A clear instance of this is to be seen in Abraham whom God proposed as a pattern of his free and most gracious Election exhibiting unto us under the type and figure of earthly and sensual things the whole and sum of this great mystery for such was the counsel of God that what things really and truly happened unto him the same should shadow out and represent the spiritual blessings which belonged to us As it is written 1 Cor. 10. All these things happened unto them for ensamples or types and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the World are come Abraham being first called believed in God who had called him and promised to make him a Father of many Nations In God I say who calleth those things which be not as tho they were and trusted to the divine election knowing that to be the most acceptable obedience to God when one willingly and diligently complies with his call and without doubting undergoes that saving discipline as proceeding from him who being the Fountain of all Goodness freely bestows himself His Graces and Blessings upon those who believe and obey him so that when he was commanded by him from whom he had received the Promise to leave his Country his Kindred and his Fathers House he obeyed and went out leaving those advantages which those who live after the manner of this world reap from their Country Kindred and Fathers House for the native Country affordeth acquaintance and confidence the Fathers House Wealth and Riches and Kindred Means and Substance to those who lead their lives according to the dictates of Lust and Ambition Abraham therefore departed as the Lord had commanded him leaving his Country Kindred and Fathers House and chose to be a Stranger and Sojourner in a strange Land following the Command of God that called him Now we know that Strangers and Sojourners have no mind means nor confidence to spend their time in delights and pleasures so long as they think of their condition and behave themselves like Strangers and Sojourand propose to themselves that that is not their Country or place of rest but an Inn or place of refreshment which they must shortly leave and go forward unto a place of more commodious habitation So Abraham being called and commanded to go out of his Country into a Land that was to be shewn to him not only believed but obeyed and put it in execution for he really and indeed forsook his Country Kindred and Fathers House and not in word and inclination alone He said not I will do it or I desire to do it and did it not but actually performed what he was commanded and in that manner Abraham believed in God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness not that he believed only but that believing he obeyed and went out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance not knowing whither he went Heb. 11. And that by Faith he Sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange Countrey dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the Heirs with him of the same Promise According to this precedent whoever is called to the gifts and blessings of the Heavenly Promises believes in and would please him that hath promised desiring to have them made good unto him must not only by Faith Will and Inclination but also in Deed and in good Earnest renounce the Pomp Vanity Corruption Delights Pleasures Ambition and other Vices of this World and perform what he obliged himself to and promised before the blessed Trinity in which he professed his belief in presence of his God-Fathers God-Mothers and Witnesses in his Baptism through the grace and assistance of him that called him to whose service he resigned himself and in whose name he was Baptised that is in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which grace and assistance will never be wanting to those who from a pure and holy heart implore and beg the same as we have already demonstrated Luke 12. I am come to send fire on the Earth and what will I if it be already kindled Now he promised to renounce the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and what are the works of the Devil and Vanities of the World but Ambition Lust Avarice and the delights and pleasures of the Flesh that is to say the corrupt manners customs of this World which according to the Doctrine of the Apostles breed cherish and encrease sin and wickedness as it is written 1 John 2. Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the World And again the Apostle S. James saith James 4. Ye Actulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of this World is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World is the enemy of God Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envie Wherefore we must not only by Faith and in words but in our endeavours acts and deeds renounce all worldly Pleasures Lusts and Ambition for Virtue consists not in words but in deeds And therefore St. Paul saith 2 Tim. 2. If a Man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work And St. Peter alluding to Abraham thus admonisheth 1 Pet. 2. Dearly beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul having your Conversation honest among the Gentiles that whereas they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of Visitation Wherefore that Faith which is commended and praised in Abraham was not an idle and dead but a living Faith quickned by Charity and shewing it self in the practice and exercise of Obedience and so it was imputed to him for Righteousness because he really left his Country Kindred and his Fathers house and obediently went unto the place appointed him thereby setting before us a lively instance of true Obedience Which Moses imitating Heh 11. when he was come to years refused to be called the Child of Pharaohs daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures in Egypt for he had a respect unto the recompence of Reward By Faith he forsook Egypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible In deeds then and not in words alone or an empty and idle boasting of Faith must every one shew himself obedient to God and bring forth the
