when God will avenge himself upon all the enemies of his Church and People Luke 18. beginning So as Joshua dealt with the five Kings of Canaan God will deal with all the Enemies of his People command them to be brought forth and make his Saints to tread on the necks of their Enemies Rev. 17.6 and render tribulation to all that have troubled them 2 Thess 1.6 Thirdly A Day of Exultation When the Saints shall exult and tryumph over all those that have over them here Psal 44.14 in the morning the Just shall have dominion over the wicked 3. In respect of their Friends it will be a day of mutual association and hearty congratulation for at that day there shall be a meeting not only of Soul and Body but all godly Parents and Children Husbands and Wives Masters and Servants Friends and Acquaintance that have loved lived and dyed in the Lord never to part any more but delight in one the other yea a meeting of all the Holy Patriarks Prophets Apostles Martyrs Saints that ever have been in the World and which is still more of all the glorious Angels and which is the sum of all the most sacred and ever blessed Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity Father Son and Holy Ghost 4. The most comfortable day in respect of themselves because it will be a day of Redemption Exaltation Remuneration 1. A day of Redemption from all sin and misery not onely of their Souls but of their Bodies Rom. 8.23 Whence that of our Saviour Luke 21.28 When you see these things lift up your heads for the day of your Redemption draweth nigh The word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath an emphasis in it and imports not only a Redemption from misery but a restoration to liberty a day of Exaltation to the highest degrees of Glory for when Christ shall appear they shall appear in Glory Col. 3.4 and such Glory as will make him and them to be admired 2 Thess 1.10 When the Angels that minister to them in life and death shall then perform the greatest office to them gather together the Elect from the four quarters of the Earth and separate them from all further communion with the wicked take them up into the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air 1 Thess 4. and set them at his right Hand to be Accessors with him in judgment upon the wicked World such honour have all his Saints 1 Cor. 16.1 and more then so and which is more then all hearts can conceive but they that feel it they shall be welcomed by the Lord Jesus Christ with that ravishing imbracement and extatical leaps of their rejoycing hearts at the pronunciation of that blessed Sentence Come ye Blessed c. And immediately after usher'd along by the Angels with Jubilees and Songs of Tryumph through the Clouds into the Presence Chamber of the King of Kings and there ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4.27 3. A day of Remuneration when God will crown his own grace with glory and will render to every one according to his works Rev. 14.13 Rev. 22.12 When God will reward all the Fasts you have kept all the Prayers you have made all the Tears you have shed all the good Works you have done all the Evils you have suffered all the Offices of Love and Kindness you have shewed to him and his Mat. 10. last Then the Crown shall be set upon your Heads the Royal Robe of Christ put on your backs all see and know you have not serv'd God for nought that in keeping of his Commandments there 's great reward even an exceeding excessive and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 10. And Lastly Meditate on what we may do to escape the terror of that day and enjoy the comfort of it Q. What is that A. To observe and make Conscience of those duties the Scriptures hold forth in reference to that day As 1. In general to prepare for it expresly required Mat. 24.44 Be ye also prepared for in an hour ye think not will the Son of Man come And this Exhortation you may find backed with a double Argument the first drawn from the blessed estate of such as are prepared vers 49 50. Q. But how are we to prepare for Judgement A. 1. By being diligent that we may be found of him in peace the use the Apostle teacheth you to make of it 2 Pet. 3.14 That is to see your peace be made with God in and through Jesus Christ of your Enemy he be made your Friend Ephes 2.14 2. You are also to give diligence that you may be found of the Lord without spot or blemish as he further exhorts vers 14. That is That you endeavour to get the guilt of sin and the spots of sin to be washt away in the Blood of Christ 1 John 1.7 That you break off also all and every sin by speedy and unfeigned repentance the use the Scripture teacheth us to make of this day Acts 3.18 19. Repent