‘Psal. 50.22. Now consider this ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver.’
[...]
L. xxii. [...].

IT's not much material whether David or Asaph were the Author of this Psalm: some ascribe it to one, some to the other: The rea­son of the Doubt seems to be the Inscription or the Title of the Psalm [...]: which may sig­nifie either to Asaph, or for Asaph: It is most like­ly that David composed the Psalm and directed it to Asaph or his successours, that had the charge of the Musick of the Temple, to compose and prick it to some Tune: But however the Scope and Drift of the Psalm is to reprove the Jews who had transformed the Worship of God into meer [Page 2]Pomp and Ceremony, and were come up to that degree of Blindness and Absurdity, that they thought their Sacrifices and Oblations, and the constant performances of all that was visible to the Eye, was highly accepted of God, though their hearts were full of the filth of Lust and Concupiscence, and all manner of odious Impiety; hence one of their great Rabbins sticks not to ex­pound (that in the 66. Psal. 18. v. If I regaerd ini­quity in my heart, God will not hear my prayers) in­terogatively: viz. Though I regard iniquity, &c. will not God hear my Prayers? Yes surely he will: Hence they are charged by the Prophet, for this very Crime, and God protests against such service with great Indignation: as if he had never instituted and appointed it: Who hath required this at your hands? Isa. 1.12. And he upbraids them with their outward oblations, as if they had bin meerly their own Invention, and wholy beside his order: Isai. 66.3. He that killeth an Ox, is as if he slew a man, he that sacrificeth a Lamb, as if he cut off a Dogs neck: and yet its notorious enough that God com­manded these Sacrifices: why then doth he not approve the Execution of his own commands? The truth is, God appointed these External Rites, and visible Symbols of his worship: But it was in Conjunction with the inward and more principal worship; and whilst they came in Company with that they were accepted; But when they began to Divorce what God had tyed together by such a flat necessity: And when they made no Conscience of the Moral and Spiritual part of Gods worship, but all their care was for the Ceremonial part; It was high time for God to shew how he was di­stasted, [Page 3]with such a bodily service as this, that had neither life nor spirit, and therefore nothing that suited with his Nature, who is a Spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and truth, as well as in form and shew: And therefore the Psalmist the better to awake them, summons them before the Tribunal of God, as ready to proceed to a fear­ful sentence against them. This manner of speech by Parables, Types and Representations of things that were not, (but supposed to be) were schemes of Rhetorick familiar to that People for the more powerful working on the Affections. But here God by a Prolepsis being about to judge, is intro­duced with circumstances of Majesty and Terror, v. 3. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence, a Fire shall devour before him, and shall be very Tempestuous round about him: with some allusion to the dreadful appearance of God at Mount Sinai, when he gave the Law, & now comes to require an account of it, with as terrible an appearance, v. 4. He shall call to the Heavens above, (that is the Angels) to cite and gather these guilty Sinners before Him, that were like to speed so much the worse, because they were in league with God, Sanctified by an external Covenant made with him, but yet trea­cherously and perfidiously broken: therefore call­ed Saints; Gather my Saints together those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice, v. 5. Then comes in the charge, ver. 7. Hear O my people, which is amplyfied to the end of the Psalm: and the folly and unbecomingness of such a worship, detected and set forth to the life, which that stu­pid people presented him with instead of Service worthy so glorious a Majesty: Do you think that [Page 4]Bullocks, and He Goats are things that I Regard: If I had such a delight in these as you take me to have, I have no need to come to you; for every Beast of the Forest is mine, and the Cattle upon a thousand Hills, I know all the Fowles of the Mountains, v. 10, 11. If I were hungry I would not tell thee. See what gross conceits they had of God as if he had an appetite after the flesh of Bulls and the blood of Goats v. 12, 13. whether they were so sottish as to think that God did feed upon such Diet as this, and did take pleasure in it, by a plain and direct apprehension; it matters not much; be sure, they were guilty of such a Sin by conse­quence, and interpretation, whilst they could go on with so much confidence in the oblation of such Sacrifices, when their hearts were perfectly desti­tute of any Love and Reverence of God, and their hands were full of Rapine and Blood, and used no attention of Mind to consider what these outward Sacrifices did signifie to them: And then in the 14. ver. he shews them the true and ac­ceptable worship, after he had confuted their blasphemous apprehensions; which consists of two principal parts in which all the rest is included. First, Hearty Thanksgiving, for what they have and do receive. Secondly, And fervent prayer for what they want, by which a better Testimony is given to God, than by their richest oblations. And this the very Heathen could discern by their Candle, Immunis aram, saith Horace, &c. They confessed that a Soul breathing forth its self in holy Hymns is more acceptable to God, than the richest Gums or sweetest Wood that can sume up­on the Altar: But these Jews were so Intoxi­cated, [Page 5]that they thought they did a high favour to God, whilst they took his name into their mouths, and declared his Statutes, though they perfectly ha­ted to be reform'd; though they consented to these, and were guilty of Adultery, and gave their Mouth to ill, and their Tongue to frame deceit: yea they made nothing of casting Slanders and Re­proaches upon their dearest Friends, ver. 17, 18, 19, 20. Yea, and to compleat their wickedness to the full, they interpreted the patience of God towards them all this while as an approbation of their abominable Wickedness, ver. before the Text. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence, that is, I patiently forbore thee a long time, and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self. Then follows the Sentence; But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes; and make thee feel what it is to mock God, and be guilty of such Wickedness.

The words are the Application of this that hath been taught in the former part of the Psalm, That since God will upon no terms be reconciled to Ini­quity, nor hold his peace always at those practices which his Soul hateth, though the persons being guilty, set them off with the Paint and Varnish of the most specious outward Observances, and make a most boasting mention of his Name, and cry, the Temple of the Lord. Since this is Gods pe­remptory Resolution, be wise, Now consider this ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

Where you have:

1. The Use that they and we are to make of the righteous and impartial Sentence that God [Page 6]will pass upon Wickedness, dress it how we will; or an Exhortation to a weighty Duty, NOW CONSIDER THIS.

2. The persons that are to make this use of it, or to whom the Exhortation is directed, that is such as forget God, YE THAT FORGET GOD.

3. The Reasons to enforce this Duty upon these forgetful Ones is: [...]

1. From the Extremity; LEST I TEAR YOU IN PIECES, as the Lion teareth in pieces the Prey it lights upon.

2. From the unavoidableness of Gods Wrath, and the impossibility of Escape; AND THERE BE NONE TO DELIVER, or snatch out of my hands. The foregoing Metaphor from the Lion be­ing continued; see Hosea 5.14. For I will be unto Ephraim as a Lion, and as a young Lion to the House of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away, I will take away, and none shall rescue him. And

Micah 5.8. And the Remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, as a Lion among the Beasts of the Forrest, as a young Lyon among the flecks of sheep; who if he goeth through, both tread­eth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deli­ver.

The Points that enwrap the whole substance of the words are THESE TWO:

First, That Forgetfulness of God, is a fearful and dangerous sin; and will expose such as are guilty of it to the unavoidable wrath of God.

Secondly, That Consideration is one of the prin­cipal means on our part to bring us to the Re­membrance of God at the first, and to prevent [...]getfulness afterwards; or to recover us out [Page 7]of that degree of forgetfulness into which we may possibly fall.

The method that I shall take to infuse the first Doctrine, and to get it into our hearts and Lives, shall be; 1. To begin with the Understanding, by which Door every Truth must enter, that can make any solid operation upon the other Facul­ties, to prepare them for practice; and to shew,

1. What it is to forget God in the General.

2. More particularly, who they are that are guilty of this sin.

And 3. I shall shew you the heinousness and danger of this sin, in the Inferences; and then on

4. To a closer Application.

First, What it is to forget God in the Gene­ral? To which I answer,

To forget God, is

Not to have that impress of his Existence, Per­fections and Relations to us, upon our several Faculties; nor those frequent, reverential, and affectionate thoughts of him, that do enable us to a Sovereign Love and Obedience to him.

1. In which Description, Note; First, That forgetfulness is not the act of the Memory only in this place, but there is some of this poison in all the Faculties: for the Rule is solid, and worth the observation; That no Act is com­pleat that is not the act of the whole Man: Un­derstanding, Will, and Executive Power; be­cause they are united in one Frame; and there is no action, that's virtuous and vicious (for that I mean by moral) to which every one of these Wheels of the Soul do not contribute some­thing; [Page 8]and therefore if the hand of a Clock or Watch move regularly, every one of the inward Wheels is moved rightly, and is free from fault o [...] blame; but if the hand go false, all the in­ward parts of the Fabrick move amiss, though perchance the fault [...]ye principally in one pecu­liar part, but yet the errour is propagated to the whole. So if any action of man be faulty, the whole man is culpable, and the fault is ei­ther originally, or by derivation in every pow­er and faculty of the Man; so Love to God sup­poseth. 1. A Knowledg worthy of him in the Understanding, Complacency in the Will; en­deavours of Conformity to, and union with him in the powers that are to execute, or else the act of Love is not rational and compleat. To have some motion in the will or affections, that is not caused by a foregoing notice or consi­deration, that is weighty of him, is a Fanatical Love; a flash that will be as soon out as in, and never set his hand and his feet a work in his ser­vice: so we are said to know God, when we have not only a notion of him in the understanding, but suitable motion in the will and affections: This is Life Eternal to know Thee, John 17.3. This is the manner of Scripture, yea and common discourse when we speak of moral Acts (that is) such as persons endued with understanding and free will, do perform.

And though the denomination or name be taken sometime from one faculty, sometime from another, yet the rest are usually implyed, or supposed subservient actions are in common speech, silently implyed in the principal: and [Page 9]hence that Rule that Divines so frequently in­culcate; That words of knowledg and sense, imply affections and actions; The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous, that is, so as to approve and justifie it, Psal. 1. last. Thou didst not lay these things to heart; neither didst thou remember thy latter end, saith the Prophet Esay to Babylon, Isa. 47.7. that is, thou didst not take it into thy thoughts so as to work upon thy heart, and to get thy self in a readiness for that houre. For where there is, or should be a Connexion Train, or Series of Actions, to name one, is to im­ply all the rest; but most usually, where we are provoked to any duty that will require several distinct acts; the whole duty is named from the leading Act, as here in the Text, Consider this, &c. An Object must first be taken into the thoughts, and then be judged weighty, and con­cerning, before it can have any influence up [...]n the affections and life: and so in the following words, ye that forget God. As not remembring God is the first Act to neglect of Duty and Disobedience: but yet sometime the very ultimate and comple­tive Act is named, and all the rest implyed and presupposed, as in all those Scriptures, where, salvation is promised to obedience: there all the fore-going acts are understood, without which it would not be true obedience. Since therefore the end of this consideration, and thoughtfulness to which wicked men, and such as forget God are exhorted, is that they may clearly discern his excellency above all things; and by this discovery kindle the highest love to him in the heart; and by that prepare for the [Page 10]readiest obedience. Therefore I define forget­fulness to be, the want of such knowledge and con­sideration of Gods essence and perfections, as is necessary to produce the highest Love and Obe­dience.

2. Note Secondly, That every degree of Re­membring God, and thinking on him, yea though it be with some degrees of Love and Pleasure, Praise and Thankfulne [...]s, will not acquit a man from the Dreadful Sin of Forgetfulness; If the thoughts be not so frequent, so magnificent, as to produce a love suitable to his Nature, (that is) Transcen­ding all other Love, whereby the soul is then pre­pared for the highest obebience: otherwise he that is defective in this high and sovereign degree is still condemned among those that are here said to for­get God. So much in Answer to the first question; What it is to forget God in general? and for ex­plicat [...] to the answer.

Secondly, who they are more particularly, that forget God?

To which I answer, though I might reckon up as many as their are distinct and particular Sins that prevail in distinct and particular men: As the Proud, the Envious, the Adulterous, the Blas­phemous: And so multiply particulars to a vast number. For every one of these may be proper­ly said to forget God; Yet I will confine my self to these three sorts;

1. Those that remember not the great attributes of God, and the Relations wherein they stand to him.

2. Those that think not on his sacred and vene­rable word.

3. Those that overlook his most observable works.

Its some great defect in one or all these that doth both breed and feed all other Forgetfulness of God, specified in any prevailing sins whatsover, because the forgetting of any these three grand points of remembrance, betrays to all impiety to­wards God, all unrighteousness towards men, and all ill usage and government of a mans self, which three Capital Sins, imply all mortal wickedness whatsoever.

I shall begin with the first;

First, Those may be said notoriously to forget God, that remember not the great Attributes that are so essential to him; we are not able to see his naked essence: 'Tis therefore by his Attributes that we come to know him, at least in this Life. And he that wants a competent understanding of these, and that in such a measure as to Empower his un­derstanding and will to acts, that become such glo­rious perfections, lies open unto every sensible ob­ject, to be drawn away and enticed to any prac­tice, though never so wicked, whereby he may come to enjoy, what he doth thus Idolize, for want of a better object.

But I will more particularly insist upon two or three of those Relations, which every wicked man either (1.) wants a right knowledge of, or (2.) doth not consider; and every one that doth not consider must needs be a wicked man.

1. First, they consider not that God is their Cre­ator, & gave them that Being and Perfections which they so ungratefully abuse to his dishonour: They think not what an obligation this is to the highest [Page 12]Love, Gratitude, and Obedience; What a wick­ed blindness is this to live and go about the world, and to use the very Soul and Body that God hath given thee and yet, to look no higher than thy Father that begot thee, and thy Mother that brought thee forth: Woe unto him that saith to a Srock, thou art my Father, and to a Stone thou hast brought me forth, Jer. 2.27. Canst thou think that those eyes were made to look no higher, or dost think that thou art solely or princiaplly in­debted unto them for that Being, and Wisdom that advanceth thee so far above other Creatures? Such a thought, yea the want of a quite contrary thought, will debase thee as much below, as now thou art exalted above other Creatures. But yet be it never so absurd: This is the woful case and condition of the far greatest part of men. One would think that if the Remembrance of so plain and Confessed a Truth as this is, would acquit a man of this horrid Sin of forget­ting God, that none would be Guilty. But alas! there are few that would escape, notwithstan­ding, I say again few woult escape. They are not many in comparison that think so fre­quently and so seasonably of this truth, as to get a full sight of it into the understanding till it fall down before it, and after it hath recove­red it self out of extasy and amazement, doth use its authority to the utmost to awaken the other powers to perceive it, that so nothing might hinder the love and service that such a Mercy calls for, nor be able to wipe off so high an obligation: if men were not so prone to for­get that they are Creatures, and stand in so near [Page 13]relation unto God that gave them their breath and being, and doth support them every hour: why is this knowledg so often inculcated in the word of God? for this the Prophet Daniel re­proveth Belshazzar, and his Wives and Concu­bines, that they praised the Gods of Silver and Gold, and Brass which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified, Dan. 5.23.

But what do I speak of a single person, and some few others with him: you may see whole Nations sadly charged with it in Scripture. The Ox knoweth his Owner, and the Asse his Masters Crib; but Israel doth not my people doth not consi­der, Isa. 1.3, 4. and if Gods own people were thus shamefully guilty, what judgment may be passed upon other Nations; if this great Re­lation every Soul stands in to God were well thought upon; and all things that have a pow­er to inchant the mind, and controll the mighty power of this truth upon the soul, were in a good measure disgraced and turned out of the heart: It could not be that heart and mouth, and life should be so intollerably backward to any serious service of God, as they are in the most.

2. Secondly, They forget God that over­look his Sovereignty, and forget that he is the holy, just, and righteous Governour of Man­kind. 1. That he is the absolute and universal Sovereign that hath the most unquestionable authority to command and govern the Crea­tures he hath made. 2. The greatest wisdom to contrive the most perfect Laws for the good [Page 14]of all his Subjects. 3. And the most irresistible power to see them executed. 4. And the high­est justice to see, that neither Law, nor Subject shall receive any detriment or damage. And if this were believed and considered, would men either desire, or dare to cast off such a Yoke, and transgress such a Law, and provoke such impartial justice? What a monstrous pride must it needs be, that makes a man unwilling to submit to such a Government? And what a pre­sumptuous, befooled, lying heart must that be, that can promise it self indemnity, and think to speed well in a state of disobedience? Let the deceived heart that hath turned thee aside from such an honourable, gainful service, tell thee whom thou canst serve to better purpose, and under whose command thine own welfare would be better promoted. I know thou wouldst ab­hor the thought of being his servant, who is the first-born of all pride, insolence, and cruelty; and yet there is no possible way of escape, if the Yoke of thy rightful Sovereign be too hea­vy for thee. May be thou mayst be so void of understanding, as to think if thou hadst none to controll thine actions, but wert thine own Lord, and accountable to none other but thy self; and that thou mightst let out thy heart with a full Rein to all that it desireth; it were a condition to be desired above any other; but hast thou wit enough to manage all thy affairs; strength e­nough to protect thy self; soresight enough to keep out of a thousand evils, that thy own blindness and nakedness would expose thee to! Thy Lusts and thy Passions would make worse [Page 15]work with thee than all thy other enemies, when they were under no restraint, and thou couldst not long keep out of the fore-mentioned Ty­rants hands, the mention of whose dominion over thee made thee so much to start before.

But it may be thou meanest, that this State were the most desirable, if thou hadst wisdom enough to direct thee, and power enough to pro­tect thy self; and fulness enough to supply all thine own wants: and art thou not now asha­med of such a prodigious pride, as would sit down in the Throne of God, and aspire to the divine perfections?

Thou seest whither this inclination leadeth, and what a symtom of destruction it must needs be; and yet be thy case never so bad and despe­rate, they that will habitually overlook that di­vine right and sovereignty, and their necesssity of subjection, and both from the wisdom and justice of the Laws, and power of the Law-gi­ver; and that there is no wisdom nor happiness like theirs that chearfully obey, must needs en­tangle themselves in these woful consequences, fall into the absurdest sins, that will but hu­mour and gratifie this proud inclination.

3. They forget God, that are not prevailingly under the power of this thought; that God is their happiness: and that if all the world were theirs, and God should deny the light and bea­tifical presence of himself they could never find rest or satisfaction: Let the honour and Majesty of a King, and the Glory of a Kingdom be given unto David; and let him have all the assistance that such a power can afford; to compass the plea­sures [Page 16]that the heart of man can wish for, yet this will not do. In the midst of this fulness and sufficiency he is in streights, Job 20.22. If God withdraw; When thou hidest thy face I am trou­bled, Psal. 30.7. And when this was wanting, his moisture was turned into the draught of Sum­mer, and his bones were broken; hence he pray­eth to God to restore the joy of his salvation, and uphold him with his free spirit; and to make him to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones that he had broken might rejoyce, Psal. 51.8, 12. Who that hath any experience in the world, can be fool enough to believe, that his soul will be quieted with such a Weathercock and Rattle as the world is; and popt off with noise instead of substance; and listen with full contentment to the Sounding Brass and Tinkling Cymbal? A­las! The Bias of a Mans Soul is after something that the world hath not, something like it self; and cannot be truly satisfied with these things, because they have no proportion with it self; They are flesh, and that is spirit; nor thorough­ly comforted with these shews, because the time is at hand, when it shall be truly said, as Rachel said of her Children, they are not. Give the Child that cryes for the Breast what you will, and it gives not over, because this is the only thing it wants. The Soul will never be still, nor give over its muttering and complaints, till it hath the very thing that fully supplies its want; and that only is God: and they that live not under the power of this perswasion, will run after every shadow, and be ticed into mortal sin; and yet at last lose their labour and hope; and [Page 17]all this because they forget that God is their Rest, and that their Happiness is bound up in him. Jog thy self a little, and consider what it is to be God, but to have All-sufficiency? and to have all Satis­fying, Ravishing Excellency, in the greatest Transcendency, without any Bounds or Ends? what it is to be God but to have all imaginable Perfection? And therefore to think we remember God, when we forget those Perfections which are his very Being, is a lie with a witness, and will prove one with a vengeance, if thou dost not pray to God, and prevail with him to have thy Memo­ry restored, and to heal this defect thereof.

4. They forget God that live not under a daily sense of his Omniscience, and forget that his Eye pierceth the thickest darkness, and that nothing is hid from his distinct Observation: For he that de­nieth this, denieth God, and he that forgetteth this, forgets that, without which God cannot be God. Tell me, thou that abhorest Atheism with thy Tongue; why art thou so notoriously guilty of it in thy practice? Why dost thou with-draw from the Eyes of Men, when thou hast some filthiness to commit which thou art ashamed they should see or know? Why dost thou shut thy self up in thy Closet, that there thou mayest hide thy Vani­ty and Folly, and darest not publish thy Levity, Shame, or Wickedness, unto holy and discerning Men? Nay, it may be not to Men as wicked as thy self? Such a reproach is folly, vanity, and wickedness unto any man. Yea, Why dost thou retire into thy own heart (as if thou wouldst lock all up, and make all sure) and there exercise thy self in Pride, Envy, Self-conceit, Uncleanness; [Page 18]and act these sins with confidence and security, in the darkness of thy heart, which if another like thy self did but see, thou wouldst not know where to hide thy self for shame? And yet because all hath been transacted with so much silence and secrecy, thou hast no disposition to blush or be a­shamed; but like the Whore in the Prov. Thou eatest and wipest thy mouth, and say'st, What shame have I done? And dost thou think there is no wit­ness of thy shameful wicked acts? No Eye to take notice? Better all the World had seen thee than he that stands but for a cypher to thy deluded for­getful Heart. I might here run over all the Attri­butes of God, both Essential, Subsistential, and Relative, and oppress your Memory with particu­lars: But having given these instances, I leave the rest to your Meditations. Yet before I leave this head and proceed to the second, I shall add thus much of the Attributes of God in general.

5. They may be said to forget them all at once, that forget themselves, and live not under a sense of their great necessities, nor think considerately, and perswade themselves day by day, that they are poor and miserable, and blind and naked; Rev. 3.17. They that are rich in their own apprehensions, and increased in Goods and have need of nothing, must needs be stout and insolent, and cannot escape this sin of Forgetfulness. Jesu­run, that is Israel, waxed fat and kicked against God, Deut. 32.15. and they never remembred him to the purpose, till they themselves by con­sideration, or God by his Judgments, did inforce a sense of their necessities on them. When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned [Page 19]and inquired early after God. And they remem­bred that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer, which before they forgot, Psa. 78.34, 35. And yet so soon as ever they were out of streights and warm in Prosperity, and thought they had no need, they forgot God again. They remembred not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the Enemy, ver. 42.

That man must needs send up cold and careless Prayers to God day by day, that feels none, or but little need of God. How can be confess with a broken heart, the sins that never come near his heart, nor were a burthen to him? How can that man magnifie or seek the Grace of God every day, that doth not verily think he needs it every day? How can he worthily admire his Redeemer, who hath loved him, and washed his Soul in his Blood, that feels not his own Guilt, and doth not fre­quently renew loathing and abhorring thoughts of it? How can he lift up his Heart to the Father of Lights, for the Spirit of Illumination, that doth not sufficiently apprehend and bewail his own Ig­norance, and the darkness of his uncertain mind? How can he rejoyce in the hopes of the Glory of God, that foolishly adores, and cheat himself with the Glory of this World? The day of Delive­rance and full Redemption will never be a plea­sant Meditation unto him, that feels not himself oppressed with his sins, and is as heartily weary of that Burthen, as he is of Sickness, when it afflicts his Body. Never think to meditate on Gods Ju­stice, with any Savour or Delight, unless you bend your thoughts to consider the mischiefs of Injustice; and how particular Families and [Page 20]Nations, yea, and the whole World, are perverted and disturbed with Iniquity. Thou wilt never ap­ply thy Heart to God for Wisdom to live well, unless thou remember thy latter end; and what hast the comforts of this World make to get away from thee. Can he live above in his thoughts with any content and satisfaction, that doth not die daily, and not often think with some seriousness that he may daily die. It's wisdom therefore to give enter­tainment to such thoughts. How many have shut their Eyes in a healthful Sleep, who have waked in another World? We give too large scope to our account, while we reckon seven years for a Life, when we see so many dispatch'd within the Circle and Revolution of half that time; and though we are such a blast our selves, yet our comforts are oftentimes dead and buried before us, and leave us the surviving Executors of our own misery. When God hath put all things here below into the Bill of Mortality, what a foolish thought is it to think that this or that shall escape, which we have set our hearts upon? and how sinful to take the Bill and write down this or that, or the other, when God hath condemned no less than all? If thou forget these things, God would be forgotten; and one or two slight thoughts of these things will never excuse from forgetfulness.

These are the first sort of Men that forget God.

2. Secondly, They forget God, that either for­get or think but little on his sacred and most vene­rable Word, when they have it continually before them. I will not go about now to describe the [Page 21]woful state and condition of that Man, that hath the Word so much in his Eyes, yea, in his Ears, and not in his Heart, (and therefore can­not remember it in any saving degree or measure) nor torment such a one before his time; neither can I tell him the nature and danger of his Sin so well as Death or Judgment will be sure to tell him. It must needs be a staring, affrighting Sin, when Conscience shall come to see it throughly, that God hath written to us the Great things of his Law, and we have counted them as a com­mon thing; Hosea 8.12. It's in the Original [...] (i.) Amplitudines, or Honorabilia legis, and they counted them [...] as a strange thing (i.) They made themselves strange to them; or these things were strange to them and seldom in their Thoughts. This is a wicked re­quital of such a strange and wonderful Love. More particularly,

They forget the Word of God,

1. That have not a high and transcendent Re­verence of the Authority thereof.

2. They that are not in any considerable mea­sure affected with the important matters, which it sets before them.

3. That are not awakened by any serious thoughts of the most certain and near accomplish­ment, of all that is either threatned or promised therein.

I say again,

They that are not awed by its Authority, nor moved with its Importance, nor rouzed by its [Page 22]certainty, (1.) To yield hearty Subjection unto Christ, (2.) To his Laws, (3.) And by a de­liberate Resolution to renounce either self, or whatsoever doth oppose them, will never escape this guilt, but be numbred amongst the Forgetters of Gods Word. For Faith or Subjection to the Person of Christ, and Obedience to his Laws, and abrenunciation of all that would hinder this Sub­jection of our Hearts and Obedience of our Lives, are Three great ends for which the Word of God was ordained and appointed, and a high Reverence of its Authority, and deep Sense of its Importance, and firm perswasion of its certainty would most undoubtedly bring to pass: For it is most unquestionable, that God would not fail these his own means.

1. First, They must read or hear these Instru­ctions slightly and unworthily, that are not deeply wrought upon, by the consideration of their Au­thor, and the Divinity that is instamp'd upon them. It's not enough that you believe and ac­knowledge this, but that you be frequently un­der the thought of it. And it is a weighty truth, worthy your remembrance, That the Soul is ne­ver wrought upon to any purpose, either in its Understanding, Will or Affections, but by frequent, serious, and repeated Acts. The main difficulty therefore in the work of Conversion, and a saving change, on our part, lies here, in bringing our thoughts to a devout and frequent meditation of these Objects, which God hath resolved shall do the work if ever it be done. And though he can change the Heart by a word and in a moment, if he please, yet he hath told us flatly he will not [Page 23]do it ordinarily, without these means. And there­fore he awakens every Soul to such Meditations, whom he will shew mercy to. A Mans Thoughts are the means that God makes most use of in re­newing his Heart. Do thou not presume, who­ever thou art, that God will infuse Sanctification into thy Heart by a miracle, when thou art thinking all the day, yea, all the week long, upon meer vanity, if not doing worse. But this by the way. He that doth not strike his heart into superlative Re­verence of this Word, by thinking often of that Holy Spirit by whom it was word for word in­spired, will never be made fit to take it into his heart, and chew upon it when he lies down and riseth up; to curb every base Inclination of his Soul by it, and to resolve they shall bend to this Word or have no quiet. The Heart is so prone to Earth and Vanity, and the Flesh with its Af­fections and Lusts, are so strong and masterless, that they will never obey unless such Authority be produced. Yea, there's none that are well vers'd in their own Hearts, but will find how they will slight such Authority, and sometime venture to contemn it. But as he that doth wisely govern a Family, or other Society, much more a Kingdom, will not suffer his Authority to be trampled on, nor his Laws to stand for Ciphers, but will vindicate them with the greatest Power and Majesty that he can put on; much more will the Lord of Hea­ven and Earth stand up in the behalf of his own Authority, and vindicate the best Laws that ever were made from contempt. And if any sinner be so sottish as to think, that his Wit, or Pedigree, or Riches, or Esteem in the World, will bear him [Page 24]out in such irreverence, let me say to such a one as once Samuel said to Saul, 1 Sam. 15.16. Stay and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said of such a one. Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall lightly be esteemed; 1 Sam. 2.30. Be as wise and as great as thou wilt, the Lord will shame thee sooner or later, and kick thee down into Scorn and Disgrace.

2. Secondly, They are forgetful of the Word of God, that are not considerably moved with the most important matters which it sets before them. If thou readest it not frequently, thou forgetest it in the grossest sense, and thine own Conscience will fall upon and condemn thee. And if thou dost read it, yet if thy very Heart be not affected with those matters in the Word, which more concern thee than all the World, so as to shew it in thy Life, I would not for all the World hear that Judgment that thou shalt shortly hear. Doth it so much concern thee what thou shalt Eat, and what thou shalt Drink, and wherewithal thou shalt be cloathed, and how thou shalt Sleep, or enjoy thy Health, much more how thou shalt visit this or that Friend, do this or that petty business, as how thou shalt save thy Soul? how thou mayst get thy Heart affected with its Sin and Misery, and set a value upon Christ as he deserveth? (this is not easily done;) how thou mayst break off thine Affections from these things that will abuse them, and certainly blast every good work in thy Heart, and turn thy Religion into meer Hypocri­sie? For it is impossible that the Love of God should be in that Heart, where the love of any worldly thing doth prevail. Hearken therefore and [Page 25]listen attentively, what necessity the Word of God layeth upon Self-denial [...] mortification of the Flesh, with its Affections and Lusts. He that will be my Disciple must deny himself, take up his Cross and follow me; Luke 9.23. And if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die; Rom. 8.13. If thine Estate, Life, or Credit, only were here concerned, thy neglect would not prove thee so perfectly mad and distracted as now it doth, when the Eternal Life and Welfare of thy Soul is so much con­cerned.

3. Thirdly, They that live not under any seri­ous thoughts of the certain accomplishment of all that is threatned, or promised in the Word, can­not but forget the Word. The things that are contained in the Scripture, if they were liable to some doubt, yet were worthy to be thought on, because they concern so much, if they should prove true. And this is an Argument that will stop their Mouths, that chuse a Romance or vain Ballad, before the Word of God, to be the mat­ters of their thoughts. But when God will cer­tainly make good every Judgment he hath threat­ned to the impenitent sinner; and when every wicked person that dies in his sin, shall as certainly feel those dreadful Woes, as now he hears or may hear them pronounced; O what an advantage is here, to beget a Resolution to withstand every Temptation that would draw us to those things that are thus threatned? Though it were a plea­sing and profitable Lust, it's stark madness to fulfil it. O if we had [...] or felt the wrath of God in another World, it would be Armour of Proof a­gainst all wilful presumptuous sin, for ever after­wards; [Page 26]and would awaken the Soul to any pains or diligence to escape it: And is it not as certain as if we had seen or felt it? Hath the Lord said that he will laugh at the destruction of a sinner, and mock when his fear cometh? Prov. 1.26. Hath he said, that he will shortly come with his Fan in his hand, and thorowly purge his Floor, and gather his Wheat into the Garner, but that he will burn up the Chaff with unquenchable Fire; and will this not surely be brought to pass? Mat. 3.12. Heaven and Earth may sooner pass away, than one jot or tittle of his Word shall pass, Mat. 5.16. Things that will certainly come to pass, if they concern us in this life only; though they be not near, yet they are not slighted by us: But if they are near and certain, and highly concerning, the thoughts thereof will rush in upon us, and pre­vail against the greatest necessity of nature; they will disturb our Rest, and make us forget to eat our Bread.