and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil Nevertheless we must always be upon our guard and take diligent heed lest securely trusting to past Pardons and the confident expectation of Gods future mercy we never cease to do evil and learn to do good that is not the use but the abuse of divine Clemency and Mercy The Mercy of God is indeed from Generation to Generation but upon those that fear him and I will hear saith the Psalmist Psal 85. what God the Lord will say for he will speak Peace unto the People and to his Saints but let them not return again to Folly Again Isai as saith Isa 30. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you The Lord will wait that he may be gracious saith he not that they who are waited for should heap sin upon sin and return unto the vomit but because he hath promised mercy to them who with their whole heart so turn unto him that they stand in awe and greatly fear any more to offend him otherwise as the same Prophet saith Therefore will the Lord be exalted that he may have Mercy upon you for the Lord is a God of Judgment who denies not his promised Mercy to any that rightly seek it but withall does not for ever delay but in due time inflict the punishments which are appointed to those whose heart is not right and stedfast with him There is no time with God void of Mercy towards those who hinder not their own Mercy Now they do hinder it who after the hardness and impenitence of their heart treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath Isa 66. To this Man will I look saith the Lord even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word But concerning those who are not truly poor of a contrite spirit and tremble at his word he hath pronounc'd this Sentence He that killeth an Ox is as if he flew a Man he that Sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that Offereth an Oblation as if he Offered Swines Blood he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol 1 Kings 8. they have chosen their own ways and their Soul delighteth in their abominations They therefore that have committed sin for as Solomon saith there is no Man that sinneth not must constantly keep in the way of Repentance and denying themselves hear and follow him who hath said Not he that beginneth but he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved They must from their whole heart and Soul Renounce the Devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of this wicked world as they have promised and vowed in their Baptism otherwise Jer. 8. thus saith the Lord shall they fall and not arise shall he turn away and not return why then is this People of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual back-sliding The Lord calls it a perpetual back-sliding when men in their manners retain and follow that wicked course of life which in word or thought they may have condemned and falsly professing and boasting of their Repentance do not conscientiously perform the duty of it but belying their own hearts deceive themselves and not God nor his Minister to whom they promised a serious amendment of life This the Lord finds fault with by the same Prophet They hold fast deceit they refuse to return I hearkned and heard but they spake not aright no Man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done Every one turned to his Course as the Horse rusheth into the Battel The Lord indeed waits that he may have mercy upon us and uses patience not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance Come to Repentance saith that Apostle who knew that Repentance was necessary to sinners for appeasing the wrath and obtaining the mercy of God Now the Holy Spirit does plainly tell us that the long-suffering of God is not everlasting tho we believe and confess his Mercy to be infinite Psal 7. God Judgeth the Righteous and God is angry with the Wicked every day if he turn not he will whet his Sword he hath bent his Bow and made it ready he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death He ordaineth his arrows against the Persecutors When God Almighty was about to destroy the old World because of sin he allotted them a certain time to repent in as it is written Gen 6. And the Lord said my Spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is Flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years At the end of which all Mankind perished in the Flood save only the Family of Noah who in that Age was found Righteous in the sight of God The People of Niniveh being warned by the Prophet that after forty days they should be destroyed delayed not their Repentance until the last day but set about it so soon as they heard the denunciation all that time I say was employed and spent in fasting and prayer for averting the wrath of God imploring divine mercy and amending their sinful lives as it is written Jona 3. And Jonah began to enter into the City a days Journey and he cried and said yet fourty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown So the People of Nineveh believed God and Proclaimed a Fast and put on Sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them for word came unto the King of Nineveh and he arose from his Throne and he laid his Robe from him and covered him with Sackcloth and sate in Ashes and he caused to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the Decree of the King and his Nobles saying let neither Man nor Beast Herd nor Flock tast any thing let them not feed nor drink water But let Man and Beast be covered with Sackcloth and cry mightily unto God yea let them turn every one from their evil way and from the violence that is in their hands Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not The Men of Nineveh will rise in Judgment against those who having been warned not once but often yet have not turned from their evil ways or who have delayed the duty of a serious Repentance to the last day of their life living in the mean time wickedly and following the Vanities Lusts Ambition Pride and Vices of the World whereas no Man ought or can say that he is allowed to put off the exercise of Repentance to the extremity of life since upon the first call and admonition all Men are commanded to turn and be converted unto the Lord. To day saith the Holy Ghost if you will hear his voice harden
