a Glory for it or to dismiss it out of the world and set up such an Image of it as might appear beautiful unto their fleshly minds and give them satisfaction To thiâ— end they set their Inventions on work to find out Ceremonies Vestments Gestures Ornaments Musick Altars Images Paintings with prescriptions of great bodily Veneration This Pageantry they call the Beauty the Order the Glory of Divine Worship This is that which they see and feel and which as they judge doth dispose their Minds unto Devotion without it they know not how to pay any reverence unto God himself and when it is wanting whatever be the Life the Power the Spirituality of the Worship in the Worshippers whatever be its efficacy unto all the proper ends of it however it be ordered according unto the prescription of the Word it is unto them empty indecent they can see neither Beauty nor Glory in it This Light and Experience being lost the introduction of Beggarly Elements and Carnal Ceremonies in the Worship of the Church with attempts to render it dâ—corous and beautiful by Superstitious Rites and Observances wherewith it hath been defiled and corrupted as it was and is in the Church of Rome was nothing but the setting up of a deformed Image in the room of it and this they are pleased withal The Beauty and Glory with Carving and Painting and imbroidered Vestures and Musical Incantations and Postures of Veneration do give unto Divine Service they can see and feel and in their own imagination are sensibly excited unto Devotion by them But hereby instead of representing the true Glory of the Worship of he Gospel wherein it excels that under the Old Testament they have rendred it altogethâ—â— â—inglorious in comparison of it for all the Ceremonies and Ornaments which they have invented for that end come unspeakably short for Beauty Order and Glory of what was appointed by God himself in the Temple scarce equalling what was among the Pagans It will be said that the things whereunto we assign the Glory of this Worship are spiritual and invisible Now this is not that which is enquired after but that whose Beauty we may behold and be affected with And this may consist in the things which we decry at least in some of them though I must say if there be Glory in any of them the more they are multiplied the better it must needs be but this is that which we plead Men being not able by the Light of Faith to discern the Glory of things spiritual and invisible do make Image of them unto themselves as Gods that may go before them and these they are affected withal but the Worship of the Church is spiritual and the Glory of it is invisible unto eyes of Flesh So both our Saviour and the Apostles do testifie in the Celebration of it We come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the Blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel Heb. 12.22 23 24. The Glory of this Assembly though certainly above that of Organs and Pipes and Crucifixes and Vestments yet doth not appear unto the Sense or Imaginations of men That which I design here is to obviate the Meritricious Allurements of the Roman Worship and the Pretences of its efficacy to excite Devotion and Veneration by its Beauty and Decency The whole of it is but a Deformed Image of that Glory which they cannot behold To obtain and preserve in our hearts an experience of the power and efficacy of that Worship of God which is in Spirit and Truth as unto all the real Ends of Divine Worship is that alone which will secure us Whilst we do retain right Notions of the proper Object of Gospel-worship and of our immediate approach by it thereunto of the way and manner of that approach through the Mediation of Christ and assistance of the Spirit whilst we keep up Faith and Love unto their due exercise in it wherein on our part the Life of it doth consist preserving an experience of the spiritual benefit and advantage which we receive thereby we shall not easily be inveagled to relinquish them all and to give up our selves unto the Embraces of this lifeless Image SECT III. It is an universal unimpeachable Perswasion amongst all Christians that there is a near intimate Communion with Christ and Participation of him in the Supper of the Lord. He is no Christian who is otherwise minded Hence from the beginning this was always esteemed the principal Mystery in the
flatter themselves whilst they please that on one consideration or other they shall be the Objects only of their kindness if these men according to their Profession be obliged in conscience to execute whatever their Superiors shall command them no less than Abraham was to sacrifice his Son on the Command of God they hold their Lives at the Mercy and on the good Nature of these Superiors who are always safe out of the reach of Revenge It is marvellous that Mankind doth not agree to demolish this cursed Image or the Ascription of a Godlike Power unto men to require blind Obedience unto their Commands especially considering what effects it hath produced in the world All men know by whose Device it was first set up and erected by whom what means and unto what end it was confirmed and consecrated and at this day it is maintained by a Society of men of an uncertain Extract and Original like that of the Janizaries in the Turkish Empire their Rise being generally out of obscurity among the meanest and lowest of the People Such they are who by the Rules of their Education are taught to renounce all respect unto their Native Countreys and Alliances therein but so as to make them only the way and matter for the advancement of the interest of this new Society And this sort of men being nourished from their very first entrances into the conduct of the Society unto hopes and expectations of Wealth Honour Power Interest in the disposal of all publick Affairs of Mankind and the Regulation of the Consciences of men it is no wonder if with the utmost of their Arts and Industry they endeavour to set up and preserve this Image which they have erected from whence they expect all the advantage which they do design But hereof I may treat more fully when I come to speak of the Image of Jealousie it self SECT X. From these Generals I shall proceed unto more particular Instances and those for the most part in important Principles of Religion wherein Christian Faith and Practice are most concerned And I shall begin with that which is of signal Advantage unto the Framers of these Images as the other also are in their degree for by this craft they have their Livelihood and Wealth and most pernicious to the Souls of other men It is a Principle of Truth that such as wherein the whole course of Christian Obedience is concerned that there is a Spiritual defilement in Sin This the Scripture every where declares representing the very Nature of it by spiritual Uncleanness And this Vncleanness is its contrariety unto the Holiness of the Divine Nature as represented unto us in the Law This Defilement is in all men equally by Nature all are alike born in Sin and the pollution of it Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean And it is in all personally in various degrees some are more polluted with actual Sins than others but all are so in their degree and measure This pollution of Sin must be purged and taken away before our entrance into Heaven for no unclean thing shall enter into the Kingdom of God Sin must be destroyed in its Nature Practice Power and Effects or we are not saved from it This Purification of Sin is wrought in us initially and gradually in this Life and accomplished in Death when the Spirits of just men are made perfect In a compliance with this work of Gods Grace towards them whereby they purifie themselves consists one principal part of the Obedience of Believers in this world and of the exercise of their Faith The principal internal immediate efficient cause of this purification of Sins is the Blood of Christ the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth us from all our Sins 1 John 1.7 The Blood of Jesus purgeth our Consciences from dead works Heb. 9.14 He washeth us in his own Blood Rev. 1.5 And there is an external helping Cause thereof which is Trials and Afflictions made effectual by the Word and accomplished in Death But this way of purging Sins by the Blood of Christ is mysterious There is no discerning of its Glory but by spiritual Light no experience of its Power but by Faith Hence it is despised and neglected by the most that yet outwardly profess the Doctrine of the Gospel Men generally think there are a thousand better ways for the purging of Sin than this by the Blood of Christ which they cannot understand See Micah 6.6 7. It is Mysterious in the Application of it unto the Souls and Consciences of Believers by the Holy Ghost it is so in the Spring of its efficacy which is the Oblation of it for a Propitiation and in its relation unto the new Covenant which first it establisheth and then makes effectual unto this end The Work of it is gradual and unperceptible unto any thing but the eyes of Faith and diligent spiritual Experience Again It is so ordered by Divine Wisdom as strictly to require to begin excite and encourage the utmost diligence of Believers in a compliance with its efficacy unto the same End What Christ did for us he did without us without our aid or concurrence As God made us without our selves so Christ redeemed us but what he doth in us he doth also by us what he works in a way of Grace we work in a way of Duty And our Duty herein consists as in the continual exercise of all gracious Habits renewing changing and transforming the Soul into the Likeness of Christ for he which hopes to see him purifieth himself as he is pure so also in universal permanent uninterrupted Mortification unto the end whereof we shall speak afterwards This also renders the Work more Mysterious and difficult The improvement of Afflictions unto the same end is a principal part of the Wisdom of Faith without which they can be of no spiritual Use unto the Souls of men This Notion of the Defilement of Sin and that of the Necessity of its purification were retained in the Church of Rome for they could not be lost without not only a rejection of the Scripture but the stiffling of natural conceptions about them which are indelibly fixed in the Consciences of men But Spiritual Light into the Glory of the thing it self or the mystical Purification of Sin with an experience of the power and efficacy of the Blood of Christ as applied unto the Consciences of Believers unto that end by the holy Ghost were lost amongst them In vain shall we seek for any thing of this Nature either in their Doctrine or their Practice Wherefore having lost the Substance of this Truth and all experience of its Power to retain the Use of its Name they have made sundry little Images of it creeping things whereunto they ascribe the power of purging Sin such as Holy Water Pilgrimages Disciplines Masses and various commutations But they quickly found by experience that these things would neither purifie the Heart nor
Exercise of Faith is always accompanied with diligence and perseverance in all holy Duties of Prayer with Fasting Godly Sorrow daily renewed Repentance with a continual watch against all the Advantages of sin Herein consists principally that Spiritual warfare and conflict that believers are called unto this is all the killing work which the Gospel requires That of Killing other men for Religion is of a latter date and another Original And there is nothing in the way of their Obedience wherein they have more experience of the necessity power and efficacy of the Graces of the Gospel This Principle of Truth concerning the necessity of Mortification is retained in the Church of Rome yea she pretends highly unto it above any other Christian Society The Mortification of their Devotionists is one of the principal Arguments which they plead to draw unwary Souls over unto their Superstition Yet in the height of their pretences unto it they have lost all experience of its nature with the power and efficacy of the Grace of Christs therein and have therefore framed an Image of it unto themselves For 1. They place the eminency and height of it in a Monastical Life and pretended Retirement from the World But this may be hath been in all or the most without the least real work of Mortification in their Souls For there is nothing required in the strictest Rules of these Monastick Votaries but may be complyed withal without the least effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit in their minds in the application of the vertue of the death of Christ unto them Besides the whole course of life which they commend under this name is neither appointed in nor approved by the Gospel And some of those who have been most renowned for their severities therein were men of blood promoting the cruel slaughter of multitudes of Christians upon the account of their profession of the Gospel in whom there could be no one Evangelical Grace for no Murderer hath eternal Life abiding in him 2. The Ways and Means which they prescribe and use for the attaining of it are such as are no way directed unto by the Divine Wisdom of Christ in the Scripture such as multiplied Confessions to Priests irregular ridiculous Fastings Penances Self-Macerations of the Body unlawful Vows Self-devised Rules of Discipline and Habits with the like Trinkets innumerable Hence whatever their Design be they may say of it in the issue what Aaron said of his Idol I cast the Gold into the Fire and there came out this Calf they have brought forth only an Image of Mortification diverting the Minds of men from seeking after that which is really and spiritually so And under this Pretence they have formed a State and Condition of Life that hath filled the world with all manner of Sins and wickedness and many of those who have attained unto some of the highest degrees of this Mortification on their Principles and by the Means designed unto that End have been made ready thereby for all sorts of Wickedness Wherefore the Mortification which they retain and whereof they boast is nothing but a wretched Image of that which is truly so substituted in its room and embraced by such as had never attained any Experience of the Nature or Power of gospel-Gospel-Grace in the real Mortification of Sin SECT XIV The same is to be said concerning Good Works the second Evangelical Duty whereof they boast The necessity of these Good Works unto Salvation according unto mens Opportunities and Abilities is acknowledged by all And the Glory of our Profession in this World consisteth in our abounding in them but their Principle their Nature their Motives their Use their Ends are all declared and limited in the Scripture whereby they are distinguished from what may seem materially the same in those which may be wrought by Unbelievers In Brief they are the Acts and Duties of true Believers only and they are in them Effects of Divine Grace or the Operation of the Holy Ghost for they are created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath ordained that they should walk in them But the principal Mystery of their Glory which the Scripture insists upon is that although they are necessary as a Means unto the Salvation of Believers yet are they utterly excluded from any influence unto the Ju-stification of Sinners so there was never any Work Evangelically good performed by any who were not before freely Justified Unto these Good Works those with whom we have to do lay a vehement claim as though they were the only Patrons of them and Pleaders for them But they have also excluded them out of Christian Religion and set up a deformed Image of them in defiance of God of Christ and the Gospel For the Works they plead for are such as so far proceed from their own free will as to render them Meritorious in the sight of God They have confined them partly unto Acts of Superstitious Devotion partly unto those of Charity and principally unto those that are not so such are the Building of Monasteries Nunneries and such pretended Religious Houses for the maintenance of Swarms of Monks and Friers filling the World with Superstition and Debauchery They make them meritorious satisfactory yea some of them which they call of Supererrogation above all that God requireth of us and the Causes of our Justification before God They ascribe unto them a Condignity of the heavenly Reward making it of Works and so not of Grace with many other defiling Imaginations but whatever is done from these Principles and for these Ends is utterly foreign unto those good Works which the Gospel enjoyneth as a part of our New or Evangelical Obedience But having as in other Cases lost all Sense and Experience of the Power and efficacy of the Grace of Christ in working Believers unto this Duty of Obedience unto the Glory of God and Benefit of mankind they have set up the Image of them in defiance of Christ his Grace and his Gospel These are some of the Abominations which are pourtraied on the Walls of the Chamber of Imagery in the Church of Rome and more will be added in the consideration of the Image of Jealousie it self which God willing shall ensue in another way These are the Shadows which they betake themselves unto in the loss of Spiritual Light to discern the Truth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel and the want of an Experience of their Power and Efficacy unto all the Ends of the Life of God in their own Minds and Souls And although they are all of them expresly condemned in the Letter of the Scripture which is sufficient to secure the Minds of true Believers from the admission of them yet their establishment against all Pleas Pretences and Force for a compliance with them depends on their experience of the Power of every Gospel-Truth unto its proper End in communicating unto us the Grace of God and transforming our Minds into the Image and Likeness