Could a Man that were to be tryed for his Life to morrow, or a day or two hence, eat his Meat quietly, or lie down upon his Bed in peace, and take his Rest? Psal. 4.8. And canst thou read the Threats or Promises in the Word of God, that concern thee so unspeakably, and may be made good within one day or hour, for all thou knowest, and yet be no more overwhelmed with Joy or Terror? They that are not awakened with the serious affecting thoughts of the most certain and near accomplishment of all that is threatned or promised in the Word of God, will certainly be condemned in the number of those that do for­get it.

These are the second sort of those that forget God.

Those that think not upon his sacred, venerable Word.

3. Thirdly, They forget God indeed, that o­verlook his most observable Works, and regard not his remarkable Providences. The Works of the Lord are great, both of Creation and Provi­vence, sought out of all them that have pleasure in them; Psal. 3.2. And those that have no plea­sure in them will be sure to forget them.

There be several ways by which the Works and Providence of God is overlooked, or several per­sons guilty of this sin.

1. First, They are signally guilty, that deny Gods Providence in the Rule and Dispose of all Affairs, either directly or by plain consequence. There are none that deny it in the first sense (that is) directly and expresly, but plain Atheists, of which I would there were none in this Nation, that believe in their Hearts that all things come to pass by Fate or Chance. But they deny Provi­dence by Consequence and Interpretation, that are so intent upon Means and Instruments, whereby any effect is brought to pass, or rather upon the Effect it self, that they do not at all look up any higher; Psal. 10.4. The Wicked thorow the Pride of his Countenance will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts; thy Judg­ments are far above out of his sight.

These lie under a deep guilt of this sin.

2. Secondly, They are guilty of this Wicked­ness [Page 28]also, that can find out nothing among all the works of Creation and Providence, so worthy their Observation, as to captivate their Souls to the highest Reverence of their Author: Highest I mean, not in respect of the degrees of Reverence, but of the kinds; that is, though he hath a Reverence for this Object, and another for that, another for a third; yet he hath Highest and most principal veneration for him who doth so incomparably manage all things. And who hath impudence enough to plead for that man that hath an understanding and considering Faculty, and such Wonders to behold both in Heaven and Earth, such Providences towards the World in general, and such towards the Church in special, and yer God no higher in his Judgment and Af­fections, in his Thoughts and Heart, than a full Chest, and a little painted Skin, and an adored Lust? What, hast thou heard the Voice of the Lord so often in Thunder and Lightning, and seen the dreadful effects of them? Hast thou not heard of a little of his Breath shut up in the caverns of the Earth, that hath made this stable Body of the Earth to shake and tremble, and rent and torn the very bowels thereof, and overturned whole Cities at once? Hast thou heard of the Division of Jordan and the Red Sea, how the Waters parted and left a path-way in the midst of them, whilst the People passed over, of whom God had taken on him the Care and Conduct? And how Pharaoh and his mighty Host were afterward o­verwhelmed by the same Waters, who were their professed Enemies? Hast thou read and believed what he did for Hezekiah, when the proud King [Page 29]of Assyria threatned to swallow him up? How he accepted his Tears, heard his Prayers, and an Army of Two hundred thousand men almost all struck dead in one night? What he did for wicked Manasseh, though he had filled Jerusalem with Idols and Blood; yet how mercifully he heard him when he cryed to him in Chains? Look into the sacred History, or read over any profane History, or consult thine own Eyes and Ears, what thou hast seen or heard; what he hath done to and for his Enemies, and what he hath done for his Church, or any parts or members of it; and if thou canst be a Sot or Block under all, and have Mens Persons in admiration, because of advan­tage to thee, Jude 16. rather than reverence and adore the Lord and mighty Worker of all, take that thine is, and go thy way, thou art one that does overlook the Works of God.

3. Thirdly, They overlook the Works and Provi­dence of God, whose lives are ordered in a course of crossness and contradiction to them. As History reports of Sardanapalus, that he lay in Bed all day and rose at night, when others went to Bed; and so turned the day into night and the night into day. So when God calleth by his Providence, I mean by some formidable signs of his displeasure to Fasting and Weeping and Mourning, and to girding with Sack-cloth, and Baldness; and be­hold Joy and Gladness, slaying Oxen and killing Sheep, eating Flesh and drinking Wine; Esay 22.12, 13. that will not see when the hand of God is lifted up, 26.11. When God is [...]utting up and throwing down, and disgracing all worldly Pride, They are seeking great things for them­selves, [Page 30]and feeding themselves with proud thoughts of what they have, or what they hope to have; Jer. 45.4, 5. When God is pulling down the proud, they are delighting themselves in Pride, and Oppression of those that cannot defend themselves. When God is searching for Sin, they are hiding of it; and when he is shewing his dislike of it, and would stop the poison that it should spread no further; it's sweet in their Mouths, they hide it under their Tongue, they spare it and forsake it not; Job 20.12, 13. What a proud contempt of his Provi­dence is it to sit still and shut our Eyes, and not consider them? Psal. 111.4. He hath made his wonderful work [...] to be remembred. But what a Pride is that, that when God is debasing Men we will exalt them; when God is visiting Sin and Transgression, they are incouraging it in them­selves or others, and will not be searched; but in­stead of starving their Lusts and Corruptions, are making Provision for them? When God is telling Men plainly of their Sabbath-breaking; careless performance of his Service and Worship, Selfish­ness, Inordinate love of, and Adulterous Affecti­ons to any Creature; and hiding Pride from Man, and turning our Eyes from a fond Admiration of Creatures, and laying them in the dust; They will not endure it, but fret and murmur in their hearts; and are ready to say as the Rebellious Followers of Korah did to Moses, Wilt thou put out these Eyes of ours? We will not come down; we will not deny our selves, nor be crossed in our wills, nor leave our shame. When God is putting the Bridle into their Mouths, and laying a [Page 31]Curb and Restraint upon their Intemperance, Pride and Luxury, and bringing into contempt their Gallantry and swaggering Bravery; they will not endure the Curb, but rage and foam and grow mad, and bite the Bridle that holds them in; and reply as the remnant Jews did after the Captivity, when they sent Jeremiah to in­quire of the Lord for their Direction, and liked not the Answer that he brought, Jer. 44.16, 17. We will not hearken to thee, but will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth of our own Mouth; we will let our Hearts with a full rein to any thing they desire; for when we have done thus we were well and saw no evil; when we leave off to shew fa­vour and courtesie to our selves, who shall befriend us? when we begin to cry shame on our selves, all men will cry shame on us; and if once we come down and lie in the dust, all men will trample up­on us. Those are some of the shifts that carnal Wisdom and Reason alledgeth, whereby it would frustrate the Invitations of Mercy. When God is calling for the Plumb Line, and meting out a Na­tion for Destruction, Amos 7.7. when he is drawing the lines of confusion in a place, 1 Sam. 2.8. and marking it for Judgment, they cry as the Inhabitants of Ephraim once did, The Bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewen Stones; the Sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into Cedars, Esay 9.10.

And though we may not be gotten up to such a degree of wickedness as this is, it will concern us to make search and inquiry, whether there be no seed of this wicked nature in us. I am too much out of doubt, that there is much of crossness and [Page 32]contradiction to the will of God in the best heart; and too loth are the best to veil and stoop to the will of God, when it crosseth ours; but it will be fitter to help on this search in the Application.

4. Lastly, They overlook both his Attributes, Word and Works, all at once, that put him off with shadows instead of substance; that give him a few flattering words and shews for the inward worship and purity of their hearts. This is the very instance of the Psalm, a part of which we have now before us. What an affront is this, to remember him with the Mouth, that he may be cast out of the Heart, where he will have more to do than all the World, or else abhor that per­son and his service, whose heart it is? To wash the outside with the paint of an external profes­sion, and to have a Heart full of Pride and unmor­tified Lusts, full of putrid noisom Filth, is not to play the Christian but the Pharisee. To profess God at Home and at Church, in our Houses, and his House, and to joyn with his Servants in the Externals of his Worship; to read his Word and sing his Praises with our Lips, and in Heart and Life to subvert the Christian Faith, is not to be a Disciple but a Judas. To give God the most glo­rious Attributes and Titles, and call him thy Crea­tor, Lord and Governour, and to acknowledge thou hast all from his Bounty, and yet to deny him the Service and Obedience due to his Laws; this is not to remember but to forget him. If I be a Father, where is mine Honour? If I be a Master, where is my fear? saith God, Mal. 1.6. Is not the Lord a Spirit, and will he be put off with a meer bodily service only? I know he will have [Page 33]the service of the body also; he will have the Tongue and the Knee, and an External Reve­rence, that may be of good Example to others. But thou art guilty of Hypocrisie and Folly both; if this be all that thou canst spare, if thou go not further, thou mayst be a very devil in thy heart; when thou ha [...]st Oyl and Butter in thy Mouth, and when thou speakest the smoothest words to God, thou mayst have war and enmity to him in thy heart; thou mayst fetch a sigh or a groan for sin at a pretty easie rate; but God will not take this instead of Self-denial and mortification of thy Lusts, but will abhor their shews and com­plements, that cover hatred with lying Lips. When God calls to the proud Person to come down and sit in the dust and humble himself, will it be an acceptable service if he would offer him something else? or will he take the fruit of the Body for the sin of the Soul, Mich. 6.7. I mean a shew of humility, in going softly, speaking faintly, looking sadly, instead of true lowliness and poverty of Spirit; I speak not against the outward signs, they are good, when accompanied with the thing signified; but when we deceive our selves with these, and think to deceive God also. True humility consists in a universal sub­mission to the Will of God, and ready obedience to all his Laws, when they cross our interest in the world, as when they do promote it. And he that hath not this in a prevailing measure and degree, God will look upon him afar off, let him come as near as he will with his Tongue or Knee, Psal. 138.6. and he will plentifully reward as a proud doer, Psal. 40.4.31.23. When God cal­leth [Page 34]to search our hearts and try our ways, and re­member our doings. It will not serve turn to re­member the doings of others, and to se [...]ch and censure them, to lay heavy burdens upon the City or Countrey, and not to touch them with one of our Fingers; not but we may and must confess the sins of the whole Nation, when Gods hand is upon a whole Nation and calls it to re­pentance; but if we remember not our own sins with a weeping heavy heart also, and do not loath our selves for all our own abominations, Ezek. 36.31. and feellingly confess with shame and dete­station, the sins that lie nearest our hearts, and take it for a mercy to have the scourge of a just and smarting rod, as well as the charge of a holy convin­cing word, that we have not only threatning (which we have made a shift to slight so often) but some execution to make sin odious to us, and to recover us to a due sense and apprehension of it. If we have brought our selves to such a death in sin, that we cannot understand what it is until we feel it; it's a mercy to feel that we may under­stand: But let us remember, that if feeling do not recover our understanding, God will forsake us as a desperate cure, and say, why should they be stricken any more, they will revolt more and more? Esay 1.5. When once it comes to that, farewel Rod, it will come to that farewel God for ever; and then forgetfulness will be our punish­ment, as now it is our sin.

To conclude therefore with some little touch of Application, though it be out of its due place, since the day of the Lord is come upon us, and he is visiting for our Transgressions, and we have so [Page 35]loud a call to Repentance. Let us not think though we have mercifully escaped the Judgment that we may escape the Duty also. It deserves a double acknowledgment if God do awaken us by the doleful noise of others complaints; and if he do cleanse our. Hearts by the Judgments that sweeps so many away; but let us see that it be a true and substantial sorrow, that begins at the right place, even at the very heart, and will not eva­porate and spend its self in a few tears and sighs, but doth mortifie our sin, and work a sincere re­novation in our life. And if we do take upon us also to lament the sins of the City and Nation, let us prove our sorrow to be of the right stamp, by helping forward their Repentance and Reforma­tion, first by our Prayers, then by other our best endeavours.

'Tis a poor matter to forbear a meal or twain, and yet to harbour such a Guest as pulls the meat from our Mouths, and calls for the Pillow under our Heads, and snatches away the desire of our Eyes, and divorces our Friends and Companions from us; yea, which is the sum and abridgement of all our misery, parts between God and us. 'Tis a poor business to spread Sack-cloth over us, (I mean to deny our Bodies their usual Orna­ments) and to strew Ashes under our Feet, and to let a few tears drop from us for sin, and yet to carry in our Breasts an Heart unrent, unbroken, unsoftened by a true sence of sin and a work of Grace. To what purpose is it to bow the Body to God, and yet to make ones Heart like an Iron Si­new, too stiff and stout to bend in obedience to Gods Command. The Prophet Hosea lays it up­on [Page 36]them as a heavy charge, Hos. 7.14. They have not cryed unto me with their Hearts when they howled upon their Beds. And you know with what indignation God puts the question, Esay lviii. 5. Is this the Fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his Soul? Is it to bow down his Head as a Bull-rush, and to spread Sack-cloth and Ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? But oh what a Fast is that, when we will not go thus far, when we will not afflict our selves so far, as to want our Food and Ornaments. I am confident it is a great provocation when we will not shew forth to one another these and the like outward signs of humiliation. Ahab went thus sar, and the stubborn Jews never stuck at this. And though the same signs of mourning and humiliation be not in fashion with us that were with them, yet I am sure gaudery is no sign external of inward humili­ation. If I had time, or were indeed upon the Application, it would be seasonable to help for­ward the true Repentance that God expecteth from us. By setting some of our sins before our face in some of their aggravations; but that I may have opportunity to do hereafter.

So much in answer to the Second Question, who they are that forget God.

2. Objection.

I come now to the Second Observation, (viz.) That Consideration is one of the principal instru­ments on our part, to bring us to the Remembrance of God at first, and to prevent forgetfulness after­ward; or to recover us out of that degree of For­getfulness, into which we may possibly fall. Two Suppositions. 1. Here it is supposed, 1. That we [...]re all born into the World in a state of For­getfulness; and that Naturally God is not minded by us; he is not in all our thoughts. (1.) By a usually Hebraism in never a one of [Page 133]them, so worthily regarded as he ought, Psal. 10.4. Oblivion goes before Remembrance in every Child of Adam. I know Forgetfulness doth suppose that we either had or should have had, the habit of which this is the priva­vation: We cannot be said in any propriety of Speech, to forget that which we never did, or never ought to have Remembred. As a thing can never be said to be blind which never saw nor ought to have seen: But it is our misera­ble and unhappy case and condition, that we were made to Remember God, and to give him the highest of our Praises, and had a Na­ture fit for so high and noble Service, and yet are born into the World in a gross ignorance of God, with a Nature that continually disposeth us to forget him, and to entertain the most contemptible Vanities into our Thoughts and Affections before him. This is the Disease that Christ came to Cure, with the greatest pity and compassion to Mankind; which it is the inten [...] of his Word and Cross and Spirit, and all his Ordinances to remove; and which is cured in a sincere and prevailing measure, in all that shall see his Face to their comfort hereafter. And although Infants are not actually guilty of this sin (as neither they are of any other sin) be­cause they are not come to the use of their Rea­son, and therefore cannot perform any act pro­perly vertuous or sinful, yet they have an obli­vious Disposition, a Seed in them that will bring forth this cursed Fruit, when they are capable: But for those that have pass'd an Infants state, and are grown up to the use of Reason, there's [Page 134]nothing that they remember and think on less than God.

Secondly, It's here supposed, that after any are recovered by Christ, and awakened by his Word and Spirit to a due Remembrance of God, they may fall back into such a degree of Forgetfulness again, as that they may question whether ever they had a heart truly mindful of him; though I believe they shall never totally and finally fall into Forgetfulness, nor be for­gotten of Christ, if they be in the number of the Elect. And therefore, though Christ commends the Church of Ephesus for her Faith and Patience, yet he is said to have somewhat against her, be­cause she had left her Love, Rev. 2.4. And she is warned to remember whence she is fallen, and to repent and do her first works, ver. 5.

These two particulars are evidently supposed in this last Proposition, which I am now to pro­secute; and that Consideration of God, his Word and Works, is a necessary Remedy on our part, to cure our hereditary Forgetfulness, and bring us to the Remembrance I have been pleading for, and to recover us after any Re­lapse:

And that for these Reasons,

First, Because a Man can never come to the Remembrance of God till his Heart be sincerely affected with those truths that such a Remem­brance doth pre-suppose; but this can never be done without consideration. There's nothing that's absent or Spiritual, that can affect the [Page 135]Heart, and get that Fort, unless it be led in by Consideration, that's the Eye of the Soul; and 'tis the Eye only that can affect the Heart. There's nothing that can affect the Body, or move the Bodily Passions, that is not first ap­prehended by some Bodily Sense, that is, not seen or heard, or perceived, by some other sense. Now Consideration supplies that to the Soul, which the five Senses do to the Body; it's the Eye, Ear and Taster of the Soul, whereby it discerns what is good or evil to it, and ac­cordingly the Soul doth either embrace or abhor; yea, it m [...]st discover not only good and evil, but the degree in which any thing is good or evil, before the Soul can be suitably affected therewith, which can never be done with any consideration. If this Eye be shut, set the greatest Danger before a Man and he will not fear; set the greatest Delights before him and he will not be moved to desire them. What's the reason that a wicked Man goes on in sin and will not forsake it, when you display Hell be­fore his Eyes, but because he considers it not? It appears to him not to be so terrible, because this Eye is shut. If you run a Sword at a Man whose Eyes are shut, and sees it not, he will not endeavour to avoid the thrust; but he that hath his Eyes open, and sees what's coming towards him, will quickly start back and decline that instrument of Death. A careless Man that never considered well what a fearful thing it is to fall into the Hands of God, Heb. 10.31. no [...] how intolerable his Displeasure is when it shall break forth in good earnest, and burn like a consuming [Page 136]fire, will venture on it for a little deluding plea­sure. A Man that considers not the worth of his Soul will neglect it, and not think it worth so many Prayers and Tears, and such diligence as must be used to procure the Salvation thereof; for till his Heart be touched with a lively feeling and sense of these truths, he will not neglect them and live after the Flesh; and if he doth not weigh and consider them, his Heart will never be made to feel them. What's the reason that Men hug and embrace a little dirt and filth, and suffer their Affections to cleave so fast to their Carnal Contentments? It can be resolved into nothing better than that they do not consider what Sin and Folly they are guilty of, and what an impediment they are, being embraced to the true content and happiness of their Souls, other­wise they would not, nor could not, be so mad as embrace the present World and to prefer it be­fore the World to come. Well then, is it Con­sideration that must bring a Man to a worthy Remembrance of God, because it opens the Eye and affects the Heart, and puts an edge upon every Truth that doth bias and dispose the Soul to this Remembrance, that it's felt and enter­tained with some sincere measure of submission. The Soul is such a Subject, that cannot be wrought upon without its own consent, and that's not easily gained to any thing that's of a reforming saving tendency, unless frequent and serious Consideration make way. The Soul will never consent to any purpose, that the Flesh should be afflicted and humbled, that it's Affections and Lusts should be mortified and subdued, till [Page 137]Consideration shew the necessity thereof, and the Death that will follow, if this Death do not go before. There are some truths that are prepara­tive to this Remembrance, which though they are easie to be known, yet they will never be drunk in or digested, till Consideration shew their excellency and plead their great necessity and importance to us, and give no rest till it hath enforced consent and resolution to obey. These Truths are of two sorts,

• 1. Some are Physick and meerly purgative.
• 2. Others are Cordial, and such as are restorative and comforting.

And although there is reluctancy enough in the distempered Soul of Man to both these, yet he nauseats these of the first rank most, and hath the greatest enmity to them. He doth not relish the second sort, but he perfectly hates the first sort; the reason is, because these Truths which I call Medicinal, work directly upon the disturbing Humour and filthy Matter, that must be evacuated and east out, before we can find any Gust or Savour in those other Truths that are Nutritive and Cordial. What aversness is there in the corrupt Nature of Man, to admit those Truths into the Heart, that cross either, 1. The Interest, or, 2. The Inclination of the Flesh, and that strike all the Heart and Root of the Old Man; and that teach Self-denial, that is, the mortification of inward Lusts, and the contempt of all outward Objects, so far as they feed and nourish them? And will a Man ever pull out [Page 138]his right Eye, and cut off his right Hand (for his Pride and his Passion, and his Intemperance, and his Petulary and Lasciviousness, or any o­ther Lust to which his Nature prompts him, are as dear to him as his most beloved Members) and will a Man ever digest such truths as these, or take them into any place of strength, that are such bloody enemies to his raging prevailing Lusts; and arm and mortifie them against so dear and near a part of him? This can never be done till Consideration make it appear, that the Man is undone for ever, and had better he had never been born, be he never so rich and honou­rable in the World, in whom there is any reign­ing Lust or Corruption; till frequent thoughts convince him thoroughly, that he that saveth such a Life as this shall lose it, and a better. But on the other side, he that kills his Cor­ruptions, and suffereth no sin to prevail, but mortifieth every one of these Members, that make up the Body and the Life of the Old Man; he that loseth such a Life as this shall find it, and prove an unspeakable gainer, Mark 8.35.

Let me instance more particularly in some truths, that must go before a worthy Remem­brance of God, which can never get into the Heart and work to any purpose, till they be fer­mented by Consideration.

1. It's an easie Truth, and very obvious to Man's understanding, That God is the chief Good, and our true happiness consisteth in his Love and Goodness. This is the master Principle and Foun­dation of all Religion, and inspires all practical Truths, and the duty depends upon them with [Page 139]Breath and Life; and were it well thought upon, it would make a mighty change and alteration in the World; you may see by what it does upon some that do consider it, what it would do upon others if they were not inconsiderate. In that proportion that Men consider this Truth and be­lieve it, they will study to please God, and re­semble him in all his imitable Perfections; and their Love and Hatred will imitate his: They will follow after Peace and Holiness, without which daily Consideration assures them they can never see God, Heb. 12.14. And they will have no Fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness, because God hateth them, Eph. 5.11. None in sensu morali, though not in sensu physico. Where that that falls short of a ruling mastering de­gree in Morality, is said not to be. And the Scri­pture frequently speaks after the same rate. But he that lives after the Flesh, and minds earthly things, and blesseth himself in all worldly happi­ness, cannot consider the fore-mentioned Truth, and therefore is guilty of this Folly because he doth not consider.

It's another weighty truth, That we are fallen from God and Happiness, into a state of Sin and Mi­sery, and shall never know what true Happi­ness means till we return. We were made after his Likeness at the first, and whilst we kept the stamp of his Image on us, were happy in his Fa­vour and Love; and all Creatures were ready at our beck and service; and Sorrow and Misery stood afar off and came not near us; but having now provoked God and lost his Image, we are now unspeakably miserable, and in the path-way [Page 140]to Eternal Misery. And what's the reason that there are so few that are affected at the Heart with their condition, that loath themselves, that cry out of this bondage, and would be set at liberty and restored into favour again, but because there are but few that consider it. The rest of their minds are taken up with other things, and with worldly vanities; and such disturbing thoughts as these are at the first, are not per­mitted to enter, which if they be not frequent and serious till the Soul hath got a full sight of the evil of Gods displeasure, and sin that hath provoked it, and the necessity and blessedness of his Favour. These Truths, though they should be taken in or assented to, they will lie crude and raw upon the Stomach, and never digest into good nourishment, and be distributed into Life and Practice. Consideration must awaken the Soul out of its Stupidity and Insensibleness, which is Natural to all, or else it will sleep into ever­lasting Death.

3. A third plain, but necessary and important Truth is, That we are undone for ever unless we feel our Sin and Misery so as to confess it with inward shame, and be humbled under it, into that degree of Brokenness and Contrition; that Salvation by Christ is the most welcome news that ever we heard or can hear, insomuch that we embrace him with the highest love and re­spect, and do heartily consent to be governed by him, till he hath subdued our Corruptions, sanctified us by his Spirit, and made us meet for love and favour of God again. But none can ever feel the worth and necessity of Christ and [Page 141]renewing Grace, who have not set this matter by Consideration, frequently before your Eyes. It's true of the Intellectual as well as the Cor­poral Eye, out of sight out of mind; what we see not by Consideration, we shall never mind nor care for. You will slight the greatest Truths, and lie still in any state in the World, though never so uneasie, rather than part with sin and come to Christ, if you do not consider that your sin will be bitterness in the end, and Christ will make amends for all that do or suffer for him. There be many other Truths in which I might instance, What's the reason that matters of such a consequence and weight, and so certain and out of doubt as Death and the Resurrection, and the Glory of Heaven, and the Torments of Hell, should work no more, and make Men so­licitous about them? Why do Men die before they were aware, and in such a careless and un­prepared state? Why do they run upon the vengeance of Eternal Fire, and take no care to get the Crown that fadeth not away? 1 Pet. 5.14. They are inconsiderate, and will not suffer their Hearts to muse on these things. O if these things were considered to any purpose, your worldly business, which you now pretend so much against these things, would seem light and trivial, and meer Childs-play, in comparison or that work which is of Ten thousand times higher concernment. You would not on the one h [...]nd neglect the opportunities of your Souls, and of getting Grace and Peace with God, thorough our Lord Jesus Christ, and making your felt for ever. If these thoughts did but dwell in your [Page 142]Minds, and if Consideration did but open your Eye, and shew you the worth and excellency, the force and necessity, of these big and most concerning Truths. Neither would you on the other hand, attend the means of Grace with such sleepy, inattentive wandring Hearts. Is not that Man a sot indeed, that can sleep upon a Scaffold when he is going to Execution? Is not that Man a careless, stupid wretch indeed, that will give no attention or heed what the Judge says when he is passing Sentence either of Life or Death upon him? And yet it is the case of many a sinner, that's careless and inconsiderate, when he is dying and going into another World; and therefore he makes none, or but foolish preparation. Consideration, if it were followed, would bring home these Truths, and give them a power to pierce and become sensible, and make the Man that doth consider them to live answerably to them. Physick worketh not in the Prescription or Doctors Bill, no nor in the Apothecaries Shop, where it is prepared, till it be taken and let down into the Stomach, or some way taken into the Body; for it nourisheth not in the Dish or on the Table, no nor though it be taken into the Mouth, if it be not trans­mitted into the Stomach and there concocted. Neither will the greatest Truths cure the Di­stempers of a sinful and perverted Heart, or nou­rish up the Soul to any Spiritual Life and vigour in the Book; nor in the Mouth of the Teacher, nor yet if they be taken into the Brain, till Medi­tation bring them to the Heart, and the Soul by Consideration look frequently upon the worth [Page 134]and weight of them, and enforce Subjection and Obedience thereto. For want of this Conside­ration of these few, plain and important Truths it is, that Men forget God, and never attain to a due Remembrance of him; and for want of this they relapse and lose their first Love and Memory of him. And therefore Consideration is the best way to beget this Remembrance at first, and to restore it afterwards.

Secondly, Such Consideration is very sove­raign and powerful, to bring a Man at first to Remember God, or to recover his Thoughts and Affections again after a decay and relapse; because in both these cases the Word of God calls to Consideration, and insists perpetually upon this Duty. When the Prophets of God are sent to call Men to their first or after Re­pentance, they usually deliver their Message in terms that express or imply Consideration. Af­ter the return of the Jews from the Babilonish Captivity, from the which the Lord had brought them by such a mighty hand, they forgat the Lord, and grew presently careless and negli­gent of his House and Worship; and the Pro­phet Haggai is sent, 1. To censure and reprove the sin; and 2. To prescribe the Remedy and Means to cure their sin and bring them to Re­pentance. Their sin is taxed pretty sharply, and is charged on them by a cutting Interroga­tion, Hag. 1.4. Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled Houses, and Gods House lie waste? and consequently his Service neglected, which was then so much confined to the Temple. In the next verse he proposeth the Remedy, [Page 144] ver. 5. Now therefure, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. Nay to shew the vertue and necessity of it, he urgeth it the second time ver. 7. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways. And the Prophet Isaiah implieth the excellency of this Remedy, in that he doth lay the blame of Israels Rebellion and Ingratitude upon the want of this. They were grown to a strange pass of monstrous Wickedness and In­gratitude, which the Prophet knew not how to express, and therefore calls upon Heaven and Earth to take notice, that God had nourished and brought up Children, and yet they rebelled against him, Esa. 1.2. and fetcheth his proof from the Brutes and irrational Creatures, to convince them of their sin. The Oxe knoweth his Owner, and the Ass his Masters Crib, (1.) saith Vatablus the Master of his Crib. But Israel doth not know; and what's the reason of such shameful miscarriage? My People doth not consider. And Moses intimateth, that Death and Judgment, which are the most powerful means to awaken Men to Repentance; and the Remembrance of God will do no good without Consideration; but if he could bring them to this Duty, to consider of these things, he did not doubt their Welfare and Happiness, Deut. 32.29. O that my People were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. This act of Consideration applied to this Object, is a most excellent means to bring Men to Wisdom and Understanding, which are insolent with an Impenitency and Forgetfulness of God. And without this leading act of the Soul. there can [Page 145]be no beseeming Apprehensions of him, nor Service rightly performed to him. And where there is least of this, there is most of Forma­lity and slightness in his Worship, and most of Irreligion and Athiesm in the Life. And therefore Moses when he is Exhorting the Children of Israel to a due Remembrance of God and Veneration of him, he gives them this Advice, Know therefore this day, and con­sider it in thine Heart, that the Lord he is God, in Heaven above, and upon the Earth beneath; and there is none else, Deut. 4.39. When Men flee off from this, and will not set themselves to consider and understand, neither Correction nor Instruction, nor Mercies will succeed; but all will lose their designed end, and leave a Man under Impenitency and Forgetfulness. And therefore Moses adviseth Israel thus to consider, Deut. 8.5. Thou shalt not consider it in thine Heart, that as a Man chasteneth his Son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. The same word in the He­brew signifieth to Consider and Ʋnderstand, be­cause the one so much dependeth upon the other.

And as, 1 Correction will not prosper with­out it, so neither will,

2. Instruction, which is another means to to produce this worthy Remembrance of God. Hence it is that the Apostle urgeth to con­sider what he had taught them, or else the [Page 146]Instructions he had given them were like to be as Water spilt upon the ground, [...] Consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding in all things, 2 Tim. 2.7. It's the Lord that giveth understanding, but it is to such as consider, and no other. And as nei­ther of the former will speed without the frequent repeated act of Consideration; not Correction, not Instruction, so neither,

3. Will his Favour and Mercies, properly so called (for I know both the former may be called Mercies and Favours in a larger sense) These, I say, that are Mercies to present sense and feeling, will do no good, or else a great deal of hurt without Consideration; God will lose our acknowledgment of them, and we the blessed comfortable fruits of them. What the Prophet saith of a wicked Man, I may well say of an Inconsiderate Man, Esay 26.10. Let Favour be shewed to such a one, yet will he not remember whence it is, nor learn Righteousness. And therefore Samuel presseth this Duty as the fittest to bring the stupid Israelites to the Remembrance of God, im­plied in the terms, Fear and Service; Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth, for con­sider how great things he hath done for you, 1 Sam. 12.24. And as Consideration is the likeliest means to bring a Man home to the Remem­brance of God in Christ at first, and to improve Correction, Instruction and Mercy to the end; so it is as successful to recover a Man after a [Page 147]Relapse into Forgetfulness. To this Remedy David was beholding (though never a whit the less to God, who put him upon the use of it) I thought on my wars, saith he, and turned my Feet unto thy Testimonies, Psal. 119.59. And Peter was thus recovered after his shame­ful Forgetting of Christ and Denial of him; and Peter remembred, (1.) Thought upon and considered the words which Jesus said unto him, Before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice; and he went out and wept bitterly, Mat. 26.75. And Elihu proposeth this to Job as a proper Remedy to abase and humble him that so much insisted upon his own vindica­tion, and remembred not his infinite distance from God, as he should have done, and therefore brought him to the Bar of his own perverted Judgment. Hearken unto this, O Job, stand still and consider the wondrous works of God, Job 37.14. And this course cured him. I have heard of thee, saith he, with the hearing of the Ear, but now mine Eyes seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor my self, and repent in Dust and Ashes, Job 42.5, 6. He did before stretch his own Righteousness so far, and con­fine the Soveraignty of God, as if he had done unjustly or cruelly in afflicting one so in­nocent as he was: But when he had more at­tentively considered the Majesty and Glory of God, and his wonderful Power, according to the scheme and draught that Elihu had set before him. Then the Bladder was prick'd, and he was humbled in his own thoughts, and [Page 148]saw that for his very Integrity, which he held so fast and justified so much, he was be­holding to God for.