condemn us not then have we confidence towards God And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight St. John expressly affirms that we shall obtain what we ask of God in order to our Salvation who will give his good spirit to those that seek him if our heart condemn us not which he saith may be proved by this if we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight Our Lord and Master commands the same John 14. If ye love me keep my commandments And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive seein the Lust and Pride the Pomp and Vanity with all the other Vices of this World are an abomination to him 2 Tim. 2. But if a Man purge himself from these he shall be a Vessel unto Honour sanctified and meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good work The sum then of all that hath been said in short is this whoever with a pure and holy heart believes the promises of God to his own salvation let him sincerely renounce the pomps and vanities of this World and the sinful Lusts and Desires of the Flesh and make good his profession of Repentance by a true and earnest forsaking of all sin and vice and a following after Righteousness and obedience to the commands of God with a zealous and constant care Of this care we shall speak hereafter having first laid down for a certain truth which we cannot inculcate too often that the holy spirit cannot dwell in a heart polluted with the sinful lusts pleasures and other corruptions of the flesh the spirit I say of sanctification by which who are acted are the Sons of God For this is the express sentence of God Almighty himself which hath been alledged already and ought often to be cited Gen. My spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is Flesh that is to say so long as Man is flesh and obeys the will and lusts of the flesh he shall not be partaker of my spirit And this sentence was pronounced by God at that time when the Sons of God coming in unto the Daughters of Men perverted all the rules of Piety and Virtue and turned Righteousness into Iniquity Now they who believed the Promises of God made unto Adam the common Parent of Mankind and being endowed with that Faith exercised themselves in the practice of Piety are in holy Scripture called the Sons of God for amongst them was preserved the knowledg of the Redemption and Salvation of Mankind by the holy Seed of the Woman and they being animated with the Faith and Hope of this promised Salvation shunned all worldly ambition and corruption leading a life neither magnificent nor splendid nor attended with the glory and delights which Men admire but low modest and mean living in the forry habitations of cottages tents caves and dens and were satisfied with sober poverty in imitation of their common Parents Adam and Eve whom God having cloathed them with coats made of Beasts skins commanded to live contented willing that they who by their own fault had forfeited the sovereignty of the World should live like strangers and sojourners in it This example the Sons of God followed But on the other hand the Sons of Men who either believed not the divine Promises or lived in pomp and splendor gave themselves over to delights and pleasures courted glory and worldly greatness and built to themselves stately Houses Towns and Castles being not a little incited to that course of life by the humour and counsel of Women by whose blandishments and conversation the Sons of God also being first allured and then wholly overcome they took to themselves wives of all which they chose That is to say when the Sons of God perceived the delights and pleasures the pomp and splendor that was amongst Men which might tempt humane frailty to prefer them before the rigours of an austere frugality but especially being enticed by the sight of Women among whom Vanity and Luxury both in diet and apparel was most conspicuous they forsook the hardships of an austere life continence and poverty that they might embrace riches wealth pleasures and luxury and making Marriages with the Daughters of Men they overturned Piety and perverted the antient discipline of primitive virtue and integrity Whereupon that divine Sentence was pronounced My spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is flesh because of the Sons of God they not only became like unto the Sons of Men but begat a race much more corrupt than themselves more licentious in their lives indulging themselves in all sorts of vice and voluptuousness and prone to all kind of injustice barbarity and cruelty Gen. 6. These are the Giants which were in the Earth in those days and also after that when the Sons of God came in unto the Daughters of Men and they bare children unto them the same became mighty Men which were of old Men of Renown And God saw that the wickedness of Man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made Man on the Earth So much did the licentious wickedness of the dissolute life of Men offend God that holy Oracles assure us it repented him that he had made Man on the Earth and that he resolved to destroy all Mankind these only excepted who continued in the discipline and duty of the Sons of God tho they were but very few in number as it is written But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord because he was a Just Man being not only endowed with that Faith of the Sons of God but through the exercise of true Repentance and Obedience to the commandments of God accepted also of the Lord as one who having spent so many years in building of an Ark and by frequent Sermons forewarning the Men of that age of the imminent wrath of God endeavoured to perswade them to Repentance and amendment of life for which he got the title and name of a Preacher of Righteousness Now this practice of Repentance which as we have said is necessary to all the Disciples and followers of Christ must be accompanied with an endeavour of amendment of life and of following after Righteousness and Honesty which for illustration sake we shall call by the name of Obedience and define Obedience Obedience to be an ordering and framing of all the actions of our life according to the counsel and will of God And this is performed by the knowledg and diligent practice of the commands of God For it is not enough to know the precepts and institutions of our Christian discipline or to talk of and commend them in quaint and