that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing comes from the presence of the Lord c. see Acts 17.30 to the end 3. To erect every one a Tribunal in his Conscience it being the end wherefore God puts Conscience within every one and having done so to search out after every Malefactor against God to apprehend accuse judge and do execution upon every sin and then the promise is if we remember he 'l forget if we confess he 'l forgive if we judge our selves he 'l not condemn us with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 4. To get and furnish our Lamps with Oyl to wit the Oyl of Grace and to trim them that exercise those Graces that so you may be ready to enter with the Bridegroom whensoever he shall come to call for you Matth. 25.10 Amongst others be sure you have these three Graces in Act and Exercise 1. A filial fear to sin against God The more you fear sin the less you 'l fear judgment therefore tremble to sin now that you may not tremble at judgment hereafter this use the Scripture teacheth you to make of it 1 Pet. 1.17 Rev. 14.7 Eccles last last 2. Get an unfeigned love to God and the godly for if our love be perfect or true we shall have boldness in the day of judgment 1 John 1.17 3. Look to the sincerity and uprightness of your heart in all your wayes For if our hearts condemn us not then we have confidence towards God 1 John 3.21 That is We should stand with boldness before the Judge but on the contrary if our Conscience condemn us the Judge will much more vers 20. and therefore herein I exercise my self to have a Conscience void of offence sayes the Apostle Acts 24.14 15. Why you may see 2 Cor. 5.8 9 10. We must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ c. 5. You must be willing to stand up for and make a bold confession and profession of
that have this Book because your Memory is weak to take it in your hands and begin with the first Head of Meditation and then go on Day after Day until you have gone thorow and if there be any special subject you desire to meditate on to look into the Contents Thirdly For the Egress or Conclusion of your Meditation First so reflect and look back how we have perform'd it If not with profit and comfort then to take notice wherein we are defective and faulty and humble our selves under it and mend it the next time If we have reaped benefit and comfort by it to bless God for it and conclude all with praise for his gracious presence with us and pray he would make all effectual for the bettering of our heads and hearts and tongues and lives And thus of Meditation in general Next because most complain of scarcity or want of matter others of distraction through want of Method I have therefore thought fit to select the choisest things for Meditation through the Body of Divinity and reduce them to their several Heads that so however you cannot remember them all yet you may have them still before your eye and go on in the Meditation of them Day after Day CHAP. II. AND first I shall begin with solemn and deliberate Meditation and after give you some heads for sudden and occasional Meditation For solemn and deliberate Meditation the matter of your Meditation may be reduced to these 6 or 7 Heads God and Christ the Holy Spirit Man the World and the good and evil Angels by which God governs the World First I shall shew you what special things you are to meditate on in GOD to begin with him who is the beginning of all things and to be often and much in meditation on him for the more we meditate on him the more we shall know him and the more we know him the more we shall love him and the more we love him the more we shall desire him and the more we desire him the more shall we labour after communion with him not only in grace here but in glory hereafter but here in meditating on God take with you these three Cautions First To meditate on him in a way of faith and not reason because reason cannot comprehend the Unity in Trinity or Trinity in Unity Secondly Not to conceive of God out of Christ because God out of Christ is a consuming Fire Hebr. 12. last Thirdly Take heed of framing any Image of God in your minds he being a Spirit and an Infinite Spirit in all and through all and above all but to conceive of him I say in Christ who is the express Image of the Father the Ladder by which we are to clime up to Heaven to see and know God One well expresseth it thus when I see the body of a living man I know his Soul is there also and therefore when I speak to his body I speak to his understanding also because they are together so in viewing with the eye of my mind the humane nature of Christ glorious in Heaven I do at the same time look upon the God-head