idle but drive or draw them to some pleasing works which may stir the body and employ the thoughts If they are addicted to reading let it not be too long nor any books that are unfit for them and rather let another read to them than themselves Doctor Sibbes Books and some useful pleasing History or Chronicles or news of great matters abroad in the world may do somewhat to divert them 3. Often set before them the great truths of the Gospel which are fittest to comfort them And read them informing comforting Books and live in a loving cheerful manner with them 4. Choose for them a skilful prudent Minister of Christ both for their secret counsel and publick audience One that is skilled in such cases and one that is peaceable and not contentious erroneous or fond of odd opinions one that is rather judicious in his preaching and praying than passionate except when he urgeth the Gospel Doctrines of consolation and then the more fervently the better and one that they much esteem and reverence and will regardfully hear 5. Labour to convince them frequently how great a wrong it is to the God of Infinite Love and Mercy and to a Saviour who hath so wonderfully exprest his Love to think hardlier of him than they would do of a Friend yea or of a moderate Enemy and so hardly to be perswaded of that Love which hath been manifested by the most stupendious Miracle Had they but a Father Husband or Friend that had ventured his Life for them and given them all that ever they had were it not a shameful Ingratitude and Injury to suspect still that they intended all against them and designed mischief to them and did not love them How hath God and our Saviour deserved this And many that say it is not God that they suspect but themselves do but hide their misery by this mistake while they deny Gods greatest Mercies and though they would fain have Christ and Grace will not believe that God who offereth it them will give it them but think he is one that will remedilesly damn a poor Soul that desireth to please him and had rather have his Grace than all the sinful pleasures of the world 6. Carry them oft abroad into strange Company usually they reverence strangers and strang Faces do divert them especially travelling into other parts if they can bear the Motion 7. It s a useful way if you can to engage them in comforting others that are deeper in Distresses than they For this will tell them that their Case is not singular and they will speak to themselves while they speak to others One of the chief means which cured my fears of my Souls Condition about Forty eight years ago was oft comforting others that had the same doubts whose Lives perswaded me of their sincerity And it would be a pretty diversion to send to them some person that is in some Error which they are most against to dispute it with them that while they whet their wits to convince them and confute them it may turn their thoughts from their own Distress Fâ—â—â—stus tells us that a Melancholly Patient of his that was a Papist was cured when the Reformation came into the Country by eager and oft disputing against it A better Cause may better do it 8. If other means will not do neglect not Physick and though they will be averse to it as believing that the Disease is only in the mind they must be perswaded or forced to it I have known the Lady deep in Melancholly who a long time would neither speak nor take Physick nor endure her Husband to go out of the room and with the restraint and grief he dyed and she was cured by Physick put down her â—hroat with a Pipe by force If it were as some of them fancy a possession of the Devil its possible Phisick might cast him out For if you cure the Melancholly his Bed is taken away and the advantage gone by which he worketh Cure the Choler and the Cholerick Operations of the Devil cease It is by means and humours in us that he worketh But choose a Physitian that is specially skill'd in this Disease and hath cured many others meddle not with Woemen and ignorant boasters nor with young unexperienced men nor with hasty busie overdoing ventrous men that cannot have time to study the Patients Temper and Disease but chuse experienced cautelous men Medicinal Remedies and Theological use not to be given together by the same hand but in this case of perfect complication of the Maladies of Mind and Body I think it not unfit if I do it not unskilfully My advice is that they that can have an ancient skilful experienced honest careful cautelous Phisitian neglect not to use him nor meddle with any of the medicines which I hereafter mention nor with any other Receipts whatever but by their Phisitians Advice for there is so great diversity of bodily Temperatures Age and many Accidents and of the roots and causes of the same Symptoms as that the same Medicine may cure one and hurt another and may cure the same man at one time which at another time it may hurt Skill in managing of it doth much of the Cure and not the Medicine without it But yet because there are Multitudes of persons so very poor that they cannot give a shilling to a Physitian and the dearness of Phisitians and Apothecaries so discourageth them who have not money that they do not seek to any for helps but some Woemen that tell them of their Receits And there are many in the Countries that are quite out of the reach of a skilful physitian And because there are now so great a number of Empricks and young unexperienced Physitians that will rashly venture before they throughly understand the body or the Disease And because overdoing and venturing rashly kills so many For these Reasons I will add a few safe and cheap Medicines which the poor may make themselves and which will not cause much loathing to their stomacks though I venture on the Censure of some Physitians I am none my self but I see many score much younger than I that venture much farther when they have got a License to the great cost of the purfes and bodies of their Patients The Disease called Melancholly is formally in the Spirits whose distemper unfits them for their office in serving the Imagination understanding memory and affections so by their distemper the thinking faculty is diseased and becomes like an inflamed eye or a foot that is sprained or out of joynt disabled for its proper work The matter which is the root and foundation is usually a depravation of the Mass of Blood which is the Vehicle of the spirits and that is usually accompanied with some diseases of the Stomach Spleen Liver or other parts which are for the due concoxion motion and purification of the blood which Diseases are so various that they are seldom the same in many
notitiae connotat affectum light and heat clearer views and dearer and stronger Loves must go together 3. The Persons who are to labour after a greater measure of Knowledg and those are real Christians who have attained to some degree of spiritual Understanding that Light which is as the Light of the Moon should be increased so as to equal the Light of the Sun and that which is as the Light of the Sun should be augmented so as to equal the light of seven days should grow more and more glorious 4. The Arguments to perswade and they are two Christ is their Lord Christ is their Saviour 1. Christ is their Lord a Lord most great most gracious the more this is understood the better will his Service be liked as honourable and advantageous and Obedience will be yielded with greater chearfulness and constancy 2. Christ is their Saviour a Saviour from the greatest Evils Sin and the miserable effects of it in time in eternity a Saviour to the greatest Blessedness an everlasting Kingdom and Glory a Saviour of that which is most pretious the Soul which if safe the whole man must needs be secured The Text may be considered with a double reference to what goes before to what follows after 1. To what goes before grow in Grace and Knowledg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hence we may observe That the way to increase in Grace is to increase in the Knowledg of Christ the means of Grace will be found inefficacious and empty will convey nothing if Christ be not with them and in them if he be not understood by those that use them All that fulness out of which the Church is replenished from the beginning of the world to the very end of it it has pleased the Father should dwell in Christ Col. 1.19 If a man know where a vast Treasure lies hid he may quickly go and enrich himself the way to have more Grace is to understand that Christ is the Fountain from whence all Grace is derived He is head over all things to his Church which is his Body and is called to shew the reality and plentifulness of Communication the fulness of him who filleth all in all Eph. 1. ult 2. The Text may be referred to what follows after To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen Hence observe thâ—t thâ— grâ—â—â—â—r Knâ—â—lâ—â—â—â—â—â— Christ we attain to the more we shall â—â—â—â—â—r and sâ—◠〈…〉 glorifie him his Godhead is the same with the Fathers his 〈…〉 Dominion equal and eternal The Church millitant muâ—◠〈…〉 begin to glorifie her Lord and Saviour and wheâ— she comes to be 〈…〉 praises will be vastly higher and to magnifie to love to aâ—â—ire and to rejoyce in him will be her everlasting business But I shall wave the Connexion and from the words themselâ—â—â— râ—â—se this Doctrine That it highly concerns all sâ—â—cere 〈◊〉 to grow and iâ—crease in the Knowledg of Christ The Gospel which revâ—â—ls Christ 〈…〉 mystery which the Angels themselves desire to 〈…〉 looking they admire the manifold wisdom of God the exceeding riches of his Grace and love and shall not the Saints search farthâ—â— into this Gospel shall they not look more unto and into Jesus what 〈…〉 him the nature of Angels but the Seed of Abraham The better Christ is understood the better will they understand how happy he has maâ—â—â— them and that Christ being theirs all is theirs The question that in this exercise I am to answer is this How 〈…〉 grow in the Knowledg of Christ and make use of and 〈…〉 Kâ—â—wledg Now that the Answer may be the more full I shall do theâ—â— four things First I shall tell you what it is to grow in the Knowledg of Christ 〈◊〉 the telling you this will tend to the advancement of this groâ—th Seâ—ondly What Properties are required in this Knowledg Thirdly The Directions are to follow that you may increase in the Knowledg of him Fourthly What Vse and Improvement you are to makâ— of tâ—is Kâ—â—wledg or of Christ known I begin with the first of these What it is to grow in the Kâ—â—wledg of Christ Here several Propositions are to be premised 1. The Knowledg of Christ is of the greatest Excellency The Apostle calls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.8 Yea doubtless and I câ—â—â—t â—ll things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord other kind of Knowledg is like Light from the Sâ—ars this like bâ—amâ— from the Sun Christ is called the Sun of Righteousness He is called Wisdâ—m in the abstract Sapientiae omnimoda sapientia Prov. 1.20 in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom in him iâ—â—he Sum the Perfection of Wisdom To know him does assimuâ—ate and make us like him and when we shall have a full view of him in glory we shall to our utmost capacity fully resemble him To know him is Life eternal and they that seek Life any other way will find death 〈◊〉 themselves mistaken in the end No wonder the Apostle glories in 〈◊〉 Knowledg and that an ancient Father said he was glâ—d he had sometâ—â—â—â— of value he meant Philâ—sophy to despise in comparison 2. This Knowledg of Christ is of absolute necessity Stat invicta haec rupe s. Ego sum Via nullus a in s quicquid ante m via haec non fuerit error lubricum te nebraesunt Luther Tom. 2. p. 507. In Scripture he is compared to those things which are so needful that we cannot be without them 〈◊〉 Mâ—â—t and Drink and Raiment Christ is the Bread of Life the fountain of Living Water we are to put on the Lord Jesus his righteousness is tâ—â— Garment which must cover and secure us To be totally ignorant â—f him must needs be death eternal for there is not Salvation in any other◠〈◊〉 4.12 3. The Knowledg of Christ is by supernatural revelation Much of God may be râ—â—d in the Book of nature his visible Works do make the wisdom pâ—wer and goodness of the Worker also visible But Christ is a mystery hâ—d from Ages and Genâ—rations and would have remained hid still if the Gospel had not revealed him Col. 1.26 Who could ever have thought of God his being manifested in the flâ—sh and redeeming the Church with his oâ—â—â— Blood if this had not been brought to Light by the Gospel Thâ—se are indeed the deep things of God which the Spirit reveals 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and power to discern them and believe them is from the same Spirit 4. The Knowledg of Christ was communicated in a degree under the old Testament The Prophets spake of him and if they had not what they had said besides had been insignificant The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring Israel to Christ Gal. 3.24 The Ceremonial Law requiring the blood of so many sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewed plainly that the Sacrificers themselves deservâ—d to die and therefore is said to be against them
and comfortable day They are arrayed with the robe of righteousness and garment of Salvation which adorn them more than garments of wrought gold Christ leads them into his Banquetting-House and there spreads over them the banner of his love which affords the surest protection and the sweetest shade Who but themselves are able to tell or conceive what unspeakable and glorious joy they have what triumphs and exultings of Soul when their best beloved Jesus kisseth them with the kisses of his lips and by his own Spirit witnesseth with theirs that they are the Children of God and with his most ravishing consolations doth delight their Souls what are mines of gold and rocks of Diamonds what are Lordships and mannors what are Crowns and Scepters what Kingdoms and Empires to one drachme of grace one smile from Heaven one whisper of divine love one embrace of a Saviour Cursed said noble Galeacius be that man who counteth all the world worth one hours communion with Jesus Christ and if one hour of Communion be so precious what O what is a life of Communion But then stay till the winding up of the bottom till that last and great day shall dawn in which there will be a revelation of the righteous Judgment of God and of the marvellous goodness of God wherein the wicked shall be stript of all their honour and power of all their riches and pleasures and turned into Hell for the wrath of God and the worm of Conscience eternally to feed upon them And those who have believingly closed with Christ and bowed to his Scepter and walked closely with God and studied the power of godliness and strictness of Religion shall enter into peace and be cloathed with glory and sit upon Thrones possessed of a fulness of joy and sporting themselves in Rivers of pleasure under the brightest and warmest beams of divine love and in the most endearing embraces of the Lord Jesus and in the plenarie uninterrupted enjoyment of those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man without any disquieting apprehensions or fears of being ejected out of that possession or disturbed in it Then all the world the most stupid and unteachable part of it will be throughly convinced that there is a reward for the righteous a God that Judgeth in the Earth and that true godliness is profitable for all things both for the life that now is and for that which is to come and that however things go now yet it was not in vain to serve God And therefore in the mean time though Clouds and darkness are round about the Throne yet let us rejoyce in the firm belief of what the Prophet tells us Psalm 145 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works The last thing promised for the proof of the point that Gods governing the world may well support us in the midst of all distractions is to present to your consideration several things more particularly relating to the Church and People of this God And they are these 1. The nearness dearness and intimacy of that relation in which the Church and Saints stand to God What may not the wife and children of a loving and mighty King promise themselves from his government Certainly they may well be assured so long as he keeps his Throne and hath power in his hand they shall want neither defence nor comfort The Church is Gods Vineyard and will he not water it and keep it every moment lest any hurt it She is the Spouse of Christ and will he not be tender over her and kind to her He is a Father to his people and will he not look after them and afford them maintenance and necessary supplies He is more than a Mother to them and will he not draw out his breasts of consolation that they may suck and be satisfied milk out and be delighted Doubtless they may believingly expect all good from him all kindness all comforts from him who hath been graciously pleased to put himself into all relations unto them In the 23. Psal v. 1. holy David looked with an eye of Faith but to one Relation in which God stood to him the Lord is my Shepherd and from thence he saw sufficient encouragement to conclude that he should not want What mayest thou then O believer argue from all Gods relations He is my God my King my Master my Father my Husband therefore surely I shall not want He is a Sun and Shield a Sun for comfort and a Shield for security In his beams then his children shall rejoyce and in his shadow shall they sit safely and no good thing shall he with-hold from them that walk uprightly Jerusalem is the City of the great King and if she be Gods City God will be her security Never fear that O Saints for he is known famously known in her Palaces for a refuge 2. The special interest which God hath in his Church and People they are his Portion and Inheritance And no one will if he can help it lose his portion Naâ—oth would not part with his Inheritance upon any termes neither fell nor change it much less will Christ with his who is so greatly taken with it as to count the lines fallen to him in a pleasant place and that he hath a goodly heritage His people are his Jewels and will he suffer them to be lost They are his Treasure and what shall his enemies rob him of that no no where his treasure is there his heart is also and where his heart is there shall his eye be watching and his hand of power shall be stretched out and his wings of protection shall be spread abroad and Salvation it self shall be for Walls and Bulwarks The interest which God hath in all the world is not comparable to that interest which God hath in the Church The rest are but his Slaves these are his Children the rest are but the rude wilderness the Devils waste these are his Gardens inclosed In others he sees his power but in these his Image and his Son Others are the work of his hands but these are the Workmanship of his Spirit 3. That most endearing and entire affection which he beareth unto his Church and People As be stands in all relations to them so he hath all affections for them You that understand what love is do feel within your selves what a noble active liberal principle it is and what a mighty power and vigour there is in it Now there is no love in the world comparable to the love of God He hath a flame to our spark an Ocean to our drop The dearest of Gods love is placed upon Christ and in and for Christs sake the same love is placed upon the Church and people of Christ thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me And what will not such love do it will awaken care and call forth power and engage wisdom and open the