Men of all conditions proceed from the neglect of these three Parts of Christian discipline which are as certain first Principles of practical Piety known to all Men who are in their right senses And the necessity of these three Principles to wit of the Fear of the Lord Repentance and Brotherly-love is manifest not only to all Christians by the light and revealed will of God preached unto them but also to the unlearned and those who know not the written Law by the similitude and image of the Deity stamped on their minds tho as we have said they be not proved and confirmed to them by so many sentences and oracles of holy Scripture which perhaps is their own fault seeing they mind nothing less than the serious learning of those things which make for their own salvation and whilst they heedlesly and negligently run over these diligently study to know and practise the contrary But though they have not at all learn'd or neglect to be taught the Law Rom. 2. Yet they are a Law to themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Now if these three heads of a Christian life were well known and carefully practised by all we should experience another kind of efficacy of the grace of God in us find another chearfulness of mind and other evidences of Faith also Other proofs of our Religion would appear both in publick and private nor would there so many detestable instances of vice and impiety so openly abound in City and in Country in Courts and private Families and in all the societies of Christians where monstrous and flagitious wickedness doth but two much and two often reign and the divine Laws are despised and violated by bloody contentions enmity hatred strife calumnies fraud deceit bitter and frequent quarrels robberies thefts extorsions and defrauding of the poor besides the innumerable arts of violence and oppression whoredom and uncleanness adultery fornication incest and many other heinous abominations not to be named So many places of the Christian World would not abound in surfeiting and drunkenness chambering and wantonness sinful and sensual delights and pleasures and corrupt luxury nor would there be so much vanity and ostentation so immoderate and useless expensiveness so great emulation and pride nor so vast a number of other sins and monstrous wickednesses and impieties as to woful experience we daily see But on the contrary if the fear of the Lord accompanied with Repentance and Charity dwelt in the hearts of all Christians the actions of their lives would be ordered aright It would then be the chiefest care of every one first to stand in a we and fear lest they fall into the hands of the living God and next that they may obtain forgiveness and mercy from him and so every one would endeavour to perform what they promised in the holy Sacrament of Baptism having entred into Covenant before a mortal Man indeed yet with the immortal God the Just Judg of all the World the Lord of Hosts and the avenger of all sin and wickedness Psal 5. Who is a God that hath not pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with him The foolish shall not stand in his sight he hateth all workers of iniquity He shall destroy them that speak leasing the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful Man The summ of which promise was To renounce the devil and all his works the pomps and vanities of this wicked World and to lead his life according to the Laws of him whose Son he would be accounted and every one being endowed with divine fear incited by the desire of amending his life by Repentance and inflamed with Brotherly love and Charity would direct all his works and actions to the advancement not only of private and particular but also of common and publick Peace Faith Justice Righteousness Mercy Honesty and in a word of the general virtue and sanctity of all Men and carefully perform the duties incumbent upon him that he may receive his reward from him who cannot lie Of the several Duties and Offices of all ranks and conditions of Men to be examined according to this Rule The Second Part. NOW if these three heads of pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father were observed by all Men we should see many lively instances and effects of that practice whereof the summ is James 1. To visit the Fatherless and Widows and to keep himself unspotted from the World And from these fountains of all humane actions that is the Fear of the Lord the study of Repentance and exercise of Charity the offices and duties of all degrees ranks and conditions of Men might easily be drawn and deduced so that the whole body of the Christian Common-wealth from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot would be more healthful and sound than at present we see and would in all its Members worthily perform its several functions There would be no trouble nor discord amongst the various degrees of Men but all would conspire for the mutual good and profit one of another For the variety of degrees orders Ministeries and Offices is not to be condemned but rather approved of and commended amongst a Christian People as being found to be of great use and