And as Consideration is a means to bring the Heart to God at first, and to recover the Heart to him, when it begins to depart by unbelief, so it is an excellent help to increase and strengthen this Remembrance, to strain it to a higher peg, and make it more intense and vigorous. My Heart was hot within me, while I was musing the Fire burned, then spake I with my Tongue, Psal. 39.3. The Consideration of Gods immutable Goodness and everlasting Favour, and the brevity and vanity of all o­ther things, stirr'd the Fire and awakened his Heart to a more savoury Remembrance of God; when he had considered how many dis­graces Riches did lie open to, and what a blast Mans Life is, he subjoyns: And now, O Lord, what wait I for, my hope is even in thee, Psal. 39.7. And while the thoughts of Believers are inditing good matters, their Tongue is as the Pen of a ready Writer; quick to express the praises of God, Psal. 45.1. And Davids desires after God grew more strong and im­petuous, when he thinks on the Pleasure and Priviledge of Communion with God, from which he was banished in the Wilderness. When I think on or remember these things, I pour out my Soul in me, for I had gone with the mul­titude, with the voice nf Joy and Praise. He means to the publick and solemn Worship of [Page 149]God. And now the Consideration of his want of these Priviledges cut this gash in his Heart, and made this gaping of his desires after God.

Caution.

I know there are other means to be used besides Consideration; but this is, 1. The leading act to bring on all the other that have any subserviency to this Remembrance of God. And, 2. The act that inspires Life and Soul into all other means, whither they be such as are near to the end (such as are near Repen­tance, Mortification, Faith, and all internal Grace, Holiness) or such as are more remote from the end; As Reading, Hearing, Prayer, Holy Conference, whose success doth usually depend upon Consideration; and as it is the leading act. 3. So it is the act in which most are defective, and for want of which so many do miscarry and lose themselves for ever, and therefore I call it a principle means to beget and cherish the Remembrance of God, as I have proved.

And so much for the Reasons.

I come now to the Application.

‘Psal. 50.22. Now consider this ye that forget God, lest I tare you in peices, and there be none to aeliver.’

I Have set some of the Motives before you that should stir you up to Consideration, and shew­ed you in part what a mischief it is for this facul­ty to lie dead, which is given us by God to quicken those that are dead, to the Life of Grace and Holi­ness, and to make them strong and lively, and vi­gorous Christians that are quickned by the spirit of Christ, and have set their affections upon things above, and not upon things here on Earth. This is the way that God hath prescribed for Rational Creatures to get home to God, that are revolted from him; and to recover their affections to the right owner, that are intangled in the love of Earth and vanity: If they would but consider, would feed upon Swinish pleasures no longer; nor suffer their Souls to be charmed with more delusi­on, nor prefer the imaginary dream of a sluggard, before the happiness of a man that is awake, and whose eyes are open: Consideration would shew such a man the difference between Earth and Hea­ven, rectify his judgment in this great point, (viz.) where mans happiness lies: And tell him roundly how the world hath cheated him with more shews [Page 199]and phantastick pleasures, and put a picture into his hand instead of real felicity: It would clear his Eye-sight, and make him quite of another mind, than once he was, when Inconsideracy had blinded him, and the world had befool'd him; and he would see much more reason to live in the love of God, looking for the mercies of his Re­deemer unto eternal Life, Jude the 21. than ever he did to live in carnal love and delights: Conside­ration would bring the world and all its pleasures as much into disgrace, as ever Inconsideracy brough [...] them into credit: And men that snatch'd at the riches and vain glory of the world before, as a sweet bit to be purchased upon any terms, would after they are enlightened by Consideration, suspect all its soberest pleasures, and those that come in upon the fairest terms: What a Confession should you have from such a man of the foolishness and madness of his former Conversation, when he liv'd upon Air and Trash, as other Inconsiderate men still do? Such a one as Paul's, Tit. 3.3. For we our selves (saith he, describing his state before Con­sideration undeceived him) were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and plea­sures; Then you should hear him bitterly accuse and condemn the soberest course he formerly took, when the World had the Supremacy in his mind and heart: Strange it would be to see a man so much altered for the better, and advanced to such an improvement in knowledge and vertue, as by impartial, sober and considerate Thoughts might be done: He was, it may be, before a covetous, busie worldling, that scrap'd and dig'd his happi­ness out of the dirt, and said it up on Earth; Whose [Page 200]God was his belly, whose glory was his shame, that minded Earthly things, Phil. 3.19. But now his conversation is in Heaven, and there he hath laid up his Treasure; And digs for Wisdom as for Silver, and searcheth for it as for hid Treasure, Prov. 2.4. And his delight is among the Saints, and such as ex­cel in wisdom, Psal. 16.3. O what a blessing hath God bestowed upon the man or woman to whom he hath given a considering mind: How quickly is such a man promoted, and brought to unspeakable honour; yea to find approbation with God! Such a man is quickly higher by head and shoulders (as its said of Saul) than the rest of the inconsiderate doting World: I have more understanding (saith David) than all my teachers, for thy Testimonies are my meditation, Psal. 119.99. You that are yet captivated to the love of any thing here on Earth, and like to perish in that state. If you will but attentively consider what you dote upon, and what you venture for it, you would perceive your danger, and certainly make your escape, and feel the vertue of this ex­cellent duty of Consideration: And your present content, would make you sick of your former de­light: And the Honourablest men on earth, that had not feasted on this food, would seem to you but vile and contemptible persons: Methinks I see the man recovered by Consideration, t [...]king up his parable like Balaam, and saying, Thus saith the man whose eyes consideration hath opened, He saith, who hath heard the words of God, and seen the Vision of the Almighty: How goodly are the Tents in which God dwelleth, and the tabernacles of their hearts where God hath his habitation: As the Valleys are [Page 201]they spread forth, as Gardens by the Rivers side; as the Trees of Ligh-Alo [...]s which the Lord hath plan­ted, and as Cedar Trees besides the waters, Numb. 24.3, 4, 5 6.

And as Consideration would recover the dead, and bring them out of the Grave of [...]gnorance and Corruption, and shew them the excellency of Di­vine wisdom and purity; so that it would keep them in breath that are already translated from death to life, and inspire fresh vigour and cheer­fulness into all their services; it would fill their hearts with a burning love to God, and make their lives as a shining light before men: It would strengthen their faith and fortify their hopes, and put a fresh complexion upon their must withering and consumptive Graces; and make their heart to abound and run over with joy and gladness. By this time, no doubt you see something of the worth and excellency of Consideration, and what a gainful trade it is: Will you therefore bend your minds to consider, and spend more of your time in this work? I know the corrupted heart of man is backward to this exercise, though it be of such flat necessity, and of such eternal advantage; yea, though it breed so much delight and pleasure, after we have gotten some skill, and made some pro­gress in the work, and have gotten some power over our own affections, and can bespeak them in the most suitable moving way: For cure therefore of this backwardness, I have given you some quickning Considerations, to stir you up to this duty; and to gain the consent of your wills to this necessary duty.

In hopes therefore that you are convinced of [Page 202]the necessity of the duty, and fully resolved on the performance; and that you will not neglect such a duty any longer, nor stand in the way of your own light and comfort. I come next to give you some Help and Assistance for the more comfor­table and successful management and performance of the work. And,

First, Endeavour to your power, to shun all Impediments, but especially those that are most likely to stupify and unfit your minds for Consi­deration, they are obvious, I need only to put you in remembrance.

First, Take heed that you sin not maliciously, (1.) with Wilfulness and Presumption: For Di­vines usually distinguish of Three sorts of Sins. 1. Sins of Ignorance, when through want of knowledge, we transgress the Law of God, and do that unwittingly, which if we had known to be a violation of the Law of God, we would not have done. 2. Sins of Infirmity, such as are committed through the unavoidableness, unruliness of our Sense, Phantasy or Passion, which are not wholly under the power and command of Reason, no not when it is truly enlightned and sanctified. 3. Such as are committed with Know­ledge and Deliberation, when it is in our power to avoid them, and will not; what these are, I need not inform you, every one may be his own judge: These last sort are called by some, Sins of Malice; and how much such sins as these will hinder all duty, as well as Consideration, there is no Chri­stian of any experience, but knows too well: And therefore David prayeth especially against such sins as these, Psal. 19.13. Keep back thy servant from [Page 203]Presumptuous Sins, let them not have dominion over me; then shall I be upright and innocent from the great transgression: If thou hast any good affecti­on to this duty, and art convinc'd, that thy Soul will certainly perish without frequent serious con­sideration; thou hast need to take heed of such sins as these: Believe it, these will wound thy Conscience, break thy inward peace, mightily provoke the Lord, and draw away the Spirit from thee, and fill thee with disturbing fears, and besot thy mind, that it shall not be fit for Consi­deration; or if not, such sins as these will dispose thee to hide thy self, and get into thee dark and slie consideration, as that which will discover thy shame, and make thee odious to thy self: Never think to bend thy mind to an impartial considera­tion of God and his Attributes, and the Equity of Laws, nor to think of thy latter end, and the life to come, to any purpose, or to hear a right answer from thy Soul, when thou puttest the question whether it be sanctified or unsanctified, whilst thou givest thy consent, and allowest thy self to live in any known sin. I may say of Consideration, as Mr. Bolton said of Prayer, That it will make thee leave such presumptuous sinning; Or else such sins will make thee to cast off Consideration; you may as well hope to reconcile light and darkness, as to bring these to any agreement. Where Consideration is in any strength, there will be no wilful sin, or else Hell it self: Art thou one that allowest thy self in the habitual neglect of any known duty? Canst thou freely indulge thy self in any unjust or ungod­ly practice? Are thy Thoughts at liberty to think vainly and wickedly without curb or controll? Is [Page 204]thy Tongue at liberty to utter falshood and deceit, to call evil good, or good evil, to plead any un­righteous causes, or to disgrace any way that thou knowest in thy Conscience God approveth of? Art thou wilfully proud, or uncharitable; and art thou intemperate in thy Appetite, or Passions, or commonly guilty of any such sin, that thy own Conscience doth condemn? No wonder then if Consideration be an unpleasant work to thee, and if thy Thoughts turn away from him that abhorreth all iniquity, but that especially which is wilful and allowed: It is no marvel that Meditation is seldom or never, in the word of the Lord that condemneth such practices, as you can allow and approve, and sets a black mark upon all those in whom there is any reigning sin: Take heed sin committed with deliberation and allowance is not far from it, for one such sin mightily disposeth to another; and where once such sins are ordinary and habitual, it shews that sin hath gotten the dominion: But the mind will not be so averse to thy duty, that hath a respect to all the Commandments, and that doth not give toleration to any one sin, that it knows to be such, but doth confess shame himself for, strive and Pray against every corruption that he is conscious to himself of: I know some difficulty there will be after all, but yet such as will easily yield, and be overcome, when once this grand impediment is re­moved: And no sin hath your allowance and con­sent, but is seriously rejected and opposed.

2dly. The next great enemy to this necessary duty of Consideration, is a fond and inordinate delight in any thing here on earth: For where there is such a doting love, your Thought will be continually at [Page 205]the command of that beloved object, and all the other Affections will be still imploy­ed under the command of that doting love: If it be something in present possession, your heart will be dayly with it; or if it be off a little while, it is not at rest; or else it's doing something that may root this inordinate love, and make it faster and stronger; its main care is to keep fast hold, and its only fear is lest it should be deprived of it. And Consideration there will be little or none, unless it be to keep out the light of those Truths that would spoile the pleasure of such an Idolized comfort. Possibly there may be in such a heart some Thoughts of God and the Life to come, especially in those that are fre­quently told, and in part convinced of the ne­cessity of such Thoughts; but whilst such a foolish love prevaileth, such Thoughts will come to nothing, and be made of none effect; or if the heart be thus inordinatly set upon a thing, that is not yet in its possession; thy de­fires will be so eager and impatient after it, that there will be neither time nor room for such Consideration as I am now perswading thee to, whilst thy mind is disturbed and vexed with such insolent Passions as these; you may easily imagine, with what Tergversation and back­wardness it will come to such a work as this, as doth discover that sinfulness and folly of them: Every thing naturally seeketh its own preservation; and so we must expect that lust will do also, it will keep possession so long as it's able; its hard to pursue any worldly pleasure with heat and passion, and at the same time to [Page 206]enter upon any serious Consideration of the vanity of it; it's not casie to let the affections loose up­on any sinful and unlawful delights, and with all to consider impartially at the same time, the fearfulness of Gods displeasure against such practices: There's nothing can be well done, where Love doth not lead the way; and how can Spiritual love prevail, where Carnal Farthly love hath got dominion: I know God can bring such a man to Consideration, that hath captivated his heart to some Earthly delight, otherwise it were hard to think how he could be brought to Repentance; but then usually the strength and vehemency of the affection is abated, either by the power of God's Word, or some affliction or other, before the mind will be brought to any sober Consideration: But yet I say, whilst such inordinate love is in exercise and strength, it will keep out Consideration, and set the hear [...] against it. So that if such a one would have his mind at liberty to Consider, he must draw the Fewel that feedeth Affection, and weaken it by a resolved Abstinence from that which is its nourishment, and submit to any af­flictions that God sendeth for his help, and be glad of such a blessed advantage to bring him to his right mind again, otherwise that work of Consideration will go but heavily on; especi­ally when the things to be considered are so much of another nature, and so opposite to all Carnal, Fleshly love and delights whatsoever.

Thirdly, Another great hindrance to Conside­ration, will be the Company and Talk of more worldly men: You shall be sure to meet with [Page 207]nothing from such Fellowship as this that will animate and quicken you to such Thoughts as these; if your mind be never so little disposed to meditate in the Law of God, and think of a future reckoning and account, and to exa­mine what preparation is made towards it; you shall find enough in their Frothy, Idle, Imperti­nent, or Sinful discourse to quench such Thoughts, and to bend your mind quite ano­ther way; but nothing to promote or set for­wards any good inclination or desire: Alas, the the heart of man is naturally too backward to Sober and Impartial Consideration of the most concerning matters, that we have need of all the help we can get to put the mind in such Heavenly frame and temper, and need not any thing to pull back and discourage: It's necessary to retire from the company and converse of those that are good, when we would attend this work to any purpose, much more from the Society of men whose Tongues are continually imployed about vanity and sin: But if thou wouldst be fit for the Consideration that I am pressing on thee, avoid such Company as this, not only when thou art more solemnly addres­sing thy self to this work, but also at other times also: For such Companions will be sto­ring thy mind with such empty notions and impressions as will pervert it, and keep out such matter that should furnish and supply it for the successful peformance of this duty: O how doth the Chatt and foolish Talk of Idle Light-headed men damp any good Seed in thee, and weaken all good affections! and [Page 208]therefore must needs be a deadly enemy to the Consideration which should be promoted thereby: I appeal to those that have their Ears continually filled with discourse about the matters of this Life, about their Flocks and their Herds, and their Lands and their Trades, where the Fair is to day, and where the Market is to Morrow, and what News is stirring (to say no worse) how hard is it to get any Reverential Thoughts of God, or any affecting apprchensi­ons of the Life to come: It is no easie matter to get thy heart affected with thy sin, and the mis­chief it hath done thee, and that woful state and condition of those that die in it, when thy dis­course is altogether of another nature. But if the discourse be Wanton, Obscene, Prophane, and much more if it be [...]theistical, and intend­ed to the scorn and derision of Holiness, or any of the means God hath appointed to promote it; what impression this is like to make upon the Hearers, I wish you nover know by experience: Woe to the persons that use the Talents God hath given them to such a wicked purpose, and serve the Devil so openly in the world; and that are imployed as his Agents, not only to destroy themselves, but to pervert and destroy the Souls of others with whom they have any fellowship; I would not be in the condition of those that go down to the Grave with the guilt of such a sin on them for all the World: If as the Apostle tells us, He that converte [...]h a sinner from the evil of his wa [...], shall save his Soul from death, and hide [...] of sins, James 5.23. What [Page 209]reward shall be given unto thee thou false tongue, Psal. 120.3. that studiest to convert a sinner to the errour of thy ways, and to bring his soul to death? what shall be done unto thee, that dost in plain terms, or else by cunning Fetches endeavour to discourage thy brother from prayer, meditation in the word of God, and consideration of the life to come? If you have any belief of the life to come and com­passion for your souls, avoid the company of such persons as much as you can, and stopt your ears to such discourses, or rather openly declaim a­gainst them and rebuke the persons roundly, that are such enemies to the salvation of mens souls, and consequently to all the means that should promote and bring it to pass, amongst which Consideration is none of the least.

Fourthly, see that you carefully shun too much occupation in worldly affairs: If your thoughts be much entangled with the matters of the world, they will be very unfit for the considera­tion of such weighty serious things which you must think upon, till you are affected with them more than all other matters that meerly con­cern this life, or else wish that God had never given you a thinking faculty. Be still and know that I am God, so we render it, Psal. 46.10. But in the Hebrew it is [...] (1.) Desist from, and remit your other im­ployments and consider that I am God: For the Verb [...] in Hiph, signifies, Desistere, Ab­sistere, Remittere. (1.) To desist, to leave off or remit: If worldly matters be too busie in your heads, spiritual and eternal things cannot be [Page 210]considered, nor thought upon as they ought. You may as well walk upright with a Mountain on your backs, as erect your thoughts Hea­ven-ward, whilst they are incumbred with the world. Though slight and trivial business may be transacted in a Croud, yet when we have matters of weight and moment, we then chuse silence and ret [...]ment. Let me tell you there's nothing of such consequence as those things that are to fall under our consideration: And do you think a mind distract with worldly cares is fit for such a work as this? It is not easie to be affected with the eye of God that's ever on us, and to stand always in awe of him, un­less frequent, serious consideration make way. And who can do that, that hath one worldly bu­siness or another perpetually in his mind? And is even burthened and oppressed with such thoughts. As the eye of the body is disturb­ed by the violent motion of the Wind or Air; so the eye of the understanding is more per­turbed, by busie, confused and tumultuous thoughts: And although they that have their heads continually exercised and imployed in worldly business are very subject to such con­fusion and disorder, yet even those also that have not their hands very much imployed, may have their hearts in continual disturbance, and a­gitation, and may have as little vacancy and lei­sure for such consideration, as those that are over head and ears in the World, and are as busie all the day long as if they were labouring for a Crown or Kingdom. It is an unvaluable mercy to have a free composed and undisturbed mind, and to [Page 211]have vacancy and leisure to ask a mans self what he is doing? and whether it will yield him comfort when he is passing out of the World? Many have bitterly repented them that they have had so many Irons in the Fire, and that with Martha, they have been careful and solici­tous for many things, whilst they have neglected the one thing necessary, Luke 10.41. Let their Re­pentance be a warning unto us that the oppres­sing cares of the world do not either prevent or else smother and choke better thoughts.

Fifthly, Another grand obstruction to the work of necessary consideration, is pride, in all the kinds thereof: As God deals with pride, so pride deals with him; He looks upon the proud, and the proud look upon him afar off; or rather he regardeth them not at all, nor they him: The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not consider and seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts, Psal. 10.4. His wayes are alwayes grievous to him. They are far above out of his sight, Vers. 5. Though the proud man looketh too high, yet not high enough (you see) to take God into his con­sideration, who should be the principal object of it. There is none that standeth at a grea­ter distance from God, both Actively and Pas­sively by way of sin and punishment, than the proud person. Though the heart that's lifted up with pride beareth it self so high, yet not high enough for such a work as considerati­on is, that is to be exercised in the highest matters: It's true both pride and considerati­on are of an aspiring nature, and yet you can [Page 212]scarce name two things that are more incon­sistent. The one seeks the vanishing breath and ap­plause of men; The other is ambitious of God's approbation: The one reacheth after the pomp and glory of the Earth, and the other foares after the riches and glory of Heaven: And as pride lif­teth up the flesh; so consideration doth enable and advance the Spirit. Now he that is gotten up to the Top of wordly pride and greatness, is far more indisposed to consider the high Attributes of God and his glorious perfections; and the life to come, and the joys of Heaven; than he that is cast down and humbled by worldly poverty and shame; he hath a better prospect into the Heaven­ly Kingdom and Glory; and seeth more of the Majesty of God, and the splendour and dignity of his, Servants, that is placed low in the world, than he that is got upon a Pinnacle, or stands upon the Mountain of worldly honour and felicity. There is no man that is the least acquainted with the [...] of God, but will easily confess, that an [...] lowly spirit hath more clear, distinct, af­fecting apprehensions of the highest things, than the proudest and most [...] spirit. Men think to advance themselves to honour by such a spirit as this; but it's certainly true, that nothing doth more debase them, so true is it, th [...] Solomon [...]f­fi [...]meth, that the wicke wor [...]th a deceifed, work R [...]o [...], 11.18. As pride is an en [...]my to all grace whatsoever, so it is a deadly enemy to considerati­on; for there's nothing would more effectually stame and disgrace it th [...]n consideration would; and [...]erefore it saith [...] it as Ahab of Mical [...] I hate it, for it n [...]ver prophesieth good concerning m [...], bu [...] evil, 1 King 22.8.

A little sober, serious consideration would quick­ly tell a man, what a worm he is, as David saith and no man, Psal, 22.6. and what little cause he hath to swell and be lifted up; and therefore while he hath a mind to be great in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others he will not conside [...]: 'Tis not possible for a proud man whilst he continues to be such, to let his mind loose to impartial con­sideration and meditation in the Word and Works of God: He will quickly stumble at this Rock of Offence, and dash his foot against the Cross of Christ, and despise the humility and poverty of spirit that is such an essential property to all his true Disci­ples, and Followers, Isa, 8.14. and Rom. 9.32. As ever you would have your minds free for con­sideration, without which it is not possible to be wise to salvation; take heed of an insolent, haugh­ty mind, for such a one is always an unteachable mind. 'Tis the humble that God hath promised to dwell with, and teach; The rest will not be taught, but say to the Almighty, depart from us, we desire not the knowledg of thy ways, Job, 21.14. It's a deep sence of emptiness and thirst after hap­piness that makes way for consideration: but they that ae full and happy in their own account, have no need of it, nor will be brought to consider that they are poor and miserable, and blind and na­ked, Rev. 3.17. And yet without consideration they are lost for ever; for there is no surer way than inconsideracy to the greatest poverty and shame.

Sixthly, If you would tast the pleasure, and par­take of the great profit that consideration would be sure to bring along with it, set your self in [Page 214]good earnest against a fickle, slothful spirit; I put these both together, because I would not multiply particulars too far. It is the natural di­sease of man's Soul since it hath forsaken God, either to sit still and pine away in sloth and negli­gence, or else to wander up and down from one variety to another; both these extreams are too incident to the perverted nature of man, & stand in very great opposition to the duty of Consideration: our corrupted minds are very prone, either to sleep securely, or else to dream and wander about; either to be altogether idle, or busie to no pur­pose. They are both Feaverish Distempers of the Soul, only one is the hot, and the other is the cold Fit; but they are both far enough from that sound and even Constitution, wherein the health of the Soul doth consist. The great diffi­culty of consideration lies in the aversness of our hearts to any fixed, serious thoughts of any thing, much more of God and the life to come, and matiers of that nature: The mind is of a wandring nature, and quickly weary of continued, perti­nent, orderly thoughts of any thing: but yet those that have overcome that fickleness of a ro­ving mind as to other things, yet are backward enough to think with pertinency, life and affecti­ons upon spiritual and eternal things; It's easie to let the mind wander from one object to another, and very suitable to the fickle, mutable nature of man, that having left God, is become most unlike him. This is the temper of the greatest part of the world; whose minds are become like a quea­zy or wanton stomack, that must taste of this and that, & the other dish and cannot keep to any one, [Page 215]so their minds and affections are now after this thing, presently after another; and are more al­terable than the wind or weather. First, They are sick for this or that beloved Object, and then by and by they are sick of it, just now they are sick for the thought and desire of such a thing; and presently they are as sick of the enjoyment of it, and quickly forget it. Hence it is that the Psalmist tells us, That man walketh in a vain sha­dow, and disquieteth himself in vain, Psal. 39.6. How can that man consider any thing as he ought, or look beyond the Face and Appearance of any thing, that distracts himself with such variety of thoughts, such multiplicity of Objects that have not any any affinity with each other? The Eyes of a Fool, saith Solomon, are in the ends of the earth, Prov. 17.24. (that is) upon every impertinent, idle object that concerns him not. It would very much dispose our minds to that consideration, I am speaking of, to make the mind attend and keep close to the duties that concern us, and the work that we are about: The more we give it a liberty to fly about every where, and to think of matters that concern it not; the more unfit will it be to be confined to any serious consideration of Heavenly things And as a roving, wandring mind is very unmeet for consideration, so is a slothful, lazy spi­rit that will not be at any pains in thinking, though of the greatest matters in the world: That, when you would bring it on to consideration, draws back, and cries there is a Lion in the way, Prov. 26.13. and is discouraged at every difficulty. That will not under­go any labour, first to clear the truth to the under­standing and then to bring it to the heart. The soth­ful man hideth his hand in his bosom, & will not so much [Page 214] [...] [Page 215] [...] [Page 216]as bring it to his mouth again, saith the wiseman, Pro. 19.24. No wonder if such a mind famish for want of knowledg that will not bend it self to consider of the things that concern its everlasting peace; no wonder if the Vineyard of the slothful be overgrown with thorns, and if nettles cover the face thereof, and the stone Wall thereof be broken down, Prov. 24.30. He must needs be Ignorant that will not search, and hunt after knowledge; and he must needs have a crude, raw, and undigested knowledge that will not Roast what he took in hunting, and will not take the pains to work the truth upon his heart which he hath gotten into his mind, Prov. 12.27. If you de­sire heartily to be rid of those distempers, you must use force and violence with your thoughts, and confine them when they would wander, and spur them up when they would lie Idle. Under God man hath the greatest command o­ver his own mind, and ought to use the autho­rity God hath given him to compel it to the frequent exercise of this duty; as you would deal with your beast that is skittish or jadish, so you must deal with your mind; if your horse be skittish and unruly, you will use the curb and bridle to tame and bring him into order; you must use the same prudence with a skittish, unru­l [...] mind, that would not be under command, but wander after its own imagination: On the other side if your Herse be dull and jadish, you will make him feel the spur and whip till he mends his pace; so must you do also by a sleepy, stu­pid mind, wake it out of its security; and use your Soveraignty over it, till you have made it yield, and it begins to feel the sweetness [Page 217]of those thoughts, that before it would not endure, nor give any way to. He that can prevail thus with his own heart shall prevail with God. So much for the First Direction to the duty of Consideration, viz. Shun all impediments.

Secondly, As you must avoid all that will either hinder or discourage the work of consi­deration; so you must do all that will promote and further it: As

First, It will much conduce to the successful performance of this duty, to be skilful in it. Now this skilfulness lies in these two things. (1) That your mind be truly convinc'd that God is the summum bonum. (1.) The chiefest good, and that your happiness consists in likeness to, and communion with him; and that you have argu­ments at hand to encrease this conviction, and to advance it to a higher degree by a quiet daily consideration of them. (2.) That you know how to move upon your own affections, that they may be answerable to this conviction; I mean that you be skill'd to excite love to God, desire after him, joy and delight in him, hope towards him, and the rest of the mixt and more compounded affections of thankfulnefs to him, repentance for sins committed against him; and that by such Rhetorick and Perswasions that most prevail with him: and to this end it is necessary, that your memory, if not your heart, be stored with matter fit to work upon mind and heart, collected out of the Word and Providence of God, and from the daily observation of your own temper and inclinations; and that you can cloth it with expressions that work best upon your own Genius and Disposition. That matter [Page 218]and way of pressing it upon your mind and af­fections is best to you which prevaileth most with them; and which will vary according to mens different complexions, education, society, studies and other circumstances, which make a man lie open to this or that way of arguing more than any other; and more easie it may be to be wrought upon by a more probable argument, than others by a plain demonstration. Such a Scheme of Rhetorick will stir this mans affecti­on, that will not move anothers: and the phrase and manner of expression will set one man on fire, that will not warm another; so that it is no small step to the success of your meditati­ons, to be well versed in your own temper and constitution, and to handle your self according­ly when you come to treat by way of Soliloquy with your own Soul. Moreover, the main stick to some mens proficiency lies more in their under­standings, than in their affections: In others the obstruction is most in their affections; for some are more easily conquered by rational argu­ments that convince and satisfie the understan­ding; others by such as work more upon the affections.

The more you have of this skill to discern the most suitable method to deal with your self, and what are the fittest applications; the more you are like to profit in, and by consideration. Your reproofs, admonitions, and encouragements are the more likely to do their work when they are suitably applied, and hit you in the right Vein.

Thirdly, Another help to consideration will be to charge it upon your self as a duty of flat necessity: why is it that men that make consci­ence [Page 219]of prayer, yet make none at all of this duty of consideration, though this be of as ab­solute necessity as the other? And prayer is like to turn into a meer form, and prove ineffectual without Meditation: For what can you imagine can be the reason, but that they take the one to be their duty, and not the other, when as God hath enjoyned the one as peremptorily as the other? And some set time should be set apart daily for the one as well as for the other. It's Me­ditation that inspires life into Prayer, hearing the Word, and all other duties. And consideration, as well as prayer, must help you to profit by the providences of God towards you. For God will have man to have a subordinate hand in his own proficiency and salvation; and considera­tion is the leading Act whereby man is instru­mental to his own happiness. It could not be, that this duty should be so generally neglected and performed by so few, excepting by the By, unless it were generally thought to be no duty: men that have any Conscience dare not live in the constant neglect of a known duty but they will be worried by their Conscience, which will frequently twit them with their neglect. And they will perform it in a dead and customary manner rather than not at all, and so be feared to undergo the lashes of their own guilty minds that will fre­quently scourge them; well, whether you will charge it upon your selves as a duty of absolute & indispensible necessity or no; so it is, duty will be duty, think how you will; and your slight and careless thoughts, will not make the Law of God of none effect. You have no small obligation up­on you to this duty, whether you will take notice [Page 220]of it, yea or not. If you neglect this duty; and have any Spark of true grace in your souls, any sincere love to God and faith in his Son, you will quickly perceive the want of this duty in the lan­guishing condition of your soul; your grace will quickly wither, and look with a famished, pined complexion, and prayer and all other duty will starve into a meer form, want those holy af­fections, which are the very life and soul of them; and if you have no grace in sincerity, none you are like to have, till you are brought to impartial, serious consideration. Is it not better therefore to know your duty, and the great necessity of it, and bless God, that you are not kept in the dark, as many others are, that know of what moment it is, and perish for want of it? If it were not a duty so necessa­ry to salvation, then perhaps, the ignorance and neglect of it were not to be so much la­mented; but when the want of it will so ap­parently destroy your souls, it's time to look a­bout you, and to lay a further obligation on your selves by your own vow and promise, to be frequent in the practice of it. The duty is bound upon you already by a double necessity. (1.) By the necessity of a precept. (2.) By the necessi­ty of a means. God hath commanded it, and therefore if there were no other obligation, this were sufficient to engage us to the performance. But if there were no command of God to en­force the duty, yet since it is a means without which salvation is so impossible, and hath such a mighty influence upon faith and all other grace, now it becomes doubly necessary to us. Let us then add a third necessity and lay a fast­er [Page 221]obligation upon our selves, by charging it upon our own souls, and obliging our selves by deliberate vow and resolution to as Consci­scientious performance of it, as we do of Prayer, or any other duty that we dare not neglect; lest we should not be able to rise or go to Bed with­out fear and the disturbance of a guilty mind.

Thirdly, It will be a singular advantage to the work of Consideration, (though more remote) to be temperate. Now Temperance is taken in the widest compass, for Moderation in the use of all Earthly Comforts; And in this larger extent it's taken, when Epictetus comprehends all Ver­tue in those two words; Temperance and Patience, or Abstinence and Sustinence, [...]: Or else it's taken in its narrower com­pass, for Moderation in those more gross and bodyty pleasures, such as Meat and Drinks; and [...] or Essentinacy; it's Temperance in this more restrained sence that I here recommend to you. Though I know, as it's taken in its wi­dest acception, it must needs farther it more [...], because it includes the other, and much more, but then it would be co-incident with the second impediment, which was to shun all [...]or­di [...]a [...]e delights in any thing here on Earth.