our principal perfections in Heaven and Earth These he recommends by the most affectionate and obliging the most warming melting Perswasives the superlative Love of God to us and our Communion with the Saints in Nature and Grace In the former Verse the Apostle argues for the reality of the effect as an evidence of the Cause Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ that is the Saviour of the world foretold to the Prophets and expresses the truth of that Faith in a sutable conversation is born of God and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him Grace is not less powerful in producing tender reciprocal affections between the off-spring of the same heavenly Father than the subordinate endearments of Nature The pretence is vain of Love to God without loving his regenerate Children And in the Text he argues from the knowledge of the Cause to the discovering of the sincerity of the Effect By this we know that we love the Children of God with a holy affection if we love God and keep his Commandments There is but one difficulty to be removed that the force of the Apostles reasoning may appear 't is this a Medium to prove a thing must be of clearer evidence than what is concluded by it Now though a demonstration from the Cause be more noble and scientifical yet that which is drawn from the Effect is more near to Sence and more discernable And this is verified in the Instance before us for the Love of God who is absolutely spiritual in his Being and Excellencies doth not with that sensible fervour affect and passionately transport us as Love to his Children with whom we visibly converse and who are receptive of the most sensible testimonies of our Affection Accordingly the Apostle argues He that loves not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen As the Motives to love our Brethren from our conjunction in Nature and familiar Conversation are more capable to allure our Affections and more sensibly strike the Heart than the invisible Deity who is infinitely above us by the same reason we may more easily judge of the truth of our Love to them than of our Love to God To this the Answer is clear the Apostle doth not speak of the Love of God as a still silent contemplative affection confined to to the superior Faculty of the Soul but as a burning shining affection like Fire * Lumine qui semper proditur ipso suo active and declarative of it self in those effects that necessarily flow from it that is voluntary obedience to his Commands and thus it becomes manifest to the renewed Conscience and is a most convincing proof of the sincerity of our Love to the Saints The Text being cleared affords this Doctrine Doctrine The sincerity of our Love to the Children of God is certainly discovered by our Love to God and Obedience to his Commands For the Illustration and Proof of the Point I will briefly shew 1. Who are described by this Title the Children of God 2. What is included in our Love to them 3. What the Love of God is and the obedience that flows from it 4. How from love to God and willing obedience to his Commands we may convincingly know the sincerity of our love to his Children To explain the first we must consider that this Title the Children of God is given upon several accounts 1. By Creation the Angels are called the Sons of God and Men his off-spring The reason of the Title is 1. The manner of their production by his immediate Power Thus he is stiled The Father of Spirits in distinction from the Fathers of the Flesh For though the conception and forming of the Body be the work of his secret Providence yet 't is by the hand of Nature the Parents concurring as the second Causes of it but the production of the Soul is to be entirely ascribed to his power without the intervention of any Creature 2. In their spiritual immortal Nature and the intellectual operations flowing from it there is an Image and resemblance of God from whence this Title is common to all reasonable Creatures and peculiar to them for though the Matter may be ordered and fashioned by the hand of God into a figure of admirable beauty yet 't is not capable of his likeness and image so that neither the Lights of Heaven nor the Beasts and plants of the Earth are called his Children II. By external Calling and Covenant some are denominated his Children for by this Evangelical Constitution God is pleased to receive Believers into a filial relation Indeed where there is not a cordial consent and subjection to the Terms of the Covenant visible Profession and the receiving the external Seals of it will be of no advantage but the publick serious owning of the Gâ—â—pel entitles a person to be of the Society of Christians and filius and foederatus are all one III. There is a Sonship that arises from supernatural regeneration that is the communicating a new nature to man whereby there is a holy and blessed change in the directive and commanding Faculties the Understanding and Will and in the Affections and consequently in the whole Life This is wrought by the efficacy of the Word and Spirit and is called by our Saviour Regeneration because it is not our original carnal Birth but a second and celestial 'T is with the new man in Grace as with an Infant in Nature that has the essential parts that compose a man a Soul endowed with all its faculties a Body with all its organs and parts but not in the vigor of mature age Thus renewed Holiness in a Christian is compleat and entire in its parts but not in perfection of degrees there is a universal inclination to all that is holy just and good and a universal aversion from sin though the executive power be not equal And regenerate Christians are truly called the Children of God for as in natural generation there is communicated a Principle of Life and sutable Operations from whence the Title and Relation of a Father arises so in Regeneration there are derived such holy and heavenly qualities to the Soul as constitute a Divine Nature in man whereby he is partaker of the Life and Likeness of God himself from hence he is a Child of God and has an interest and propriety in his Favour Power and Promises and all the good that flows from them and a Title to the eternal inheritance Secondly I will shew what is included in our Love to the Children of God 1 Pet. 1.22 1. The Principle of this Love is Divine The Soul is purified through the Spirit to unfeigned Love of the Brethren Naturally the Judgment is corrupted and the Will depraved that carnal respects either of Profit or Pleasure are the quick and sensible incitements of Love and till the Soul be cured of the sensual contagion the
inclination can never be directed and the desires fastned on the supernatural Image of God in his Saints As Holiness in the Creature is a Ray derived from the infinite beauty of God's Holiness so the love of Holiness is a Spark from the sacred Fire of his Love 1 John 4.7 St. John exhorts Christians Let us love one another for Love is of God Natural Love among men is by his general Providence but a gracious Love to the Saints is by his special influence The natural Affection must be baptized with the Holy Ghost as with Fire to refine it to a divine purity 2. The Qualifications of this Love are as follows First It is sincere and cordial it does not appear only in expressions from the Tongue and Countenance but springs from the integrity of the Heart 'T is stiled unfeigned Lâ—â—â— of the Brethren 't is a Love not in Word and Tongue only but in Deed and Truth A counterfeit formal affection set off with artificial colours is so far from being pleasing to God the Searcher and Judge of hearts that 't is infinitely provoking to him Secondly 'T is pure the attractive Cause of it is the Image of God appearing in them Our Saviour assures us that Love shall be gloriously rewarded that respects a Disciple upon that account as a Disciple and a righteous man as a righteous man The holy Love commanded in the Gospel is to Christians for their Divine Relation as the Children of God as the Members of Christ and Temples of the Holy Ghost Thirdly From hence it is universal extended to all the Saints The Church is composed of Christians that are different in their Gifts and Graces and in their external Order some excel in knowledge and zeal and love in active Graces others in humility meekness and patience that sustain and adorn them in sufferings some are in a higher rank others are in humble circumstances as in the visible world things are placed sutably to their Natures the Stars in the Heavens Flowers in the Earth and our special respects are due to those whom the Favour of God has dignified above others and in whom the brightness and power of Grace shines more clearly for according as there are more reasons that make a person deserving Love the degrees of Love should rise in proportion but a dear affection is due even to the lowest Saints for all have communion in the same holy Nature and are equally instated in the same blessed Alliance Fourthly It must be fervent not only in Truth but in a degree of Eminency St. Peter joyns the two Qualifications See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently Our Saviour sets before us his own Pattern as a Pillar of fire to direct and inflame us Joh. 15.12 This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you As I have loved you Admirable Example His Love was singular and superlative a Love that saves and astonishes us at once for he willingly gave his precious life for our Ransom This we should endeavour to resemble though our highest expressions of love and compassion to the Saints are but a weak and imperfect imitation of his divine Perfection I shall add farther this Love includes all kinds of Love 1. The love of Esteem correspondent to the real worth and special goodness of the Saints 'T is one Character of a Citizen of Heaven that in his eyes a vile person is contemned Psal 15. however set off by the Glory of the world and the ornaments of the present state that as a false Mask conceal their foul deformity to carnal persons but he honours them that fear the Lord though disfigured by calumnies though obscur'd and depress'd by afflictions and made like their blessed Head in whom there was no Form nor Comliness in the judgment of Fools In our valuation Divine Grace should turn the Scales against all the Natural or Acquired Perfections of Body or Mind Beauty Strength Wit Eloquence humane Wisdom against all the external Advantages of this Life Nobility Riches Power and whatever is admired by a carnal Eye The Judgment and Love of God should regulate ours A Saint is more valued by God than the highest Princes nay than the Angels themselves considered only with respect to their spiritual Nature He calls them his peculiar Treasure his Jewels the first Fruits of the Creatures sacred for his Use and Glory in comparison of whom the rest of the world are but Dregs a corrupt Mass They are stiled his Sons being partakers of that Life of which he is the Author and Pattern and what are all the Titles on Earth compared with so Divine a Dignity 2. The Love of Desire of their present and future Happiness The Perfection of Love consists more in the Desire than in the Effects and the continued fervent Prayers that the Saints present to God for one another are the expressions of their Love 3. The Love of Delight in spiritual Communion with them All the Attractives of humane Conversation Wit Mirth Sweetness of Behaviour and wise Discourse cannot make any Society so dear and pleasant to one that is a lover of Holiness as the Communion of Saints David whose Breast was very sensible of the tender Affections of Love and Joy tells us That the Saints in the Earth the Excellent Psaâ— 16. â— were the chief Object of his Delight And â—â—equent to this there is a cordial Sympathy with them in their Joys and Sorrows being Members of the same Body and having an interest in all their good or evil 'T is observable when the Holy Spirit describes the sweetest humane Comforts that are the present reward of the godly man the enjoyment of his Estate in the dear Society of his Wife and Children there is a Promise annext Psal 128. that sweetens all the rest That he shall see the good of Jerusalem and peace upon Israel Without this all temporal Comforts are mixt with bitter displeasure to him There is an eminent Instance of this in Nehemiah Nehem. 2. whom all the Pleasures of the Persian Court could not satisfie whilst Jerusalem was desolately miserable 4. The Love of Service and Beneficence that declares it self in all outward Offices and Acts for the good of the Saints And these are various some are of a sublimer nature and concern their Souls as spiritual Counsel and Instruction compassionate Admonition and Consolation the confirming them in good and the fortifying them against evil the doing whatever may preserve and advance the life and vigour of the inward man others respect their Bodies and temporal Condition directing them in their Affairs protecting them from Injuries supplying their wants and universally assisting them for their tolerable passage through the world And all these Acts are to be chearfully performed there is more joy in conferring than receiving a Benefit because Love is more exercised in the one than the other In short the highest effect of Love that
degree you will let it alone and little trouble your selves about it This therefore is a Second thing that you must be convinced of and one would think there needed not much ado to bring you to this Conviction Pride indeed is such a hateful thing that few will own it the proudest persons would be accounted humble But if you look into your selves you will easily discover the manifest Symptoms and Indications of this evil disease run over the foregoing effects of Pride and then consider how many of them are found in your selves Effects do always imply and suppose their proper Causes Some bless themselves and say they thank God they are not proud because they do not follow Fashions and go brave in their Attire because they do not affect great Titles and high Places but would rather move in a lower sphere but let such know this Plague may be in their hearts though they have no such tokens of it in their faces Little do men think what a humble outside what contempt of honourable Places and Titles what meanness and plainness of Apparel in themselves what exclaiming and crying out against Pride in others yea what confessing and bemoaning of this sin to God will consist with the prevalency and predominancy of it in their own hearts You remember I distinguish'd in the beginning betwen fleshly and spiritual Pride and the latter is much the worser sort and more hateful to God he is a Spirit and as he likes best of spiritual worship so he hath the greatest dislike of spiritual Pride What matters it then that thou art not lifted up with aiery Titles with gay Apparel and the like so long as thou art puft up with things of a more spiritual Nature as with thy Gifts and Knowledge thy Priviledges and Enjoyments thy Graces and Duties Pride is a Worm that will breed in any of these The Apostle Paul was like to have been catch'd in this Snare by means of his being caught up into the third Heaven A Christian if he hath not a care may be proud of his very Humility it is hard starving this sin when as there is nothing almost but it can live upon But I remember I was too long in the first Direction therefore I must be the shorter in this and those that follow 3. Be much in the Meditation of Death and Judgment The serious Direct 3 and frequent meditation of Death will be a means to kill Pride Some to mortifie the Pride of their hearts have kept a Death's-Head or a dead mans skull always in their Chambers it is of more use to have the thoughts of Death always in their Minds What is man but a little living Clay and what is his Life but a Vapour that appears for a little while and then vanishes away Augustine doubted whether to call it mortalis vita vel vitalis mors a dying life or a living death One says of mans Life that it is a little warm Breath turn'd in and out at the Nostrils The Prophet Isaiah tells us that mans Breath is in his Nostrils and therefore in nothing is he to be accounted of And as for this reason man is not to be accounted of by others so neither by himself 't is but a little a very little while more and you must be gone hence and be seen no more your Breath goeth out and all your thoughts perish and you your selves will rot and perish and shall rotting and perishing things be proud things Shall man be lifted up with what he hath who shortly himself must not be I mean in this world Now you differ it may be from other men and are above them in riches and greatness in parts and priviledges but two Questions may clip your wings and keep you from soaring too high in your own conceits 1. Who made you to differ I suppose none of you will say as one once did that you made your selves to differ you 'll confess I hope that you have nothing but what you have received and so there is no room for pride or glorying therein If you excel in any gift or grace you must say of it as he of his Hatchet alas it is but borrowed 1. How long will there be this difference Death is at hand it stands at the door and that will level you with those that are lowest In the grave whither we are all hastning there is no differece of skulls there the rich and the poor the learned and the unlearned do all meet together the dead bones of men are not distinguish'd by the ornaments or abasures of this temporal Life As the meditation of Death will be a means to mortifie Pride so will also the meditation of Judgment The time will come when you must be accountable unto God for all you have and do enjoy all your mercies and enjoyments are but as so many Talents with which you are intrusted and for which you must give an account You are not owners but stewards of them and the time will come when you must give an account of your Stewardship So the Apostle Paul concludes Rom. 14.12 Every man must give an account of himself to God He must give an account of himself in his natural capacity as a man in his civil capacity as a great or rich man and in his spiritual capacity as a good or religious man he must give an account of all his Receipts of all his Expences what he hath received of God and how he hath laid it out for God A serious Reflection upon this one thing will have a double Effect 1. It will make you careful 2. It will keep you humble you will not easily over-reckon your selves for any thing when you consider the reckoning that you must make for all things Especially if this be added that the more you do receive the greater will be your Reckoning that is a sure word of our Saviours Luke 12.48 To whomsoever much is given of him much shall be required When God sows much he expects to reap much he requires not only an improvement of our Talents but a sutable and proportionable improvement of them that they should be doubled that two Talents should be be made four and five Talents ten 4. Consider the many and great imperfections of your Graces and Direct 4 Duties 1. Consider the imperfections of your Graces How much water is mingled with your wine and dross with your silver and honey-comb with your honey how much greater your ignorance is than your knowledge your unbelief than your faith how the love of the world is as much if not more than your love of God if you were perfect in Grace and Holiness then you would have no Pride at all how is it then that you are so proud and conceited when Grace is so imperfect when you are so short of what is attainable and of what others have attained should that man be proud who hath so little love to God and delight in him as thou hast