advantage when they are instituted and executed according to the Laws and Precepts of God for as St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 11. The body is not one Member but many If the foot shall say because I am not the hand I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body and if the ear shall say because I am not the eye I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body if the whole body were an eye where were the hearing if the whole were hearing where were the smelling But now hath God sit the Members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him And a little after he subjoyns That there should be no Schism in the body but that the Members should have the same care one for another And whether one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it or one Member be honoured all the Members rejoyce with it Now ye are the Body of Christ and Members in particular When the several Members are once perswaded of this and in the fear of the Lord in the study of Repentance and practice of Brotherly love and Charity they know their Duties and Offices there is no doubt but that they will religiously set about the performance of the same That we may then begin with the first and chief orders The Duty of Pastors Rulers and Governors of the Christian state it is manifest that it is the duty of Rulers and Governours and of those who are to guide and direct others to take care to maintain the honour of God and to provide what is
them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all Vncleanness with greediness They again who were not without a sense and knowledge of God but would not conform to a steddy and sure rule of Conduct studying rather to follow their own humour than to comply with the simplicity of truth have broached most idle Notions of the excellence of the divine Nature and erroneous and most dangerous Perswasions of the way of imitating the same leading most part of Mankind first into error and a snare and then into utter destruction as it is written Rom. 1. The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even the Eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned Professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds and four-footed Beasts and creeping things Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed for evermore The Doctrine therefore of Men that had no conformity to the Faith of God or that fell off from the knowledge of God unto Vanity false and foolish imaginations could neither rightly define nor exhibit and declare the true happiness of Mankind That only Doctrine which the revealed Will of God doth teach is capable through the power and goodness of its author to perform what it hath promised to those who truly and sincerely become its Disciples For the Scripture saith Psal 119. The Proud have digged Pits for me which are not after thy Law All thy Commandments are Righteousness There are many instances which manifestly prove that the Doctine of the word of God hath fulfilled and made good what it promised and foretold to the true Disciples and followers thereof and that it can and daily does perform the same to those who are guided thereby Now this Doctrine hath promised Salvation eternal happiness and the inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven in and through the Son of God who was to be sent into the World and the descent of the Holy Ghost into the minds of Believers which as a sure pledge and earnest of the celestial inheritance might by his inspirations teach them the true and saving use of the Heavenly gifts and Graces of this the Disciples of our Lord had experience as the holy Ghost himself bears witness 2 Pet. 1. Simon Peter a Servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained the like precious Faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord according as his divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust The Apostle St. Paul treating of the vanity of the Doctrine of the Gentiles and of the truth and benefits of the Christian Discipline says to the same purpose Eph. 4. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceiful lusts And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Acts 3. Ye are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers saying unto Abraham and in thy Seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed Vnto you first God having raised up his Son Jesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities Now that state and condition to which the true Disciples and Followers of the Christian Doctrine are by the grace and goodness of God advanced does in honor dignity and amplitude of glory and bliss far exceed all that the natural Man the Wit of Philosophers and the pains and study of mortal Man can conceive define or comprehend without the special favour and assistance of divine grace Isa 64. For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God For what Man knows the things of a Man save the spirit of Man that is in him even so the things of God knoweth no Man but the spirit of God This state and condition may in some measure indeed be delineated and described which by the help of God in time and place convenient we shall attempt but that will be but a faint emblem and adumbration rather than a true and lively representation of the same for the fulness of this solid and excellent happiness is not to be expressed in the common way of speech nor conceived by the thoughts of men unless of those who by the influence and operation of the Holy Ghost are rendred capable of so great mysteries Eph. 3. For this cause saith the Apostle I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love 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 that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God Now although a Disciple of this Christian Doctrine may not at first comprehend the greatness and excellence of the state to which he is called until by divine favour he hath attained to it nevertheless the dignity and extent of the happiness is not therefore less nor will it by any disappointment be diminished for the mosâ—