that being personally united unto it for in him dwelleth the God-head bodily or Personally Q. What are those things we are to meditate on in GOD A. His Nature Attributes Word Works Worship 1. His Nature and here take notice what he is in his Beeing and that he only is Jehovah 1. What he is in his Beeing This cannot be conceived much less defined by finite Creatures yet may be described so far as he hath revealed himself in the Scripture which is this An Eternal Infinite Perfect Incomprehensible Spirit distinguished into three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost every one Co-essential and Co-equal To open this briefly mind well I say he is a Spirit John 4.24 Now what a Spirit is our Saviour tells you Luke 24.31 Iohn 1.18 sc a Substance or Beeing that cannot be seen or felt 2. I say he is an Eternal Infinite Perfect Incomprehensible Spirit these Attributes distinguish him from all other Spirits as Angels and the Souls of men 1. He is an Eternal Spirit i. e. One that had no beginning nor can have any end 1 Tim. 1.17 To the King Eternal c. and Revel 1.8 But now Angels and the Souls of men though they shall have no end yet had a beginning were Created by God Gen. 12.1 2. God he is an Infinite Spirit i. e. Such a Beeing as cannot be contained within any place 1 Kings 8.27 Behold The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him and Isa 66.1 But for Angels and the Souls of men they are contained within their proper places 3. God he is a perfect Spirit unto whom no degree of goodness or excellency can be added 1 Iohn 1.5 Gen. 17.1 I am God All-sufficient But for Angels and the Souls of men they are capable of more degrees of goodness and excellency 4. God is an incomprehensible Spirit Psal 145.3 His greatness is incomprehensible 1 Timothy 1.16 He dwells in light unapproachable we may more easily comprehend what God is not than what he is but now for Angels and the Souls of Men we may in some measure comprehend what they are so far forth as God hath revealed it 3. I add distinguished into three Persons Here to take notice 1. What a Person is sc a distinct Subsistence or beeing having in it the whole God-head and distinguished from another by his incommunicable properties as 1. Of the Father to beget Psal 2.7 the Son to be begotten John 18. and of the Holy Ghost to proceed from both John 15.26 2. To take notice why we say Distinguished and not divided sc because the God-head being one pure simple unchangeable Beeing it cannot be divided or separated one from the other but are in one the other as you may see cleerly John 14.9 Lastly I add Co-essential and Co-equal i. e. Every one true and very God and not one before the other or greater than the other being every one God as appears in that the same names of God and properties of God and actions of God are given to every Person in the Trinity The Father God Eph. 13. John 17.3 The Son God Isai 9.6 Heb. 1.8 The Holy Ghost God Acts 5.3 4. 1 Cor. 3.16 To take notice and meditate seriously on these things in the Nature of God because the ignorance and want of the serious consideration of it is the cause of so many misapprehensions of God and aberrations from God 2. That you may the better know what God is to take notice that he only is Jehovah Psal 83.18 Thy Name only is Jehovah Q. What is the meaning of that Ans This word Jehovah it imports three things 1. That he hath his Beeing in and of and from Himself being deemed Hava or Hajah that signifieth To be and be of himself and from himself 2. It is he that gave a beeing to all that have any beeing as Isa 44.24
Heb. 9.14 Omnisciency 1 Cor. 2.10 Omnipresency Psal 139.17 Omnipotency 2 Tim. 2.7 Isaiah 11.2 Thirdly Because those works are applied to him which are proper to God as Creation Gen. 1.2 and Conservation Job 33.4 Psal 33.6 Regeneration and Sanctification John 3.6 1 Cor. 12.6 Fourthly Because the divine worship is given to him as Mat. 28.19 Go Baptize them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Therefore true and very God Thirdly That he proceeds from the Father and the Son is evident John 15.26 and hence he is call'd the Spirit of God Rom. 8.11 and the Spirit of the Son Rom. 8.9 and so much the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies because he is spired or breathed from them as you may see further John 16.14 15. Secondly To meditate on the Offices of the Spirit and these either respect Christ his Word or his Church First For those respecting Christ they are these First The Spirit formed Christ's humane nature in the Womb of the Virgin Mary Luke 1.35 36. Secondly The Holy Ghost anointed Jesus Christ as he was Man with gifts and graces and that without measure