The mind that is oppressed with Meat and [...], and dispirited with Venery, and made [...] with Da [...]ance and Effeminacy, is not fit for Contemplation (either Solemn or Occa­sional) unless it be of Carnal or Corpo [...]eal Beau­t [...] it is altogether [...]meer for the pure and spi­rituall Contemplation of the Divine Excellencies, and the ravishing Beauty of Holiness; that are not enjoyed but by one that's clear in understan­ding [Page 222]and pure in heart, which they can never be, which sot and pollute themselves with such mud­dy and impure delights.

The duty of Set and Solemn Contemplation requireth an illuminated, attentive mind, and a chearful heart, if it be performed with any con­siderable Success: But now, Whoredom and Wine, and new Wine take away the Heart, Hos. 4.11. They defraud this duty of that sprightfulness, vigour and affection that it requires; and the Understand­ing that's perpetually smoak'd with the Fumes that rise from an over-charged Stomach, hath few Lucida intervalla, and is never perspicacious, and sit for such contemplation. I deny not, but some degrees of this intemperance may consist with this duty, and there may be some vacancy for a little dull exercise of this work: But if this disease be grown to any height or prevalency, the mind will be so listless, and the affections will be so earthly, that you may as well move a Block, as such a surfeited soul to these Sublime and Raised Meditations. It will be like Anselm's Bird with a heavy weight tyed to the Leg of it, when it be­gins to fly and lift up it self, or rather, it will have no disposition to fly at all. O that all Glut­tons and Drunkards, and Persons addicted to Fil­thiness and Wantonness were well sensible of this, that are like to perish for ever for want of that Consideration that should save them from destru­ction. Little do they think how they starve in the midst of such Plenty, and how lean and fami­shed their Souls are, whilst Their eyes stick out with fatness, Psal. 73.7. Hence it is that your Gluttons and Wine-bibers, and the rest of our Belly-Gods are so little acquainted with the life to come, and [Page 223]that they so little relish any discourse with them­selves or others about Heavenly things; and that the Lord is not the Portion of their Cup, Psal. 16.5. Hence it is that those that are so familiar at the Cookes-Shop or Tavern, are so strange to the place of Gods Residence, and inter-meddle not with the Heavenly Joys.

But although it be this gross Intemperance and Sensuality that is so Point Blank an enemy to Consideration; yet I must say also that every degree of Intemperance doth much hinder the duty, and interrupt the joy and pleasure thereof. For as it is a Sin against God, and much pro­vokes him to withdraw and conceal himself, so it is a very malignant Enemy to the health and vi­vacity of Mind, that this duty calls for; for it weakens the Brain, and spoils the Memory, which should supply matter to Meditation, and which is worse, it brutifyes the heart. When the Store­house of the Body is full, the Store-house of the Mind must needs be empty of every thing, but Fumes and Vapors, with which it is like enough to abound, and such Notions as these minister to: No wonder if God be seldom in such Mens Me­mories or Hearts. Therefore the Prophet com­plaineth of the full-fed Israelites, that they were estranged from the Lord, According to their Pasture so were they filled, they were filled, and their heart was exalted, therefore have they forgotten me saith the Lord, Hos. 13.6. And why so; but because such Fulness and Intemperance will not let Men consider, and without this God must needs be forgotten, because he lies not open to the bodi­ly eye or sence; it is the pure mind and heart [Page 224]that must see him both here and hereafter; and if these that are pure in heart are the blessed men, Mat. 5.8. Then they are cursed that are impure in mind and heart through Intemperance and other Lusts, because they neither do now by considera­tion, nor shall hereafter see God in the Beatifical Vision; but Temperance disposeth unto both.

Fourthly, If you have any good Evidence that Christ is yours, and you are his, it will very much promote and sweeten the work of Consideration: I know that Consideration is a necessary means to bring a man to Christ, and to turn the course of his affections and conver­sation; but yet so soon as a man feels this work done, that the world is resolutely forsaken, and God is heartily chosen, the Soul will be then better disposed to contemplate the glory of God and Heaven, to turn its thoughts upon the promises of the Gospel, when it hath some interest and propriety in them; yea, and to think with pleasure upon the threatnings of Gods Word, the nearness of death, the Worm of Conscience that shall torment the wicked for ever and ever, after it hath made some good e­scape, and the bitterness of death is past, and the Sting pull'd out.

It's no absurdity nor contradiction that Con­sideration should bring a man to Christ, and that the knowledge of a mans interest in Christ should prompt him to, and further him in the work of Consideration; that Consideration should beget Grace, and that Grace again should be­get Consideration. This [...] is frequent both in Nature and Grace: What more pro­per [Page 225]to bring a man to Repentance, than to con­sider the folly of his ways, the filthiness and danger of his Sin, and the terrour and unavoid­ableness of Gods wrath? Who more like to be burthened with his transgressions, and feel the load of his iniquities, than he that frequently considers what misery it brings upon him both here and hereafter; and how impossible it is to escape without Repentance? Who more likely to abhor himself, to be humbled and broken in heart, to confess his Sin with Shame, and to re­solve against it (which are but the several parts of Repentance) than he that considers how he hath affronted God, perverted his Order, sedu­ced his Brethren, and wronged his own Soul, and disparaged the very Reason that God hath given him, and laid the Foundation of Gods Eternal displeasure, and his own everlasting ru­ine? You see Consideration, when it is of such particulars, is the ready way to bring a Sinner to Repentance. And on the other side, who so like to find joy and pleasure in the Contempla­tion of Heaven, and the joys thereof, in the possession it self, and the promise that gives Right and Title to it, than he that hath some good hope through Grace that he shall enjoy it: So that you see of what use Consideration is both before and after Conversion; but yet as before Regeneration there may be in the heart of a Sinner that love which worketh by desire, though not that which worketh by complacency to Heaven and heavenly things; so before Con­version there may be that Consideration that is forced and constrained, but after Conversion [Page 226]it's like to be more sweet and pleasant, and to bring in greater profit and advantage. O could you but look upon God as your reconciled Fa­ther in Christ, and one that is at peace with you, how would this help up your thoughts Heavenward, and sweeten your Meditations of the life and happiness to come? you would not need then so much to force and spur up your mind to such comfortable thoughts; at least sometimes it will be getting up of its own vo­luntary accord upon Mount Nebo, to view the promised Land; he that hopes to be one of the Inhabitants of the Heavenly Jerusalem, will at least sometimes walk about Sion, and go round her, and tell the Towers thereof: And mark well her Bulwarks, and view and consider her stately Mansions and Palaces, Psa. 48.12, 13. what an encouragement will you have to look up and behold the glory and perfection of the Divine Nature, when you can say, This is my Father, and these Attributes I have an Interest in? But yet I must needs confess, that even after Conversion there will be oft-times much back­wardness and reluctancy to this spiritual and heavenly Duty; and you will need to quicken up your selves, and chide your backward hearts, that they should be so strange to the place where their Treasure is laid up: But yet it will not be so hard to bring your heart to such Medi­tations as it was, when you were without hope, and without God in the world.

Fifthly, It will further the work of conside­ration, to lay Temporal things in the balance with Eternal things, and to make advantage of [Page 227]every Object that's presented to our Senses, to make the consideration of the highest and great­est things more warm and piercing: You may very well and rationaily conclude, that if the glory of Earth be so great as to dazle the eyes of some beholders, and strongly to enamour their affections, that the glory of Heaven doth far out-shine it. He hath reserved joy and glad­ness indeed for that place and state, if there be so much to be found in this sinning imperfect state here on Earth; for all Earthly things serve but to the example and shadow of Hea­venly things, Heb. 8.5. If the beauty of the body be so taking, that men and women often­times dote upon it, what is the beauty of the Soul do you think? and if it were to be seen with bodily eyes, how much would it ravish and amaze the beholders? If the pleasure of the Senses be so sweet and delicious that men will buy them at the dearest rate; how sweet must the pleasures of the Soul needs be, when there is so vast a difference between the Soul and Body that are the subjects of these plea­sures.

As there is an unspeakable disproportion be­tween a Spirit and a Body, so there must needs be as wide a disproportion between the de­lights of the one, and the delights of the o­ther. For I suppose none can be so absurd as to think, that the state to come shall be no better than this present state, and that mens Bodies are as much worth as their Souls; and the Hea­ven, which is the place of his glorious Habita­tion and Palace, is no more adorned than the [Page 228]Earth: None can be so void of reason to think, that God bestows as much upon his Rational Creatures, whilst they are in a state of Tryal and Probation, as when they are come to Per­fection, and are actually chosen to be Citizens of the Heavenly Corporation, where they shall live for ever: How can the joy of Seed-time be comparable to the joy of Harvest? And how can this visible Sun rejoyce the Creatures that it shines upon, so much as the Face of God will rejoyce those that behold it? You may well therefore rise up in your Meditations from any perfection that you behold on Earth, to ad­mire those perfections that are unseen: They are the greatest that lye not open to the bodily eye, nor can be enjoyed by any Corporeal Facul­ty or Organ: so that when you walk abroad, and look upon the glory of the visible Heaven and Earth, you may much more admire the splendour and excellency of the invisible Hea­vens, and consequently of all those things that lead thither: God that made all things, made those visible things, that they might be some advantage to the Understanding of things in­visible; and that they might lead up our appre­hensions and affections to him that cannot be immediately seen without the help of such a Glass. God is infinitely exalted above our un­derstanding, neither are we capable of having any direct and proper Conceptions of the state and life to come; and therefore the glory of Heaven is set forth to us in the Word of God, by such things as seem glorious to our Senses: The Streets of the New Jerusalem, or Heaven, [Page 229]are said to be paved with Gold, and the Gates to consist of Pearl and precious Stones; and the pleasures of that state are set forth by a Feast, because these are so pleasing to our Sen­ses. Now though we must not understand these things in a proper litteral sense, yet we are hence instructed, that the happiness is exceed­ing great, and such as cannot be well under­stood by us, but by such helps as these: So that we may well argue from any pleasures or ex­cellency here on Earth, to the excellency and pleasure of that state, and make this advan­tage of all sensible comforts, to make our ap­prehensions of things spiritual more lively and affecting. As therefore you may collect the un­speakable torment and misery of the Damned, by the pressures and calamities that we feel here on Earth; and Hell is usually set forth by Fire and Darkness, and a Worm continually feeding upon the Conscience, which are things obvious to our Senses: so likewise is the splen­dour and dignity of the Saints set forth by a Crown, and Scepter, and Kings, things most glorious here on Earth: And this use we should wisely make of these things to put life into our Meditations, which otherwise would little af­fect us.

Sixthly, Lastly you must diligently read and hear the Word of God, peruse the labours of those that are most skilful in the exposition and application thereof. If you ask me who they are; I answer, use your best endeavours to know, and make the most impartial enquiry. The frequent casting your eye upon, and open­ing [Page 230]your ear to such matters, is the way to get good furniture into your memory and heart, which will ever and anon creep into your thoughts, and even invite and constrain you to dwell with more intentness and affection on them: But you when you are reading, and hearing these things that must be the Subject of your Meditations, and sowing the Seed of fu­ture consideration, you must drive away the Birds of Prey that would devoure the Seed that you have sown, I mean all disturbing worldly thoughts, and keep your mind as much retired from all other things as you are able, that it may be free and open to the impressions of the Word and Spirit; those especially that are un­furnished for Meditation must take this course, for it is most like to prosper, since it hath not only Precept, but Reason to enforce it. They must never expect to have their Souls byassed to, and fitted for this Duty, that neglect these means which the Wisdom of God hath ap­pointed, and let their thoughts scamble about, and imploy their eyes and ears about any petty matters, rather than in the reading and hearing of Gods Word, and such explications of it as are likeliest to bring it to the mind and heart; especially read and hear those passages of truth (that Life and Salvation most depends on) most frequently, and get them as fast into your mind as you are able, and a right understanding of the very tenour and chief scope of the Gospel, which is to bring men to the sight of their sins, and by that to come to Christ as his tractable Disciples, and by Faith in Christ to Salvation; [Page 231]which design that it might bring to pass, it sets the highest motives and encouragement before us, and gives us the greatest helps: But above all parts of Scripture, the Psalms of David fre­quently read, will promote you in the work of consideration, and teach you h [...] to stir up such affections as you see Davi [...] expresseth al­most in every Psalm. There you may see how he sets upon God sometimes, sometimes stirs up his own Soul, confers with God, communes with his own heart, that he might kindle the Fire of Gods Love in his heart, which is the principal design of consideration; for whether he express sorrow and contrition for his sin, it is but that he may stir up hatred in his Soul a­gainst it, which is the great impediment to the Love of God: Or if he express and utter his complaints of the vanity of the World, and the miseries of this life, all is to quicken up his desires after the true happiness of his Soul; and you know love is intrinsecal and essential to desire; if he enlarge, as he doth frequently in the praises of the Lord, and display his glory, and muster up his perfections, and call Heaven, and Earth, and Sea, and all the Inhabitants of them, and all the Islands and Continents of the World, and bring in their testimony to him; and to make his Name glorious, if he summon every living thing that hath breath to praise the Lord, it is that he may advance the esteem and encrease the love of God in his own heart, and the hearts of others; and therefore from this Book you may fetch matter enough, and argu­ment for consideration to make use of for the [Page 232]kindling of this and all other holy and devout affections; yea the very out-side, I mean the phrase and expression of the Psalms is such, as hath a powerful Rhetorick with it to set the heart on fire with the love of God; no con­templative and devout Christian but hath had very familiar acquaintance with this Book. I have told you the flat necessity of consideration, if ever a man be brought to his right mind, yea and how necessary it is to preserve you in the love and fear of God after you have believed; if therefore you are convinced that is your du­ty, without which you can never get the cure of your deadly distempers, then you will make Conscience of the means whereby you may be brought to consideration: The heart is not easi­ly brought to delight in God, and love him a­bove all, and to use the world as if he us'd it not, its consideration that must change it; the heart is naturally dead to spiritual things, it's Consi­deration that must enliven it, and make it stir; the heart is prone to wander from God, it's Consideration that must bring it home; the heart is full of blindness and obduracy, it's Con­sideration that must enlighten and soften it: If therefore you would not perish in blindness and obduracy, and wander from God without hopes of recovery, and lose the Pearl of in­finite price (which who so is wise will sell all that he hath to buy and purchase) then use the means that must bring you to Considerati­on.

Having given you some general Directions towards the promoting of the work and duty [Page 233]of Consideration, I come in the next place to give you some more Particular Directions.

• 1. As to the matter
• 2. As to the manner
• 3. As to the end

How this Duty is to be performed.

Some Arguments to assure and per­swade the Infallible Truth and Divine Authority of Scripture, for the Exercise of that part of Faith that consists in the Intellects Assent.

Some Considerations to help on the daily Exercise of Faith in Christ or Subjection to the Sovereignty of our Redeemer.

• 1 John 12. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name.
• John 3.16. God so loved the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have everlasting Life.
• Verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, be­cause he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.
• Verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath Ever­lasting life, (that is, quo ad jus, or Inchoative) And he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
• John 5.40. Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life.
• Luke 19.27. Those mine Enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.
• [Page 330]Heb. 5.9. And being made perfect, he became the Author of Eternal Life and Salvation to all them that obey him.
• Matth. 11.28, 29. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my Yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls.
• John 5.22, 23, 24. For the Father judgeth no Man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, as they honour the Father; He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my Word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting Life, and shall not come into Condemnation, but is passed from Death to Life.

BEfore I come to the Motives that should ani­mate us to the frequent and delightful Exer­cise of Faith, which must be daily kept in the Mind and Thoughts, (or some of the like Nature) it's necessary that we well understand the Nature of that Faith which is of such daily Use and un­speakable Advantage in the whole Christian Life.

For the better and more distinct Understanding whereof, we must take notice, that in the Word of God we are informed of a Twofold Kingdom of God. 1. The First, as Creatour. 2. The Second, as Redeemer; And both these have their different Constitution and Administration. Whilst Man stood in his Integrity, he was under the Laws and Government of his Creatour, and then [Page 331]Faith in God as his Creatour and Sovereign, was the Radical and Fundamental Virtue, which whilst it did continue firm and inviolate, he was happy in the Favour of God; and never began to fail in his Obedience, till first his Faith and Heart subjection to God was shaken: But when his Heart began secretly to revolt from God, and to haesitate about the perfect Veracity, Ju­stice and Goodness of God, and to believe the Tempter before him, (who is [...]) then he began to transgress and violate his Command.

And having made Shipwreck of Faith and a good Conscience towards God his Sovereign, that Law or Covenant which he had broken, threatens him with Eternal Death▪ But God be­ing moved with pity towards lapsed Mankind, did not execute the deserved Penalty; but con­trived a way in his Infinite Wisdom, in which he might shew Mercy to his miserable Creature Man, upon honourable Terms, and vindicate the Ho­nour of his Law, and the Authority of the Law­giver, and make Transgression as odious, as if the whole Species of Mankind had suffered, the Pe­nalty of the Law: And that was by the Incarna­tion of God the Son, taking our Flesh upon him, and uniting it to his Godhead, and so both Hu­mane and Divine Nature being united in one Per­son, he might by the one be made capable of suf­fering, and by the other, of satisfying, offended Justice. Thus God the Son, and our dearest Saviour, undertook the Work, liv'd in an exact Conformity to the Law, fulfill'd all Righteousness, and suffered what was due for our Transgressions, and having finished the Work, God the Father was [Page 332]so well pleased therewith, that he alters the state of things, and commits all into the hands of his Son, and now the Second Kingdom commenceth, which is the Kingdom of God as Redeemer, as the other was of God as Creator.

And here the Constitution and Government is quite different from the former: The former re­quired Faith in God, and Perfect Obedience, upon the Penalty of Eternal Death, if there was the least Violation.

The latter requireth Repentance and Faith in Christ as Sovereign Redeemer, and sincere Obe­dience, continued to the End, or else threatneth a heavier Condemnation than the former: Here Faith in God the Redeemer constitutes us Sub­jects of this Second Kingdom, which is nothing else but Heart-Subjection to our Sovereign Re­deemer, as Faith in God was our Heart-Subje­ction to our Sovereign Creatour; or else the de­liberate Consent of the Soul to come under the Yoke and Government of Christ. So that the Faith which puts the Christian into a Justified State is a Political Act, such a one as he performs to a Prince that first consents to be his Subject; (1.) to do the Duties of a Subject, if he may but enjoy the Priviledges and Immunities of such a Subject. So that Faith is no one Physical Act of the Understanding or Will, but is made up of di­vers Acts of both.

It supposeth our knowledge of God the Second Person in the Trinity, suffering and satisfying in our Nature, and God's acceptance, and a full pardon granted to all that repenting them of their Sin and Rebellion against God their Creatour, consent [Page 333]heartily to come under the Sovereignty of God Redeemer, and to obey him in sincerity all the days of their Life; It supposeth that we believe thus much, and that he is able to subdue our Cor­ruptions, and to bring us into favour with God again, and thereupon give ear, hearty consent, resigning up our selves in a deliberate Covenant unto him: This is the Faith which in the Gospel is said to justifie. By which description of Faith, you may see that Faith Negatively is not

1. A Perswasion, that we are justified; for that would infer that a Man is justified, before he is justified, which Doctrin is so notoriously absurd, that now I think Few or None own it: You may see it solidly confuted by several Arguments in Mr. Baxter's Answer to Serjeant Shephard.

2. Nor is it a bare Belief that Christ died for Sinners, and hath satisfied the Divine Justice. The Devil may have such a Faith as this.

3. Nor is it an Affyance to Recumbency upon Christ for pardon: The middlemost is an Act antecedent to justifying Faith, and the other Two are consequent upon it, though not imme­diately it may be; at least the first: For that sometimes comes a long time after, when the Be­liever is grown up to a state of strength and sta­bility in his Faith, and sometimes it never follows at all in many weak Believers. But Positively it is

The weary Sinner's acceptance of Christ, as his Soveraign, to Rule, Sanctifie, and Save him, and the Souls deliberate subjecting it self to him as his most endeared Lord and Governour, the absolute Priest and Prophet, and one every way able to [Page 334]save those that are his true Subjects and Disciples. This is the Universal, Radical and Fundamental Grace of the Gospel, that diffuseth its Virtue into all parts of the Christian Life, and its weakness or strength will be seen and felt in all our Christian Duties.

For the deeper radification and confirmation of this Grace therefore, it's necessary that we keep those Reasons continually upon our Minds, that are apt to produce or strengthen it, and frequent­ly ponder them with our most serious Thoughts, that they may put us upon the Practice and Ex­ercise of this universal Grace, till it grow up to the highest Perfection we are able. Those that I shall suggest are such as these:

1. First, You will never prize nor exercise that Life of Faith, till you have well considered the Miseries of an Unbeliever. It's impossible now to conceive, much more to express, their intole­rable greatness; None can throughly understand what they are, but those that feel them: Wo to the Person that comes thus to understand them! But such assuredly will all those be that die in unbe­lief.

Let me make a Brief Enumeration of the Parti­culars.

1. First, They continue in flat Rebellion against God, and how such are like to speed, I leave you to judge: We are all born with a rebellious Na­ture against God, and practice nothing but Em­nity and Contradiction to him, till this Nature be changed: shall God proclaim Pardon, Mercy, and Grace, to Conquer the Violence of Corrup­tion and Temptation, to those that will lay down [Page 335]their Weapons of Rebellion, and give over their stubborn opposition against God, and come under the Command and Government of his Son? And shall you and I reject such a gracious Offer, and say with those Rebels, We will not have this Man to reign over us: (i. e.) We will not believe in him, Luke 19.14. Nay hath Christ done so much to endear his Person and Government to us, treading the Wine-Press of his Father's wrath for us, Isa. 63.3. shedding his warmest Blood to purchase our Peace with God? And shall we refuse to submit our selves to him? Is it he, or we, that are the gainers? Should he glory in such poor contemptible Subjects, or we in such an Almighty Sovereign and Saviour? We mistake infinitely, and apprehend not the Matter aright, if we do not take it for a high Priviledge and Favour, to be under the Conduct of such a one that hath un­searchable Wisdom to Rule us, infinite Power both to protect us, and break our Enemies in pieces, and is not profited by our Service, Job 22.2. Can a Man be profitable to God, as he that is wise may be profitable to himself? Thou owest thy hearty Subjection unto God, He made thee, and is thy rightful and absolute Sovereign, and when thou hadst turn'd Traitor to him, He hath not set thee up as a Monument of his terrible Wrath and Vengeance: But hath laid the Govern­ment upon his Son, so nearly allied to us, by the Assumption of our Nature, and relaxed the Ri­gour of his Law; promising to accept sincere Service and Love, though perfect Obedience be due: O what a [...] Aggravation will this be of our Sin, if we still continue it after the Grace of God [Page 336]hath so much abounded towards us, Rom. 6.1. and persist in our Rebellion: we know too well what it is to be Rebels against God our Redeemer; but we little imagin what it is to be sentenced and condemned for Rebels at the great and terrible Day.

2. Secondly, Every Unbeliever hath the Guilt of all his former Sins fast bound upon him: not one of them is pardoned; every Commission, yea and every Omission, every idle Thought, and Word and Action, with all their several Aggra­vations, stand still upon Record uncancell'd; God hath pass'd an Act of Indempnity and Obli­vion, and proclaimed wonderful Grace and Mercy to penitent Sinners; but the Unbeliever, whilst such, hath no share nor portion in it. The Blood of Christ hath infinite virtue to cleanse sinners from all unrighteousness, 1 John 1.9. but it's only such as do believe: The Law of God the Creatour, or Covenant of Works, which threatneth Death to every Sin, is still in Force to such as are not the sincere Subjects of Christ by Faith: the wrath of God abideth upon such. John 3.36. He that be­lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Every violation of the Law makes it due to the sinner, and Faith in Christ is the only means to remove it; but where that is wanting, there it continues and abides. If one sin unpardoned, will sink the Soul of the transgres­sour into everlasting condemnation, into what unspeakable misery and horrour will that vast Number that he hath committed force the sinner, who will not come unto Christ, nor submit himself [Page 337]to his Redeemer? Look to thy self, and answer it as thou canst, that wilt not come unto Christ to be thy Advocate and answer for thee: stand upon thy own Legs as well as thou art able, that wilt not bottom thy self by Faith on Christ: en­dure the storm of God's wrath as well as thou canst, that wilt not anchor thy Soul upon the Re­deemer of the World. Thou seest the worst of it, if thou canst make light of it, it's but bearing all the Sins thou hast committed upon thy own Body and Soul, and the Wrath of God due to them; And if thou takest this to be a tolerable and a light Burden, continue still in thy unbe­lief.

3. Thirdly, If thou art no true Subject of Christ by Faith in him, thou art a Slave of Satan, and a Vassal to thine own Corruption: There are but two principal Masters; Christ is one, whose Right it is; And Satan is the other, though an Usurper; If thou wilt not devote thy self to him, who is thy lawful Lord and Master, thou wilt be under the Commands of a Cruel Tyrant. There are but two Generals, Christ the Captain of our Salvation, Heb. 2.10. and Satan the Ring-leader to destruction; and one thou must fight under. There are but two sorts of Servants; either thou art the Servant of Righteousness, or else thou art the Servant of Sin, Rom. 6.16. If Christ do not dwell in thy Heart by Faith, Ephes. 3.17. Satan hath got possession, and thou art a Member of that wicked Spirit, [...], (1.) that efficaciously work­eth in the Children of Disobedience, Ephes. 2.2. He formeth thy Conceptions, frameth thy Dis­courses, [Page 338]animateth all thy Actions, steereth thy whole Conversation, and when there is need, in­stigateth thee to any Wickedness: though thou art secure and little suspectest, 'tis he that prompt­eth thee in all thou goest about. If thou hadst an eye to see what influence he hath upon all thy Actions, it would make thee to abhor all thou doest. Indeed there are wicked Habits and Dis­positions that strongly move and hurry thee into the same wickedness which the Devil would have thee to commit; for if thou wert meerly passive, it would be thy Misery, but not thy Sin: But now having no part in Christ, thou art at once led by thy own Corruption, and the Enemy of all Goodness, into all Sin and Mischief. No Turkish slavery comparable to this, wherein the sinner is wounding and tearing, and wracking himself every day, and yet though he feels the smart, sometime perceives the mischief he doth himself, he cannot, nor will forbear. You would look with pity upon a Madman, gnashing and cutting himself, and bless God that you are sober, when you see the pernicious Effects of Madness: And yet if you are impenitent unbelievers, you are guilty of far worse Cruelty to your Souls.

4. Fourthly, If thou art a Unbeliever, thou art not sure to be one Day longer out of Hell, and Eternal Misery: thou hangst over the Pit of Destruction, by the single Thread of thy Life; and if the Twine break, (as it is a Miracle it doth not every hour) all the World cannot save thee: Let not a deceived Heart turn thee aside, that thou canst not by Faith in Christ deliver thy own Soul, nor say, is there not a Lye in my Right [Page 339]Hand? Esa. 44.2. Thy Riches and thy Honours cannot prevent thy Death, much less can they procure a Release from it, least of all can they Ransom thee from Destruction; thou art hasting to it every Moment, and thou knowest not what one Day or Hour may bring forth, Prov. 27.1. As sure as thou livest, so surely thou shalt dye for ever, (if thou go forward in unbelief) when once thy Breath is departed from thy Body, and how many ways that may be stop'd, who knows? And wilt thou yet stand out against the gracious Offers of thy Redeemer, and linger in Infidelity, and run the hazard of Eternal Destruction? Nay, its no hazard, but as undoubtedly certain, as the Word of God is true. O that unbelievers would ponder this, that they would but consider their latter End, what a few Breaths more they have to fetch before they are turned into Ever­lasting Despair: How dare you lye down to sleep, lest you should awake in Hell? How dare you rise, lest it should be to Judgment and Condemnation? How can you enjoy your Life one Moment, that know not but that the next Moment you must ex­change it for Endless Torment and Misery; And how will you do to give up the Ghost, that have not given up your Names to Christ? Your foolish Friends may flatter you, and your own fraudulent Heart may cheat you, but the Word of God tells you plainly what will be your doom, if by Faith in Christ you do not escape it: How can you do to read such a Text as that in Luke 12.20. [...]: This Night shall they require thy Soul of thee; (1) (by a usual Hebraism) shall thy Soul be required of [Page 340]thee; for when there is no Nominative Case go before the Verb, it's taken impersonally.

5. Lastly, God is thine Enemy; and that con­tains all the Misery that can be thought or spoken: Who can do a worse turn to himself, than to make God his Enemy? Who can befriend that Man that hath God for his Adversary, or plead his Cause for him? When Saul in distress comes to Samuel (as he thought) for counsel, what a sad Answer doth he return him? Wherefore dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine Enemy? 1 Sam. 28.16. And it was the bitterest part of Job's suffering, that he thought God was his Enemy. Wherefore hidest thou thy Face, and countest me for thine Enemy? Job 13.24. Thou, even thou art greatly to be feared, and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry? faith the Psalmist, Psalm 76.7. We may bear the Frowns of a Mortal Man, though he were never so great, yea, though all the World should frown, there's some Refuge against that: If all Men and Devils should storm and rage against us, it's possible for a Soul to com­fort it self against this, and find out a shelter. But whither wilt thou fly when God pursues? What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will you fly for help? saith the Prophet to the wicked Israelites that had provoked God to be their Enemy, Isaiah 10.3. There's no flying from him: Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy Presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, thou art there; If I make my Bed in Hell, behold thou art there; If I take [Page 341]the wings of the Morning, and dwell in the utter­most parts of the Sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, &c. Psal. 130.7, 8, 9, 10. There's no escaping his hand; If he come to tare in pie­ces, there can be none to deliver, Psalm 50.22.

Stay a little, thou that art an impenitent unbe­liever, and consider a while what this importeth, (viz.) To have God for thine Adversary.

I'll tell thee in brief, It implys these three Things.

1. First, All the Attributes of God are against thee, and feel it thou shalt, either sooner or later.

2. Secondly, All the Creatures will set against thee first or last.

3. Thirdly, Thine own Conscience shall side with God against thee, and to make thee perfect­ly miserable, shall fall upon thee with the greatest Fury and Madness.

1. If thou reject the gracious Offers of Mercy by the Gospel, and refuse to have Christ reign over thee, all the Attributes of God are engaged against thee. The inflexible Justice, and Wisdom, and Holiness, his infinite Power, and never failing Truth and Veracity, will all combine to make thee everlastingly miserable. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do righteously? Gen. 18.25. Will Infinite Power let such Contempt of his Grace (which hath stooped so low) go unreven­ged? Will he suffer the proud Sinner to Spit in the Face of his Son (for unbelief and rejecting him is no better) and not wipe off that aspersion, by the eternal ruin and perdition of the sinner? Will it consist with the perfect Wisdom of God, to [Page 342]look down upon the unbeliever, and see him trample such amazing Love and Mercy under his feet, not once nor twice, but so many Years toge­ther, as make up the Number of his Life, and not recompence such base Ingratitude and wicked Presumption, according to its desert? If there be Truth and Faithfulness in God, thou canst not scape: He cannot deny himself, 2 Tim. 2.13. Dost thou believe it? If thou believest not, yet he abideth faithful; and let me tell thee again, [...], he cannot deny himself: He hath spoken, and will not alter the thing that is gone out of his Mouth. He that believeth not the Son, shall not see Life, John 3.36. Nay, he that believeth not [...] already, because he hath not [...] the Name of the only be­gotten Son of God, John 3.18. I know he de­lighteth not in the misery or ruin of any of his Creatures, and therefore is slow to Anger, and proceeds leasurely to Judgment, and strikes not till there is no Remedy, after he hath used all the Methods of Mercy and Pity to reclaim the sinner, and hath invited him time after time, year after year, to have compassion upon his own Soul, and accept of Christ and pardon with him; yet when no Means will succeed, and the case of the sinner is quite desperate, neither will he be drawn to be­lieve, however he speed; Judge now what a dis­paragement this would be to the Wisdom, Ju­stice, Holiness, and Veracity of God, not to pass Sentence upon such a sinner: and then what a one it must be, you may easily understand: If they that despised Moses Law, died without Mercy, of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought [Page 343]worthy, who hath troden under foot the Son of God, &c. Heb. 10.28, 29. &c. If God strike, he hath a hand like himself.