not your hearts Heb. 4. Let us therefore fear saith the Apostle lest a Promise being left us of entring into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it For unto us was the Gospel Preached as well as unto them Let us labour therefore to enter into that Rest Now he shall not enter who obeyeth not the voice of him that calleth him nor he be owned who hath not lawfully striven 1 Cor. 9. Know ye not saith St. Paul that they which run in a race run all but one winneth the prize so run that you may obtain We are to run and not go back to run and not to stand still according to the Apostle We are to run not slowly but lawfully and with so much more the greater pains diligence and care by how much the Prize set before us is to be esteemed and preferred before a Crown of Olive Smallage or Oak-leaves Now what pains and labour they were at to exercise themselves who were to run in the race that neither Luxury might soften nor Laziness dull them they who have written on that Subject inform us Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam Multa tulit fecitque puer sudavit alsit Abstinuit Venere vino c. The Youth who strives the wish'd goal to obtain Much anxious toil endures colds heats and pain And Wine and Women shuns c. And they as St. Paul saith are temperate in all things that they may obtain a corruptible Crown but we an incorruptible Now it is manifest that the long-suffering and patience of God for the repentance of all and every sinner is limited within certain bounds for after death there is no place for repentance so that we must if ever repent in this life And therefore since experience it self convinceth us of the shortness of life besides what divine wisdom teacheth us that Man is of few days and the number of his months is with thee Job 14. we ought to consider the extent and limits of divine patience and long-suffering and not to trust to that dangerous hope which hath deceived many who have deferred the thoughts of serious repentance to the very last day of their life For tho the use and improvement of life be left to the will and pleasure of Man yet the time and manner of death is not in his option Now as the way and manner of living is two-fold the one large and broad and the other strait and narrow so it is left to Man to choose which of the two he pleaseth yet he is not only advised but even commanded to choose that which is best and safest as it is written Deut. 30. See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments that thou mayest live c. Therefore chuse life that both thou and thy seed may live that thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days Now of the nine hundred and seven ways of death which are observed to happen unto Man without violence it is not left to him to choose which of all he would submit unto but that is reserved to the Providence and Will of God in whose hands are the issues of death It is great madness and folly then and no less dangerous temerity to neglect those things which are laid before us as safe certain present to our view and but few in number and to set our minds on things that are remote foreign to our happiness uncertain many and various and likewise most difficult Again who seeth not how wicked a thing it is to expect and desire that the designed and affected loss of our whole life should be made up by the Prayer of a Minutes or less continuance at last And that he should look for the honour and prize of the race or fight who hath neither run nor fought when yet he might and ought to have done it In a word how is his judgment depraved who desires wickedly and carelesly to live and to die holily Whatever others may think of this matter I am little concerned but am still of opinion and do affirm that such opinions are full of danger and that many have been thereby deceived If the instance of that sinful woman or of the Thief in the Gospel be objected to us we shall willingly admit of it for confirmation of the truth and retort it back again For that woman who was a sinner in the City when once she had come to Christ and found him merciful by a continued exercise of Repentance and Sanctity of life for the future she secured to herself his favour and blessing so far was she from estranging him from her by new sins and offences And the Thief at the same time that he was instructed in the truth of Christ began a serious Repentance which with a constant mind he continued till the last breath of his life and would in all probability have continued it longer if either he had escaped death that day or hung longer alive upon the Cross whom that common torment of the punishment made greater by the breaking of his legs diverted not from the thoughts of his own Salvation nor the contemplation of his Saviour And we have reason to think that if he had known the grace and truth of Christ before he would have forsaken his wicked courses and purpose of virtue and amendment till the last day of his life Is that to imitate the Thief Mary Magdalene or St. Peter who coming to himself acknowledged his sin and avoiding that croud by whose company and discourses he had been drawn and almost forc'd into his offence went forth and wept bitterly returning no more to those who had been the occasion of his Fall but cleaving close to the society of the other Disciples whom both by example and discourse he confirmed in the hope of their Masters Resurrection doing as his Lord commanded him and thou when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren These are the instances of a Repentance most acceptable to God and profitable to Man which whosoever will seriously imitate to his own Salvation must nenounce himself that is his concupiscenses the pomps and vanities of the World reform the course of his life walk carefully in the ways that God does approve of and having taken up his cross with a lively Faith and constant Obedience follow Christ cast off all impediments that may divert him from or hinder him in his Journey and always have in his mind what the Lord hath recommended to our serious practice Luke 9. If any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and folly me Mat. 24. And he that shall endure unto the