We must consider a man as placed by God in a publick capacity whether of Magistracy or Ministry and in this case also more is requisite to constitute a middle State than for those whom Providence hath set in a lower Orb. The Rule by which a mediocrity in such a capacity must be determined is so much as may be necessary to discharge those Offices and great Trusts to which they are called Magistrates especially chief Magistrates such as have the Care of Kingdoms and Common-wealths upon them it is supposed a liberal share is necessary for them and that for the keeping up that external Grandeur that belongs to their places and to defray the Charges of that great work incumbent upon them which cannot be done but by many hands which must be not only employed but rewarded by them And for Ministers whom God hath called to that honourable Work of winning Souls 1 Tim. 4.13 15. in order to which they are enjoyn'd to give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine and to meditate upon these things and give themselves wholly to them that their profiting may appear to all So much is supposed to be necessary for a competency for them as may free them from worldly distractions Acts 6.2 4. and that they be not necessitated to serve Tables Yet doth not this either justifie Magistrates in the unreasonble Exactions or Oppressions of their People peeling and polling them for the maintaining of their Pride and Luxury contrary both to divine Precept and Pattern The Precept you have Deut. 17.16 17. He shall not multiply Horses to himself nor cause the People to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply Horses c. Neither shall he multiply Wives to himself that his heart turn not away neither shall he greatly multiply to himself Silver and Gold And for a Pattern take good Nehemiah Nehem. 5.15 The former Governors that had been before me were chargeable unto the People and had taken of them Bread and Wine beside forty Shekels of Silver yea even their Servants bare rule over the People but so did not I because of the fear of God Neither will this vindicate Ministers 1 Tim. 3.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not a lover of Silver by what Titles soever they are dignified or distinguished to be greedy of filthy Lucre or Covetous not grasping at worldly wealth exalting themselves with external Pomp and Grandeur who are to be examples of Humility Meekness and Lowliness to the Flocks over which God hath made them Overseers 1 Pet. 5.3 thus to Lord it over Gods Heritage with high swelling Titles and a Train of Attendants may suit well enough with the Ministers of Antichrist 2 Thes 2.4 who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped but is very unbecoming those who profess themselves to be the servants of a meek and a lowly Jesus Having thus shewed you in what respects we are to judge of a Mediocrity or middle worldly condition I proceed to shew you wherein this condition is the most eligible and desirable and this both upon Rational and Religious Grounds Only one thing remember that when I am recommending a middle state in the world it must be suppos'd that there is no worldly condition that can be propos'd as so desirable but what hath its adherent Vanities as hath excellently been declared in this Morning-Exercise from another Subject Who knoweth what is good for man in this life Eccl. 6.11 12. all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow To which let me add further Neither is there any condition so formidable but what may by the Grace of God influencing the Heart be improv'd for holy and happy purposes and yet so far as seems sutable to sound Reason as also Scripture-Revelation a middle worldly estate is most eligible and that 1. For a man considered as such with respect to his short passage through this world still this is to be understood with submission to divine pleasure Let us look upon man as a Creature placed by God to act a Part upon the Stage of this world for a few years and then to have his Exit and thus think upon him abstracted from all considerations of a future state Could it be supposed that those Expressions of Solomon were to be construed in the Epicures or Atheist's sence That that which befals the Sons of men befalleth Beasts even one thing befalleth them Eccl. 3.19 20. as the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath c. all go into one place This were good News to those wretches that spend their precious Time in the contempt of God and neglect of their Souls if the words were to be understood without a limitation But the following Verse spoils all their Mirth V. 21. Who knoweth the spirit of a man that goeth upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth A clear Testimony of the immortality and surviving of the Soul in a future state But suppose man as making a short through-fare from the Womb to the Tomb and so a middle condition is most eligible and that 1. With respect to his Mind 2. With respect to his Body 1. With respect to the Mind a middle state is most eligible as tending to a greater sedateness and tranquility and freeing it from many distractions and manifold anxieties that are the natural concomitants of both the forementioned Extreams of Poverty and Riches 1. As for Poverty it is obvious to every eye especially if it be extream O what daily Tortures and wracking thoughts what solicitous cares the mind of man under such circumstances is exposed to and that for the getting of such Provision as is necessary to satisfie the cravings of Nature whose cries and clamors are loud and troublesome impatient and querulous not a day nor scarce an hour but the mind is put upon the contriving an answer to those repeated Queries what shall I eat and what shall I drink and wherewith shall I be cloathed Nor 2. Is the mind ever a whit the more at ease by being brought into the other Extream of Riches as through our folly we are apt to imagine Oh says the poor man could I but compass such an Estate could I get such a Bank of Money into my Coffers then I should be satisfied but alas this is a grand Mistake for though Riches stop the mouth and satisfie the cravings of Nature yet do they open the â—ouths and enlarge the cravings of so many devouring Lusts that the rich man where his heart is not renewed by Grace is less at quiet and fuller of disturbance than the poor Sometimes his Pride sometimes his Pleasure sometimes his Covetousness and sometimes a whole Kennel of Lusts are let loose upon him that eats out all that comfort and sweetness which otherwise might result from his plentiful Enjoyments whenas a middle condition in the world
though 't is far from giving any true rest to the mind of man that being the peculiar property of God and an interest in him to do yet does it free a man much from those disquiets before mentioned for though a man in this estate may be supposed to have the same disturbing and devouring Lusts yet are they kept much under a restraint not having that fewel to feed them which Riches afford and which are of that nature that the more they are used the more insatiable they are in their cravings 2. A middle worldly Estate to a man as such is better than either of the Extreams with respect to the Body and that as it is a condition that hath a greater tendency to its health and preventing manifold Diseases and Infirmities to which it is liable whilst in this lower world 'T is true all Sicknesses and bodily Distempers that are either afflictive or destructive to mans Body are at the dispose of God in whose hands are all our times He kills and he makes alive he wounds Deut. 32 39. and he heals He says to them as the Centurion to his Servants go and they go come and they come do this and they do it Mat. 8.9 So that our Lives and Healths have no absolute dependance upon secondary Causes yet it must be acknowledged in the ordinary way of his Proâ—idence he dispences the weal or wo of the Body by external means Now 1. As to Poverty how many visible hazards do those that are poor run as to their Health and how many ways do bodily Infirmities beset them Sometimes through the want of these Creature-accommodations that God in the ordinary way of his Providence hath made necessary for the upholding of the Fabrick of Nature and repairing its dilapidations to which it is incident for want of supplies Little do you think who sit down at your well spred Tables how many of your poor Brethren would be glad of your Fragments whose Lamp of Life dwindles away sometimes for want of Oyl to feed it besides excessive Heats and Colds contracted by their Labours and Pains that they are at to fill their bellies and cover their nakedness as also unwholsom Diet and many times not enough of that neither 2. As to Riches these are so far from preventing these bodily Infirmities that commonly they hasten and heighten them proving temptations to those who are destitute of Gods Grace to sloth and idleness upon the account of which the Body like a standing Pool contracts filth and mud so the Body gross humors to its great prejudice especially hereby is occasioned Intemperance and Excess in eating and drinking which proves not only pernicious to the Soul but also destructive to the â—ealth of the Body as Erasmus speaking of the Epicures of his days makes this Remark Dum invitant ad coenam efferunt ad sepulchrum How many fresh instances might be produced wherein it might appear that many have so long drank Healths to others that they have drank away their own whilst a middle worldly condition tends to the preventing many of those evils by which the Body as well as the Soul suffers But I hasten to the second Head of Arguments Secondly A middle worldly condition is most eligible to a man as a Christian and as designing the happiness of the other world as it is most subservient to the living to God here and living with God hereafter This my Brethren if we be in our right minds is and ought to be the main scope and business of our Lives Hence that worldly condition that may rationally be judged most conducing to that end is doubtless the most eligible Now that a middle state considering our present Circumstances viz. those internal depravities with which we are infected is the most desirable I shall endeavour to evince This world and the time allotted for our abode here is the time for our acquainting our selves with God Job 22.21 that we may be at peace and that all good may come unto us all the good that God hath promised and that Christ hath purchased Now that condition that may afford most helps and fewest hinderances to this great Business is certainly the most eligible condition I have only this to premise by way of Caution that there is no condition in the world so well circumstantiated that can be so dispositive of us to our future happiness but that without the Almighty and out-stretched Arm of Sovereign Grace we shall still be left in a lost and perishing condition yet we do affirm there are some conditions in the world that though they are not in the least auxiliary to God who worketh in us to will and to do Phil. 2.13 and that of his good pleasure yet are they if wisely managed advantageous unto us for our improving those helps by which God is pleased to communicate his Grace to us In this respect the Apostle prefers a single before a married condition He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord 1 Cor. 7 32 33 34. but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world how be may please his Wife c. By which the Apostle shews the advantage in some respects that the single person hath beyond those who are married in the Service of God so also a middle condition seems to have the advantage of both the forementioned Extreams and this will be more evident if we consider that there are three things prerequisite and necessarily to be minded by us in order to our future happiness 1. A right and orderly entring into the way of salvation by the door of sound Regeneration and Conversion 2. A Progress in that way by a holy and heavenly Conversation 3. A Perseverance in that way of Faith and Holiness to the end against all internal or external opposition Now a middle worldly condition appears both from Rational and Scripture accounts to be the most subservient unto all these 1. Such as ever truly design to enter into Heaven when they die must get into the way that leads thither whilst they live Mat 7.13 14. Now every way hath an entrance that leads to it The entrance into this way is by the Door of Regeneration So our blessed Saviour plainly tells us John 3.3 Verily verily I say unto you except a man he born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God And what this new Birth imports you may find v. 5. Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God To which I might add many parallel places Mat. 18.3 Except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven No Conversion no Salvation Now that Condition in the world from whence results the fewest Hinderances and the most Helps for our entrance in at this strait Gate is doubtless the most eligible and
this a middle state doth Beloved Conversion and Regeneration is a mighty work whatever the world think of it The Mind must be enlightned the Conscience must be awakened the Will must be inclined the Affections must be spiritualized and the Grace by which all these Operations must be effected as it comes from God so is it ordinarily conveyed to us through those outward Means which he hath instituted for that end on which God requires our constant and conscientious Attendance such as Prayer Reading and Hearing the Word read and preached These are the Posts of Wisdoms Gates where we are bound to wait Prov. 8.34 These are the healing Waters at which we must lie if ever we expect the Cure of our Soul-maladies In a word these are the ordinary Means by which God conveys his Spirit that unites the Soul to Christ Gal. 3.3 and thence communicateth the first formations of Spiritual Life Now a middle worldly Estate is the most subservient considering our corrupt state both as to our attendance upon and diligent improvement of these external Helps in order to Gods conveying his Grace to us 1. Take a man under that Extream of Poverty one that is forced either to beg or earn his daily Bread before he eateth it and withal consider him as in his natural state dead in sins and trespasses and without any serious sense of the inestimable worth of his Soul or weight of Eternity Alas how easily are such from the sense of their poverty drawn either to a total neglect of the â—eans of Grace or to a careless superficial attendance upon it Does not experience tell us that the pinching necessities of the Body easily induce them to conclude that they must have Bread for themselves and Families What say they we must live we must not starve but consider not in the mean time that there is a far greater Must for their Souls that they must have their sins pardoned that God must be reconciled that they must have Christ and his Grace and that their Natures must be changed and their sins subdued or else verily they must to Hell where they will not be allowed so much as a drop of water to cool their Tongues Luke 16.24 and in order to this that they must find time to pray read and hear Gods Word and they must meditate and take pains to acquaint themselves with the matters of their Souls But alas the feeling of their bodily wants have got a prepossession and stand as a strong guard to keep out every such serious thought from entring into their minds and if at any time they thrust in upon them how quickly are they ejected and the poor man is apt to think if he doth not speak it out that whatever may be the duty of his Betters as he calls them yet he presumes he may be excused and that he hath a sufficient Apology to live without minding suâ—h matters having so many worldly Cares and Concerns upon him These and such like are too frequently the prevailing Suggestions of those who are under that Extream of Poverty Well but then 2. Let us consider the other Extream and look to the Rich and here let me use the words of the Prophet Jer. 5.4 5. Therefore I said surely these are poor they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God I will get me unto the great men and will speak unto them for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God But alas see what Return is made upon this Inquest Why he tells you These have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bond Poverty hath many hinderances but Riches through the horrible sensuality of mans Heart hath more as our Saviour intimates Verily I say unto you Mat. 19.23 24. that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of heaven And again I say unto you it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven not that Riches in themselves are any impediment to true and serious Godliness but only by reason of the depravity of our Natures that cleave so fast and are so closely wedded to and lifted up with things here below Vermis divitiarum est Superbia Aug. Pride being the Worm that naturally breedeth in Riches 'T is a hard matter to be high and humble Great and rich men are easily drawn to a neglect and contempt of the Means of Grace and to imagine that it is beneath their grandeur to have the worship of God in their Families or at best Difficile est ut praesentibus bonis quis fruatur futuris ut de Jdeliciis ad delicias transeat Hier. that it is more proper for their Chaplains to manage than themselves these are too great to be dealt plainly with about the Concerns of their Souls and are apt to think Nathan was a little too bold when he said to King David Thou art the man 2 Sam. 12.7 I must profess when my thoughts have been taken up with such Objects they have been so far from being envied by me that of all conditions of men in the world I have looked upon them as the Objects of the greatest pity I mean such great and rich ones whose wealth and honour is imployed as a shield to defend them against the faithful monitions of such as are lovers of and well wishers to immortal Souls Hereby their lusts are secured and their Souls exposed to eminent danger Besides how open do they lie to such Soul-destroying Opinions viz. that there neither is nor need any other than an external baptismal Regeneration and that we are all Christians good enough by our natural and no necessity of any new Birth and that a little outward Reformation will secure us though we never mind heart-renovation and if men will not preach and prophesie such smooth things they shall not by their consent prophesie at all like those of old who say to the Seers see not Isa 30.10 and to the Prophets prophesie not speak unto us smooth things prophesie deceits In a word when a sinner is converted and brought home to God the Heart must be search'd and ransack'd his false hopes and sandy foundations upon which they are built must be batter'd down Pride and Self-confidence must be brought low and a man must become as a little Child Now though our hearts are all of us opposite to this work Mat. 18.3 and nothing short of omnipotent Grace can thus bring the heart to stoop that it may enter in at this strait Gate that leads to life yet Greatness and Riches in the world through the corruption of mans Nature does much magnifie the opposition that is made against God on this account but now a middle state in the world is exempted from these additional hinderances Neither hath the Flesh nor the Devil that advantage to