2. Secondly, All Creatures will set against thee, for they are his Armies, and he is the [...], the Lord of Hosts: All thy Friends and Acquain­tance will come in and bring their Witness and Accusations against thee, even thy bosom Confe­derates shall cry shame on thee, and add Affliction to thy Misery; O what a killing Consideration will it be then (and I would it were so now, if possibly it might prevent that woful day) to be overwhelmed with Misery and Desperation, and when thou shalt cry out with Job, Job 19.21. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O my Friends, for the hand of God hath touched me, and he shall find none near him, to speak one word of ease to him, but all his bitter Enemies; This will cut him to the quick, and bring down his stomack, when it is too late: Then, if it were possible to believe in hope, how earnestly would he wish to see one of the days of the Son of Man, Luke 17.22.

3. Thirdly, To compleat his Misery, his own Conscience shall fall upon him, with the greatest violence: It will upbraid him with wilful stupid unbelief, and the most monstrous ingratitude; It will bring to his remembrance, the kindness of his Saviour, such a one as was never heard of; It will tell him of his Blood and Sufferings, and how fain he would have washed him, and embraced him with Mercy, and he flew away, and scorn'd Deli­verance, and slighted all the Proffers of his Love: Oh with what an a king Heart will the Infidel then [Page 344]say, Why did he dye for me, since I was resolved to dye for my self; If he had not died for me, this Death had never been so terrible, as now I feel it: O that any one would bring an Argument, and convince me now, that Christ died not for me! then should I escape the greatest part of my Tor­ment. I would not torment thee with such thoughts as these now, if it were not in hope to prevent such tormenting thoughts, when time is past: Let me earnestly entreat thee, whoever thou art, that art in this doleful condition, either speedily to believe in Christ, or believe it, thine own Conscience will one day prove thy most ter­rible Executioner.

So much for the First Motive, that should Teach us to prize and exercise Faith, (viz.) Consider the Miseries of an Unbeliever.

But it is not my design to fright the Sinner unto Christ, neither is it possible that Fear only should work true Belief, and produce a justifying Faith. All that I have said hitherto, is to deter the Sinner from such a damning Sin as Unbelief, but these be Arguments of another Nature to attract the Sinner unto Christ; Consider therefore,

2. Secondly, What Christ hath done to draw the Heart of Sinners to him, and to engage them to believe. He hath given his Soul an Offering to the death, and stood in the very flames of his Father's wrath, that he might keep away the burning intolerable heat thereof from us, and bore the grievous burden of our sins; He stript him­self even to the greatest Poverty and Nakedness, that he might Cloth us; and emptied himself, that [Page 345]we might be filled, 2 Cor. 8.9. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that tho he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. When we were fallen into the deepest reproach and shame; he made himself of no Reputation, and took upon him the Form of a Servant, that he might advance us to the highest dignity and honour, 2 Phill. 6.7. He humbled himself to the death, that he might pro­cure our life, he made a low stoop, that he might lift us up when sin had cast us down; He took upon him the humane Nature, that he might make us partakers of the Divine Nature, Heb. 2.14. compared with 2 Pet. 1.4. Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood, he also himself likewise took part with them, that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death, that is the Devil, and pur­chase for us exceeding rich and precious Promises, that by them we might be made partakers of the Divine Nature; It was no small Endearment of himself to us to pass by the Angels and put forth his hand to help us: For verily he took not upon him the Nature of Angels, but the Seed of Abra­ham, 2 Heb. 16. He rejoyced in the habitable parts of the Earth, and his delight was among the Children of Men, Prov. 8.3. It's his earnest desire that thou shouldst have the benefits of his Death, and enjoy what he hath so dearly purchased, and therefore he invites thee to believe in him, be­cause otherwise thou canst have no advantage by his Death; If thou hast any understanding or in­genuity, lay the Love of Christ to Heart, and consider how unspeakably great it is; it's past [Page 346]words to express it, it is so much beyond example, let thy thoughts dwell upon it, and never give over the serious consideration of his Sufferings and Death for such as thou art, till thy Heart melt and yield, and till thou canst with Love and Thankfulness, resign thy self to him, as one that doth deliberately resolve to be his Loyal Subject and Disciple: Methinks, after thou hast heard what he hath done for thee, thou shouldst be ready to do any thing, and stick at nothing that he bids thee do, that thou mightst shew the most grateful resentment of his love; But when he commands thee nothing, but for thy greatest ad­vantage, that is to leave thy deadly Enemies, and forsake thy self-destroying Courses, and come unto him thy greatest Friend, and live under his Government, to refuse such a gracious Offer, shews that thou art void of all true understand­ing, ingenuity, and sense of thy own Benefit and Advantage: Hadst thou rather live under the cruel Laws of a deadly, malitious Enemy, and one that neither can nor will protect thee, when the most dreadful storms are coming on thee, Than under the Government of one that beareth the greatest love and compassion to thee, and hath the greatest Wisdom to direct thee, the greatest Power to protect thee, and whose Laws are the most perfect Rule of Life, and the greatest Tendency to the Peace, Welfare and Perfection of Christ's loyal, faithful Subjects? Hadst thou rather serve a Tyrant, and professed Enemy, in Chains and Slavery, than a rightful, just and gracious Soveraign, that hath given such Demon­strations of the most wonderful and [...]pendious [Page 347]love to such as thou art, whose Service is perfect Freedom, who hath contrived all his Laws for the benefit of his true Subjects and sincere Dis­ciples? If the Love of Christ, testified by such exquisite Sufferings and Death, and thy own Wel­fare and Felicity, will not prevail with thee, to throw off the Yoke of Satan, and the World and Flesh, and to become a Believer, and cause thee to say from thy Heart, with those in the Prophet Isaiah 26.13. O Lord our God, other Lords besides thee have had Dominion over us, but by thee only will we make mention of thy Name.

3. Thirdly, Remember that Faith is the first Grace that brings thee into a justified state Con­dition: All that thou hast or canst do, before thou dost believe in Christ, is of no avail to thy Justification and Salvation: It's Faith that unites the Soul to Christ, and till it be united to him, it can receive no saving benefit from him: when first the sinner doth heartily consent that, Christ shall be his King and Teacher, and he will be his Subject and Disciple, he is morally joyned and united unto Christ; as the Soveraign and Subject make one Body Politick, (of which every Subject is a Member, and the King is the Head) and as the Master and the Scholars are morally united; then begins our union with Christ and our partici­pation of the benefits which he hath purchased, when we first enter our selves into his School, and list our selves under his Government and Protection: God hath peremptorily resolved, that none shall have the special Benefits of his Death, but those that submit themselves to him. Amongst [Page 348]which Justification is the first, and then th [...] [...] fol­low in their due place and order: [...] by Faith, we have Peace [...]. [...] [...]pt [...] the [...] of Eternal Salvation [...] [...]se that actually obey him; so neither [...] the Means of their Justification, to any [...] as by Faith and Cordial Subjection resolve to obey him when their obedience is required: so that the subjection of the Heart to Christ, and a de­liberate purpose to serve him sincerely and con­stantly all our days, is the first Foundation of our Union with Christ and spec [...] Relation to him, from whence Justification doth immediately flow. And what a Mercy and Priviledge that is, none but such as reap the Fruit of Justification perfectly in the other life, can throughly tell: Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven, and whose [...] is covered; yea, again, Blessed is the Man, [...] Da­vid, unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity, and in whose Spirit there is no Guile, Psal. 32.1, 2. But as the Man is miserable and wretched for the present, that is not justified, so wo to him, if he die in an unjustified state. And this, if he want true Faith, he will certainly do: Justification is the Act of the Supreme Rector; none hath Au­thority to do it, but he only, and none can effe­ctually remit or renounce the Penalty, but he only, who alone is both the Kingdom and the Power; And this we have the Testimony of his certain and infallible Word, that he will not do, but upon the Condition of Faith, and an unfeigned subjection to his Son; which alone is the effectual [Page 349]Means to bring them off from their Sins, and to reduce them to their Obedience to God: Never hope to be justified, till from the sense of your vile Nature and corrupt Inclinations and prone­ness to rebel against God, and obnoxiousness to his just displeasure, you do thankfully fly to Christ as your only Remedy, and take his Person for your Ruler, and his Laws and Example for your Rule, and his Spirit for your Sanctifier: For these are the only Terms on which a Sinner is made a true Member of Christ's Church, and consequently justified and pardoned.

4. Fourthly, There's no way whereby we can bring more honour to our Redeemer, than by Believing: For hereby we give him the Glory.

1. Of his Love and Mercy, and all the ways whereby he hath demonstrated his Bowels and Compassions towards us, in his wonderful Con­descention, to be made like to us in the Assump­tion of our Nature, in subjecting himself to the Law, yea, and to the Miseries of his Life, Po­verty, Reproach, and Shame, and that in such a degree, as never any one of us endured, or could endure, in suffering the most pitiful Usage, the most sarcastical Taunts, the most bitter Ago­nies, and the most ignominious cursed Death, and all to bring us into a salveable condition, if we will believe; Now as there can be no greater Af­front nor Provocation given to him, than to slight and make void his Grace and Mercy, so unspeak­ably great, so we can do him no greater honour, than to close with it, and accept it, and be saved by it, and so stand as the Eternal Monument of his Love.

2. We hereby give him also the Glory of his Sovereignty, that by his own Merit and Con­quests, as well as the Free Donation of God, is advanced to the right hand of God, and hath the Supreme Sovereignty and Lordship over all things, both in Heaven and Earth: And therefore he tells us, Matth. 28.18. All Power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth. And Paul tells us, that to this End Christ both died, and rose again, and revived, that he might be Lord both of Dead and Living, Rom. 14.9. And Phil. 2.8, 9, 10. Because Christ was obedient even to the Death of the Cross, Therefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a Name, which is above every Name, That at the Name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth, Matth. 11.27. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and so Luke 10.22. Now to believe on him, is practically to acknowledge his Sove­reignty, that he is Lord of all, Acts 10.36. That he is gone into Heaven, and is on the right hand of God, Angels, and Authorities and Pow­ers being made subject to him, 1 Pet. 3.22. When we subject our selves to him, by Faith we own him, whom God hath made a little lower than the Angels, and crowned him with Glory and Honour, and did set him over the Works of his hands, and hath put all things in subjection under his feet, 2 Heb. 7.8, 9. Did we know what a Blessing and Priviledge it is to come under his Pro­tection, and live in subjection to him, we should need no other Argument to perswade us to be­lieve: As we honour him, so we ease our selves, [Page 351]and rid our selves of those Fears, that we are otherwise exposed to, and therefore our Saviour, that he might comfort his Disciples, exhorts them, John 14.1. Let not your Hearts be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me: When we believe, we do in effect say, He hath satisfied the Justice of God, and he hath given Sinners into his hands, and laid the Government upon his shoulders, and that he can save to the utmost, all that come unto God by and through him, since he ever liveth as an immutable and everlast­ing Priest, to make intercession for them, Heb. 7.25.

3. Hereby we give him also the Glory of his Skill; when by Faith we bring our diseased Souls to him, with confidence of a Cure: For that is one of the Chief Ends of Faith, that we may be purified from all our Corruptions, and perfect Holiness in the Fear of God, 2 Cor. 7.1. As it was one of Christs great Ends in dying, so it should be ours in believing, that we might be saved from our sins, Matth. 1.21. It must be a skilful Physitian indeed, that knows how to free the Soul of Man from such a Mass of Corruption, from such a Chronical and Inveterate Disease that's made up of such a complication of Distem­pers, It must be no less than a Divine Skill in­deed, that must raise such an Earthly Mind, that must Cure a Heart so full of Contradiction to the Will of God, and that must tame the Affe­ctions to God that are grown so carnal; It must be one that knows all the windings and turnings of the Heart; and is throughly acquainted with its Pulse, and all its secret Motions, that can Cure [Page 352]its Selsishness, and take it off from its inordinate pursuit of Earthly Things, and make it submis­sive to the Will of God; that can dispel the darkness of Mans Mind, and heal the Confusion of his Thoughts, and awaken him to an impar­tial Consideration of Things, and fortifie Reason against the Flesh, and rectifie his Judgment, both as to present and future things, and recover him out of Delirancy and Madness: O how much do holy Souls admire his skill whom he hath per­fectly recovered! and how much will they that are now languishing in Selfishness and Pride, and the doting Love of this World, and under all that Litter of Corruptions wherewith their Souls are daily disquieted; when he shall have restored them to Integrity again, and to their right Mind! Come unto him by Faith, and you need not doubt, be your sickness never so mortal; you honour him ex­ceedingly, when you see your manifold and deadly Distempers, and cast your selves upon his Skill.

5. Fifthly, By Faith thou art made Partaker of all the Benefits of Christ's Incarnation, Life, and Death: Those that were thine but condition­ally before, are now made absolutely thine: If thou art heartily Christ's Subject, thou shalt have thy share in all the Priviledges and Immunities of his most wise, powerful, and happy Government, and find that his Yoke is most desirable, Matth. 11.28.29. If thou doest consent deliberately, and sincerely, to be his Disciple, thou shalt have the unspeakable Advantages of such a skilful and effectual Teacher; (And what Tongue is able to express how many and great they are?) If thou [Page 353]art heartily willing to be his Patient, he can and will cure all thy Maladies and Distempers in his due time, and restore thy Soul to its Primitive health and soundness again; he will enlighten thy Mind, and purifie thy Heart, and bend thy Will to a chearful Compliance with the Will of God, and put such a Rellish into thy Soul of Divine and Heavenly Things, that shall make thee long after God, and the Wisdom, Grace and Holi­ness, that make thee like to him: And then it will be no hard matter to have thy Heart in Heaven, thy Discourse of Heavenly Things, and thy De­light in Heavenly Company: Then the Biass of thy Soul will constantly encline thee to rejoyce in the Lord and live continually in his love and praise, and in the love of all Men, specially the Servants of God and the Heirs of Glory: When thou hast once sworn Fealty to Christ, with thy Heart, (For every baptized Christian doth it with his Mouth, or by the Mouth of his Parents) and art gotten under his Shelter and Protection, The Lord shall be thy Keeper, the Lord shall be thy Shade upon thy Right Hand; The Sun shall not smite thee by Day, nor the Moon by Night; The Lord shall preserve thee from all Evil, he shall preserve thy soul, Psal. 121.6, 7, 8. Thou shalt not be affraid for the terrour by Night, nor for the Arrow that flyeth by Day, Psal. 91.6. Then shall he fill thy Mouth with laughter, and thy Lips with rejoycing, Job 8.21. Mistake me not, as if I intimated, that every true Believer hath actually this Joy and Peace, but he hath the Foundation of it, and he would rejoyce if he saw this Grace in himself: But it is the Malice of Satan [Page 354]to keep some sincere Christians in the dark, and to keep them from discerning their interest in Christ and the grace of God in them, that he might de­fraud them of their Comfort, and keep them con­tinually under Trouble: But though he take away their Comfort from them, yet he shall not take away God's Favour from them. They shall still be kept by his mighty Power through Faith unto Salvation, 1 Pet. 1.5. All the Benefits that are necessary to Salvation, they shall actually have, and the rest as they are fit for them.

6. And lastly, Be their Portion here what it will, they shall have the Blessing of God with it; Which will make all things to work together for Good to them, Rom. 8.28. He shall be like the Tree planted by the Rivers of Water, which bringeth forth his Fruit in due season, his Leaf also shall not wither, and look whatsoever he doth, it shall prosper, Psalm 1.3. Blessed shall be thy Basket, and thy Store, Deut. 28.5. God shall bless thy Poverty, and thy Riches; Thy more plentiful, or more mean Estate; Whether thou have Health or Sickness, it shall turn to thy Advantage in the End. Thy Friends shall be a Blessing to thee, yea, and so shall thine Enemies be also: As there is a secret blast of God's displeasure upon the wicked and all that he hath, so the breath and inspiration of the Almighty teacheth Believers wisdom how to order all their steps. The steps of a good Man are or­dered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way: Though he fall, yet shall he not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand, Ps. 37.23. When the Curse of the Lord is in the House of the [...]icked, he will be sure to bless the Habitation of [...]evers, Prov. 3.

Considerations to provoke and stir up the Superlative Love of God in the Heart.

AS there is no surer proof of a Child of God, than the predominant Love of him, be­cause Love is the principal and command­ing Affection, which includes and governs all the rest, and the whole life, with a subserviency to the Object to which it is mainly devoted, so there is no better Exercise, than for a rational Creature to study seriously, and to give diligence to thrive in this Grace.

To which blos [...]ed end, it is wisdom to treasure up Matter, which either Reason or Faith can sug­gest out of the Word or Providences of God in the Heart, and to digest and draw it forth by daily Meditation, whereby this sovereign Affe­ction may be fed and excited. Some help hereto, the few following Considerations will administer, if they be impartially weighed, by a Heart, fully at leasure, and not immersed in worldly Affairs, nor entangled with any other impertinent Mat­ters: The which every soul may amplifie as it is able, and to which many more may be super­added.

First, There is nothing more highly congruous, nor doth better become a Creature, that hath rea­son and understanding, than to love God above all, and daily to grow in this Grace.

Secondly, And it is the highest Dignity and Ho­nour that an intelligent discursive Nature is ca­pable of.

Thirdly, And it brings in the greatest Profit and Advantage. To these three general Heads I shall confine all that I have to say to kindle and stir up this Affection.

First, It is most highly congruous, and doth very much beseem a reasonable Creature:

And that for these following Reasons:

Reason 1.

First, Because God is the most excellent and lovely Object: And as in reason the greatest Beau­ty, (caeteris paribus) should attract the strongest Love, so the contrary implies absurdity and con­tradiction, which Reason doth abhor: For what can it be less than a Contradiction, for one that hath understanding, to prefer a less good, before a greater, there being equality and likeness in all other Circumstances? The same rational Appetite that prompts us to love Goodness, doth also en­cline us to love the greatest Good, with the great­est heat and fervour of Affection: But especially when the difference is so vast as it is between God and all competitory Good whatsoever: They are but like a Drop to the whole Ocean, or a small Dust compared to the whole Globe of Earth: A single Beam of Light may as well stand up and vye Glory, as with the Sun: And a little Sword of Grass, may better compare with the Spirit of Life and Vegetation, and all the Flowers of the Field: as any Created Good may hold up its [Page 358]head against God: Shall I say? As far as the East is from the West, or as far as the Heaven is above the Earth, so great is the distance between God and all Creatures put together! Or rather, the di­stance is a thousand times greater, even infinite and incomprehensible, and far beyond any created Ca­pacity to conceive.

His Excellency is most apparent above all other Things.

1. In that all the kinds and degrees of Excel­lency and Perfection are united in him, which are but scattered and divided amongst the Creatures, and that which they have but some faint degree of dwelleth in him, in the highest measure of ful­ness and exuperancy: So that if there be any Beauty or Glory in the Frame of Heaven and Earth, or any Creatures in them contained, that can stir up desire, and attract our Love, the same Motive with infinite Advantage may be fetch'd from the most lovely Nature of God; And though the things with which Mortal Men are commonly moved, are not formally in God, be­cause they imply imperfection: such as are Worldly Riches, Corporeal Beauty, Sensual Pleasures, and all those Accommodations which suit that part of us which is Flesh and Blood, yet they are in him these several ways, 1. Per viam Eminentiae, by way of Excellency, as the rational Soul doth eminently contain the sensitive, though not formally: And as the understanding of Man, that invents Watches and Clocks, and other Uten­sils, is far better than they, and doth eminently contain them. 2. Per viam Causalitatis, by way of Efficiency, in that he is able to produce and create [Page 359]any of these things with the least Word of his Mouth: He is therefore eminently able to furnish out all good to the Soul that loveth him: And so he hath promised, To give them the desires of their Heart, that delight in him, Psal. 37.4. And therefore the Apostle had ground enough to tell us, That Eye hath not seen, nor Ear heard, neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man, (in this life to understand) the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, 1 Cor. 2.9. And David had cause enough for such a passionate Invitation, O tast, and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the Man that trusteth in him. (Which Trust supposeth, and implieth Love.)

2. He is the productive Cause of all that is de­sirable, and truly Good, (as I just intimated be­fore;) He is the Womb from whence all other Good hath its birth and original: For he hath made Heaven and Earth, and all that in them is, Psalm 95.5. The Sea is his, and he made it, and his hands prepared the dry Land. And Psal. 104. per totum. There's no Virtue, Come­liness or Perfection in any Creature, but he is the Author of it. The Influences of the Heaven, and the Fertility of the Earth, and all the Verdure and Glory of the Grass and Flowers of the Field, do but declare and set forth his infinite Perfection; Who watereth the Hills from his Chambers, and the Earth is satisfied with the Fruit of his Works; And causeth the Grass to grow for the Cattel, and Herb for the Service of Man, that he may bring forth Food out of the Earth; And Wine, that maketh glad the Heart of Man, and Oyl to make his Face to shine, and Bread which strength­neth [Page 360] [...] 15. And hath [...] beauty and [...] all his [...] Matth. 6.29.

It's true, he is no way the [...], (though he be the Cau [...] of all that is desirable) any other ways, [...] as he made Man, to whom that Monster, and Abortion, is wholly to be ascribed, though it be so greedily desired and com­mitted.

But yet though it be actually so much desired by Man, through his Ignorance and Mistake, and the Corruption of his blinded and distempered Faculties, yet is not desirable indeed, nor truly good, any otherwise than Chalk and Coals and Ashes are to one that hath the Pica, and is distem­pered in the Stomach. I am forced to confess, though with grief of Heart, and to the shame and reproach of Mankind, that Man is come to that pass, that he may drink Iniquity like Water, (Job 15.16.) And call Evil, Good, and Good, Evil; and put Darkness, for Light, and Light, for Dark­ness; Bitter, for Sweet, and Sweet, for Bitter, (Isaiah 5.20.) But then it is because the Founda­tions of his Soul are all out of course, and Sense hath got the upper hand, and Reason is under Feet, and his Head stands where his Feet should do: Alas! It is a sad Consideration, that the best of God's Creatures here on Earth, is become the worst of Monsters: But this is no derogation from God's infinite Fulness and Perfection, that he is not the Productive Cause of such a Poyson as this, and the Father of such a deformed loathsome Birth.

Reason 2d.

Secondly, It doth most highly beseem a Reason­able Creature to love God above all, because God hath most obliged us: His Love to us, bids highest, for the highest Return of Love again. If there were any thing in Heaven or Earth that had more obliged us than God, it had not been than a Fault, neither could Reason have risen up and accused us, if we had loved that thing more than God: But now that all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth are silent, and have nothing to say, and the love of God hath so loud a Tongue, and his infinite transcendent Favours do bespeak our Hearts so strongly, what an unpardonable sin is it to love any thing more than him? The Good we receive from others, is by his Special Command and Appoint­ment, what we receive therefore from them, we are indebted unto God for: He is the first Mover; they are but his Instruments, to bring his Favours to us: Now though his Personal Excellency and Perfection, may justly challenge our greatest Love and Esteem, yet the unparallel Good he hath done us, doth call for much more. Nimii durus est Animas (saith Seneca) qui & si Amorem non velit impendere, nolit rependere: It's a base Nature indeed and highly unreasonable, that will not pay Love with Love. Can we be content to receive all from God, and to repay nothing back again? He that gives him not the prime and choice of his Affections, gives him nothing in the Scripture Ac­count, yea, he is reputed a Hater of him, Luke 14.26. If any Man come to me, and hate not, (that is, love them not less) his Father and Mother, [Page 362]and Wife and Children, and Brethren and Si­sters, and his own Life also, he cannot be my Disciple: Let but some of those Numberless Favours which thou hast received from him, be but a while considered, and it will utterly shame and put to silence this odious sin: And the unthank­ful, hard-hearted sinner that is not melted by such love as this, must needs be confounded in the se­rious thoughts thereof, either here or hereafter. Here in Repentance, or hereafter in Torment.

1. Thou hast thy very Being from him, with­out which thou wert uncapable of any Love or Kindness from God or any Creature: He gave thee that very Heart which thou deniest him, and whereby thou slightest him; He gave thee thy Memory to remember him, Thy Mind to think upon him: He gave thee that Faculty of Love, that it might burn continually towards him: Un­grateful Soul, to set any thing above him in thy Love and Esteem! That hadst been a Brute and no Man, if it had pleased him! and might'st then have wanted such a gift to bestow on him, or any other thing.

2. The same Hand that gave thee thy Being at the first, doth yet continue it, and preserve thee every Day and Night, every Hour and Moment: If he should but subtract his Hand, thou would'st soon dye and return to thy Dust again: Thou hast forfeited Life, and deserved Death over and over. How oft hast thou run upon destruction, and he hath saved thee, and reversed the Sentence of Death, when the Law hath condemned thee? And lengthned out this Life to thee, that thou might'st repent, and live for ever? And dost [Page 363]thou live by his meer grace and favour every day, and yet lovest him not above all other things? This is highly absurd and unreason­able.

3. Thy Life and all other Comforts, are not only the Fruit of his Bounty, but of his meer Grace and Mercy: They have been all forfeited a thousand times over: Every Sin calls for Sen­tence and Execution upon the sinner, and condemns him to universal want and misery: But the Blood of God hath purchased them back again to thee, and the hand of God hath restored them, and re­covered so base a Wretch into a state of favour, and condition of hope: And under each of these comprehensive Mercies, infinite particulars might be reckoned up: And now what canst thou set up in Competition with Him? Thy Wit? Thine Understanding? Thy Health? Strength? Beau­ty? Friends? Riches? Honour? Life? Or any Provision that's made for it? These all belong to him, They are his Talents: Art thou a Debter to all, or any one of these, that thou shouldst serve, love, or esteem them, more than him who is so in­comparably thy Benefactor?

Reason 3d.

Thirdly, God deserveth our greatest love, be­cause he is to us, The most suitable Good.

Now that's the most suitable good, that doth most fitly and fully supply all our Necessities and satisfie our most rational Desires; Now who, or what can pretend to compare with him in this respect, or stand in a competition with him?

There are Two great Necessities which every Soul lies under, 1. The one is in respect of Sin: The 2d. in respect of Suffering and Misery, which Two comprize all the Wants and Necessities of Man: Both which none is capable of removing, but Christ our Redeemer, who is God-Man, bles­sed for evermore.

And for the first Sin, It exposeth every sinner to two great Wants: The One of Pardon; The Other of Sanctification: In the want of either of which, it's plainly impossible, that any Man should be happy.

And this needs no other Proof, that the bare Explication of what Pardon and Sanctification are.

1. Pardon is but the Removal of Guilt, which every Sinner doth contract. Now Guilt being an Obligation unto Punishment, Pardon must needs be the dissolving or nulling of that Obligation; which if it should continue, and not be removed, the guilty sinner must needs be terrified and af­frighted with the sense of his obnoxiousness to God's displeasure, who perfectly hates Sin, and loves Justice and Righteousness, more than all his Creatures, and therefore must needs resent any Affront done to them, as it were to the Apple of his Eye, where such Guilt lies upon any Crea­ture: which sense cannot but arise in every Sinner, when Conscience is awake, [which will be sooner or later;] And then he that knows God is his Enemy cannot sure be happy, since he hath infinite power and wisdom against him: And this is the very Case of every one that lies under Guilt unre­moved, he hath Almighty God for his Enemy.

And as the want of Pardon cannot consist with Happiness, so neither can the want of

2. Sanctification. For as he that hath God for his Enemy cannot be happy, so neither can he that is an Enemy unto God: And such a one is every unsanctified and unrenewed Soul, who being un­like to God, cannot take pleasure in him, nor have any complacency in those things which are suited to his blessed Nature: But loves them just as the Bird doth the Snare, from whence he will fly and escape, with all the speed he can: But he that cannot love God above all, and delight chiefly in his Ways, can never be happy: because these are the only Ways that can perfect his Na­ture and make him happy.

Pardon and Sanctification being thus explained, it evidently follows by clear consequence, that without these two, the sinner cannot be happy, but such a one is every Man, and therefore with­out these two Supplies, no Soul can be happy: Thus much being evident and demonstrable, it is as plain that none can remove the Guilt and Filth that sin implies, but God who alone can remit sin, and sanctifie the sinner and dispose him by Holiness to the Love of God and all Righteousness, wherein his chief happiness doth consist.

The Second grand Necessity which Man lies under [which indeed comprehends all Necessities what­soever] is Misery or Suffering, which comprizeth all that Evil in Effect, which sin doth in the Cause; All that Sickness and Sorrow, and Trouble and Fear, and Discontent and Death, and those sad Expectations after it, are the Fruit and Effect of Sin, by Resultancy oftentimes, and always by [Page 366]way of a Righteous Punishment and Compensa­tion: Yea, Sin is such a Monster, that it not only deserves, but also inflicts Evil upon the Mansion where it dwells, and like that cruel Emperour, rips up the Womb that bare it, and is both the Malefactor and Executioner, yea, and the very Death also that is inflicted. I mean, (that I may avoid Metaphors, and speak properly,) That Sin is both the meritorious, efficient, I, and formal Cause of a great part of our Sufferings and Cala­mity; though not in its formal, yet in its mate­rial Consideration. And as a Beast that being confined within its right Pasture, by some Pale, or Fence, doth by the same violence, break the Fence and hurt it self, and get into more Feeding: so doth every sinner, by the same Transgression, violate God's Law and his own Welfare, and is both Active and Passive in the same inordinate Action: For it's one great End of God's Law, to tye Mens hands, that they should not hurt themselves: So that God's Honour and Man's Safe­ty do enter the very definition of all his Laws; so great is the Wisdom of our Supreme Law-giver: But the foregoing Similitude is but lame and doth not fully express the formal Effect of Sin, (as I may call it.) Tradition to Sin, is threatned as the most fearful Judgment in Scripture.

Now God alone that can remove the Cause, can also free the Sinner from the sad and woful Consequents, and then Happiness will be the Re­sult: For he that is freed from all Evil whatso­ever, and yet hath an immortal duration, must needs be happy. For without the blessed Frui­tion of God, such a reasonable Soul as Man hath, [Page 367]that can see backwards, and forwards, and hath the Passions of Hope, Fear, Love, Joy, cannot pos­sibly be at rest, and cease from self-tormenting Thoughts and Actions.

Since therefore it's God only that can supply all the Necessities of a rational Creature, it follows, that he only is the most suitable and proper good to such a Creature, and therefore is principally, and as far as is possible to be desired and loved.

This is the Third Reason why it is so highly con­gruous and doth so well beseem a reasonable Crea­ture, to love God above all.

Secondly, As it is most highly Congruous and Reasonable, so it is the Highest Dignity and Honour that a Rational Creature is capable of.

If Honour be truly to be estimated, either by the Nobleness of the Act, for which any one is ho­noured, or the Persons in whose Esteem we are advanced; both these ways be united to God above all things in Love, is the highest honour that a Creature can ever arrive to, unless it be to exchange sincerity of Love, for Perfection, or to add further degrees to this Love, till it comes to its ultimum quod sic, or vertical Point.

1. There's no Act that can put a greater Lustre upon the Agent, than that which is directly ex­ercised upon God, especially in the way of Love. For the Object as it gives Specification, so it gives Worth and Nobleness to the Act, and that reflects it upon the Faculty first, and then upon the Agent, whose Faculty it is: For as the Act is more glo­rious, [Page 368]that's exercised about a Kingdom, than that which is exercised upon lower and baser things; so that Faculty is more noble, that's ca­pable of doing such an Act, than that which is capable only of doing the other Acts: And by consequence, he that steereth or governeth a Ship, is more honourable, than he that rows it: Or rather, a Prince is more honourable than a Plow­man, because his Acts are conversant about a no­bler object.

This being past dispute, it follows, that the Servant of God is far more highly dignified, than any other Servant whatsoever: Now Love being the principal Part of his Service, because it is the Service of the Heart, which he chiefly requires; It's therefore the highest Honour to Love him with the whole Heart.

2. And God esteems that Person most highly, that thus loves him: because All the Promises of the Gospel are made to such, which are the highest Expressions of God's Bounty and Love; And those whom he doth most richly endow and favour, them he doth most highly honour: Particularly, 1. God dwelleth in them here. 2. And they shall dwell with God hereafter. Now what greater Honour can there be, than Familiari­ty and Co-habitation with the Fountain of all Ho­nour?