and having thus consecrated him and furnished him with gifts for the great office and work of a Mediator he with God the Father sent him into the World for the accomplishing that work Isai 61.1 and 11.2 Acts 10.38 John 3.34 John 1.32 Thirdly The Holy Ghost descending from Heaven and resting upon him visibly in the shape of a Dove did publickly shew him and Seal him in his Baptism Mat. 3.16 Fourthly The Holy Ghost witnesseth that Jesus Christ who was crucified was the Son of God the true Messiah Act. 5.31.32 He witnesseth also to the Doctrin of Christ's Resurrection in which he was declared mightily to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 Secondly For the Offices of the Spirit in and about the Word of God take notice first 't was He inspir'd holy Men of God with the mind and will of God infallibly dictated it unto them and guided them in the penning or writing of it 2 Pet. 1.20 Acts 1.16 Mark 12 36. Heb. 9.8 Fourthly He quickens the Word so as to make it effectual to quicken dead Souls without Him 't is but a dead and a killing Letter John 6.63 He makes it quick and lively in operation to the dividing between the Soul and the Spirit the Joynts and the Marrow the searching-out and discovering the secrets of the heart Heb. 4.12 1 Cor. 2.4 2 Cor. 10.4 5. It is he that speaketh by it to the Churches Revel 2.7 Revel 3.22 Rev 14 13. Thirdly His Offices in respect of the Church and People of God these are either common to all or peculiar to the Elect First For those common to all they are such as these First To give life and preserve life in all Job 33.4 Ps 139.14 15. Secondly To bestow gifts and abilities on men for their particular callings and functions both sacred and civil as 1 Sam. 11.6 Judges 11.29 1 Cor. 12.9 10. Mat. 7.22 Thirdly Restraining-grace whereby they are kept from many evils which they would otherwise run into as Abimelech Gen. 20.6 Fourthly To act and over-act all the gifts and parts and power of men to his own glory and the good of his Church and People Zach. 4.6 Secondly For those that are peculiar to the Elect they are such as these First To unite them unto Christ their head and the mystical Body of Christ the Church 1 Cor. 12.13 1 Cor. 6.17 Secondly To inhabit or dwell in them as his House and â—emple Rom 8.11 1 Pet. 4.17 Thirdly To illuminate them with the saving sancâ—iâ—â—ing experimental knowledge of God in Christ John 16.13 Fourthly To convince them of sin righteousness and judgment John 16.8 First Of Sin particularly the sins of unbelief and disobedience to the Gospel that This is 〈◊〉 which lays them open to the wrath of God in Life and Death and after Death John 3. last Mark 16.16 Secondly Of righteousness how that there is none in them to make them stand acceptable in the sight of God the Garment of their own righteousness and good works is a Garment too short to cover their nakedness their own righteousness is but as a filthy Rag but the righteousness of Christ that is a perfect righteousness such as God accepts for poor sinners and makes them stand so righteous in God's sight as if they had never sinned this appears in that Christ is gone to the Father which he could not have done if he had not fulfilled all righteousness Thirdly Of Judgment how that he has judged and condemned the Serpent and his Seed the Devil and the wicked World so as they shall never prevail against his Elect Mat. 16.18 The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and that there is true and sound judgment to be found only in the Christian Religion and not in any Idolatrous and false Religion and that Christ hath the government of his Church upon his own Shoulders and all that subject and submit unto his Government shall by it judg and condemn at last the wicked World 1 Cor. 6.1 Fifthly To humble them under and mortifie in them the deeds of the Flesh Rom. 8.13 Sixthly To quicken them with spiritual Life Rom. 8.11 Regenerate and sanctifie them John 3.5 and Evidence it to them 1 Cor. 6.11 Seventhly To help them in and under all their infirmities in duty Rom. 8.26 John 14.26 Eighthly To direct and guide them in all their ways Rom. 8.14 Psal 143.10 Ninthly To support and comfort them in all their sorrows and sufferings Rom. 5.5 John 4.26 Tenthly To witness to their Spirits that they are the Children of God Rom. 8.16 Eleventhly To Seal them up to the Day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 Eph. 1.13 Twelfthly To be the earnest and first fruits of their Eternal Salvation Eph. 1.14 Rom. 8.23 Lastly To confirm strengthen and establish them in every good word and work to the end Eph. 1.13 Eph. 4.12 13. Again Thirdly To take notice of and meditate on the Evidences you have