misery and the sadness of your condition lies in this that it layes you open without preventing Grace to many strong Temptations to dishonour and neglect God and Christ and your Souls and so makes way for your being miserable in both Worlds may you but obtain wisdom from God to hearken to his Calls to close with his Counsels and accept of the gracious proffers of Christ and Salvation by and through him which proffers are made as freely to you as to any in the World and then admit your poverty continued nay increased upon you yet it will be but for a very little while Luk. 16.20 21 22. and thou who with Lazarus art forc'd to lye at the rich mans Gate and glad when thou canst get but the crumbs and fragments that comes from his Table shalt be taken into Abraham's bosom and sit down at the right hand of God Psal 36.8 where are Rivers of pleasure for ever more and thou shalt hunger no more neither thirst any more neither shall the Sun light on thee nor any heat but the Lamb shall feed you and lead you unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes Rev. 7.16 17. For the Lords sake think of this Things here below are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4.18 for a little season whether they be good or evil and therefore not worth the minding in comparison with those eternal things which are just before you 2. Two Words to you that are rich and the first shall be that which you find 1 Tim. 6.17 Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy You have little reason to set a higher estimate upon your selves because God by the bounty of his Providence hath lifted you up above your Brethren either if you consider who it is that hath made you to differ 1 Cor. 7.4 and that you have nothing but what you have received as the Apostle upon another account expresseth it and received it not as an absolute Proprietor to do with what you have what you lift but as God's Steward to be laid out in the Service of your Lord who will shortly call you to a strict account and will say Luke 16.2 Give an Account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward and that the more you have the greater is your debt and the greater account you have to make but that is not all your Riches and Honours which you are so apt to admire and dote upon if God give you not great wisdom in the management of them will be sad Riches as they will be temptations to you to forget both God and your selves and under your Salvation more hazardous as you have heard and if they should in this sence be for your hurt you will shortly wish you had rather have been amongst the number of those that beg their Bread at your door then thus as you do Coach it up and down and lie upon your Beds of Ivory and drink Wine in Bowls and Health and Carowse it with your huffing Companions Read James 5.1 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your Miseries that shall come upon you your Riches are corrupted and your Garments are Moth-eaten your Gold and Silver is cankered and the Rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last days You that trust and pride your selves in your uncertain Riches and live in the neglect of God and your Souls apply this to your selves for it belongs to you A Second Word to you that are rich shall be that of Solomon Prov. 3.9 Honour the Lord with thy Substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase Let it not offend your Worships that I become a humble Monitor to you on this account It is true I have pointed at some of the inconveniences and evils that do attend and are incident unto your high Condition and upon an impartial view I question not but you will find many more but yet I must tell you that these are not inseparable concomitants If God gives you his Grace and once brings you to submit to the conduct of his Spirit without which you are undone your Riches may be so far from being hindrances that they may become excellent helps and advantages in your way heavenward Oh! if God gives you but hearts how many opportunities may you enjoy for the good of your Souls that others cannot Nay how much good may you be instrumental to do to the Souls and Bodies of others What influence may your Examples of piety have upon others in the places where you live How may you even by your Riches and Greatness be a terror unto evil doers and a praise to them that do well Rich and great men if they be good and gracious and lay out themselves for God and the good of others are great Blessings of the Age the Lord increase them Lastly I have three words to you that are in a middle worldly Condition you have heard that your Condition upon many accounts is the most eligible then I infer 1. See what interpretation you are to make of those Providences that have put a check to your endeavours and graspings at great things in the world and that you have greater reason to take this more kindly from the hand of God than you are aware of My Beloved I have known some that through an overvaluing of things here below have been reaching after great matters and God in the way of his Providence hath seem'd to concur with their ambitious desires placing them under such Circumstances giving them such a commodious Seat such a promising Trade that they have had a prospect of huge Matters in the world and have reckoned themselves and said well in a few years I question not but I shall be a man as they sometimes phrase it but all on a sudden some Accident or other happens that blasts all their hopes and makes them take down their wide Sails that stood ready spred to receive a prosperous gale and they are fixt possibly in a middle state neither very poor nor ever likely to be very rich and Oh how hardly are such disappointments born Much ado to comport with patience with such Providences Now do but consider what you have heard and you will find that God was kinder to you than you were to your selves Are you sure that if you had not been stopt in your pursuit it might not have been much very much to your spiritual and eternal detriment 2. Hence learn to be wiser for the time to come moderate your affections to the things of this world Jer. 45.5 Seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not If God in the way of thy Calling and honest
are given for as the rigid Dominicans do certainly make God the Cause of Sin whether culpable or not culpable is not the Question even so do the Scotists and Molinists for they both include in the matter of Sin somewhat more than what is meerly Natural even somewhat that is morally Vicious and yet assert that this Matter is the immediate effect of Gods Causality only the one says That God does as it were take man by the hand and lead him to Sin the other That man determines the Efficiency of God and the Scotist says That the first and second Cause do walk hand in hand to the Sin but whether I lead another to the Sin and help him to commit it or whether I am taken by the Sinner and determined to help him to produce what is sinful in the Act or whether I walk with him stil I am at least a Concauser of what is sinful in the Act so that neither the Scotist nor the Molinist give me any satisfaction in this Matter The Result therefore of my thoughts is as follows I am sure that no Natural Being ever has been is or can be without the Efficiency of God the first Cause and yet I am as confident that no Moral Evil is in any sense the Effect of the Physical Efficiency of God The Moral Undueness that is considered as that which is the Foundation of Sin cannot be from God but yet how satisfactorily to reconcile these things or how to comprehend the Modes of Divine Operation is above us we cannot reach unto it it transcends our Understandings 5. There are also several Doctrines which have a special Aspect on those Transactions that are about the carrying on Fall'n Mans Salvation to the Illustrating the Glory of the divine Perfections which are very profound The Doctrines of the Fall of Man the Transition of Original Sin from Adam to his Posterity the Methods taken for the Recovery of the Elect the Covenant of Reconciliation between the Father and the Son from all Eternity the Incarnation of the Son of God and the many surprizing Doctrines with reference thereunto even about his several Offices as Mediator and in special That of his Being a Priest after the Order of Melchisedek his Suretyship how our Sins were imputed to him and his Righteousness made ours beside those Doctrines about the Nature of the Mystical Vnion that is between Christ and Believers and how this is the ground of Imputation and many other momentous points might be spoken unto to evince That though there is nothing of Contradiction in these Doctrines yet there is very much that transcends the most enlarged Capacity They are points that the Angels themselves are prying into but cannot fully comprehend But these things I must wave and go on to acquaint you with some of the many Providences that do in like manner transcend our Understandings II. Among the many amuzing Providences that are before Us I will single out a few 1. That the greatest part of the World should lye in Wickedness unacquainted with the Methods of Salvation is an amuzing Providence Look we into the remotest parts of the World we find nothing but a strange Ignorance of the true God or of the true Worship of God Oh how great a part of the World is over-run with Paganism Mahometanism and Judaism Come we nearer home and take a view of the Christian World behold how small is it in comparison of those parts where the abovemention'd false Religions prevail and of the many thousands who are called Christians how many Invelop'd with the thick clouds of Ignorance and Error and how â—ew free from the Influence of Idolatry and Superstition A multitude of those who have been baptiz'd into the name of Christ have not the opportunity of looking into the sacred Oracles which reveal the true way to Life everlasting and of those who have the happy Advantages of consulting the sacred Scriptures how few can understand them The which is not without a Providence of God But can we compare these Providences with those discoveries that are made of the Infinite Compassions of Almighty God towards the Children of men and comprehend a consistency between them In the Scriptures 't is said That God would have all men be saved and to that end come to the Knowledg of the Truth even when but a very small spot of the Earth have any suitable means afforded 'em for the obtaining such knowledg In the Scriptures the Proclamation is general to all Ho every one and the Expostulation with Sinners is Turn ye Turn ye why will ye dye as I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a Sinner of a Sinner indefinitely q. d. of any Sinner but rather That he would Turn and Live Besides did not Christ die for this end namely to shew the unexpressible greatness of Gods Love to the world God so loved so so loved the World as if it had been said the Love of God to the World is so transcendent that no words could sufficiently express it nothing would fully represent it but the Delivery of the Son the only begotten Son of God to the Death the cruel the shameful and the reproachful Death of the Cross for the salvation of the World on their Believing and this even when God left Millions of Angels to continue in everlasting Chains of Darkness notwithstanding all which it is manifest That they cannot believe in him of whom they have not heard and cannot hear unless a Preacher be sent unto them and that no such thing has been done no Preacher has been sent or if in one Age yet not in another How can we reconcile these Providences with the Discoveries that are given us of the infinite Compassions of God to Mankind when so few are made partakers of it What of Grace is there in leaving the greatest part of the World in a very little better condition than the fallen Angels I know that there are many things offered towards the satisfaction of a thoughtful Person as Who can tell but there are thousand of Worlds above us whose Inhabitants are in a better capacity to receive and improve the Instances of Divine Love and that this world is but a Spot in comparison of them and if this whole World should perish 't is but as the hanging up a few Malefactors to shew that God is just as well as merciful but how does this solve the Difficulty which is not meerly taken from the Notion we have of Gods meâ—ciful Nature in it self considered but from the Revelations made thereof unto the Children of men in the Scripture about which we cannot have any solid satisfaction but from things which are obvious before us not from what is so fully out of our view and knowledge and concerning Creatures of another kind 'T is true there are some intimations in the Sacred Scriptures which apart and by themselves considered afford Relief such as these The Gentiles which have not
which brings the other to its Temper is said to Master and overcome it so when another's malice towards us cools our love to him and brings us to the like evil disposition towards him our love may be said to be overcome by his malice And great reason there is that we should take heed that we be not overcome of evil 1. If we consider what Relicks of Corruption there are in good men We live not among Angels but men compassed about with many Infirmities which will be apt to make them sometimes offensive to us When the Seer came to Asa with a Message from God because it was that which did not please him he was wroth and in a rage with him 2 Chr. 16.10 and put him in Prison a strange act of a good King yet so he was for the Scripture testifies of him 1 Kings 13.14 That Nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days Aaron the Saint of the Lord Numb 12.1 as he is called Psal 106.16 and Miriam are found chiding with Moses their brother Two of the most eminent Preachers of the Gospel of Peace Paul and Barnabas are at variance Acts 15.39 and the contention is so sharp between them that they depart asunder one from the other So true was that saying of theirs to the men of Lystra who seeing a Miracle wrought by them were about to do Sacrifice as if they had been Gods Sirs why do ye these things we also are men of like passions with you Acts 14.15 Sin is a troublesome thing and will not suffer him in whom it is to be at rest nor any that are near to it or about it One would think That if any men in the world were like to have been free from disturbing-passions the Disciples of Christ and Moses should be the men whose Masters taught and practised Meekness to that degree as no man ever did the like yet we find that such as were brought up under their wings had their infirmities and disturbing passions as well as others Joshua Moses his Servant hearing that Eldad and Medad prophesied in the Camp is disturbed himself and endeavours to disturb Moses about the matter and would have had him disturb them Numb 11.28 My Lord Moses forbid them but he checks his passion and calms his spirit by wishing there were more of them I would all the Lords people were prophets The like you find in Christs own Disciples even in John who lay in his bosom Mark 9.38 he comes to Christ saying Master we saw one casting out devils in thy name and we forbad him because he followeth not us They would have had Christ it 's like joyn with them in the prohibition but he forbids them to forbid him saying He that is not against us is on our part So that you see you may find enough from good men to exercise you so far as to try the strength of all your Graces 2. Besides this you will find in some a rooted enmity to that which is good There are two Spirits by one of which all the men in the World are led the Spirit of the World and the Spirit which is of God 1 Cor. 2.12 These two Spirits being contrary one to the other do lead two contrary ways They have striven long and will strive as long as they breathe The contrariety of these two Spirits