And as to love God superlatively and above all, is 1. Most Reasonable: 2. Most Honou­rable. So,

Thirdly, It brings in the greatest Profit and Ad­vantage. For hereby,

First, If this Love prevail over all other Love, it ascertains to us,

1. That Relative Grace which consists in Pardon of all Sin; Justification of our Persons; Peace and Favour with God or Friendship with him; and Sonship to him; and Right to Heaven.

2. And also to all Real Grace, whereby every Christian is shaped and fashioned to the Divine Nature and Similitude: And therefore may con­fidently expect, that in the use of Means the Holy Spirit should enable him to thrive and bring forth the Fruit of a sounder Knowledge in Spiritual Things, of Patience, Humility, Meekness, Self­denial, Temperance, Brotherly Love, and Cha­rity, every one of which is a Jewel of inestimable worth: In a word, He hath a sound Title, by the Free Charter of the Gospel, to all that Christ hath purchased and procured by the Merit of his Blood.

And as his Love encreaseth in the Degree and Measure, and groweth towards Perfection, so it doth encrease the Measure of every Grace; And then Assurance, which is the Consequent of an higher Measure of Grace than ordinary Chri­stians aspire to, usually flows in: And then such a Measure of Boldness and Confidence in our Ad­dresses to God, as doth usually fill the Heart with daily Comfort.

Secondly, And as this prevailing Love doth gather strength, so Peace at Home, and inward Calmness and Tranquility doth encrease: And this is a continual Feast, sweeter than all the troublesome, disturbing Pleasures of the World: The more any Soul is conscious to it self of a [Page 370]prevailing Love to God, and that he hath the Supremacy in his Heart, the more all his Facul­ties do unite and conspire to Quietness, Rest, and Peace: For there's nothing that puts a Man into Tumult and Disorder, but the greedy desire after something that looks like Happiness, but when it's gotten, proves no such thing, and vexeth the Soul with Frustration and continual Disappoint­ment: Now the more the Soul is in love with God, the more it is acquainted with the true happiness, and is the less in danger to be diverted by false and lying Promises: And when once the Soul hath got this Harbour, it will stir no more out so as to forsake it, but silently feeds on conti­nual pleasure, and dwells at ease, as the Psalmist expresseth it, Psal. 25.13. And knows that all farther labour is vain, unless it be to grow more deeply rooted in love: And this Peace and inward Joy, is always the Companion of Assurance, in some sensible degree; however it may perchance be wanting to those, and altogether imperceptible, that have the weakest and lowest measure of true, or prevailing love to God.

Thirdly, And as this Love encreaseth all trouble­some, slavish Fear, and sad Expectations do scat­ter and fly away: Who that hath the interest in God, that such a love doth entitle to, need to fear Sickness, or Poverty, or Crosses, or Death it self considerably, if he knows he is united to one so firmly that hath Life and Death in his hands, and hath the Command of all Creatures in Heaven, and Earth and Hell? The Sleep of such a Man must needs be sweet; His Food, though never so course, cannot but refresh and comfort him; [Page 371]And all his Comforts, are Comforts indeed; be­cause none of them are disturbed with those, Ra­ving, Mad, and disturbing Passions, that every Man void of this love of God cannot be free from more or less: How quietly doth such a Man lie down and rise up, because the Lord, when he thus loves, maketh him to dwell continually in safety? Psal. 4.8.

Fourthly, As this Love encreaseth, Tempta­tion will lose its force, and grow weaker and weaker: How little will Riches and Honour and worldly Pleasures draw that Man to commit sin, and displease God, that feels the love of God and the sweet Consequences of it in his Soul? and also knows, that he hath or may have enough in him: They may tempt a Fool and one that hath little or no experience of the love of God, and that wants something to set his heart at rest and quiet: But he that is rich already, and truly happy, will not easily catch at shadows, but study to keep what he is possessed of, and which he knows to be Treasure indeed: He may in a short fit of inconsideracy, perhaps, forget God and his Soul, and give some ease to Temptation in such an hour, but he will quickly return again: And then when he remembers God again, he will be troubled, Psal. 77.3. And his folly will cost him dear; And his Soul will cleave the faster after­wards to God, when he hath been better taught by so bad experience.

Fifthly, As this love encreaseth, all base and sor­did love will slink away and depart with confusion and shame: Who will love a Harlot that is de­formed, when he may honestly enjoy sweeter and [Page 372]better love? Sure none but a perverted, distempered Mind. Who will feed upon Husks, when he may have the most pleasant, wholsome and delicious Fare? None but one that hath lost his Reason: And who will dote upon a Trifle, when he may have a Crown and Kingdom to be delighted with? Cer­tainly so far as a Man feels he loves God, he disdains the love of other things, that will not consist with him: And he will abhor the Motion that's back'd with the greatest worldly Preferment, that would draw away his heart from God: Had he not tasted how good and gracious the Lord is, and how happy a thing it is to live in Unity with him; He might perchance hearken to every de­luding Pleasure that courts his Affections: But after he hath received the love of God into his heart, and felt what a reviving Cordial it is, the Pleasures and Honours of the World come too late, and seem but Dung and Dross when they are laid in the Scales with that. No Man, (saith our Saviour) having drunk old Wine, straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better, Luke 5.39. You know that famous Marquess (Ga­leoc. Carac.) was moved with indignation at such an offer as that: Cursed are they (saith he) that think all the Gold and Silver in the World, worth one day's Communion with Christ. And thrice wicked are they, that would wed Mens Affections to the World and divorce them from Christ: When there is a plain Competition or Contradi­ction between God and any worldly happiness, the presentment of such a happiness to a gracious heart, and one that truly loves God, looks like a motion from the Devil, and provokes him to fly [Page 373]in the face of him that makes it, and to abhor such a Sollicitor. Let me live, saith such a one, in Poverty and Raggs, rather than forgo what I now enjoy: Let those that never felt the love of God in their hearts, feed upon Trash, (if they please) I have a better Dyet. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord (and his favour) than the greatest treasure without it, Prov. 15.16. Better is a dinner of Herbs, where this love is, than a stalled Ox, and hatred therewith, vers. 17. It's but a ridiculous, foolish thought, to think to draw an experienced Saint away from the love of God, by Silver and Gold, and a little gaudy Apparel, and delicious Fare, and two or three fair Words, and some few more slight Courtesies the World can do for him, when he sees the vast difference be­tween an immovable Rock, and a Reed shaken with every wind; And that there is none in Heaven but God, and none upon the Earth that his soul can desire in comparison of him, Ps. 73.25. The Law of thy Mouth (saith David) is dearer to me than thousands of Gold and Silver: more to be desired than Gold, Psal. 119.14. yea than the most solid refined Gold; sweeter also than the Honey, and the dropping of the Honey-comb, Psalm 19.10. And i [...] the Law was so lovely and excellent in his esteem, much more the Law­giver.

I conclude therefore, that the Love of God is the best Antidote against all base and poisonous love whatsoever, and will not permit the World with any of its Pleasures to prevail where it is: It will cast this Bond-woman with her Sons, and not suffer them to be Co-heirs with God and his Son, Gal. 4.30.

Since therefore (O my Soul!) it is so highly consonant to that Reason that is in thee, and con­duceth so much to the highest Honour and Perfe­ction, and brings in such incomparable Advantage, Why art thou so backward and averse to this sweetest Imployment? which is so sweet, 1. In the very Exercise. 2. And sweeter the more it is exercised. 3. And makes all other Duty, sweet, easie, and pleasant; which for want of this Quick­uer, goes on but dully sometimes, and is quickly tyred: And so much as this warm Affection is wanting, all thy Services will wax more and more chill and cold, till at last, if that spark go quite out, (I mean as to the exercise) there will be a stop in all Duty, and all will be frozen up. And if the Pulse of this Affection cease to beat towards God, all Devotion and Exercise of Piety towards him, will suffer a Deliquium, and be in a fainting Fit and Swone.

Why then is thy heart no more transported with this Love? David felt so much pleasure and sweetness in this Work, that he could not forbear to provoke others to partake with him, in this no­blest delight, by a most Patherical Invitation, O Love the Lord, all ye his Saints, for the Lord pre­serveth the Faithful, Psalm 31.23. Thou canst love other things too sensibly, that have not half the force and strength that this Object hath to draw and invite this Affection; And have moreover, disappointed thee too often of the Pleasure and Felicity that from them thou hast expected: yea, and which is far worse, have entangled thee in many foolish and hurtful Lusts, which have after­wards betrayed thee to sad and bitter complaints. [Page 375]But here's an Object worthy thy strongest love, that will not debase and destroy, but advance thy Soul to the highest Perfection: The Love of him, as it is sweet in the exercise, so it will end at last in unspeakable sweetness; and will not upbraid thee with Folly afterwards, as all other Love will be sure to do: Thou mayest love other things too much, and here's the Source and Spring of all Sin and Impiety, and of all absurd and unreasonable Practices: For as Divine Love is the sum of Duty, and all worthy and becoming Actions; so Carnal Love, or the Love of Creatures, is the Sum of all Wickedness, and all incongruous and unseemly Practice: But God can never be exalted too high in thine Estimation and Affections: Here thou mayest safely vent and pour out all the store of thy Love with the greatest delight and security; and expatiate thy Soul to the widest extent in the Ocean of his infinite and most lovely Perfections: To him thou mayest safely offer up thy Soul in sacrifice, as a whole-Burnt-Offering in the Fire of Love for ever; Wilt thou permit thy Thoughts any more to fly abroad into Trifles and imperti­nent Matters, when thou hast the immense Ocean of Divine Goodness to lanch forth into, and mayest lose thy self, with the greatest pleasure and advantage, in the depths of his infinite Per­fections: Here to be even drowned and swal­lowed up, is not Death, but the sweetest and most ravishing Life: Hast thou not pined long enough, and melted away in the Cares and Love of the World, the Martyrdom which corrupt Nature prompts thee fast enough to chuse? Is it not now more than Time to be wiser, and to bare [Page 376]an Honourable Testimony to him that hath re­deemed thee? And to subscribe that Witness to the Truth, which thou hast borne too much hither­to to Lies and Falsehood? Let them be taken by thee for Fools and Madmen, that torture them­selves with the Love and Care of this World, and take Hell by that violence, that the Kingdom of Heaven should be taken by: But let the main stream and current of thine Affections be ever after him, in whom are all the dimensions of Perfection: Some little Twilight and Glimmer­ings of his Ravishing Beauty thou hast seen in his Words and Works; But oh how short! how exceeding short have they been, through thy wil­ful Blindness and Inadvertency! But these ex­press not the thousandth part of his wonderful, astonishing Splendour and Glory: Something it may be thou hast tasted of; his sweetest, reviving Love: But oh how little, in respect of what thou might'st have had, had it not been for thy own wilful neglect and refusal! Hadst thou gazed as much upon his Glory, as thou hast done upon the fading, transitory Glory of the World, and studied his Perfections, according to the Oppor­tunities and Advantages he hath given thee, and not loved dismal, affrighting Darkness, rather than the quickning, trransforming Light, and neglected the best use of thine Understanding and Affections in holy Meditations on God; Thou might'st confidently have expected the Blessing of God in a Work so well pleasing to him, and found the Treasure that would have made thee contemn all other things in Comparison: Then thou might'st have had joy in the darkest Night [Page 377]of Affliction, and such an Allay to the bitterest Cup, that would have made any Condition wel­come to thee: Then thou would'st have forgotten all the Miseries of thy life past, and remembred them as Waters that pass away, Job 11.16. Then thou might'st have lyen down with the sense of the pardon of former sins, yea, thou might'st have lyen down, and thy sleep would have been sweet to thee. Then the Remembrance of thy latter End would not have been such an unpleasant Theme to thy Meditations, as now it is: yea, the Lord would have satisfied thy Soul in Drought, and made thee like a watered Garden, and like a Spring whose Waters fail not, Isaiah 58.11. And then with what vivacity and chearfulness should'st thou have performed all Duty, and borne all Sufferings, when God had once answered thee in the joy of thy Heart!

Considerations to provoke to the Contempt of the World.

AS the Object of all rational, saving Love, is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and all that standeth in subserviency to him, so far as they conduce to this Noble End and Hap­piness of the Soul; So the Object of all irra­tional, sinful, damning Love, is the World, and whatsoever serves to promote its interest in the Heart, so far as it is Competitory with, or Contra­dictory to the Interest of God; and conduceth to the inordinate pleasing of the Flesh: And thus much I intend here by the World, (that is) any thing in the whole Creation, that doth not refer to, and is not subordinate unto God, is to be the Object of this Contempt and Dis­dain.

First, Because the World is unsatisfactory and cannot content the Mind of Man; There is some­thing still that the Soul misseth, when it hath all here that it can desire: It silently imagineth an Aliquid ultra, when it hath gone its farthest in the Happiness and Prosperity here on Earth: And it's so far from Rest, after all, that it grows more hot and impatient in its desires: And find­ing nothing to pursue after, that can give con­tent, begins to fret, and grow peevish: when the ambitious Soul is gotten to the top of Honour, he finds not the thing he expected, he calls it by all the slight and contemptible Names he can in­vent, or imagin: you may as well satisfie the Appetite of an hungry Man with Grace and Vir­tue, or something that's purely Spiritual, as fill the Soul and Spirit of a Man, with Earth, and Earthly Things, or any thing of a gross or cor­poreal [Page 380]Nature, because there is so little Likeness and Proportion between the Appetite and the Food: Prov. 27.20. Hell and Destruction are never full, so the Eyes of Man are never satisfied. Eccles. 1.8. As the Horse-leach hath two Daugh­ters that cry, Give, give, (Prov. 30.15.) which some understand of its forked Tongue, that hath two Suckers at the end of it) so there is in Man by Nature, first an eager desire after these worldly things, and secondly an unquietness or want of con­tent, when he hath gotten them, and a more burning desire after them; which is worse than the former: As that Thirst is always worse which proceeds from too much drinking, than that which proceeds from a total want of drink.

These shews what unsatisfactory things they are, in that they do not quiet and content, but ra­ther more enrage our desires, and vex and dis­compose the Heart: Eccles. 5.10. He that loveth Silver, &c.

Secondly, Because they are so short and limited in their virtue and operation: It's commonly but one or two Necessities, that one Creature can supply, and those but very imperfectly; But all together, cannot supply the one half of the Wants and Necessities that Man is subject to: Fire may relieve one that is cold, but cannot fill the Belly of an hungry Man; Company may a little refresh him that is weary of Solitude, but real Sickness and Pain it cannot remove: And all other Creatures have their stint and measure: Let but a Man be distressed in Conscience, and fright­ed with the Thoughts of Death, and terrified with sad Expectations of Judgment afterwards, [Page 381]and even confounded with the Thoughts of Hell, and the Torments thereof. And all the World cannot help him in such a streight: Nay,

Thirdly, They are such winged, transitory things, that they are worthy to be contemned; What speed do they make to get away, when we have the fastest hold of them? They make as much hast as a Ship that saileth with the advantage of Wind and Tide. Who can name the Comfort he hath had on Earth, that hath lasted to the small Measure and Extent of an Hundred Years? Nay, I may confidently say to half a hundred, 'Tis not one in Twenty that lives to Fifty Years; And when Life's gone, all is gone: Who is there that enjoys Health twenty Years together, with­out some interruption? Scarce one in a King­dom: But for the most part, Men are like their Ley-fields, (as they are called) that it may be rest one year, and are ploughed another: Let the mad and distracted World prize and prefer such a fading Flower, as is the Glory of this World, before Heaven, and an Eternal Life with God; Let the World take the World, and they that are dead in Trespasses, and Sins, take these dead, momentary and insipid Pleasures: It's Life and Substance that a wise and sober Man will thirst after, and something that will last beyond the Term of this present: He that believes to purpose the Life to come, would not be condemned to a brutish, sensual, and voluptuous Life, nor the Pleasures that distracted Men are mad af­ter, who then laugh most, when God is far­thest from their thoughts, and then have the [Page 382]sweetest Dreams when Faith and Reason are in the deepest sleep.

Fourthly, As all the Comforts here on Earth are fugitive and passant, so they are most uncer­tain: They lye open to so many Accidents and Casualties, that no one hath security enough, that he shall keep them one hour.

They are liable to a double uncertainty;

1. The one is from their own fluid perishing Nature and Inconstancy.

2. The other from the fickle and corruptible Nature of the Owner.

First, Their inconstancy and mutable Nature doth appear in that they may and do change

• 1. Their Nature even whilst the Owner lives.
• 2. Their Master even whilst the Owner lives.

1. They may change their Nature; Land may change its Fertility, and become barren and good for nothing, while the Owner stands by and looks on; or else if his Fruit grow up and raise his ex­pectation, there's a thousand Accidents may in­tercept it, before it come into his Store-house, and be laid up for his immediate use; it may be suddenly smitten with a blast from Heaven; it may be parched with excessive heats, or nipp'd with cold, and drowned with intemperate show­ers: Or if it scapes all these, the Lord may com­mand his Armies, the Locusts and Caterpillers, or some Vermin to devour it: There are Ways [Page 383]enough past finding out, which the Wit of Man cannot foresee, or if it could, cannot prevent, by which the Hopes of the present Master, or In­cumbent, may be blasted; The place where a Man lives, that was once commodious, and a comfortable Residence, may suddenly become inhospitable, by reason of the corrupted Air, or Persons amongst whom we live: The House that shelters us may be soon turned into Ashes, by a devouring Fire. Or,

2. They may change their Master; They may be taken away by Fraud, or Violence: Every one that hath but Mind enough to what we have, and Wit enough to contrive how to get it into his possession, and Wickedness enough to execute what he hath contrived, and Grace too little to restrain him, may quickly alter the Property of what we have, and be Master of our best En­joyments: And it's sad to think, what a great part of Mankind they be that have all these Hel­lish Properties.

Or if all this will not load the fickle things of this World with disgrace enough, and they may scape all the forementioned Casualties, yet,

Secondly, The Owner may be taken from them? Who can say that his Pulse shall certainly beat an hour longer? Such a vapour is the Life of Man, that there scarce can be any more uncertain Te­nure: When his Mountain stands strongest, yet he is in the hands of him that set fast the Moun­tains, who is girded with power enough to overturn them with one Word or Beck: My Times are in thy hands, saith David, Psalm 31.15.

Yea, to superadd one more Disparagement.

Thirdly, Whilst the Enjoyment and Enjoyer both continue together, a Man may want an Ap­petite, and so rellish nothing that he hath, Eccles. 8.1, 2 There is an Evil: And then no wonder if he starve in the midst of Plenty; and pine away from day to day, whilst he hath the most nourish­ing restorative Food that Earth can set before him: It will then be no marvel, if Leanness enter into his Soul, though God hath given him all that his Flesh can desire, (Psal. 106.15.) If the Rich Man's Pallate be but a little feaverish, through the Distempers of his Body or Mind, his great Revenues, his stately House, his beautiful Wife, his numerous Off-spring, all his Flatterers, and the rest of his Accommodations, signifie nothing to him: yea, a little Pet or Discontent, will turn all into Gall and Bitterness, and make him most angry with those that study to please him most.

Fifthly, To shew yet further how worthy they are to be contemned, Consider, They are got­ten with much difficulty; Kept with much care and trouble; Lost with much sorrow: 1. It's not one of many that gets the Riches of this World; some indeed are born to them, but how many are defeated of their hopes, before they grow up: And what doth their Birth-right serve for, but to make them the more miserable? This is all the Priviledge they have, by being born of Rich and Noble Parents, that perchance fall into Poverty or Disgrace, before their Children are ripe: And for the rest, how many Difficulties do they pass, before they get them into their Possession? It [Page 385]may be Twenty or Thirty Years they are subject to the Will and Humour of those that give them: And when they have done all, it may be, they are disinherited, and put to hard shifts. But of those that are not born to them, they are more hardly gotten; It costs them many a weary day, and many a restless, watchful Night, much Sweat and Pain, to get a poor, little Portion! And yet the greatest part of the Price by which they are usually purchased, is yet behind; Whilst they are venturing after Riches, they too frequently lose God and their Souls, if not by a plain and open, yet by a secret and virtual renouncing of them: though not by gross and manifest wicked­ness, yet by a sinful and dangerous neglect of God and their Souls: And yet of those that thus labour for them, the greatest part do not succeed.

2. But yet after they are once gotten; Are they not too often wrecked with Cares and Thoughts how to preserve and keep them? They are fain to bear the Blows of them that are above them; Eccles. 5.12. And the Envy and Discontents of those that are under them, and the Cheats and Circumvention of those that have more Wit. And,

3. Which is the most ponderous Aggravation of their Vanity, As Men are sick for them, so are they sick of them, and yet they count it death to part with them: First they are sick of desire, be­fore they get them, and then they are by and by sick of Fruition; But it cuts them to the heart, to have the morbifick matter removed: And yet whether they consent or not, when all is [Page 386]done, and the utmost diligence is used to defend them, they must part at last, and the owner must leave them, or they will leave the owner.

Sixthly, They are the great Snares and Temp­tations of Mens Souls: What is it that draws any Man to sin against God, and destroy his own Soul, but the sweet Bit of worldly Pleasure or Profit? No Man would swear or lye, or deal deceitfully, or live idly, or drink and whore, but for the plea­sure and advantage that he expects in so doing. Who would covet and care for the World, and labour so painfully to get it into his Possession, if he did not dream of Happiness from it? And yet it is but a Dream; And every Promise that the World makes of true Content and Felicity, is but a Lye: And he that's over credulous in such a Case as this, is worse than mad: True it is, the World hath something in it that's fitted to the pleasure and delight of Flesh and Blood, in an ordinary Course of Providence: And we being so prone to please, yea, and over-please this Part, we are in great and contirual danger from the World? And wilt thou so much esteem and seek after that, that will destroy thee, if thou learn not to slight and contemn it? Hast thou sped so well already, (O my Soul!) that thou should'st be still tampering with it? Hast thou so well quit thy self already, and escaped the Thrusts it hath made at thee? Hath it made no breach in the Conscience? No Wounds in thy Heart? Hath it begot no strangeness nor Jealousie between God and thy Soul? Hath it not sadly wounded thee in thine Intellectuals, and much perverted thine Understanding? Hath it done no Mischief to [Page 387]thy Will and Affections, but helped them Hea­venwards to the only Place of their Rest? I would it had thus dealt with thee; But such a Friend it never was, nor will be whilst it's loved for its self.

Seventhly, The World is God's great (if not only Competitor) and therefore in so much de­serves to be contemned: Though the Devil and the Flesh, fight against God both of them, and use the World as their chief Weapon, yet by way of object to Man's Soul, there's nothing but God and the World, openly pretend to be Man's Happiness: The Devil doth but set this Bait be­fore us, when he tempts us unto sin; He dare not appear himself, to draw any by his own proper and innate beauty, who is almost known of all, to be so monstrous and deformed; and whom every one [that is not himself become a Mon­ster] hath a natural instinct to hate and ab­hor.

Indeed there be some few such that he hath gotten so wholly into his power, [through the just and fearful permission of God; for their wicked Rejection and Contempt of him] that they take him for their Ruler and Guide to Hap­piness, for want of a better, and swear Fealty to him; But I believe it is with some secret Re­luctancy and Regret: But however, I here under­stand World in so large a sense, as to involve all Creatures in its Latitude: And what, doth it not seem a ridiculous thing and odious Competi­tion, for the World or Devil to stand against God, and compare their Worth and Excellency with his? Let them shew their own, if they will [Page 388]vye with him: Or let them bring something that's lasting and satisfactory? Let them shew something that will answer all the hopes and ex­pectations of Man? Something that will help him in every streight and necessity: Nay, that will free him from all such streights and necessi­ties, if they would have the honour of rational love and esteem: What shall Dung and Dross lye in the Scales, with an Eternal weight of Glory? Shall it put any one, but a Fool, to debate which he shall chuse, when there is such an unspeakable difference? Art thou so void of Understanding, and so much forsaken of common Reason, that any thing shall seem desirable to thee, that's laid in the Ballance with the Fountain of all Good­ness? O let thine Heart abhor its former Guilti­ness in this kind, and henceforth boyl up with Hatred and Contempt against such an Usurper that would be preferred before God; Resolve, and that fixedly, never to hearken to such an impious and absurd Motion.

Eighthly, The Love of the World is but meer Flattery and Deceit: It is not to be trusted when it makes the most fair and faithful Promises, and gives the strongest security to Performance: Job, Haman, Manasseh, Zedekiah, and Jehoiakim, are proof enough of this, to go no further than the Bible: Look not on the Vine, (saith Solomon) when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the Cup, when it moveth it self aright, At the last it biteth like a Serpent, and stingeth like an Adder, Prov. 23.31, 32. When the World smiles most, and looks the most pleasingly, it usually gives the most mortal stab: Let the Experience of all Ages speak out, and [Page 389]tell us plainly, how the World hath used its great­est Followers and Admirers: some it hath taken from the Top of all their worldly Dignity and Glory, and made the very Scorn and Contempt of all. Thus it served the famous Bellisarius, that great and worthy Commander under the Em­perour Justinian: Thus also it served Seianus, the great Favorite of Tiberius, and Pillippa the Ca­tanian, that was so famous in the Court of Naples: Thus it used the great Darius, Cyrus, Craesus, and the proud Bajazet, with infinite others, that were gotten to the height of worldly Prosperity: But those that it hath used best, it hath left them at last to grapple with Death and Judgment. It saves none from the devouring stroke of Death: It accompanies none beyond the Grave; Thither if it chance to bring any of its Paramours, there to be sure it leaves them: Their Glory shall not depart after them, Psalm 49.17. The Happiness and Felicity of the World will be sure to leave us in our greatest need: These Goards will be sure to wither before the Morning of the Resurrection, when we shall need most Protection from the scorching heat of God's wrath: But if we go to the Sanctuary, there we may more certainly learn, how it hath, and will befriend those that have doted most upon it, and have ventured the Favour of God, and their Everlasting Hopes, for the World: Psalm 92.7. When the wicked spring as the grass, and all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever. And how doth the World then stand up in their behalf, when they are betrayed thereby to such a fearful Destruction? It leaves them to the stroke [Page 390]of Justice, to shift for themselves: Job 20.5, 6, 7. The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment; Though his excel­lency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever, as his own dung: All they which have seen him, shall say, Where is he? This is the Portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God, Job 20.29. Thus the World gives up its Lovers to the Wrath of God, and shall come in as a Witness also to their Everlasting Con­fusion.

Ninthly, The prevailing Love of any thing here on Earth, is a Sin not fit to be pardoned, if a Man dye in it: And it is an infallible Mark of one, that shall perish without Mercy, yea, and of one whom God hateth: 1 John 2.15. Love not the world, nor the things of the world. If any man love the world, (in this predominant measure) the love of the Father is not in him. And James 4.4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world, is emnity with God? He therefore that will be a friend of the world, is an enemy unto God. Luke 14.26. If any man come to me, and hate not [that is, love them not less] his Father, and Mother, and Wife and Children, and Brethren, and Sisters, and his own Life, much more all other things, he cannot be my Disciple. These are the plain Passages of God's Word, that shew manifestly, how every one shall be sure to speed, that loveth any thing here below, more than Christ: No Apology can be made for such a one, neither is such a one a Subject capable of Mercy, if he live and dye in that state, that sets so light [Page 391]by it, and God the Author of it, as to prefer such a short liv'd Trifle before him: That say unto God Directly, or by Consequence, by Word, or Practice, stand thou here at my Foot-stool, when the World is exalted and set up in Honour and Esteem: In a word, to love any Thing more than God, is a Sin that the Gospel hath no pardon for, if it be final, because it argues an ungodly Heart, and he that's ungodly, cannot be a Believer or a Christian: Because the Means, presuppose the End, and Christianity, which is the way to God, presupposeth Godliness, or some Love to God, [who is the End intended or desired,] And without Faith the Gospel Grant giveth no Remis­sion of Sin.

Tenthly, Till a Man can contemn the World, (in the sense before stated) he is no better than a Brute: so far is he from the Life and Spirit of a Christian: Christianity doth not depose, but al­ways suppose Reason: It doth refine and not subvert, and undermine it: And where a Man is not got so high, as the sober use of his Reason, he is not fit to be a Disciple of Christ: He that follows not the Light and Guidance of his Natu­ral Reason for the main, when Sense and Passion do oppose, and make head against it, though he hath the distinctive Faculty of a Man, yet is not a Man, in Use and Exercise, but a Brute: And he that's no Man, be sure is no Christian: But he that prefers his Body before his Soul, in the main Course of his Conversation, lives not so as the Light of Nature can direct him: The clear­est Reason doth suggest, that the better part is to be principally looked after: And that a Man [Page 392]hath a Soul, as well as a Body, we need not go to Scripture for an Argument, as if there were no Light elsewhere to inform us: There be other To­picks common to us with Infidels and Heathen: Now the World is but the Accommodation of the Sensual Part, And he that cannot slight and con­temn this, when it thwarts the Interest of his Better Part; He is so far from learning that which is supernatural in the Doctrin of Christ, and Sal­vation, that he hath not learned that which is but Natural, and the Object of a lower Faculty: He is so far from the higher Acts of Faith, that he wants the lower Acts of Reason, and hath not the presupposed Matter that's required to the Chri­stian Faith.

Eleventhly, The Contempt of Earth and Earth­ly Things, lays an excellent Foundation for a cleer and piercing Understanding: For nothing doth so much dull and sot the Intellect, as Earth­ly Pleasure, and Sensual Delight, which makes the Flesh insolent, the Passions masterless and un­tractable, the Mind listless and unfit to search after wisdom: And whilst the Soul is daily offend­ed with the streams of a Body drunk with Earthly Pleasures, the vigor and sprightfulness of it is quite extinguished: And the understanding is quite perverted, and knows not how to discern and judge aright, when it is upon any search: For nothing will enter such a perverted Mind, or seem Credible, that doth any ways thwart this Carnal, Brutish Pleasure: It's difficult, if not impossible, to see clearly in the Dust of Riches, and Smoke of Honours: Besides, Earthly Love betrays to Ease, Softness, and Intemperance, which are very incon­sistent [Page 393]with an acute understanding: But the Contempt of such sensual Pleasures, inspires the Mind with true Accuracy, and gives it a piercing Eye: For having now no hankering thoughts or desires after these things, it's always fit to con­sider, and fix seriously upon any proposed Ob­ject, and to see things in their proper Evidence; because there is nothing to bribe the Under­standing, and so it becomes impartial in its search and examination.

Twelfthly, This forementioned disdain of the World and its Pleasures, makes a most ready way to inward Peace and Quietness: For these Sen­sual Baits are the Inciters of our Passions, and when they are up, there is no Rest, nor Quiet: That Man is like to be sedate, calm and undisturb­ed, that doth not much care for any of these chan­geable Comforts: There will be a pleasant silence in the heart, when it is not provoked by the inso­lencies of the Flesh, which then will domineer, whilst it hath there sensual Accommodations, but grows tame and tractable, when it is pretty well weaned, and weakened through the want of them, if other Necessaries do concur: Why art thou so patient, O my Soul! under the Rage and domi­neering Power of the Flesh, and its head-strong Lusts? Why doest thou so frequently Consent to the Love and Pursuit of such poor, short, and un­certain Felicity, that fills thee with so must distur­bance, and alienates thee from God, and doth so much destroy all thy future Hopes?