of the receiving and indwelling of the Spirit of God in you because If any have not the Spirit he is none of Christ's Rom. 8.9 1 Ep. John 4.13 Hereby we know he dwells in us and we in him by the Spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 Q. But how may we know that we have receiv'd the Spirit and that he dwells in us A. Thus 1. By the way and means in and by which he is given and receiv'd and that is the Ministry of the Word Acts 10.44 Whilst Peter spake the Holy Ghost fell on those that heard him and hence the Ministry of the Gospel is call'd the Ministry of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 and Men are said to receive the Spirit by the hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 Secondly You may know you have the Spirit by this if you can finde the foregoing acts and operations of the Spirit upon the hearts of the Elect If he be
them as faith and love and obedience which are the most eminent fruits of the Spirit and yet are wholly void of them when Men will profess and pretend they seek the glory of God the publick good the weal and comfort of others as well as themselves and yet do nothing less but seek only their own private Worldly and fleshly interest care not what become of others let them sink or swim all 's one to them and worse than so to promote their own private interest will be still plotting and practising mischief against others still instilling prejudices into the heads and hearts and tongues of others and yet profess and pretend the quite contrary This lying and dissembling of Professors is that which tempts the Holy Ghost to take vengeance on them sooner or later for their audacious robbing Him of those glorious Attributes of his Omnipresency Omnisciency Omnipotency and to exemplarily punish such as dare to sin not only against the light of the Word but the Dictates of the Holy Spirit in their Consciences Fifthly Take heed of defiling his Temple for if any Man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy 1 Cor. 3.17 Q. Who are they that do so He tells you there they are professing believers Whereby do they defile his Temple They defile it by corrupt Doctrin and manners by dividing-Principles and practises causing Rents and Schisms Parties and Factions as you may find they did Vers 4 5. They also that defile their Bodies by Fornication and Uncleanness 1 Cor. 6.13 18 19. Secondly If you would hold and maintain communion with the Spirit as to shun the forenamed Evils so to observe and make conscience of these following duties First To hearken unto and obey the calls of the Spirit to faith and love and obedience Isai 30.21 Secondly To nourish and cherish the inward motions of the Spirit checking for evil and exciting to good 1 Thes 5.19 Thirdly To live in the Spirit Gal. 5.25 That is as we live a natural life by him so to live a spiritual life to him that we may be fitted to enjoy an Eternal Life with him Fourthly To walk in the Spirit Gal. 5.16.25 That is to follow the Direction of the Spirit Vers 18. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Children of God Rom. 8.14 Fifthly To enter upon and perform all duties in and by the assistance of the Spirit Eph. 6.10 To pray in the Holy Ghost Jude 20. Eph. 6.18 To preach in the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.4 To love in the Spirit Col. 1.8 and exercise all Graces in the manifestation of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12.7 and rejoyce in the comforts of the Spirit Acts 9.31 Sixthly Labour to be filled with the Spirit Eph. 5.18 Not to content your selves with any measure of grace but still labouring to grow in grace and gracious practises 1 Cor. 15. last To be filled with peace and joy in believing and abound in the hope of glory through the Power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 Seventhly To preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 that is to endeavour it though we cannot effect it as we would because of the many and great remainders of corruption in the best that oppose and obstruct it yet I say tâ— endeavour it as the Apostle exhorts Phil. 1.27 3.15 Lastly To sow in the Spirit Gal. 6.8 that is lay out your substance and worldly good to spiritual uses for the maintenance of Christ'â— Ministry and Ordinances the providing of thâ— Gospel and incouragement of others in the way of holiness if you refuse to honour the Lord witâ— your substance and bestow it only upon your selveâ— and yours you do but sow to the flesh and of thâ— flesh shall reap corruption but he that soweth 〈◊〉 the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Vers 8. Lastly What grace you have receiv'â— above others or you have been enabled