first appeared in Cain and Abel and hath continued down along thorough all Generations unto this day and will do so hereafter It is like the War between Rehoboam and Jeroboam 1 Kings 14.30 all their days The hatred of the Philistines against Israel is called by the Prophet Ezek. 25.15 the old hatred not only because they were alway full of spite against them but because it was of the same nature as that of old to the people of God This old hatred is not like by waxing old to vanish away as the old Covenant is said to do Heb. 8.13 It was under the old Administration and appeared against the holy Prophets then Acts 7.52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted And it continued to shew it self against Christ who gave his Disciples warning to expect the same under the new Administration Mat. 10.25 Mat. 5.11 If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of the houshold And he tells them Men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake How this was verified the Scripture first and Ecclesiastical History afterward doth abundantly shew The Apostle tells us 1 Cor. 4.12 13. they were reviled persecuted defamed and made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things And in after-times one would wonder had not John said Epist 1. Chap. 3.13 Marvel not that the world hateth you that a people so holy so good so peaceable and inoffensive as the Primitive Christians were should be so unworthily dealt with both by tongue and hand as they were Their Adversaries reported That they fed upon Man's flesh that they practised lewdness in their Assemblies Such enemies have they Christians had in all Ages and in these our days the same is practised and will be to the world's end Perkins on the Creed and that they were the Authors of all the Tumults in those days and what not all manner of evil but falsly yet by this means great persecutions were raised against them And if Christians will be Christians still they will find the World to be the World still so that unless they be the more careful they will be in danger to be overcome of evil For if they find it hard sometimes not to be overcome of the lesser evil of good men how will they not be overcome by the greater of bad men If the footmen weary them how will they contend with horses Jer. 12.5 3. There is something in every man that makes him more easie to be overcome Malice and other foolish and hurtful lusts and roots of bitterness that lye deep in the heart of every man by nature You see how early they will be putting forth even in Children themselves Revenge is a Lesson that every child hath at his fingers end The more to blame are they who being conversant about them do teach and prompt them to use their hands to avenge themselves on persons or things before they be able to use their tongues to that or any other purpose And as they grow up they live in them Tit. 3.3 in malice and envy hateful and hating one another This is found so common a thing among Men that Joseph's Brethren thought it almost impossible that he should not hate them for the evil they had done to him Therefore when their Father was dead they say Joseph will certainly requite us all the evil we did unto him Gen. 50.15 And so it 's like he might if God had not taught him another Lesson
in a continual fear of offending God beg of him upon your knees to put you into such a daily exercise of grace as may be most suitable to your present circumstances Grace will help you at every turn If you thrive in your calling grace will teach you to give God the praise and to be thankful if you sink and go backwards grace will teach you quietly to submit how to bear with chearfulness all disappointments and losses you meet with how to receive evil as well as good from God Truly a man without grace is a burthen to himself and to every body else he knows not how to receive good or evil is in danger to be undone by one as well as the other The prosperity of the wicked slays them Prov. 1.32 their Table becomes a snare to them and that which should have been for their welfare a trap Psal 69.22 They will run themselves a ground one way or other and come to nothing at last God will turn their way upside down and bring confusion upon them But verily there is a reward for the righteous What I am pressing you to is your present duty what is past cannot be recalled Your present duty is to repent of past sins and to walk with God in your Callings for the time to come Be upright in your way admit nothing into your particular Callings that is inconsistent with the Principles of your general Calling as you are Christians So carry your selves every one of you that all that deal with you may know you are a real Christian Were there a greater savour of grace and of the power of godliness in your Shops did you buy and sell in the fear of God doing all things in Faith as to the Lord as in his sight conversing with others in the fear of God what a comely sight would this be what a Sermon would this be you would be living Epistles of that seen and read of all men and such Sermon-Notes gathered out of the Lives of Professors may make deeper impressions than those that are gathered out of the mouths of Preachers Godliness exemplified in practise shews it self more clearly in the thing than 't is possible for us to do in words Words convey Notions of things to our ears but a holy life holds forth the things themselves to our eyes Nothing is so like a man as himself Godliness in practise is godliness it self extant in the thing in its own substance and nature 't is visible grace 't is the very matter and subject of our Sermons standing forth in the Lives of Professors I wish we had more of this Divinity walking about our Streets more of these living Epistles seen and read of all men These are the Books that will convince gainsayers and provoke them to real holiness You hear good Sermons and read good Books but Doctrines without Examples edifie little You don't see and read that in the men of this Generation that agrees with Gospel-principles The truth is Saints are not so visible so legible as they should be We can hardly spell out any thing that savours of true Christianity 'T would pose a discerning Christian to pick out Grace out of the Lives of some Professors 'T is couched under such sinful mixtures is in such a worldly dress that it does not look like it self Hence it is that many real Saints go for Hypocrites in this World are suspected by good men and hated by bad men upon this account Let your light shine out more away with the Bushel that keeps in the light and take the Lanthorn of Prudence that only keeps out the wind Christian prudence will direct us in the right performance of our duty but true Christian prudence never takes us quite off from our present duty that is Hellish policy not Christian prudence that distinguishes a man quite out of his duty and pretends to give sufficient Reason for it too But God will catch that man in his own craftiness and turn his wisdom into foolishness There can be no Reason given against a present duty if it be duty and thy duty now Reason cannot countermand it You may go to Hell with all your Reasons in a wilful neglect of it But if God incline your hearts every day to make conscience of your present duty you will be always found in a holy frame and the blessing of God will be upon you you will flourish like the Palm-Tree and grow like a Cedar in Lebanon bringing forth fruit in old age you will always be fat and flourishing to shew the Lord is upright Psal 92.12 13 c. Quest What distance ought we to keep in following the strange Fashions of Apparel which come up in the days wherein we live SERMON XXI ZEPH. 1.8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lords sacrifice that I will punish the Princes and the Kings children and all such as are clothed with strange apparel THAT this Prophecy was synchronal with the Reign of good Josiah appears v. 1. And a heinous aggravavation it was of Judah's sin That they were unreformed under a Reforming-Prince Of him it was said That there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul 2 King 23 25. and with all his might according to all the law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him Of them it may be said That there was no Generation that turned from the Lord that departed from the Law of their God before them tho afterwards there were that equalled or exceeded their wickedness The Prophet therefore without the solemnity of a Preface immediately proceeds to sentence ver 2. I will utterly consume all things out of the land And how could more of wrath be expressed in fewer words Consumption and utter consumption and utter consumption of all things is certainly the abstract and epitome of final and total disolation To silence all Objections that might be made against this righteous sentence of God the Lord commands ver 7. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord for the day of the Lord is at hand he hath prepared his sacrifice he hath invited his guests 1. Judah was to be the sacrifice They that would not offer a Sacrifice of Righteousness shall be made a Sacrifice to Justice 2. The armed Babylonians were to be the Priests 3. And the Rabble of their Enemies were to be the hungry Guests who would not spare but glut themselves with the spoil of Judah to teach them and us in them That if God be not sanctified in the hearts Lev. 10.3 he will be on the heads of a People professing his Name Now in this day of the Lords sacrifice however the main of the storm and Hericane would fall on the heads of the Idolaters and those that sware by the Lord and Malcham ver 5. upon all the Apostates and such as shook off the worship of God ver 6. yet some
or to come though it alwaies was and will be plainly to every capacity might this be thus adapted if you look backwards you cannot think of any one moment wherein God was not if you look forwards you cannot think of any one moment when God shall not be for if there had been one moment when God was not no thing could ever have been neither God nor Creature unless that which is nothing could make it self something which is impossible because Working supposeth Being and a contradiction because it infers the Being of a thing before it was for in order of time or Nature the Cause must be before the Effect Neither can you conceive any one moment beyond which God should cease to be because you cannot imagine any thing in God or distinct from him that should be the cause of his ceasing to be The Object then of Believers looking is the unseen Eternal God as their Happiness objectively considered which is so Eternal as to be without beginning and end and the enjoyment of this unseen Eternal God in the invisible Heavens which fruition being their happiness formally considered hath a beginning but no ending Should I follow the signification of the Greek word as looking at a mark we aim at or an end which we desire to obtain I should limit my Discourse only to unseen Eternal good things but if it be taken in a more extended sense to take heed to mark and diligently consider I might bring in the unseen evils in the World to come and indeed to keep our Eye fixt upon invisible things both good and bad that make Men Eternally miserable or Everlastingly Blessed Would have a powerful influence upon every step we take in our dayly travels to the unseen Eternal World To look at unseen Eternal Evil things that we might not fall into them To look at unseen Eternal Good things that we might not fall short of them Which is the design of the question propounded from this Text viz. How we should Eye ETERNITY that it may have its due influence upon us in all we do Which question will be more distinctly answered by resolving these following questions contained in it Q. 1. Whether there be an Eternity into which all men must enter when they go out of Time That we might not only suppose what too many deny and more doubt of and some are tempted to call into question but have it proved that no man might rationally deny the Eternity of that state in the unseen World for upon this lyes the strength of the reason in the Text why Believers look at things unseen because they are Eternal and the object must be proved before we can rationally urge the exerting of the act upon that object Q. 2. How we should Eye Eternity or look at Eternal things For if they be unseen how shall we see them And if they be to us in this World invisible how shall we look at them Q. 3. What influence will such a sight of and looking at Eternity have upon our Minds Consciences Wills and Affections in all we do Q. 1. Whether there be an Eternity of Happiness that we should look at to obtain and of Misery to escape Doth any question this Look at Mens Conversations see their neglect of God and Christ their frequent yea constant refusals of remedying Grace their leading a sensual flesh-pleasing Life their seldom thoughts of Death and Judgment their carelesness to make preparation for another VVorld their minding only things Temporal and then the question may be who do indeed believe that there is such an Eternal state Yet the real existence and certainty of Eternal things may be evidently manifested by Scripture and by Arguments 1. If you give assent to the Divine Authority of the Scripture you cannot deny the certainty of another World nor the Eternal state of Souls therein though this be now unseen to you Luk. 20.34 Jesus said the Children of this World marry 35. but they that shall be accounted worthy of that World and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry nor are given in marriage 36. Neither can they dye any more for they are equal to the Angels Is not here plain mention of This and That World and the different state in both In this Men marry and die in that they neither marry nor die yea Christ himself affirms that in That World they cannot die and whatsoever words the Scripture borrows from the best things of this World to help our conceptions of the Glorious state of Holy ones in the other World some word denoting the Eternal duration of it is annexed to them all Is it called a Kingdom It is an Everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1.11 a Crown It is a Crown incorruptible 1 Cor. 9.25 that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 is it called Glory is it Eternal Glory 1 Pet. 5.10 2 Cor. 4.17 an Inheritance it is incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 Eternal Heb. 9.15 an House it is Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Salvation it is Eternal Salvation Heb. 5.9 Life it is Eternal Life Matth. 25.46 No less certain is the Eternity of the state of the Damned by the Scriptures adding some note of Everlasting duration to those dreadful things by which their misery is set forth is it by a Furnace of fire Matth. 13.42 by a Lake of fire Rev. 21.8 it is fire Eternal and Unquenchable Matt. 3.12 Matt. 25.41 by a Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 from thence is no coming forth Matth. 5.25 26. by darkness and blackness of darkness it is for ever Jude ver 13. by burning it is Everlasting burning Isa 33.14 by torment Luk. 16.23 the smoak of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever Rev. 14.11 and 20.10 by Damnation it is Eternal Damnation Mar. 3.29 by Destruction it is Everlasting Destruction 2 Thess 1.9 by Punishment it is Everlasting Punishment Matth. 25.46 by the gnawings of the Worm it is such that never dyeth Mar. 9.44.46 48. by wrath that is to come Matt. 3.7 1 Thess 1.10 When it comes it will abide Joh. 3.36 Is any thing more fully and plainly asserted in the Scripture than that the things in the other World now unseen are Eternal things those that enjoy the one in Heaven and those that now feel the other in Hell do not cannot doubt of this and a little while will put all those that are now in time quite out of all doubting of the certainty of the Eternity of the state in the unseen world 2. The Eternity of the unseen things in Heaven and Hell the Everlasting Happy or Everlasting Miserable state after this Life may be evidenced briefly yet clearly by these following Arguments I. God did from Eternity chose some to be fitted in time to partake of happiness to all Eternity Eph. 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the Foundation of the World that we should be holy and being made holy shall be happy in obtaining that Salvation to which he chose us 2