Lastly, It may help forward this Contempt of the World, to consider seriously the vanity of Man, who is the Noblest Part of it: Verily, every [Page 394]Man (saith David) at his best Estate, is [...]. All manner of Vanity: as it is in the Original. Psalm 39.6. A Helpless Friend, and a Toothless Enemy: And therefore he that trusteth Man, maketh a broken Reed his Confidence: And he that hath an inordinate Fear of Man, feareth a shadow: Isa 51.12. and v. 7, 8. Isa. 2.22. Who art thou, saith the Prophet, that art a fraid of a Man, that shall die, and of the Son of Man, that shall be made as Grass? There's no sadder Spectacle in the World than Man, if this were his best con­dition, and he had all he were to look for in this life: A Toad, or the most hated Creature, no nor those that are continually hunted and pursued, and live always in danger of the Snare, or some cruel Device to take away their Lives, are not half so sad a Spectacle as Man is, I mean without the Grace of God. These Brutish Creatures neither apprehend, nor fear the Snare, till they are caught in it; nor foresee a Michief, till it is at hand; nor vex themselves with the Memory of what is past: But Reason which is Man's proper Ʋtensil, makes him but the more capable Subject of Misery and Torment, and helps him to suffer a Mischief before it comes, and to feel it a long while after; This is such a Faculty, as teacheth him to improve his Sufferings and Calamities, (which no other Creature that wants it can do) and to chew upon an Evil when it's swallowed down and past. Should a Believer fear the Frowns of such a silly Creature, or regard his Favour? when he would threaten or tice him from his Duty! I conclude therefore, It's better to trust [Page 395]in the Lord, than to put any confidence in man; yea, it is much better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in Princes, Psal. 118.8, 9.

Consider then, O my Soul! what a meer Juggle and Delusion is the Pleasure of this World, with which thou hast so often suffered thy self to be couzened, and deceived? What Luggage is the Riches? And what a Blast is the Honour thereof? Yea, what a Dream and meer imagina­tion is all that here Men dote upon? Is it for this that Men swear and deceive, couzen and lye, sweat and run about with foolish heat and dili­gence? Is this the Reward of all the busle and stir they make? Is this all the Recompence of their bold Adventures against God and their own Souls? Have they no more for all their restless Nights and Days, for all the Cares and Fears, with which they have so often pierced themselves? Have they no more for Their Salvation, for A Life of Immortality, for God, and for Their Souls, which they have thrown away for a little slippery uncertain pleasure, which stings even whilst it's tasted, and wounds so deep afterwards?

Wonderful! that ever Men that have an Eye of Reason to discern thus much, should yet suffer themselves to be so besooled! And should prefer the pleasure of Delirancy and madness, before that of Sobriety! That ever Reasonable Crea­tures should suffer themselves to be entangled in Vanities, which are more brittle than Glass, more light than Smoak, and more swift than the Wind! That they should feed so greedily, and fat them­selves with these poisonous, destroying Pleasures, and go with the foolish Ox to the slaughter, and [Page 396]with the Fool to the Correction of the Stocks! Till a Dart strike through their Liver, not consi­dering that it is for their Life! O what madness to nourish this Carrion and Dung-hill of thy Body, and to neglect, forget, and despise thy Soul! Is it possible that thou shouldst so Adore a Prison, or Fetters, as to balance them with the Love of thy dearest Saviour? Who can shed Tears enough, or Weep sufficiently for such a Sin as this? (viz.) The forsaking of God, and the chusing of Lyes instead of him? O what horrid Phantasms will appear one Day, and present themselves to their sight, that proceed on, and dye in such a sin as this! When the Pleasures which they have chosen shall stand in Array before them, and upbraid them into the deepest shame and silence: And the objects with which they have committed Folly so often, shall stand forth and say, I am the Pleasure which thou hast loved more than God; I am the Am­bition to which thou wast a slave: I am the Wealth that was the Aim of all thy Actions: I am the Dung and Dross to which thou didst espouse and wed thine Affections: Behold the Sins thou hast begotten on me; Behold thy deformed, loathsome Iniquities, which thou didst not only love, but prefer before the Life which thy Saviour did both live and teach: With such dreadful Complaints [able to rend Rocks and Marbles] shall they that have loved any thing here on Earth, more than God and their Souls, lament over their sins that will come upon them like an Armed Man, and fight them with its gastly Looks.

If thou Love any thing, then, O my Soul! see that thou love it for God, and for the refe­rence that it hath to the Life Eternal: The Joys of Heaven are without their Parallel and Ex­ample: And as they are here above our Expe­rience, so they pass beyond our Imagination; Fancy what thou wilt, and Majesty, Pomp, and Beauty can present thee with, it's all but a poor faint Resemblance of the Glorious Life to come: It's easier for a Pencil to draw the Picture of Sound and Tast, than for the Tongue to utter, or the Heart to imagin The Joys of Heaven. All that a curious Artist can do, to describe the Content of a Soul at Rest with God, and perfectly Happy, is so far from what he would but cannot say, as Heaven is from Earth; We know, There's no­thing of all this, that we see, hear, or tast, or imagin, in the Heavenly Paradise; But thou mayest be sure there's more than all this.

Considerations to excite Shame and hearty Sorrow for all former Departure from God, and pre­sent Strangeness to him.

THough God delighteth not in Sorrow and Contrition, meerly as it is the Misery and Affliction of his Creature; but rather is afflicted with them in all their Sorrows, Isaiah 63.9. yet as it is an expression of any sincere hatred of former sin, and willingness to forsake it, and comes from any true Love to God who is disho­noured by it, and Mens own Souls, of which it is the death and destruction; and leads directly to their future Reformation and Happiness, so the Lord is delighted therewith: And a sinner, one that is yet under the guilt of his sins, cannot present him with a better Sacrifice; For, The Sa­crifices of God are a broken Spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O Lord, thou wilt not despise, Psalm 51.17. (1.) Thou wilt take pleasure in by a usual Figure, called Litote or Mecoses: And in the former Clause of the Verse, The Sacrifices; (that is) The Sacrifice of Sacrifices: as the Heaven of Heavens is put for the Highest Heaven: In which Forms of Speech, it's customary with the [Page 399] Hebrew Language to leave out the first Substan­tive. * Hence [...] is put for the Elephant, because she is the chief Saith Grot. of Beasts [...]: And [...] is put for God himself, because he is [...]: So [...] is put for [...] the most excellent wisdom, Psal. 49.3. So the Canticles is put for the Canticle of Canticles, or the most excellent Song: Instances there are many of this kind, to shew that the Plural Num­ber is sometime instead of the Comparative De­gree: Thus you see in what sense God is delighted in our Sorrow, and taketh pleasure in a sighing and broken Heart, even in the same sense that Paul was glad at the sadness of the Corinthians, even as it was a sign of, and step to their future Amendment and Happiness: 2 Cor. 2.2. For if I make you sorry, (saith he) who is he then that ma­keth me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? And indeed it is no wonder that the merci­ful God that delighteth so much in the welfare and felicity of his Creatures, should yet be so well pleased in the bitter Repentance and heart­breaking Sorrow of sinful Creatures, since it is such a preparative to your future Joy, and that so many excellent Texts of Scripture are dropt from the Holy Spirit, to encourage Sinners to labour after such a wounding, piercing Sorrow as this is. So Isaiah 57.15. 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 the Heart of [Page 400]the Contrite one. So Isaiah 66.2. There he seem­eth to despise and slight the most magnificent, stately Structure which they could build him, and to prefer the humble, contrite Heart far before all that the Hands of Men could possibly make: 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 these things hath my Hand made—But to this Man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my Word. And how frequently is he said to comfort those that Mourn, and to bind up the broken in Heart, to regard their Sighs, and bottle up their Tears; as if there were no Temper that God more de­lighteth in.

There are some (though very few) that need to be warned and admonished, that they do not place the Principal Part of God's Worship and Service, in Sighs, and Tears, and pricking Sor­row, and shameful Confessions of their Sin: (Not that I disswade any from giving due Time and Measure to these humbling, self-abasing Acts; For it is the design and business of this present Labour, to promote this Sorrow in the Heart, so far as it is a fit Instrument to promote Reforma­tion in the Heart and Life.) But yet some, I say, have need of this Caution, that they lay not too much stress upon this part of our Duty we owe unto God; much less that they confine the whole work and business of Religion, to Acts of Con­trition and Mortification: For though the Lord delighteth in the penitent, broken Heart, that mourneth over all its former Sin and Folly, and [Page 401]is ashamed of his odious, hainous Transgressions, and doth loath himself for his Iniquities, and doth particularly search into his Sores, and uncover them before God, with the most distinct, clear, and open Confession; yet this is but a lower and preparatory step, to that Love of God, constant delight in him, praises of him, chearful obedience to him in the which he is far more delighted: so that Tears, and Sorrow, and heart-melting Re­pentance, and afflicting our Souls, are not absolute­ly pleasing to God, and a part of the immutable, unchangeable Worship we owe to him, but only acceptable to him,

1. Upon supposition of former Miscarriages.

2. In preparation to future Obedience.

Had we never sinned, Sorrow and Repentance had been no acceptable Service to God at all, nei­ther would it have pleased him to see us go hea­vily as those that mourn.

But now, supposing that every one of us is born into the World with hereditary Corruption, and a depraved Nature, quite contrary to that which God gave Man at the first, the very first acceptable Service that we can perform to God, is to be sensible of and to bewail this perverse Disposition, according to its desert, and to weigh, and consider all the sad and woful Consequences of such a poisoned, corrupted Nature, how hate­ful it is to God, how disgraceful to our selves here, and how destructive to our souls hereafter, and how dangerous and infectious it is to others, that we are firmly resolved to take any Course to re­cover our former Freedom and Priviledge we had in the state of Innocency, that God shall suggest [Page 402]to us: It is as preposterous to offer up any Ser­vice to God, till this be done, as it is to [...]earn to Read, before we are acquainted with the Letters, of which every Word we read is composed: or as it is to give restorative Food to a distempered Body, before the peccant Matter be purg'd out that is the cause of the Distemper: But then though it be the first step in Religion, and the first acceptable Service we can perforn [...] God: It is not there that we must rest; we are not there to sit down and advance no further, as if we were gotten to Hercules Pilla [...]s, and there were no higher Perfection to be attained in Religion: And to mistake the subordinate and subservient part of God's Service, for that which is more perfect and principal, for hereby Sin and the Devil will get these

Two great Advantages: 1. God will be mis­represented both to our selves and others, and he that is so full of Compassion, and Mercy, and all amicable and lovely Perfections, will be thought by the Religion which he preser [...]bes, to be cruel and unmerciful, and to delight in the Torment and Affliction of his Creatures: For Men will be drawing his Image by such a false Pencil. And then,

2. They that make it their whole endeavour to weep and mourn and afflict themselves for their sins, will thereby disable both Body and Soul for any Service of God at all, and both destroy their Bodily Health, and overthrow their Reason: And so whilst they are bewailing their Sin, and as they think are conquering of it, they do but entangle themselves the more, and ut­terly [Page 403]waste that strength that should mortifie and subdue it.

And the reason why God doth speak so much in his Word, in approbation of the sorrowful, broken and contrite Heart, which I doubt is the Reason of these Mens mistake, is because such Persons have need of such Encouragement, and might otherwise faint under the Anguish and Bur­then of their Spirits, and therefore because he would not break the bruised Reed, nor quench the smoaking Flax, till he hath brought forth Judgment unto Victory, He gives these Cor­dials to such as are under the Pangs of the New Birth: But he had much rather that Men would leave the Principles of the Doctrin of Christ, and not stick always at the Foundation of Repen­tance from Dead Works, and of Faith towards God: Not that we are to shake hands with Re­pentance and sorrow for Sin, after we are once heartily converted, unless we could be sure to commit no more sin: But then sin will need a more short and transient sorrow, when we pre­sently bewail it so soon as ever it is commit­ted, But our first Repentance and Sorrow will cost us hotter Water, and put us to [...]e trouble.

If a Man that hath a long Journey to go, should set out a quite contrary way to the place whither he is to go, and so travel on, till he hath spent half or more of the time that is allotted for his Journey, you must needs think that will cost him more vexation and trouble to get into his right way, than after he is gotten in, if he should chance to step out a Mile or two: A small Errour [Page 404]is more speedily corrected than a great one of long continuance: But yet it is always true, That it's better to prevent sin, and keep out of it at the first, than to get out of it by Repentance: Though by Accident, and through the Mercy of God, it may sometimes prove better to the sinner, that he did fall into sin, if he doth afterwards heartily re­repent of it: But absolutely, and in it self, it is not better: And he that should presume to let loose the Reigns to Sin upon that account, I believe would find it much worse.

But before I produce those Considerations, which, through the Blessing of God, may stir up and strengthen this Affection, which must pre­pare the way for Faith in Christ, which lays the Foundation for all Joy and Peace, I will first shew what this Godly Sorrow doth imply, or what Acts are included in it, if it be such as will work Repentance never to be repented of. And here let me Note, That Repentance is sometimes taken by a Synechdoche, for the whole Work of Conversion, and then it includes Faith in it: so it's taken Luke 15.7. — There shall be joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance. So Luke 13.3, 5. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish: where Faith also is implied. So Acts 11.18. —Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life: where Repentance is named as the only condition of Life, which without Faith also in Christ cannot be had, and therefore it is included.

Sometime Repentance is taken only for Con­trition, and then usually Faith is joyned with it. [Page 405]So Acts 20.21. Testifying to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And in this latter sense, I here take the word Repentance when I make use of it: And so Repentance, or Godly Sorrow, is a deliberate Act of the Soul, performed upon the Motions or by the Assistance of the good Spirit of God, whereby a Man being touched with un­feigned Sorrow and Remorse, for all that he hath sinned, whither in his Parents, or in himself, ei­ther inwardly, and in secret, or else openly, and in the sight of Men, is now resolved to close with Christ, as his only Remedy against the Guilt and Power of it. So that you may perceive by this Description, that sincere Repentance, and Sorrow for Sin, must imply these following Acts, or otherwise it can never be an advised and deliberate Act, nor conclude in a firm resolution and pur­pose to take Christ as his only sufficient Sa­viour.

First, It implys a deep Conviction of the Ho­liness of God and his sin-hating Nature: And that you may as soon reconcile Light and Darkness, as God and the least Sin, whether you take it in its Material or Formal Consideration: In its Ma­terial Consideration, it's nothing but Deformity, and Absurdity, and Contradiction, to all Right and Reason: And in its Formal Respect, it's a thwarting God's Will, (that's supreme, and go­verned with infinite wisdom) and a breach of his righteous Law: And in both these Respects, it must needs be the Object of Divine Hatred and Abhorrence: surely he must needs abhor to see a Creature cross his own Will, and oppose his own [Page 406]Government; and when he hath endued him with reason, to see him act so absurdly: Hence the Psalmist tells us, That such as are foolish, cannot stand in his sight, he hateth all the workers of iniquity, Psalm 5.5. And if an imperfect Saint, such a one as David, hath such an aversation to such Works, and the doers of them, that he can say, depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity, much more doth he that is of spotless purity, hate all Filthiness and Pollution, which every sinner hath some degree of: If the Lord were not an utter Enemy to all Iniquity, he had never turned so many Angels out of Heaven for their sin, nor prepared such a place of endless and unsufferable Torment, for such as are found guilty of it in the General Account: He had never brought such a Deluge upon the old World, and swept away all of them, save Eight Persons; Nor dropt down such a consuming Fire upon those Four Citys, and the Inhabitants thereof, Man, Woman and Child, if he had not been a bitter Enemy to sin: If you should see a Father that tenderly loves his Chil­dren, and bears a most dear Affection to them, to persecute them to the Death, and express the greatest Cruelty towards them: you would sure­ly say, that it must be some high Provocation that can thus prevail to extinguish such inbred na­tural Affection to them: And if you could be consident that he were a just and righteous Person, that would not do such a cruel Act without a great and weighty Cause; you must then say, That they must be guilty of some horrid Act, that can thus turn the Bowels of such a tender Father, and exasperate them into such a rage. The Case [Page 407]is the same here, only with this difference, that God hath infinitely more love and tender bowels to us his Creatures and the Workmanship of his Hands, than the tenderest Father or Mother here upon Earth: Isaiah 49.15. Can a woman forget her sucking chila, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, but I will not forget: And yet what terrible and re­markable Judgments doth he execute upon some of them, both here and hereafter? Not only single Persons, but whole Nations: yea, how dreadful, and heavy is his hand upon those that are his Chil­dren, not only by Creation, but Regeneration also, insomuch that they often complain, that the Arrows of the Almighty stick fast in them, and drink up their Spirits, Job 6.4. Thus Job, David, Heman, and many others of God's dearest Ser­vants have complained: Can any Man of reason ever think, that ever God thus deals with them, without some great and weighty Cause? espe­cially when it is so certain, that Fury dwelleth not in him, Isaiah 27.4. And he cannot be moved by any of those wild, irrational, and ungoverned Passions as Man is: He that believes not this, ei­ther believes that there is no God, or else knows not what such a Being doth essentially involve: But yet though we have a fall, certainly that God is more tender and affectionate to Men, than any Father or Mother in the World, yet it is as cer­tain, that he loveth Righteousness, and Equity, and Truth, more than all the Creatures in the World; because these are a part of his own Es­sence, but Creatures are not: And therefore he stands obliged to vindicate these though it be with [Page 408]the Ruin of all Mankind: And thus he would certainly do, even destroy all the Works of his Hands, if his righteous Law (which is but the Transcript of his Nature, could not be otherwise righted: He can make another World, with a Word of his Mouth: But he cannot make, as I may say, with reverence, another God: Every sin strikes at the very Being of God, and touch­eth the very Apple of his Eye; And therefore the Word of God tells us plainly, That Sin is the only Make-bate between God and his Creatures, that hath pull'd down all those heavy Calamities, and Judgments, upon the World, that ever we read or heard of. But the Death of his only Na­tural Son, for the Sins of the World, which he took upon him to expiate and satisfie for, is such a demonstration of God's deadly and implacable Hatred against all Sin and Ungodliness, that no Man in reason should ever after doubt of it. Eve­ry Man that is truly penitent, and sorry for his sin, is apprehensive of this in some good Measure. And this is the First Act that Godly Sorrow and Repentance doth imply.

Secondly, He that unfeignedly grieveth for his sin, must be very sensible how dishonourable it is to God: I know it's beyond the reach of any Creature to do him any real Dishonour; But yet doth he not lose his Reputation amongst Men, by every sin that is committed? Are not some or other animated thereby to do the like; or else if it be secretly committed, is not the sinner himself more hardned thereby, and disposed to more per­verse, unworthy Apprehensions of God? It is cer­tain he is. He cannot think him so holy, just, [Page 409]and righteous as he is, because Judgment is not speedily executed on him: And how doth the De­vil triumph, and all those malicious Spirits that attend him, to see a Child so unnatural to his Fa­ther, as every sinner is to God? How doth it feed his Malice and Pride, to see him make a Creature that cares so little for him, as every sinner doth? He that is affected with his sin to purpose, knows and is cut to the heart, for the dishonour done to him by his sin, and that he hath so much stained his holy Attributes and Perfections, and mis-repre­sented him to the World.

Thirdly, He that is truly penitent for his sin, is deeply sensible of those great Obligations he lies under, to perform a perfect obedience to God: He is his Creature, I, and the chief of his Crea­tures in this lower World, made on purpose for his service, shaped in his own likeness, fitted for it, encouraged to it: That can never be happy, but in his Favour, and therefore was sufficiently concerned to seek and prize it above all things: And to shun and avoid sin, whereby he must needs lose it. All Creatures upon Earth were placed at his Feet, and put into his Hands, to give him their best Assistance and Encouragement for this Service. The good and welfare of the whole in­feriour World depended upon his Obedience to God, and the observance of that Law he had writ­ten upon his very Nature: And therefore so soon as ever he sinned, he involved all the Creatures that were made subject to him in the same Curse and Condemnation: so that the whole Creation is now in Bondage, and groans to be delivered into the glorious Liberty of God's Children: [Page 410] And the earnest expectation of the Creature waiteth for the manifestation of the Sons of God, Rom. 8.19, 21, 22. Never was any Child so much ob­liged to observe the Will of his Father, Nor any Subject to Obey his rightful Prince and Soveraign, Nor any Slave and Vassal to fulfil the Command of his Lord, as we are to do the Will of our Crea­tour: But what do I make such a Comparison as this? There's a thousand fold more obligation upon us to tender a perfect Obedience to God, than there can be upon any Subject, or Child, or Servant, to obey the strictest Laws of the best Fa­ther, Lord or Sovereign here on Earth: And yet what Man so mad, as to incur their displeasure, if they can help it? Or who would not wash away such an Offence with many Tears, if there were any hope to find Mercy and Favour with them in such a Case: How much more would a sinner be­wail his Offences committed against him that is his Creatour, and Sovereign, and hath absolute domi­nion over him, and the power of Eternal Life and Death in his hands; Thou canst not endure his displeasure, if he doth but frown: Nor live with­out his favour, if he should totally withdraw it but an hour: As he commandeth the Sun to shed his light and influence upon thee, so he clotheth the Heaven with blackness, and maketh Sackcloth their covering when he pleaseth, Isaiah 50.3. If thou didst but know and consider the one half of the infinite Mercies he doth bestow upon thee, and the worth of them, it would make thee sure to break into bitter complaints, for all thy odious Transgressions, especially when thou knowest be­fore-hand, That the Penitent are so sure to speed, and find Mercy with him.

This is a Third Act, That Godly Sorrow, if it be sincere, doth imply, even a deep sense of all the Obligations every one of us lies under to abstain from all Appearance of Evil.

Fourthly, He that would bewail his sin aright, must be sensible how shameful it is and destructive to his own Soul and Body: It prevents his Reason, and makes him far more vile than a Creature that wants that Faculty; It animates his Senses to all insolency; it makes his Passions masterless and unruly; it destroys the Health of the Body, the Peace and Composure of the Mind; it fills the Conscience with perpetual Remorse and Unquiet­ness; And all these Effects do as naturally flow from it, as Poyson doth from a Toad or Serpent; And thus it would punish it self, although God should inflict no other punishment than what will inevitably follow such sinful, inordinate Acts, and such abuse of the Reason and Faculties that Man is possessed of. It procures the hatred of God, and the shame of Men, and breeds a continual Worm at home, that will gnaw in twain the Thred of this Life, and will then feed upon Soul and Body, to their everlasting pain and torment here­after.

Fifthly, He that is truly penitent, and doth la­ment his sin, as he ought, doth know and consider the Merit of his sin, and what Wages it deserves: He is sensible that the least sin committed against such a Majesty, by a Creature so much obliged and enabled to the contrary, deserves damnation, and that he can make God no recompence for the wrong and injury it doth him. And he under­stands in some good measure, what Eternal Dam­nation [Page 412]doth imply: And then when he calls to mind the infinite Number he hath committed, and how oft he hath deserved such a dreadful Reward, and that yet he is invited to Repentance, and knows that he shall find Mercy, if he repent from the bottom of his Heart; This melts him into Tears, and dissolveth his rocky Heart, and ma­keth it to feel, what heretofore he made light mat­ter of.

Sixthly, As the penitent sinner is sensible of all the foregoing Particulars, so he is acquainted with his own personal Transgressions; not only that he is a sinner in general, but what actual wickedness he is every day guilty of. How little his Thoughts, Words or Actions come up to the Rule at the best, and how often they utterly thwart and contradict the Rule, and what are his Master-Corruptions, and where the strength of his sin lies; He is also deeply sensible of his sinful Nature, that he brought with him into the World; and how cross it is to the Will of God expressed in his Word and Law, and altogether unlike the Nature that God gave Man at the first.

Seventhly, He doth hereupon judge himself ex­ceeding vile, and even loath himself for his Abo­minations, Ezek. 36.31. When he thinketh upon his odious ways, he is heartily ashamed, and counteth himself unworthy of any outward Mer­cy, and wondreth at the Mercies that God doth bestow so contrary to his deserts. He seriously judgeth himself more wretched and miserable, by reason of his sin, and an Object of greater shame and contempt, than if he had liv'd in the greatest poverty and want without sin; as knowing that [Page 413]one makes him contemptible only to such as judge according to outward appearance, but the other to those that judge righteous judgment. He knows, that sin makes him a Beast or a Devil in Humane shape, and is a Disgrace and Reproach to all his Faculties, and quite perverts the very frame and design of them. For what is sin, but an absurd and unreasonable Act? (Actus debito ordine privatus,) as the School-men define it, and supposeth the Senses and their Objects to be in chief power and command, and the nobler Part, (I mean his Rational and Immortal Spirit) to be chained up, and lye by as a Prisoner in Fetters, or which is worse, to be a voluntary Servant and Drudge, to the stinking corruptible part of Man: What Lord, that hath the Spirit of a Man, would endure to be a drudge to his Servant? It's a sad sight to see a Prince a Captive to his Subjects, or a Lord to be in the hand and power of his Slaves, led up and down in Chains at the will and plea­sure of him, that is but of a base and degenerate Breed, compared with himself. It was a great ag­gravation of Job's pitiful Condition, that con­temptible persons had him in derision, whose Fa­thers he would have disdained to have set with the Doggs of his Flock, Job 30.1. That Children of Fools and Base Men, that were viler than the Earth, made him their Song, and By-word, and that they did abhor him, and flee far from him, and not spare to spit in his Face, vers. 8, 9, 10. It was a very doleful, pitiful sight, to see Edward the Second, so barbarously entreated by Gourney, and made to sit upon a Mole-hill, whilst the Bar­ber shaved him, and to take cold Water out of a [Page 414]Ditch, to wash him with; which the patient King seeing, told them, that in despight of them, he would have warm Water at his Barbing, and therewithal poured down Tears in abundance: It's a much sadder Spectacle, to see Sense trample upon Reason, and the Flesh that is of so base a descent, to domineer over the Soul, that's born of God, and is of the Blood-Royal, made to rule and govern, as the very Heathen could tell: Ani­mi imperio, Corporis servitio, utimur, saith Salast. And what's the Fruit of such a Monstrous Disor­der, when Flesh and Sense do exercise such an oppressive usurping Power, and that Faculty that makes a Man is perfectly cow'd? Why, This unspeakable Mischief is the Fruit thereof; Earth is preferr'd before Heaven; The Creature before the Creator; The momentary pleasures of Sin, before the durable and everlasting Felicity; And Men chuse rather to be Termers in these decaying Comforts, that expire with their Lives, than to have the Propriety of an Eternal Inheritance here­after, that shall never be out-dated: These and the like Considerations make the sinner to judge himself a vile Person, a Reproach to Humane Nature, a shameful Spectacle to God, Angels and Men; Better he judgeth it a thousand times, that God had made him a Beast, rather than that he should have made himself a Beast: If you judge not Sin to be the greatest evil to you, and a greater disparagement than Poverty and Raggs, and all the reproach and scorn of Men barely con­sidered in themselves without sin, you cannot have that sorrow for sin which is sincere; For it's abso­lutely necessary that sorrow for sin, committed [Page 415]against God, be greater than all other sorrow for worldly Calamities whatsoever, (as to the ra­tional part of it, which is in the Intellect and Will, though perchance not as to that part of sorrow which is in the sensitive part, and is it may be ex­pressed in Tears, or those sensible Perturbations of the Body which we usually call by the Name of Passions:) And how is it possible that there should bean intellectual sorrow greater than all other sor­row, unless it be first truly judged to be the greatest disgrace and shame to us of any thing that can befal us, and doth necessarily draw after it more evil and mischief to Body and Soul, than the World can inflict on us? It's possible for a Man to have great inward Peace and Content, and an excellent Spirit, that is the object of the World's contempt and scorn: Our Saviour had no Form nor Comeliness in him, saith the Prophet Isaiah, ch. 53.2. And yet he was speciosus prae Filiis ho­minum; Fairer than the Children of Men: (1.) for internal, but not external Endowments, saith the Prophet David, Psal. 45.2. And as the sinner that's wounded with hearty sorrow for his sin, doth thus judge of himself and doth say, He is a Worm and no Man, a Reproach of Men, and worthily despised by the People, Psalm 22.6. So he doth adjudge himself to the greatest sufferings, and counts it an unspeakable Favour to be admitted to Repentance, and that he may be received into Favour with God again upon any Terms: This is Another Act that Godly Sorrow doth contain and is made up of.

Eighthly, The Soul that's truly penitent, is deeply displeased with himself, and wisheth hear­tily he had never been guilty of such Folly: And if it were to do again, would venture upon any suffering or shame, rather than give his Consent thereto; He is fallen out with himself so far as he is tainted with Corruption, and upbraids himself with all his Rebellion and Ingratitude against God, and his unrighteous and unbrotherly Practices to­wards Men, and ill Government of himself; He is heartily willing to grieve for his Sin, and to ex­press that grief by all significant signs that either Nature or Scripture doth suggest to him, and to use all Means whereby this Grief may be procu­red, as by Fasting, and hard Usage of his Body, when it may be a probable Means to promote this Repentance of his Heart. Whatever is like to make his Heart more Tender and Sensible of his Sin he is willing to submit to. He is willing to take a frequent view of his loathsom sin, that he might more deeply abhor himself. He is willing that God should afflict him in that measure that his Wisdom sees most fit, if he will but kill his Cor­ruptions thereby. And that Men think of him as he hath deserved; And when he cannot weep in reality, he weepeth in desire.

Ninthly, And as the Understanding and Will do thus far conquer to produce this Repentance and Sorrow; so there will be some degree and measure of the Passions, properly so called, stir­ring in such a true Penitent. There will be Grief, and Shame for the Offence, and Fear of him whom thou hast offended, and longing desire to be re­conciled.

And then Tenthly, He that hath a truly penitent Heart, and the Sorrow of the right stamp, will express it by all outward Signs for the Honour of God and the Good of others; He will accuse and speak evil of himself, and humble himself by Confession before God, his shameful Iniquities; Neither will he spare to lay open the shame of his particular sins, so far as he knoweth them: Nay, his pride is so far taken down, that he will not stick to make Confession of them before Men, if it be such sins whereby they have wronged their Souls, and hardned them in any sinful course; They will endeavour to undo what they have done, by their penitent Confessions; and remove the scandal, as much as lyeth in their power, though it cost them shame: It's a good sign that their sorrow for sin is sincere, when it puts them upon such outward Acts, as have a strong tendency to condemn and disgrace their former sinful Cour­ses: And they may well suspect themselves and their Repentance, that stick at such disgraceful Acts as Confession is: And are content that God should want the Honour that's given to him, by an humble acknowledgment of our vileness and par­ticular sins; And that Men should want, such an Argument, against the like sinful Courses for the time to come, than that themselves should under­go a little disgrace and shame: I say, not that sins of a fouler nature, that would tend to the dispa­ragement of the Gospel, that were committed in secret, should be publickly made known at all: It may suffice, that such are confessed before God, and the Persons that are already privy to them: And that we do protest to them our unfeigned [Page 418]Grief for such foul Transgressions, and our readi­ness to give them all satisfaction for any Wrong or Injury done them. But the wrong that we have done to our Associates and Companions, by pro­phanation of the Sabbath, Oaths, Ribbaldry, or any other infectious Courses we are to beg pardon for, of them whom we have thus wronged, by our Miscarriages; And to confess the sinfulness of such Courses, to the Glory of God, and to the preventing of such Evil for the future: And as the penitent, humble Person, will not stick at Confession, both to God, and Men, when need requireth; so he will with patience and silence submit himself to any Afflictions that the righteous God, whom he hath provoked, doth think meet to inflict upon him: He doth not mutter in his Heart, as knowing, that he hath deserved the most calamitous afflicted Life in this World, and the unsupportable Miseries of the other Life: Should a Malefactour, that hath forfeited his Life, murmur at the Judge that punisheth him with a few stripes, and so remits the other part of his punishment? I will patiently bear the indigna­tion of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, saith the Church, Micah 7.9. A truly penitent Heart will not complain for the punishment of his sin, Lam. 3.39. What do I say, he will not com­plain? Nay, he will justifie God in all that he brings upon him: And as he doth express his Sor­row by humble Confession of his Sins, and Justi­fication of his Judge, so he will do it by peniten­tial Tears, if the Temper and Constitution of his Body will yield them. I do not say, that Tears are always an inseparable Concomitant of Repen­tance; [Page 419]But unfeigned sorrow for sin, if it be in that degree, that our sin requireth, will for the most part produce Tears: What a Flood did St. Austin pour forth at his first Conversion? The story is very remarkable, you may find it in his Confessions: After he had strugled with himself a good while, and had met with stiff opposition from the World and the Flesh, with the Lusts thereof, that he was given to, which were still tugging and drawing to keep their hold of him; But the good Man knowing that they would prove his utter destruction, if they were not forsaken, prayed earnestly to God, to deliver him from their Bondage; And hearing by Pontition, a Chri­stian Courtier, of the virtuous Life of St. Antho­ny, a Man of little Learning, but of strict and exemplary Piety, began to be more enflamed with a desire after Conversion: And walking in a Garden, with his Friend Alipius, he crys out to him, Quid hoc est? Quid patimur? Sargunt indo­cti, &c. (1.) What's the Matter? What unhap­py Men are we? Poor, simple, illiterate Men, Rise up, and get the Kingdom of Heaven by force, and we with all our Learning, wallow in the Mire of Lust and Corruption. Afterwards, going forth into an Orchard, all his former pleasures mustered up, and seemed to present themselves before his Eyes; and thus to set upon him, Dimittesne nos, & a momento isto, &c. What wilt thou leave us quite, And must we never after this time see thee any more? What filth, saith he, and shameful pleasures did they lay before mine Eyes, which he entreated God to pardon: At length, after a te­dious difficult Conflict, a marvellous Tempest of [Page 420]Tears came upon him, and Rivers of Water ran down his Eyes, as he lay under a Figg-tree, and there he poured forth his Soul to God, and pre­vailed, and threw off his beloved Lusts and Corruptions, and never returned to them any more:

All these Acts must concur, where there is true sorrow for sin, such as the Gospel doth require as a condition, without which there can be no for­giveness: though perchance every one of these distinct Acts may not be taken notice of by him that is sincerely penitent, yet he feeleth the force and power of them in his afflicted broken Heart. But yet some of the forgoing Acts that are in the understanding, it may be, stick closer than the others, and prevail more to bring on the after Acts that are in the Will and Affections, and are expres­sed in the outward Actions: But though some degrees of this forementioned Sorrow may and do always go before Faith in Christ, yet your Re­pentance is never compleated and perfected, till Christ be heartily closed with, and received with loving subjection of the Soul; for then the Soul is enabled by the Spirit, that he bestoweth to bring forth that Repentance which it had brought but to the Birth before: There must be some sense of the evil of sin, and fear of God's displeasure, and the miseries that it already hath and will moreover bring upon us, and some loathing of a Man's self, before ever Christ will be welcome to you, and before you will consent that he shall be your So­veraign Lord and Saviour; and take his Yoke on you: You must feel the intolerableness of the other Yoke of Sin and Satan, before you will [Page 421]change it for Christ's, and come to him for ease and Relief. So that you see some Acts of Re­pentance are preparatory to Faith, (viz.) Such as Self-love and the Fear of Hell and Damna­tion can produce: But it is the Love of God in Christ that must kindly melt the Heart for sin, and antidote it against the poyson thereof for the fu­ture, and settle the Resolution to forsake it, and follow after holiness, whereby the soul is made like to God.