to exerciâ—â— above others or good duties you have been enabled to do above others when you have been moâ—â— enlarged in it above others take heed of arrogating any thing to your selves remember to gâ—â— wholly out of your selves and to give the Spirâ—â— the glory of his grace to you in it as the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 and be still careful to walk the more humbly before God and Man Micah 6. So much of the Spirit Nextly CHAP. V. The Fourth Head of Meditation is MAN IN and about Man to meditate on the Four-fold Estate of Man the Four last Things or Ends of Man and such things in the Soul and in the Body about the Tongue Talents Time and Eternity of Man as may most conduce to the enabling of you to answer God and Christ and the Spirit in all they have done for man First To meditate on the Four-fold Estate of Man his blessed state by Creation cursed state by Transgression gracious state by Regeneration and happy estate by Glorification Sect. 1. First His blessed estate by Creation and here to take notice of and meditate on these things First That he was made the most excellent of all the visible Creatures Secondly That he was made in the most excellent manner Thirdly That he was made to the most excellent ends First He was made the most excellent of all the visible Creatures as appears First In respect of the structure of his Body and the endowments of his Soul of which we shall speak hereafter Secondly In that he was made after his own Image in knowledge righteousness and true holiness Gen. 1.26 Eph. 4.24 Col. 3.10 Thirdly In that he was made the Habitation and Temple of the Holy Ghost 2 Cor. 6.16 Fourthly In that he was made Lord over all the Creatures all subjected under his Feet and all for his use Gen. 1.26 Psal 8. Fifthly In that he was made the Epitome or abridgment of the whole Creation there being nothing in the World but there is some thing in Man like unto it as touching God we believe Him to be a Spirit touching the World we know it to be a Body in Man we have an abridgment of both namely of God in respect of his Spirit and of the World in respect of his Body As in the World there are some things visible and some things invisible so in Man a visible Body and an invisible Soul as in the World some Creatures live the life of Vegetation as Plants some the life of Sense as Beasts some the life of Reason as Angels in Man you have all these kinds of life In a word as one well Man is God's Text all the Creatures are Commentaries on it Secondly Meditate on the excellent manner of Man's Creation 1. Whereas all other Creatures were made by a bare and simple command God did but say the word Let there be Light and there was Light and so in the rest When God made Man it was not without Divine Consultation the sacred Trinity did not
Pen or Purse and therefore how much more should Christians that have more light to shew them the weightiness of their work and the brevity and preciousness of their time To meditate on the express command Ephes 5.15 Redeem the time because the dayes are evil Here take notice of three things 1 From what you are to redeem the time 2. Unto what 3. Why. 1. From what you are to redeem the time You are to redeem it out of the hands of those who would steal it away from God and your Souls as 1. Idleness and her Daughters viz. vain Imaginations and idle Discourses 2. Worldliness and her Daughters viz. inordinate carking and caring toyling and termoiling about the things of the World 3. Voluptuousness and her Daughters viz. vain sporting rioting feasting proud apparelling immoderate and unseasonable sleeping These we find by sad and general experience to take up and consume the most of the precious time of men and women therefore you should do well to reflect and look back wherein you have been peccant and faulty how much of your precious time hath been stollen away by these time-devourers how much time hath been spent every day in Eating Drinking Sleeping Tricking Triming Fidling Dancing Carding Dicing and the like vain Sports and how little in Hearing Reading Praying Meditation holy Conference c. How much the vanities of the World carnal Pleasures needless Visits unprofitable Discourses and unnecessary Recreations have eaten up and to humble your selves under it and redeem your time out of the hands of these Thiéves for the future more especially to ask your own Consciences and look into your Conversation how you have imployed the time of your Youth the means and seasons of Grace the opportunities you have had of doing and receiving good the times of affliction either Personal Family National what good you have gotten or done in and by all otherwise very