cured Would you take Pleasure in his witty sayings and be jested into your Grave Or if you go unto a Lawyer about your whole Estate though it were in Leases that will expire would you choose one that you think did not care whether you win or lose your cause Would you be pleased with some witty sayings impertinent to the pleading of your cause Would you not say Sir I am in danger of losing all I am worth my Estate lyes at stake deal plainly with me and be serious in your undertaking for me and tell me in words that I can understand the plain Law by which my case must be tryed And will you be more careful about the Temporal Life of a Body that must dy and about a Temporal Estate which you must leave when you dy and not about your Soul that must ever live and never dye No! not so much as to set your selves under faithful Preachers that shall in words that you can understand plainly tell you the Laws of Christ by which you must be tryed for your Life and according to them be Eternally damned or saved 11. Such an Eyeing of Eternity would make you serious and lively in all your spiritual duties in all your approaches unto God If you have no Grace the serious thoughts of the unseen Eternal World would stir you up to beg and cry and call for it if you have to desire more and to exercise what you have to confess your sins with such contrite broken penitent hearts as though you saw the fire burning which by your sins you have deserved to be cast into To beg for Christ and Sanctifying Grace and pardoning Mercy with that lively Importunity as if you saw the Lake of boiling Brimstone into which you must be cast if you be not sanctifyed and pardoned to hear the Word of God that sets this Eternal World before you with that diligent attention as Men hearkning for their Lives to commemorate the Death of Christ with such life while you are at the Lords Supper while you do as it were see the Torments you are delivered from and the Eternal Happiness by Faith in a crucifyed Christ you have a Title to it will cause a fire and flame of Love in your Hearts to that Lord that dyed for you ardent desires after him complacential delight in him thankfulness hope of Heaven hatred to sin resolution to live to or dye for him that dyed for you If your Hearts are dead and dull and out of frame go and look into the unseen Eternal World take a believing view of Everlasting Joyes and Torments on the other side of time and you shall feel warmth and heat and lively actings to be produced in you Particularly this Eyeing of Eternity would make Ministers sensible of the weightiness of their work that it calls for all possible diligence and care our utmost serious study and endeavours our fervent Cryes and Prayers to God for ability for the better management of our work and for success therein for as much as our imployment is more Immediately about Eternal matters to save under Christ Eternal Souls from Eternal Torments and to bring them to Eternal Joyes When we are to Preach to people that must live for ever in Heaven or Hell with God or Devils and our very Preaching is the means appointed by God to fit men for an Everlasting state when we stand and view some Hundreds of Persons before us and think all these are going to Eternity now we see them and they see us but after a little while they shall see us no more in our Pulpits nor we them in their Pews nor in any other place in this World but we and they must go down unto the Grave and into an Everlasting World when we think it may be some of these are hearing their last Sermon making their last publique Prayers keeping their last Sabbath and before we come to Preach again might be gone into another World if we had but a firm belief of Eternity our selves and a real lively sense of the mortality of their Bodies and our own and the Immortality of the Souls of both of the Eternity of the Joy or Torment we must all be quickly in how pathetically should we plead with them plentifully weep over them fervently pray for them that our words or rather the word of the Eternal God might have Effectual Operation on their Hearts This Eyeing of Eternity should 1. Influence us to be painful and diligent in our studies to prepare a message of such weight as we come about when we are to Preach to men about Everlasting matters to set before them the Eternal Torments of Hell and the Eternal Joyes of Heaven Especially when we consider how hard a thing it is to perswade Men to leave their sins which do endanger their Immortal Souls when if we do not prevail with them to hearken to our message and obey it speedily and sincerely they are lost Eternally when it is so hard to prevail with men to accept of Christ the only and Eternal Saviour on the conditions of the Gospel You might easily see that Idleness either in young Students that are designed for this work or in Ministers actually engaged in it is an intolerable sin and worse in them than in any men under Heaven Idleness in a Shop-keeper is a sin but much more in a Minister in a Trader much more in a Preacher bear with me if I tell you an Idle Cobler that is to mend mens Shooes is not to be approved but an Idle Preacher that is to mend mens Hearts and save their Souls shall be condemned by God and Men for he lives in dayly disobedience of that charge of God 1 Tim. 4.13 Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine 15. Meditate upon these things give thy self wholly to them 16 continue in them 2. It would provoke us to be faithful in delivering the whole counsel of God and not to daub with untempered mortar not to flatter them in their sin or to be afraid to tell them of their evils least we should displease them or offend them Is it time to sooth men up in their Ignorance in their neglect of duty when we see them at the very door of Eternity on the very borders of an Everlasting World and this the fruit that they shall dye in their sins and their Blood be required at our hands Ezek. 33.1 to 10. but so to Preach and discharge the Ministerial Function that when dying might be able to say as Act. 20.25 And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more 26. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men 27. For I have not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God 3. To be plain in our speech that every capacity of the weakest in the Congregation that hath an Eternal Soul that
kindness to Men as to communicate himself to them as I said before and to admit men to make such near approaches to himself both these manifest his great goodness II. Take notice wherein Christianity excels Philosophy properly Vse II so call'd The one directs us the way to Communion with God which the other cannot do Philosophy speaks nothing of the Mediator the Man Christ Jesus by whom alone we can draw nigh to God Philosophy improves the Principles of meer Nature but cannot confer a new Nature doth not infuse such Principles as the Gospel doth to lead men into Communion with God Philosophy whether Natural or Moral hath an excellency in it in its proper Sphaere but yet falls far short of Christianity the Principles of the Gospel and the Mysteries of Faith wherein Men are led to the true knowledge of God and fellowship with him III. This may be matter of Lamentation in this prophane and Apostate Vse III Age that there is so little of this Communion with God to be found among men Some understand not what it is some desire it not nor seek after it some have lost what once they had And some deride and scoff at it as a foolish fancy a dream a delusion of some fanatick people Though some may pretend to it that have it not yet God forbid we should deny it The Apostle in the Text asserteth it and the experience of real Christians in all Ages bears witness to it And if it be not a fancy but a real thing I am sure it is the most solemn and important thing in the whole World Q. But why are there so few that attain it A. 1. Some are under an evil heart of unbelief whereby they depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 And what stands opposite to Communion with him more than departing from him 2. Others walk in Hypocrisie and have only External Communion with the Church and Ordinances of it but for want of true Grace and sincerity in their hearts have no real Communion with God 3. Others walk in Pride and God resisteth the proud knoweth him afar off and all Communion with God is intercepted hereby 4. Others are in such friendship with the World which as the Apostle saith is Enmity against God and where there is Enmity there can be no Communion 5. Others are under the disturbance of head-strong Passions and Communion with God requires a quiet serene and sedate frame of Spirit 6. Others concern themselves only about Disputes and Controversies in Religion and mind not that wherein the Life and Power of it consisteth which is Communion with God 7. Others satisfie themselves with notions and speculations with fine Language strains of Rhetorick well compiled forms of devotion and look no farther 8. Others give way to wandring thoughts and serve God with a distracted mind whereby their Hearts are carryed from God even while they are serving of him 9. Others make Religion meer matter of Discourse please themselves to talk of it and that 's all 10. And Lastly Others are fall'n into down right Atheism question Gods very Being and indeed are of no Religion at all and can have no Communion with the Deity which they doubt of or deny Now is not this to be lamented for Men to have no Communion with that God who gave them their Being that God in whose favour is their Life that God in whom is treasured up the true felicity of Man God is a Fountain of Living water a Spring of endless Pleasure an Ocean of all Perfection and Holiness but what is this to him that hath no Communion with him and hath not a drop of all this falling upon himself But in stead of this Communion with God have not these Men Fellowship with unrighteousness and the unfruitful works of darkness which the Apostle forbids Eph. 5.11 Fellowship with the Adulterer or Adulteress in Uncleanness with the Swearer in Prophane Oaths with the Unjust in Unrighteousness with the deceiver in his frauds the Lyer in false Speaking the Drunkard iâ— riotous and intemperate Drinking which Men call good Fellowship c. And I could wish that the Fellowship that men call clubbing at Taverns and Coffee-houses at unseasonable hours whereby the duties of their Families are neglected were forborn at this day Certainly a more circumspect walking is required of us especially such as pretend to Religion in a day wherein God is visiting the Nation and rebuking his own people for their Iniquities And many in stead of Fellowship with God have Fellowship with the Devil I mean not so much Witches Sorcerers or such as Confederate expresly with him but such as do his Lusts and carry on his work in the World What is the Devils great work Is it not to propagate Wickedness to persecute the Church to obstruct the Gospel to foment Divisions to corrupt the Truth with Error and to sow Tares among the Wheat And how many are there that have Fellowship with the Devil in such works as those But they little think of the Fellowship they are in danger to have with him in his Torments who at present have this Fellowship with him in these works of Wickedness IV. I shall next proceed to exhort men to seek after this Communion Vse IV with God And I shall first speak to such as are meer strangers to it have lived many years in the World and in a Land where the Gospel hath been long preached and yet know nothing of it 1. Let me perswade them that there is really such a thing and that all that is spoken of it is not meer canting and vain pretence 2. Let me perswade them seriously to seek it and to make it the great work of their lives and their great scope and end in all Religion to attain unto it 3. As the Gospel invites sinners to Christ let them make haste to him that in him they may have their peace made with God and receive that Grace whereby they may be capable of Communion with him 4. Let them no longer walk in darkness For if we say we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth as the Apostle speaks in this Chapter And here remember what I spake in the opening of the Text. Wisdom is Light and Folly is Darkness Knowledge is Light and Ignorance is Darkness Truth is Light and Error is Darkness Holiness is Light and Sin and Wickedness are Darkness Let Men then first walk wisely and not as Fools Wisdom lyes in choosing to a Mans self a good end and in fitting means sutable to that end let Men do this Wisdom lies in preferring things according to their true worth and value let Men do so Wisdom lies in embracing of Seasons and redeeming of Time let Men practise this Wisdom lies in looking to things in their End and Issue and not only how they appear at the present let Men do this also And secondly I said Knowledge is Light Ignorance is Darkness
this and that Hour and Glorify thy self any time else Some think Hezekiah was loath to Dye Isa 38.23 Because he was in the midst of his Reformation and the work unfinisht He might possibly think it more son Gods Glory to live then than Dye Let me out live this Sickness escape this Persecution avoyd this Judgment and Father Glorify thy self ever after is our Language But wher 's Resignation to the Will of God all this while One would think the Patriarks died very unseasonable Heb. 11.4 When they expected the fulfilling of Promises but however they died Contentedly Many of us would gladly be spar'd to see the Resurrection of the Witnesses the fall of Antichrist the return of the Jews and the Descension of the New Jerusalem and then they think they could say with Simeon Luke 2.29 30. Lord now let thy Servant depart in Peace c. These desires are good if attended with Submission to the Will of God otherwise Rebellious 4. Though Nature shrinke our Souls be perpext our Thoughts disturb'd for fear of the hour Approaching yet our Wills must be Resigned our Reasoning silenc't our Passions Resisted and all Submitted to the Will of God The Lord Jesus was now strangely Perplext fear and amazment stopt his Mouth for a while yet as soon as he can Recollect himself this is the Language both of Heart and Lips Father Glorify thy Name It may be we have Plausible Arguments against Drinking the Cup as our Weakness Psal 39.9 Levit. 10.3 our Fear and possibly that to escape would be more for Gods Glory that 't is an hard case that we are not Ready c. Well but if we would have God Glorify himself Reason must be silent and only Faith speak as Christ doth in the Text and Matt. 26.39 c. 5. This Resignation is not only a Thought but a Deliberate desire 'T is Christs request to God Nay he begs more Hartily that the Father Glorify himself then that he should be saved from that Hour Christians may now and then use such an Expression by way of Ejaculation as a short Prayer the result of some close Spiritual reasoning in our Souls but can we settle our desire this way can we say in time of Plague Persecution or other Distress Father Glorify c. The Lord Jesus knowing how much it conduced to the Fathers Glory doth not only desire to Suffer but desires it earnestly and passionately Luke 12.50 I have a Baptism to be Baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplisht His Heart was bent Bent to Glorify his Father he was therefore Angry with Peter for diswading Matt. 16.22 23. He spaks with an Holy Passionateness and Indignation Jo. 18.11 The Cup that my Father putteth into my Hands shall I not Drink it And this is recorded for our Imitation Acts 21.13 What mean you to Weep and breake my Heart I am ready c. was Paul's Spirit The Name and Glory of the Lord Jesus are concerned in my Sufferings and I will Suffer his Will We should endeavour not only to be Content but desirous of Suffering when it is for the Glory of God 6. Lastly This is Christs last and Final Resolve he was at first Reluctant but now he fixeth and Changed not till Death Ah! many of us may say now and then Father Glorify thy Name but our Spirit alters Our goodness is as a Morning Cloud early dew that soon Vanisheth Hos 13.3 O but a resigned Soul makes it his abiding Resolve 3. The next General is to Alledg some grounds on which this Resignation is Built and reasons for it 1. We cannot prescribe how God should be Glorified therefore 't is fit we be Resigned How have Men befooled themselves and dishonoured God in the case of Worship They 'l invent and prescribe Forms and Modes when they have no ground to believe he 'l accept them Nothing pleaseth God but his own Will Even in the case in hand we must not dispose of our Selves and Suffer how and when and where and by whom we please for this would rather dishonour then Credit the cause of God because it wholy depend's upon his Pleasure He hath laid the Whole Platform and contrivance thereof in his own Councels and purpose and therein all the several Spirits of the Mystery answer and add Beauty to each other Now any thing of our Will would deform the rest and take off from that Divine Symmatry and Concord which render all becomming the Wisdom Holiness Power and Soveraign Grace of God And why do we not as well teach him how he should Govern the World as how he should dispose of us would it be for Gods Honour if we should direct when it should Rain and when Shine when there should be a Storm and when a Calm He that understands not the whole Councel of God cannot direct any Fragment thereof who hath known the Mind of the Lord and who hath been his Councellor Rom. 11.34 Nay is it not most dishonourable that his Creatures should advise him that dust and ashes should correct his Will Isa 45.9 10. The way of Gods Glory is the way of his Pleasure Rev. 4.11 Into which unless we resolve our selves we obstruct his Honour 2. Because Gods Glory is most Valuable Christ stood not upon his Life in Comparison of his Fathers Glory what then is our Life or Ease or Credit to be laid in the bottom with it Better the World Perish then God not be Glorified It was made for his Pleasure Rev. 4.11 for that end is it continued and if it be dissolved that will be the design see how magnificently the Prophet speaks of God Isa 40.15 16 17. And shall nothing shall we stand between him and his Glory Methinks we should Tremble at our unwillingness to Suffer according to his Will considering how it Eclipses his Glory Joshua was more Solicitous for Gods Name than his own Life or all the Camp of Israel Jos 7.9 3. Because Christ hath shew'd us the way in this most difficult case Learn of me saith he for I am Meek and Lowly Matt. 11.29 Wherein did he express his Meekness see Isa 5.3 7. He neither refused nor murmured complained nor resisted He behaved himself most Submisly and Obediently Now learn of him lay down Passion and tumult in a Suffering day and lye at the feet of your Father what did the Lord Submit and may the servant Rebel Nay the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant as his Lord c. Matt. 10.24 'T is enough to be like him Eliah was content to Dye if God pleased why I am not better then my Father 1 Kings 19.4 Did the example of the Patriarcks move him Behold a greater then the Patriarks is here 4. Because God hath had his Will and Glorified his Name hitherto so he saith immediately after our Text. And must Providence be put out of its Course for us did not God Glorify himself upon and by all our Predecessors