salvation who when he would have Men to turn to him with their whole heart and mind and so obtain life he patiently waits for their Repentance and this the holy Scriptures clearly testifie Isa 30. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you And the Apostle St. Peter saith The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise as some Men count slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance Now that the Conversion and true Repentance of sinners is most acceptable and pleasing to God his own Son shews us in that saving Sermon which he made in the three Parables of the prodigal Son the lost sheep and groat whereby he exhorted all Men that they would endeavour by their conversion to please God and cause joy in the whole Court of Heaven that so they might tast of the wonderful goodness of God who is rich in mercy towards all that call upon him with a pure and single heart and upon whom if they approve themselves by Faith and the practice of true Repentance and Obedience he bestows great mercies and the spirit of sanctification with all his gifts and graces which St. Peter affirms was given to all that obey him and our Saviour promised to be given saying John 14. If ye love me keep my commandments And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive Now in the sence of St. John the world are they who live according to the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh or the pride of life that is who are slaves to lust delights pleasures or ambition for those shall not feel the power and virtue of that holy spirit abiding in them as the Lord himself pronounces Gen. 6. My spirit shall not always strive with Man for that he also is flesh With Man who is flesh and striveth not to mortifie the deeds of the Flesh as the Apostle saith if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live to wit through the spirit of God given and communicated unto you for so it is written Isa 66. Thus saith the Lord the Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest for all those things hath mine hand made and all those things have been saith the Lord but to this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word Those divine gifts and graces whereby Men upon Earth are changed into other creatures and become almost celestial avoiding the corruption that is in the World through lust and having their conversation in heaven examples and instances of these gifts I say which were very frequent of old are now rare to be found on the Earth because we have neither that strong and lively faith in the Promises of God nor purely and sincerely obey his Precepts neither are we filled with the holy fear of the Lord but by a double and deceitful heart wicked and perverse thoughts and actions we are wanting to our selves and to the grace and goodness of God of God I say who trieth the heart and searcheth the reins and sees us wholly given over to impure thoughts the delights and pleasures of the flesh and to pride and ambition like adulterous Women dealing treacherosly against their lawful husbands which kind of hearts estranged from or divided in their chief love he neither loves nor approves of The mind must be pure and single and fervent in love that aspires to the heavenly marriage of this bridegroom and would have it confirmed and made good to it The wise Son of Sirach advises us to endeavour that as much as we can when he saith Ecclus 1. 2. Distrust not the fear of the Lord and come not unto him with a double heart Wo be to fearful hearts and faint hands and the sinner that goeth two ways And the word of God by the mouth of his holy Prophets does also in many places expresly admonish us heartily to renounce the vanities sins and pollutions of this World and make it our whole care to forsake them Jer. 4. O Jerusalem wash thine heart from wickedness that thou mayest be saved how long shall thy vain thoughts lodg within thee Whosoever come so provided to seek the Lord shall certainly find him to be loving gracious and bountiful Jer. 29. Ye shall seek me and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart and I will be found of you saith the Lord whose blessed Son hath also said Mat. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God God is to be seen by the pure in heart saith our Saviour He is to be seen dwelling in them whom he consecrates for a holy Temple to himself as it is written Isa 57. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Psal 147. He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up then wounds This contrition of heart so acceptable unto God and so much commended in Scripture doth not dwell nor abide with the anxious desire of worldly things and of the pomp and glory of the age which are hateful to the Lord. Nor let any Man perswade himself that he can serve two Masters that is that he can please God and at the same time fulfil the lusts of the flesh pursue the vanities pride and ambition of the World and obey the dictates of carnal wisdom The Apostle St. James declares it to be impossible Jam. 4. Ye adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the World is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World is the enemy of God Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy And therefore we are earnestly warned by the Apostle St. John that being deluded by vain arguments or any idle and groundless hope and opinion we should not retain the love of this World but wholly reject it if we would approve our selves to God whom we ought to love for our own salvation John 2. Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world And the world passeth