Heathens will rise up in judgement against you Take notice 2. What you are to redeem it unto viz. The promoting of the Glory of God the publick Good and your spiritual and everlasting Well-fare Isa 43.3 Ephes 1.6 Psal 137.5 John 6.27 3. For the grounds why you are so to redeem it you have it here in the Text Because the dayes are evil full of the evil of Sin full of the evil of Punishment never did iniquity more abound and never was the wrath of God more revealed from Heaven then in our dayes and therefore to redeem time that we may be fitted for the worst of times and the best of dayes Lastly Meditate how bitterly men have bewailed the loss of their time on their Death-beds and do still in Hell and what they would be willing to do and suffer if they might have further time but all in vain in vain did she cry out Call back Time Oh call back Time Time being past not a moment to be recalled A serious meditation of these things may through the blessing of God be an effectual means to make you prize and improve better your time then ever you have done Sixthly Of Eternity Sect. 14. In and about it to take notice of and meditate on these things 1. What it is 2. The kinds of it 3. How near we are to it 4. How bitterly men will bewail at the last the loss of a Blessed Eternity 1. What Eternity is scilicet An intellâ—ctual Sphear as one observes whose Center 's every where and Circumference no where For the better understanding of it take notice there is a double Eternity one a parte ante and another a parte post one that hath neither beginning nor end another that hath a beginning but no end For the first so God onely is Eternal Isa 43.10 13. Rev. 22.1 8. And the things of God as his Attributes as his Truth Psal 117.2 Mercy Psal 136.1 Righteousness Psal 119.142 c. For the other Eternity which hath a beginning but no end This the Eternity of Angels and Men and this Eternity is that we are to speak of 2. For the kinds of Eternity There is a double Eternity of Woe and Joy Misery and Felicity 1. Of Woe and Misery that shall befal the wicked and of Joy and Felicity which shall be bestowed on the godly Mat. 25. last The wicked shall go into everlasting punishment but the Righteous into Eternal Life And what folly and madness then is it for a temporary delight to lose eternal happiness Momentanium quod delectat eternum quod Cruciat 3. We should consider that we stand every day before the door of Eternity and we know not how soon we may lanch forth into that Ocean from whence there 's no return 4. How bitterly men will bewail at last when 't is too late their folly and madness in losing a Blessed Eternity and incurring a Cursed Eternity how unconceiveably miserable it will be for men to lose Heaven and lie in Hell so long as God is God He found it by bitter experience that cryed out on his Death-bed Oh Eternity Eternity Eternity in Hell for ever for ever for ever This word ever will break the hearts of men before ever they enter upon the borders of Eternity and therefore think seriously upon it before it be too late and let it be your morning and evening Thoughts The serious meditation of it may through the blessing of God be an effectual means to take off your hearts from these perishing things of the World and the pleasures of sin here which are but for a season keep you from envying the prosperity of the wicked and repining at your own adversity all being momentany in comparison of Eternity and make you look out after an interest in an eternal God and Christ and Spirit and Grace and Glory and do whatsoever you do in your particular and general Calling upon eternal grounds and to eternal ends Amen CHAP. VII The World and the Creatures in it IN and about this to meditate on three things 1. Those things in the Creatures that engage our hearts to love God 2. Those things in the Creatures that disengage our hearts from inordinate love to and pursuit of the Creature 3. Those duties we owe to God for the Creatures and the Creatures teach us to perform to God First To meditate on those things in the Creatures which discover the love of God to us and that engage our hearts again to love him As for instance The Magnitude Multitude Variety Beauty Structures Vertues Sympathy and Antipathy of the Creature 1. For the Magnitude or Greatness of the Creature Who can measure the breadth of the Earth and the depth of the Sea saith the wise man Eccles 13. And if the Earth be so great how great is the whole World The Earth is but a Point in comparison of the Heavens Circumference 2. For the Multitude of the Creatures Who can number the Sand of the Sea and if not the Sand much less all the Creatures that are in and under and above the Earth