the true Religion Though I am far from so loose and extravagant a Charity as to judge that Men may be saved in any Religion whatever if they do but live suitably to the Principles and Rules of that Religion when there are so many false so many Idolatrous ones so many which deny fundamental truths or maintain damnable errors Yet on the other side I am not so uncharitable as to confine true religiousness and consequently final Salvation to any particular sect or sort or party of Men professing Christianity to the exclusion of all that dissent from them True Religion is more affection and Practice than Doctrine or Nation and is seated more in the heart than in the head Men may be really gracious and so in truth religious in Gods account who yet differ in some things from others who are no less truly religious too There is indeed but one true Religion in the World but in that we must distinguish between principles and conclusions and those either nearer or more remote between fundamentals and superstructures and those either which touch the foundation or are farther from it between substance and circumstances things necessary or not necessary to the being or to the well being of Religion In some things they that are wise and godly may differ without prejudice to the Salvation of either Every truth is not necessary to Salvation nor is every error de facto Damning All Mens Light is not alike cleer nor are all Mens Minds equally enlightened some see more than others and some more clearly nor is every degree of Light which shall be for the perfection of Saints hereafter necessary while they are here in order to their Salvation There may be the unity of Faith in the main and of Love too where yet there is some disagrement about some things believed It is confessed that there is but one way of Salvation that of Faith and Holiness from which whatever by-paths of error leads Men aside they do at the same time carry them off from the end of Faith the Salvation of their Souls whatever is inconsistent with either Faith or Holiness is inconsistent likewise with Salvation But every difference or mistake about such truths as are not necessarily saving must not presently be looked upon as a false way or an error certainly Damning The way to Life is called the narrow way but is it therefore indivisible Is there no Latitude in it may not Two or Three or Four or Five go abrest in it Must all go in the self-same Track or Path May not several Paths be in the same great Road or run along by the side of it and lead to the same place which if sometimes they decline a little from the Road yet before the end fall in again with it and for the main are parallel to it It is as certain that truth is simplex error is multiformis truth is but one and error is various and whatever in the least deflects from truth must be a degree of error as it is that there can be but one perfectly strait Line between any two Points But may not a Line that divaricates a little from the strait one and is so far crooked run in again to it Doth any Saint on Earth attain to the whole of truth without any mistake so much as in lesser things Doth any keep exactly to the strait Line so as never to take a crooked step never in any thing to go off from it Some indeed may miss it in fewer things some in more and yet both keeping to what is necessary hit it in the main Some may go to Heaven more directly and with fewer wandrings when others may go farther aside and fetch a greater compass and yet at last arrive at it 2. Positively by Religious I understand those 1. Who as to the Doctrine of Christianity hold the head Col. 2.19 keep to that only foundation which God hath laid the Lord Jesus Christ though perhaps they may build some things on it which are not suitable to it Wood Hay Stubble 1 Cor. 3.12 such whose works shall be burnt yet themselves saved though with difficulty and as by Fire verse 15. such I mean therefore as own so much truth as is necessary to the Life of Faith and Power of Godliness and maintain no error which is inconsistent with either 2. Those who as to the Practice of Christianity fear God and work righteousness Acts 10.35 they that not only believe in Christ but live in obedience to him not only have received Christ Jesus the Lord but walk in him Col. 2.6 All true Religion consists in Faith and Holiness it is nothing else but a glorifying God by believing and obeying a seeking Salvation in that way and method in which alone God hath determined to bring Men to it i. e. through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes 2.13 whoever therefore they are that do unfeignedly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and live up to that Faith are truly Religious though in some lesser things they may dissent from others who have the same Faith and practice the same Holiness So that from being thus religious I exclude not only Atheists that have no Religion Idolaters damnable Hereticks and all those whose principles are inconsistent with or repugnant to the truth of the Gospel so are of a false Religion but even among those that profess the truth I exclude 1. Those that are grosly ignorant know not the first principles of Christianity understand not what they own and pretend to believe 2. Those that are profane scandalous vitious livers despisers of them that are good persecutors of powerful godliness These are not real Saints but a prophane generation the Seed of the Serpent not of God 3. Hypocrites masked professors that make a shew of Religion to serve a carnal interest that have a form of godliness but deny the power of it 2 Tim. 3.5 have unsound hearts though under never so smooth faces In a word all those that are destitute of true Faith and real Holiness that allow themselves in any way of known sins whether more often as the second sort or more secret and close as these last 2. How or in what respects the religious of a Nation are the strength of it In order to the stating of this I shall premise one distinction The Holy Seed or religious in a Nation may be considered either 1. As being actually in the World and actually in a state of Grace brought into Christs Fold engaged in Gods ways effectually called and sanctified 2. Or as being in the World but not yet converted though in Gods time to be converted elect unbelievers He that is a sinner at present may be a Saint in time a Publican may come to be an Apostle nay a persecutor of the Saints may be called to preach that Faith which once he destroyed Gal. 1.23 They that are Christs Sheep by election may in time nay certainly
in reforming Religion and destroying Idolatry wherewith the Land was so universally polluted had a great influence on the keeping off Gods judgments from it while he lived 6. Lastly God may sometimes spare a People for the sake of his Children among them that they may be useful and helpful to them in his work This end God had in sparing the Gibeonites he intended they should be hewers of Wood and drawers of Water for his Sanctuary and so assistant to the Priests and Levites in their Service So Isa 61.5 6. Strangers shall stand and feed your Flocks and the Sons of Aliens shall be your Plowmen and Vine-dressers but ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord Men shall call you the Ministers of our God Not that Saints are to be all Officers or all Rulers and carnal Men their Slaves and Drudges for as to their worldly State worldly Men may be above them and they may owe subjection to them but that they shall be in their worldly Employments and Callings useful and serviceable to the Saints in the things of God and either of their own accord or as overruled by Divine disposal be assistant to them in maintaining and promoting the interest of true Religion God can make even Moab hide his out-casts Isa 16.3 4. the Earth helps the Woman Rev. 12.16 Ahab favours a good Obadiah that may hide the Lords Prophets 1 Kings 18.3 4. an Heathen Cyrus let go his Captives and build his City Isa 45.13 a Darius an Artaxerxes an Ahasuerus countenance and prefer a Daniel a Nehemiah a Mordecai publick instruments of good to his People sometimes God may raise up such on purpose as he did Cyrus sometimes preserve and maintain them in their power and places for his Servants sake and that they may be helpful to them Nay sometimes he may so twist and combine the interest of worldly Men with the interest of his Children that they cannot promote their own without helping on the others Sometimes religious and civil Liberties may be both together struck at so that if the former go down the latter will be ruin'd too and then it is the Wisdom of those that are not truly religious yet to favour those that are it being as it were in their own defence and for their own securities and in such a case God may help them out of respect to his own and keep some from civil slavery that he may keep others from spiritual Use 1. By way of information If the religious of a Nation are the Strength and Defence of it then the same may be said of the religious of the World they are the substance of it the support the strength of it The World it self is preserved chiefly for the sake of the godly in it the Holy Seed The World is a great Field in which the good Grain bears but a small proportion to the abundance of Tares and that God doth not pluck up the Tares and burn them it is lest the good Corn should be plucked up with them What is Gods end in preserving the World and holding it up in its being but the glorifying himself in his several attributes Wisdom Power Goodness but especially his Holiness in the Service he enables his Saints to do him and his Grace is the Salvation he affords them that therefore he may have that Glory it is needful there should be a continuance of some to serve him and that may be the subjects of his Mercy and Grace and they are this Elect those Vessels of Mercy whom he hath before prepared unto Glory Rom. 9.23 The World therefore shall stand so long as there be any of Gods Elect in it to be brought in by actual conversion or their Graces to be completed in further degrees of Sanctification but when the number of those whose Names are written in Heaven is filled up and they themselves fitted for Heaven then shall the end of all things come It cannot be thought that God would ever endure so much wickedness as he sees in the World every day committed or so long bear its manners with so much patience had he not a further design in it viz. the gathering together the whole Body of those he hath given to Christ He never made this great Fabrick for the lusts and pleasures of wicked Men that they might enjoy their ease and gratifie their sences and devour their neighbours but for his own Glory and he will have some still in it to glorifie him by serving him and living according to his Laws as well as he glorifies himself in saving them and were there none in it to serve him he would not suffer others continually to dishonour him were it not for the Holy Seed he hath scattered abroad in it he would soon set the Field on a Flame 2. The Religious of a Nation are not its Enemies not the troublers of a Nation not the Pests of a State the disturbers of a Peace as some count them Ahab indeed reviled Elijah as one that troubled Israel 1. Kings 18.17 but David would not have said so he was a godly King and had other thougts of his godly Subjects he calls them the excellent of the Earth and his delight was in them Psal 16.3 the Jews said of the Apostles Acts 17.6 that they had turned the world upside down but they were unbeleiving Jews that saw it The same Apostles were counted the Off-scouring of all things and the Filth of the Earth 1 Cor. 4.13 but it was by those that rather were such themselves The Idolatrous Heathens were wont to condemn the Christians as the cause of all their publick calamities that befel them but they were Heathens that did so Yet sometimes we shall find wicked Men themselves under a conviction of the contrary and clearing them of this imputation so Joash King of Israel calls Elijah the Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof Sometimes as before they beg their Prayers sometimes wish themselves in their condition and whatever they esteem them while they live they would be like them when they die wicked Baalam would die the death of the righteous Numb 23.10 Thus Conscience absolves whom Malice had condemned and when Men come to be cool and sober they purge the godly from those crimes with which while they were heated with passion or intoxicated with a concern for some contrary interest they had groundlesly aspersed them True indeed the Religious of a People almost every where are the occasion of Divisions and Distractions and so was Christ himself Luke 12. he came to send Fire on the Earth verse 49. and not to give Peace but rather Division verse 51. nay a Sword Matth. 10.34 to set a Man at variance against his Father c. verse 35. And yet nor Christ nor his Saints are really the troublers of the World nor the direct and proper causes of those broyls and confusions which many times have been made on their accounts which indeed proceed from the lusts of
a distracting Thought about worldly Vanities Faith in Exercise treads the World 1 John 5.4 under feet and alone makes it know its place When Riches capacitate a Gracious Person for those Offices and Employments from which the Poor are excluded the Power of Godliness not only teacheth but enforceth them to employ all their Capacities for God and to do good they know they are Gods Stewards to whom they must be accountable Gods Almoners and God makes the Poor their Creditors to whom they must pay Alms as Debtors †Mat. 6.1 Your Alms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your Justice In short 't is only the Holy Person that receives this for a Maxime That a worldly Estate is no otherwise desireable but to capacitate him to do that good with it which he cannot do without it This for Riches What may be said for Poverty II. Poverty is so desirable to many thinking Persons that they have not only in words for discourse sake but in practice for Happiness sake preferr'd it before the greatest Wealth and grandeur in the World and this hath been done not only by melancholy mopish Persons but by men of great name for Wisdom and Learning and that upon great deliberation and Counsel upon weighing of circumstances and trying experiments and further yet not only Bookish men to whom beloved Retirement is much the same whether they are Rich or Poor but those that have worn an Imperial Diadem that have commanded victorious Armies swayed the Scepters of flourishing Kingdoms Dioclesian Charles the 5th and some of the then greatest Empires of the World and these again not only Ethnic but Christian Casimir And some of these even after their self-deposition have been importun'd to re-accept their Dominion but have refused it What greater demonstration can you expect of the preference of Poverty before Riches and to be a Cypher rather than to bear the greatest figure in the World All this is true Obj. But alas the World is full of the miserable effects of Poverty the Poor have great temptations pressing them to the use of unlawful means for their livelihood they are generally despised and contempt is one of the things most intolerable to humane Nature and which is yet more they are under an impossibility of being so serviceable as otherwise they might be Eccles 9.15 16. There was a Poor wise man who by his Wisdom delivered the City yet no man remembred that same Poor man The Poor mans Wisdom is despised and his Words are not heard As to all the Instances that have been or can be given of persons quitting troublesome Riches for a quiet Poverty those great men that have done it it hath plainly proceeded from vexation of Mind that they were not able to have their will upon Christians for their extirpation And as for the several Orders of Fryars that have vowed Poverty and renounced Property this is to be reckoned among the Damnable cheats of the Romish Apostasie 1 Tim. 4.1 2. whose Religion is made up of lying Hypocrisie and Doctrines of Devils their prodigious Wealth and abominable Luxury sufficiently confuting their pretence of Poverty what help then in this Case Answ Serious Godliness sweetens all the bitterness of a poor condition bears up the Heart under all those difficulties that were otherwise intolerable God makes up their worldly Poverty with Riches of Grace 't is the Poor receive the Gospel and the Blessings of it 't is the Poor that are best contented with their Condition and without content every Condition is uneasie what thô the Poor are secluded from serving Offices they are also excused from the Oaths and Snares that attend them At first when Christianity was managed without tricks and artifice when for once upon particular Circumstances never to be repeated the Disciples of Christ us'd a compassionate Levelling 't is said Acts 4. great Grace was upon them all they were greatly in Gods favour they were greatly enriched with the Graces of the Holy Ghost and they were greatly honoured by those that did but gaze at them You may easily observe that very few grow better by growing Rich but 't is ordinary for God to advance Holiness by worldly abasement and who live more in Heaven who have more satisfying communion with God than those that are mean in the World In short to be Poor and Wicked is to be in some respect more miserable than Devils to be Poor and Gracious is to be conformable to our Blessed Jesus and his chiefest Apostle who were Poor yet made many Rich 2 Cor. 6.10 who had nothing yet possessed all things And thus I have endeavour'd to set forth the Vanity of the first Pair Riches and Poverty and how Serious Godliness wears off the Vanity that cleaves to them I see I must not indeed I need not be so large in the rest II. Who knows whether a Life of Pleasure or a Life of Sorrow be best for him Whereas your Vain Persons will presently determine without weighing one against the other yet you will find 't is onely the practical Christian that can improve either as God shall deal with him For pleasure to live without the pleasure of Life seems in som◠respect worse than to be buryed alive most preferr a short Life and a merry before a long Life and a sad and those that are not Sensualists yet would fain have their lives comfortable in all the circumstances of it in every change of Life from the Birth to the Grave in every new Employment Relation Preferment 't is the universal Salutation to wish them Joy so that a Life of Comfort is the desire of mankind But now when we consider the unreasonable cravings of a carnal Mind and how impossible to be satisfied and when most satisfied soonest cloyed wearisome to the flesh that is most gratified and infamous in their Eyes whose esteem we value most of our carnal pleasures are the same with Brutes only they have the better relish of them in the use and no after-claps when past they eat and drink and frisk and sleep without any disturbing cares or subsequent Reflections you cannot force 'em to excess in the use nor impose upon them any corroding remembrances e. g. Let but a voracious Glutton be bound to sit at a well-furnish'd Table but two hours after he hath fill'd his Paunch he would account it an intolerable Penance Let but the Crop-sick Drunkard be forc't to drink on with those that drink him down how is he a burden to himself and a scorn to his fellow Drunkards and for those that glory of their conquest in out-drinking others how are their best Friends ashamed of them as glorying in their shame Let but a lazy Sluggard be confin'd three dayes to his Bed and how weary will he be of his Bed of Down how is the Idle Person more weary of his Idleness than another is of Work I am loth to blot Paper with Naming the loathsome rottenness of filthy