So much for the Nature of Repentance, or what Acts it is made up of. I come next to the Consi­derations that should provoke and stir up this Holy Affection.

First then; Consider the flat necessity of Re­pentance, without which there is no Pardon, nor Peace with God to be expected: whatever he dispense withal, this he will not dispense with: He hath indeed dispensed with the Law of Works that required perfect sinless Obedience, or threat­ned Damnation: And hath promised thee, that thou shalt not dye, nor the threatning be executed on thee, if thou wilt submit to the Gospel, or the New Law of Christ thy Redeemer: That is, in other words, if thou wilt from thy Heart acknow­ledge thy sins and repent of them, and come to Christ for strength and resolution to forsake them: But he will never dispense with thee here, in case thou wilt not submit to this gracious offer: Thy sins must be felt, and that more than all worldly sufferings, otherwise Christ will be no Physician to thee, nor shalt thou ever feel the admirable power of his Blood: Thy sin must be felt either [Page 422]here by Repentance, or else hereafter in eternal Desparation: Now the stain and filthiness of thy most hainous sins, may be washed out by the Blood of Christ, if thou comest with a penitent Heart to that sovereign, healing Fountain: But then the stain can never be got out, nor thy re­proach be ever wiped away, though thou shouldst pour forth Rivers of Tears: Behold, I have fore­told thee, Let not thy Heart deceive thee, nor think that after thou hast displeased God so often by thy sin, that thou mayest scape and find Mercy, though thou art never heartily displeased with thy self for thy foolish, shameful ways: Never any person found favour with God, nor obtained Mercy, that did not drink of this bitter Potion of Repentance, and was not more afflicted in Heart and Soul for Disobedience to God, than for any worldly Misery that ever befel him: It is an unpleasant work to a Man yet in his sins, and a narrow passage unto life, but he that will enter into the Heavenly Kingdom, must pass through this streight Gate; The bitterness of this Repen­tance will quickly be over, but the unspeakable comfort thereof (if it be sound, and enable thee to forsake thy sins) will abide with thee for ever: Who would not submit to hard Terms, to save his Estate, (though it were never so little) or his Life, though it were unhealthy and uncomfortable? But who would not consent to harder Terms, to procure a more plentiful Estate, and a more health­ful, comfortable Life? And is there any thing more necessary, or doth half so much concern thee, as to have God thy reconciled Friend, and to save thy Soul from Eternal Death, an [...] thy self from [Page 423]utter destruction of Body and Soul for ever and ever? And to get the possession of Eternal Life and Joy? Consider, I beseech, O my Soul! And do not reject the offer of Repentance, lest the refu­sal cost thee a Repentance a thousand times more sharp and bitter: The pangs of the New Birth will quickly end, and then thou wilt begin to re­joyce, that a Soul is born into the Spiritual World: And then thou wilt forget all thy former Sighs and Groans and Fears, and the bitter Ago­nies of thy Soul, becaufe God hath now answered thee in the joy of thy Heart; And taken thee into his special care, and pardoned all thy sin, Eccles. 5.20. Or if thou beest one that hath pass'd the New Birth already, thy speedy repentance after sin committed, will be like a Shower in Summer, after the Ground is parched with heat and drought. The Winter-Rain, though the Ground be well soaked therewith, may indeed prepare the Earth to bring forth its Encrease, which Men expect from it in Summer and Harvest; But if there fall not some Showers now and then, especially after vio­lent hot Seasons, all the hopes of a good Harvest, may come to nought: So it is in the Case of sin; your first Repentance and Tears, are like the Winter-Rain, that is of long continuance, and doth throughly soak into the Heart, and make it soft and fertile: But your after-Repentance is like the Summer-Showers, and the more the heat is parched with sin, and hardned through the Sun­shine of Prosperity, the more it must be watered, with fresh Showers of Holy Repentance and Sor­row, or else you will lose your hopes of Future Joy and Happiness: Seeing then the Necessity of [Page 424]a first and after Repentance, refuse not the Mercy that's offered to thee upon such fair Terms: For shame disown that Faculty of Sorrow and Weep­ing, if it will not serve thee, and stand thee in stead in this greatest Necessity: Shall thine Eyes trickle, and run down with Tears, if thou hast but lost a dear Friend and Acquaintance? Yea, if thou hast but parted with him for a time, and hast not quite lost him, or her? And shall not thy Heart melt, and thine Eyes pour down, when God is departed from thee, though it should be but for a certain time. Alas! thou wantest him every Moment, more than thou canst do the most useful, helpful Friend, that ever thou hadst in the World: And if thou knowest not thus much; the greater is thy need of repentance and sorrow, for such a wicked, deadly ignorance, as this will prove, if the Tears of Repentance do not clear thine Eyes, and cause thee better to see and understand what need thou hast of the Divine Grace and Comfort every hour: And then thou wilt be as ready to say as David, I am poor and needy, make hast unto me, O God; Thou art my help, and my deliverer: make no long tarrying, O my God, Psalm 70.5. And when thou hast well considered, and had a little more experience, thou wilt say as he did, Ʋnless the Lord had been my help, my soul had long since dwelt in silence, (1) death, Psalm 94.17. It's easie to see if thou regardest either Scripture or Experience; That in the multitude of thy troublesome thoughts within, he only can comfort and rejoyce thy soul, Psalm 94.19. If thou canst not therefore weep in the want and absence of him, better thou hadst had no Eyes, nor a Faculty to sigh or weep: Yea, the [Page 425]very Children of the Bride-chamber, though they have no need to weep whilst the Bride-groom is with them, (that is) whilst they seel the effects of God's gracious Presence and Favour: yet when the Bride-groom is gone from them, and driven away by some sinful, unkind usage, in these days they must mourn, or the Comforter will not re­turn again. How much more must they weep, that are none of the Children of the Bride-cham­ber, that never yet repented in all their life? Well, there is no Remedy, Except you repent, you will certainly perish, Luke 13.3, 5. This is the First Consideration, to provoke Repentance and to stir up this Affection.

Secondly, Consider how foolishly thou hast done, and then refrain thy deepest Sorrow and Tears, if thou art able: This Consideration stirr'd up Da­vid's repentance, after that carnal confidence and distrust of God, he had been guilty of, in num­bring the People: 2 Sam. 24.10. And David's heart smote him, after he had numbred the People; And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: And now I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. Is it not a ridiculous, foolish Act, to set our strength and wit against him that made us? For the Stubble to quarrel with the Fire? And the Dust to fight against the Wind, that scattereth it on the Face of the Earth? 'Tis just such a piece of wisdom, to provoke God wil­fully, And when he calls, to give him no answer: And when he hath given us a Law to direct us how to live; Never seriously to enquire what it is, nor to trouble our selves with such Thoughts: [Page 426]If an Earthly Master should command his Servant, to do any thing that were just and reasonable, and he should peremptorily refuse to do it; you would call that plain Rebellion, and say that Servant de­serves to be used accordingly: And is it much better, do you think, if he should send him In­structions written in black and white, what he would have him do; And he should let them lye by, and never read them? Wilful ignorance, of what we may, and are bound to know, lives at next door, to direct and open Contradiction and Rebellion: Now judge whether that Man be not void of understanding, or stark mad, That dare stand up and contradict, and say he will not obey, when God commands him: I know there's not a Man believes there is a God, and knows what he is, that dares say plainly, as Pharaoh did, Who is the Lord, that I should obey him? Exod. 5.2. But are there not many thousands that will go their ways, and never consider or regard what God commands them? I would it were not a very com­mon Case: And Mens ordinary course in the World: And what's the reason that Men are so exceeding bold and adventurous? The plain rea­son is, becaufe they are foolish Children and have no knowledge; they are sottish, and have no understand­ing, Jer. 4.22. And yet it follows, They are wise enough to do evil, but to do good they have no know­ledge: What canst thou say for thy self, that art yet an impenitent wretch? If thou art one that doest believe thou hast a Soul to save, and a God to serve, and that the Day is coming when thou must account for these things, and yet regardest them not, will not thy Tongue be forced to say, [Page 427]thou hast done very foolishly? Is he not a Fool that neglects his greatest Concernments, and spendeth all his Time without any Thoughts of them? Suppose a Merchant should send a Fa­ctour into a far Countrey, to negotiate his Affairs, and transact his Business there, and to carry on his Trade with the Inhabitants of that Countrey; and there should live gallantly upon the Cost and Expences of his Master that sent him: and when he should return home, should bring in his Ac­counts, So much spent in Meat and Drink, so much in Apparel, so much in Entertainments, and other Recreations; and when he came to the main point in hand, the Business on which he was purposely sent, could give none, or but a slight and careless Account thereof, would you not ac­count him a foolish Factour, and that Merchant a worse Fool, that should imploy such a one again, without any Signs of Repentance, and hopes of his Amendment? Shall I liken their Folly to this, (yea, it is incomparably greater) that come hither into the World on purpose to serve their Maker, and live in obedience to his Laws, and yet do nothing less: Should God call thee now to an account, Is it not the plain truth, that thy Thoughts have been upon this Vanity and that Vanity; And thine Affections have run after every Shadow; And thy time hath been spent in the drudgery of the Flesh, in providing for thy Carcass; And the main Design upon which thou art sent into the World, shamefully neglected? I know it is duty to think upon, and labour after Temporal things, and in the sweat of thy face, to eat thy bread, Gen. 3.19. But is it not damnable Folly, [Page 428]to labour after the Food that perisheth, more than that which endureth? To spend thy days in sinful, foolish Merriment, and then to go down to the place of Eternal Misery? Can that Man go for any other than a Fool, in thine account, that will not be perswaded to consider, that for his good now, which he must unavoidably consider to his hurt and mischief hereafter? It's one known dif­ference between a Wiseman and a Fool, that the one provideth for a Mischief while time serveth; and the other would do it when it is too late: And it is another undoubted Character of a Fool, to prefer the chacing of a Feather, before the la­ding of himself with the richest Treasure: such a Fool is every sinner that wilfully displeaseth God, to satisfie a vain and inordinate desire: And there­fore what more common in the Scripture, than to find Folly put for Sin, and the Sinner for a Fool? It's needless to cite places in a Case so known and obvious: Now consider, how oft hast thou thus play'd the Fool? And is it not time to return to thy Wits again? How much hath sin befooled their understandings, that refuse a little pains, and self-denial, to get the Everlasting Crown and Kingdom? Much more that take so much pains to get into the place of Torment and Misery, as some will undergo? Will not the Toyl that some Worldlings will dispense with, to get a little Worldly Treasure, convince the one of Folly? And the shifts that Men will use to escape a Tem­poral Misery, rise up and condemn the other of stark Madness? We see Men rip up the Bowels of the Earth, and dig into the Entrails of craggy Rocks, and take incredible pains, to get a little [Page 429]Silver, and Gold: They will break their sweetest sleep, to accomplish an ambitious desire; They will spend their Patrimony, their Credit, their Bodies, and their very Souls, for a drop of Swin­ish Pleasure, and Carnal Delight. What's the matter, that we cannot be content to spend a few earnest Thoughts, to use a little serious Diligence, for the purchase of so great a Glory as Christ doth promise to his Servants, for the Riches of Heaven, For the Promises of this Life, and that which is to come, for a Dignity not inferiour to Angels; for a Sea of Delights and Pleasures, that ravish the Heart of God himself? Alas! we are surely igno­rant of the Pleasures which our Lord calleth us to, or else we are Fools indeed to stop our Ears: Our carnal besotted Hearts imagine that there is nothing better, than to eat and to drink, and to satiate the Body with that which tickleth the Senses: Certainly if Men did believe, that the Joyes of Heaven, are as far beyond all the Happi­ness of this Life, as Heaven is beyond Earth, they could not, they would not forsake the Service of Christ, for some little discouragements as some­times they must meet with: Let such faint-hearted Cowards as these, remember what Sufferings Christ himself underwent, and Contradiction of Sinners he endured, that they may not be weary, and faint in their minds, Heb. 12.3. And let me say to such, as Christ said of himself, in another Case, to his yet ignorant Disciples, O Fools and slow of Heart to (understand) and believe, ought not you (chearfully) to suffer these things, and to enter into glory, Luke 24.24, 25. And for the other sort, that take so much pains to undo them­selves. [Page 430]Let me but appeal to their own Judg­ments, and ask them, whether it is not palpable Folly to refuse to do that; for to make themselves everlastingly happy, which they will not refuse to do, to make themselves eternally miserable? Ob. But they will say, They intend it not; They think to make themselves happy, by such Toil and Pains. An. You much mend the matter, by this Objection, and wipe off the Aspersion: For if thou art not a Fool the one way, thou art another; Canst thou imagine, (unless thou wert guilty of this Accusation) that to rise up early, and sit up late, and eat the Bread of Carefulness, to get a little more of the World, and the Pleasures of the Flesh, (when God's Service is neglected) is the way to make thy self happy? Thou couldst not think thus, if thou wert not ignorant, and wholly bereft of thine understanding: Consider therefore before it be too late, what Folly thou hast been guilty of, in forsaking God, and follow­ing the ways of thine own Heart; And humble thy self at last, and pour forth thy Tears before God, in the sence of thy foolish, sinful disobedi­ence; And lift up thy broken Heart to him for Pardon in the Name of thy Redeemer: And this is the way to recover thy Wits again, and to come to thy self, as the Prodigal did, when he returned to his Father, and confessed his sin.

Thirdly, Consider, There is no spark of true Ingenuity left in that Heart, that refuseth to lay to Heart the Transgressions he hath committed against God: Doth not thy Heart smite thee, and [...]ell thee how shamefully thou hast done in pro­voking [Page 431]him, to whom thou art so wonderfully en­debted? Doth not thy Heart bleed at all, for the Wounds and Dishonour thou hast done to his Name? Nor is it a burthen to thy Soul, that thou hast wearied him with thy rebellions, and made him to serve with thy sins? Isaiah 43.24. Doth it seem a small matter to thee, that thou hast slighted his Word, neglected his Service, pro­phaned his Sabbaths, despised the offers of his Grace, taken part with his Enemies, and pre­ferred every foolish Delight, before his Love and and Favour? Be it known to thee, thou art of a base and sordid disposition, and utterly forsaken of all Reason and Ingenuity: God deals not with Men in a way of Violence and Constraint; He could easily force thee to an Acknowledgment of thy Pride, and Worldliness, and filthy Lusts, which thou doest so carefully conceal, and the hainous dishonour thou hast done to his Name; He could make thine own Conscience fall upon thee and condemn thee, in despight of thee, and thy Tongue to fall upon thy self: But he loves to deal with every Creature according to the Nature he hath given them: He leaves thee to thine own choice, having given thee Reason to discern what is fittest to be done, and his infallible Word, to guide thee: He useth Arguments to perswade, rather than Power to compel, and draws thee with Cords of a Man, (as the Prophet expresseth it) Hosea 11.4. That if Love and Ingenuity will not prevail with thee, to do thy Duty to him, Shame and Ingenuity might perswade thee to re­pent thee of the Folly: There is some ingenuity, in a free and open confession of thy sin, and a [Page 432]proportionable sorrow for it, and endeavour to vindicate the Name of God, which thou hast dis­honoured, after thou hast been so disingenious to dishonour him by thy Transgressions: He that can harden himself against his dearest Friend, and blot his precious Name with any foul Aspersions, and then justifie and defend what he hath done, or at least manifest himself to be altogether insensible of such behaviour, deserves to be thrust out of the Society of Men; And all Men would take him for a Monster, and degenerate piece of Hu­manity: But it's a thousand times worse to play such Tricks with God, who will lay them to Heart, and not let them go unpunished: And when he sees thou art past all Ingenuity, and hast out grown the Heart of a Man, and there is nothing to be done with thee, without stripes and blows, he will deal with thee, as Masters use to deal with a Scho­lar, that will no longer be moved by any other Arguments, make them the common whipping-Blocks of the School, that by their just punish­ment, the other that have some ingenuity still left, may take warning: or else turn such untractable Disciples quite out of their Tuition: O, my Brethren, your Case would be sad indeed, if it should once come to any of these: The Heathen could say, Q. Curt. Illum ego perisse dico [...]i periit pudor: He that hath lost all shame, is utterly lost. And he that hath lost all in­genuity, is quite shameless. I beseech you look into your Hearts, and search; Can you find no Motions to Sorrow, and Complaints, and bitter­ness of Spirit, for all those Hours you have foolish­ly spent in the Service of the Flesh, or the World, [Page 433]and the Devil, which are the professed Enemies of him who is your greatest Friend? Surely you cannot reflect upon those rebellious, sinful Courses you have taken, and not be moved with indigna­tion against your corrupt Inclinations, that have so much seduced you: Surely you can never be vile enough in your own Eyes, that have so much vil­lified and despised the just Commands of him that holdeth your Soul in life, and keepeth you every moment: If you are past all sorrow for sin, you are past all hope, and are become like a broken Vessel, that can never be made up again: Peter indeed was so disingenious, to deny his dearest Master, the effect of whose sweetest Love he had so often tasted: But it was when he was in a fright and passion: He no sooner thought upon his odious disingenuity, but the poor Man melts into Tears, and weeps bitterly: There's no sin but is curable, but this of Final Impenitance and Unbe­lief. It's possible, that though seven Devils have got possession of thee, they may be cast out: It was Mary Magdalen's case, and she yet found mercy with the Lord; but then remember how she wept, and wiped the very Feet of Christ with the Hair of her Head, Luke 7.44. But if thou want Tears for thy sin, and a penitent, bleed­ing Heart for thine iniquities, thy case is a thou­sand times worse, than if thou hadst the greatest sins, and yet couldst bewail them, and humble thy self for them: For this would shew, that there is some ingenuity left in thee, which the Lord loveth, where ever he sees it; And will not let the person perish, that confesseth from his heart, that he hath deserved to perish, and is afflicted for what he hath done.

Fourthly, Consider, there's no Evil or Misery whatsoever calls for Grief and Sorrow so much as Sin doth: And yet we can weep our Eyes out, almost, for some petty Evils and Miseries that sometimes do afflict us: What an absurd and pre­posterous sorrow is it to cry for the death of a Friend, to howl for the loss of a Child, and to be overwhelmed with grief, when an intimate, dear Acquaintance is snatch'd away from thee? And yet to be heart-whole, when God is provoked to depart from thee, and thou art in danger to lose thy Soul: We take the Person for a Child or a Fool, that whines and makes a stir for a Trifle, and makes sad Complaints for a Scratch, or a Flea-bite, and is little or no whit moved for the loss of his Credit or good Name, or something that's far better; This, as well as all other Passions in Man, should be governed by Reason, otherwise they are no more regardable than the howling of a Dog; And how is that Passion guided by Reason, that makes a great Noise, and is moved with much Violence for a Matter of nothing; and is very quiet when it hath much more cause to be moved: Is that a rational sorrow, or doth become a Crea­ture that hath understanding, that brings a Man down even to death's door, for the departure of some worldly comfort, and leaves him without Tears and Sighs, when he is losing that which is a thousand times more desirable? Understand thy self aright, and thou wilt be ashamed of such a ridiculous sorrow as this: Sin is the cause of all other Evil that comes upon thee, and therefore must needs be far worse it self, and much more to be lamented; It takes away thy Friend from thy [Page 435]side, thy Child from thy bosom; It bereaves thee of thy Health, deprives thee of thy Credit and Estate; It parts between thy Soul and Body, and makes the most lamentable divorce of all between God and thy Soul: As I live (saith the Lord) though the Son of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, were the Signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck him thence, Jerem. 22.24. And why is this, but be­cause he had provoked God by his sin: It is sin that is our greatest Enemy: It's our Comfort against all other Enemies, that they can pursue us no further than the Grave, and there the weary be at rest, Job 3.17. There we shall feel our world­ly troubles no longer; But this Enemy begins then to rage most, when all other Cruelties cease: Then it comes upon us like a Tempest; It follows us beyond the Grave, and will never leave us, till it hath compleated our Misery, and put us be­yond all hope: And shall this trouble us no more? Well might our Saviour bid the Daughters of Jerusalem, not to weep for him, but for them­selves, and for their sins, Luke 23.28. They had some womanish Tears to command, when they saw him led away to Execution, but might have shed them far more acceptably for their sins, where­by they had brought such a horrid thing to pass: It's a lamentable sight, to see Men endued with reason, to ring their hands, and weep, for almost nothing, and to be cruelly hard-hearted when they have the greatest cause to weep: What a vast dif­ference is there, between a little bodily suffering, and the intolerable pains of thy Soul? between a little Scratch in thy Flesh, and the Wounds of thy Spirit? A wounded Spirit, who can bear? saith [Page 436] Solomon, Prov. 18.14. Shewing by this Question, the incomparable difference between all external griefs, and those which are internal, and seated in the Spirit: What a wide difference is there be­tween the loss of some temporal finite good, and the loss of that which is infinite and eternal? Thou mayest repair the one, but thou canst never repair the other: It's far more tolerable to be scorned by Men, than to be contemned by God; To be f [...]ighted by thy Friends and Acquaintance, when thou art in misery and distress, and doest expect some pity and relief from them, than that God should laugh at thy Calamity, and mock when thy Fear cometh: And yet in such like cases as these, we want no sorrow, but have Tears and Sighs and bitter Expostulations at command: O Sirs, stop your Tears, cease your Complaints, forbear your Sighs, when it is but the Flesh, or outward Man, that is concerned; Keep these in store, for your outward sins, which far better de­serve them, and do you a thousand times more wrong; ‘Noli tristari, nisi quam male feceris.’ Keep them in store, for a time of greater Ne­cessity; The Sorrow of the World worketh Death, 2 Cor. 7.10. These Tears give your Heart no ease, but rather make way for greater sorrow; The time is coming when you will wish you could have [...]ghted all other Evils, but that of sin.

Fifthly, Consider, This is one great End for which Christ shed his Blood, and suffered the shameful Death upon the Cross, that he might bring Sinners to Repentance; He knew they could never be happy, till they should get a true sight of the Sin and Misery, and till their Hearts were throughly broken for their Transgressions; And that they must part with their Corruptions, or part with God: Being therefore moved with wonderful pity and compassion towards them, and loth that they should go on and perish in their Rebellion against God, hath undertook to bring them to Repentance: If the work could have been done by him alone, it would have been a matter of far less difficulty to effect and bring to pass; But he well knew, before he began to make the least attempt, that it was a far easier task to shed his blood, and satisfie for his sins pass'd, than to bring us to future obedience: If it had been only to lay down his Life for us, so great was his compassion to us, that he could easily have parted with it; But this was not all, no, nor the one half; He had a worse work to do, the stubborn, rebellious Heart of Man, to change and to renew; He must be brought to see and confess and renounce his sins, and come again and submit himself to his Maker, whom he had provoked, or else his Blood would be spilt in vain: O my Brethren, this was a work indeed, and sets forth the wonderful amazing Love of our Re­deemer, that he would undertake such a Task as this! If he had had no more to do, but to fulfil the Law of God in his own Person and our Na­ture, and to have fought with the Devil, and [Page 438]Death, and to have laid down his Life for us, he could have conquered these with a far less power, than he could have conquered the rebellious, un­tructable Hearts of sinners: It was much easier for him to have confounded all the Powers of H [...]ll and Darkness, than to break in pieces a sto [...], sensless Heart, and to bring a sinner to Re­pentance and Reformation: But yet he hath un­dertook the work notwithstanding: And what course doth he t [...]ke to mollifie a flinty Heart, and to make a sensless sinner feel the odiousness of his sin, and to bend such a perverse and obstinate will as ours is? Why, he undergoes the most hor­rible Sufferings, that the Ear of Man ever heard of; And then he causeth the History of them to be written and set before us; And withal, doth most affectionately beseech us by all these suffer­ings, to consider the Folly of our former Ways, [...]d to lay them to heart, till we begin to yield and acknowledge our sins, and are stedfastly re­solued to follow his Directions, and depend upon [...] Assistance, till we can perfectly overcome our Corruptions, and serve the Lord that made us, with singleness and sincerity of heart for the su­ [...]. To this [...] he sets up an Office on purpose to [...] us in remembrance of the bitter Pangs and Sorrows that he hath undergone for us; And he both commanded this to be Preached publickly [...] the World: He hath moreover instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to represent [...] [...]e his Sufferings to us, To tell us what Poverty land Shame he hath endured, what malicious U­sage from the Jews; how he was wounded for our Transgressions, and bruised for our Iniquities, [Page 439]and how the chastisement of our peace was upon him, that through his stripes we might be healed, Isa. 53.5. How the Lord laid on him the Iniqui­ties of us all, vers. 6. How he was made sin for us, that knew no sin, that we might be made the Righteousness of God through him, 2 Cor. 5.21. How he trod the Wine-press of his Father's wrath, Isa. 63.3. and drunk off the dregs of the bitter cup of his displeasure, and swet drops of Blood, while he was conflicting with the Terrours of God's wrath; And is not that Man a block in­deed, that cannot be moved with such Rhetorick as this is? Is that Man fit to be pardoned, or to find any Mercy at God's hands, that stoppeth his Ears to one that hath thus befriended him, when he is pleading with him, to make his Heart give and relent for all his former sins? It's certain, that Mans case is desperate, that will not yield to such an Argument as this is. But, alas! sad and woful experience tells us how many Thousand slight it, and are no more moved with the real story of Christ's Passion, than with a Romance or Fable, no, nor many, I fear, half so much. O how must this needs Crucifie our Lord afresh, to see his love and tender compassion so much slighted, and his Blood trampled under feet! O wretched unwor­thy sinner! Canst thou find in thy heart, to run the bloody Spear, and to strike the Nails afresh into his Side and Hands, and to persecute him whom God hath wounded, yea, and that for thy sin? Hast thou the Heart of a Man, or fierce Savage Beast, that canst add Sorrow to such Afflictions? Is it Nothing to thee, that he was such a Man of Sorrows, and so despised of Men, and smitten [Page 440]of God? What? when thou thy self art the Per­son for which he hath borne all this? Is it no mat­ter to thee, though he was led as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a Sheep, dumb before the shea­rer? Isa. 53.7. Wo to thee, that ever God made thee a Man, if thou art become such a hard-hearted Rock: He submitted to all this, that he might prevail with God, on the one side, to be reconciled unto sinners, and that he might prevail with sinners, on the other side, to repent, and be reconciled unto God: The former part of his Work he hath already done, He hath gained his Father's Consent; And wilt not thou Consent to lay by thine Enmity to God; to confess thy for­mer sins, and to return to thy Obedience? It shall be more tolerable, surely, for the Devils them­selves, that never had such Mercy offered them, in the Day of Judgment, than for such hard-hearted, impenitent sinners: But this is not all that Christ does for them, he bears with them in wonderful patience; sometimes he casts a gracious Look upon them, as once he did upon Peter, as if he would melt them in despight of all their obstinacy; And seems to say to them, What, sinner, shall I suffer, and wilt thou suffer too, rather than repent and live? Shall I bleed to the very death, to save thee from destruction, and wilt thou have no Mercy upon thy self? Turn thee, Turn thee; Why wilt thou dye, O impenitent sinner? Some­times he frowns upon the sinner, and threatens him with a sorer and heavier Condemnation, if he will not repent, and all that he might gain his Con­sent; He assaults him on all sides, that he might recover him by Repentance unto that happy state, [Page 441]which he doth so much desire to see him possessed of: He sets the Motives of Eternal Life and Death before him, and gives him many a precious Hour to ponder and consider them: He sends his Spirit also to knock at the door of his Heart, that he may be let in: Wo a thousand Times to that Man that will not be invited to Repentance, by all these Means: Good it had been for that Man or Woman, if they had never been born.

Sixthly, It is the End of all the Ordinances of God, and every Providence, to work this Godly Sorrow in our Minds and Hearts, and bring us to Repentance: It is the First intention of the Mini­stry of the Word, to kill sin in us by Repentance, and then to bring us on to the Life of Faith and Holiness: And all the Doctrines that are taught and delivered to us in the Ministry of the Word, are to drive on this Design: The Doctrine of God's Attributes and Perfections, is but the better to inform us of our Duty, and what Service is due to such a Majesty so related to us, and to qualifie and prepare our Hearts to a reverend and humble Performance of our Duty; And to shew us what a sin it is either to neglect it, or slight it over: And consequently to bring us to judge, abhor, and condemn our selves, when we have any of this Guilt upon us: All the Doctrines that con­cern our selves, and that teach us what we were by Nature, and what we are by Practice, and what we may be through the Grace of God and the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus, serve effe­ctually to shame and humble us, and to break our very Hearts in the sense of that Misery that sin hath brought upon us: If God made us such [Page 442]beautiful, lovely Creatures, and we have made our selves such deformed, loathsome sinners, doth it not become our Duty, and highly beseem us, to afflict our souls with the bitter remembrance thereof, especially when God offereth Mercy to such penitent afflicted sinners? All the Doctrines that concern our Brethren, what do they serve for, but to teach us the Extent of our Duty to them, and the hainousness of our sin, that have so much failed in all the respects that we owe to God and Men; That so the more distinct sight and knowledge of our sin, may make our Repentance more sound and compleat. To what end are all the Terrible Threatnings of God's Word against Sin and Sinners, but either to prevent the Sin, or else to humble the Sinner, after he is fallen under the Threatning; and to work upon the Passion of Fear, that by it the sinner may be a­wakened to consider what he hath done. And whither to serve all the Promises, but to perfect that work more kindly which the Fear of Judg­ment hath begun? There's not a Doctrine that's Preached and Published to us by the Ministry of the Word, but what comes on this very Errand, and hath a subserviency to this End, and should be effectually managed to such a purpose, by all that are intrusted with this Sacred Office.

Some helpful Considerations to pro­voke to the Sublime and Excel­lent Duty of Joy and Delight in God, To Sing his Praise, and to be Thankful to him.